Here we are 3000 years later, men who have an effeminized manner of behavior as our normal, normal. Is a fish aware of the water? What if the water is pink? What if our eyes are pink and the water is clear? How may we know we are viewing our environment rightly? Are we still men, or are we being transformed into girls? I am all for niceness, but we have left behind our manly strengths. Are there no enemies to enjoin? Is this our manly calling, to never offend, and never slight the warriors whose loyalty opposes the kingdom of Christ? I fear we have become a lukewarm posterity of the mighty men who fought our battles for us. I do not know if we can even be depended upon to defend the baggage.

From our youth we were taught to sit in chairs all day, be good, not pull hair, and talk in a shushing voice. Have you ever noticed how typical school is designed to effeminize boys? Girls love school, but boys want to climb trees. It is not that we aver learning but, boys learn differently. We have different hormones. This is because God calls us to different actions than He does our wives and daughters. Guys love boxing movies, but girls just tolerate them. Wham, wham, right cross, and down he goes. The guy wants to hit replay, but the girl is only watching because he is.

God calls men to be courageous. When Paul stood on Mars Hill, and went head-to-head with the Greek philosophers, he was pretty much alone in his opinions. The text tells us that only a few believed. Most of those guys thought he was nuts. Yet, there he was, stand alone or stand with his disciples, either way he had long before determined to preach Christ in whatever circumstance he found himself. When the crowd at Thessalonica was ready to tear apart Jason he unflinchingly kept the faith. Later on Paul mentions him at the end of his letter to the Romans. A Godly man is not deterred by conflict or danger for a right cause. We are made that way. The Lord strengthens us for the fight. It is not our wives that are called to bang shields with the wicked. It is the Christian man that should run toward the battle. Some are to protect and others are to be protected.

We have grown up in a time of milquetoast men in a soft-pewed church. We will not stand against anything. The airports disrobe our wives and daughters with their super scanners, and we object not a wit. We see nothing to defend. Whole cities with millions of inhabitants are effectively disarmed, but the church preaches nothing about it. No- knock invasions and warrantless searches are imposed, and Christian men offer hardly a contrary word. As liberty evaporates the pulpits remain silent. Our approval of women in the pulpit marks our shame as conquered men. We could think of nothing to say, so we turned over the talking to our daughters. Maybe they can save us. Maybe our underwear is pink. I believe I saw some frills. Female clergy came and gay clergy followed. Almost every major denomination accepts this.

Ministerial leaders tend to be nice men who get along with everybody. They teach the church to be a nice organization instead of a militant one. Today’s church rarely calls men to be courageous. This is one of the reasons men do not care about church. Women feel good when they go to church. Men feel squirmy. What is the point? Why do we care about hearing a girl tell us to be more like girls? If you brush hog on Sunday morning you can feel like you got something done. Current churches do not inspire men, whereas, conflict in a righteous cause inspires men like nothing else.

Our milquetoasty church culture derives from the doctrines we teach. Our thunder is gone because our theology is gone. We no longer view ourselves as men who have been sent out to build the mighty kingdom of Christ. Current fad theology teaches us that Jesus is bound to return any minute, so why worry about building His kingdom on this earth? If all our work is in vain then why do anything? The church may not be saying this in so many words, but the message is unmistakable if we truly believe we are at the end. People are logical enough to figure it out. We have never been taught sound doctrine concerning the extent of Christ’s kingdom. We think that God is only concerned about the saving of a few last souls before the scroll of history is rolled up. Little is ever said from the pulpit or in classrooms about Biblical faith controlling every area of thought, study, and living. We are not wholistic in our faith. We think that if we can save a few beleaguered souls our work is complete. Meanwhile, our God is claiming all for Himself. He has not given up a single area of existence to His enemies, and neither should we. Seek first the kingdom of God He implored us. Why then do we delay?

Militaristic regimes appeal to men because men are called to be strong. When we leave a leadership vacuum, stronger men, immoral men, eventually step in. We need to be strong men, who are strong in Christ, and go out to build a better world in the name of our Savior. We are called to re-enlighten the culture with the gentle message of God’s love under the righteousness of His law. Nothing less will do. Sturdy men do not allow the world’s systems to control them forever. Think with me guys. Pray with me. Wet-noodle man-girls do not have the strength to advance anything against God’s persistent enemies. A great first step for many of us would be to pull our kids from the godless public education system, and start teaching them ourselves. Why do we place them in schools where the unyielding daily message, is the irrelevance of God in all things? Are we so weak we will not do this small thing? How will the culture be saved when our children are lost?

