What Does the Scripture Say?

Let me preface this article with the major point that many Christians may not be aware of and that is this fact: John McCain supports murdering babies in the womb. In cases where the human life is a result of rape or incest, McCain believes that even though that pre-born baby is fully human (he does believe life begins at conception), the mother has the right to murder her own child. I ask the rhetorical question: If a mother who is a rape or incest victim does not have the right to murder her two month old baby outside the womb, should she have the right to murder her two month old baby inside the womb?

Please visit this web page for a shockingly candid look at McCain’s pro-abortion position.

Now onto the the story of how one highly visible Christian man has exchanged his thinking on biblical principles for reasoning based on pragmatics and fear.

Dr. James Dobson is usually a man of high integrity and character. I have particularly appreciated his work in the political realm over the years. So it was with sadness that I watched him this year start strong on the pro-life position only to back pedal and cave into the Republican party’s scare tactics to change his position to one that supports a presidential candidate who is pro-abortion.

Below is Dr. Dobson’s original uncompromising statement regarding McCain back in February of this year (here’s the link to the audio file):

“I am deeply disappointed the Republican Party seems poised to select a nominee who did not support a Constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage, voted for embryonic stem cell research to kill nascent human beings, opposed tax cuts that ended the marriage penalty, has little regard for freedom of speech, organized the Gang of 14 to preserve filibusters in judicial hearings, and has a legendary temper and often uses foul and obscene language.

I am convinced Sen. McCain is not a conservative, and in fact, has gone out of his way to stick his thumb in the eyes of those who are. He has sounded at times more like a member of the other party. McCain actually considered leaving the GOP caucus in 2001, and approached John Kerry about being Kerry’s running mate in 2004. McCain also said publicly that Hillary Clinton would make a good president. Given these and many other concerns, a spoonful of sugar does NOT make the medicine go down. I cannot, and will not, vote for Sen. John McCain, as a matter of conscience.

But what a sad and melancholy decision this is for me and many other conservatives. Should Sen. McCain capture the nomination as many assume, I believe this general election will offer the worst choices for president in my lifetime. I certainly can’t vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama based on their virulently anti-family policy positions. If these are the nominees in November, I simply will not cast a ballot for president for the first time in my life. These decisions are my personal views and do not represent the organization with which I am affiliated. They do reflect my deeply held convictions about the institution of the family, about moral and spiritual beliefs, and about the welfare of our country.”

In this same NY Times Op Ed piece Dobson commented on a pro-family leadership meeting:

“After two hours of deliberation, we voted on a resolution that can be summarized as follows: If neither of the two major political parties nominates an individual who pledges himself or herself to the sanctity of human life, we will join others in voting for a minor-party candidate. Those agreeing with the proposition were invited to stand. The result was almost unanimous.”

So earlier this year Dobson based his thinking on biblical principles. Previous to these quotes he even made a vow before God to “never cast one vote for any man or woman who would kill one innocent baby”. Dobson was absolutely correct in his understanding of the issues of abortion in the cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother. Those little babies are still babies whom God has granted life and no man has the right to take that life away.

The plain fact is that McCain is pro-abortion, he supports the murder of innocent children in the womb (from incest, rape, etc). We should not be voting for the lesser of two evils because that is still a vote for evil. We should cast a vote for righteousness. Whether one party wins or loses is not the primary principle, it is doing the right thing before God. Before the Sovereign God who is the One who lifts up rulers and casts them down. Our responsibility is to do what is right, what is biblical and leave the consequences to God.

Here’s a “what if” scenario. What if Obama is as terrible as he sounds. And what if McCain is exactly what he is, except for one new piece of information. What if McCain also happens to be a serial murderer. He happens to go out every weekend and murder an innocent human being. But his policies are all the same and Obama’s policies will take away all our freedoms. So would you still vote for McCain? Why not? Probably not because you have to stand before God and tell Him that you cast a vote for a murderer. God will not care about your reasoning that Obama was going to destroy this nation. You voted for a murderer. Now back to reality: anyone who votes for McCain, votes for a man who supports murdering babies in the womb. Do you want to stand before God saying you stood with this man?

