Applying God's Word to Politics
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If we applied God's word to politics, then shouldn't we take it for granted that the world has been convicted because it does not believe and take it from there? Isn't the, what do you call it, cognitive dissonance? of this conviction exactly the reason the world has spiraled into insanity and embraced it as a just the way "of life"?
For example, if we took the Gospel approach we say, "neither do I condemn you (You are forgiven). Go, and sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you..."
For example, if we took the Gospel approach we say, "neither do I condemn you (You are forgiven). Go, and sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you..."
If we applied God's word to politics, then shouldn't we take it for granted that the world has been convicted because it does not believe and take it from there? Isn't the, what do you call it, cognitive dissonance? of this conviction exactly the reason the world has spiraled into insanity and embraced it as a just the way "of life"?
For example, if we took the Gospel approach we say, "neither do I condemn you (You are forgiven). Go, and sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you..."
Yes, and atheism is "insanity". However, if atheists or anti-Christians created eternal life,
God's "I AMness" would be disproved, because the Bible teaches that eternal life is God’s gift only to believers in Him (John 3:16).
Existential reality indicates that humans are mortal and life is painful, so it is rational to seek immortality in a heavenly existence, and the best hope for salvation at this time is the God who resurrected Christ Jesus, because God as the just and all-loving Judge (rationale for morality) is spiritually highest, and the evidence for Jesus as Messiah (the resurrection) is most credible. However, atheists deny the validity of this argument and are hell-bent on achieving immortality by becoming trans-human via AI.
With the sword God delegated to human gov't for use against evil. National Guard and FBI involvement seem to be a good start. Some real bullets would go a long way. Some snipers overlooking overpasses being used to drop lethal force on cops seems a decent sword. What's all the heavy force and equipment for if not for invaders and lawless people attempting murder on police and feds?
Yes, in this case it is the rioters who are the equivalent of the Nazi brown shirts, not the police.
The problem is illegal immigrants who invaded our country, not ICE agents who attempt to send them back.
The rod according to a Godly standard to teach the Godly standards. The problem at this point is more of meeting deadly force with deadly force which we've gotten far away from.
I saw a video last week of a gun steady cop dealing with a foreign lady who was holding a person with a pair of scissors. After several warnings and the cop getting closer and closer and I think his cam on the whole event, the lady just looked simple, not like some demon, but she wouldn't heed the warning and ended up shot and dead. Sad, but these criminals have been raised within a lawless culture, many of them are here lawlessly and doing lawless things. The cop is to protect the public and enforce the law. The sword has a purpose.
I saw a video last week of a gun steady cop dealing with a foreign lady who was holding a person with a pair of scissors. After several warnings and the cop getting closer and closer and I think his cam on the whole event, the lady just looked simple, not like some demon, but she wouldn't heed the warning and ended up shot and dead. Sad, but these criminals have been raised within a lawless culture, many of them are here lawlessly and doing lawless things. The cop is to protect the public and enforce the law. The sword has a purpose.
Sam Faddis (on The War Room) agrees with you, saying that we are at war with those who want to destroy both America and Christianity.
That's certainly a discussion at this point, but the whole immigration issue is about blending cultures, which one Bible teacher took into being blending faiths - kind of your Thesis - Antithesis - Synthesis concept. It may work to a point, but where's the ultimate signs that it works fully in all - that there really is Synthesis?
We've always ended up with this neighborhood and that neighborhood - this culture & that culture maintaining and retaining itself. Integration is ultimately a renewing of the mind and accepting it's standards, and we can see Who's the only One Who can get that done, and even then, look at the denominational cultures on these forums and how well we get along!
After a few centuries of the USA theory and experiment where are we but to the point where some don't just want their own neighborhoods but want the whole landmass. And at another level, it's always been about God and opposition to Him. For us it's a discussion of capital punishment against certain crimes. I think Mr. Faddis and I would ultimately agree whether or not he's Christian that some crimes deserve an equal response and this is Rom9 and ultimately the God delegated sword.
Immigration was perverted by the Bidenites to destroy America by overwhelming the citizenry with poor people they could exploit,
and before that the political establishment insured the Balkanization of America by playing off poor neighborhoods against those
who attempted to increase their financial well-being via encouraging small businesses, profit-sharing corporations, etc.
And yes, on the spiritual level, it is a battle of believers against ungodly opponents.
I found this online:
Here are five key takeaways from Pew’s new analysis of the global religious landscape.
Here are five key takeaways from Pew’s new analysis of the global religious landscape.
- Christianity is the world’s largest faith group, but it’s not keeping pace with global population growth. In 2010, 30.6% of the world identified as Christian. By 2020, that figure had fallen to 28.8%.