The battle is upon us men. The surrounding culture seeks to tear down everything holy. But for us, for us and our families, men are needed who are courageous to lead. The hours of indecision are past. If courage fails now, we and our families will be squashed by the heaviness of the immorality around us. Indolence and fear are the signs of our corrupted state. Repent with me, and resolve to do whatever God gives opportunity, to rebuild a wiser culture. Shamelessly, seek first the kingdom of God. All else will be added unto us.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach

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You know, it really is interesting how our government protectors are so frenzied about foods for our stomachs and so little concerned about food for our souls. Now, believe me, I have no desire to have them rooting around in the garden of my soul, but still, why all the fuss about spotted hogs or raw milk and a complete disregard for the starvation of the national soul? As far as I can find, the state is not supposed to be rummaging around in either garden. Yet, there are a few observations we can make about these food and soul food fights that are meat for our consideration.

These guys that we call government agents, were once called public servants, were once called ministers of God (Romans 13). So, the transformation is complete, the role is reversed. The ministers who once represented God in the affairs of men now represent a government of men that is opposed to both God and His law. The ministers whose very title embraced spiritual cognizance and morality have become the ones who disallow prayer in the schools. They will make sure your child drinks only government approved milk while at the same time making sure he does not pray openly in thanks for it. Any spiritual pottage is suitable, even commanded, for use in the classroom, but the utmost care is taken about the meats served in the lunchroom. Those spotted pigs will never make it into the gravy at your local high school. Your soul could starve till the bones are showing, but at least your body will not be desecrated by spotted hog.

In California the authorities are forbidding the importation of Mexican cheeses. They are supposedly worried that these uninspected, and illegal cheeses could carry pathogens. They are not sure which pathogens might be transmitted since the danger is as yet only imaginary. I wonder what they think it might be? Maybe syphilis perhaps? Or, maybe Alzheimer’s, or brain stroke disease will be smuggled across the border in these felonious heads of cheese. While one agency of doodling do-nothings is chasing cheese heads, another government agency is handing out machine guns to border-crossing gangs that are causing thousands to die of lead poisoning. Under their Project Gunrunner automatic rifles were sold to Mexican gangs some of which made it back across the border to be used in fights with our border control agents. This is how our government people protect us now. They chase harmless cheeses, carried across in suitcases we are told, but send pick-up sized piles of machine guns to smugglers who want to shoot us. They stack up the cheeses in padlocked freezers. It sure makes me feel good that those cheeses are in jail where they belong.

Oh, but I got all distracted. With spotty hogs, underground milk, danger riddled cheese, and heaps of machine guns, I almost forgot my main point. The main point is that however much a Godless government tries, it cannot feed or protect your soul. We elect Godless men who have no conception of what it means to be a minister of God. They have no Biblical view, no faith, and no vision to be  men of Christian virtue or inspiration to the public they serve. It is not their fault. We are the ones who elect them, so let the blame fall on us.

It is impossible for a Godless civil government to make any connection between the reality of spiritual food and the realm of physical food. God and His church can do that, but soulless government agencies cannot. Every week our family weeds, and waters, and labors to grow food for our bodies. We grind grain and we stir up drinks. On Sunday, we arrive at church. There we eat bread, and drink the wine of life with our brethren. It is at that moment that bodily food and soul food are united in a single universe. To the state it is only the body, the hogs and the cheeses that matter. To us, to the church, we are not so interested in the food fights. What has captured our hearts is the real food that came down from heaven. He is the One who connects everything in a world otherwise gone mad. The One who made the grain and the grapes has given us eyes to see what He made. For this we are thankful.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach

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We have a large greenhouse about twenty-five yards from the house, and some raised beds up on the hill above. From these gardens we harvest a good portion of our vegetables with enough extra to trade for bread, eggs, pork, beef, and whatever else my industrious neighbors produce. We have learned a lot about gardening from all of this, but the best lessons about gardens and gardeners came by way of our pastors. They taught us to think about these with Biblical appreciation.

