I had this conversation today on Facebook with a random liberal. Her first comment was in regards to Joe Biden increasing funding for something in Central America.
In case you missed it, I didn’t say “anarchist government”. I said “antichrist government”.
Liberals pretend to be so nice and caring that they’re in favor of spending money on whatever do-good program. Of course, they are in favor of forcing you at gunpoint to pay for whatever that program is. They love guns and violence as long as it’s the government using the guns to force everyone to pay for their loving program.
We should all be pissed and pointing out how evil they are, and not let any liberal get a pass on their hypocrisy and evil. I would bet that many people reading this are conservatives and rooting me on. Unfortunately, conservatives have the same problem. They want to force people to pay for police and military and whatever their programs are. Liberals want bleeding heart stuff. Conservatives want guns and power. Both are equally evil and sick and socialist.
A guy from my former church, who is one of the higher ups in the church, and occasionally preaches, posted this stupidity on Facebook:
What I keep coming back to is the life of Jesus. Where is the biblical case for Christians being involved in political activism? When do we ever see Jesus involving himself in the politics of his day? Jesus and his disciples lived in tumultuous times too… the Romans completely razed large sections of Israel and killed hundreds of thousands just a few years after Jesus’ resurrection and during the early formation of the Church. But what was Jesus’ response to Pilate when asked if he was a king? “Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.'” That seems pretty cut and dry to me. As followers of Christ our hope is in the resurrection and the kingdom to come.
It’s as if he never read a page in the New Testament. I will correct these common arguments, and answer his questions that young Christians ought to be able to answer, much less those who have had formal Bible training.
“Where is the biblical case for Christians being involved in political activism?”
Has this guy ever heard of the Great Commission? We are to make disciples of the nations, and teach them (the nations) to obey everything Christ commanded. That is done partially, by proclaiming the death, burial and resurrection of Christ to individuals. But, it’s not just individuals who are to obey all of Christ’s commands, but all of the nations.
One of Christ’s commands is, “You shall not steal.” This precludes socialism and our current fiat currency/Federal Reserve system and 95% of all government activities. Governments don’t get to steal anymore than individuals.
Another command is, “You shall not murder.” Do you think this might have implications for abortion laws and defense policy? You bet your sweet bippy.
I don’t think every single Christian has to be involved in political activism if you define it as campaigning for a candidate or cause. But, we should all work towards expanding the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God doesn’t spread by voting or campaigning, necessarily, but working to expand the Kingdom of God is political activism.
What is God’s Kingdom? It is every area of life that has been brought under the healing power of the gospel. The purpose of the gospel is to bring that healing by putting everything under the lordship of Christ.
Furthermore we are all to aspire to maturity, which means knowing God’s Word and knowing how to judge righteously (1 Corinthians 2:15). The Bible talks often of politics so where it speaks on politics, we should know what it says, and be ready to apply it in the real world.
To sum it up, Bojidar Marinov says this, “Behind every case of injustice, there is a case of idolatry. And where there is systemic injustice in a system, this is only because there is systemic idolatry embedded in that system. And if the church is not speaking against injustice, then the church is not speaking against idolatry, and therefore the church is not preaching the Gospel.”
So yes, the Bible teaches us to be politically active.
The next question is:
“When do we ever see Jesus involving himself in the politics of his day?”
The Bible reaffirms the Old Testament teaching on proper government in Romans 13. It says the only purpose of government is to be God’s servant to carry out God’s wrath on the evildoer (verses 3-4). God’s Word applies to all areas of life and magistrates are explicitly supposed to be servants of God and seeking His will in their work. The government of the Old Testament was strictly judicial, and so is the proper government described in Romans 13.
Jesus spoke on the proper punishment for rebellious sons (Mark 7:1-13). He reaffirmed Old Testament jurisprudence when He disqualified the witnesses against the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53-8:11). He called Herod a fox (Luke 13:32). And there are many other examples.
If Joe Biden were to be truly born again and seek to serve Christ through his daily work, would that affect his policies? I think we would all agree that there are differences between how Christians ought to behave in office and how an unbeliever typically behaves. That is because Scripture has a standard to hold leaders to, it defines who a leader is and what is required of someone who thinks of themselves as a leader.
