Truth Telling

My wife and I attended the Radio City Rockettes Christmas
Spectacular here in Tulsa December 23rd. It was a good show.
It's been a while since I took advantage of a top-notch
production such as this. It was rather sad that the BOK Center
was less than half full. It was definitely a 'Christmas'
production and not merely a 'holiday' thing. Any doubt that
Christ was the center of Christmas was removed when the Santa
story gave way to Scripture reading, nativity scenes, and the
tunes and lyrics of familiar Christmas Carols such as the last
verse of 'Joy to the World':

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

My wife and I have been studying the Bible book of Daniel. The
author of the study series, Beth Moore, relayed the historical
event Daniel foretold about Greece conquering the world. The
most important book to ever be assembled, was done during the
Greek empire: the Septuigent. This was the most common form of
the Old Testament during Christ's lifetime on earth. The
ubiquitous Greek language was important in the spread of the
Gospel since all of the New Testament writers used Greek as the
language for, what were to become, the books of the New
Testament.

Much of the Greek empire ignored the "Most High God". Even
Alexander the Great was cut down in his prime for his sin of
pride. Whether or not the high-kicking Rockettes appealed to
prurient interests the Christmas spectacular was successful in
Truth-telling that night; just as God used the Greek language to
spread His gospel.

This blog has been inactive for some time. I have had, at times, a lively discussion with others at the Ethics and Religious Liberty web site of the Southern Baptists (http://erlc.com/article/how-do-you-separate-church-and-state) where I've been discussing the idea of putting our Federal government back on the same foundation as our Declaration of Independence as well as most of the 13 State Constitutionss. This foundation, the God of the Bible, is not the same governmental foundation that Southern Baptists are proud of, i.e., American leaders such as Roger Williams and John LeLand. From their own writings these two believed political government was to be secular, not under the authority of the God of the Bible. This discussion had several posters come and go in the over-200 posts. Most simply gave their opinions politely rejecting mine. Truthfully, I don't know what to say anymore. I have shared my opinion and tied it to exegesis of Scripture using citations and materials by Dr. Greg Bahnsen, and Dr. Gary North. I have asked for the Southern Baptist exegesis to justify a secular civil government and all that has been offered was "Harry’s vision of this stuff ignores large swathes of the New Testament and completely misrepresents the Gospel" by the ERLC moderator, Matt.

I keep asking for God's mind in the matter as I pray for Matt and other posters in this situation. The answer seems to be that the lack of love within the body of Christ, which includes submitting to one another as Scripture reveals error, is simply missing. God's Word says the world, non-believer, will be convinced Christians literally are who they say they are from their love one for each other. Maybe the sad state of Christianity in the Western world, including here in the USA, is for this very reason?

Are Southern Baptist political positions as voiced at erlc.com just another special intrest group pushing their opinions? Is it just another type of humanism because the authority of Jesus Christ over politics is denied in spite of the obvious Biblical source for these positions?

I attended the Republican District Convention yesterday. The convention began with a prayer offered in Jesus' name. The enemy hasn't taken all things - yet. Many candidates for delegate to the national republican convention were given time (1-3 minutes) to speak. I remember several stating they were a Christian. This was well and good but really didn't offer much help in itself as to how they would behave as a national delegate. I actually respected the candidates who mentioned they would behave as a delegate according to the "rule of law" better. I don't think I'll soon forget the one candidate who started his speech by holding his Bible up high and saying in a loud voice "I believe in this". I can't say this is not relevant, but what is to prevent 'red flags' from going up in listener's ears? "Does he believe the Bible as *I* do" one might ask? "Would he squash state's rights in an effort to cram his view of biblical ethics down our throats at the federal level" another may ask?

Most Christian clergy don't have a biblical political philosophy. How can we expect their members to have anything better? Yet, there is no avoiding it. Our opponents have a political philosophy and are carrying it out. A Christian must have an exegesis of political philosophy otherwise when Sally Kern says things like she did, who among us Christians have enough biblical understanding to either confirm or deny what she has said?

A fat person may still be healthy and may live to an age where obesity is not a cause of death. Maybe they know it is inherently wrong to be obese and thus set limits over themselves? Maybe the diets they call failures have actually been successes to keep them from becoming an unhealthy obese person? I have seen at least one obese person literally eat themselves to an early grave because they tossed aside doctor's and other's warnings. As a society we would silence ones evil enough to call obesity good, who desire to teach its benefit of 'all the candy a child would want'. The evidence is in the much higher medical costs and mortality rates of the obesity proponents. So it is with sexual fornication and homosexuality in particular.

God goes even further. His law/history book is full of instruction as well as example of what happens to societies who condone this evil behavior.

But, does our society's "rule of law" even permit sodomy, etc. to be enforcible any more?