They taught us that the Bible, having begun with our ancestors in the garden of Eden, ends with all of the redeemed in the garden in the eternal city. It has blessed my soul to consider upon that truth. Whenever I re-read those short words about the Tree of Life my heart is blessed again. John wrote,

And he showed me a river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of the street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

This is wonderful on several levels. One of them is the way in which we are transported back to Genesis and the Tree of Good and Evil. Adam and Eve were created in a garden of God’s own making and told to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it. The earth was initially wild but perfect, and needed to be tamed. God made the example for what to do by designing the first garden. He then called man to do similar work and transform the entire planet.

After the fall into sin man traversed a descent away from the tree, away from the garden, and often away from the God of that garden. We are now somewhere between the two gardens. All the misfortunes of sin and its accompanying sorrows follow our feet as we chug through what a few churchmen have labeled this veil of tears. I view our situation with a great deal more hope than this. I suppose if I lived in a place where Christians were being chased from their homes I might think differently, but I am viewing this life as a man who is on the way toward the best of everything.

It was pointed out to me that within, and all around, this story of the gardens, there is an expression of beauty that we often miss. Some of us think of the Bible as a theological treatise and a book of law. Others see a book of moral conceptions or notice its focus on historical events. What we rarely appreciate is the sheer beauty of the story. We miss the story and we doubly miss the beauty. We are always looking for facts. What God gave us is a beautiful story. Tangled within that story are a few books designed to sturdy our theology, books like Romans and Hebrews. However, most of the Bible consists of stories, many of which are just plain beautiful if we will only see.

After the crucifixion Mary went to the garden where Jesus’ body had been placed in a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. She discovered the tomb to be empty.

…she turned around, and beheld Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to he, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.”

Jesus said to her, Mary! She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher).

At that instant we find the Maker of the universe, the One who invented gardens, meeting a woman in a garden. The new Adam arises from the grave, in a garden, meets the woman, and goes forth to build the kingdom of heaven He has preached for the previous three years. I understand that in a real sense every passage of Scripture is good for doctrine, reproof, and correction. Yet, if we can not see the sheer beauty of the story here, we are suffering from a myopic shriveling that somehow needs to be healed. Even as I type this my eyes keep watering so much I can barely see the keys. The story God has given us is a bounteous literature. It is filled with strength, poetry, and beauty, the whole of which is greater than the parts. When it comes to the story of the garden and the Gardener it is the most compelling story on the planet.

Once I started noticing the built-in beauty of the Book I discovered something about the very nature of God. A portion of His mystery unfolds as we learn to see His beauty in His work. This changes us. It changes men. It gives to Christian civilization a superior vision for what the kingdom is, and what to do to rightly build that kingdom. So, here we arrive at theology proper. We start with beauty and we end with more than we first thought. We discover that the importance of the garden, is wrapped in the robes of subtle beauty. I am not suggesting we take on the eyes of the mystics. I am suggesting that we often have a difficult time, like the blind men of Bethsaida, seeing men walking about as trees. It can be good to have our seeing miraculously cleared.

For Christian Civilization,

Don Schanzenbach 5-5-12

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We have something here though that the rest of the country can’t buy and Gallup can not measure no matter how long his pole. There remains a sense of strength that decries the outsider’s notions about the southern man and his supposed need for progressive enlightenment. It is not a matter of intellect. People can be clever or wise wherever they settle. But, there is a different mind in this part of the south, a specific measure of soul which shows itself, has a come-uppance so to speak, when the hard times are harder.

Around the 1830s or so the long decayed Anglican ordering in the south began to unravel. It was displaced with a deeper in the soul Calvinism that focused on the sovereignty of God. It was a perspective that defined the culture and knotted it securely to European Christendom. Respect for Scripture and an embracing of its truths became the muscle of believing hearts. It marked the south as did nothing else. At first or second glance the passing world may see financial indevelopment, a rural people, or perhaps a defeated nation. In any case, it is certain that the inner soul that has transferred its energy through nearly two-hundred years of her citizens, will not be detected by the cynical and haughty secularism prevalent in eastern-establishment think tanks or national newsrooms. The best objects of the Spirit are not discovered with their tools.

One of the lessons of Scripture is that faith engenders courage. Faith, which is ephemeral, births acts that are phenomenal. It is this transformation that begins to unfold when finances are ruined and faith is pressed. It is this advantage that the Bible belt finds squeezed from its inner being by the God whose sovereignty so many here still embrace. It is one thing to say God is sovereign, it is another to actually live as if this is true. It is out of this deeply-believed concept that faith and courage rise, even when the spirits of men all around are falling. Some of us accept God’s sovereignty as a brute fact that cannot be got around. Others embrace the doctrine with a spirit of victory. To live is Christ and to die is gain. Let us press onward in the power of the Spirit. If God’s unyielding will advances before us, how can we be anything but victorious? The battle is ours!

