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Posts Tagged ‘Islam’

Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; strangers devour your land in your presence; and it is desolate as overthrown by strangers, Isaiah 1:7

“…because of Western civilization’s love of material comforts, there is an unwillingness to face unpleasant realities.”

  • Gordon H. Clark, A Christian View of Men and Things, p.53

Major Study Finds The US Is An Oligarchy” was the way Business Insider reported the findings of a 2014 Princeton University peer-reviewed study of American politics.  In it, researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page concluded,  “The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.”

Since this is a Scripturalist blog dedicated to the proposition that the Bible alone furnishes us with knowledge, readers may question why this author would cite a secular, empirical study to make a point about the state of American politics in the early 21st century.  One reason for doing so is that, while this study reflects the opinion of its authors, he believes that their opinion is an accurate reflection, politically speaking, of the state of affairs in this nation.  Opinion, while not knowledge – knowledge is always true – nevertheless can be both true and useful.    

If this study is right, and the author is persuaded that it is, the United States, founded as a republic, has devolved into a vulgar oligarchy, which is defined as, “a government in which a small group exercise control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.”  Why has this happened? John Adams, one of America’s Founding Fathers put it this way, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  Adams was, of course, right.  Paper restraints are wholly inadequate to hold back sinful man’s desire – and this desire is found both among those who would govern and those who are governed – for big government.  If the American people do not believe in constitutional capitalism, the political and economic expression of Christianity, then there is nothing to stop the nation from devolving into some form of authoritarianism.    

Now it may be worth pausing for a moment to explain that the common understanding of the term “religious” in Adams time meant “Protestant.”  The population of the American colonies at the time of the revolution was 98% Protestant, and it was this sort of religion that the framers had in mind.  Today, it is common for people to understand by “religion” or “religious” that the framers of the Constitution were referring to all religions – e.g. Romanism, Judaism, Islam.  But these three medieval religions are incapable of creating or sustaining a free society.  It is Christianity as expressed in the 66 books of the Bible and systematized during the 16th century Protestant Reformation, that alone provides the necessary ideas needed to constrain government to its proper, limited role of punishing evil doers and rewarding the good. 

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“Hell is going to be filled with good religious people who have rejected the truth of Christ.”

  • Robert Jeffress

 

“President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at tackling anti-Semitism on college campuses on Wednesday – but one of the speakers at the event said that Jews are going to hell,” thus reported the Huffington Post on Thursday.

Yes, the HuffPo was in a state of high dudgeon that Donald Trump dared to invite to the While House a Christian minister, who actually teaches Christian doctrine.

In this case, the guilty party was none other than noted Southern Baptist minister Robert Jeffress.  At times, I have been critical of Jeffress on this blog. I stand by my criticism.  But today I come not to bury Jeffress but to praise him.

What triggered the outrage at HuffPo and several other news outlets?  I’ll let the HuffPo’s headline speak for itself: “Pastor Who Says Jews Are Going To Hell Speaks At Trump’s Hanukkah Party.”

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Jefferson and the Jihadis

Early on in its history, the fledgling United States found itself at odds with the Barbary pirates of North Africa. These raiders operated from bases in what is now Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia, seizing ships and enslaving the unfortunates found on board. According to an article in Slate, more than a million Europeans and Americans were sold into slavery in this fashion.

Attempting to find a diplomatic solution to the Barbary issue, Thomas Jefferson on John Adams paid a visit to Sidi Haji Abdrahaman, Tripoli’s ambassador to London. As the Slate article goes on to note, “They [Jefferson and Adams] asked him [Abdrahaman] by what right he extorted money and took slaves in this way. As Jefferson later reported to Secretary of State John Jay, and to the Congress:

The ambassador answered us that [the right] was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.

Alrighty then. If nothing else, the ambassador gets high marks for his honesty. It sure beats the Islam-as-religion-of-peace nonsense doled out to us by PC addled Western politicians, professors and mainstream media pundits, not the mention the aggressively globalist Pope Francis.

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Ruth and Naomi Leave Moab, 1860, by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872).

Due to time demands at work, it has been some time since the previous installment of my series Immigration, Citizenship and the Bible. Those circumstances now ended, it is my hope, Lord willing, to complete the final postings this spring.

But before moving on to break new ground, it seems good to me to circle back and review the topic of the Roman Church-State (RCS) and immigration. I say this in the first place, because an honest inquiry into the current problems surrounding immigrants and refugees in the United States finds their source in the theory and practice of the RCS..

In the second place, the RCS has conducted its immigration campaign, a campaign with the ultimate goal of furthering its globalist agenda by undermining the sovereignty of the United States, with almost no scrutiny from the press or from Protestants. It is high time someone pointed out the treachery of the her prelates.

Third, a recent speech by San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy laid bare the corrupt theory that lies behind Rome’s immigration policy. This post is a critique of McElroy’s speech.

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Ruth_and_Naomi_Leave_Moab

Ruth and Naomi Leave Moab, 1860, by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872).

Having observed the ongoing European migrant crisis from afar for these past several years, I’ve been tempted to think that even government officials whose policies caused the disaster in the first place would have by now woken up to the fact that things are not working out, admitted the error of their ways, and sought to change course. But such is not the case.

