The American Dream Exchanged for an American Nightmare

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Don Schanzenbach

The term The American Dream was first made famous by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America published in 1931. Ever since then that term has permeated our national consciousness to a place where it almost seems to be welded into our American psyche. We are the people of the dream. We are the nation that is the embodiment of human vision at its best, so we believe. Sometimes lately, the concept is restated with the related term American Exceptionalism. This indicates our future is believed to be more driven by our work ethic than our spiritual and moral sensibilities.

The original ideas that drove our European founding fathers were expressed in different language. When William Bradford writes in his Of Plymouth Plantation concerning the Pilgrim’s motivations for establishing their colony he records,

Lastly (and which was not the least), a great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation, or at least to make some way thereunto, for the propagating and advancing the gospel of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world; yea, though they should be but even stepping-stones unto others for the performing of so great a work.

They came here not just for religious liberty but also to spread the light of Christ to what they understood to be a very dark continent. He speaks of the dangers from the native tribes memorably explaining,

…And also those which should escape or overcome these difficulties should yet be in continual danger of the savage people, who are cruel, barbarous and most treacherous, being most furious in their rage and merciless where they overcome; not being content only to kill and take away life, but delight to torment men in the most bloody manner that may be; flaying some alive with the shells of fishes, cutting off the members and joints of others by piecemeal and broiling on the coals, eat the collops of their flesh in their sight whilst they live, with other cruelties horrible to be related.

So, the original American dream was that of preaching the gospel and expanding the evidence of God’s kingdom and law. It was a vision based upon spiritual principle and Biblical motivation to carry a morally stronger civilization to lost people on an uncivilized continent. It was the introduction of the gospel light that had saved pagan Europe from itself a thousand years before. The pilgrims were not genetically better. However, they did possess a knowledge of grace and forgiveness in Christ that they were compelled to share with the people who were here ahead of them. Jesus taught that a light should not be put under a bushel, and that His people were to be like a city set on a hill. This was often the language and imagery our founders used when describing America and our mission in this world. America was understood to be a light to the world because we had been enlightened by Christ and His gentle civilization.

Over the centuries the concept of America being a light for Christ has been slowly forgotten and then replaced by what was called the American Dream. Everyone seems to have a different definition for the American Dream but generally it is described in terms of:

  • Financial success
  • Personal Liberty
  • Equal treatment under the law
  • Private property rights
  • Other aspects of a desirable society

Now, all of these concepts are found as aspects of Christian civilization. There is Biblical teaching to support each idea. Yet, the pursuit of these benefits of Biblical culture while forgetting the God and teaching that under girded them is a fatal flaw. We are left with a societal structure wobbling on rotting posts and columns. Short of Biblical teaching, there is nothing to support our hallowed assumptions. We are reverting to the philosophies and eventually the conditions of those we once evangelized. Without Christ and His word the American Dream becomes the American nightmare. In the American nightmare financial success becomes nearly impossible, personal liberty is exchanged for slavery, and the central government is the party that is free to do as it wishes. Equal treatment under the law evaporates as the law is increasingly geared to ensnare rather than promote justice, and private property rights are superseded by government property rights. All of these describe the crushing and elimination of the American Dream.

However, what we must understand is that it is not these actions themselves that are at the root of our weakening belief in America. Rather, it is our abandonment of the righteous underpinnings, the unconcern for the building of the kingdom, and the embracing of worldly principles that crushes the dream. Scripture repeatedly promises nations blessing for obedience and cursing for disobedience. The cursing is the nightmare and the blessing is the dream. When we return to faith and obedience then the nation can once again be blessed. The dream is the building of the kingdom of Christ. We the redeemed and our children must lead the way back to the faith of our fathers if the American dream is to be restored.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach 2-18-12

Posted in Liberty, Reflections | 2 Comments

The Right to Life (and to Civil Disobedience)

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Don Schanzenbach

With this week’s explosion over the question of financing contraceptives and abortafacients by religious organizations, we are visiting ground both ancient and forever new. We may be seeing what appears to be a unique fight beginning, but in its fundamental underpinnings it is very old. Questions concerning morals and law, obedience and resistance, church and state have been fought by words and swords for centuries. What is new here is the seeming strength of backbone being shown by the American church both Catholic and evangelical. A head on struggle over a church state issue is not something Americans remember. We grew up in a nation that respected well defined boundaries between these spheres, which is a reformed theological term. The doctrine of the separation of church and state was fought out by reformation era Christians in western nations for centuries. Now it seems that the fight has once again been revived by the arrogant humanistic state and its self-assured, moral midget, minions.