What I speak of here is conviction. Holy conviction is when a person’s will is welded to the truth of God’s inscripturated word. A Christian man driven by conviction will act insanely for a kingdom he cannot own for he is its slave. Yet he cannot be disowned for he is its son. I find that conviction to build the Kingdom increases when there is little left to lose. This tightening in the Bible belt is tightening our sense of what matters. While the disoriented world seeks its deliverance through other pursuits, the church is given a tighter focus. We are not running from either the battle or God’s sovereign will. Rather, we are convicted that the race set before us is specifically purposed for our legs to run. This being the case, our hearts are stronger and encouraged with a hope that cannot be false.

An advantage of living where Christendom still has sway is that our faith, which is often frail, absorbs courage and conviction from the larger being of that surrounding reality. Not everything here is ideal. The Bible belt is not worn by every citizen in its trace. However, the residual strength of its presence is externalized in tiny presences that inflame internal assurances. It is reasonable to understand that the south was the last remaining center of Christendom before the war. Its crushing appeared to be the cutting of an artery from which the old church could not recover. But it was not. In the midst of the turmoil and confusion of a humanistic era, God has preserved for Himself a repository of Christian civilization, that tho crushed, yet lives. While the battle for the culture sometimes seems lost to our enemies, God is busy raising armies of millions from families of tens. The civilization of Christ is not dead. It is in fact breathing more deeply than its slayers ever conceived.

As for me, I have discovered that it is more easy to write brave words than to live them. I am a man, a person like you. My thoughts flicker. I conceive that living from faith to faith is noble, yet sin causes doubt. Still, I am convinced that, at the moments of greatest danger, the Lord opens opportunity for striding advancement for His kingdom. We are chosen to live in that dangerous moment. To our generation is given the real possibility for seizing some very high ground for our King. Now is the season to rebuild Biblical civilization. The belt is tightening, but so are convictions. I am not doubtful that we were put here for such a time as this.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach

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Meanwhile, the big media people seem to always be giving coverage to the Republican candidate they would most like to see in office if their favorite sitting prez fails in his re-election blitz. So, here we are feeling like the choice will be between an avowed Mormon and a practiced centralizer of all things. The choice is not alluring for conservative Christians. Many are feeling like they will hold their nose and vote for the Mormon. I am advocating a different plan.

For many of us there is a sense of desperation in the air. The current Commander in Chief clearly appears to want a much larger central government, higher taxes, and more control. The rising alternative Republican looks like a bad choice, but not as bad as his opponent. Do you ever wonder how we got to this point? What do we do now?

What we are seeing is not just the confluence of current political undertows. This is not merely bad candidates and bad timing. No, there is something historical, something larger here. We are alarmed at being sucked down the rapids, but we have been happy to doodle and splash in the darkening headwaters for several decades. We should not be surprised when the black currents begin to suck us down.

I think that when I talk about using Biblical instruction to make our voting choices more clear, that my readers often have never heard of such a thing. Our pulpit guys have never preached about that, and Sunday school always toes a careful path in avoiding conflict. Everything at church is nice when it comes to politics. Typically, niceness prevails to a point where no instruction is ever given, no sermon is ever preached, that would inform sincere Christians in how to think about political leadership. This is unfortunate since the Bible has plenty to say.

In the rare case when we hear any Bible passage relating to government expounded it is invariably Romans 13:1-7, “pay tax to whom tax is due and honor to whom honor is due.” So, since that seems to be a safe place to start, I will point out that that same Scripture refers to those government officials as ‘ministers of God’. That should not surprise us since both Old Testament and New Testament require our leaders to be men who are scrupulously honest, and who meet strong moral and spiritual standards. The Godly priest Jethro put it this way, “Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain…You shall let them judge the people at all times.” Hence, those ministers of God we are supposed to be choosing have some pretty high standards to keep, even before they take office. Just these considerations alone should inform us we cannot vote for most of the people our big parties offer up. When, might I ask, did any of them, in recent memory, meet the qualifications of being a minister? Under Moses those judges had to “fear God” as we read above. They were not just talking about any old god either. God’s law holds big penalties for those who worship false gods.