- Islam is the fastest growing religious group. “The number of Muslims increased by 347 million (from 2010 to 2020) — more than all other religions combined,” researchers wrote.
- Sub-Saharan Africa is now the region of the world where most Christians live. In 2010, Europe held that title.
- As of 2020, the United States has the second-largest number of religiously unaffiliated residents. China has the most.
- The growth of Islam from 2010 to 2020 was mostly due to natural population growth, while the decline of Christianity stemmed, in large part, from religious switching. “Religious ‘switching’ — especially people shedding their religious identity after having been raised as Christians — explains much of the unaffiliated population’s growth between 2010 and 2020," Pew reported.
I read a good article in Epoch Times this week about the history of the transgender issue,
and I happened to run across an essay I had saved on this topic that was written by a Christian transsexual in 2002,
which prompt me to point out that every person has their cross to bear and for some that is sexual aberration.
For many years Christians including myself tended to view the solution in terms of tolerance,
such as the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military. However, in recent years the problem
has been exacerbated by those who promote sexual sin as a "viable alternative lifestyle",
which they began to preach to minor in an effort to convert them to perversion.
IMO, GW teaches that compulsive sexual immorality is either an intentional sin that needs to end,
or a mental illness that needs to be cured. Thus, I would encourage all who suffer from such temptation
to become biologists and therapists in order to seek a cure, whether medicinal or psychological.
Love the sinner, but go and sin no more (John 8:11).
and I happened to run across an essay I had saved on this topic that was written by a Christian transsexual in 2002,
which prompt me to point out that every person has their cross to bear and for some that is sexual aberration.
For many years Christians including myself tended to view the solution in terms of tolerance,
such as the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military. However, in recent years the problem
has been exacerbated by those who promote sexual sin as a "viable alternative lifestyle",
which they began to preach to minor in an effort to convert them to perversion.
IMO, GW teaches that compulsive sexual immorality is either an intentional sin that needs to end,
or a mental illness that needs to be cured. Thus, I would encourage all who suffer from such temptation
to become biologists and therapists in order to seek a cure, whether medicinal or psychological.
Love the sinner, but go and sin no more (John 8:11).
HAPPY 4TH!
My understanding from Scripture about freedom is that the essential aspect of being a human rather than a robot or subhuman creature is moral free will (MFW), which is what enables a person to experience love and meaning. This is what makes humans different from animals, whose behavior is governed mainly by instinct. This is what it means to be created in God’s image (GN 1:26-27; robot or responsible)?
God could not force people to return His love without abrogating their humanity. If God were to zap ungodly souls, it would be tantamount to forcing conversions at gunpoint, which would not be free and genuine. If God were to prevent people from behaving hatefully, then He would need to prevent them from thinking evilly, which would make human souls programmed automatons.
This, for reasons we may understand only sufficiently rather than completely, God designed reality so that experiencing His presence is less than compelling, so that even Jesus (God the Son) on the cross cried out “My God [the Father], why have you forsaken [taken God the Spirit from] me?” (MT 27:46, PS 51:11) This phenomenon is sometimes called “distanciation”, because we experience God as distant from us and “unknown” (ACTS 17:23), even though He is close or immanent, “for in Him we live and move and have our being” (ACTS 17:28). Distanciation is not forsaken.
God’s normative means of conversion is persuasion rather than coercion (MT 12:39, 24:24, 1CR 1:22-23). This is seen very clearly in Jesus’ lament over the obstinacy of Jerusalem (MT 23:37). Two unusual theophanies included when God appeared to Moses (in a burning bush per EX 3:2-6), whom God wanted to establish the Jewish lineage for the Messiah (OT), and to Saul/Paul (as the resurrected Jesus in ACTS 9:3-6), whom God chose to establish the NT church of Christ. Miracles are rare (not normative).
MFW only exists when there is the possibility of choosing between two qualitatively opposite moral options that we call good and evil. These options are opposites because of essentially different consequences for choosing them. Choosing good results in blessing, life and heaven; and choosing evil results in cursing, death and hell (DT 30:19). This is why hell as well as heaven exists. It is the just consequence for choosing evil rather than God. The Spirit of God is good: love, peace and joy (GL 5:22-23). Therefore, whoever rejects the Lord is spiritually separated from Him (IS 59:2) and thereby chooses the evil or satanic spirit of hatred, strife and misery and reaps the just consequence called “hell” in the afterlife (GL 6:7-9, HB 9:27-28). These options were presented by Moses to the Israelites (DT 30:19), and Jesus referred to this fundamental choice in terms of a fish or egg versus a snake or scorpion (LK 11:11-13). Life… or Curse? (GN 3:24, RV 22:1-2)
God created theoretical evil or the possibility of rejecting Him as an option that actualizes MFW/free human personality. As such it is necessary and even good (GN 1:31). Of course, it was wrong for Satan (1JN 3:8) and humanity (RM 5:12) to make evil actual by choosing to Sin or reject Faith in God’s Lordship. God loves a cheerful giver (2CR 9:7), which means He desires people to cooperate with Him happily because of love and gratitude for His grace rather than to cower before Him because of fear of hell. Love must be evoked; it cannot be coerced. And again, when souls sin or do NOT choose to love God freely, it is perfectly just (loving and logical) for them to reap the appropriate consequence (GL 6:7-9) or hell.