 It looks to me like the church has finally begun to awaken, at least on this one issue. For decades Christian men and organizations have financed through their income and other taxes, organizations like Planned Parenthood, and a host of other programs geared to abort, contracept, and generally reduce the number of birthed babies around the world. For reasons a bit difficult to discern it seems that the American church is now preparing to resist as “one man.” Catholics and Southern Baptists are driving iron pegs in the ground with men like Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptists resolving firmly, “We will not comply.” Of course there will be a host of supposedly conservative Christians who live on the fringes of belief who will not comply with Dr. Land’s pronouncement. They will continue to abort and contracept as usual. However, at the heart of Christ’s church there is always a remnant that will do the right things and resist the evil of their day. It is to these that the prophets speak and in whom convictions become unshakable.

 Most of the talk by the resisting church centers itself around quotes and principles residing in the Constitution. At the outset that may be workable, but in the long haul it will not. Unbelieving humanists have long insisted that the Constitution is, “a living document,” meaning really that it is a dead document. They insist that the language and precepts of the Constitution have to be understood in light of current needs, morality (immorality), “penumbras,” and any other specious concept that allows them to rule without the constraint of moral law. In essence, they believe themselves to be God, and seek to replace the commands of Moses with endless statutes and directives designed to propel their humanist dreams. If they do not meet resistance they will expand like leaven in a loaf or like a mustard plant in a garden. This is the expression of the antichrist and the anti-church.

 The Constitution is a grand document but it is insufficient for any extended moral confrontation. When Christians want to determine what must be defended and how to fight they have to return to their God and His word. God’s law is always our permanent foundation. Documents like constitutions and bills of rights may be built upon that law but they are derived not revealed. We are entering a season when it will be imperative to know and understand with precision exactly what God has said and what His word means. A trifling cognizance or a belief that that old law is just “cultural” will not bear us sturdily through a nasty, brawling, unsocial mud-fight, such as what may be forced upon us.

 All of the underlying concepts of freedom are carried through the pages of God’s word. Do we believe in a separation of powers? God’s word established both priests and Judges, each with separate duties. Do we believe in free speech? God’s law allowed the civil authority to punish blasphemy and possibly slander and libel but nothing else. God’s people are free to speak their minds. Do we believe in no taxation without representation? Our example is life under the Judges where there was virtually no taxation, issue resolved. Do we wonder now if righteous men may demand a separation of their lives and duties from wrongful taxation (such as taxes for contraception in this case)?  Re-read the story of the ten tribes of Israel departing the national covenant and leaving Judah and Benjamin to stand alone (1 Kings 12:1-24). When Judah’s king prepared to go to war to enforce that union and his harsh taxes, God sent a prophet to warn him, “…this thing has come from Me.” Even though the northern tribes would become idolatrous and deeply wicked the initial departure was from the Lord. This is a lawful example of passive resistance. Do we doubt that moral people may ever resist the higher powers of which Romans 13 speaks? If so, re-read of the Hebrew mid-wives under Pharaoh or of the killing of Queen Athaliah.

 The apostles were dedicated to the principle that they would obey God rather than men. We are the covenant heirs of the apostles, the prophets, and those faithful Hebrew mid-wives. We will not murder our children. We refuse to finance the murder of anyone’s children either born or unborn. This is an unshakable principle. The fight is against wickedness in high places. It is not a time for earthly weapons but it is a time for firm reliance on Providence and the things to which He calls us. The steel we swing is the blade of God’s word. Untie the cord and prepare to draw that sword. The fight is upon us.

 For Christian Culture,

 Don Schanzenbach 2-11-12

Please forward to anyone you wish

 

 

Posted in Current Events, Government, Liberty, Romans 13, Taxation | Leave a comment

Watching Freedom Evaporate (An Attempt to Do Something)

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Don Schanzenbach

Dear Delegate Joseph P. Johnson Jr.,

 I have followed the recent controversy concerning the 2012 United States, National Defense Authorization Act which seems by its language to hand authority to the military to arrest and indefinitely hold without trial, American citizens. Particularly upsetting is the phrase, “…any person who has committed a belligerent act” thus opening a sweeping opportunity for the federal government to define virtually anyone in the country as a terrorist. It is manifestly foolish for us to believe that we will not eventually see the federal government interpreting this language as cause to arrest those who speak out against federal policies or who in any way attempt to critique immoral federal actions.