Remember how the Old Testament writers talk about the kings who worshipped idols, or even tolerated idol worship in the land?

…And he did evil in the sight of the Lord…

..but he did not remove the high places where the people burned incense to Baal…

…He did evil in the sight of the Lord…

…and the Lord said to him, because you have worshipped other gods…

Yes, I am talking about those civil servants the kings who helped lead the nation into profound judgments that eventually put them all in chains. Those ministers of God were false prophets. They were a corrupted seed that bore only evil fruit. But then, who are we to snipe at them? We, who are ready to vote for a Mormon?

I know there has been a lot of social pressure lately advocating the Mormon fantasy that their religion is Christian. It is not. The Mormon faith denies the true Deity of Christ, preaches fabricated doctrines concerning heaven and eternity, denies the Trinity, and confounds the gospel. The Mormon religion is not Christian. It is a heresy that cannot be accepted within Christian ranks. While Mormon people may be nice they do not meet the Biblical qualifications for civil service. They are not Godly men and they cannot be ministers of God because they do not know God.

The politics of the hour make us want to be expedient and vote for the lesser of two evils. Fortunately, God has set the parameters for us. We have to choose Godly men to be our ministers in civil government. As Christians we are bound to vote for Christian candidates. We cannot endorse or vote for men who fail God’s standards. Every year for decades we have compromised our core principles on this issue. Now, the enemies of our faith have no respect for anything we might say. They figured out long ago we have no spine and no real commitment to our own religious view.

My conclusion then is this. Vote for the moral, Christian candidate every time. Vote for the moral Christian candidate even when you are certain he will lose. It is the only Biblically sound choice. We have to start paddling up-stream before we go over the falls. Now would be a good time to start.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach  4-21-12

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And when they had come to Capernaum, those who collected the two-drachma tax came to Peter, and said, ‘Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax.’ He said, ‘Yes.’ And when He came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, ‘What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?’ And upon his saying, ‘from strangers,’ Jesus said to him, ‘Consequently the sons are exempt. But lest we give them offense, go to the sea, and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a stater. Take that and give it to them for you and Me.

This little encounter is so packed with potent potentialities it is difficult to be patient in promulgating their pertinent perspectives. OK, there, I had my fun. But, seriously, have you ever tried to take this passage apart to see what could be learned about taxation?

I do not believe we are pushing beyond good interpretive limitations to expect to find some answers to important issues here. It was Jesus, after all, who brought up the issue with Peter. This was not an interaction Jesus was pushed into by obnoxious Pharisees. It was a discussion Jesus wanted to have, and brought up on His initiative. So then, what can we learn about taxation from this conversation?

If we are going to understand what happened here we first have to know how the whole event related to the things God had commanded in relation to this tax. For, this tax was the only tax recorded in God’s law for God’s people. It was a poll-tax or what we might call a head-tax that was required of every male, twenty years or older, in Israel. The original text is Exodus 30:11-16

The Lord also spoke to Moses, saying, ‘When you take a census of the sons of Israel to number them, then each one of them shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord, when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them. This is what everyone who is numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as a contribution to the Lord. The rich shall not pay more, and the poor shall not pay less than the half shekel, when you give the contribution to the Lord to make atonement for yourselves. And you shall take the atonement money from the sons of Israel, and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may be for a memorial for the sons of Israel before the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves.

Here is what is going on. The tent of meeting mentioned is the place where Moses originally met with God. Besides this, the men of Israel met in front of the tent of meeting to discuss nationally important issues. It was the place of public meeting where decisions were made and instruction given. It was the closest thing Israel had to a government building (a disturbing fact, I know, to those who would separate God and state). Each man twenty years or older had to give a half shekel per year to the support of the service of the tent of meeting. It was the only ‘tax’, if we can call it that, required in Israel under God’s law.

Now, it was this tax that was being requested by the tax collectors mentioned in Matthew 17:24. It is referred to there as the two-drachma tax. The original tax was to be a half shekel per man. A shekel was a weight in silver, not a specific coin. Two drachmas was the equivalent amount of value in Jesus’ day of a half shekel. Stay with me here for there is something very important going on and we do not want to miss it. Jesus tells Peter to go and get a stater, a Roman coin worth about a shekel, from a fishes’ mouth and to pay the tax. Thus, the stater, the amount paid, was equivalent to the shekel needed (a half shekel per man) to cover the tax required under God’s law, for both Jesus and Peter. Hence, the only tax that Scripture records Jesus as having paid was the lawful tax God required in His word.