 

In an apparent attempt to secure her reputation as the second worst leader in German history, on Saturday, with US Vice President Mike Pence in attendance, German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended her refugee policy that has allowed 1.1 million migrants into Germany since 2015, argued that Islam is not a source of terrorism and indicated that the European Union (EU) has an obligation to accept even more refugees.

These are astonishing claims, and one wonders how anyone with even a passing acquaintance with events throughout Europe in recent years could make them, let alone the Chancellor of Germany, whose nation has been among the hardest hit by the migrant crisis.

Consider the following headlines related to migrant issues in Germany taken from over just the past year.

It would take a strange definition indeed of “Islam”, “source” and “terrorism” for anyone to deny the connection between the religion of the Prophet and these horrifying acts of Islamic terrorism in Germany.  What part of “Allahu Akbar” do they not understand?

Is it not just obvious that letting millions of Muslims into your country, at taxpayer expense to boot, is a bad idea? The ideas held by the people of a nation determine the course of that nation. When you import a million Islamizes, you’re going to get Islamization on an industrial scale. Commenting on the United States, John Robbins wrote,

When we apply these insights to the United States, we notice several things. In the beginning all America was Protestant – 98 percent of the people. The numbers we have for church affiliation in seventeenth and eighteenth century America show that three-fourths of Americans were Calvinists of one flavor or another: Puritan, Pilgrim, Presbyterian, Baptist, German Reformed, Lutheran, Congregationalist, and Episcopal. There were few Catholics, almost no Jews or Methodists, and no Muslims, Mormons, Moonies, Buddhists, Confucianists, Hindus, or atheists. Had there been any large numbers of these groups, there would have been no America as we have known it, not because the people who hold these views are somehow inferior, but because the views themselves are inferior: They are logically incapable of creating and sustaining a free society (Rebuilding American Freedom in the Twenty-First Century, emphasis added).

Rejecting mass, taxpayer subsidized Muslim immigration is not, as some have charged, racism. Islam is not a race, it’s a religion. And as a religion, it is accompanied by certain tenants, certain doctrines. And if those doctrines conflict with the maintenance of a free society, and they do, Westerners have very good reason to be concerned about the Islamization of their countries and are well within their right to oppose it.

But if Islamization is so obviously a problem, why is it that Merkel and others cannot see this? Apparently they lack the discernment necessary to grasp the fact that their policies are destroying the very nations they were elected to serve.

And why do they lack discernment? “The fundamental answer” to why men lack discernment, as John Robbins reminds us, is “the will of God.” Robbins quotes several Biblical passages in support of this idea. Citing just one as an example, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold I will fill all the inhabitants of this land – even the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem – with drunkenness! And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,’ says the Lord. ‘I will no more spare nor have mercy, but will destroy them’ ” (Jeremiah 13:13-14).

It is God who both gives and withholds discernment from the hearts of men. And given the extreme state of ignorance of even basic politics in the West – according to the Bible, the task of the government is to punish evildoers, not invite them into your country to prey on your citizens and then tax the people for the privilege of being shot, bombed, and raped – it is fair to wonder whether it is God’s intention to destroy the West.

It is my prayer that this is not the case. But if he does intend to bring an end to Germany and other Western nations, it’s not as if he would be without good reason.

What we call Western Civilization is the result of the widespread preaching of,, and belief in, the Gospel of Jesus Christ beginning at the time of the 16th century Reformation. Yet for the past 200 years, the West has been in the process of rejecting Christ and embracing secular philosophy. As a result, the West is in the process of collapse. And the ongoing Islamization of the nations that were the cradle of the Reformation is one of the consequences of that collapse.

But perhaps God isn’t done with the West. Perhaps he is graciously warning us of what may happen if we stay on our current course. But if the West is to be saved, it will not happen as a result of political activity, but once again as the result of the widespread preaching of, and belief in, the Gospel of Justification by Faith Alone.

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Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton at the first Presidential Debate, 9/26/16.

As is usually the case, there were more interesting headlines this past week than I could hope to write about. But even though there were a plethora of interesting stories, there were three that really stood out to me: the kickoff to the presidential debate season, new charges that the US is supporting terrorists in the Syrian civil war, and removal of Roy Moore from Alabama’s Supreme Court. Let’s take a look at them.

 

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For a few months there I wrote a series of weekly posts I called This ‘n That dealing with various stories from the week that was. Over the summer I abandoned that format for a weekly podcast. Well, I plan to keep the podcast going, but I thought I restart the weekly review post as well under the updated name The Week in Review.

I know, I know, that’s not really the most imaginative title in the world. But I think it’s certainly appropriate for the subject matter. So, without further ado, let’s get started…

They Just Don’t Get It

The Washington Post and the liberals who love it just don’t get it. They can’t figure out why Mrs. Clinton isn’t totally dominating the presidential race and let show their frustrations in a story titled, “Democrats wonder and worry: Why isn’t Clinton far ahead of Trump?” According to the article,

With Election Day less than two months away, Democrats are increasingly worried that Hillary Clinton has not built a formidable lead against Donald Trump despite his historic weaknesses as a national party candidate.

The piece goes on to quote former South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle saying, “Generally, I’m concerned, frankly…all the things that Trump has done, the numbers should be far more explicitly in her favor, but they’re not.”

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