 The ancient legal right of Habeas Corpus is not only guaranteed in our Constitution, it is a right deriving from basic Biblical law and morality. It was pushed forward in western society for two thousand years as a correct legal response to protect the general citizenry against malicious accusations. Casting this protection aside or even blurring its applications is a fundamental error that will lead only to the misery of our people. As a Christian man I find it disturbing that our nation would allow itself to drift, or be dragged, into such an absurd abandonment of a foundational principle. Biblical law unwaveringly requires two or three witnesses in order to try any person for any crime. Without those witnesses there can be no prosecution. Biblical law gives no sanction for the concept of holding people without trial.

 I also see an unwise and immoral mixing of military action and civil law. Once again, as a Christian man, I see no Biblical example or teaching that would hand over our general population to the military to be held or tried outside the civil court and its procedures. If we commit crimes against the nation then let the civil authorities bring charge in the courts. The proper role of the military is to defend our borders, people and property (wives, houses, and little ones as the Bible describes) from direct attack. It is not to rake the nation in search of internal enemies of the state.

 The Biblical and Christian doctrine of interposition teaches that when a higher magistrate violates sound moral principle then it is the duty of the lower magistrate to resist that action. The first means of resistance is to disobey unlawful or immoral commands or to refuse to assist or allow those actions. These are peaceful means of pushing back against the often wrongful tilt of the higher authorities.

 Due to these considerations I respectfully request that you interpose by supporting and voting for Bob Marshall’s Protect Habeas Corpus Bill –HB1160, before the Virginia State Legislature. Also, please demand that it be given some legal tooth by tasking the local Sheriff with arresting any federal agent that would arrest American citizens and throw them in a military stockade. Please pass HB1160.

 Thank you for your help on this issue,

Don Schanzenbach

 MissionToRestoreAmerica.com/blog   

Note to my readers – Please copy, forward, or resend this to whomever you please, and use any language you find useful here to create letters to your own representatives in your states.

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Discipling the Nations

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Don Schanzenbach

There is a curious statement by Jesus found in Matthew 23:15, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel about on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” It interests me because this seems to be the dying end of a long tradition of Israel reaching people with a message of Godly culture. They had not always been so wrongly motivated or as apparently ineffective at communicating God’s love to lost people.

The short story of Ruth gives us a glimpse into evangelism by a different method than what those Pharisees were attempting. This is an ancient story set in the time of the Judges (Ruth 1:1). There had been a famine in Israel so the man Elimelech took his wife Naomi and traveled across the border to Moab and they made a life for themselves there. However, after several years both the man and their two sons died. This left Naomi and her two daughters in-law to fend for themselves in the land of Moab. It was with confident resolve that Naomi determined to return to the land of her heritage.

The famine had ended in Israel and there was no practical way to continue in Moab. All of the breadwinners were gone and these women were on their own, except that Naomi had retained her faith in the God of Israel. Besides this she knew the law of that land and its favorable treatment of the orphans and widows. There was a righteous culture there to which she could appeal for some of the help she needed. It was Israel that had gleaner’s laws. These were laws, which became custom as laws often do. They demanded that farmers leave the corners of the fields uncut and when gathering a crop that they must not re-work the field after having passed over it once (Leviticus 19:9). The stated purpose was to provide food that the needy could glean. This was God’s concern.

There were also laws providing for the re-marriage of widows and the responsibility of family to help family. All of this was written into God’s statutes for Israel and had to some large degree become the culture of that nation. It was a reflection of the living God, His character, and His ideals for righteous society. So, when Naomi decided to return to her homeland it was not just an emotional turning back to the land of her youth. Rather, it was a very practical trust in God and the culture of her former life. It was a return to that righteous place where widows were helped and the culture of God was expressed in law and the behavior of obedient people.

There is an emotional moment when Naomi’s daughter-in-law Ruth, a now widowed Moabitis, announces her firm decision (Ruth 1:16-17) to travel with Naomi to Israel declaring, “…where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the Lord do to me, and worse, if anything parts you and me.” Ruth obviously understood that she was transferring her life and trust to Naomi’s God and Naomi’s ‘people’. There was an implicit cognizance that Israel was a people. They were not just whoever happened to be living on the land. Israel had been made into a distinctive group marked out by its adherence to Godly law and culture. Ruth was dedicating herself to that God, law, and culture. This is conversion. It is evangelism through culture and it is every day testimony to the Living God who makes law and culture after His own mind. It was a journey toward the God of truth and involved a firm commitment to die in that faith.

When Jesus commanded His disciples to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” it is important that He did not say to make disciples of all individuals. Rather He spoke of nations as the goal. Evangelism involves the making of disciples (not just converts) and nations are to be the intended goal. As nations are discipled into Biblical faith there will be a turning of surrounding nations toward the light of those who are redeemed. When the Lord established Israel as an example for us He promised them (Deuteronomy 4:6-8), “so keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever we call on Him? Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?”