I know, it seems like we have run around the track pretty far just to start this discussion. Obviously, there are a host of wonderful things we could discuss from these Scriptures relating to taxation. However, space is short so I will make a quick summary.

First, we can learn that Biblically based taxes ought to, or at least may, be paid.

Second, we can learn that taxes may possibly be paid so as, “not to offend them.” Jesus’ question about the king levying poll-tax or custom was made because Jesus is the very God of the temple. He is the One who could levy the tax not the one who is to pay. He literally is the King in His example, and therefore, owes no tax. But, lest He offend them He decided to pay.

Third, we can observe that exemptions can be legitimate under tax laws given righteous circumstances

Fourth, Jesus showed a marked disdain for the tax collectors of His moment when He had Peter get the coin from a slimy fish’s mouth and hand it over to them. It was not a respectful way of handling the situation, but apparently was fitting given that Jesus is a perfect Man. I do not question His judgment. I do question our judgment when we think we must, under all circumstances, show perfect respect for every tax agent we may meet. Sometimes they deserve disdain.

Fifth, the half-shekel tax required under God’s law had no attendant civil penalty if not paid. God might get you for your disobedience to His command, but the civil government had no power to enforce taxation. That lesson alone could change the entire face of American taxation and government if correctly applied. Our government has taken the place of the real God, and so enforces negative sanctions on anyone caught not paying. It is a godless system. It is an idol. We have created our own god whose revenuers are the priests of a different religion.

Someday we will unpack the passage in Exodus 30 to derive some Old Testament lessons on taxation, for it drips with current application.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach 4-14-12

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So far, this year, as in all others, I have heard no loud protests from the established churches. No level of criminal grabbing is enough to elicit any response from the church at large. Better not to stir a fuss lest you become the target, the person of interest as it were. Even in our discomfort we are comfortable. They torture us and we remain silent lest we get tortured more harshly. And, after all, was it not Jesus who told us to give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s (Matthew 22)? Of course no one seems to be asking which things really are Caesar’s and which things belong to God? Naughty question that is.

Some say that since the coin they showed Him had Caesar’s face on it that therefore all money belongs to Caesar. I do not believe Jesus was trying to say that. Rather, His response was simply to indicate that some things belong (or may belong) to Caesar and some things to God. Even that conclusion is set up to be knocked down since everything, the earth and all it contains, belongs to God. The civil government and God are not equal powers that divvy up the power and goods according to some outside directive. Rather, God owns everything. Governments and men are stewards who are supposed to manage all they rightly have to His glory. Members of the trinity are equals, but presidents, congressmen, and IRS agents do not rise to that status.

So, under the standard that we give to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar, what things should we then give? Do we give whatever Caesar demands? Do we give whatever the form says when we get to the end? What if the form says that Caesar wants more than God? Is it possible that the things that belong to Caesar are in greater proportion than the things that belong to God? What if Caesar demands things not his? These are the types of questions our modern churches never pose. Our forefathers, including church leadership, discussed these issues all the time. They came up with startling conclusions. Their interpretations set us on a course for liberty not experienced since the days of the Judges. We admire our forefather’s courageous words and bold actions, but find it difficult to mouth those words with the courage they displayed. Biblical thought and its clothing fall away. The sound of the riveting of chains ought to alarm us, but instead we dispassionately fold our wrists behind our backs while the links are hammered tight. Whether we look to the right or to the left our Christian liberty is evaporating. Heavy taxation is evidence of our enslavement. Where is the voice of the church? Where is the voice of the church? Where is the voice…

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach 4-13-12

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]]> http://missiontorestoreamerica.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=397 0 http://missiontorestoreamerica.com/blog/?p=379 http://missiontorestoreamerica.com/blog/?p=379#comments Sat, 07 Apr 2012 19:15:34 +0000 Don Schanzenbach http://missiontorestoreamerica.com/blog/?p=379 Continue reading →]]> “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky?” (Acts 1:11) was the question of the two men robed in white. Why indeed? Why would men who had been so carefully instructed in the work of ministry stand staring uselessly into the sky? Had they learned nothing in their three year disciple training program? What, exactly, was it they expected to see?

