Look Into It - Asleep at the Switch Part 2

"We have arrived at a period in American and world history when being awake is of utmost importance. Being in a position of leadership and yet asleep to critical issues at such a time will certainly lead to the ‘disastrous results..."

The Israel Package
- By Dr. Chuck Baldwin -

- Set Two - 7 DVDs Containing 7 Messages - Featuring "The Destruction of Jerusalem" -

The Israel Package - Set Two contains 7 DVDs, with 7 total messages. These messages are:

In this message, Pastor Baldwin reviews the three great deceptions of Church History. Two are past, and one is a massive current deception to which the Church has mostly succumbed.

In this message, Pastor Baldwin explains why the Talmud and Zionism are greater threats to America and liberty than the Koran and Islam. He also explains how the globalist New World Order agenda and the Zionist agenda are one and the same.

This is one of the most thought-provoking and challenging messages you will ever hear.

The Old Covenant Has been Abolished, And We Are Under A New, Better And Everlasting Covenant

The New Testament is clear: The Mosaic Covenant is abolished. The Lord Jesus Christ, through his death and resurrection, completely fulfilled the Old Covenant and instituted a New Covenant--a Covenant that is MUCH better than the Old Covenant, an everlasting Covenant.

Pastor Baldwin shows how the temple made with hands under the Old Covenant was forever destroyed by God in 70 AD and a new temple has appeared, a temple not made by human hands: the Body of Christ or the New Testament Church. He shows that the "Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16) is not that strip of real estate in Palestine known as the Zionist State of Israel but is comprised of ALL who have put their faith in Christ--both Jews and Gentiles.

This message is taken from Hebrews 10. This chapter teaches that God has perfected and sanctified all who have been set apart by God's election. He has fulfilled the law for them, pardoned their sins and given them complete redemption. This chapter also exposes the attacks against the Gospel of Christ and His New Covenant by Judaizers who desire to force us back under the Law of Moses.

God "shook the earth" when He introduced the Mosaic Covenant from Mount Zion. And He "shook the earth" again when he introduced the New Covenant from Mount Zion. The first Mount Zion was earthly and limited to the Jews; the second Mount Zion is spiritual and given to all men. Accordingly, the total annihilation of the earthly city of Jerusalem provided a miraculous and unmistakable promise of the New, Heavenly City of Jerusalem. This is a remarkable message.

Paul told the Corinthians that "the Jews require a sign." (I Corinthians 1:22) And today's counterfeit miracle workers are turning people away from Christ's New Covenant of grace--and the acceptance of a finished and completed Word of God--BACK into Old Covenant philosophy where people are requiring a sign (miracle). By so doing, they are trying to put themselves BACK under the Old Covenant that symbolized and prophesied all that Christ fulfilled through His death and resurrection.

The destruction of Jerusalem is one of the most significant events in world history. The destruction of Jerusalem is also one of the most-prophesied events in Holy Scripture. Scores of prophecies in both the Old and New Testaments point to the destruction of Jerusalem. Sadly, these prophecies are almost universally ignored by modern clerics--or totally misapplied.

Tragically, the vast majority of Christians know next to nothing of the destruction of Jerusalem. The great truths that God taught through this seismic event are all but lost to today's Christians. The lack of knowledge and understanding about the destruction of Jerusalem is a sign of the great "falling away" that has taken place in the Church over the past one hundred years.

This message expounds and explains not only the facts dealing with Jerusalem's destruction but also the great lesson and meaning that Jerusalem's destruction teaches the Church.

Pastor Baldwin considers this message to be one of the most important messages he has ever delivered. Chances are, you will never hear another message like this in your entire life.

This message was preached by Chuck Baldwin on Sunday, February 22, 2015 during the service at Liberty Fellowship. To purchase a copy of this sermon or to support the fellowship please visit LibertyFellowshipMT.com

In a Straight forward interview Dr. Chuck Baldwin shares his views on Global Zionism and how its seems Christians have forsaken Christ Jesus for Israeli Nationalism. The Holy Spirit revealing to him the evils of modern day Zionism and its many
allies and how to help others to keep their eyes on their King, Jesus Christ/Yeshua Ha Moshiach

This message was preached by Pastor Chuck Baldwin on Sunday, June 10, 2018 during the service at Liberty Fellowship.
To purchase a copy of this message or to support the fellowship please visit LibertyFellowshipMT.com

Know More News
First published at 01:15 UTC on May 24th, 2019.
Know More News with Adam Green
https://www.KnowMoreNews.org/

This message was preached by Pastor Chuck Baldwin on Sunday, June 2, 2019, during the service at Liberty Fellowship. To purchase a copy of this message or to support the fellowship, please visit LibertyFellowshipMT.com.

This message was preached by Pastor Chuck Baldwin on Sunday, June 9, 2019, during the service at Liberty Fellowship. To purchase a copy of this message or to support the fellowship, please visit LibertyFellowshipMT.com.

"No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." I once asked a class I was teaching, "What would you say was the Christian's number one sin?" to which a jokester replied, "Apathy, but who cares?" And as the old saying goes, "Many a true word spoken in jest."

This higher devil cautions Wormwood that he must keep the patient comfortable at all costs. If he should start thinking about anything of importance, encourage him to think about his luncheon plans and not to worry so much because it could cause indigestion. And then the devil gives this instruction to his nephew: 'I, the devil, will always see to it that there are bad people. Your job, my dear Wormwood, is to provide me with people who do not care.'"²

The opposite of love is not hate. It's apathy or indifference that is practiced by people who don't care enough to care. The fact is that "people don't care what we know until they know how much we care." http://www.actsweb.org/articles/article.php?i=1122&d=2&c=3

"The price that good people pay for their apathy and indifference to public affairs is that they are ruled by evil men." - Author unknown -

Preachers and Christians in America talk a lot about loving Jesus. They sing songs to Him; wave their hands in the air; pray to Him; and talk about His teachings. And at Christmas time, they retell the story of Christ’s virgin birth, and boys and girls sing songs and put on plays—complete with shepherds and Wise Men. But in reality, a huge number of preachers and Christians today behave more like King Herod than they do the Christmas shepherds and Magi.

What was Herod’s conduct at the time of Christ’s birth? He ordered the deaths of all of the children in Bethlehem, males and females, two years old and younger. Herod used his authority as a governmental head of state to murder innocent children. So, how does this relate to today’s pastors and Christians? I’ll tell you.

Last week, the U.S. House and Senate voted on resolutions to discontinue U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's three-year war against Yemen. As many as 80,000 men, women and children have been slaughtered in this ongoing bloodbath, and 85,000 Yemeni children have starved to death. And the United States, under Presidents Obama and Trump, has supported Saudi Arabia’s barbarism with financial and military aid. In fact, without America’s aid, Saudi Arabia would not have been able to perpetuate this genocidal war. So, this is as much America’s war as it is Saudi Arabia’s.

The brutal, torturous assassination of permanent U.S. resident, journalist Jamal Khashoggi, by Saudi assassins (under orders from the Saudi crown prince) somehow jolted the dead conscience of the U.S. Congress, and both legislative branches voted on resolutions to discontinue America's participation in the brutal Saudi war against Yemen.

Of course, Donald Trump and his ranking cabinet members lobbied Congress hard to NOT cut off funding for this illegal war. (Tell me again how Trump is so much different than Obama.) The House voted to CONTINUE participating in the war, but the Senate voted to DISCONTINUE participating in the war.

And here's the rub: The vast majority of congressmen and senators who voted to continue America's participation in the Saudi barbarism against Yemen were Republicans.

In the House, 201 Republicans voted for the war and only 18 Republicans voted against it. In the Senate, only 7 Republicans voted against the war and all 41 senators who voted for the war were Republicans.

The 7 brave Republican senators who voted to stop America's involvement in Saudi Arabia's war against Yemen were:

Collins (Maine); Daines (Montana); Flake (Arizona); Lee (Utah); Moran (Kansas); Paul (Kentucky); and Young (Indiana).

This is another example of how the "left-right," "liberal-conservative" and Democrat-Republican paradigm is so phony and misleading. Whatever praise one wants to heap on the GOP, when it comes to expanding America's never-ending "war on terror,” its limitless wars of aggression overseas and the overall Warfare State, Republicans are almost always the first ones to shout their enthusiastic support. These votes in the House and Senate reflect that reality.

It also further proves that Donald Trump is just another warmonger, no better than Barack Obama or G.W. Bush. These presidents (and the members of Congress who support their wars) have the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent victims dripping from their hands. I'll say it straight out: Donald Trump is a murderer! Forget King Cyrus; King Herod is the one that Trump more resembles.

Again, only 18 Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against the illegal, brutal war in Yemen, and only 7 Republicans in the Senate voted against it. Thankfully, those 7 Republican votes in the Senate were enough to help carry the vote against the war; but in the House, the 18 Republican votes fell 2 votes short.

Here are the 18 House Republicans who bravely voted against America's participation in Saudi Arabia's brutal war in Yemen:

Amash (Michigan); Biggs (Arizona); Blum (Iowa); Brat (Virginia); Cloud (Texas); Gaetz (Florida); Garrett (Virginia); Gohmert (Texas); Gosar (Arizona); Graves (Louisiana); Jordan (Ohio); Labrador (Idaho); Massie (Kentucky); Meadows (North Carolina); Perry (Pennsylvania); Posey (Florida); Sanford (South Carolina); and Schweikert (Arizona).

I don't expect that this will have any impact on the millions of Christians and conservatives who are caught up in blind (almost idolizing) support for Donald Trump and in the phony left-right paradigm. But in case you are interested in truth, there it is.

Here is the down and dirty little secret: Christians and conservatives are the ones promoting and sustaining America's Warfare State and perpetual war doctrine. The absence of outrage from Christians and conservatives at the Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate and at President Trump for supporting and voting to continue providing financial and military assistance for Saudi Arabia's barbaric war against Yemen is an eternal indictment against these right-wing warmongers.

God hates murder and wars of aggression. But today's evangelical pulpits are filled with warmongers; today’s churches are filled with warmongers; today’s Christian colleges and universities are filled with warmongers; and today’s GOP is filled with warmongers.

Satan is the author of murder, and nothing or no one commits murder on the scale or magnitude of government. Therefore, government is Satan's most effective tool at fulfilling his highest priority: murder. And, disgustingly, millions of evangelical pastors and Christians are among the most enthusiastic supporters of the wicked, wretched warmongers (many if not most of them Republicans) in Washington, D.C.

Next year, the new U.S. House could take another vote on withdrawing support from the Yemen war, but if it passed (and it probably would under Democratic control), Trump will surely veto it, and pastors, Christians and conservatives everywhere will enthusiastically support Trump's veto—and these illegal and immoral wars will keep going on and on.

The fact that Republicans are right on some issues (and they are) does NOT give them the right to commit murder in the name of the American people. Nor should conservatives—and especially Christians—support them when they do.

Bottom line: If America's pastors, Christians and conservatives would stop supporting America's perpetual war machinations, most of these immoral wars would cease forthwith.

So, as you are watching and listening to your pastor homilize about the miraculous birth of the Lord Jesus Christ this Sunday, and as you enjoy the boys and girls in their costumes singing Christmas hymns about “peace, good will toward men,” pause for a moment to see the cadaverous, starving bodies of tens of thousands of little Yemeni children, see the charred bodies of innocent grandfathers and grandmothers who have been burned to death from the fires caused by U.S.-made missiles and bombs, see the arms and legs flying through the air from the dismembered bodies of Yemeni sons and daughters from U.S.-made jet bombers and attack helicopters that have been raining down death and destruction upon a hapless, helpless civilian population via the brutal, bloodthirsty regime of America’s “great ally” (Trump’s words), Saudi Arabia, for three long years.

And as you are watching all of this death and destruction in your mind, remember that it is a majority of evangelical pastors and churches (maybe even the pastor and church where you attend) who are among the biggest cheerleaders for these murderous, immoral, unjust and unconstitutional wars of aggression all over the world. In other words, they are behaving more like Herod than they are the Christmas Wise Men and shepherds.

Remember all of this as you hear the sermonizing and songs about the birth of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, in your church this Sunday.

P.S. I have two DVD messages that speak directly to the subject of war—just and unjust. These messages present the true Biblical teaching on the subject of war. America’s colonial pastors and Founding Fathers well understood the Biblical Natural Law principles of Just War. Sadly, these principles are all but forgotten by today’s pastors, Christian teachers and elected civil magistrates.

And we have put both of these DVD messages in a 2-DVD package entitled War: Just And Unjust. A Biblical/Natural Law Analysis. If you purchase both of these messages together, there is a 33% discount. The 2-DVD package costs $20, and there is no cost for domestic shipping. (International rates vary.)

As we all know, Donald Trump campaigned on a platform of disengaging U.S. forces from unconstitutional, perpetual foreign wars. However, the first two years of Trump’s presidency was a flagrant disavowal of that campaign promise. Not only did Trump not disengage our forces from these illegal and immoral wars, but, as I have documented, he dramatically INCREASED America’s involvement in these wars. In fact, President Trump has dropped more bombs on more people in his first two years of office than President Obama did in his entire last term in office. Plus, he sent thousands of additional ground troops to Afghanistan and Syria and several other countries.

Now Trump is saying that he is going to withdraw all U.S. forces from Syria (ostensibly 2,000 in number) and half of our forces (reportedly numbering 7,000 troops) from Afghanistan. Of course, high level government globalists such as Senator Lindsey Graham and Secretary of Defense James Mattis are incensed at the announcement. Mattis tendered his resignation over the decision, and Graham has had lengthy discussions with Trump about the matter.

And, sadly, the majority of conservatives around the country are likewise chagrined. Remember that almost all (if not all) of these conservatives are also Zionists, and they know the only reason America is fighting these wars of aggression in the Middle East is for the purpose of assisting the offensive military machinations of the State of Israel. And they are pouting over the possibility that Israel might actually be stymied from some of its bloodlust and apartheid atrocities. They really shouldn’t worry, however. The U.S. has no intentions of cutting the bloody umbilical cord from the Zionist state.

The US 'withdrawal' from Syria might not mean the end of all its Syria-related operations where Israel is concerned, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reaffirmed Washington’s ongoing commitment to Israel’s security on Tuesday.

Speaking ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Brazil, Pompeo said the US’ commitment to Israel was unchanged, despite the pullout of US troops from Syria announced by the Trump administration last month. Pompeo said that the US effort to “counter Iranian aggression” would continue along with the “protection of Israel” just as it had before.

Earlier, Trump had reassured Israel that the US would “take great care” of Israel despite the withdrawal, citing the billions in foreign aid Washington gives to Israel every year.

Donald Trump has told Benjamin Netanyahu that the US is paying billions of dollars a year for Israeli security, and that Tel Aviv should not be worried about losing its influence in the region after US troops withdraw from Syria.

“I spoke with Bibi [Benjamin Netanyahu]. I told Bibi, you know we give Israel 4.5 billion dollars a year. And they are doing very well at defending themselves,” Trump told reporters on his way back from Iraq where he paid a surprise visit to US soldiers stationed there. “We are going to take great care of Israel. Israel is going to be good,” US president added, replying to a question on how his announced withdrawal from Syria will impact Israel.

During Trump’s surprise, sudden visit to U.S. forces in Iraq, he made it clear that he has no intentions of withdrawing America’s troops from the Syrian theater.

President Trump’s big announcement to pull US troops out of Syria and Afghanistan is now emerging less as a peace move, and more a rationalization of American military power in the Middle East.

In a surprise visit to US forces in Iraq this week, Trump said he had no intention of withdrawing the troops in that country, who have been there for nearly 15 years since GW Bush invaded back in 2003.

Hinting at private discussions with commanders in Iraq, Trump boasted that US forces would in the future launch attacks from there into Syria if and when needed. Presumably that rapid force deployment would apply to other countries in the region, including Afghanistan.

In other words, in typical business-style transactional thinking, Trump sees the pullout from Syria and Afghanistan as a cost-cutting exercise for US imperialism. Regarding Syria, he has bragged about Turkey being assigned, purportedly, to “finish off” terror groups. That’s Trump subcontracting out US interests.

What Trump seemed to be doing was reassuring the Pentagon and corporate America that he is not going all soft and dovish. Not at all. He is letting them know that he is aiming for a leaner, meaner US military power, which can save money on the number of foreign bases by using rapid reaction forces out of places like Iraq, as well as by subcontracting operations out to regional clients.

Most of the U.S. forces (5,000+) fighting in Syria are actually based in Iraq. And as Trump assured them, they are not going anywhere, in spite of the fact that Iraqi lawmakers have demanded that the U.S. leave their country. So, those anti-establishment Trumpites who think that The Donald has fulfilled some kind of anti-war campaign promise and is “sticking it” to the Deep State have yet again fallen victim to one of Trump’s masterful con jobs.

And the Times of Israel reported that after holding extensive meetings with President Trump, ultra-globalist war hawk Senator Lindsey Graham gleefully ensured that Trump is NOT going to abandon the Syrian theater:

A senior Republican senator said Sunday that President Donald Trump had promised to stay in Syria to finish the job of destroying the Islamic State group — just days after announcing he would be withdrawing troops immediately.

“He told me some things I didn’t know that made me feel a lot better about where we’re headed in Syria,” the South Carolina lawmaker said.

The new timeline presented and reported in the US now appears to be within 120 days; Trump says that the US is “slowly” bringing the troops home.

There are also new questions about the degree to which the withdrawal will be coordinated with Turkey. Trump made his decision after a conversation with the Turkish president on December 14. Ankara had threatened a military operation in northern Syria against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which it accuses of being linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Trump claimed on December 23 that the US withdrawal would be “slow and highly coordinated” with Turkey.

John Bolton, the national security adviser, is now planning a trip to the region – along with chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford and Syria envoy James Jeffrey – to discuss the withdrawal in Turkey and Israel. According to CNN’s Kevin Liptak, only Bolton will travel to Israel, not the whole delegation. This comes on the heels of reports that Israel had sought to convince Trump to slow down the withdrawal.

Trump is coordinating the war against Syria (and Lebanon, Iran, etc.) with Israel and Turkey in such a way as to provide those two countries with the opportunity to unleash their war machines (supplied by the United States, of course) against Syria (and eventually Iran) without risk to U.S. troops, while, at the same time, expanding U.S. efforts to oust Bashar al-Assad and take the war closer to Iran’s doorstep. Even with the assistance of American military forces, U.S. and Israeli proxy armies (ISIS, al-Nusra, etc.) failed miserably in their assignment to overthrow Assad. Trump is not angry about U.S. forces being there; he is angry that they failed to defeat Israel’s manufactured adversaries in the region.

But not only is Trump pandering to Israel and Turkey (a NATO member-state that is on the verge of allying itself with Russia over Washington’s agitating actions toward Ankara), true to his “make Big Business bigger” MO, here is the real story behind Trump’s military decisions in the Middle East—and it should horrify all men and women of decency. It won’t, but it should.

Mattis' resignation comes amid news that President Donald Trump has directed the drawdown of 2,000 U.S. forces in Syria, and 7,000 U.S. forces from Afghanistan, a U.S. official confirmed to Military Times, a story first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

This month, in the January/February print issue of the gun and hunting magazine “Recoil," the former contractor security firm Blackwater USA published a full-page ad, in all black with a simple message: “We are coming.”

Is the war in Afghanistan — and possibly elsewhere ― about to be privatized?

If Blackwater returns, it would be the return of a private security contractor that was banned from Iraq, but re-branded and never really went away.

[Blackwater founder Erik] Prince has courted President Donald Trump’s administration since he took office with the idea that the now 17-year Afghan War will never be won by a traditional military campaign. Prince has also argued that the logistical footprint required to support that now multi-trillion dollar endeavor has become too burdensome. Over the summer and into this fall Prince has engaged heavily with the media to promote the privatization; particularly as the Trump administration’s new South Asia Strategy, which was crafted with Mattis, passed the one-year mark.

The news of a leaning on a smaller number of privatized forces, instead of a larger U.S. military footprint — and contracted support for U.S. forces that knew few bounds and at times included coffee shops, base exchanges, restaurants, a hockey rink and local vendor shops — may be welcomed by current U.S. military leadership on the ground. That includes former Joint Special Operations Command chief Army Lt. Gen. Scott Miller, a source familiar with Miller’s approach told Military Times. Miller replaced Gen. John Nicholson as the head of all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan in September.

In an [sic] previous exclusive interview with Military Times, Prince said he would scrap the NATO mission there and replace the estimated 23,000 forces in country with a force of 6,000 contracted personnel and 2,000 active-duty special forces.

The potential privatization of the Afghan War was previously dismissed by the White House, and roundly criticized by Mattis, who saw it as a risk to emplace the nation’s national security goals in the hands of contractors.

But Mattis is out now, one in a series of moves that has surprised most of the Pentagon.

That’s right. Donald Trump is preparing to replace U.S. military forces with mercenaries to fight Israel’s wars.

Here’s the horrifying part: These “private contractors,” i.e., mercenaries, operate in a manner that is totally unaccountable to the rule of law. Totally! They operate outside the Constitution, outside the Rules of Engagement, outside the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), outside the Law of Nations, outside law period—and also outside public scrutiny. There is virtually no accountability for whatever murders, rapes, plunderings or criminalities of any sort that these mercenaries commit.

After a string of horrific PR disasters saw elite US soldiers arrested for drugs, abuse, rape and murder, the Pentagon is cracking down on disciplinary issues in its Special Operations Command, according to a new report.

With "allegations of serious misconduct" piling up too high to ignore after two decades of war, General Raymond 'Tony' Thomas, head of Special Operations Command, and Owen West, head of Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict for the Pentagon, have outlined an ambitious 90-day plan to find out how the military's most elite corps lost its way.

Combining Special Forces units that are already plagued with rampant abuses of power with mercenaries who are virtually unaccountable to any human authority is a recipe for the worst kind of barbarity and atrocity. This is what the Roman Empire did during its last days of power and what Great Britain did in its failed war against the American colonies. And this is exactly what Donald Trump is preparing to do. In fact, Trump is already setting the table for an unaccountable military force by shutting down military watchdog groups, thus turning off the light of public knowledge and ensuring military unaccountability.

Donald Trump’s presidency—a presidency that is rife with graft, fraud, extortion, bribery, immorality and now government collaboration with unaccountable mercenaries and military units to wage war on behalf of foreign nations—is what happens when supposed Christian leaders such as Jerry Falwell, Jr., have their way.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Falwell said, “You don’t choose a president based on how good they are.” He also said in that interview that there was “nothing” Trump could do that would jeopardize his (Falwell’s) support. “Nothing” means no lie, no act of immorality, no theft, no act of betrayal, no act of murder or no act of wanton military slaughter would prevent Falwell from supporting Trump. Ladies and gentlemen, such an attitude is nothing short of insane idolatry. In essence, Falwell was saying that he knows how immoral, unethical, dishonest and violent Trump is, and he doesn’t care; it doesn’t matter to him.