This is what we should pray and work toward. If God’s redeemed will establish righteous law and culture whole nations can be turned to God and then be a beacon of light and hope to the surrounding lost peoples. We are not to be just waiting for a final miserable end to history and of the nations. Rather, we are to disciple all nations. We are to teach them all that God commands thereby transforming the world, and by God’s power making salvation common. Eventually, the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters fill the seas (Isaiah 11:9). The earth will be evangelized. An integral part of that success will be the implementation of Biblical law and culture throughout the world. God is transforming the nations. We can be a part of that great work.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach 1-28-12

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For Glory and for Beauty (An article NOT about the election)

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Don Schanzenbach

Not everything that matters to our civilization has its foundations laid in high places of government. We all know that of course but the daily news blabbers would never make you think otherwise. I had to untangle my mind and soul from it all and reflect on something else. All week I kept thinking about how the Scriptures and our God are beautiful and that it does a soul good to ruminate on that precept.

 In some ways beauty is something we expect, at least when we view the created order. We understand that if God made it, whatever it is will be wonderful to our eyes. It will amaze our minds with complexity, genius, and marvelous simplicity jumbled together into this astonishing world in which we walk. Nothing is what we would expect. Snowflakes, for instance, appear as an indistinct mass of white until you peer closely to discover that every flake is unlike the last. There are apparently trillions of possible designs (and I do mean designs not just shapes), and two alike have never been recorded. When I first started sawing air dried walnut in my shop I discovered that the boundary wood between the cream colored sapwood and the dark heartwood is often interlaced with fading shades of rose and teal. You can ramble through these woods for a life time and never know that beneath the bark under your hand lies an oil-brushed signature of the mighty Mind who assembled this forest. The rainbow in the sky is repeated beneath bark and fiber awaiting the one man that may see it before it disappears into the saws.

 We also understand from man’s assembled order that we have an astonishing penchant for whacking together unholy masses of magnified ugliness. As a species we struggle against the mess. We pass laws to unwind the worst offenses, but we create an unending supply of ick which here, in theAppalachians, displays itself as big road-side trash and truck tires in the creeks. For man, the accumulation of trash is more natural than unnatural. We have to work at it to maintain beauty.

 The entrance of Christian civilization changes this, although not in every case, because Christians often do not act christianly. When the Lord describes the heavenly order He asserts we must, “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness” (Psalms 29 and 96). So, we are meant to recognize that beauty is first and best derived as the perfect product of the holiness of God. It is the beautiful holiness of God that places in motion His gracious order of beauty. Christians, recognizing the perfections of God’s beauty, are to work, within God’s law to bring what we can into conformance with that higher reality. We are ambassadors of Christ who, when possible, ought to demonstrate to an on-looking world, that beauty is a prolific feature of our mighty God. The building of a beautiful civilization is not so much option as it is obligation.

 Psalm 90:17 implores, “And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us: yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.” This is what we desire. We pray with righteous expectation that the beauty of the Lord will be upon us and that He will establish the work of our hands. It is a prayer that followers of the terrifying and hideous gods of the earth cannot pray. They have no realistic belief that their religion will be a spring of righteous beauty in the earth. Their idols convey the wretched ugliness that is at the center of their worship. Their veryDNA is death. Our modern idols of stone and glass reflect a similar spirit. This is why so many of the newer public school buildings look like prisons and the courts appear as fortresses. Our philosophies carry through and our minds design what our hearts have come to serve. The beauty of artistic glass is impractical where the students are rogues. Wall them up then and put metal detectors at the doors.

 The mighty Greek and Roman cities were built with slave labor. Slaves were hobbled in from the newly conquered provinces and forced to hew and sledge till their broken bodies were cast aside. Fresh muscle was imported to replace the wasted men who dragged the stones and earth. That cycle was repeated for centuries to produce what are now the ruins of the ancient civilizations. These sleeping stones are eternal monuments to cruel tyrants who sought beauty under the arbor of their sordid philosophies and deadly religions. Their gods were not beautiful, and every intention of their hearts was evil, as are the hearts of every unredeemed society of our race. There is only one salvation for them all, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 Here, on our land, I have built a lovely, wood-frame greenhouse. It is a solace to sit there, to pray, to be surrounded by the visual delight of the building and its planted treasures. On the back edge of the entry door I have painted the quote from Exodus 28:2, “For glory and for beauty.” This is the heart of any righteous man who seeks to push forward Christ’s kingdom. We desire to press back the ugliness of sin and all its seed, and plant a better-seeded society that exhibits the beauty and holiness of our God wherever we can. We begin with righteousness and we end with beauty. We invite you to join the effort.