We can hardly blame them of course. For we also live in an age of cloud gazing. We have met them and they are us. And we thought those disciples were so pitifully silly, standing there staring into the sky. Did they not know? Had they not been told? Jesus had instructed them plainly, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and righteousness…” Yet, all memory of that command seemed to have been forgotten for a few minutes as these men stood looking into the clouds where Christ had gone. They needed a friendly reminder that there was work to do, a kingdom to be sought and built. Gazing into the sky was not a part of the program God had for them. It was time to get on to the next step.

One of the interesting things about this passage, the most detailed of the ascension descriptions (Acts 1:3-11), is the book in which it is found. After all, most of the words of Christ and His direct interactions with His disciples are found in the Gospels. Yet here, out of place, almost misplaced, we find this gem of a passage describing this story of a last earthly meeting of Christ and His disciples. We might reasonably ask, why here, why at the beginning of the history of the New Testament church? The remainder of the book of Acts records the selfless work of those same men as they obeyed God and built His kingdom in their time. It is a record of their labors to seek first the kingdom of God. They had a kingdom to build and would expend all they had or hoped to be in the pursuit of that mighty cause. They shook off the cloud gazing and got to work.

Now, here we are, twenty centuries later, an entire generation of Christian cloud-gazers, awaiting with bated breath, events to transpire from the sky. Some of our theologians (misguided I believe) have labeled our historically new-found conception the Imminency of Christ. The idea is that we can expect Jesus to physically return to our presence at any and every moment. By this belief, there are no necessary conditions, no transformation of culture, no victory of the church to achieve in history. The Imminency doctrine holds that any moment could be the moment. Combined with a gross misreading of Biblical prophecy, we have become a generation of cloud-gazers like no other. Given that the doctrine is never mentioned in The Apostles Creed, The Nicene Creed, The Westminster Confessions, Confession of Dort, or any formulation of church doctrine prior to the year 1800, it is useful to ask, Is this doctrine of Imminency really a Bible doctrine? Or, is it an intruder in Christian theology that needs to be shown the door?

In this short article I cannot address all aspects, or answer all questions, relating to these issues. However, I have assembled a short list I am calling:

Misconceptions of Cloud Gazers

1. All Biblical talk about Christ’s return refers to the end of the church era. An alternative, and stronger, understanding is that many references to Christ’s return are discussing His return in judgment on national Israel at a near date. Hence, when Jesus speaks of His coming such that “this generation” will see it, He is being quite literal. Those often-used time statements were intended to communicate the shortness of time before national Israel would be judged. They were not meant to describe events twenty centuries later. The destruction of national Israel was an historical earthquake that marked the end of one age and the beginning of another, the age of the church.
2. The church will be defeated in history. This is unfortunate and causes real problems. The Bible never discusses the church as an institution that will fail in history. Biblical teaching informs that Jesus’ kingdom is to be expanding like leaven in a loaf of bread until the entire loaf rises and fills the pan, or as a mustard seed that grows into a bush that fills the whole garden. The church will not fail in history. Rather, the church will advance from victory to victory until its mission is completed and the gates of hell are knocked off their hinges. Sometimes the church seems to lose ground, but the ultimate direction is victory in Christ.
3. There is no logical or theological motivation to build or renew the Kingdom of God, or as I refer, Christian Civilization. This is why some of our brethren talk of doing nothing so that the world will fall apart faster and hasten the return of Christ.
4. Cloud-gazers are frantic to quick evangelize, but slow to work toward long-term building of God’s kingdom. After all, if Jesus is coming back tomorrow, why work with a view toward the centuries?
5. There is no generational or covenantal thought or action, thus denying core Biblical doctrine. Scripture regularly discuses the success of families and nations in terms of the children’s children and like terms. We hobble ourselves, the church, and the building of the kingdom when we stop thinking covenantally.

So, here we are, in a sea of our beloved friends in Christ who hold to doctrine fit for nothing useful. The culture around us crumbles, while the American church preaches a loud message that there is nothing that will succeed, and we should get ready for the end. “Look at the newspapers” my friends implore me. But, when I suggest that instead we return to Scripture then I am accused of being a smart mouth with a bad attitude. Nevertheless, here I am again, urging my brethren to return, to re-think what God has said. It looks like western nations are in a lot of trouble, but this is not the end of the age. It may be the end of an era, but it is not the end of the age. Rather, this is the beginning of a renewed church and a renewed culture. God is at work renewing the nations and advancing toward victory. We can be a part of that great work.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach 4-7-12

 Amidst all the articles, arguments, and buzzing buzz this week I rarely heard any discussion about Christian or Biblical ideals and how those ideas might apply to the discussion at hand. It is true that the liberals, and liberal Christians, sometimes give a wave of the hand past that Book, asserting that since it commands us to care for the poor and down-trodden, that therefore it must be Christian to have the central government bind up our wounds, place us on a donkey, and take us to the inn. It never seems to occur to them that all of those wonderful commands in Scripture to help the helpless are given to individuals and to the church, but never once to the central government. Civil authorities find no examples or commands in God’s word to be the suppliers of anything relating to health care.