Tragically, Falwell is representative of the vast majority of evangelical Christian pastors and leaders in this country today. They have sold their souls (not to mention their spiritual birthright) to sit at Trump’s treacherous, tainted, twisted, thoughtless, tumultuous, terrifying, terrorizing, tortuous, tyrannical, Talmudic table. They should apologize for all of their sermonizing about the Ten Commandments, the beatitudes of Christ, the teachings of the Apostles, the Golden Rule, etc. They should take back all of their admonitions of honesty, integrity, morality, trust, fidelity, honor, adherence to law, etc.

Let’s face facts: These evangelical Christian “leaders” believe in situation ethics; they believe that some people are above the laws of men and God; they believe the principles of biblical morality and honesty are apportioned according to position and power (or the lack thereof); and their blind allegiance to the moral and ethical deviant Donald Trump has proven they never meant what they preached.

Christian people by the millions have supported, defended, lauded, extolled and glorified a man (Donald Trump) whose personal morals and ethics rival the most vile leaders in world history. Donald Trump is a man without conscience. His behavior is pathological and diabolical. And he is successfully searing the consciences of the millions of Christian people who have sullied their own hearts by willingly partnering with his incessant crimes.

Trump is not pulling troops out of Afghanistan and Syria; he is pulling the wool over the eyes of millions of Christians and conservatives.

I have said for years that it’s not what you hear in most churches that is the problem; it is what you don’t hear. The same goes for most conservative politicos. On the issues that are the most parlous to our liberties, the vast majority of Christians and conservatives are silent. I mean totally silent.

*Donald Trump is very good.
*Democrats are very bad.
*Israel is very good.
*Muslims are very bad (except the Muslims in Saudi Arabia are good).

But what about America’s War Empire killing innocent people all over the world? Silence. What about America’s War Empire building military bases on Russia’s borders and pushing China’s territorial waters almost to dry land? Silence. What about America’s War Empire selling billions of dollars of weapons and munitions to the terrorists in Saudi Arabia and Israel who can then slaughter tens of thousands of Yemenis and Palestinians with impunity? Silence. What about America’s War Empire dropping thousands of bombs on innocent men, women and children all over the Middle East and Northern Africa? Silence.

What about 45 years of electing “pro-life” Republicans to Congress and the White House, and the federal government is still fully funding America’s largest abortion provider: Planned Parenthood? Silence. What about 45 years of appointing Republican “pro-life” justices to a majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, and Roe v Wade is still the law of the land? Silence. What about the fact that “pro-life” Republicans have controlled the U.S. House of Representatives for 20 of the last 24 years, and no Sanctity of Life bill that provides personhood to the unborn baby has ever been brought to the floor for a vote? Silence. What about the fact that even though a “pro-life” Republican Party has controlled both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government (House, Senate, White House) for no less than 6.6 years during the Bush II and Trump administrations, nothing has been done to overturn Roe v Wade via Article. III. Section. 2. of the U.S. Constitution? Silence.

What about the militarization of America’s local and State police agencies? Silence. What about the growing number of unarmed American citizens (especially black citizens) being shot and killed by trigger-happy policemen? Silence. What about Donald Trump calling for the confiscation of firearms without due process? Silence. What about the numerous “red flag” laws being passed by both Republicans and Democrats that authorize police agencies to confiscate the firearms of innocent American citizens who have not harmed a single person, have not committed a single crime nor have even been accused of a crime? Silence.

*Donald Trump is very good.
*Democrats are very bad.
*Israel is very good.
*Muslims are very bad (except the Muslims in Saudi Arabia are good).

Here are more things you won’t hear most Christians and conservatives talk about:

*The Rights of the Colonists, a List of Violations of Rights, and a Letter of Correspondence, by Samuel Adams

Right. I’m talking about the great documents of American history. The vast majority of pastors, Christians and “conservatives” are as ignorant of the principles of constitutionalism and Natural Law as are most liberals and unbelievers. That’s why it normally doesn’t matter to a tinker’s dam which party controls Congress or whether a Republican or Democrat is in the White House (including the current occupant). The political and religious right and left are operating in almost total ignorance of the fundamental principles of liberty upon which America was built.

Continuing the theme of last week’s column, here is more news you won’t hear Christians and conservatives talk about.

First story: Over the past several days, we saw tremendous courage from both the right and the left—and the cost of that courage.

I'm talking about both Senator Rand Paul and CNN analyst Marc Lamont Hill. Both of these brave men had the courage to tell the truth about the Zionist State of Israel and, in the case of Rand Paul, actually put serious action behind his words.

Senator Paul has blocked $38 billion in military aid to Israel, and he is being pummeled for it. As you can imagine, powerful Zionist lobby groups such as AIPAC and Christians United for Israel (CUI) are spending outlandish sums of money (CUI has already spent over $100 thousand on media advertising across Kentucky) to exert pressure on Sen. Paul to withdraw his blockage.

The Trump White House and congressional Republicans and Democrats are also exerting tremendous pressure on Dr. Paul to withdraw the blockage. How long Rand can withstand this pressure is anybody's guess. As for Marc, you know what happened to him: CNN fired him.

Hill was fired after the Zionist attack-dog group, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), skewered him for his speech at the UN. The ADL said Hill was "anti-Semitic" (the accusation they always make) and advocating violence against Israel. He wasn't. He was simply calling for Israel to stop committing violence against Palestinians. Hill was clear. He said, "I support Palestinian freedom. I support Palestinian self-determination." (So do I.) No matter. Without giving Hill an opportunity to defend himself, the network promptly fired him. Now, the ADL is also demanding that Hill be fired from his teaching position at Temple University. One thing Zionists deeply despise is the freedom of speech.

Once again, we see the power and influence that Zionism exerts over our national news media and federal government. Israel is untouchable.

These two stories are just the tip of a very large iceberg. Maybe more than anything else, the stranglehold that Zionism has on our government, media, entertainment industry and evangelical churches is choking the life and liberty out of our nation.

And lest you think being anti-Zionist is being "anti-Semitic," IT'S NOT! (Nor am I. I love the Jewish people as much as I love the Palestinian people, or anyone else for that matter.)

Facebook, Twitter, Google, and YouTube all engaged in pre-election censorship against Republicans and Trump supporters. Yet they’ve managed to sneak a liability protection into President Trump’s trade bill that would make it even easier for them to censor their own users.

USMCA entrenches the tech giants’ legal protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which grant them legal immunity for user-generated content. This is an important part of the law that allows tech platforms to host a wide variety of speech with light-touch moderation.

But USMCA also entrenches tech companies’ right to censor without liability. Article 19.17 of the trade agreement gives tech companies immunity from any lawsuits arising from actions taken to “restrict material it considers to be harmful or objectionable.”

And Dr. Ron Paul condemns the USMCA for expanding government control over trade, increasing government protectionism, increasing the cost of goods and decreasing employment. He also laments that USMCA forces unionism on Mexico, portends the potential nullification of all right to work laws and increases inflation and government regulation. So much for Donald Trump’s commitment to the First Amendment, freedom, less government and “America First” sovereignty.

Third story: Donald Trump’s foreign interventionism is a repeat of the policies of Barack Obama and G.W. Bush, so says former Congressman Ron Paul:

Donald Trump campaigned with a promise to put ‘America first’ and to stay out of foreign conflicts. As president, Trump has followed the same interventionist policies that failed his predecessors, says former Congressman Ron Paul.

Rather than back out of the meeting, Paul wrote on Monday, Trump should have used the opportunity to declare that the US is not the “policeman of the world,” and that “what flag flies over Crimea is none of our business.”

On the campaign trail, Trump had slammed President George W. Bush’s $1.9 trillion wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and promised to stay out of Syria. Since taking office, however, he signed off on multiple cruise missile strikes against Syria, continues to arm anti-government rebels there –many of whom have links to Al-Qaeda–and continues to hit all three countries with airstrikes, some of them deadly to civilians.

In a bombshell announcement that could once again threaten the stability of the government, the Israel Police announced on Sunday that it was recommending bribery charges against both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara Netanyahu, in the Bezeq corruption probe, known as Case 4000.

Investigators say that Benjamin Netanyahu advanced regulatory decisions benefiting Shaul Elovitch, the controlling shareholder in Bezeq, the country’s largest telecommunications firm — despite opposition from the Communication Ministry’s career officials — in exchange for positive coverage from Elovitch’s Walla news site.

In a blistering accusation, police said “the prime minister and his associates intervened in a blatant and ongoing manner, and sometimes even daily, in the content published by the Walla News website, and also sought to influence the appointment of senior officials (editors and reporters) via their contacts with Shaul and Iris Elovitch,” the Bezeq owner’s wife.

“The main suspicion is that the prime minister took bribes and acted in a conflict of interest by intervening and acting in regulatory decisions that favor Shaul Elovitch and the Bezeq Group, while at the same time directly and indirectly demanded interference with the content of the Walla site in a way that would benefit him,” police said in a joint statement with the Israel Securities Authority, which also took part in the nine-month investigation.

Police said there was “improper conduct between Netanyahu and Elovitch on two main axes: diverting media coverage in exchange for preferable regulation.”

Investigators said they believe there is enough evidence to bring Netanyahu to trial on charges of accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust and fraudulently accepting benefits.

I have tried to warn readers about the corruption and criminality of Netanyahu, but most Christians and conservatives ignore it, because, after all, Netanyahu is a Zionist, and Zionists are given special elevated and protected status by Christians. But Netanyahu’s criminal activities finally seem to be catching up to him. This could prove to be a bad omen for Donald Trump, who has his own closet full of criminality.

Fifth story: As soon as the Democrats won the U.S. House, I predicted that Donald Trump would move leftward during the next two years in an effort to appease Democrats. The day after the November elections, I wrote this on my Facebook page:

I think I should add one more prediction at this early stage following the Democrats winning the US House: watch Trump move left during the next two years to accommodate House Donkeys. Trump has absolutely NO CENTER, NO CORE BELIEFS. He will do whatever he needs to do to take care of Donald Trump. Watch as he even pressures Senate Republicans to compromise and surrender to Democrats in the House. As I said in my post, Trump has MUCH to be concerned about as the House ramps up their probes and investigations into his affairs. He has ten thousand skeletons in his closet that he doesn't want to be discovered. Democrats KNOW he has MUCH to hide, and they will use it to coerce him to play ball with them. And Trump is at his very best when he is making deals with the devil.

President Donald Trump, facing a Congress that will become dramatically more antagonistic toward him in January, has begun courting Democrats who could determine whether his next two years are spent scoring legislative deals or staving off an onslaught of congressional investigations.

In recent days, Trump has invited the top Democratic congressional leaders to the White House amid a pressing government funding battle, and he privately told a Democratic senator he would consider legislation to help stem the loss of auto manufacturing jobs in Ohio. [Translated: more government bailouts.]

Trump's top aides have also been a regular presence on Capitol Hill, discussing legislative goals even as Democrats begin plotting investigations into an administration they argue has escaped serious congressional scrutiny.

The overtures are a signal that Trump and his White House are at least feeling out whether the self-professed dealmaker can find common ground with Democrats next year even as he faces pressure from Republicans to keep the opposition party at arms [sic] length.

"I've seen him when others advise not to make a deal and he moves ahead," said Marc Short, the former White House legislative affairs director.

Sixth story: The vast majority of pastors, Christians and “conservatives” are as ignorant of the principles of constitutionalism and Natural Law as are most liberals and unbelievers. That’s why it normally doesn’t matter to a tinker’s dam which party controls Congress or whether a Republican or Democrat is in the White House (including the current occupant). The political and religious right and left are operating in almost total ignorance of the fundamental principles of liberty upon which America was built.

As we are approaching the end of 2018, I am trying to do a little catch-up with all of the news we are not hearing talked about—especially from Christians and conservatives. Sadly, the political right is as bad as the political left when it comes to honesty and objectivity. And neither side seems to have a smidgen of knowledge of or commitment to the principles of Natural Law and constitutionalism. As is usually the case, the most important news is the news we don’t hear.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Sunday said he hasn't decided whether to support President Donald Trump's pick to be the next attorney general because of concerns about privacy issues.

Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," Paul said he's concerned that William Barr, who was attorney general from 1991 to 1993, "has been a big supporter of the PATRIOT Act, which lowered the standard for spying on Americans, and he even went so far as to say the PATRIOT Act was pretty good — we should go much further."

He also alleged that Barr is a "big fan" of seizing people’s property through civil asset forfeiture.

"I haven't made a decision about him, but I can‘t tell you — the first things I've learned about him being for more surveillance of Americans is very, very troubling," Paul said.

Barr, who served in the administration of President George H.W. Bush, is Trump’s pick to replace Jeff Sessions.

Anybody who thinks Trump is out to drain the swamp and bust the Deep State just got a dose of reality medicine, in the form of Trump’s nomination of swamp monster William Barr as our next Attorney General.

According to former Bush-CIA black ops specialist Chip Tatum, Barr was part of Operation 40, an Agency-linked criminal gang that moved huge quantities of drugs and was involved in many high-level political assassinations, including those of the Kennedies [sic], Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, and dozens of others. Ironically, Trump—who tossed a few rhetorical punches at the Bush Crime Family during the 2016 Republican primaries—has just nominated a man who represented the Bush CIA drug cartel, both within the CIA itself (1973-1977) and later when he served as “Opium Poppy” Bush’s Attorney General.

So why would Trump fire Jeff Sessions and appoint a depraved denizen of the Deep State to replace him? Because Trump is the slimiest, scaliest reptile from the deepest darkest part of the Deep State swamp. If you haven’t figured that out yet, you aren’t paying attention.

I realize it’s hard for Christians and conservatives to admit that Trump is a swamp creature; but the point about not paying attention is definitely germane. Christians and conservatives aren’t paying attention, especially to all things Deep State, Warfare State, Police State, Zionist State or New World Order. To the vast majority of Christians and conservatives, these realities do not exist. Donald Trump can appoint all of the Deep State swamp creatures he wants (i.e., John Bolton, Elaine Chao, Nikki Haley, Gina Haspel, James Mattis, H.R. McMaster, Steve Mnuchin, Mike Pompeo, Jerome Powell, Wilbur Ross and a cast of hundreds), and Christians and conservatives will continue to hail the man as “the greatest President ever.”

Second story: After Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) ordered the brutal torture-killing of American resident and Saudi citizen, journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser (and Deep State globalist) Jared Kushner actually coached MBS on “how to weather the storm” (the storm of MBS being caught murdering Khashoggi).

The President's son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, continued to have private conversations with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to The New York Times.

Kushner offered the de facto Saudi ruler advice "about how to weather the storm" following the death of Khashoggi, the Times reported on Saturday, citing a Saudi source familiar with the conversations.

Although White House protocol stipulated that National Security Council staff be present on all phone calls with foreign leaders, Kushner and bin Salman continued to chat informally after Khashoggi's death, the Times reported, citing two former senior American officials and two people briefed by the Saudis.

The United States has been helping Saudi Arabia bomb and starve the Middle East’s poorest country for about three years now. One recent estimate suggests that 85,000 children under 5 years old have already died from malnutrition as a result of Riyadh’s intervention in Yemen’s civil war. If the Saudis’ air strikes and blockade continue, Yemen is poised to face the worst famine that humanity has seen in 100 years, according to the U.N.

Eight months ago, the fact that Saudi Arabia was routinely dropping American-made bombs on Yemeni school buses and hospitals — and in the process of deliberately starving tens of thousands of children to death — was not enough to persuade the Senate that the United States should cease supporting the Saudi campaign. Back then, the upper chamber declined to even allow extended debate on a bill that would have ended such support.

But then, Saudi agents murdered and dismembered a U.S. resident who wrote for the Washington Post, and had personal relationships with influential people in our nation’s capital. And, for whatever reason, this convinced a critical mass of U.S. senators that not supporting war crimes in Yemen was, at least, an idea worth considering.

In a last-ditch effort to change their minds, the Trump administration sent Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis to the Senate last week, to brief all 100 lawmakers on the case for maintaining U.S. support for the Saudi war in Yemen. But many senators were less concerned about the pros and cons of abetting war crimes than they were with whether Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (a.k.a. MBS) had ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi (the Washington Post columnist who knew some people whom they also knew). They specifically wanted to hear from CIA director Gina Haspel on that subject, since her intelligence agency had been strongly suggesting that it had proof of the crown prince’s guilt, even as the Trump administration insisted that no such proof existed. But Haspel did not attend the hearing — and Pompeo and Mattis would only reiterate the White House’s position that the U.S. possessed no “direct” evidence that MBS was involved in the killing.

According to ABC News, several senators were so furious about Haspel’s absence, and “unhappy with the administration’s lack of answers and unwavering support for the Saudis despite the murder of Khashoggi,” they decided to green-light debate on withdrawing U.S. support for starving Yemeni children, so as to send a message to the administration about the need for more information about Khashoggi’s death.

Of course, what should be obvious is the fact that both President Trump and the U.S. Congress are much more concerned about keeping Saudi money pouring into the coffers of America’s politicians, especially Trump's (Trump’s business dealings with the Saudi kingdom are at the top of the heap—as in dung heap), than they are owning up to the fact they are all complicit in mass murder and crimes against humanity. And Trump’s staunch defense of Saudi Arabia is downright pathetic. Anyone who claims to believe in even rudimentary moral law must be sick to their stomach at the way Donald Trump is covering for, pandering to and partnering with the murderous, monstrous House of Saud.

Fourth story: FOX News channel host Tucker Carlson had the guts to go on national television and admit that Donald Trump is not capable and that he doesn’t keep promises.

Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson set straight any misinformation concerning his views on President Trump: “I don’t think he’s capable,” he said during an interview on Tuesday.

Urs Gehriger, an editor at “Die Weltwoche,” Switzerland’s leading German-language opinion weekly, noted that Carlson’s new book, “Ship of Fools,” is silent on Trump but comments on his critics. And so, Gehriger jump-started the conversation by asking what Carlson thought of Trump’s first two years in office.

Carlson said he cannot stand Trump’s self-aggrandizement and boasting. [Where are America’s evangelical pastors on this subject?] Then, when asked whether Trump has kept his promises, the usually quick-witted and long-winded Carlson had just one word: “No.”

“His chief promises were that he would build the wall, defund Planned Parenthood and repeal Obamacare, and he hasn’t done any of those things,” Carlson said, adding that those goals were probably lost causes. Trump, he said, doesn’t understand the system, and his own agencies don’t support him.

“He [Trump] knows very little about the legislative process, hasn’t learned anything, hasn’t surrounded himself with people that can get it done, hasn’t done all the things you need to do, so it’s mostly his fault that he hasn’t achieved those things,” he added.

Kudos to Tucker Carlson. Truth and objectivity about Donald Trump on FOX News is almost impossible to find.

Fifth story: Despite what conservatives are saying about a robust U.S. economy, a market crash is already underway. Writing for Forbes, here is Clem Chambers:

That’s it – as far as I’m concerned a crash is underway. Earlier today I wrote that my funky little U.K. indicator said another move down was due and we are in for a bad time.

Well, here it is, another move down and a big one, at least it is as I write this, so as far as I’m concerned we are over the lip of ravine and in free fall.

In my mind from top to bottom of a crash on the Dow is somewhere between 25%-30%. That would mean a normal Dow crash would bring us down to around 20,000.

The Nasdaq is a different kettle of fish and quite able to drop 40%-75% and the higher the Nasdaq has flown the further it can fall.

Happily I’m 75% cash and I’m likely to reluctantly liquidate the rest over the coming days.

Even if it were to bounce, this is a market that wants to crash and if it’s not doing so right now, that crash is unlikely to be far off.

US President Donald Trump told American Jews that his vice president had great affection for “your country,” insinuating a dual loyalty to Israel.

“I want to thank Vice President Mike Pence,” Trump said Thursday at one of two White House Hanukkah parties. “A tremendous supporter — a tremendous supporter of yours. And Karen. And they go there and they love your country. They love your country. And they love this country. That’s a good combination, right?”

One can only imagine what Christians and conservatives would have done had any President other than Trump told a group of American Muslims (or American Hindus, Shintoists, etc.) that Iran or Syria (or India or Japan, etc.) was “your country.” But, of course, Israel is different. Christians believe that the Zionist State of Israel is a resurrected biblical Israel and that Benjamin Netanyahu and his gaggle of global criminals are “God’s Chosen People.” But it’s not, and they aren’t! Oh, yes, we cannot forget that Zionist billionaire (and huge Republican contributor) Sheldon Adelson was also in the room.

I doubt that evangelical Christians will ever awaken to how Zionist Israel funds both sides of the political aisle in America in order to secure support for the Zionist state no matter which side wins. Zionists such as Sheldon Adelson fund the GOP, and Zionists such as George Soros fund the Democrats—and Christians, for the life of them, cannot seem to figure that out.

Seventh story: Trump’s appointee to the Supreme Court Brett Kavanaugh—the man who is supposed to bring an end to abortion-on-demand and overturn Roe v Wade—rendered his first abortion-related vote as a Supreme Court justice—and he sided with pro-abort liberals, saying that states do not have a constitutional right to defund Planned Parenthood. Writing for the Washington Examiner Magazine, Philip Klein reports:

In an early decision involving abortion, newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh sided with liberals in declining to hear a case that could have allowed states to defund Planned Parenthood in state Medicaid programs.

My colleague Kimberly Leonard has more background and details of the cases, but the basic gist is that lower court rulings prevented Louisiana and Kansas from blocking abortion provider Planned Parenthood from participating in Medicaid. The Supreme Court has now decided to pass on the cases.

Only four justices are needed to agree to grant a hearing on any case. So to stop it from reaching the high court, it took Kavanaugh siding with Chief Justice John Roberts and liberal justices.

Three conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch — all voted to hear the case.

I tried to warn my readers and listeners about Kavanaugh. And to my surprise, so did Cliff Kincaid:

Citizen journalist David Risselada has written a book, Psychopolitics in America: A Nation Under Conquest, in which he explains how so many are being led astray by what passes for the “conservative media.” Consider the case of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was sold by Fox News and other beltway groups as a conservative pro-lifer. After Kavanaugh’s Monday ruling in favor of Planned Parenthood, many grassroots conservatives are beginning to realize they were misled about his real record. One conservative website called it a “betrayal.”