Here is Justin’s next argument referencing John 18:33-40):
“Jesus and his disciples lived in tumultuous times too… the Romans completely razed large sections of Israel and killed hundreds of thousands just a few years after Jesus’ resurrection and during the early formation of the Church. But what was Jesus’ response to Pilate when asked if he was a king? “Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.'” That seems pretty cut and dry to me.”
What did Jesus mean when He said His kingdom is not of this world? He was explaining to Pilate how He could be a king while being in a serious legal predicament, apparently not having an army to defend Him. What Pilate didn’t understand is that Jesus wasn’t a believer in the power religion (the worship of power) like Pilate. Jesus taught the opposite of power religion: that the greatest leaders are humble servants, and victory doesn’t come through power, but through service and the power of God; the last will be first and the first will be last. Jesus was saying that the source of His authority didn’t come from earthly armies, not that the Kingdom of God isn’t on earth.
At this point, we go back to the Great Commission to see that all authority in heaven and on earth have been given to Christ. The disciples, and Christians to this day are to continue to make disciples of the nations and teach them to obey all the commands of Christ.
Christianity provides a complete worldview. The Bible is profitable for correction on every topic. Of course, we should be involved in politics. Unfortunately, I believe that we will suffer consequences for selling out for Donald Trump. And our strategy shouldn’t be so hyper focused on presidential politics anyway. But stupidity like this person who is supposed to know the Bible is going to cause huge problems as well.
There was an interesting discussion on Bojidar Marinov’s Facebook post. Here it is:
Bojidar’s Post:”Everybody’s ballistic about Big Tech censoring Trumpists. Nobody is asking the real question: How did Christians and conservatives in general end up so culturally and economically powerless to be at the mercy of a few CEOs?”
Commenter: “Lack of embracing alternative sources for the sake of ease of use?”
Bojidar: “That’s too easy and self serving.”
Commenter: “So instead of beating around the bush for an answer you are searching for… what is YOUR answer?”
Bojidar: “I am sure that when you search your Bible for reasons why God delivers a people in the hands of their enemies, “failure to embrace alternative sources” is not on the list.”
Commenter: “So your answer is that this is a judgement against trumpists?”
Bojidar: “Or against all of God’s people in America.”
Commenter: “Quite possible. I have been consistently critical of basically an absent church.”
Bojidar: “Now’s the time to turn up the heat on the church.”
Commenter: “Well, right now, many “Christians” are essentially tone deaf to hear reasonable criticisms, being very focused on their “losses”. My wife and I listened to what amounts to an apostate minister, trying to go all “end times” on his congregation.
Bojidar: “That’s OK. There’s always a remnant. Read “Isaiah’s Job.” Then read “Isaiah’s Digital Job.” The tone-deaf will never recover from their losses. The remnant will triumph.”
Here are the links to the articles he talks about. I read the first one and it’s a little long winded for a simple point. https://mises.org/library/isaiahs-job
People say Jerame Reid was murdered, and conservatives say, “If he had obeyed the police, he wouldn’t have been shot.”
Maybe man’s law says if the cop feels a little bit scared he can just empty his clip into someone. But that’s not God’s standard. Anyone who shoots an unarmed man who isn’t even attacking is a murderer. These cops may evade justice in a country with unjust laws, but they won’t evade God’s justice. The blood of Mr. Reid will cry out from the ground to God for justice. If cops are so skittish and afraid, maybe they should become hairdressers.
The other thing conservatives say about this is, “He had a gun in his car.”
Guns are legal in this country. Conservatives are supposed to be pro Second Amendment. If having a gun in your car is worthy of police freaking out, I hope conservatives never get pulled over.
I’m tired of people being murdered by police. I’m tired of being forced to pay for substandard, government police services. I’m tired of the double standards of conservatives. I’m tired of liberals seeing that socialist-funded police services are substandard yet asking for more socialist-funded services.
Two of the problems that American Christians have (in this case Canadian Christians, but I have some familiarity with Canadian Christians, and know that they share these problems with Americans) is that they often use a false definition of “church”, and that they seem incapable of differentiating between valid and invalid authorities.
That is touched on by these Canadians being harassed for meeting on Sundays despite their evil government’s order to stop due to the coronasniffles. They have all of a sudden grown a spine, and that has been my hope for what the silver lining of this travesty would be for all of us.
Their response to the government is mostly good. You can see it here. But here are their serious errors.