Another scenario: what if Obama was a serial murderer and McCain was a serial rapist? Would you vote for the lesser of two evils? Or would you find a candidate who was a true Christian, truly pro-life and look into that candidate seriously?

It seems that fear of losing our freedoms (or personal peace and affluence) is the motivating factor to vote for someone who supports murdering babies. But the Scriptures are clear that we are to fear God rather than men. The Christian life is not about comfort, but about God’s glory. We are to focus on bringing glory to God, pleasing Him and allow Him to bring us comfort and joy in His timing. We don’t need to seek our own comfort, especially if that includes compromising God’s values.

For example, my children’s comfort is not my highest priority in life. My most important duty and desire (in regards to my children) is that they love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. If this means they must endure persecution and discomfort in order to have them be conformed to the image of Christ, then so be it. It will not be easy for me to see in the flesh, but in the Spirit, my soul will rejoice knowing that persecution for Christ’s sake will bring blessings in the long run.

What I’m trying to get at is the foundational principles of why Christians are disagreeing on who to vote for president. I will be voting for the thirdy party, Christian, pro-life candidate because he will honor God by supporting life. Others seem to be voting for the pro-abortion republican because they are afraid of what the democrat will do to America. The Republican party seems to be very successful using its scare tactics. But once again, God calls Christians to not fear what men can do. Trust in the sovereignty of God, that He will accomplish his will in this election. Our human responsibility is to do what is right in the sight of God regardless of the consequences. Sometimes this will mean persecution for the Christan, prison or even death but we must make our decisions based on God’s word, not based on pragmatism. Cast your vote in light of eternity, in light of biblical principles, for the glory of God.

In the fear of the LORD,
Tony

Here’s an independent website that compares all the candidates. This particular webpage shows Chuck Baldwin’s take on the issues http://www.ontheissues.org/Chuck_Baldwin.htm This page shows McCain’s specific stand on abortion. http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/John_McCain_Abortion.htm

Please cast your vote “Corum Deo”, i.e. before the face of God and vote according to biblical principles. I pray that we remember God is sovereign over all things including our nation and who leads it.  Whoever our next leader may be will be God’s doing to work out glory for Himself, be it blessing for us or a curse on our nation.  May the Lord bless you as you seek to honor Him with your vote.

The other day as I was teaching the children about the difference between justification, sanctification and glorification, Stephen (then 4) said the cutest thing. I was explaining that there are three senses to salvation or deliverance. For the Christian, there is a past tense to salvation, a present tense and a future tense (the completed salvation).
1) In justification God delivered us from the penalty of sin (eternal death).

2) In sanctification God is delivering us from the power of sin (by making us more holy).

3) In glorification God will deliver us from the very presence of sin (in Heaven).

During this conversation, as we talked about God imputing (or reckoning) Jesus’ righteousness to us in justification, Stephen asked, “What about goodification?” I was startled, but managed to ask him what that was. He answered, “When do we get Jesus goodness?” “Ah” I answered. “That would be in justification. We get Christ’s goodness or perfectness or righteousness when we repent of our sins and trust in Christ alone for salvation. So basically justification and goodification are the same thing.”

It was such a blessing to see he understood that we need Christ’s goodness credited to us in order to be righteous in God’s eyes. So now we have a new theological term “goodification”. When God imputes Christ’s goodness to our account based on the work of the cross and through the instrument of faith in Him. Maybe I should submit this to Wayne Grudem for the next edition of his “Systematic Theology”?

You may have heard of the thesis called “Christian Hedonism” conjured up by John Piper. Folks who subscribe to this philosophy call themselves “Christian Hedonists”. Notice what is the main subject and what is the modifier in that phrase.