It wasn’t a surprise to us. My group, America’s Survival, Inc., was virtually alone [among the few, but not alone] in exposing Kavanaugh’s real record on abortion and other social issues. We published the 44-page report, “The Deep State Wears Black Robes,” and called his nomination a “Trojan Horse.” Yet, Fox News and other conservative media, as well as various Washington, D.C.-based conservative groups, had advertised Kavanaugh as a strong conservative. Many of them were invited to the White House to listen to Kavanaugh hail the legacy of “liberty” of the man he would replace, pro-abortion and pro-gay Justice Anthony Kennedy. That turned out to be an indication of Kavanaugh’s liberal direction on the court.

We had conducted a careful study of Kavanaugh’s record, noting that he was a virtual clone of Justice Kennedy. A liberal Catholic, Kavanaugh actually had a record of ruling against evangelical chaplains. But one leading conservative told me I had gone off “the deep end” by opposing Kavanaugh. Fox News refused to cover our detailed critique of his record. It was a very controlled “debate” with “both sides” defined so as to exclude the real truth.

But Fox News wasn’t alone in stacking the deck. All of the major conservative websites fell for the ruse that Kavanaugh was a conservative. They know who they are. They owe their readers an apology.

Evangelical leaders, Christian leaders, the Religious Right, TV evangelists: Call them what you will. So many of them have lost all claim to the high road. They have not only lost their integrity and honesty, many of them are nothing more than self-aggrandizing spiritual prostitutes. They have become little more than pandering, groveling, bootlicking toadies for political potentates—one political potentate in particular: President Donald Trump.

I don’t mind so much these pandering preachers saying they support the adulterous, philandering, lying, warmongering, bottom-feeder Donald Trump because his politics—not his personal life, mind you, just his politics—are somewhat better than Hillary Clinton’s. That might be true. Somewhat. A little bit. Maybe a smidgen. But these lackeys have taken their support for Donald Trump much further than that. They literally idolize this reprobate. They cover for him, pretend for him, and lie for him…you name it, and they do it.

There’s got to be a better word for people who honestly and sincerely believe in the Bible, constitutional government, common decency, integrity and truth telling, because “Christian” or “evangelical” or “fundamentalist” or “conservative” or “Religious Right” mean absolutely nothing today. NOTHING!

The word “Christian” was originally ascribed to the disciples of Jesus Christ during the early church period—by unbelievers. To be a Christian meant to follow the teachings and example of Christ. The word had substance and meaning. Today, it is as worthless a term as a Hudson car or the job of lamplighter.

No wonder Jesus dined with publicans and sinners, accepted the worship of women with a history of demon possession and received the company of harlots but relegated Pharisees, Scribes, religious and political leaders and pious moralists to eternal hell and damnation. Our Lord despised hypocrisy and phony righteousness. If this is still true today (and it is), many of our so-called preachers and Christian leaders probably have more to fear from Almighty God than many people who never darken the doors of a so-called church. Oh! That’s another word that has absolutely no meaning anymore. Glorified social clubs? Yes. Entertainment centers? Yes. Recreation centers? Yes. Glorified circuses? Yes. Churches? Absolutely not!

These pandering preachers pretend to speak for God when they proclaim Donald Trump to be “God’s anointed leader” or “another John the Baptist” or “a modern-day King Cyrus” or “a great Christian” or “America’s last chance,” etc., ad nauseam.

Texas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress, a Fox News contributor, said on Sunday that Christian followers of President Donald Trump tend to have “deeper convictions” than other believers.

“[I]n the poll we’re talking about today [that reports a significant reduction in attendance in evangelical churches],” Jeffress said, “even though the evangelical number has dropped as a whole, the number of evangelicals turning out at the ballot box is greater than other groups, and it’s because evangelicals have deeper convictions. They believe in absolute moral and spiritual truth, and they tend to vote those convictions at the ballot box.” (Source)

No! The truth is, Mr. Jeffress, evangelicals such as you do not have “deeper convictions” than other people; they have NO convictions. You and your ilk have compromised and sullied almost every conviction you were ever taught—or taught to others—in order to stay on the smiley side of this Corrupter-In-Chief, Donald Trump. You have condoned, covered up and defended Trump’s totally debauched and perverted lifestyle, his lying and duplicity, his criminal conduct and his murderous foreign policy. You might as well be a priest for the Mafia. In my opinion, Mr. Jeffress, your pandering to and bootlicking of Donald Trump is no different than the pandering and bootlicking of the Old Testament prophets of King Ahab.

Then there is the Trump bootlicker of bootlickers, Jerry Falwell Jr. I’m confident there is nothing this toady won’t do or say to stay seated at Trump’s wretched, warped and wicked table. In defending Trump, Falwell said, “You don’t choose a president based on how good they are.” (Source) Well, it’s for sure that how morally rotten and corrupt a man is doesn’t keep Falwell from voting for him, and that’s a fact. Falwell also said that Donald Trump’s first term in office should be extended by two years (imagine what he would have said had some liberal college president said the same thing about Barack Obama) as payback for the investigations into his criminal activity—including obstruction of justice that even Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano admits Trump committed “at least a half-dozen times.”

Then there is Trump toady, evangelical leader Pat Robertson. What a piece of work this guy is:

A prominent evangelical leader told viewers to “cool down the tempers of those who are screaming blood for the Saudis” and not risk a $100 billion arms deal over the apparent death of Saudi-born journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Appearing on Christian television show "The 700 Club," Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian [there’s that word again] Broadcasting Network, said America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia is too important to risk.

“These people [Saudi butchers and terrorists] are key allies,” Robertson said Monday on the show. “I don’t think on this issue we need [to] pull sanctions and get tough. I just think it’s a mistake.”

Robertson advocated for behind-the-scenes diplomacy instead of publicly leveling harsh sanctions. He repeatedly invoked the more-than-$100-billion arms deal between Saudi Arabia and the U.S. as reason not to go after the country widely viewed as the culprit behind Khashoggi’s disappearance.

“We’ve got an arms deal that everybody wanted a piece of,” he said. “It’ll be a lot of jobs, a lot of money come to our coffers. It’s not something you want to blow up willy-nilly.” (Source)

Tell me, Mr. Robertson, where does the Bible teach you to put millions of dollars in weapons of mass destruction into the hands of evil, murderous, terrorist regimes like Saudi Arabia? When is facilitating the wanton slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent people more important than truth, justice and the sanctity of human life?

Mr. Robertson, you claim to be pro-life, yet you vehemently support the two countries in the Middle East that take more innocent lives and spread more terror and bloodshed than any other two nations on earth: Israel and Saudi Arabia. You are the worst of hypocrites, Sir. You should change the name of your program to ZBN, Zionist Broadcasting Network.

Oh, yes, Mr. Robertson also called for MORE GUN CONTROL after the Parkland, Florida, shootings. Like I said, this guy is a real piece of work.

And let’s not leave out evangelical Christian Zionist David Jeremiah. On Zionist-controlled FOX News, Jeremiah wrote, “I believe America’s future, and any nation’s future, depends in large part on one simple factor: our relationship to the tiny nation of Israel.”

Tell me something, David: The U.S. has been “blessing” Zionist Israel for over 70 years. We have financed it, fought its wars, killed its enemies and promoted its success for seven decades. How does America look 70 years later? How do our families look? Have they been “blessed” during this span of time? What kind of shape is traditional marriage in compared to 70 years ago? What about our education system? Has it been “blessed”? What about our entertainment industry? Has it been “blessed”? What about our news media? Has it been “blessed”? What about our peace and freedom from war? Do we have more peace now than 70 years ago? Are we involved in less global military conflict than we were 70 years ago? What about our cities and communities? Have they been “blessed”? Is there less violence, less rape, less mugging, less burglary, less murder or less mass shooting now than 70 years ago? Where is all of this “blessing” for “blessing Israel” you’re talking about? You’re doctrine is full of crock, David.

Then there is this line from evangelical “Christian” Michele Bachmann. Folks, this one takes the cake: “We will in all likelihood never see a more godly, biblical president again in our lifetimes so we need to be not only praying for him; we need to support him.” Excuse me while I get sick!

I could go on almost endlessly with the way famous and not-so-famous evangelical preachers and “Christians” continue to excuse and defend Donald Trump. I hear from them every day, and much of what they are saying centers on Trump’s hateful rhetoric against Muslims:

“In Trump’s second term, we are going to start killing Muslims in America.”

These are actual quotes I’ve received from Trump’s “spiritual,” “Christian” lackeys. And I’m not talking about an isolated one or two, either. I’ve heard from hundreds of such hate-filled “Christians.”

I think it was Kamala Harris (I’M NO FAN) who said, “[Trump] isn’t trying to make America great. He’s trying to make America hate.” She’s absolutely right about that. And our good evangelical “Christian” brethren are increasingly among the worst haters of all. That’s what happens when “preachers” and “Christians” sell their virtue and integrity to amoral, warmongering haters like Donald Trump: There is no high ground left.

“Great Christian” (there’s that word again) Secretary of State and former CIA director Mike Pompeo recently gleefully admitted that “we [the CIA and President by inference] lie, cheat and steal.” He went on to say, “We [have] entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.”

Wow! And this guy reputedly keeps an open Bible on his desk. It must be opened to John 10:10a, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”

Mr. Jeffress, Mr. Falwell Jr, Mr. Robertson, where do you go from here? Where do you go after you excuse everything from serial adultery to cheating to stealing to lying to bribing to blaspheming (Trump swears and uses the Lord’s name in vain as much as any sailor—but he says he’s never done anything he needs God’s forgiveness for) and mass murder? Where do you go from here?

In a recent radio interview on SiriusXM, Falwell said, “I think 83 percent of Evangelicals voted for him [Trump, in 2016], and I think in 2020 it’ll be an even higher percentage.”

Even Evangelicals were disillusioned by the moderate Republican administrations of the last few decades. They voted on social issues back in those days, and they finally realized that there was never really going to be any change on social issues, so they stopped voting on social issues, and instead now they vote on the same issues that all average Americans who supported Trump vote on: bringing jobs back to this country and fair trade deals.

Evangelical Christians “voted on social issues BACK IN THOSE DAYS [before Trump]”? But NOW they’ve “STOPPED voting on social issues”? Now, it’s all about “bringing jobs back to this country and fair trade deals”? WHAT???

So, since Donald Trump got their support, evangelicals don’t worry about abortion anymore; they don’t worry about the traditional family anymore; they don’t worry about foreign entanglements (mass murders) anymore; it’s all about “bringing jobs back to this country and fair trade deals.” In other words, it’s all about MONEY???

Jerry is lying. He knows it’s not about “bringing jobs back to this country and fair trade deals.” What a joke! On the other hand, it might be about money to HIM. This is the same Jerry Falwell Jr. who said, “A poor person never gave anybody charity. Not of any real volume.”

Falwell was born into the lap of luxury. His family was rich going back several generations. He inherited a financial empire. He has thousands of rich people (including many Zionists) who financially support him. What would he know about poor people?

I can tell you that the vast majority of Bible-preaching churches around the country are not supported by the rich. For the most part, millionaires (even more so billionaires) are not interested in supporting Gospel preaching as much as they are positioning themselves to make more money by hobnobbing with and financing celebrity preachers and TV evangelists who can remunerate their “generosity.” I’ve pastored for over 40 years, and I can tell you flat out that the vast majority of people who are tithing and sacrificially supporting America’s Gospel-preaching churches and Gospel ministries are the working middle class and even the poorer class.

Here’s what the Apostle James says one can usually expect from the rich: “Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?” (James 2:6 - 7 KJV) Who are the biggest promoters of filth and debauchery in the world today? Who are the ones starting wars, coups and conflicts for their own profits? Who are the ones corrupting governments around the world? The super-wealthy, that’s who. There are exceptions to the Apostle’s warning, of course, but they are just that: exceptions. But I digress.

No! It’s not about “bringing jobs back to this country and fair trade deals.” What it’s really about is Trump’s Zionism—and Falwell knows it. It’s about fighting wars for Israel; it’s about killing Shia Muslims for Israel; it’s about making money for Israel; and it’s about fulfilling the false prophecy doctrines popularized by C.I. Scofield. It’s all about Trump’s Zionism.

Donald Trump and Jared Kushner are playing these evangelical Christian Zionist preachers like Charlie Daniels plays a fiddle.

And the signs are ubiquitous that Trump is on the verge of using U.S. forces to fight Israel’s war against Iran in much the same way evangelical Christian Zionist president G.W. Bush used the U.S. military to fight Israel’s war against Iraq. And all this will do is to make Trump even more popular among evangelicals than he is already.

C.I. Scofield’s introduction of Israel-based dispensational eschatology deceived more Christians in the 20th century than the work of any other man. And Donald Trump and his gaggle of evangelical toadies—and perhaps World War III—are the 21st century result.

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This message was preached by Pastor Chuck Baldwin on Sunday, July 7, 2019, during the service at Liberty Fellowship. To purchase a copy of this message or to support the fellowship, please visit LibertyFellowshipMT.com.

Jerry Falwell Jr., Franklin Graham and Robert Jeffress are constantly in the news promoting, defending, excusing, protecting, condoning and glorifying Donald Trump. Their mouths run a hundred miles an hour in defense of this narcissistic reprobate.

Christian pastors have overlooked, justified and excused the most repulsive, indecent and unscriptural acts and attitudes in order to stay on the smiley side of Donald Trump. It is no hyperbole to say that these men have lost the most precious commodity they had to keep supporting Trump: their honor.

To maintain the position of toady to Donald Trump, these so-called men of God have surrendered everything that would identify them as men of God. They have lost not only their honor but their integrity, their honesty, their credibility, their decency, their manhood and their role as Christian “leader.”

Trump has sucked everything good and decent out of them. They stand before America and God “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” (Revelation 3:17) For the rest of their lives, no one will be able to take these men seriously; no one will be able to hold them in high esteem that is deserving of a man of God; and no one will be able to believe anything they say. They gave it all to Donald Trump for him to drag in the mud and muck and filth of his perverse and degraded swamp.

Think of all of the sermons and speeches these “Christian leaders” have delivered to youngsters, extolling the greatness of honesty, morality, courage, Bible convictions and Christian piety. Think of all the times they taught their followers to do right no matter what the cost, no matter who you offend, no matter what the rich and powerful say. Do right! Think of the lessons they taught from the great men of the Bible. Think of how they lauded Joseph’s purity, Elijah’s courage to single-handedly face off against the king and his preacher toadies, Jeremiah’s faithfulness in the face of the worst possible persecution and the Apostle Paul’s willingness to rebuke his dear brother in Christ, Simon Peter, for the latter’s pathetic appeasement of Judaizers. It’s all just hot air now.

How many young people are being driven from the faith because of the compromise, cowardice and capitulations of Messrs. Falwell, Graham and Jeffress? How many people who were listening to these men with interest have now become hardened antagonists against all men of God, thinking these popular, celebrated Christian “leaders” represent preachers everywhere?

Most of America has run out of patience with these pathetic pandering preachers. I know I have. All of this mess that we see playing out in front of our eyes every single day is not Trump’s fault. He is what he is, and everybody—and I mean everybody—knows who and what he is. No! It’s Messrs. Falwell, Graham and Jeffress’ fault. Their crass cowardice and godless groveling have transformed Donald Trump from a simple amoral, brash, thoughtless, self-serving egomaniac into a wannabe messiah and tyrant. They have truly created a monster.

President Trump is the greatest President for Jews and for Israel in the history of the world, not just America, he is the best President for Israel in the history of the world…and the Jewish people in Israel love him like he’s the King of Israel.

They love him like he is the second coming of God…But American Jews don’t know him or like him. They don’t even know what they’re doing or saying anymore. It makes no sense!

But that’s OK, if he keeps doing what he’s doing, he’s good for all Jews, Blacks, Gays, everyone. And importantly, he’s good for everyone in America who wants a job.

Okay. What Root said was the dumbest, most absurd, idiotic and stupid thing anyone could say, but everyone has a right to say stupid stuff in this country—well, in theory, anyway. But not only did Trump not let the absurdity lie unmolested (which would have been bad enough), his pride and ego were so elevated that he had to repeat Root’s man-worship in a series of presidential tweets. In a heart condition of arrogance and blasphemy, Donald Trump put the presidential stamp of approval on Root’s nonsense by tweeting it—word for word—to the world. Then Trump concluded Root’s silly statement with a simple acclamation of approbation, “Wow!”

Any REAL Christian, any REAL gentleman, any REAL leader of men would have repudiated this deity-comparing glorification and taken his place at the foot of Christ’s Cross with all humility and honor for his Creator and Redeemer.

But, no! Trump accepted his comparison to “the King of Israel.” He accepted the accolade, “They love him like he is the second coming of God.”

What Root said was blatant blasphemy, but what Trump did was greater blasphemy. In pride, arrogance and total self-exaltation, Donald Trump accepted for himself messiah-like status; he accepted the worship of men.

Donald Trump is lucky his name is not Herod, because after accepting the worship of men (in a very similar manner in which Donald Trump accepted the worship of men), God struck Herod dead, and he was eaten of worms in front of the idolaters. (Acts 12:21 – 23)

This act of blasphemy follows Trump’s blasphemy in which he used the Lord’s name in vain at least twice in one speech at a rally in North Carolina. I didn’t hear Messrs. Falwell, Graham and Jeffress rebuke Trump for his blasphemy in the Tar Heel State, and I haven’t heard these “great men of God” breathe a word of rebuke for Trump’s blasphemous tweets.

What’s the matter, Mssers. Falwell, Graham and Jeffress? Cat got your tongue? By your silence, you are giving tacit approbation to Trump’s blasphemies.

Okay, so these Christian “leaders” decided to not confront Donald Trump when he and his fellow Republicans controlled the entire federal government for two full years and did nothing to overturn Roe v Wade. Okay, so they don’t want to confront Trump when he breaks his promise to rein in deficit spending and balance the budget. Okay, so they don’t want to confront Trump when he breaks his promise to protect the 2nd Amendment and bans bump stocks, increases government regulation of suppressors and publicly calls for universal background checks and “red flag” gun confiscation laws. Okay, so they don’t want to confront Trump when he breaks his promise to stop America’s policy of regime change all over the world and expands America’s wars and economic sanctions (slow-motion warfare) and bombings and drone attacks. Okay, I get it. I don’t like it, and I vehemently disagree with it; but I get it.

But I’m not talking about politics here. I’m not talking about “no matter what Trump does, he’s better than the Democrats” here. I’m not talking about Republicans and Democrats, left and right, liberals and conservatives here. I’m not talking about who will appoint Supreme Court justices here. I’m talking about something far more serious than any of that. I’m talking about so-called Christian leaders aiding and abetting open, public, audacious, pompous blasphemy against God.

These evangelical “Christian leaders” have repeatedly told Trump that he is “the Chosen One.” All of them: Paula White, Benny Hinn, John Hagee, Kenneth Copeland, Falwell, Graham, Jeffress, et al. They have all gushed over Trump like he’s some kind of messiah, some kind of savior. So, why should we be surprised when Trump calls himself “the Chosen One”? Why should we be surprised when he accepts the worship of men that compares him to “the King of Israel” and “the second coming of God”?

I am not at all surprised at Trump’s blasphemy. Trump has been blaspheming God all of his adult life. However, I am surprised—no, I’m disappointed beyond belief. I’m saddened, chagrined and thoroughly disgusted. No! I am angry! I am angry that men who have the eyes and ears of the nation on them, men who are purported to be “great men of God,” men who, by virtue of their public position, represent not only God but Christian people everywhere have sold their souls and the soul of our nation to a blasphemer.

What difference does it make which political party wins office when America’s Christian leaders surrender their integrity and Biblical convictions to a blasphemer simply because he has an “R” behind his name? What difference does it make whether one is a liberal or conservative when America’s men of God sell their spiritual birthright for a mess of political pottage?

I think it’s more than politics. I think it’s more than the fear of Democrats. I think it’s more than Supreme Court picks. I think Messrs. Falwell, Graham, Jeffress, et al. have sold their Bible convictions in order to receive the perks of sitting at the king’s table. I believe it is all about raw, unabashed greed and lust for power.

Regardless of the reason, however, America is now devoid of national Christian leadership. It’s gone, totally and thoroughly gone. It was sold for 30 pieces of the Jewish Sanhedrin’s Trump-faced third temple silver coin.

P.S. Speaking of the Jewish Sanhedrin and Miriam Adelson, last Sunday, I introduced what I believe is one of the most important books for Christians to read. It was written in 1805 by British parliamentarian George Peter Holford. The name of the book is The Destruction Of Jerusalem. The subtitle is An Absolute And Irresistible Proof Of The Divine Origin Of Christianity.

The destruction of Jerusalem is one of the most prophesied events in Holy Scripture. Scores of prophecies in both the Old and New Testaments point to the destruction of Jerusalem. Sadly, these prophecies are almost universally ignored by modern clerics—or totally misapplied.

As a result, the vast majority of Christians know next to nothing of the destruction of Jerusalem. The great truths that God taught through this seismic event are all but lost to today's Christians. The lack of knowledge and understanding about the destruction of Jerusalem is a sign of the great "falling away" that has taken place in the Church over the past one hundred years.

Drawing from the eyewitness testimonies of the great Jewish historian Josephus and others, Holford paints a literary picture of the destruction of Jerusalem that the reader will never forget.

I feel this is one book that every Christian MUST read. If you don't read any other book besides the Bible this year, read The Destruction Of Jerusalem by George Peter Holford.

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Ever since Donald Trump took office, he has done everything he could do to enable, empower, enrich, exalt, enhance, enlarge, extol and excuse the two biggest terror states in the world: Israel and Saudi Arabia.

He has provided hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of foreign aid and military hardware and munitions to both Saudi Arabia and Israel.

He has defended and assisted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's genocides—and acts of persecution—against virtually the entire Palestinian population. To give you some perspective, Netanyahu and his Zionist predecessors have murdered over 5 million Palestinians. And they could not have accomplished this horrific Palestinian holocaust without America’s—including Donald Trump’s—help.

Abdel Fattah Sisi is one of the most cruel, bloodthirsty men in the world. His torture and acts of barbarism against the Egyptian people who run afoul of his ruthless regime are so horrific that it is difficult for ordinary people to even comprehend. But Donald Trump loves him and calls him his “favorite.”

I agree with Joe Walsh that Donald Trump is a would-be dictator. I am absolutely convinced that Trump has the heart of a stone-cold, ruthless, vengeful tyrant. He loves power in the way that any barbarous, bloodthirsty butcher you’ve ever read about loves power.

Trump has used the U.S. military to carry out bombing raids, drone attacks and ground troop operations on behalf of these two foreign countries, especially Israel. For all intents and purposes, the U.S. military is little more than a proxy army for Israel.

If you don’t believe that the United States is a puppet state for Israel, watch this video of Benjamin Netanyahu privately bragging about it. Notice that he also mocks the stupidity of the American people (which goes triple for America’s Christian people) for being so easily duped and manipulated by Israel.

