Notes from a not so notable pastor, “now concerning…”
Christians oftentimes seem frightened by prayer. They are either afraid that praying really does not work, that they are doing it wrong, or that they may get what is best for them rather than what they want at that moment.
Once the mercurial Mary Queen of Scots once fretted, “I fear the prayers of John Knox more than an army of 20,000 men.”
Maybe the fecundity of our prayer life is best determined when it causes fear!
Like it or not, the time in which we live demands that we as Christians be able to give some reasons for our belief in the truthfulness of Christianity and the Scripture. For example, Christians must be able to answer questions like are the disciples reliable resources? Are miracles possible? How can we test the reliability of ancient documents? Was Jesus merely a good man or teacher? Is there any evidence for believing in the resurrection?
Evidence for the trustworthiness of the Scripture and the claims of Christ and the Apostles are essential for speaking to our culture.
Richard Carpenter presented a superb paper in The Roundtable in Ideology entitled “The Case for Christ.” It is a succinct treasury of evidence for the trustworthiness of the claims of the Scripture and Christ. If you want to be equipped to answer some of the toughest questions concerning your Christian faith, then read this.
The federal government has a legitimate role of protecting its citizens from threats that seek their destruction, but acting beyond that, it becomes a destructive force.
President Ronald Reagan is remembered for saying “Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem.” Now, what did he mean? Well, he was not against government—an anarchist—which is self-evident since he was the leader of the federal government.
He was a legitimist and therefore recognized the need for limited federal government. Moreover, like the founders, he well understood the potential for the servant of the people to become the master of the people. Therefore, his epigrammatic declaration meant that a burgeoning government is the problem since it ultimately tyrannizes faith, religious freedom, charity, brotherly love, generosity, personal responsibility, family, freedom of choice, ad infinitum.
The fear of a burgeoning federal government resulted in the adoption of the Bill of Rights, which is solely designed to protect the citizens from the intrusion of the federal government in areas not specifically authorized. The tenth amendment speaks specifically to this in no uncertain terms. It says “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Our Founding Fathers included this constitutional guarantee because they knew only too well that a small, limited government works best, and that unless government is specifically limited in size and scope of authority, its insatiable appetite will inevitably produce a tyrannical behemoth.
President Barack Obama’s massive spending and belief that a burgeoning government is the solution is a radical departure not only from Reagan, but our Founding Fathers. Although some of his measures may be rescinded by the next administration, if history is any indicator, many will remain unchanged, thereby forever limiting citizens’ freedoms to what the federal government deems best. When the first answer to problems is government, they mean not best for free citizens created in the image of God, but rather best for perpetuating a burgeoning federal government to provide for children of the state.
The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
God was at the center of the founding of the United States, and this worldview led to an emphasis upon personal responsibility for one’s actions as a steward of God’s blessings.
However, as the U.S. becomes increasingly secularized, the federal government begins to replace God, and God given institutions like the church and family, as well as community and personal responsibility, are overshadowed by an emphasis upon an ever expanding catalog of rights. A symphony of expressions like blessing, thankfulness, and unworthiness, which expressed gratefulness to God, is displaced by a cacophony of ungrateful humans clamoring about their rights to security and success in every area of life, e.g. education, retirement, healthcare, and a certain standard of living.
Under God, everything is a blessing, but when government replaces God, everything becomes an entitlement with no rational end in sight. For why should government stop with guaranteeing education, retirement, or healthcare? What about transportation, housing, a job, ad infinitum?
Men created in the image of God may have a right to the “Pursuit of Happiness,” but without God, men clamor for happiness to be guaranteed by the government since they are powerless victims of uncontrollable Darwinian forces.