Be Ye Doers. . . Of The Word!

America is poised at yet another crossroad. One of many she has faced in her long, colorful history. Choices, some often very tough choices, must be made. We can turn our country around and move back toward godliness. Or, we can plunge recklessly ahead into a spiritual, moral, and economic vacuum. There have been such options many times in all our lives when we have had to make choices. But like people, a country may go too far down a wrong road. Spiritually, we can reach a point of no return.

One development in America of major concern is the dramatic and rapid loss of many of our individual freedoms. Recent news reports told of action in a housing project where police entered apartments with no warrants to search for and confiscate illegal guns. Americans should be alarmed that without due legal process police entered and searched homes. Even if they were invited by residents, a dangerous precedent has been set. Why do we set idle while we are being conditioned to tolerate illegal police searches?

Article IV of the American Constitution states: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Is the Constitution just so much clay to be molded and manipulated and in the end ignored? Do we look the other way simply because these actions have not yet taken place in our locale?

The whole gun control issue has been a dismal failure at stopping crime and has succeeded only in restricting the freedom of law abiding citizens. The simplistic notion that gun control will restrict crime is not working and will not work. We need to be reminded that the Afghans were able to resist the Soviets because they were an armed and fiercely independent people. Conversely, the Russians and Polish people have suffered through decades of oppression because they allowed themselves to be disarmed. Consider these facts: In 1992 there were 15,377 murders committed with guns. In that same year 19,889 people were killed in car/alcohol situations. In 1992 there were 10 gun deaths per 100,000 population. At the same time there were 30 flu deaths per 100,000 population. If the attempts at gun control really mean to stop the slaughter, clearly there are, statistically speaking, many more serious problems in America that are not only being ignored but sanctioned, licensed, and designed to be very profitable for some. The whole issue is not at all about crime, but about control of the population by disarming Americans! A disarmed population is helpless and at the mercy of whoever controls the government and lawless elements of society as well.

The erosion of personal property rights is another freedom that is steadily being restricted. Certainly this issue is central to our freedoms as American citizens — the right to own and control property. Yet, there are hordes of people who insist on telling citizens what they can and cannot do with their own property. The assault on private property rights has been led by the godless religion of environmentalism. With fanatical fervor, environmental disciples run rough-shod over the rights of property ownership. In a syndicated column of May 30, 1994, Tony Snow reported, "Taung Ming-Lin, an immigrant from Taiwan came to the U.S. in 1991. He bought 720 acres of land in California and prepared to plant herbs and vegetables. He bought a Ford tractor and disk and went to work preparing his fields. On February 24 state and federal agents with helicopters landed on the farm. They drove across fields, took pictures, and hunted for parts of a small animal. Lin's tractor and disk were seized and hauled away. He was threatened with a $300,000 fine for killing 'Tipton kangaroo rats' a so-called 'endangered species'."

The whole "Green Movement" stems from the New Age and Hindu philosophies that the essence of god is in everything. These are not "be kind to Rover" groups, but pantheists seeking to impose their religious convictions on the nation. Their multi-billion dollar budgets and religious fanaticism have combined to make them a powerful force in American politics. One environmental group has made the outlandish statement that eradicating the smallpox virus was immoral! They reasoned that this harmful and destructive virus had a "right to exist." With fanatical fervor environmentalism has wrecked industries, destroyed jobs, and devastated local economies. Those immersed in the doctrines of pantheism dominate state and national government agencies where they seek to control private property and ignore the rights of private ownership. Many Christians innocently support pantheistic religion by participating in "earth days" or "save the whales" movements and other environmental crusades.

Restrictions upon civil rights are growing. The right to protest abortions is increasingly being restricted and legislated. Opposition to the perverted and destructive homosexual life-style is vilified and limited by law — and the pressure is on for even more suppression of free speech against this perversion. One local Church of Christ that dared to run an ad in a local paper opposing homosexuality has been absolutely blasted by a small, vocal homosexual community.
The right to exercise our religion is under attack. Restrictions have been proposed by non- elected bureaucrats controlling government agencies that would make any vestige of religion illegal in the workplace. Don Feder reported in a syndicated column June 13, 1994, "The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 'seeks to add religion to other categories of employment harassment (like race, gender, etc.) under civil rights law.' Commenting on the regulations, the American Atheist General Headquarters said it hopes to create a workplace free of 'signs... pictures, poems... jewelry, brochures or other objects with religious overtones.' 'God talk,' singing, whistling of hymns, religious conversations, prayers and overt meditations would also be prohibited." Thankfully, congress has, for the present time, turned back this blatant assault on religious freedom.