Trump acknowledged that we don't even need Saudi oil. So, pray tell, why does Trump need instructions from Saudi Arabia? It's because Trump is not his own man. He was never his own man. All of his bellicose rhetoric is nothing more than theatrics to make people believe he is his own man. He’s not. He wasn’t even his own man when he was in private business. He was owned lock, stock and barrel by Zionists. And he still is. Who do you think bailed him out of SEVEN bankruptcies?

Donald Trump doesn't work for America. He works for foreign interests, just like every president since at least GHW Bush. But no U.S. president has ever groveled before the terrorist states of Saudi Arabia and Israel the way Trump grovels before them.

Donald Trump is the biggest bootlicker to ever sleep in the second-floor bedroom of the White House (which is actually the third floor above ground) since…well, since it was built.

Gabbard nailed it when she said, "The U.S. is not Saudi Arabia's b**ch.” But under Donald Trump, that's exactly what America is. And Israel's.

Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard has doubled down on her attacks on President Donald Trump’s ‘disgraceful’ allegiance to Saudi Arabia, eviscerating his ‘betrayal’ of her fellow soldiers and the US Constitution.

Singling out Trump’s statement that the US was “locked and loaded” but “waiting to hear from the Kingdom … under what terms we would proceed,” Gabbard slammed the US president for “offering to place our military assets under the command of a foreign country.”

Gabbard called out the “betrayal of my brothers and sisters in uniform, the American people, and the Constitution” in a video posted to Twitter on Monday, reminding her Commander-in-Chief that she and her fellow soldiers took an oath to defend the Constitution - which doesn’t allow the president to offer up the country’s military on a silver platter to any foreign nation willing to pay for the privilege.

Donald Trump is not making America great. He is making Israel and Saudi Arabia great. But this is just one more of Trump’s perversions of constitutional government that Christians and conservatives will choose to ignore.

P.S. My recent message, The Destruction of Jerusalem, just might be the most powerful message God has ever given me to preach in my 44+ years of pulpit ministry.

The destruction of Jerusalem is one of the most prophesied events in Holy Scripture. Scores of prophecies in both the Old and New Testaments point to the destruction of Jerusalem—including the prophecies of Jesus. Sadly, these prophecies are almost universally ignored by modern preachers—or totally misapplied. As a result, the vast majority of Christians know next to nothing of the destruction of Jerusalem, which occurred in 70 AD—exactly as Christ had predicted.

The great truths that God taught through this seismic event are all but lost to today's Christians. The lack of knowledge and understanding about the destruction of Jerusalem is a sign of the great "falling away" that has taken place in the Church over the past one hundred years. It is also a major cause of the vast misinterpretation of prophetic Scriptures relating to Israel.

Furthermore, the loss of these great truths contributes massively to the false doctrines of Christian Zionism being taught by the vast majority of evangelical churches today. Plus, it is no hyperbole to say that the false doctrines of Christian Zionism are directly responsible for the perpetual wars that are being carried out by the U.S. military on behalf of Israel.

The repudiation of the lessons taught in the destruction of Jerusalem has led to the deaths of multiplied millions of people all over the world and the perversion of the historic Christian faith that had been faithfully taught for 1800 years.

I say this from the bottom of my heart: If you only watch ONE of my messages, it should be THIS ONE.

Many people are requesting multiple copies of this message to give to friends, so we have a special bulk discount price available for this message.

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I am convinced that Christian conservatives, on the whole, care absolutely nothing about constitutional government. They care absolutely nothing about the Bill of Rights, God’s Natural Law or the Declaration of Independence. In their hearts, they support monarchy and dictatorship. It’s not the idea of monarchy that they find repugnant. All they find repugnant is the idea that the monarchy might be led by a Democrat. The idea of a Trump monarchy thrills them to no end.

Donald Trump is a total ignoramus when it comes to constitutional government and Natural Law. Remember, this is the guy who said Article. 2. of the Constitution gave him the right to do “whatever I want.” And most Christian conservatives seem to be totally fine with that.

I’m reading Christian conservatives by the dozens that express their strong desire for Trump to send military troops to take over California, for Trump to declare martial law and send military troops to throw all of the Democrats in the House of Representatives in prison, for Trump to send military troops to seize America’s journalists and judges and for Trump to send military troops to seize people like me who dare to challenge the president’s unconstitutional actions.

It is no hyperbole to say that if Donald Trump declared martial law today and began using the U.S. military to round up anyone Trump doesn’t like and put them in concentration camps, the vast majority of Christian conservatives would wholeheartedly support it.

To most of these so-called Christian conservatives, the Bill of Rights applies only to them. It doesn’t apply to Democrats, Libertarians, Muslims, blacks, Hispanics, liberals or anyone who disagrees with Donald Trump.

Plus, this is the guy who seems to have an ongoing lovefest with the world’s most blood-thirsty dictators, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. He even publicly congratulated the Communist Chinese government on the occasion of its 70th anniversary that memorialized the Marxist revolution that killed millions of innocent Chinese people in one of history’s most notorious acts of tyrannical slaughter and enslavement.

This is also the guy who wants the federal government to have permanent authority to spy on every American citizen, militarize local and State police agencies, develop “pre-crime” law enforcement tactics that would turn anyone the government chooses into a criminal without them ever having committed a crime and use government-defined “mental health” issues as justification for police to deny Americans their Natural right of self-defense. And, once again, so-called Christian conservatives seem just fine with it all.

While most of us have been thinking about the end of summer and while the political class frets over the Democratic presidential debates and the aborted visit of two members of Congress to Israel, the Trump administration has quietly moved to extend and make permanent the government's authority to spy on all persons in America.

The president, never at a loss for words, must have been asked by the intelligence community he once reviled not to address these matters in public.

These matters include the very means and the very secret court about which he complained loud and long during the Mueller investigation. Now, he wants to be able to unleash permanently on all of us the evils he claims were visited upon him by the Obama-era FBI and by his own FBI.

The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution — written in the aftermath of British soldiers and agents using general warrants obtained from a secret court in London to spy on whomever in the colonies they wished and to seize whatever they found — was ratified as part of the Bill of Rights to limit the government's ability to intrude upon the privacy of all persons, thereby prohibiting those procedures used by the British.

Thus, we have the constitutional requirements that no searches and seizures can occur without a warrant issued by a judge based on a showing, under oath, of probable cause of crime. The courts have uniformly characterized electronic surveillance as a search.

I am not addressing eyesight surveillance on a public street. I am addressing electronic surveillance wherever one is when one sends or receives digital communications. FISA is an unconstitutional congressional effort to lower the standards required by the Fourth Amendment from probable cause of crime to probable cause of foreign agency.

How pervasive is this unlawful spying? According to Binney, the NSA's 60,000 domestic spies capture the content and the keystrokes of every communication transmitted on fiber optic cables into or out of or wholly within the United States. And they do so 24/7 — without warrants.

Now, back to that quiet late summer proposal by the Trump administration. Some of the statutes that govern who can go to the FISA court and under what circumstances they can go are about to expire. Inexplicably, the president once victimized by FISA wants to make these statutes permanent. And he wants to do so knowing that they are essentially a facade for spying. That would institutionalize the now decades-long federal assault on privacy and evasion of constitutional norms.

It would also place Trump in the same category as his two immediate predecessors, who regularly ordered government agents to violate the Fourth Amendment and then denied they had done so.

Some of my Fox colleagues joke with me that I am shoveling against the tide when it comes to defending the right to privacy. They claim that there is no more privacy. I disagree with them. As long as we still have a Constitution, it must be taken seriously and must mean what it says. And its intentionally stringent requirements for enabling the government to invade privacy remain the law of the land. The president has sworn to uphold the Constitution, not the NSA.

But do most Christian conservatives care about this? Not at all! As long as Donald Trump is the one doing it, they are all for it.

Here is and example of Trump’s militarized Police State proposals that are already being enacted:

President Donald Trump on Monday said the Justice Department is preparing to launch a sweeping crackdown on crime that he named "the surge," a term commonly associated with the George W. Bush administration's decision to send tens of thousands of additional troops into Iraq in 2007.

"In coming weeks, Attorney General Barr will announce a new crackdown on violent crime — which I think is so important — targeting gangs and drug traffickers in high crime cities and dangerous rural areas," Trump said during the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Chicago. "Let's call it the surge."

The president did not provide any details on the plan but said it is going to be "very dramatic."

"To help keep you safe, I've made $600 million worth of surplus military equipment available to local law enforcement," Trump told the audience of police chiefs. "If you remember, the previous administration didn't want to do that... They didn't want to make you look so tough. They didn't want to make you look like you're a threat." (Source)

News flash to Donald Trump: A militarized Police State IS a threat. It is a bigger threat than all of the Chicago street thugs put together. But do most Christian conservatives understand that? Not at all! As long as Trump is the dictator, they are all for it.

And here is Dr. Ron Paul trying to warn the American people about Trump’s dictatorial “pre-crime” law enforcement tactics being implemented by the White House.

Will Christian conservatives pay any attention to Dr. Paul’s warnings? Are you kidding?

The truth is, Judge Napolitano and Dr. Paul are merely scratching the surface of Trump’s infatuation with a Police State.

Here is a Trump-appointed judge blasting a federal court’s decision to not rehear the case of a police shooting of an innocent young black man. U.S. Circuit Judge James Ho of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit was angry that the court allowed an earlier ruling to stand that said the officers involved in the shooting were not entitled to qualified immunity in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the young man’s family.

Trump’s appointee, Judge Ho, brazenly declared, “If we want to stop mass shootings, we should stop punishing police officers.” In other words, government employees with guns should be above the law. This is the same position that Attorney General William Barr takes.

Barr was one of the fiercest defenders of the FBI sharpshooter who murdered Sam and Vicki Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992. The government sniper “bravely” shot 14-year-old Sam in the back and later zeroed in on Sam’s mother Vicki’s head as she was standing in the door of her kitchen holding her infant child in her arms. The “brave” FBI killer blew Vicki’s brains all over the baby. What a hero! William Barr made sure that the government assassin got away scot-free with double murder.

Obviously, if policemen are above the law, so are soldiers. Trump plans to pardon two soldiers who have been charged with—and one of them has already been convicted of—WAR CRIMES. (Source)

For Donald Trump to pardon these war criminals would be a war crime all by itself. Soldiers are NOT above the rule of law. To allow soldiers to commit war crimes without punishment says the WORST about US and unleashes massive retaliation around the world, which results in the deaths of more of our troops. In essence, war criminals are not only murdering the people of foreign countries, they are murdering their own fellow soldiers. The Secretary of Defense and the military chain of command are pleading with Trump to NOT pardon these war criminals for the reasons stated here—and many others. But Trump doesn't believe in the rule of law. And neither do many of Trump’s supporters, apparently.

Donald Trump is acting in true king-like fashion. And, again, most Christian conservatives are just fine with it.

Then there are Trump’s war crimes of using military force to seize the oil fields of an independent sovereign nation: Syria.

President Donald Trump has approved an expanded military mission to secure an expanse of oil fields across eastern Syria, raising a number of difficult legal questions about whether U.S. troops can launch strikes against Syrian, Russian or other forces if they threaten the oil, U.S. officials said.

The decision, coming after a meeting Friday between Trump and his defense leaders, locks hundreds of U.S. troops into a more complicated presence in Syria, despite the president’s vow to get America out of the war. Under the new plan, troops would protect a large swath of land controlled by Syrian Kurdish fighters that stretches nearly 90 miles (150 kilometers) from Deir el-Zour to al-Hassakeh, but its exact size is still being determined.

Officials said many details still have to be worked out. But, Trump’s decision hands commanders a victory in their push to remain in the country to prevent any resurgence of the Islamic State group, counter Iran and partner with the Kurds, who battled IS alongside the U.S. for several years. But it also forces lawyers in the Pentagon to craft orders for the troops that could see them firing on Syrian government or Russian fighters trying to take back oil facilities that sit within the sovereign nation of Syria. (Source)

So much for bringing U.S. troops home from Syria. As I noted last week, Donald Trump is not scaling back U.S. wars in the Middle East; he is exploding those wars exponentially. Do most Christian conservatives care? Not one bit.

Should Donald Trump be elected to a second term next year (and I believe the odds are he WILL be re-elected—impeachment notwithstanding), there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that he will spend the next four years turning America into a monarchical militarized Police State and expanding America’s Warfare State beyond any of his predecessors. And by the time 2024 rolls around, he may indeed be permanently ensconced as America’s Monarch-in-Chief. If that happens, Christian conservatives will embrace it with open hearts and celebrate it as akin to the Second Coming.

The political and legal world appears as an immense accumulation of images. One of the most striking images from the 2016 presidential campaign was the notion put forward by then-candidate Donald Trump that he could literally shoot someone in the middle of Manhattan’s 5th Avenue and suffer zero political consequences.

In a Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday morning, Trump lawyer William Consovoy argued the 45th president could take such a shot, make it, and suffer zero legal consequences as well.

Have you heard any Christian conservative objecting to such a preposterous claim? No, you haven’t. In fact, a new poll published by Monmouth University Polling Institute shows that 62% of Trump’s supporters would continue to support him no matter what he did or did not do. NO MATTER WHAT!

Would these Christian conservatives have remained silent if Barack Obama or Bill Clinton and their attorneys had said what Trump and his attorney said? This is the talk of monarchies. Again, Christian conservatives do not object to monarchy as long as Donald Trump is the king.

On the other hand, if Donald Trump can drop over 100,000 bombs and kill tens of thousands of innocent people around the world (which he has done) and not be held legally accountable, what would one more murder on 5th Avenue matter?

By embracing Donald Trump’s monarchical machinations, Christian conservatives are not singing, “Hail to the Chief”; they are shouting, “Hail, Caesar!”

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The Old Covenant Is Abolished, And We Are Under A New,
Better And Everlasting Covenant

This message was preached by Pastor Chuck Baldwin on Sunday, July 14, 2019, during the service at Liberty Fellowship. To purchase a copy of this message or to support the fellowship, please visit LibertyFellowshipMT.com.

The U.S. House of Representatives (“The People’s House”) has launched a formal impeachment investigation against President Donald Trump. True to form, Christians, conservatives and most Republicans are dismissing this investigation as “another witch hunt” against Trump.

To be sure, the only time a political party in Washington, D.C., gets constitutionally indignant against a sitting president is when that president is a member of the opposite party. Accordingly, impeachment or censorship is typically NOT motivated by reasons of constitutional conviction but by reasons that are nothing more than pure political partisanship. They (both parties) only care about the Constitution when they can use it as a hammer against the other party.

By the same token, rank-and-file Democrats and Republicans typically don’t give a rat’s tail about the Constitution either—except when THEY can use it as a hammer against the other party. I’ll say it again: The phony left/right, Democrat/Republican paradigm is killing our country.

Do I believe Donald Trump has committed impeachable offenses? You bet I do! I believe he deserved to be impeached as soon as he took office for bribing two prostitutes during the 2016 campaign to keep quiet about their sexual affairs with Trump—acts that were clearly intended to strengthen (or, at the very least, to not weaken) his presidential campaign. I further believe that Trump deserves to be impeached for bombing Syria without the approval of Congress, without Syria attacking or threatening to attack the U.S. and without any declaration of war by Congress.

In fact, Donald Trump has dropped over 110,000 bombs—killing mostly innocent civilians—since he became president. Every single bomb dropped and every single innocent person killed was an impeachable offense in my view.

Then again, I believe that every president in my lifetime deserved to be impeached, as none of them faithfully upheld their oath of office to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of The United States.”

But the current impeachment investigation is not focused on any of the above. It is focused on Trump’s apparent attempt to deliberately solicit the assistance of a foreign government (Ukraine) to help find dirt on his chief political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Make no mistake about it: This is a very serious investigation. This one has teeth. This one has the potential to seriously damage Trump’s presidency.

America’s Founding Fathers took foreign interference—especially in U.S. elections—very seriously. In his Farewell Address, George Washington warned:

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government.

To be sure, since the dawn of the 20th century, foreign influences upon the U.S. government (even State governments) have been plentiful, powerful and perpetual. In recent memory, the influence that China exerted over the Bill Clinton White House was massive. And we have also learned that the influence of the Russian/Jewish mafia (readers should understand that for all intents and purposes the Russian mafia is nothing more than the old Bolshevik/Jewish mafia) over the Donald Trump White House is also massive.

I have previously documented in this column the close working relationship between Donald Trump and the Russian/Jewish mafia going back to his years in private business. This relationship only intensified after Trump became president.

While Robert Mueller deliberately let Trump off the hook for the Russian mob’s influence over him, at least half of Mueller’s report on Trump’s potential criminal activity chronicled a “pattern” of obstruction by Trump. Mueller left it to Trump’s Justice Department to determine what charges, if any, should be brought against the president—knowing that Trump toady Attorney General Bill Barr would do nothing except provide cover for Trump.

Contrary to the paranoid persuasions of the political right, Robert Mueller has always been a puppet of the Russian/Jewish Deep State, and, therefore, he never had any intention of accusing their most powerful and loyal front man (Trump) of overt criminality that would assure his impeachment. But his finding of a “pattern” of obstruction by Trump still comprises HALF of Mueller’s report.

And when it comes to foreign influence, the State of Israel has the greatest influence upon the U.S. government of all influences, foreign or domestic. Israel has scores of professional lobby organizations operating in Washington, D.C. (not to mention the covert ones), exerting the single most powerful influence on Washington politics. In addition, as I have documented previously, Washington is littered with politicians who hold dual citizenship with the State of Israel.

It is no hyperbole to say that the State of Israel influences the policies and decisions of every president and every federal congress—Democrat and Republican—since almost from the time of its inception in 1948. But since the vast majority of politicos inside the Beltway from both parties are on the take from the powerful Israeli lobby, no one will ever be exposed, much less impeached, for these crimes.

Do I believe Trump’s actions regarding the phone call with the Ukrainian president were an impeachable offense? From what I have learned to date, yes I do. (And I’m glad to see that Congressman Justin Amash and Judge Andrew Napolitano agree with me.) And I further believe that this is quintessential Donald Trump. It is part of his nature; part of his “pattern” of obstruction. And it does no good for Trump loyalists to try and shift the blame on Joe Biden and his son. Yes, Biden is guilty too. (Why didn’t Republicans in the House launch an impeachment inquiry against Biden when he was Vice President?) But Biden is not president; Trump is.

And as far as Joe Biden is concerned, this impeachment investigation may not only be the political demise of Donald Trump, it might also be the political demise of Biden. Tanking Biden might be as much a part of the Deep State’s plan as tanking Trump.

One would think that if Trump is impeached—even without being removed from office, which is highly unlikely given a supermajority in the Republican Senate would be required to convict—Joe Biden would be the natural beneficiary. Despite his age and blunders of speech, Biden is far and away Trump’s most formidable challenger in 2020. The radical socialist views of both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren make them very weak candidates in a national election against even an unpopular and crippled (due to his impeachment, should it occur) incumbent Republican president. But what happens if this impeachment investigation takes down Biden but not Trump? That’s certainly a possibility.

At this juncture, we can only speculate. The movers and shakers of the Deep State are light-years ahead of us ordinary Americans when it comes to their geopolitical planning. If they want Trump to remain in power (yes, he is as much a toady of the Deep State as anyone else), the Zionist-controlled media will turn against Biden (which they already seem to be doing), and Warren will be nominated (Sanders is not enough of a warmonger for the power elite). In that matchup, Trump would win by about the same margin in which he beat Hillary—or maybe by an even greater margin. Wall Street in New York hates Warren as much as State Street in Chicago hates Trump. In that matchup, Wall Street wins every time.

If, however, the power elite considers Trump to be too much of a liability to risk four additional years of him in the White House (his skeletons and crimes are plenteous)—and given Trump’s arrogance and Napoleonic predispositions—they may not be able to protect him from discovery for that length of time. Their course of action in this scenario could include sacrificing Trump via a serious impeachment effort that would make it almost impossible for him to win in 2020. If enough Republicans are convinced that Trump is truly guilty of the charges that he sought foreign influence over next year’s elections and join the impeachment effort, it will be almost impossible for Trump to continue to govern—à la Richard Nixon.

If the above scenario takes place, it will mean that Anthony Scaramucci could be right and Donald Trump could resign the presidency so as to give Vice President Mike Pence the opportunity to beat an avowed socialist Democrat in 2020—which he would.

As an aside, back in June of 2017, I wrote in this column about the distinct possibility that the globalists’ plan might be for Mike Pence to be the Republican nominee and hence the next U.S. president. That possibility is even more likely now than when I wrote that column.

Regardless, this point needs to be driven home: America’s founders believed that impeachment was a very important and necessary tool in the arsenal of liberty and constitutional government. If anything, impeachment is not used nearly often enough.

James Madison saw the impeachment clause in the Constitution as being “indispensable . . . for defending the Community [against] the incapacity, negligence or perfidy of the chief Magistrate.” He further explained, “The limitation of the period of his [the president’s] service was not a sufficient security. He might lose his capacity after his appointment. He might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation [embezzlement or theft] or oppression. He might betray his trust to foreign powers.”

Elbridge Gerry said, “A good magistrate will not fear [impeachments]. A bad one ought to be kept in fear of them.”

George Mason said, “No point is of more importance than that the right of impeachment should be continued. Shall any man be above Justice?”

Impeachment is the constitutional antidote to the unconstitutional conduct of civil magistrates. The fact that impeachment has been used so seldom is a curse, not a blessing. Since 1789, only 19 federal officials have been brought up on impeachment charges by the House of Representatives, with eight people convicted after a Senate trial. Two Presidents—Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton—were impeached but were not found guilty by a two-thirds majority of the Senate.

Impeachment is a strong deterrent to mischief and is an intricate part of our constitutional system of checks and balances against the attempted accruement of power by the executive or judicial branches of government. Via the Constitution, our founders entrusted the greatest authority over government corruption and the greatest responsibility to protect the liberties of the American people to the Congress—especially to the House of Representatives—hence the duty of the American people to elect honest and honorable men and women to the U.S. House—which is rightly called “The People’s House.”

Even if a president is not removed from office, the fact that he was impeached will deter future actions of wrongdoing and will also mar his future reputation. History will forever hold an impeached president’s term in office in disrepute. Potential impeachment was intended to be a strong deterrent against presidential abuse of power.

Obviously, for impeachment to be the proper tool for good that it was designed to be, the House of Representatives must be comprised of men and women of constitutional principle who value liberty and constitutional government above partisan politics. This we have not had in ages. Furthermore, the American people who elect their U.S. House members must be men and women who value liberty and constitutional government above partisan politics. Neither have we had this in ages.