  For Christian Civilization,

 Don Schanzenbach 1-21-12

 

 

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Conservative or Christian?

Posted on January 15, 2012 by Don Schanzenbach

The contest is now engaged to see who will be the Republican nominee for president in the next election. There is nothing else in the news. Every pundit yammers like an old air compressor pounding the few bits of actual knowledge available into compressed sound bites and repetitive, repetitive, repetitive, gaseous commentary that escapes from radio receivers like an air hose with an unfixable leak. As I turn it on and off and on I have noticed lately the liberal use of the word conservative by every talker: conservative values, conservatives believe, conservative voters, conservative writer, Mr. __etc. They have no firm definition as to exactly what a conservative might be. Oh, each talker has some internal bottle from which he (she) picks his ideas. One of the problems, however, is that every talker has a different bottle and a differing monocle through which to view the contents. No one can define precisely what exactly is a conservative. So, even with the definition lacking we are supposed to be vociferous in our assurance that we need one in the White House.

 The fact that conservatism has no fixed meaning alerts us to the reality that it is not a word synonymous with Christian. This is because Christian thought, and I mean thought that is rightly rooted in Scripture, does sprout from fixed principles that are given by an unchanging God. If God does not change then neither do His principles for social life on our planet. Our morals and actions are not optional under God’s law. We may argue over some applications of God’s law in specific circumstances: this is due to our sin and unrighteous confusion, not God’s will being malleable. Our universe does have a fixed center and that Center is the Eternal Person who created it, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 It was Christian ideas that built western civilization not conservative ones. America’s founders did not arrive here with heads full of conservative notions. They fled here rather to build a society based on Biblical principle and the reality of freedom under Christ.  Conservatism is at best an obverse of the Christian coin, but that may be giving it more credence than it deserves. It seems that this amorphous word conservative is a deliberate step away from Christian language and ideals. It is an attempt to rationalize the world without acknowledging its Creator. The conservative world view is not necessarily the Christian one. For those embarrassed by the name of Christ the word conservative gives cover for their rejection of higher principles. It can be respectable (at least in Bohemian circles) to be conservative, but outside the church our Jesus talk is the object of pointy-nosed sniffing. Identifying first as a conservative provides a platform to speak against the liberals without having the negative approbation of the Christian moniker. Humanist liberals and humanist conservatives believe they can figure out how to run things between themselves, and both wish to marginalize those who identify first as Christians. We are not them. We are something different, and they do not like it.

 The more recent entrance of the neo-cons into politics is simply the next logical step away from Biblical principle. The neo-cons, meaning new conservatives, are new in two ways. Their main point of departure lies in their rejection of moral absolutes in almost every sphere. Homosexuality, abortion, torture, and imperial warfare are all acceptable under the neo-con banner. They have no fixed morality to which they adhere so they do as men without God have always done. At the end of the time of the Judges scripture tells us that “every man did what was right in his own eyes”. This is where every form of rebellion against God leads and the neo-con philosophy is the transmutation of the conservative mind as it plummets from the Christian pinnacle. Their fixation on eternal warfare as the cure for earthly ills reduces them to a society of savages not dissimilar from our ancestors that the missionaries converted. They are savages with machines. Do not mistake them for Christians.   

 The word conservative indicates there is something to conserve. Yet, these very people can never agree on what that something is. They understand that lofty principles are required to raise our human condition, and their language is designed to appear as concrete for societal footings. However, there is no real soil and the entire enterprise tumbles in mid-air. Conservatives have forgotten what they were trying to conserve and why they were attempting to do so. Like ships without rudders they collide and founder. We can read the lettering CONSERVATIVE as their hulls tip upwards and begin their final descent. Nothing will save them, for in the end, they have rejected the only Savior who could raise them above their sinking conditions. Conservatism is a societal construct with no moral force.

 Some may inform us their absolutes are found in the party platform or in the Constitution. This is just Billy Goat Bluff puffing, puffing in hope that no one challenges their ludicrous stance. These documents change and morph into reflections of who we are as a society. We do not tell them what they are. They tell us who we are. Perhaps if we printed our laws on mirrors instead of paper we might be reminded of that fact. Our law often (not always thankfully) is the written record of our traverse from wiser minded thinking to the disorder of lawless people. The Constitution will not save us. If we do not return to our God we will not save the Constitution.