 In fact, the Biblical perspective on the subject is skewed in a very different direction than that of the tendentious bureaucrats who promote only one answer to the host of all needs medical. To them, the answer to everything is more money. Of course it is manifestly obvious that individuals cannot afford all the care they might need or want. That has been true since before the woman touched the hem of Jesus’ garment in hope of being healed. That text (Luke8:43-48) informs us that she had spent all of her money on physicians and yet her condition grew worse. In that regard, we understand that there are still multitudes who spend all their money on physicians and yet are not healed. We all agree that intractable health problems exist. However, the question before us as a nation concerns the rightful source for the desired care.

 Scripture pushes us to view these issues from what seem obtuse angles. For instance, when Solomon writes about health issues he always approaches the topic from the perspective of lifestyle.

“Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body, and refreshment to your bones” (Proverbs 3:7-8). “My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart, for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their bones (Proverbs 4:20-22).

 If his words are true, then our health might be helped more by obeying God’s laws of right than through a more even distribution of cash. Maybe a poorer righteous man could be healthier than a wealthy kleptocrat who grabs for every dollar to, he assures us, help the poor get health care.

 When Jesus was approached by ten lepers (Luke 17) crying out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us” He commanded them, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” It is worth noting that Jesus, when giving this command, was working within the system of law God had given His people. It was Old Testament law that specified that a person with suspected leprosy was to be inspected by a priest and a diagnosis given. The priests’ decision decided the fate of the purported leper. If diagnosed with leprosy a person could no longer dwell within the normal society. Lepers were to separate themselves from everyone except other lepers. It was the religious authority who made the diagnosis. There was no involvement of the civil government. The health question was handled by the priest not the judge, not the king, and not the legislator in Washington. When Christian culture reigns we can expect to see people of religious station acting as caregivers for their fellows. This is in fact what has occurred in Christian nations for centuries. It was Christians who invented hospitals in the first place. There is a reason that all those old hospitals were named St. Luke’s, and St. Mary’s.  It was a Christian woman who started the Red Cross. These were not mistakes in history. Rather, these are examples of the church formulating answers to problems never solved by the non-Christian world in six-thousand years of recorded history.

 Now, we are being told that our government in Washington will heal our bodies with its ginned up project of government health insurance. This is nothing less than the power grab it looks like. No one in the bureaucracy gives a rat’s behind about our personal health needs. If you go and show yourself to the high priests of government doctoring, you will be commanded to get in line like everybody else. And, if you can not pay the cost of that insurance? Well, then the IRS will torture and destroy you until you pay up or die. It is kind of like the military that has to destroy a town in order to save it. The government is going to save us alright. Why would we want to return to a system of caring Christian doctors, nuns or priests when we can haveIRSagents with bullet proof vests ready to kick our doors down to get the money instead?   

 I am thinking that when the good Samaritan helped that wounded man by binding up his wounds, placing him on his donkey, transporting him to the inn, and paying for his care, that the Samaritan was a single payer health provider. That, in fact is what made him good. The hero of the story was not a bureaucrat under Caesar. Rather it was a private individual who cared enough to do something even when the people who were supposed to (the Levite and the priest who walked by on the other side) failed to act. Our civil government is already involved in health care up to its eyeballs. They have regulated every speck of the industry, driven costs to unaffordable heights, and slowed the system almost to a stand-still. Now they want to throttle what is left to death and restart everything in their own image.

 My advice—Let’s return to our former principles that built the greatest system of health care on earth. Get the government out of health care and give it back to the people who can make it work. Righteous people, informed by Biblical principle, can rebuild the whole system if the government will just get out of the way.

 For Christian Culture,

 Don Schanzenbach 3-31-12

For Christ & For Liberty,

Erika Schanzenbach