Problem 1 “For years we have taught our children to respect police…”
Police have shown little to no evidence that they’re willing to ignore unjust laws. They’ve never hinted that they would do anything other than what evil politicians tell them, even standing by while 60 million babies are murdered. Teaching our children to respect police is foolish. Their abuse at the hands of police is them reaping what they’ve sown. Hopefully this incident helps them gain repentance on this issue.
Problem 2 The second problem is equivocating on the definition of church: “Our Saviour shed His blood to purchase the church, and therefore deeming the church ‘unessential’ is tantamount to deeming the blood of Christ unessential, which is a public act of blasphemy.”
Their first use of the word church refers to the body of believers (people). Their second use of church refers to the meeting they have on Sunday morning. The government didn’t say the people purchased by Christ are unessential; it said their meeting is unessential.
That being said, fellowship is essential, and hopefully they continue to defy evil government and evil police.
I’ve been getting junk mail from the Wounded Warrior Project soliciting donations. They act like we should be so grateful to wounded warriors, but I’m not seeing it. They want me to thank these guys for my freedom. Here’s my open letter to them about that.
You guys are ego maniacs. You volunteered and you got the benefits and you knew the risks. I don’t know why you expect anyone to go on thanking you for the rest of your lives.
The wars you fought in were unjust. You will stand before God as murderers unless you repent for it and receive Christ. If you’re proud and go on accepting gratitude for what you did, that will be your reward and you will go on to spend eternity in hell for participating in evil wars.
Through accepting all the benefits and participating in wasting American taxpayer money on evil wars, you’ve done more to destroy freedom than any tyrant ever could.
If any of you actually protected American citizens, like the 60 million unborn babies that have been murdered (10 times the number killed by Hitler), we can talk about soliciting donations. Until then, all your talk about fighting for freedom and protecting Americans is all in your head.
This is a cool story from Tony Miano. I’ve criticized him in the past for some stupid things he’s done (you can search this website for those articles), but I’ve always thought that he is a good evangelist. And this is a good evangelism story. If that’s all you get out of it that’s fine, but he admits to some things about himself and police in general that lend credence to everything I’ve said about police. Of course some police don’t want to abuse people, but a very good percentage of them are on a permanent power trip and enjoy inflicting pain. Tony admits that about himself before he was saved.
What Tony would disagree with is that even cops who aren’t out to hurt people are unable to discern just laws from unjust laws, so they go on to enforce all kinds of wicked laws such as protecting the abortion business. So, that is just a side point on this story. Enjoy it.
~ Weeping with Jerry ~ 33 years ago I might have taken Jerry behind his county jail barracks and put him in a rear armlock, torquing his arm not so far as to dislocate his shoulder, but to place him in considerable pain. Then, I would have mocked his manhood when he started crying.
But not today.
I was #crosswalking at Marquette/Locust when a car came to a stop at the corner. The driver leaned across the front seat toward the open front passenger window.
“I gotta question for ya,” he said.
“Pull into the parking lot and ask your question,” I replied.
His name was Jerry. I approached the car and handed Jerry a gospel tract. We shook hands and introduced ourselves.
“My question is this. Why do you do this?” He asked.
“Can I have a few minutes to answer your question?” I asked.
“Sure,” Jerry replied. “You probably smell alcohol on my breath,” Jerry added as he picked up an open beer from the center console. It was shortly after Noon. “I’m sorry about that.”
Starting from the beginning, I shared the entirety of my testimony with Jerry. As I talked about the early immediate fruits of repentance in my life, which included no longer desiring to belittle and torment inmates, Jerry began to weep.
“And this brings me to the answer to your question, Jerry. The Lord saved me. The two greatest commandments are to love God and to love people. And I can’t think of a greater way to do both than to share the gospel with people. Why do I do this, Jerry? Because of you. I do this so I can share the gospel with you.” I explained.
Jerry’s face was now in his hands. His shoulders heaved as he wept. He cried out to God asking for God’s forgiveness and mercy and thanking Him for allowing him to stop and talk to me.
“I’ve seen you here and there and there and over there,” Jerry explained pointing in various directions, indicating different parts of the city. I see you all the time and I’ve thought of stopping, but I had to stop today to talk to you. Thank you.”
Jerry and I spent more time talking about genuine repentance and faith. I reiterated the gospel to him multiple times. Jerry wept some more. I’m hopeful the Lord saved Jerry today. Pray for him.