 For Christians the only option is to return to Biblical first principles. Conservative humanists have framed the acceptable conversation to contain it and direct it away from the name of Christ. The idea of a comprehensive Biblical politic is anathema to them. If we want to see a real turn-around we will have to start self identifying as a Christian people with an unabashed Biblical philosophy. We have to begin transforming the public square with the conversation of the redeemed. It is not our duty to baptize the language nor the philosophical pillars of conservative humanists. These are idols for destruction to be dismantled, and forgotten. 

 Conservatism and neo-conservatism have no historical stamina. The kingdom of Christ will eventually reduce them to powder that wiffs away in the wind of history. Today is our time to build the kingdom without shame. Our Savior conquers all kingdoms and His victory is sure. Take courage and soldier on the winning side.

 For Christian Culture  

 Don Schanzenbach    1-14-12    

 

 

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Voting Christian (What Does That Mean?)

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Don Schanzenbach

As another election cycle advances upon us we Christians find ourselves vexed in our duties and allegiances. The conservative culture to which we are attracted informs us we must vote for the candidate that can win but our hearts understand that, at least in some cases, moral principle trumps concerns about winning. While I cannot resolve all questions relating to the Christian and the vote I will assert a few timeless Biblical principles that ought to direct our behavior at every election.

One absolute is that God is the unyielding controller and establisher of civil rulers in all governments at all times. This principle is taught with clarity throughout Scripture but we easily forget or disregard that fact. I am reminded of King Nebuchadnezzar walking on the roof of his palace saying, “ ‘Is this notBabylonthe great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?’ While the word was in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven saying, King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you…”  (Daniel 4:30-31). Sovereignty was removed from him and we are told that he ate grass like the wild animals for seven time periods (years) until he was brought back to his senses by the real Ruler of all kingdoms, “But at the end of that period I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What hast Thou done?’ “(Daniel 4:34-35). In this passage and an abundance of others we are taught that God alone rules the nations and establishes whomever He wishes in the offices of power over them.

This fact overthrows our assured pronouncements that any given election or any particular evil ruler is ours to control as if the offices are filled according to our will alone, or as if the Lord has released the direction of history to our hands. He has not. He never will. This is not proof that our votes do not matter. It is evidence however, that we are not as powerful as we might imagine. We are not king makers nor breakers. Pulling a lever in the voting booth does not dislodge God from His throne, a throne where He rules with absolute power over all events in governments and history.

Another sure observation is that voting for civil rulers is not found anywhere in God’s law for nations or for His people. Under the Judges there were virtually no civil offices as we know them (lots of freedom and not any politicians) and under the kings there were, well, kings, not elected officers. So when we contemplate our system of elected officers, public servants as we call them, we are constructing a platform for governance not found in Scripture and not directly addressed as to how to run it. Whenever we depart from Biblical standards we find ourselves wading in swampy ground and as the many nations before us we discover that the practical and moral questions become pretty muddy.

One thing I am confident of regarding our vote however, is that we have to be people of moral character in our voting. This is because everywhere we search in Scripture we find that God is highly concerned with our morals and moral decisions no matter what we do or where we go. Hence, the moral questions rate a higher concern than the pragmatic, such as who will win and what we think will happen if that (possibly evil) person wins. I am not saying that outcomes do not matter. I am saying that our moral actions are more important than our beliefs about who may win or not win, or our supposed responsibility for those outcomes. God rules the nations but we must rule our actions in Biblically moral ways. Hence, winning is not our greatest concern. Maintaining a morally right life is.

This is why I urge my readers to always vote for the candidate that best exemplifies true Christian character and moral principle. Our duty is to always promote the kingdom of Christ and His righteousness. The vote is a chance to express our allegiance to the true King and our desire to see His kingdom reign ‘from pole to pole’ as one hymn proclaims. We should always be confident that the Lord will establish the person He desires and presumably we deserve, as His kingdom continues to grow over time. For, like leaven in a loaf or a mustard seed in a garden, His kingdom will continue to expand until it permeates the whole loaf and fills the entire garden. This world – it is the garden. We labor in the garden but He remains the Master Gardner. May we be men and women who are faithful and committed to our higher calling as we perform every duty. May we be blessed in our obedience.

For Christian Culture,

 Don Schanzenbach  1-7-12

 

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Teetering on Insanity?

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Don Schanzenbach

The present political races for Republican nominee are a colorful reminder of the contradictions upon which we evangelicals build our thinking. The candidates know they need the conservative Christian vote but have a difficult time figuring out what exactly we believe on a variety of issues. As a religious people we, logically, ought to show consistency in our perspectives on national policy and public life. After all, if we really have a God who is omnipotent and all knowing should not His will be what we agree to and promote?  If there is a unity in the mind of the trinity why is there such disunity in the mind of the church? But, as we understand, the problem is not with God it is with us. Our sin nature leads us down winding paths not connected to His truth. Our hearts do not make good guides for national direction because our hearts are confused, sinful, and uninformed by the mind of God in many cases. This leads to wild imaginations that carry us far from the mind and will of our Lord. Our troubles run much deeper than just general confusion however.