Another attack on personal and religious freedoms has come from the tax and regulatory burden that has reached oppressive and confiscatory levels. Preachers, churches, and para-church organizations are increasingly harassed and suppressed through taxes, restrictions on giving, and expensive and unnecessary regulation.

Many other areas could be mentioned which the reader should investigate on his own such as: the activities of the International Monetary Fund in dictating policies of many of the world's countries (with an ultimate goal of total control.) The inflationary policies of the Federal Reserve System have stolen 90% of the purchasing power of the dollar, and its value is being forced down further even today! The public school system has become a vehicle in which to indoctrinate and condition automatons for a future society (where do we find today the hotbed of environmentalism, immorality, drug use, crime, hostility toward God and Christianity, political correctness, and cultural relativism — Is it not in our public schools?)

If we can step back from individual issues and look at the total picture, we can see that taken together these issues present a rapid erosion of our freedoms. The easy and fatal approach is to simply see only one or two issues and decide to just "let it slide this time," and "learn to live with it." Christian, you should be alarmed and moved to action! If you love your country and value your freedoms, the time is long past to do something! But meanwhile, back at the ranch, in the face of all these obstacles, the church is complacent, impotent, uncertain of direction. Jay Wilson says, "The church is filled with 'Christianoids.' That is church members who are half Christian and half humanist." What can we conquer? Nothing!

A way out. Christians must understand the true situation — we are in a spiritual war and the opposition will not just "go away and leave us alone." This is why we are told in Ephesians 6:10-13, "Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the power, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm." (NASV) Underneath all is the struggle between good and evil, the fight between God and Satan. All of the above mentioned issues are symptoms, or the surface rumblings of the real struggle that is constantly being waged between good and evil. When you became a Christian and enlisted in God's army, you became the Devil's enemy. The name of the game in all these issues is power. Power over guns, property, education, food, wealth, and of course, people. Control of these issues gives certain groups power over people. How do Christians fight? Will Christians fight? Have Christians already surrendered without firing a shot? Are we so absorbed in materialistic life- styles that we would rather become comfortable slaves than run the risks necessary to bring about change and a return to a free society?

Spiritual battles must be fought with spiritual weapons. We are not defenseless in the face of Satan's onslaught but we must be spiritually armed. "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come." (Ephesians 1:18-21 NASV) What can we do?

First, Christians must see with spiritual eyes what is really going on around us. We must be able to discern that Jurassic Park is evolutionary brainwashing; environmentalism is pantheism in new clothes; Outcome Based Education is New Age indoctrination; when government pays the bills, and calls the tune, citizens dance. If we see things through eyes glazed over with materialism we will be fooled by the flash and glitter of baubles and blindly support and participate in that which we ought to oppose and avoid.

Second, we must become spiritual people. There are far too many numb Christians who go around entranced by and prating mindless and meaningless religious cliches. Christianity of substance and strength comes by knowing the Word. Strong faith will never develop in the average Christian who sets on a pew and soaks up little tidbits of truth once or twice a week. You must, on your own, spend much more time reading, understanding, comparing, and meditating upon the Scriptures. The Word should be memorized and retained by hard work and repetition. We must go into a vastly deeper study of God's Word. We must get serious about prayer. Serious prayer involves more than simply maintaining a long "Christmas wish list" of things you want from God. Great men of God have historically been great men of prayer.

Being spiritual means your personal conduct is critical. The time has come to stop playing Christian and become the clean, good, fine, noble person God wants you to be. Each Christian knows the things in his life that must be cleaned up. We may fool the evangelist or the elders with our hypocrisy, but we will never conquer spiritual enemies and win spiritual battles until each Christian becomes a genuinely righteous person. That means being righteous the way God defines righteousness and not just a hollow shell performing a few religious acts.

Third, we need to reclaim our country. We sing, "This is my country," but we surrender our rights and abandon our obligations as citizens to vote, serve on juries, and otherwise participate in the process of government. We like the phrase about government being "of the people," and then allow officials, agencies, and special interest groups to dictate policies to us that are immoral, destructive, unnecessary, and unwelcome. We must make these phrases true again. If we simply throw up our hands and say, "I can't do anything," our country is lost and doomed. If religious people would vote and voice our Bible based on convictions, we could make dramatic changes in the shape of American politics. What a tragedy that American Christians seem more concerned with money and materialism than with deeper and more critical moral and spiritual issues. We need a return to leadership and statesmanship from politicians. We desperately need public servants working for the good of our country rather than for the selfish personal gain they can achieve at the expense of other Christians.

America is at another crossroad. The direction America takes depends entirely on the direction you as a Christian chooses to take.

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