Assuming you love your kids or your country, step one is going to be not sending your kids to public school. You don’t even have to love both your kids and your country. Just loving one or the other is enough for anyone with half a brain to get their kids out. It is just patently obvious to me that that is the case. Sometimes you have to provoke people a little to get them to start thinking. This was what I was doing here. I’ve responded to probably a dozen of this lady’s posts, and never seen her comment on any of them. I doubt she read this conversation, but at least she read my initial comment. Here’s the conversation:
I think I will leave the conversation there. I’ve pretty much already told her I’m homeschooling. I’ve told her that her children would be better off roaming free than in public school. That’s my suggestion. If people truly can’t homeschool, they should let their children roam free. Unschooling is a valid homeschooling method. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you don’t hate your kids, don’t send them to public school.
Here’s what Gordan Runyan has to say about that question in his local newspaper column.
SECESSION: THE BIBLICAL WISDOM OF MOVING ON
Sometimes the best thing to do is walk away. Stop throwing pearls to the swine, as Jesus said. When the arguments have all been had, and everybody’s made their points a million times, maybe a peaceful split is not the worst answer in the world.
That was the thinking of the signers of “The Declaration of Independence”. All efforts at reconciliation had failed. It was time to go. They declared their intention to secede from the authority of King George III. Of course, the tyrant branded that effort as rebellious. It didn’t have to be a war, but he made it one.
They didn’t do anything wrong by trying to secede. In fact, the concept of political secession is seen in the Bible repeatedly. There are times when it’s the only wise option remaining.
I’m defining secession here as the effort to separate from one, earthly authority’s jurisdiction, for the sake of establishing a new authority.
“Let my people go,” was the word of the Lord through Moses to Pharaoh. It didn’t have to get ugly. The wicked ruler turned it into a cosmic showdown between Yahweh and the deities of Egypt. If the tyrant had not repeatedly hardened his heart, the damage could’ve been minimized.
We know how it turned out. The people of God eventually completed their secession from the political authority of Egypt, and were established as a new, sovereign nation.
Generations later, after the reigns of David and Solomon, the next king was a fool named Rehoboam, and history’s worst inaugural speech resulted in a split within Israel, with the ten Northern tribes seceding from his rule to establish their own authority. Now, Rehoboam was no more in favor of secession than Pharaoh had been, and when he tried to put a stop to it by force, Yahweh put a stop to his scheme. At the end of the day, the tribes wound up accomplishing a completely successful secession. The Bible is careful to let us know that God was behind this entire turn of events. (1 Kings 12:1-24)
There are other, smaller secessions that you’ve probably never thought of in that light. Abraham suggested a peaceful split with Lot, and that is what happened. Abraham flourished as a result. Jacob seceded from the authority of his powerful father-in-law, and, again, the patriarch flourished.
Scripturally speaking, secession is a legitimate action that is not the same as rebellion or war, although tyrants can turn it into that, and wreak havoc thereby. Biblical secession, done well, aims at a peaceful split that allows both parties to prosper.
Regarding the Coronavirus situation, in a cloud of chaotic half-truths and misinformation, one thing seems clear: That is, the divisions in this nation are deep, persistent, and most likely irreconcilable apart from great bloodshed. I’m not sure what the harm would be in simply letting the sides in this division separate peacefully and run their worlds in the manner they think best.
This Amburgy guy says we’re not under the Old Testament law, so we don’t have to worry about that. He’s read the Bible dozens of times, and he had an exact count. Yet just reading it hasn’t seemed to help him very much. If you reject theonomy, this is the kind of stupid stuff you end up saying.
He says that in Islamic countries, it is just to cut off a thief’s hand! I have no idea what to say. Is justice different in Muslim countries? Why would justice change from place to place? God’s throne is built on righteousness and justice, but he doesn’t really care what justice is on earth? What a stupid thing to say.
Maybe he needs to read the Bible several dozen more times.
And to think that a theonomist who wants to apply God’s perfect law to society is saying that our salvation is anything but a free gift is silly.
I’ve yet to hear a good argument against theonomy that doesn’t eventually lead to some sort of abject stupidity. It was just much easier to get out of Glenn than it is out of most other people.
Working for the Secession of Fremont County from the Union