 This is because, as a matter of principle, we have effectively thrown out the very word required for our national wisdom. Due to the current theological fads we have eliminated the possibility of being able to speak to ourselves or the larger world around us about matters of public policy and our decisions as a nation. Our protestant forefathers and the founders of this country regularly reasoned from God’s word and law to derive direction for our nation. However, we find ourselves rarely imitating either our Savior or our spiritual forefathers in these matters. This is due to our becoming convinced that only the New Testament any longer applies to these larger issues of national righteousness, internal politics, and foreign policy. Given that the New Testament has little to say on these subjects we, predictably, have developed no opinions from Scripture. Instead, we range about like lost chickens, pecking here and there for tidbits of thought that seem rational or moral but based on essentially nothing. One thinks we ought to invade Iran another thinks not. One believes turningMeccato glass would have been right another thinks we should just evangelize. Some Christians believe the nation should pay for food stamps and others believe that to be the duty of the churches. If we had taken a direct hit from a rocket-propelled grenade our brains could hardly be more splattered. By rejecting our own source of truth we have become as confused as the people we seek to convert.

 The New Testament informs us that the Old was given for our instruction. We reject that advice and believe we have concocted a superior theology based on only New Testament doctrine and example. This would be that same New Testament that so often reaches into the Old for its assertions. Rightfully, we should be embarrassed about our ignorance of that Old Testament. We believe those old passages to be obscure, meaning mostly that we neither read nor use them. They are so unfamiliar we label them obscure.

 Concerning our national questions and behaviors; God has gifted us with a thousand year history of His work among His chosen people. He showed us in detail how He instructed and ruled among sinful men under the government of the judges for almost 400 years and then under the kings for about 600 more. Every important principle we need to understand is on display for us in these accounts. Do we need to know the best civil law for a nation? It is there in detail, both case law and the principles behind it. Do we need to understand the covenantal relationship of all government to the people? It is set in careful teaching and example in Moses and the Kings, see 2 Kings 11:17, as a kernel upon which to reflect. Could we use wisdom concerning the courts and justice? God gave that knowledge in refined exactions so that we could not miss it (yet we have). Do we require the wisdom of the centuries to know how to rightly handle foreign policy? Our God has blessed us with abundant teaching and examples concerning treaties with foreign nations (do not do that), right cause for warfare, the penalty for kingly and national hubris (see Josiah), the foolishness of centralizing power (1 Samuel 8), the wicked root of land taxes, right reasoning for civil war (read about the war with Benjamin in the Book of Judges) and also the time to divide the nation rather than fight. It’s all there. But we, in our ignorance or hardness of heart have rejected the application of all this wonderful truth and instead committed ourselves and our future to life under the long failed philosophies of rebellious men. God has given us truth but we have exchanged it for a lie. One of the reasons we cannot convert the lost culture is that we have no message. We have become them. What can we aver that they do not already believe?

 In His final meeting with His disciples Jesus (in almost visible emotion in the text) reminds them of how He had taught about Himself from the law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. This was literally true but it was also a metaphor meaning the whole Word of God. The point was that the entire Old Testament validated and explained Him. They were never commanded to stop looking in those books. The book of Hebrews explains that the laws of ceremony and sacrifice were fulfilled in Christ. However, for reasons hard to understand we have decided that the entire Old Testament is off limits for informing our public life. I have been told that the only law that applies is that which is repeated in the New Testament (which leaves beastiality and rape up for grabs among other things). That method also leaves us to make up our own minds on court and trial procedures and for the penalties for crimes. Throwing out God’s law is the necessary step toward creating our own. And, as some would have us believe, the law written on our hearts is superior to the law of Moses (thus positing two opposing moral systems emanating from the same God). We have gone crazy.

 When the enemies of the church scorn us for being full of contradictions without any logic to our faith we can hardly answer with anything but nonsense these days because they are only citing what they honestly observe among us. If God is right about everything why can we not agree among ourselves on the answers to major questions? The reason we cannot agree is that we have rejected so much of the word our God gave us. We are our own worst enemies. We need to turn back to our God and His whole word. We really do. As long as we continue to reject God’s law and the Old Testament record of national Israel as instructive for us today, we will continue to be a people who have no wisdom. The rescue of our culture and nation hangs in the balance. I am praying we will be the generation that returns to these foundations. 