Accordingly, impeachment is not often used, as principled constitutionalism in the U.S. House and in the voting public is as rare as hen’s teeth. And on those isolated occasions when it is used, it is used mostly as a Sword of Damocles for partisan politics rather than a sword of justice for the principles of liberty.

The vast majority of Christians know next to nothing of the destruction of Jerusalem. The great truths that God taught through this seismic event are all but lost to today's Christians. The lack of knowledge and understanding about the destruction of Jerusalem is a sign of the great "falling away" that has taken place in the Church over the past one hundred years. It is also a major cause of the vast misinterpretation of prophetic Scriptures relating to Israel.

Furthermore, the loss of these great truths contributes massively to the false doctrines of Christian Zionism being taught by the vast majority of evangelical churches today.

This one message, by itself, has already been used of God to not only challenge the thinking of many people rooted in Christian Zionism but to actually change their minds. This is the ONE message to give to as many friends as you can. I don't know of another single message that has more power of God upon it to help bring Christians to an understanding of the Biblical truth regarding Israel than this one.

Plus, since so many people want to share this DVD with their friends and loved ones, I am offering a special bulk discount price for this message.

*If you appreciate this column and want to help me distribute these editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, donations may be made by credit card, check, or Money Order. Use this link:

LibertyFellowshipMT Oct 7, 2019 | Message by Dr. Chuck Baldwin on Oct. 6, 2019

This message was preached by Pastor Chuck Baldwin on Sunday, October 6, 2019, during the service at Liberty Fellowship. To purchase a copy of this message or to support the fellowship, please visit LibertyFellowshipMT.com.

The Religious Right was born during the ineptitude of the Jimmy Carter presidency and came to maturity during the Bill Clinton years. It got old and feeble during the G.W. Bush years. And now under the Trump presidency, it is nothing but a rotting corpse. The Religious Right was created to be a cure, but it has become a blight.

I was a young preacher back in the 1970s when the Religious Right (as it was dubbed by the media) was birthed. I had recently graduated from what is now the Willmington School of the Bible (named after my dean, teacher and friend, Dr. Harold Willmington—he was the main reason I transferred to the institute) at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. In fact, I was a member of Liberty’s first full graduation class in 1975. I knew the Falwell children, Jerry Jr., Jeannie and Jonathan, when they were kids. The school was small then; and the school president, Dr. Jerry Falwell Sr., and I became quite close.

Jerry spoke at my church in Florida several times, and he invited me to be the featured speaker at Liberty more than once. In 1979, Jerry asked me to be the executive director of the Florida Moral Majority, which I was happy to do. I traveled with Jerry several times on his private jet; he and I shared the platform together in several conferences; I was a featured guest on his nationally syndicated Old Time Gospel Hour television broadcast; and Jerry featured me in his national publication, the National Liberty Journal. I accompanied Jerry overseas twice, and we often spoke by phone.

During those years, I met most of the leaders of the Religious Right. I was there when Jerry led the Religious Right to endorse George H.W. Bush as Ronald Reagan’s running mate in 1980 (over the strong objections of a few of us). I was at the White House with Jerry on at least two occasions. I had audiences with President Reagan, Vice President Bush, several cabinet members, many U.S. senators, house members and governors. I was one of the young bucks in the room, but I was there.

On my nationally syndicated radio talk show during the 1990s, I interviewed and/or met most of the power elite in the Republican Party. My radio show helped elect dozens of conservatives to national, State and local offices. For those of you who have never read my full biographical sketch, here it is.

I say all of that only to prove my bona fides with the Religious Right. So, know that I am speaking as an insider, not as a critic from the outside.

The first time I remember hearing the word Zionist in public was in 1980. We were at a press conference in Washington, D.C., and a journalist asked Jerry on live television, “Are you a Zionist?” In my young ignorant mind, I remember saying to myself, “No.” The thought was still reverberating around in my head when I heard Jerry emphatically say, “Yes.” I was confused about it; but I dismissed it to my youth and lack of knowledge. Come to find out many years later, of course, that my initial instinct was 100% right.

The first tarnish on the armor of my mentors in the Religious Right came in 1996, when they overwhelmingly embraced the candidacy of Bob Dole over Pat Buchanan. I was old enough at that point to start standing on my own two feet, and I took that fight to the bitter end. That story, if told in full, is one for the history books—and it forever changed me.

When G.W. Bush came along in 2000, I was skeptical but willing to give him a chance. It didn’t take long. After only a few months of Bush’s unconstitutional conduct—and especially his pathetic penchant for warmongering—I began taking him to task over my radio talk show and in my syndicated column. My brethren in the Religious Right excoriated me. But by then, I had learned my lesson from ’96, and I was man enough to take the heat—which I did for eight long years.

Needless to say, the closeness I had shared with Jerry began to unravel as I refused to complacently go along with my brethren when they compromised principle after principle to stay on Bush’s smiley side. But I grew a tough hide and a strong constitution during those years. I now know that those years were only prep school for the Trump years.

Yes, I saw all of this coming for a long time. But I honestly could never have guessed how bad it would get, because no one (at least not me) could foresee the arrival of Donald Trump. I foolishly thought that G.W. Bush was the worst it would be. And by worst, I’m not talking about Bush; I’m talking about the fawning actions and attitudes of the Religious Right toward Bush.

The power elite that control both political parties have completely mastered the Hegelian Dialectic. They have advanced architectural and engineering degrees in the designing and building of the phony left-right paradigm. They are professional propagandists and experts in political manipulation. Tokyo Rose and Joseph Goebbels were rank amateurs compared to these monsters. And Donald Trump is their greatest achievement. He is the Frankenstein who the Religious Right believes is Cinderella.

Many of the original movers and shakers of the Religious Right (RR) are no longer with us, of course. I would like to think that those dear old souls that I remember would be turning over in their graves if they could see what their spiritual posterity has become.

Pastor Robert Jefress is out there telling the nation that if Trump is impeached, it will bring civil war to America (and, of course, our Divider-in-Chief Donald Trump broadcasts Jeffress’ idiocy to the world). Jeffress is as irresponsible and foolhardy as they come. (Actually, this impeachment effort by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could wind up being the catalyst to Trump’s reelection; and Democrats might rue the day she tried it.)

Jeffress said absolutely nothing about Trump’s promotion of “red flag” gun confiscation laws that violate the vast majority of our Bill of Rights, not to mention the very core of God’s Natural laws of liberty, but wants to take the country into civil war should the constitutional act of impeachment take place. What a crock! If there is anything that would take our country to civil war it would be attempted gun confiscation. Remember Lexington and Concord? That was ALL ABOUT gun confiscation.

I don’t remember anyone calling for civil war when the GOP House of Representatives impeached Bill Clinton with only 5—mark it, 5—Democrats voting yes for impeachment. Talk about pure partisanship. But the good Pastor Jeffress ignores the tyrannical and unconstitutional act of gun confiscation without due process (because Trump is for it) and threatens the nation with civil war over a constitutional act of Congress. This is because Jeffress cares NOTHING for the Constitution and God’s Natural laws. All he cares about is protecting Donald Trump and the Republican Party. And Jeffress is not alone.

Convicted felon and televangelist Jim Bakker (yes, he still has a large “Christian” following) is out there telling the world that if Trump loses the election next year, Christian leaders are going to be murdered. (You know things are upside down when I have to quote this article.) Talk about fear mongering; this is it. Then again, the entire RR seems to be motivated by fear and NOT faith these days.

Pat Robertson is out there decrying Trump’s withdrawal of some 50 American troops from the Turkish/Syrian border. Trump is not evacuating troops from Syria; he only moved a small contingent of troops away from the border (so American troops would not be harmed) in an apparent deal with Turkey’s government, which allows it to attack Syria without risking the lives of American troops. For this, Robertson said that Trump is in danger of “losing the mandate of heaven.” Really, Pat?

Robertson also (FINALLY) condemned Trump for aiding and abetting Saudi Arabia’s brutal murder of American resident, journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Hooray for that point, Pat. It’s a little late, don’t you think? You and the rest of the RR sat back on your hypocrisy and said absolutely NOTHING about Trump’s tacit approval of the House of Saud’s murder of Khashoggi (and tens of thousands of innocent Yemeni people, I might add).

But Robertson—along with the rest of the warmongers in the Republican Party—are suddenly righteously indignant about Trump redeploying (to another part of Syria) 50 troops? Like all of a sudden Trump has become a giant peacenik?

Donald Trump has expanded the Warfare State beyond any of his modern predecessors. He has dropped over 100,000 bombs, killing tens of thousands—maybe over 100,000 innocent people—since taking office. If he is given another term in office, Trump is on a pace to drop more bombs on more innocent people than G.W. Bush and Barack Obama put together. Trump joins those two U.S. presidents as international war criminals and mass murderers, and Pat Robertson goes ballistic over Trump moving 50 troops? Are you kidding?

I’ll tell you what this is all about. Robertson and the rest of the RR are rabid, fanatical Zionists. (Yes, as you know, I finally awakened to what that is.) Robertson’s rebuke is a shot across the bow of Trump’s ship of state warning him to not abandon their idol, Israel, fearing the possibility that he might abandon Syria.

There is only ONE thing over which the RR would abandon Trump. He can do nothing to overturn Roe v Wade, and they will support him; he can enact gun control and even gun confiscation laws, and they will support him; he can partner with gangsters and mob figures, and they will support him; he can explode deficit spending and the national debt, and they will support him. But if they perceive that he might be abandoning Israel—which Trump will NEVER do, as he is an Israeli asset—they will shout it from the housetops.

Faith and Freedom Coalition founder and RR bigwig Ralph Reed is going to publish a book prior to next year’s elections promoting Donald Trump. The original title for the book was Render To God And Trump, which is taken from Matthew 22:21, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.” Or, in this case, Trump’s. But the title was changed, and the book will be published under the rubric For God And Country: The Christian Case For Trump.

In his book, Reed is going to argue that Christians have a “duty” to defend and vote for Trump. It would not surprise me if Reed made voting for Trump requisite for gaining entrance into Heaven. He’s also planning to hire a paid staff of 500 people and a volunteer staff of 5,000 people to knock on doors eight hours a day during 2020 for Trump.

To people such as Reed, politics—excuse me, Republican politics—is their religion. Trump is not a president; he is a savior. And the Republican Party is their church. If you think I’m exaggerating, just go to church with them one Sunday and then go to a GOP rally with them later in the week, and you’ll instantly see what I mean.

The fact is, I am probably the least political preacher you’ve ever heard. I care nothing about partisan politics. I am consistent in my support of Natural law and constitutionally protected liberties in the face of a Republican challenge as much as I am in the face of a Democrat challenge. This is evidenced by the fact that when a Democrat is in the White House, Democrats hate me; and when a Republican is in the White House, Republicans hate me. Why? Because I tell the truth about both.

But as one of the most famous and most influential leaders of the RR, Jerry Falwell Jr. is one of Donald Trump’s most sycophantic toadies. Why not? They are two peas in a pod.

When Jerry Falwell Sr. and others started the Moral Majority and the Religious Right, I believe their motives were pure. They wanted Christians to stand up for Biblical righteousness, the Natural laws of our Creator codified in the Bill of Rights and the fundamental laws of morality upon which all societies and governments must build in order to survive.

For a while, they were astoundingly successful. But, as so often happens: success ruined them.

After Ronald Reagan’s election, the RR married the Republican Party. It quickly stopped being about principles, and it started being about partisan politics. And it didn’t take long for the Republican machine to realize that the RR craved attention; it craved popularity; it craved the perks of power. And they swiftly began manipulating the RR into becoming little more than robotic cheerleaders for the GOP.

I well remember another press conference that I attended with the leaders of the RR back in the day. The reporter’s question was, “What exactly is it you want?” I thought the question was terrific. It gave us a chance to express some of the basic principles of truth that we believed and what we were all about. What an awesome opportunity. One of the key leaders of the RR back then answered by saying (and this is a quote), “All we want is a seat at the table.”

I almost gasped aloud. What? All of this effort, all of this adversity, all of this energy, all of this prayer and fasting was simply to give the leaders of the RR an opportunity to sit at the seat of power? At the time, I thought the answer was one man’s opinion. Turns out it wasn’t. He was truly speaking for many of them. To be sure, not all of them had this Machiavellian motivation, thank God. But for far, far too many of them, that is exactly what they wanted.

Well, the RR got their seat at the table. And now that Trump is president, it is a front-row seat. And I’m here to tell you, the RR will do almost anything to keep their seat at the table. When they protect Donald Trump, they are protecting themselves.

For almost three years, I have studiously documented the fundamental principles of God’s Holy Word, our Creator’s Natural Law and the principles of constitutional government that Donald Trump has egregiously and habitually violated. Worse, as far as true born again Christians should be concerned, I have detailed Trump’s blatant blasphemies against our wonderful Redeemer and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I’ve done so, NOT because I “hate” Donald Trump (no more than I hated Barack Obama or G.W. Bush or Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter when I challenged their unconstitutional conduct) or because I think Hillary Clinton would have made a better president or because I want Donald Trump to lose the 2020 election—or ANYTHING of the sort.

I say these things because almost no one else among the RR (and I was there when it all began) will objectively and honestly say what they all would be shouting from the housetops if Trump were not a Republican. I say it in the hopes that something—SOMETHING—will awaken evangelical preachers to the need of standing on truth and principle regardless of cost, to the need of divorcing themselves from Georg Hegel’s evil left/right paradigm charade that is shrouded in the mask of partisan politics and to the need of being the independent truth-seeking, bold and courageous men of God that they are called to be—and to the need of forsaking the lust for self-aggrandizement, for which many are sacrificing the soul of our nation.

I say these things, because I fear that Gary Silverman—a man with whom I would probably disagree with just about everything—was right when he said that the Bible Belt lost God and found Trump.

Trump didn’t make America great; neither can he make America great again. God made America great. And only God can save it, much less make it great again. But as long as evangelical Christians (especially pastors) look to politicians—Donald Trump or any other politician (no doubt a Republican)—to make America great, they are unwittingly helping to make America after the similitude of what the Religious Right was originally created to change.

*If you appreciate this column and want to help me distribute these editorial opinions to an ever-growing audience, donations may be made by credit card, check, or Money Order. Use this link:

Christian Brothers and Sisters: Did You Know Our Government Is Supporting [Radical]
Islamic Terrorists?

The “ISIS” Islamic terrorists have literally CRUCIFIED people in Iraq recently, and have marked the houses of Christians (and Shia Mulsims) – presumably for execution.

It’s obvious that the Islamic terrorists are threatening Christians. And they’re threatening Jews as well.

But did you know that irrefutable proof shows that our government is backing Islamic terrorists?

So the U.S. is directly supporting the terrorists … and close U.S. allies Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey France and Britain are also supporting them.

Der Spiegel and the Guardian confirmed that the U.S., France and England trained hundreds if notthousands of Islamic fighters in Jordan.

The Jerusalem Post and Breitbart report that an ISIS fighter says that Turkey funds the terrorist group. Turkey is a member of NATO and – until very recently – a close U.S. ally.

The Independent headlines “Iraq crisis: How Saudi Arabia helped Isis take over the north of the country”:

The Daily Beast (a media company formerly owned by Newsweek) notes, in a story entitled “America’s Allies Are Funding ISIS”:

And the Jihadist credited with being the “military mastermind” of the recent ISIS victories is Tarkhan Batirashvili. He’s not Arabic, but rather Chechen. He doesn’t look like an Arab at all Arabic: he’s got a long red beard.

Who are Chechens? Their country – Chechnya – was part of the Soviet Union. After the USSR broke up, the Chechens launched wars and terrorist attacks to try to gain independence from Russia.

The Wall Street Journal reported last year that Batrashvili has made the wars in Syria and Iraq “into a geopolitical struggle between the US and Russia.”

Sadly, the U.S. has supported Sunni Islamic terrorists in Chechnya as a way to harass Russia. (And our backing of such extremists in Chechnya may well have led to the Boston bombings)

As shown below, the U.S. has been backing Islamic terrorists as part of its geopolitical struggle against Russia for many decades.

CIA director and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates confirmed in his memoir that the U.S. backed the Mujahadin in the 1970s.

Indeed, the U.S. started backing Al Qaeda’s forefathers even before the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. As Brzezinski told Le Nouvel Observateur in a 1998 interview:

In other words, if the U.S. and our allies hadn’t backed the radical violent Muslims instead of more stable, peaceful groups in the Middle East, radical Islam wouldn’t have grown so large.

And the chief of the visa section at the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (J. Michael Springmann, who is now an attorney in private practice) says that the CIA insisted that visas be issued to Afghanis so they could travel to the U.S. to be trained in terrorism in the United States, and then sent back to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets.

Moreover, Jane’s Defense Weekly – a respected and widely-cited British military journal – reported in October 2001 that Ramzi Yousef and the other World Trade Center bombers were trained by the CIA and ISI (via the Internet Archive):

Ramzi Yousef was not only the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, but also a key member of the Bojinka Plot … the blueprint for 9/11. And see this.

As professor of strategy at the Naval War College and former National Security Agency intelligence analyst and counterintelligence officer John R. Schindler documents, the U.S. supported Bin Laden and other Al Qaeda terrorists in Bosnia.

Whatever it’s origins, you would think – at the least – the U.S. hammered Al Qaeda after 9/11.

The U.S. also heavily backs the other supporters of the ISIS terrorists, including Qatar, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey. In other words, we back direct sponsors of terrorists.

And the U.S. intentionally armed Al Qaeda in Libya. Our backing of Sunni extremists in Libya led to attacks on our embassies in Libya and Tunisia.

The bottom line, sadly, is that the U.S. has backed the world’s most dangerous and radical Muslim terrorists for decades. And see this.

Postscript: A former high-level Al Qaeda commander has repeatedly alleged that ISIS works for the CIA.

It's government re-education time again, and in an effort to support the ongoing Infowar aimed at injecting liberty and truth into the mainstream education system, the Infowars Store is having a limited time 10% discount on all items by using promo code "10". Click here for more information.

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be
in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."

Al Qaeda's Dark Secret Exposed

In a special video address, Alex Jones terms the al Qaeda intelligence operation a 'swiss army knife' for destabilization. Simply put, it is a tool to foment crisis that allows the globalists to offer up a solution.The shadowy enemy supposedly run by Osama bin Laden and top jihadists like Anwar al-Awlaki is really run out of U.S. foreign policy and the Pentagon. It is perhaps government's greatest hoax... and one of the oldest tricks in the book.

For the average person who has lived through the phony 'War on Terror', a post-9/11 age of fear that has swirled around the persona of bin Laden, it may be quite confusing to now read headlines like Libya: the West and al-Qaeda on the same side. Indeed the rebel forces trying to topple Gaddafi admittedly include thousands of al Qaeda forces while enjoying total backing-- weapons, planes, funding and forces-- from the U.S., Britain, NATO and other allies.

9/11 According to Donald Trump
"This is the same Donald Trump who on the campaign trail told Fox & Friends, 'Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn't the Iraqis, it was Saudi--take a look at Saudi Arabia, open the documents.' Now, instead of opening the documents ON Saudi Arabia, Trump is opening the purse FOR Saudi Arabia." -- Rev Chuck Baldwin: Globalists Using Donald Trump To Take America Into War, May 25, 2017 -- http://chuckbaldwinlive.com/Articles/tabid/109/ID/3604/Globalists-Using-Donald-Trump-To-Take-America-Into-War.aspx Learn More About 911 Here: INFAMOUS 9/11
“Who blew up the World Trade Center? It wasn’t the Iraqis, it was Saudi — take a look at Saudi Arabia, open the documents.” -- Donald Trump Fox and Friends on the morning of February 17, 2016 --
Donald Trump You May Find The Saudis Were Behind The 9/11 Attacks	Does Saudi Arabia Own Donald Trump	Donald Trump Interview on FOX AND FRIENDS 2/17/16
"EITHER YOU ARE WITH US, OR WITH THE TERRORISTS" - George W. Bush, 9/21/2001 -

LINK: INFAMOUS 9/11

"Great pains were taken to hide it from the world."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ISIS ALLOWED TO LEAVE RAQQA LOADED WITH WEAPONS AND AMMUNITION!!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Reoccurring Story Which Clearly Illustrates "The War On Terror" Is A Nefarious Fabrication For:

ENDLESS WAR

‘We saw them with our own eyes’: SDF fighters describe unimpeded ISIS exodus from Raqqa

RT

Published on Dec 28, 2017

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have confirmed to RT that thousands of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorists and their family members were allowed to leave Raqqa, shortly before the city was fully recaptured. Earlier it was reported that the deal with IS had been agreed with the knowledge of the US-led coalition.

Fall of Raqqa:
The Secret Deal
- BBC News -

BBC News
Published on Nov 14, 2017

When US-backed Syrian fighters took full control of the city of Raqqa, it ended three years of rule there by so-called Islamic State. But now the BBC has uncovered details of a secret deal that let several hundred IS fighters escape. IS made Raqqa in northern Syria its headquarters in early 2014. Last month Raqqa fell, but this programme has learnt that in exchange for a deal to save lives and bring peace to the city, a convoy carrying several hundred IS fighters, their families and weapons and ammunition -- were able to leave the city freely. The question now is, where are they now? Our Middle East Correspondent, Quentin Sommerville, has this exclusive report.

ISIS convoys leaving Raqqa, confirmed in SDF video footage

RT
Published on Dec 27, 2017

Fighters of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) confirmed from Raqqa that they had shot footage showing militants of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS; formerly ISIL/ISIS) peacefully leaving Raqqa on their watch. Thought to have been filmed towards the end of the battle for Raqqa, the footage shows buses and trucks carrying dozens of IS militants from the embattled city, according to one of the fighters.

ISIS 2.0? US may regroup with former ISIS fighters – Middle East analyst

RT
Published on Dec 28, 2017

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have confirmed to RT that thousands of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorists and their family members were allowed to leave Raqqa, shortly before the city was fully recaptured. Ali Rizk, a contributor with the Al-Monitor news site, thinks the Americans were an integral part of a deal to see IS help form a buffer against Iran.

ISIS leaders escaped Syria with help from US, UK report

RT America
Published on Nov 14, 2017

Did the US and UK help Islamic State leaders escape Raqqa, Syria, or was it a humanitarian effort gone awry? RT America’s David Miller examines a new report on a secret deal between the United States and Britain to help ISIS flee the besieged city.

ISIS gone, what follows will be worse – fmr Pentagon official

RT America
Published on Dec 28, 2017

Islamic State has been defeated in Syria, thanks to Russian and Syrian government forces. As US President Donald Trump takes credit for the victory, there are reports the US is re-training Sunni fighters, including Islamic State radicals, to return under a different name and continue to wage sectarian warfare. Former Pentagon official Michael Maloof tells RT that this is an unsurprising step in the evolving US policy on Syria and expects that the US will ultimately try to partition Syria in order to impede Iranian influence in the region.

