God is loving, we are told, and thus accepts us as we are.  The idea that God will judge people for their sins is now so unpopular that few are willing to state it publicly, and many pastors have sadly bowed to the pressure to present a palatable God, a doting “Grandpa” who silently approves of His children regardless of their conduct.

If you have been caught up in this heresy, I warn you to retreat to truth.  God not only has a much higher standard of righteousness than we do, His standard is absolute perfection!

Many years ago, I spoke with a friend, a biblical counselor, regarding the problem of perfectionism.  We have all dealt with perfectionists.  They can be demanding at times!  Maybe you are one!  My friend noted sternly that only God has the right to be a perfectionist for He alone is perfect!

Most of us are not perfectionists, but therein lies a different problem.  Because we do not demand perfection from others (how could we as often as we fail?), we assume that God does not demand perfection from us.  But He does!  Matthew 5:48 reads, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (KJV). No, He does not expect perfection immediately, but do not confuse His patience with tolerance.   At some point, we will be brought individually to account for every time we fail to match His perfect righteousness and holiness.   That ought to be very troubling to us!

God’s perfection is related to, among other things, His holiness, righteousness, and justice.  In all of His eternal existence God has never varied from absolute perfection.  He has never erred in even the smallest way.  And being Creator and Steward of the universe, He takes responsibility for everything that happens within its boundaries, which means that we all must live by His rules.

Our failure to match God’s perfections has an important moral element.  It is not just that we are not as strong or intelligent as God is, we adamantly refuse to do His will!  Every human act is tainted by self-will rather than God service.  Scriptures declare that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,” (Jer. 17:9, NKJV).  The sad tale of mankind’s history is sufficient proof of this!  Everything we do is unsatisfactory to God!

Some philosophers have reasoned that God is so great that He is indifferent to what we do.  We neither add to Him nor take away from Him and thus we need not concern ourselves with the issue of our sinfulness.  It does seem unreasonable (to us) that God would care about what insignificant beings like us do.  However, it is due to His infiniteness that these things do matter.  Acts large or small to us are identical in scale to Him.  His infiniteness extends both directions on the linear scale.

God is not just infinitely greater than we humans. As Creator and Sustainer of the universe, He has the moral responsibility to separate from and condemn all who fall short of His holy perfections.  He commands, “Be holy for I am holy!”  Lest I be misunderstood, God cannot wink at human moral failure, which Scripture labels as sin.  It is in His eternal constitution to repudiate everything that fails to conform to His holiness.  He cannot soften His wrath against it.

In the same way that a company is responsible for the conduct of its employees, God is ultimately responsible for what transpires on planet Earth.  Ironically, while He hates wickedness, and has gone to great lengths to expose and oppose it, He is often blamed for the evils that sinners perpetrate day-after-day contrary to His will and word!  Because of His grace He is willing to “take the blame” for the moment but understand that such an injustice must and will be corrected.  He is blameless!

As Creator He is owed love, allegiance, and submission, yet people have thumbed their noses at Him and rejected His authority and His call on their lives.  Mankind’s failure is not only a matter of quantity, it is a failure of quality.  It is not that He expects us to accomplish ABC and we are only able to do A and B.  Rather, we spurn His commands and do the opposite.  He created us to bring glory to Him, but we shame Him instead.

Even we, having created a work of art, literature, or some other accomplishment, expect to get the credit for it.  Millions of lawsuits attest to the fact that we do not accept others getting or taking credit for our work!  But in our relationship with God, we do worse!  We not only fail to give Him the credit (glory) due Him for who He is and what He does, we seek to take His glory to ourselves!  We stand in awe of a DaVinci painting, or listen in rapture to a Beethoven symphony, but curse Christ, the God who with a word created the beauty of a sunset, a daffodil, and the glorious galaxies and seek to take credit for talents and abilities He “loaned” to us!