 For Christian Culture,

 Don Schanzenbach  12-24-11

 

 

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How Do We Find Answers?

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Don Schanzenbach

Listening to the current field of Republican candidates for the presidential ticket has reminded me of a need for fundamental change in how we think about the issues of the day. The natural method for evaluating these people seems to be rather random. We like this one because she is pro-life but reject that one because he wants to cut the Education Department or demands an audit of the Federal Reserve. They have their talking points and we have ours. But the larger question is how we can know for sure if any of their opinions are correct. And, I am not talking about just having the best set of statistics behind them. I am saying, how do their positions measure against eternal verities? Is there a Biblical standard that sets up the morals and wisdom on the various issues, or are we supposed to use the methods the unbelievers do and try to derive every truth from a research poll? Is there anything that differentiates us from the unbelieving world in these matters, or do we flow unthinkingly along copying the thought processes of the enemies of our faith? And, why are we so comfortable imitating God’s adversaries in how we think about the making and management of our national life?

 I noticed long ago that when Jesus was asked about the questions of his day, He unvaryingly reasoned out the answers from Scripture and sound theological principle. Jesus demonstrated the methods Godly people should use to come to righteous opinions about the issues of life. For instance, when He was questioned about His disciples picking and eating grain on the Sabbath (Luke 6:2-5) Jesus reasoned the answer from the Old Testament concerning David eating consecrated bread and the priests laboring in the temple on the Sabbath.  Or, when the Lord was maliciously asked about marriage in heaven (Luke 20) He gave an answer and instruction based on truths derived from Moses at the burning bush. His answer involved an exacting reading of the original text and demonstrates the level of detail that may be correctly derived from the inspired word. We can observe how the revealed truth applies to specific issues of our era. His assumptions ought to be our assumptions as we consider what may be rightfully learned from Scripture regarding our legal and moral questions.

 When Jesus argued with Jewish skeptics He excoriated them for disbelieving both the law and the prophets. Keep in mind that these were people who claimed rigorously that they were the believers and defenders of the given word of God. They had pulled it apart and dissected every jot and tittle to a point of absurdity yet were lacking in basic understanding of that very word. Their methods of interpretation had become separated from what the Word itself gave by example and they were inventing a twisted theology that no longer taught truth. I fear we have done likewise. It is a fatal mistake.

 If we wish to repair our crumbling national foundations we need to re-learn how to reason from Scripture and elect people who do the same. We can only reason from Scripture if we believe it to be both true and applicable to our time. And, we need to believe it is important to think in this way. This is a critical step on the path toward hope for our country. It is the way of our God.

 Don Schanzenbach 12-24-11

The American Hope Project   

 

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A Tribute for Denise

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Don Schanzenbach

It is 6:31 on Monday morning. I have been staring at the screen, praying, staring at the screen. There is so much to say and yet, nothing. We have common thoughts in an uncommon moment. The heart reaches but the mind, the mind rotates, rests, and churns its footless legs. How then can an ordinary man speak anything worthwhile about an extraordinary woman, and friend, and wife, of our friend RC Sproul Jr.?

 For us her passing will never be just a news report, a cut-out for the scrapbook. No, rather, something has happened here. Sometimes we crane our necks to stare. Nothing has happened, move along, move along. But with Denise, something has happened. Something mighty has occurred and we can all feel it. The earth has been shaken but it is difficult to describe exactly how we know.

 We do know, we will forever remember, that Denise was a kind and lovely spirit. We saw in her an empathy and a certain goodness made manifest with every motion. They seemed natural to her, although these perfections are only supernatural evidences of God’s strengthening graces. We do not thank her for being naturally good but we do give thanks for her sliding up a sash that we might view some unshadowed measure of the celestial ideals. I have tried to recall any example of a Biblical hero that demonstrated with precision these beautiful attributes but have found myself mentally flailing through the text without reward. It seems there are some few obediences we are commanded to obtain finding our surest expressions among the living. So, it was that in the living we were inspired and at the dying we have more fully appreciated what we had among us.

 And, beauty does have this ephemeral quality. We look, we see, and forget, and so review whom God has placed among us that we may learn to see how He may increase in us these same virtues. In the case of death sometimes, beauty and tragedy bear each other along. So it is that our spirits soar and plummet even as we admit the truth of every Scripture that fills our souls with hope. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, neither height nor depth nor any other thing. So, to a beloved sister we say goodbye and swear to join you when our Jesus sets us free with you.

 Don Schanzenbach 12-19-11

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