Bombshell Report Exposes Pentagon Arms Transfer To Syrian Rebels!

Press For Truth
Published on Sep 16, 2017

Donald Trump Lied! The CIA still supplies weapons to anti Assad forces. The pentagon has been caught altering documents to "memory hole" any mention of Syria when it comes to the CIA's weapons program for ISIS. The US has been secretly arming, training and funding the opposition to Assad in Syria in an attempt to overthrow the dictator paving the way for an eventual war with Iran. In this video Dan Dicks of Press For Truth goes over a recently released bombshell report detailing the fact that the pentagon isB C still supplying weapons to Anti Assad forces in Syria despite the fact that Donald Trump announced just two months ago that he was halting the CIA's Syrian weapons program.

Interview With Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, Weapons Supplies To Militants In Syria

South Front
Streamed live on Sep 2, 2017

LIVE STREAM: Interview With Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, Weapons Supplies To Militants In Syria

Pentagon forged documents for weapons sales to Syrian rebels – report

RT America
Published on Sep 14, 2017

A new report shows the Pentagon is buying weapons and ammunition from Eastern Europe to arm Syrian rebels, and the paperwork involved isn’t exactly legitimate, RT’s Natasha Sweatte explains.

US Troops ‘Saved’ ISIS Terrorists & Leaders From Taliban Siege In East Afghanistan

The Last American Vagabond
Published on Jun 24, 2019

This is an excerpt of The Daily Wrap Up 6/23.

Full Episode Can Be Seen Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4fsc...

ENDLESS WAR
-- Some Background --

Every time the terrorist leadership finds itself cornered, the US forces HELP them "escape" - again, and again, and again. It's a well documented fact. It was nicknamed the "Airlift of Evil."

Understand why, and you will also understand why the US drops them weapons and supplies, trains them, and gives them money. The criminals infesting our government NEED THEM. It is part of their ongoing business to keep us in perpetual fear and war. [Next Column]

Airlift of Evil 2016
The US HELPS Terrorist Fake Enemies Escape... AGAIN

AccessReality
Published on May 10, 2016

[Cont.]
The so-called 'refugees', containing a substantial percentage of ISIS Jihadists, are given passage, shelter, and generally a free pass. Now one can understand this also.

MSM Feigns 'Outrage' Over US Weapons Being Found
With Libyan "Rebels," Ignoring Past Coverage

The Last American Vagabond
Published on Jul 3, 2019

This is an excerpt of The Daily Wrap Up 6/30.

Full Episode Can Be Seen Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq3s7...

INTERVIEW: Dilyana Gaytandzhieva reveals US arms trafficking to ISIS

September 12, 2019 By 21wire

“While US President Donald Trump boasts about the defeat of Islamic State in Syria, US government-purchased weapons appear in the hands of Islamic State terrorists in Yemen.”

During EP 294 of the SUNDAY WIRE show, host Patrick Henningsen spoke with Bulgarian investigative journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, to discuss her latest ground-breaking investigation which reveals illegal US Department of Defense operation to traffic weapons clear into 2018-2019 – and into the hands of ISIS terrorists in Yemen and Syria. The details in this story leave no doubt as to the scale and severity of this illegal operation which contravenes US, EU and international law.

For more information on this story, visit Arms Watch:
http://armswatch.com/islamic-state-weapons-in-yemen-traced-back-to-us-government-serbia-files-part-1/

READ MORE ISIS NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire ISIS Files

https://armswatch.com/

Links:

General Summary/Crash Course

"When I hear Christians saying we ought not get involved in politics but just “preach the Gospel,” I show them this satellite picture of the Korean peninsula. Here we see a homogenous population of mostly Koreans separated by a well-fortified border. South Korea is full of freedom, food and productivity—it’s one of the most Christianized countries in the world. North Korea is a concentration camp. They have no freedom, no food, and very little Christianity."

This is something the establishment media has completely failed to explain properly. All the video footage of weeping North Koreans stricken with grief over the death of the “dear leader” Kim Jong-Il is by no means spontaneous or natural.

It’s all part of the fun of living in a Stalinist dictatorship. If citizens do not show the appropriately sullen facial expressions, if they don’t produce tears, and if they don’t properly grieve for the dead dictator, they face imprisonment and possible execution.

Sure, some of the grief is genuine, it’s the result of a lifetime of brainwashing and the enforcement of the cult of personality. But in the most arcane and brutal police state on the planet, not being upset over Kim Jong-Il’s death could mean you’re reported as an enemy of the state by the local spy and sent to a gulag. Your entire family could also be targeted for the same treatment.

Identical scenes were witnessed after the death of the previous “dear leader,” Kim Il-sung.

Millions of North Koreans have starved to death over the past 20 years as a result of the regime’s disastrous economic policies and their refusal to accept food aid. Food is still scarce, so the fact that citizens are also handed small snacks if they attend these spectacles and put on a fake display of grief is also a massive incentive for a permanently hungry population.

North Korea is the perfect illustration of what happens when power is concentrated into the hands of the few – totalitarianism, mass starvation, economic collapse and complete enslavement.

It’s a warning the western world would do well to heed, especially in the aftermath of the passage of a law which formally opens up the chance of Americans being sent to gulags in the name of state security.

When I hear Christians saying we ought not get involved in politics but just “preach the Gospel,” I show them this satellite picture of the Korean peninsula. Here we see a homogenous population of mostly Koreans separated by a well-fortified border. South Korea is full of freedom, food and productivity—it’s one of the most Christianized countries in the world. North Korea is a concentration camp. They have no freedom, no food, and very little Christianity.

What’s the primary reason for the stark difference between these two countries? Politics. The South politically allows freedom, while the North does not.

Ironically, Christians who shun politics to supposedly advance the Gospel are actually allowing others to stop the Gospel. How so? Because politics and law affects one’s ability to preach the Gospel! If you think otherwise, visit some of the countries I have visited—Iran, Saudi Arabia and China. You cannot legally “preach the Gospel” in those countries—or practice other aspects of your religion freely—because politically they’ve ruled it out as they have in North Korea.

In fact, politics affects virtually every area of your life through the laws made by government. So if you care about your family, business, church, school, children, money, property, home, security, healthcare, safety, freedom, and your ability to “preach the Gospel,” then you should care about politics.

Politics affects everything, which is why leaders throughout the Bible—including Joseph, Moses, Daniel, Nehemiah, Mordecai, Esther, John the Baptist, and Paul— “went political” to influence civil governments to govern morally. Even Jesus himself got involved in politics when he publically chastised the Pharisees—the religious and political leaders of Israel—for neglecting “the more important matters of the law.”

Unfortunately, our lawmakers today are doing the same thing. They use the force of law tell us what light bulbs to use and what the school lunch menu should be, but neglect to put any restrictions on the taking of human life by abortion! What could be more important than life? The right to life is the right to all other rights. If you don’t have life, you don’t have anything.

But what can Christians do? After all, we can’t legislate morality, can we? News flash: All laws legislate morality! Morality is about right and wrong and all laws declare one behavior right and the opposite behavior wrong. So the question is not whether we can legislate morality, but “Whose morality will we legislate?”

The answer our Founding Fathers gave was the “self-evident” morality given to us by our Creator—the same Moral Law that the apostle Paul said that all people have “written on their hearts.” In other words, not my morality or your morality, but the morality—the one we inherited not the one we invented. (This doesn’t mean that every moral or political issue has clear right and wrong answers. It only means that “the more important matters of the law” – life, marriage and religious freedom for example—do have clear answers that we should heed.)

Notice our Founders did not have to establish a particular denomination or force religious practice in order to legislate a moral code. Our country justifies moral rights with theism, but does not require its citizens to acknowledge or practice theism. That’s why Chris Matthews and other liberals are wrong when they charge that Christians are trying to impose a “theocracy” or violate the “separation of Church and State.” They fail to distinguish between religion and morality.

Broadly defined, religion involves our duty to God while morality involves our duty to one another. Our lawmakers are not telling people how, when, or if to go to church—that would be legislating religion. But lawmakers cannot avoid telling people how they should treat one another— that is legislating morality, and that is what all laws do.

Opposition to abortion or same-sex marriage, for example, does not entail the establishment of a “theocracy.” Churches and the Bible also teach that murder, theft, and child abuse are wrong, but no one says laws prohibiting such acts establish a theocracy or are a violation of the “separation of church and state.” In fact, if the government could not pass laws consistent with church or biblical teachings, then all criminal laws would have to be overturned because they are all in some way consistent with at least one of the Ten Commandments.

Second, there are churches on both sides of these issues. In other words, some liberal churches, contrary to scripture, actually support abortion and same-sex marriage. So if church-supported positions could not be put into law, then we could not have laws either way on abortion or same-sex marriage. Absurd.

Finally, most proponents of same-sex marriage argue as if they have some kind of moral right to having their relationships endorsed by the state. They claim that they don’t have “equal rights” or that they are being “discriminated” against. Likewise, abortion advocates claim they have a moral “right” to choose an abortion. None of these claims are true, as I have explained elsewhere. Nevertheless, their arguments, while flawed, expose the fact that independent of religion they seek to legislate their morality rather than the morality.

If you have a problem with the morality, don’t blame me. I didn’t make it up. I didn’t make up the fact that abortion is wrong, that men are not designed for other men, or that natural marriage is the foundation of a civilized society. Those unchangeable objective truths about reality are examples of the “Laws of Nature” from “Nature’s God,” as the Declaration of Independence puts it, and we only hurt others and ourselves by suppressing those truths and legislating immoral laws.

When we fail to legislate morally, others impose immorality. For example, totalitarian political correctness is already imposed in states such as Massachusetts where the implications of same-sex marriage override the religious liberties of businesses, charities and even parents. As documented here and illustrated here, same sex marriage prevents you from running your business, educating your children, or practicing your religion in accord with your Conscience. And soon, as is the case in Canada, you may not be able to merely speak Biblically about homosexual behavior. That is because those who say they are fighting for “tolerance” are often the most intolerant.

Unless Christians begin to influence politics and the culture more significantly, we will continue to lose the very freedoms that enable us to live according to our beliefs and spread the Gospel all over the world. That’s why you should not vote for candidates because of their race or religion, but because they will govern morally on the more important matters of the law—life, marriage and religious freedom. (To see where all the major candidates stand visit the non-partisan website http://www.ontheissues.org.)

If you are a pastor who is worried about your tax-exempt status: 1) you have more freedom than you think to speak on political and moral issues from the pulpit; 2) if you do not speak up for truth now, you will soon lose your freedom to speak for anything, including the Gospel; and 3) you are called to be salt and light, not tax-exempt.

Governments have no problem usurping power from the church. In fact, misinterpreting Romans 13 means
many Christians think it’s divinely sanctioned to grovel at Big Government’s cloven feet.

Trump's Speech After Shootings Paves Way
For A Dramatic Loss Of Rights, Censorship & PreCrime

These letter was written by Dr. Chuck Baldwin and read live prior to the message preached by
Pastor Chuck Baldwin on Sunday, March 17, 2019 during the service at Liberty Fellowship.

Donald Trump promised the American people that he would protect our 2nd Amendment. No promise Trump made was more emphatic than his promise to protect the 2nd Amendment.

But now President Trump has joined anti-gun Democrats by becoming the loudest proponent for more draconian gun control laws, including universal background checks and "red flag" gun confiscation laws.

The NRA is compromised and in complete disarray and will be no help. It is up to the people who voted for Donald Trump to stop this. If they do not rise up en masse NOW and let Trump know in no uncertain terms that he has lost their vote FOREVER if he enacts these egregious gun control and gun confiscation laws, Trump will go down in history as having enacted more communistic gun control laws than any president since Lyndon Baines Johnson in the 1960s.

In this video, Pastor Baldwin presents the clarion call for everyone in America who cherishes their right to keep and bear arms to rally en masse against these police-state gun control laws before it's too late.

This is not about Republicans or Democrats, right or left or who wins an election. The right to keep and bear arms is more important than any election and any political party. The right to keep and bear arms is about FREEDOM.

Please share this video with as many friends and loved ones as you can. We only have a short time to stop these Orwellian gun control laws from coming into existence. We only have a short time to make Donald Trump accountable to his promise to protect the 2nd Amendment.

"We are not talking about gun control. We are talking about
GUN CONFISCATION."
- Chuck Baldwin, This Is Deadly Serious! March 14, 2019 -

Alex Jones goes off on the average American mega church and how they are being
used to program and control the American public.

Vietnam…1965 to 1972. The Phoenix Program, was a CIA designed and coordinated infiltration of the political infrastructure of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam aka the Viet Cong Communist Army. The CIA had been covertly infiltrating Viet Cong strong holds to seek out names on their kill list. One of the Tactics included parading innocent Vietnamese citizens around their village with a bag over their head and a leash around their neck, terrorizing all of the residents. The Vietnamese citizen on the leash would then be instructed to indicate which house the Viet Cong informer might live. The next day, The CIA’s Provincial Reconnaissance Units would kick the door down and kill everyone inside, women and children included.

The CIA’s PRU would haul the Viet Cong off to regional interrogation centers where they would be tortured to extract information for the Commanding officers and then the whole process would be repeated.

Peter DeSilva, The CIA’s station chief developed the strategy known as counter terror. The use of terrorism as a legitimate tool to use in unconventional warfare. DeSilva strategically applied the counter terror to unsuspecting “enemy civilians”.

Historian Douglas Valentine noted in his important work The Phoenix Program, that "Central to Phoenix is the fact that it targeted civilians, not soldiers”.

With martial law plans that have been in place for decades. The globalist banksters that control our Government see the CIA’a approach in Vietnam as a benchmark in undermining U.S. sovereignty. In just 14 years,since 9/11, unleashing a degradation in the American Bill Of Rights never before seen in our 239 year history. The Fall Of Saigon in 1975, marked the end of The Vietnam War. Communism won and The Socialist Republic of Vietnam was born. The CIA lost The Vietnam War by targeting the citizenry. And they want to try that on American soil? With the Jade Helm Operations gearing up for summer 2015. Treason’s seat at the table of Liberty just got a whole lot bigger.

New Trend: ‘Radically Inclusive’ Churches That Embrace All Religions And
All Lifestyles
If you want as many people to attend your church as possible,
why limit yourself to just Christians?

If you want as many people to attend your church as possible, why limit yourself to just Christians?

All over America, “radically inclusive” churches that embrace all religions and all lifestyles are starting to pop up.

Church services that incorporate elements of Hinduism, Islam, native American religions and even Wicca are becoming increasingly common. And even if you don’t believe anything at all, that is okay with these churches too.

In fact, as you will see below, one Presbyterian minister in Oregon is even inviting people to “bring their own god” to church. But if these churches don’t really stand for anything at all, what is their purpose? And what does the popularity of these churches say about the future of religion in America?

One such church that has gotten quite a bit of attention lately is led by D.E. Paulk. The son of Earl Paulk, he was once considered to be the “heir apparent” at one of the largest megachurches in America. But these days he leads worship at a church that recognizes “all gods and prophets, including Mohammed“…

A CNN reporter visited one of Paulk’s recent services, and it was definitely far different from what Earl Paulk’s services would have looked like in the old days…

All over America there are ministers that are going out of their way to be more “inclusive”.

As I mentioned above, there is even one Presbyterian minister out in Oregon that wants people to “bring their own god” to church…

A Presbyterian USA minister in Oregon who says that he doesn’t believe in God—and doesn’t require his members to believe either–remarked in a recent article that he is offended by those who assert that he is not a Christian.

“Someone quipped that my congregation is BYOG: Bring Your Own God. I use that and invite people to ‘bring their own God’—or none at all,” wrote John Shuck of Beaverton’s Southminster Presbyterian Church in a guest post for Patheos last week. “While the symbol ‘God’ is part of our cultural tradition, you can take it or leave it or redefine it to your liking.”

Even though Shuck has publicly acknowledged that he does not believe in God, he insists that he is “still a proud minister”, and he gets offended when people try to tell him that he is not a Christian…

Shuck reiterated his unbelief in his article “I’m a Presbyterian Minister Who Doesn’t Believe in God” on Tuesday, as he asserted that “belief-less Christianity is thriving.”

“We all have been trained to think that Christianity is about believing things,” he wrote. “Its symbols and artifacts (God, Bible, Jesus, Heaven, etc) must be accepted in a certain way. And when times change and these beliefs are no longer credible, the choices we are left with are either rejection or fundamentalism.”

But Shuck says that although he rejects the Bible as being literal, and denies the existence of Heaven and Hell, he takes offense when people tell him that he’s not a Christian.

“Even though I hold those beliefs, I am still a proud minister. But I don’t appreciate being told that I’m not truly a Christian,” he stated. “Many liberal or progressive Christians have already let go or de-emphasized belief in Heaven, that the Bible is literally true, that Jesus is supernatural, and that Christianity is the only way. Yet they still practice what they call Christianity.”

Elsewhere in the Northwest, other ministers are trying similar approaches.

Just consider the following excerpt from an article in the New York Times…

Clad in proper Pacific Northwest flannel, toting a flask of “rocket fuel” coffee typical of Starbucks’ home turf, Steven Greenebaum rolled his Prius into a middle school parking lot one Sunday morning last month. Then he set about transforming its cafeteria into a sanctuary and himself into a minister.

He donned vestments adorned with the symbols of nearly a dozen religions. He unfolded a portable bookshelf and set the Koran beside the Hebrew Bible, with both of them near two volumes of the “Humanist Manifesto” and the Sioux wisdom of “Black Elk Speaks.” Candles, stones, bells and flowers adorned the improvised altar.

Some of the congregants began arriving to help. There was Steve Crawford, who had spent his youth in Campus Crusade for Christ, and Gloria Parker, raised Lutheran and married to a Catholic, and Patrick McKenna, who had been brought up as a Jehovah’s Witness and now called himself a pagan.

Other churches are attempting to become more “inclusive” by being willing to embrace alternative lifestyles.

For example, one of the largest evangelical churches in San Francisco has decided to take a new approach to the LBGT community…

Now, San Francisco’s City Church is putting an end to its policy of banning LGBT members who are unwilling or unable to take a vow of celibacy.

What led to the change of heart at City Church? Apparently, Ken Wilson’s book A Letter to My Congregation was a big part of it. Fred Harrell, senior pastor of City Church, feels the mind-changing book “shows great empathy and maturity to model unity and patience with those who are at different places in the conversation, all while dealing honestly with Scripture.”

“Our pastoral practice of demanding life-long ‘celibacy,’ by which we meant that for the rest of your life you would not engage your sexual orientation in any way, was causing obvious harm and has not led to human flourishing,” Harrell wrote in a letter to the church from the elder board. “It’s unfortunate that we used the word ‘celibacy’ to describe a demand placed on others, as in Scripture it is, according to both Jesus and Paul, a special gift or calling by God, not an option for everyone.”

But if people can just “believe whatever they want”, what makes these churches “Christian” at all?

We live in a society in which it has become very trendy to “choose your own path” and in which nobody wants to do anything that might “offend” someone else.

For instance, consider the words that one CNN reporter used to describe her transition from “Christian” to “seeker”…

After years of spiritual reflection and inquiry, I am at a place where I don’t want to feel guilty, hypocritical, judgmental, closed-minded or arrogant. So, where do I stand now — 30 years after “finding God,” questioning my faith, committing sins, seeking hazardous adventure and trying to love life and people to the best of my ability?

I am a “seeker.” A constant seeker within this world, among people and, of course, for spiritual enlightenment of all kind. Because if I did possess the truth — the “final answer” — I am convinced I would spend the rest of my years missing out on the enrichment and surprise of seeking it.

Those are some lovely words.

But it almost sounds as if she is actually afraid of the truth. It is almost as if she does not want to find it, because if she did it might offend someone.

In the final analysis, this CNN reporter is just like so many other Americans. Most people end up believing exactly what they want to believe. And what this CNN reporter wants is to avoid feeling “guilty, hypocritical, judgmental, closed-minded or arrogant”.

Of course there are thousands upon thousands of Christian ministers all over the nation that want the same thing. They never use the word “sin” because they want people to feel good about themselves. And they never talk about anything controversial because they want people to keep coming back and they want the donations to keep rolling in. So they preach messages about how wonderful everyone is and about how God wants to help all of us “achieve our destinies” and make all of us very wealthy.

But meanwhile our nation continues to swirl even farther down the toilet.

In the Scriptures, we were warned that such a day would come…

For the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine, but they will gather to themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, having itching ears, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn to myths.

So what do you think about the state of religion in America?

Do you believe that churches are headed in the right direction or the wrong direction?

Please feel free to add to the discussion by posting a comment below…

It is commonly assumed that prior to Constantine in the fourth century,
Christians had as little to do with politics as possible.

In the 1st century itself, Christianity and politics were inextricably combined. In order
to appreciate the significance of this, we need some background information about the
religious and political climate of ancient Rome.

In ancient Rome there was an array of different mystery cults. These mystery cults were brought to Rome from all over the empire, many from the East. These cults functioned as personal devotional hobbies, offering their votaries privileged access to various divinities. They gave worshipers a subjective sense of belonging since one could have a personal relationship with a god or demigod. The mystery cults did not affect someone’s life in the public world, but were directed towards one’s interior spirituality. With an esoteric flair, they offered spiritual excitement, without making demands on public life. As Lesslie Newbigin puts it,

Roman law was in general tolerant of religious diversity. As long as religion confined itself to matters of personal salvation, the state did not interfere. There were many forms of religious teaching and practice, mostly coming from the East, which offered to their adherents the promise of salvation. These 'private cults' were not in general interfered with.

Now the religion of Rome, on the other hand, was just the opposite of this. It was a political religion that dictated the whole of one’s life in the public world. It structured how people were expected to live as good citizens in the Roman world.

Many of the Roman emperors claimed to be sons of a god, and some even went so far as to claim divinity. Emperor worship thus became a feature of the Roman religion. However, even in the provinces where the Julio-Claudian emperors were not actually heralded as divine, we may still speak of the Roman state as being ‘religious’ in the sense that it sought to structure all public life, thought and allegiance. The Roman state offered a vision of the good life; the Roman state offered peace; the Roman state brought together previously warring pluralities; the Roman state offered a sense of eschatological progress; the Roman state provided a framework of meaning to answer the question ‘how should we then live?’

If you lived in the way good Roman citizens were expected to live – that is, if all your public life acknowledged Rome as the supreme power – then the state could not care less if you engaged in various mystery religions. This is because the private cults did not seek to structure one’s life publicly.