But when souls choose to love Jesus as Lord, they are free indeed!
PTL! HAPPY 4TH!
(Hope you don't mind the format of the citations; I need to change it on our website sometime.)
My understanding from Scripture about freedom is that the essential aspect of being a human rather than a robot or subhuman creature is moral free will (MFW), which is what enables a person to experience love and meaning. This is what makes humans different from animals, whose behavior is governed mainly by instinct. This is what it means to be created in God’s image (GN 1:26-27; robot or responsible)?
God could not force people to return His love without abrogating their humanity. If God were to zap ungodly souls, it would be tantamount to forcing conversions at gunpoint, which would not be free and genuine. If God were to prevent people from behaving hatefully, then He would need to prevent them from thinking evilly, which would make human souls programmed automatons.
This, for reasons we may understand only sufficiently rather than completely, God designed reality so that experiencing His presence is less than compelling, so that even Jesus (God the Son) on the cross cried out “My God [the Father], why have you forsaken [taken God the Spirit from] me?” (MT 27:46, PS 51:11) This phenomenon is sometimes called “distanciation”, because we experience God as distant from us and “unknown” (ACTS 17:23), even though He is close or immanent, “for in Him we live and move and have our being” (ACTS 17:28). Distanciation is not forsaken.
God’s normative means of conversion is persuasion rather than coercion (MT 12:39, 24:24, 1CR 1:22-23). This is seen very clearly in Jesus’ lament over the obstinacy of Jerusalem (MT 23:37). Two unusual theophanies included when God appeared to Moses (in a burning bush per EX 3:2-6), whom God wanted to establish the Jewish lineage for the Messiah (OT), and to Saul/Paul (as the resurrected Jesus in ACTS 9:3-6), whom God chose to establish the NT church of Christ. Miracles are rare (not normative).
MFW only exists when there is the possibility of choosing between two qualitatively opposite moral options that we call good and evil. These options are opposites because of essentially different consequences for choosing them. Choosing good results in blessing, life and heaven; and choosing evil results in cursing, death and hell (DT 30:19). This is why hell as well as heaven exists. It is the just consequence for choosing evil rather than God. The Spirit of God is good: love, peace and joy (GL 5:22-23). Therefore, whoever rejects the Lord is spiritually separated from Him (IS 59:2) and thereby chooses the evil or satanic spirit of hatred, strife and misery and reaps the just consequence called “hell” in the afterlife (GL 6:7-9, HB 9:27-28). These options were presented by Moses to the Israelites (DT 30:19), and Jesus referred to this fundamental choice in terms of a fish or egg versus a snake or scorpion (LK 11:11-13). Life… or Curse? (GN 3:24, RV 22:1-2)
God created theoretical evil or the possibility of rejecting Him as an option that actualizes MFW/free human personality. As such it is necessary and even good (GN 1:31). Of course, it was wrong for Satan (1JN 3:8) and humanity (RM 5:12) to make evil actual by choosing to Sin or reject Faith in God’s Lordship. God loves a cheerful giver (2CR 9:7), which means He desires people to cooperate with Him happily because of love and gratitude for His grace rather than to cower before Him because of fear of hell. Love must be evoked; it cannot be coerced. And again, when souls sin or do NOT choose to love God freely, it is perfectly just (loving and logical) for them to reap the appropriate consequence (GL 6:7-9) or hell.
But when souls choose to love Jesus as Lord, they are free indeed!
PTL! HAPPY 4TH!
(Hope you don't mind the format of the citations; I need to change it on our website sometime.)
- Genesis 1:27a: “God created humanity in his own image; in the image of God he created humans…”
First, it affirms that God exists, so humanity should not be atheistic or idolatrous. Thus, politics should not contradict or inhibit faith in God.
Second, it indicates that humans are like God (given the moral commands beginning with the forbidden fruit in Gen. 2:16-17) in their moral capacity or ability and thus responsibility to cooperate with God’s moral will. Thus, politicians and voters are accountable to God for applying His moral teachings to their political views and actions.
What are some current political issues that need to be informed by GW?