First and foremost the subject of the term is hedonist. That is, one can primarily be described as a hedonist (a person who pursues self-pleasure as their highest aim in life). Secondarily the adjective Christian is used. That is, “Christian” is the specific type of hedonist that one is. This type of hedonist has found that the one object that gives him the most pleasure is God. In other words, one is essentially a hedonist first and foremost with the term Christian simply being a modifier.

This can be shown to be true by simply turning the words around, i.e. if you were a “hedonistic Christian” you would first and foremost be identifying yourself as a Christian, the term ‘hedonistic’ is simply the type of Christian you are. In this instance, you could say you follow after or pursue Christ first, and the way you pursue Christ is hedonisticly.

But Dr. Piper has seen fit to say that he wants all men to be Christian Hedonists, i.e. become hedonists first and foremost (pursue your own happiness as your goal in life) and the best way to accomplish the goal of getting the most pleasure for yourself is to maximize your self-pleasure in God (now he gets to call it “Christian”).

In other words, Christian Hedonism is real hedonism at the core, foundational, heart-motive level. It becomes Christian because he has found that the best object to be happy in is God. To me that sounds like self using God as an object from a self-centered motive to achieve the goal of satisfying self’s desire for self-happiness.

Listen to John Piper’s description, “Those who know me best know that I am a Christian Hedonist. That means that I think my desire to be happy is a proper motive for everything I do. I do what I do because I think it will make me happier in the long run. In fact, I think that if I abandon this pursuit of joy, I will become incapable of worshiping and obeying God.”

Of course a Biblical Christian (or just plain old-fashioned ‘Christian’) is not pursuing his own self-pleasure at all, but rather makes it his ambition to please the Lord.

Rom 15:1-3 Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not please ourselves. Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.”

2 Cor 5:9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.

A plain vanilla ‘Christian’ is not concerned about his own happiness, yet generally receives tons of joy as a gift from the Lord, as a by-product of obedience and service to Him.

Let us endeavor to please God in all respects ( Col 1:10) and abandon the pursuit of our own pleasure with no fear of Piper’s man-made condemnation that we’ll be “incapable of worshiping and obeying God”.

In July on our way home from the NEA outreach we stopped by to spend a few days in Amish country, PA. We went to the Mennonite Information Center to tour their life size replica of the Biblical Tabernacle. It was very neat. We picked up a small ‘build it yourself’ model and one day the children and I put it all together. It was a great experience. Here are some pictures of another family putting together the same model. Bible Tabernacle Model
We also used the iLumina Bible study software (excellent product which deserves its own blog post later) to reinforce how it was all made and why. It was great going over how many aspects of the tabernacle are a type of Christ and foreshadowing the gospel. The most exciting part was seeing how God was using this teaching, particularly in Stephen’s life. This was the first time that Stephen truly got very interested in the things of the Lord. He was enthralled with the tabernacle and everything about it.
 We watched a video about it as well.

Blogged with Flock

The outreach to the teachers at the NEA’s annual convention went very well, praise the Lord. We had a wonderful time sharing the truth of creation and the gospel message with thousands of teachers. We also recorded reports from our volunteers after they talked with the public school teachers. Here is the link to the blog with lots of pictures and a couple of videos too.

http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/blogs/nea-2007

Please pray for something: I am working with Roger Patterson (former public school teacher, now AiG staff who wrote “Evolution Exposed”) on a booklet called “Education Exposed: The myth of neutrality in the public schools”. Please pray that we would write this well to show how the government indoctrination centers are temples of secular humanism and that AiG would publish it. Thanks!

This is just hilarious! Yes, John Piper is BAD! He doesn’t just do bad things, he IS bad! As many of you know Piper is a “seven point” Calvinist and “charismatic” preacher with a major voice in Christianity today. This video was done by some of his supporters in light hearted humor. I really enjoyed it. If you thought John MacArthur rapping was something, wait till you see this!

Though Piper may have many good things to say (such as his statements in this video), unfortunately, his teaching on “Christian Hedonism” is truly bad (i.e. in error). But more on that later…