"Religion…structures life. It structures the life of the individual and of society. This is precisely what a cult does not do. A cult is a personal worship hobby. It does not structure one’s life nor does it structure society. The Eastern cults that were popular in ancient Rome, such as the cults of Mithras and Isis, did not structure the life of their adherents, at least not if they were good Roman citizens. What structured the lives of the Romans was the religion of Rome which was a political religion." (From lecture ‘Christianity as a Cult’, downloaded from the Kuyper Foundation audio archives)

There is evidence that some of the families of the Roman emperors worshipped at various mystery cults. They could do that because the mystery cults were not in competition with the religion of Rome.

To sum, the mystery cults were directed towards the private, the personal, the devotional, the internal spirituality of an individual, while the religion of Rome was directed towards the public, the external, the corporate, and political society as a whole. The one did not affect the other.

Understanding this distinction is crucial if we are to appreciate the impact early Christianity had in the 1st century.

Christianity offered a direct challenge to the political religion of Rome. Christianity was not one more among thousands of mystery cults.

The Roman state would certainly never have persecuted Christians if the worship of Jesus was simply one more private cult to choose from. On the contrary, Christians were seen as subversive precisely because their religion was in competition with the political religion of Rome. Christianity offered a vision for how society as a whole should look, as well as showing how individuals within that society should behave. The gospel had as much to say about politics – how nations should be governed – as it did about our own personal lives. As Stephen Perks has again pointed out,

"As long as Roman citizens practiced the religion of Rome, they were free to practice whatever cult they wished, the cult of Jesus Christ included. It was the early Church’s refusal to limit the Christian faith to the status of a cult that brought Christians in conflict with Rome. The practice of Christianity as a religion and not a cult brought the church into direct conflict with the religion of Rome. This was a clash of religions not cults." (Ibid)

Frances Legge makes the same point in his book Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity:

"The Officials of the Roman Empire in time of persecution sought to force the Christians to sacrifice, not to any of the heathen gods, but to the Genius of the Emperor and the Fortune of the city of Rome; and at all times the Christians' refusal was looked upon…as a political offence." (Kessinger Publishing, 2003)

This dispels the common myth, which we find time and time again, that Christianity was apolitical prior to Constantine in the fourth century. Even if all we had was the New Testament, without the massive corpus of other historical evidence, we would still know that Christianity challenged Rome as a competing political system. Let’s look at some of the New Testament evidence.

The very proclamation ‘Jesus is Lord’ (Acts 2:36; 10:36; Rom 8:39; 1 Cor. 1:2; 1:9; 8:5-6; Phil. 2:10-11; 3:20; 2 Pet. 2:20) would have been seen as a direct challenge to the political religion of Rome. The underlying subtext was ‘Jesus is Lord, therefore, Caesar is not.’ This did not mean that Christians denied that Caesar had genuine authority. They acknowledged Caesar’s authority, but even this acknowledgement contained an implicit challenge. As our Saviour put it, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ (Mark 12:17) We know from Psalm 24 that all the earth belongs to the Lord. This means that Caesar only has the authority God chooses to give him. As Jesus said to Pilate, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it has been given you from above.” (Jn. 19:11)

God’s authority over all things was the basis of Paul’s argument to the Romans for why they needed to submit to civil authorities. Paul said, ‘Yes, Caesar has authority, but only because it has been given to him by the higher authority of God,’ to paraphrase Romans 13:1-2. Paul’s teaching that Caesar’s authority was derivative rather than ultimate would have been perceived as nothing less than fighting talk, a direct challenge to imperial pretensions. Because Caesar’s authority was given to Him by the higher authority of Jesus Christ, Paul could claim in Romans 13:3-4 that rulers were responsible before God to do good and to be a terror to evil works. Christianity thus held even the emperor accountable to a higher standard.

In light of this backdrop, it is not surprising to find Roman emperors later making such a point of trying to force Christians to say, ‘Caesar is Lord.’ They rightly recognised that Christianity was a challenge to the emperor’s pretentious claims and the ideology on which the state was based. Christianity challenged the state, not by advocating anarchy and civil disobedience, but by showing that our citizenship rests first and foremost with a higher empire (Eph. 2:19-20; Heb. 11:15-16). This higher empire is ruled by a King who demands that even Caesar bow the knee and repent (Acts 17:30).

If the gospel had been merely the good news that there is a way to go to heaven when you die, or if Christianity had been promoted as merely a way to have a personal relationship with God, it would have been lost amidst an array of numerous other mystery cults and private devotional hobbies. The religion of Christ was so subversive precisely because it proclaimed that Jesus reigns on the earth now. Jesus’ Kingdom claimed to be the final say, not merely on private devotional matters, but on public, social and political affairs.

Christianity was a political religion right from the very start, even before Paul. We find this same emphasis in Jesus Himself. In Matthew 28, Jesus claimed total authority over everything and he used this as the basis for commanding his disciples convert, not just individuals, but entire nations.

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ (Mt. 28:18-19)

If all authority has been given to Jesus on heaven and on earth, then this includes everywhere. There is nowhere on the earth or in heaven that does not come under Jesus’ demand for complete allegiance (Col. 1:15-18).

If the early Christians had not challenged every area of life and society with the doctrine of Christ, then they would have been giving the implicit message that there are some areas where Christ has not been exalted Lord. They would have been implying that there are some places in the world and culture that Christ did not die to redeem.

It is customary to hear, in retort, that Jesus said His kingdom is not of this world. A careful look at the original Greek reveals that Jesus did not actually say that. The RSV translates John 18:36 closest to the original: ‘My kingdom is not from this world.’ Christ’s kingdom is certainly of and for this world, but it does not arise out of or (from) this earth. It comes from heaven to the earth. That is why Jesus taught us to pray, ‘thy kingdom come on earth…as it is in heaven’ (Mat. 6:10). The phrase ‘kingdom of heaven’ in the gospels rests on this same nexus, referring to the rule of heaven (that is, of God), being brought to bear in the present space-time world. This draws on the theological backdrop of passages like Daniel 7: 26-27 and is the same crowning vision we find in Rev. 11:15, where we are told that “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ…”

If you look out in the world today, it is sometimes hard to see much evidence of Jesus’ authority. But that is where the church comes in. In the present period - between the inauguration and consummation of Christ’s kingdom - the church has the vocation of bringing His authority to bear on every area of society. The people of God are to turn the kingdoms of this world into the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ.

This means that piece by piece, institution by institution, nation by nation, person by person, all things need to now be reconciled to Christ. That is the mission of all Christians, who are called to be ministers of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-19) in the task of bringing all things back into subjection to the Lord (2 Cor. 10:5). Like the Psalmist, we are to “say among the nations, ‘The Lord reigns’” (Ps. 96:10). Naturally, this includes all the institutions, organisations and cultures that make up those nations. We are to bring the Lordship of Christ to bear on all the arts, the sciences, the economies, the music, the philosophy, the educational systems, and of course the political systems of this world.

In these and every other area, we are to proclaim that Jesus reigns by showing the implications of that reign in practice. Our message to the powers of this world is that their time is up - Jesus is in charge now. Because Jesus is now the boss of every store, every restaurant, every university and every institution, we should be able to go into shops and say, ‘You’re not allowed to sell that video because Jesus owns this shop.’ We should be able to go to theatres and say, ‘You’re not allowed to stage this play because Jesus owns this theatre.’

The very term ‘the gospel’ would have also functioned as a political challenge to the religion of Rome. Throughout the Roman world of the 1st century, euangelion (‘gospel’ or ‘glad tidings’) was regularly used to refer to the birth, announcement, accession or victory of a great emperor. There is an inscription in Priene on the Asia Minor coast from 9 BC which refers to the birthday of Augustus. The inscription talks about this day as “the beginning for the world of the glad tidings that have come to men through him…” In this context, glad tidings were associated with the creation of a new world, an era of peace and justice made possible by the new emperor. Thus, the inscription refers to Augustus as “a saviour for us and those who come after us, to make war to cease, to create order everywhere…”

The striking thing is that this is the exact kind of language that early Christians used to talk, not about the emperor, but about another leader: namely Jesus. The ‘gospel of Jesus Christ’ also announces the beginning for the world of the glad tidings that have come to men through Him (Lk. 2:10-11). It also announces a Saviour who comes to (eventually) make wars to cease, to create order everywhere and to bring peace (Isa. 9:6-7; Lk. 1:79). From the Roman perspective, Christianity must have seemed like the great parody of the Roman state, while the early Christians would have seen Rome as the great parody for which Christ’s kingdom was the reality. Both Christianity and Caesar believed they alone held the answer for bringing justice, order and peace to the world (Zech. 6:13; Jn. 14: 27), both offered a sense of community (Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Pet. 2:9), both had brought unity out of previously warring pluralities (Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11; Rev. 5:9) and both were intent on achieving worldwide dominion (Isa. 9:7; Col. 1:19-20; Rev. 11:15).

Although Christianity and the Roman state may have had similar goals, they went about achieving those goals in radically different ways (Jn. 18:36). No wonder the early Christians were persecuted. The glad tidings of Jesus was bad news for Caesar because it proclaimed there was another way to bring peace and justice to the world that was superior to Caesar’s way. It proclaimed that God had called out a people whose vocation was to work for peace and justice on Jesus’ terms instead of Caesar’s terms.

Similarly, if we preach the gospel in all its original power, the makers of idols today will find us a threat to their livelihoods. In our world, no less than the first century, the power of the gospel depends on it functioning as a subversive challenge to the false gods that abound (1 Cor. 8:5-6). The New Testament writers could make this challenge boldly because they had confidence that Jesus had already won the victory (Col. 1:19-20; Heb. 1:1-4). Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee of the success and worldwide dominion of His kingdom (1 Cor. 15:20-28). What is left is simply the implementation of that victory.

In contemporary evangelical parlance, the term ‘the gospel’ has been reduced to a shorthand for the salvation message, or an approximation for the doctrine of justification by faith. It is seen as applying to one’s personal spiritual interiority. In other words, Christianity is reduced to the level of a first century mystery cult. But if that was all the early Christians meant by the gospel then Caesar couldn’t have cared less. Who cares if there is one more wacky cult out there of people exploring their own spirituality? This is ‘another gospel’, with the person, rather than Jesus Christ, at the centre of control.

This is not to say that the personal and the private are unimportant to the Lord. Jesus is Lord over these areas just as He is Lord over everything else. One of the saddest features of contemporary Christianity is the way people have turned it into a mystery cult. The faith is presented as being, first and foremost, about having a personal relationship with Jesus. You’ve probably heard the statement before that ‘Christianity is not a religion it is a relationship.’

That is mystery cult language and there is precious little in the New Testament with that kind of sentimental gush. We are told to love the Lord, and that love is demonstrated in tangible word and deed, not in a subjective friendship between me and the Creator.

What happens when the personal relationship template becomes the centre of one’s faith – as opposed to the ‘Jesus is Lord’ template - is that everything else becomes redrawn in subjective categories. The emphasis between the two paradigms is the same difference between the imperial religion and the mystery cults. One model emphasises the personal, the private, the subjective and the individual, while the other emphasises the public, the corporate and the objective. The former removes the nerve from Christianity, neutralising the challenge of the gospel. Caesar would have loved that. Caesar would have loved it if the early Christians went around telling people to have a personal relationship with Jesus rather than going around with the proclamation that Jesus is Lord.

Christians today should learn from the example of Paul and the early church. We need to reject formulations of the faith that make no demand on the political sphere. We need to ask the Lord to put the nerve back into the gospel – the gospel that troubled Herod when he heard of Jesus’ birth; the gospel that made the idolaters at Ephesus riot; the gospel that made Caesar quake in his boots.

Like many people, I used to believe that the transition from Old Testament to New Testament corresponded with a move from religion being a physical, political reality to being a private and invisible reality. For about three years now I have been critical of that view for I have come to realise that Christ's Lordship applies to every area of public and private life. As Carl F. H. Henry put it, "If while evangelizing we abandon the socio-political realm to its own devices, we shall fortify the misimpression that the public order falls wholly outside the command and will of God, that Christianity deals with private concerns only; and we shall conceal the fact that government exists by God's will as His servant for the sake of justice and order."

This shift in understanding has led me to write a number of articles trying to articulate the basis for a truly Biblical political theology (for example, see my article HERE on political Christianity in the early church). My job as a researcher for Christian Voice also reflects a strong political emphasis. However, recently I have come to be aware of some significant dangers to which politically conscious Christians seem prone.

Politically active Christians have the tendency to adopt the secular mindset which says that the world's problems can be fixed through politics. You know the mentality: just elect enough Christians, just pass enough Christian laws, etc., and then the problems of society will rectified. This really is a dangerous heresy since all totalitarian movements are also based on the idea of salvation through the state. The first principle of Christian political activism should be to attack this idea of the state, yet so many Christians collude to it.

The Biblical paradigm recognises that the church, not the ungodly political structures, is God's answer to the world (see my Bible Overview where I argue for this point). This is also the position of the reconstructionist movement (see this compilation of quotations), however they have been caricatured. Popular right-wing political activism, on the other hand, works on a different paradigm, with disastrous results. Because they see the state as God's instrument for transforming society, Christians who could be focusing their attention on building strong families and strong communities, with the consequence of building strong churches, neglect all this to campaign for watered-down legislation and compromised conservatism.

"The entire medieval and Protestant tradition," writes Doug Jones in Angels in the Architecture, "is anti-Statist, and that includes, as Augustine taught us, the view that the State is the least important institution among Church, State, and Family. Yet, the great irony of the Christian Right is that though their families are often messes and their churches splintering, they think they have the wisdom to wield the sword. In search of 'real change,' they charge out to conquer the institution that is most impotent in actually bringing it about. We haven't changed much from our ancient Israelite brothers. We want a king or a sword just like everybody else. We don't understand how God has structured the world, how real change occurs.... Why should we want to wield any political party club or rule any council at this stage of life? The State is a superficial, testy institution that is merely a shifting symptom of deeper realities. And so a reformation of the State should be like healing a sore throat. Nurture the rest of the body with good things first, and the throat will follow along in time."

Later on in the same book, Doug Wilson writes, "The rWestoration of the nations is not, in any important sense, a political process. Rather, the process is one of baptism and catechism. The means given for the conversion of the heathen were the waters of baptism and the words of instruction. When the lessons have been learned, there will of course be some political consequences. But they will be minimal for the simple reason that the state itself, in a nation that has come to repentance, will also be minimal....Our problems are spiritual, and the solutions are the Word and sacraments. The charge was not 'go ye, and elect right-of-center congresspersons.' Now certainly the gospel has an effect on all of culture, as it should. But results are not causes; apples are not roots." (Also listen to Doug Wilson's talk 'Cultural Change & Worship')

Sadly, most Christian campaigners have not read Angels in the Architecture, and hence they continue to mistake the result for the cause in the way described by the two Dougs. A practical result of this is that the gospel is compromised. Consider how so many Christian activists are content to simply have a place at the table, on a par with any other lobbyist for any other organization or special interest group. This is a functional denial of the fact that Jesus claims total authority over the whole system. Our goal should not be to have a place at the table but to have the whole system down on its knees before Jesus.

Equally worrying is the fact that Christian activists begin using the world's methods, such as 'louder is better.' Organizing protests that are larger than their opponents becomes more important than constructing rational and coherent arguments. More energy is devoted to huge letter writing campaigns than engaging in thoughtful public debates. We seek to amplify our message with quantity rather than quality because we notice that is how the homosexual and Muslim lobby get their voices heard. The corollary to this is that the world begins to perceive us as just another pressure group, unable to listen or engage thoughtfully with any other position.

The answer to these problems is not to react and say that Christians shouldn't be involved in politics at all. That would only perpetuate the Gnostic concept that religion is a personal and private affair, detached from the public world ("Jesus is the Lord of my heart but the devil is Lord of the world", etc). On the contrary, we must seek to evangelize politics just as we must seek to evangelize music, poetry, philosophy, economics, technology, sociology, sports, and so on. The key question is how? It is time we realized that, as Christians, we are involved in politics every time we gather to worship; we are involved in politics every time we read to our children; we are involved in politics every time we produce artifacts that reflect the standards of goodness, truth and beauty; we are involved in politics every time we put into practice what it means to live in the kingdom of God. The reason these things are political is because it will be through all these pedestrian Kingdom-of-God-acts that the world (and therefore politics) will eventually be transformed. Let's not put the horse before the cart.

A while back I did some research on what the Bible has to say about government. A Biblical philosophy of government is necessary because of what Paul wrote to the Corinthians.

In 2 Corinthians 10 Paul wrote: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…”

This passage is a mandate for developing a Christian (Christ-centred) worldview over every area of life. If we are to follow the apostle’s injunction to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, this should include thoughts about everything: art, science, recreation, food, literature, television, and anything you could possibly name. And of course it involves political issues. Government falls under Christ’s Lordship just as much as any other area. That is why a Christian philosophy of government is necessary.

Another reason why a Christian philosophy of government is necessary is because Christianity has always been a political religion. This is something that emerges very clearly from a study of the early church. In the 1st century Christianity and politics were inextricably combined. You couldn’t separate the two.

In order to appreciate the significance of this, we need some background information about the religious and political climate of ancient Rome.

In ancient Rome during the 1st century, there was an array of different mystery cults. These mystery cults were brought to Rome from all over the empire, many from the East. These cults functioned as personal devotional hobbies, offering their votaries privileged access to various divinities. They gave worshipers a subjective sense of belonging since one could have a personal relationship with a god or demigod. The mystery cults did not affect someone’s life in the public world, but were directed towards one’s interior spirituality. With an esoteric flair, they offered spiritual excitement, without making demands on public life.

Many of the Roman emperors claimed to be sons of a god, and some even went so far as to claim divinity. Emperor worship thus became a feature of the Roman religion. However, even in the provinces where the Julio-Claudian emperors were not actually heralded as divine, we may still speak of the Roman state as being ‘religious’ in the sense that the state sought to structure all public life, thought and allegiance. Like all religions, the Roman state offered a vision of the good life; the Roman state offered peace; the Roman state brought together previously warring pluralities; the Roman state offered a sense of eschatological progress; the Roman state provided a framework of meaning to answer the question ‘how should we live?’

If you lived in the way good Roman citizens were expected to live – that is, if all your public life acknowledged Rome as the supreme power – then the state couldn’t care less if you engaged in various mystery cults. As Stephen Perks points out, contrasting the mystery cults with the religion of Rome:

Religion…structures life. It structures the life of the individual and of society. This is precisely what a cult does not do. A cult is a personal worship hobby. It does not structure one’s life nor does it structure society. The Eastern cults that were popular in ancient Rome, such as the cults of Mithras and Isis, did not structure the life of their adherents, at least not if they were good Roman citizens. What structured the lives of the Romans was the religion of Rome which was a political religion. (From lecture ‘Christianity’ as a Cult’, published by the Kuyper Foundation)

There is evidence that some of the families of the Roman emperors worshipped at various mystery cults. They could do that because the mystery cults were not in competition with the religion of Rome. The reason they were not in competition was because the mystery cults were directed towards the private, the personal, the devotional, the internal spirituality of an individual, while the religion of Rome was directed towards the public, the external, the corporate and political society as a whole. The one did not affect the other.

Understanding this distinction is crucial if we are to appreciate the impact early Christianity had in the first century.

Christianity offered a direct challenge to the political religion of Rome. Christianity was not one more among thousands of mystery cults.

The Roman state would certainly never have persecuted Christians if the worship of Jesus was simply one more private cult to choose from among. On the contrary, Christians were seen as subversive precisely because their religion was in competition with the political religion of Rome. Christianity, like Rome, offered a vision for how society as a whole should look, as well as showing how individuals within that society should behave.

Francis Legge makes the same point in his book Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity:

The gospel was seen as a political offence. This is because the gospel had as much to say about politics – how nations should be governed – as it did about our own personal lives.

“The Roman empire presents a classic example of the Messianic man-centered State, of the denial of God’s Law, and of the implementation of humanistic law. Caesar declared himself god and his decrees were to be acknowledged as the laws of the gods. The Roman rulers understood that their claim to divine rule was threatened by God’s unlimited and universal reign. Peter declared confidently “that there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). The gospel of Jesus Christ, with its claim of divine prescriptions, threatened the very nature of the Roman State. Rome had to submit itself to the position of ‘minister’ under God or be crushed by the power of God. Rome did not submit”

The very proclamation ‘Jesus is Lord’ (Acts 2:36; 10:36; Rom 8:39; 1 Cor. 1:2; 1:9; 8:5-6; Phil. 2:10-11; 3:20; 2 Pet. 2:20) was seen as a direct challenge to the political religion of Rome. (N. T. Wright’s book Paul: Fresh Perspectives, SPCK 2005 and his essay ‘Paul’s Gospel and Ceasar’s Empire’ at http://www.ctinquiry.org/publications/wright.htm ) The underlying subtext was ‘Jesus is Lord, therefore, Caesar is not.’ This did not mean that Christians denied that Caesar had genuine authority. He had temporal authority only because God had given it to him, but he was not the supreme Lord. The early Christians acknowledged Caesar’s authority, but even this acknowledgement contained an implicit challenge since it was based on the fact that God was the higher authority. As Jesus said to Pilate, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it has been given you from above.” (Jn. 19:11)

In light of this backdrop, it is not surprising to find Roman emperors later making such a point of trying to force Christians to say, ‘Caesar is Lord.’ They rightly recognized that Christianity was a challenge to the emperor’s pretentious claims and the ideology on which the state was based. Christianity challenged the state, not by advocating anarchy and civil disobedience, but by showing that our citizenship rests first and foremost with a higher empire (Eph. 2:19-20; Heb. 11:15-16). This higher empire is ruled by a King who demands that even Caesar bow the knee and repent (Acts 17:30).

If the gospel had been merely the good news that there is a way to go to heaven when you die, or if Christianity had been promoted as merely a method for having a personal relationship with God, it would have been lost amidst an array of numerous other mystery cults and private devotional hobbies. The religion of Christ was subversive precisely because it proclaimed that Jesus reigns on the earth now. Jesus’ Kingdom claimed to be the final say, not merely on private devotional matters, but on public, social and political affairs.

This comes across clearly in Matthew 28, where Jesus claimed total authority over everything and he used this as the basis for commanding disciples to convert, not just individuals, but entire nations.

If the early Christians had not challenged every area of life and society with the doctrine of Christ, then they would have been giving the implicit message that there are some areas where Jesus has not been exalted Lord. They would have been implying that there are some places in the world and culture that Christ did not die to redeem.

It is customary to hear, in retort, that Jesus said His kingdom is not of this world. A careful look at the original Greek reveals that Jesus did not actually say that. The RSV translates John 18:36 closest to the original: ‘My kingdom is not from this world.’ Christ’s kingdom is certainly of and for this world, but it does not arise out of or (from) this earth. It comes from heaven to the earth. That is why Jesus taught us to pray, ‘thy kingdom come on earth…as it is in heaven’ (Mat. 6:10). The phrase kingdom of heaven’ in the gospels has this same underpinning, referring to the rule of heaven (that is, of God), being brought to bear in the present space-time world. This draws on the theological backdrop of passages like Daniel 7: 26-27 and is the same crowning vision we find in Rev. 11:15, where we are told that “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ…”

Jesus shows in many statements that His kingdom definitely is of this world. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Cor. 5:19); Jesus is “the light of the world” (John 8:12), “the Savior of the world” (4:42), and “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” (1:29).

The very term ‘the gospel’ would have functioned as a political challenge to the religion of Rome. Throughout the Roman world of the 1st century, euangelion (‘gospel’ or ‘glad tidings’) was regularly used to refer to the birth, announcement, accession or victory of a great emperor. There is an inscription in Priene on the Asia Minor coast from 9 BC which refers to the birthday of Augustus. The inscription talks about this day as ‘the beginning for the world of the glad tidings that have come to men through him…’ In this context, glad tidings were associated with the creation of a new world, an era of peace and justice made possible by the new emperor. Thus, the inscription refers to Augustus as ‘a saviour for us and those who come after us, to make war to cease, to create order everywhere…’

The striking thing is that this is the exact kind of language that early Christians used to talk, not about the emperor, but about another leader: namely Jesus. The ‘gospel of Jesus Christ’ also announces the beginning for the world of the glad tidings that have come to men through Him (Lk. 2:10-11). It also announces a Saviour who comes to make wars to cease, to create order everywhere and to bring peace (Isa. 9:6-7; Lk. 1:79). From the Roman perspective, Christianity must have seemed like the great parody of the Roman state, while the early Christians would have seen Rome as the great parody for which Christ’s kingdom was the reality. Both Christianity and Caesar believed they alone held the answer for bringing justice, order and peace to the world (Zech. 6:13; Jn. 14: 27), both offered a sense of community (Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Pet. 2:9), both had brought unity out of previously warring pluralities (Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11; Rev. 5:9) and both were intent on achieving worldwide dominion (Isa. 9:7; Col. 1:19-20; Rev. 11:15).

Although Christianity and the Roman state may have had similar goals, they went about achieving those goals in radically different ways (Jn. 18:36). The glad tidings of Jesus was bad news for Caesar because it proclaimed there was another way to bring peace and justice to the world that was superior to Caesar’s way. It proclaimed that God had called out a people whose vocation was to work for peace and justice on Jesus’ terms instead of Caesar’s terms.

In the book of Acts Peter said that there is no other name given under heaven by which we will be saved – that expression was found on a coin referring to Caesar Augustus.

The ascension of Jesus pointed to this same reality. When a Roman emperor died, there was often a process of deification that followed. They would get someone to say they had seen the emperor ascend into heaven and that would prove that he had been divine. Christians proclaimed that Jesus had ascended into heaven and that was a powerful political statement. It meant He was God and the ruler of the world.

We have explored Christianity’s challenge to Caesar, but we might equally have explored the way the gospel confronted first century paganism. If Paul’s gospel had been merely an approximation for a personal, individualistic experience that has little or no bearing on public life (one more mystery cult), then the makers of idols in Ephesus would never have found him to be a threat to their livelihood (Acts 19). Similarly, if we preach the gospel in all its original power, the makers of idols today will find us a threat to their livelihoods. In our world, no less than the first century, the power of the gospel depends on it functioning as a subversive challenge to the false gods that abound (1 Cor. 8:5-6). The New Testament writers could make this challenge boldly because they had confidence that Jesus had already won the victory (Col. 1:19-20; Heb. 1:1-4). Christ’s resurrection and ascension are the proof of this.

Christians today should learn from the example of Paul and the early church. We need to reject formulations of the faith that make no demand on the political sphere. We need to allow the Lord to put the nerve back into the gospel – the gospel that troubled Herod when he heard of Jesus’ birth; the gospel that made the idolaters at Ephesus riot; the gospel that made Caesar quake in his boots.

The early Christians opposed the ultimacy of the Roman government, as embodied in Caesar, by asserting the ultimacy of Christ. This is the same battle that we, as Christians, must fight today. In our own era, the nation state is deified in practice.

The German philosopher Hegel (1770 – 1831) taught explicitly that the nation state was divine:

“The Universal is to be found in the State…. The State is the Divine Idea as it exists on earth….We must therefore worship the State as the manifestation of the Divine on earth… the State is the march of god through the world… [Hegel, from a collection of quotations compiled by Karl Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), vol. 2, p. 31]

Although we do not find people using this kind of language today, people still treat the nation state as if it were divine. This is because people are constantly looking to the state as the savior to the world’s problems.

We have to be clear about what this doesn’t mean, because there is a lot of confusion about this. Many Christians deny the Lordship of Jesus over politics because they think that acknowledging His Lordship would lead to certain disastrous consequences.

First, to acknowledge that Jesus’ Lordship extends over political matters, does not mean that we should seek to turn America into a Christian theocracy along the lines of Old Testament Israel. The New Testament teaches that many things changed at the coming of Jesus and one of the things that changed was the way God deals with peoples and nations. Since the Bible does not teach that we should just transfer the entire legal code of the Old Testament into modern day, to do so would not be applying Christ’s Lordship responsibly.

Secondly, acknowledging Christ’s Lordship over all the governments of this world does not mean that the church should run government. There is a lot of confusion about the separation of church and state, and we will be discussing this principle in relation to the American constitution later on. For the moment, however, we need to clarify what this doctrine of separation means and what it doesn’t mean. To do that I’d like to begin by telling a story.

Ambrose became bishop of Milan in 374. As bishop, Ambrose attained fame as a magnificent preacher, a resolute enemy of Arianism, and a pioneer hymn-writer. When the emperor Theodosius the Great made Milan his Western capital, Ambrose became his close friend and advisor; but Ambrose was quite clear that the emperor was not to behave as a ruler in the Church. Ambrose wrote: "The Church belongs to God, therefore it cannot be assigned to Caesar. The emperor is within the Church, not above it."

Ambrose’s view led to a famous confrontation between bishop and emperor in 390. That year, in the city of Thessalonica, a rioting mob murdered Botherich, the virtuous governor of the province of Illyria, along with several of his officials. The results were explosive. Theodosius was normally a wise, generous, far-seeing ruler, admired for his Christian integrity of character, but he had one fatal weakness – he was prone to outbursts of wild fury, which so terrified everyone that even his wife and children would hide from him. When Theodosius heard about the murder of Botherich, he lost all self-control, and in a fit of wrath he sent an order to his soldiers to massacre the Thessalonians as a punishment. Almost immediately Theodosius recoiled from what he had done, and sent another order cancelling his savage decree.

But it was too late. The Thessalonian troops, eager to avenge the murder of their beloved governor, had already butchered some 7,000 people.

When Ambrose heard of this outrage, he boldly excommunicated the emperor and exhorted him to deep, meaningful repentance. (The above is taken from Needham’s book 2000 Years of Christ’s Power)

“I cannot deny that you are zealous for the faith and that you fear God. But you have a naturally passionate spirit; and while you easily yield to love when that spirit is subdued, yet when it is stirred up you become a raging beast. I would gladly have left you to the workings of your own heart, but I dare not remain silent or gloss over your sin. No-one in all human history has ever before heard of such a bloody scene as the one at Thessalonica! I warned you against it, I pleaded with you; you yourself realised its horror and tried to cancel your decree. And now I call you to repent. Remember how king David repented of his crime. Will you be ashamed to do what David did? You can wash away your sin only by tears, by repentance, by humbling your soul before God. You are a man; you have sinned as a man; you must repent as a man. No angel, no archangel can forgive you. God alone can forgive you; and He forgives those who repent. How I grieve that you – you who were so outstanding for your spirituality, so unwilling that even one innocent person should suffer –how I grieve that you should not repent of the slaughter of so many innocent people! You are brave in battle, and praiseworthy in every other way, but goodness was the crown of your character. The evil spirit envied you these purest of your blessings. Conquer him while you can! I love you; I honour your from my heart; I pray for you. If you believe this, accept what I say. But if you do not believe it, forgive me for preferring God to you.”

Notwithstanding Ambrose’ letter, on the following Sunday the emperor turned up for church as usual as if nothing had happened. But Theodosius found Ambrose barring his way, refusing to let him enter. The emperor claimed that he had repented, but Ambrose informed him that words were not enough – his repentance must be as public as his sin had been. Theodosius submitted and walked through the streets of Milan doing public penance. He was banned from attending worship for eight months. When Ambrose finally allowed him to enter church again, the emperor had to kneel and beg God’s forgiveness before the whole congregation, which he did with passionate sorrow, tears streaming from his eyes.

This was not the only time that the Bishop and the emperor had clashed. Just before the Thessalonian massacre, in 388 the Christians of Callinicum on the Euphrates burnt down a Jewish synagogue. Theodosius ordered the local bishop to rebuild the synagogue from church funds. Ambrose intervened, declaring that it was wrong for a Christian bishop to be forced to use his church’s money to build a place for non-Christian worship. Ambrose preached a sermon against Theodosius when the emperor was actually sitting in the congregation, and refused to let Theodosius take part in communion unless he gave up his plan to make the Christians of Callinicum rebuild the synagogue. Theodosius surrendered to Ambrose and the synagogue was not rebuilt. (Ibid)

This story shows the principle of church and state separation as it operated in the early church. Both the church and the government had authority but in different spheres. The ministers and apparatus of church government were separate from the institution of civil government.

Ambrose had authority over one sphere and Theodosius had authority over another sphere. This sphere sovereignty was undermined – or at least Ambrose thought it was - when the emperor crossed over and started meddling in the affairs of the church by telling them how to use their money. So Ambrose had to excommunicate him. Likewise when the king murdered the Thessalonians, Ambrose had authority to withhold the Lord’s supper from him even though Ambrose had no civil authority.

Because the emperor had authority over the state but not the church, he came under Ambrose’s authority in matters relating to the church, just as Ambrose had to submit to the emperor in matters of state. For example, if Ambrose had committed a murder or a theft, it would be liable to civil punishment. Each had legitimate, God-ordained authority, but over different spheres.

We also see from this story that the distinction between church government and statecraft or between the sacred and the secular spheres of authority, does not mean that one area is outside Christ’s Lordship. Theodosius was expected to be a good emperor under the authority of Christ, and that is why he could be blamed for his action against the Thessalonians.

In the secular world, separation of church and state is usually synonymous with separation of religion and state. But the Biblical separation of church and state acknowledges that both spheres are under the Lordship of Christ and derive their authority ultimately from God.

Government is not autonomous or religiously neutral. Emperors, presidents and governors are required to serve Christ in the decisions they make in secular governments, just as bishops, elders and pastors are required to serve Christ in the decisions they make in ecclesiastical government. God has given them authority over different areas, but they are both under His authority and that is why they can both be blamed when their decisions do not conform to God’s laws. We have already seen that this was a point that the early Christians emphasised strongly – that even Caesar is under the authority of Christ and, as such, is subject to the same ethical standards as believers. Caesar will be judged for not submitting to Christ’s laws.

We understand sphere sovereignty when it comes to families. I am head of my family but I am not head of the family next door. Each family has a different government, yet each are expected to submit to the Lordship of Christ.

Many people think that in the Old Testament the church and the state were equivalent. But even in the Old Testament theocracy, the Lord insisted on preserving the separation of church and state. We read in 2 Chronicles about king Uzziah of Judah. King Uzziah became proud and decided to go into the temple and burn incense to the Lord. But that job had been given to the priests. As king, Uzziah no more had authority to burn incense in the temple then the priests had authority to govern the land. (2 Chronicles 26:16-21)

Throughout history, church and government have rarely managed to achieve Biblical sphere sovereignty.

During the medieval era, the doctrine of papal supremacy meant that the church had authority over all governments. The Pontiff was the supreme earthly governor over civil authorities.

During the Reformation this was flipped and in many countries the church became subservient to the state. This is known as Erastianism. In England, this is still the case because it is the monarch who is the supreme head of the English church. It is the Queen who appoints the Archbishop. Because the head of state in England is the one who controls the church in England, the state thinks it has the right to meddle in what the church does. This is creating real problems for English Christians. Earlier in the year the Queen allowed Parliament to pass laws which could affect what Christians are and are not allowed to do in the privacy of their own churches. A number of Christian organisations are being forced to shut down because they don’t subscribe to politically correct theology. The state has authority over the church.

In America, although the constitution preserves sphere sovereignty, there are many who are trying to make America more like England, where the state has authority over the church.

“God’s system of political power is decentralized. No single institution has been established by God to bring about social order. Freedom and order are realized when men throughout a society strive to follow the blueprint God has given for the restoration and maintenance of all family, ecclesiastical, social and political institutions. For example, Genesis 10 is a list of many families that represent a decentralized social order. The builders of Babel wanted to eliminate the many governments and consolidate family, ecclesiastical, and political power in the one State. God would have none of it. He “scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city” (Gen. 11:8). [Gary DeMar, Liberty at Risk: Exposing the Politics of Plunder, p. 40]

Why is it good to separate church and state? Because God has given church and state different jobs to do. This is crucial. I believe that most of the political problems the Western world is facing today is because people don’t understand that the church and the state have different vocations.

Romans 13 tells us what the job of the state is. It is to retrain evil. It is to wield the sword by punishing evil-doers. This enables the state to avoid anarchy. If the government is doing its job properly, there can be social order. If somebody comes to take away my private property or to stop me buying and selling, then the government kicks in and punishes that person. If another country tries to invade us and takes away our land, then the government defends us. The government is there to stop evil-doers so that citizens can get on with their lives. We pay the government taxes so that they have the resources to protect our families and our property. We vote so that lawmakers are accountable to us to do their job. That job is to maintain law and order. C.S. Lewis puts it like this in Mere Christianity:

“It is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects -- military, political, economic, and what not. But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden -- that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time.”

That is the function of government according to the Bible. But notice that government’s function is entirely negative: it is there purely to stop bad things from happening so that daily life can continue on uninterrupted. Government is there to stop the bad guys from stealing my things, to stop the rich and powerful from helping themselves to my property, to punish evil-doers and to wield the sword. The state is not there to actually try to change the world for the better but to maintain what already exists. The government is there to cancel out what is negative so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity” (1 Tim. 2:2)

God hasn’t given the church authority to stop evil by wielding the sword, but He has given the church authority to promote social good, to be His instrument of light, well-being and common grace to the world. The church is to be the city on a hill, a light to the nations, God’s instrument of redemption in the world, implementing the victory achieved through the death and resurrection of Christ. The Church is to pray the Lord’s pray: “Thy kingdom come…on earth as it is in heaven.”

So the function of the church and the state are exactly opposite. One is to stop evil, and one is to promote good. The church is responsible to change the world for good, which it does through evangelism, while government is responsible to simply stop things getting worse.

Now, of course, these are complimentary ends and should work together like two blades in a pair of scissors: when the state punishes evil it encourages good to flourish, and when the church promotes social good it discourages evil from flourishing.

The problem today is that both the church and the government have lost sight of their God-given goals. Because the rulers in government are not acknowledging the Lordship of Christ, they do not view government as merely a mechanism for punishing evil like the Bible says. Instead they think that it is their job, as lawmakers, to transform the world for good. Lenin said that the struggle of the proletariat is “to set up heaven on earth.” [Cited in J. L. Talmon, The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy (New York; Praeger, 1960), p.9f] It is salvation through statecraft. This leads to the administrative view of government, which grew out of the utilitarianism of the Enlightenment and the view of the innate goodness and perfectibility of man. The administrative view of government view sees the state as an engine to promote social good; to creatively use government’s resources to advance the best interests of its citizens. Government is there to ‘deliver the goods’, to manage and administer things effectively for the people. In short, government tries to become church.

It is very dangerous when government tries to do the job of the church because it leads to totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is essentially the state trying to usher in its secular parody of the kingdom of God and its own secular parody of redemption. The church has been given the job of announcing spiritual redemption to men by evangelism through the power of God. The state that tries to do this will announce secular redemption to men through the power of statecraft. Government becomes messianic. So it says, ‘this is what men should be like - you should all be tolerant, well-education, non-discriminating, modernised, people - so let’s use legislation to get you there.” That is the state trying to use secular means to do the church’s job. The church says, ‘this is what men should be like – you should have love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness and eternal salvation – now let’s use evangelism and the worship of the Triune God to get you there.’ That is the church using spiritual means to accomplish its God-given goals. (By spiritual I do not mean non-physical. That leads to the idea of a personal and private faith cut off from life in the public, physical world. By spiritual I mean doing things according to God’s way.)

Now the church is often tempted to abandon its spiritual weapons and take up carnal weapons. Thus, instead of promoting redemption in the world through the spiritual resources Christ has given us, many Christians have the tendency to adopt the secular mindset which says that the world’s problems can be fixed through policies. You can transform the world by correcting its systems. You know the mentality: just elect enough Christians, just pass enough Christian laws, etc., and then the problems of society will rectified. There is an implicit salvation through statecraft ideology behind this thinking. Jesus had to continually confront this ideology during His ministry. Many in Jesus’ day saw the kingdom of God in externals only, visualising the kingdom of God as coming, not through regeneration, but through social revolution. Like the Israelites during the time of Gideon, the Jews of Jesus’ day believed that God was going to fix the earth by first fixing the world’s systems.

But the church cannot fix the world through the power of politics. The church has been given tools for bringing change into the world: evangelism, worship of the Triune God, faithfulness to God’s word, applying the Lordship of Christ to every area. Now government must be evangelized just as every other area, but the best a Christianized government can do is to fulfill its God-appointed goal of retraining evil. The rest is left up to the church.

This explains one of the reasons why it is important to have a separation of church from state. Without that separation, it would be easy for government to begin using its resources to do what it is the church’s responsibility to do, and visa versa.

Although the state is not subservient to the church, Rom 13 and Jn. 19:1 make clear that the state, no less than the church, is under the authority of God.

As Christians we should certainly vote and involve ourselves in the political process, because through doing so we can influence the government to maintain law and order. Christian lawmakers, who understand the principle of sphere sovereignty, need to run for office and be a positive voice. But we should avoid thinking that simply by electing enough Christians to office that the government and the nation are going to be Christianized. The government and our nation will only be Christianized when the whole system, from the very top to the very bottom, submits to the Lordship of Jesus.

To affirm the separation of church and state does not mean that we can separate God from state, morality from state or religious values from state. Not only is it not a good idea to try to separate these things, but it is impossible.

Morality is about the only thing government can legislate. When government makes laws against stealing, against kidnapping, against murder, they are legislating morality. They are using coercion to impose a system of ethics. And that is inescapable unless you have no government (anarchy).

By adopting a legal system at all a nation is, by definition, imposing some kind of morality on the populace. Legislation, by definition, is the codification in law of some particular moral concern, normally so that the immorality of a few is not forcibly inflicted on the rest of us. To say, “I don’t want to impose my morality on anyone” is simply an advertisement to be robbed. As soon as a lawmaker says ‘thou shalt not steal’, he has imposed his moral beliefs on others. And that’s what everybody wants, despite everyone saying that lawmakers shouldn’t try to impose their moral beliefs on others. No one wants a President who says, “I don’t want my decisions to be driven by any moral considerations.” People want a government that is going to protect them, which means using coercion to impose morality.

Charles Colson recently lamented the times throughout history when Christians have tried to impose their values, resulting in “bloody crusades and inquisitions.” But during those times in history where Christians have been guilty of outrages, it is because they weren't imposing their values, not because they were.

The question is not whether government will try to impose values or morality, but which morality they will try to impose? And what standard are they using? Are they deciding what is moral based on their own personal whims, or is there an objective standard that they are using? That is where questions of religion kick in and become inescapable? Are we going to base morality on the religion of secularism, Christianity, Darwinism, humanism or some other system?

It remains unclear what people really mean or want when they say lawmakers shouldn’t try to impose morality on citizens.

Just as it is impossible to have a state without legislating morality, so it is also impossible to separate religion and government.

People are inescapably religious because of how they were made. A person’s religion may be Christianity, or it may be secular humanism, or it may be utilitarianism, or it may be the worship of self, or it may be a combination, but every person has a religion in the broad sense in which I am using the term.

A religion answers the following questions: What is the source of my values? What standard do I appeal to on moral questions? What are my gods? What determines which things in life are important and which things are not?

Just as all legal systems necessarily try to impose morality, so all legal systems are necessarily religious in this broad sense. Every state has its gods that it tries to protect.

The way you can tell what the gods of a state are is by seeing who the final authority is. When you get to the point past which there is no appeal, then you have identified the god of that system. Because man is inescapably religious, all societies are theocracies somehow. There will always be a point of ultimate justification - if you don't have a Supreme Being, you will wind up with a Supreme Court, and they will be treated as God.

If the people are the final authority, then the people are being treated as god. If the monarch is the final authority, then the monarch is being treated as god. Christians affirm that Jesus Christ is the final authority since the authority of a ruler is delegated by God (Rom 13 & Jn. 19:11). Whether we are talking about a democracy, a monarchy, a republic or a dictatorship, Christians recognise God as the highest authority.

Religion and politics cannot be separated. Politics is grounded in ethics and ethics is always religious, whether explicitly or implicitly. Herbert Schlossberg makes the point this way:

"Laws are always theologically based, whether or not they are so acknowledged. In the societies of the ancient Near East, laws were always associated with deity. The famous Hammurabi stele, for example, shows the sun god Shemash giving the Babylonian laws to the king. The laws had to have ultimacy, or they could not work as intended. When law loses what only the conviction of ultimacy can bestow, it degenerates into pragmatism, and that means that breakdown is near. Right and wrong become questions of risk versus reward, and morality then is purely a matter of calculation." [Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 47]

Josef Stalin tried to produce a society in which religion and politics were kept strictly separate (although he was very religious in his atheism). Stalin said: “We guarantee the right of every citizen to combat by argument, propaganda and agitation, any and all religion. The Communist Party cannot be neutral toward religion. It stands for science, and all religion is opposed to science.” (Stalin, ‘Declaration to American Labor Delegation,’ Moscow, September 7, 1927) The scary thing is that many liberals today are arguing for the same thing.

The alternative to Hitler, Stalin and the French revolution is not democracy. “Idolizing democratic government as the antithesis to a Hitler or a Stalin ignores the fact that a tiny handful of people cannot rule without the tacit agreement of the masses.” [Schlossberg, p. 49] The alternative to Hitler, Stalin and the French revolution is for government to acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

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