Glorifying God is not just crediting Him for who He is and what He does.  It is matching His moral perfections.  He is personally flawless and demands the same from His creation for which He is responsible.  He can tolerate no flaws in His universe.  Our every sin is a blight on His name and reputation and must be corrected.  He will not forever take the blame for our conduct, nor will He allow others to claim credit for His gracious acts.  Ultimately, He will set the record straight.

If there were aliens from other galaxies (and there are not), but if there were and they visited planet Earth, they might well ask, “Who is responsible for this horrific mess?”  A casual observer may blame God, but that conclusion would not stand.  Every broken heart, every dark blot on creation derives from the failure of created beings, not the Creator.  You and I cannot escape our accountability.  We must come to terms with God.

If you love God, you are offended by that which offends God, and you want His good name cleared.  You look with great expectation to the day when He will set the record straight and the guilty parties will be punished.  If you do not love God, I warn you that the days of evading your responsibility will have an end.

Judgement day is coming!  You may believe you can avoid God forever, but the Bible states that there will be a day when “every knee shall bow. . . and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,” (Phil. 2:10-11, NKJV).  This includes every soul in Heaven, Earth, and Hell.  And the standard by which each will be measured will not be one of their own devising, but rather the perfections of Jesus Christ!

In moments of quietness, when you have found yourself examining your own heart, you know that God’s word is true: you stand guilty.  We all stand guilty, not of mere incompetence, but of rebellion!  This fact is born out not only in our consciences, but in the dark and bloody history of humanity.  Rejecting this truth would be understandable if there were no escape from the resultant condemnation.  Denial is a common coping mechanism for those who have no hope.

But there is hope!  Wonderful hope!  And it only requires our acknowledgement of the truth, turning from sin (confession) and an acceptance of God’s forgiveness purchased by Christ on the cross!  And His forgiveness does more than simply wash away our sin.  It changes us!  First Corinthians 15:51 says that “we shall be changed,” and texts like Psalm 17:15 and I John 3:2 declare what that change entails: “We shall be like Him!”  We will be rendered perfect just as He is perfect!

Which brings us to the other side to this coin.  Because God is perfect, He will and must keep His word!  He said he would judge sinners, so He will.  But He also, as early as Genesis 3:16, promised to provide a Savior, and He has done just that!  While His perfections doom all who fall short of them, His perfections also provide grace to all who come under the shadow of His wings!

How can you say no?

For the last century, the United States of America has engaged in a great secular experiment: what if we pretended that God was irrelevant? What if we pretended that we could make laws that ignored God? Could the ‘public square’ be a place of free, rational discourse—free from claims about the implications of Christian theism on public life? This pretended neutrality has served to reveal one thing: that the line between secularism and paganism is dangerously thin. I’ll revisit that point later, but let’s first take a brief diversion into the hazy world of Cannabis and Constitutionalism.

The International Church of Cannabis (yes, you read that right) is in the midst of a battle with the city of Denver, Colorado, over what the ‘church’ claims to be its First Amendment rights to religious freedom. The battle began after the ‘church’ was ordered to remove an eleven-foot, bright pink statue that it erected on their property, a street corner in a residential area.

Striking, isn’t it? A religious group dedicated to smoking weed is appealing to the U.S. Constitution on the grounds of the First Amendment, an amendment designed to protect the Christian conscience. Now, without getting into debates about originalism versus living Constitutionalism, what does this tells us about the state of our nation? More than anything else, it indicates that the Constitution is no longer fit for the American people. Or perhaps it is more appropriate to put it the other way: the American people are no longer fit for the Constitution.

The Constitution has very little to say about God—it only mentions God indirectly, noting that the document was drafted ‘in the year of our Lord, 1787.’ While some might want to read this as a latent atheism in the Founders (or at least an etiolated deism), there is another way to explain the apparent lack of God. As John Adams famously said, “the Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people, and is wholly inadequate for any other.” That is to say, the Constitution presupposes widespread belief in God and the accompanying Christian social behaviors that stabilize a society.

Nevertheless, the lack of explicitly Christian language in the Constitution has been exploited as a ‘get out of morality free’ card by progressives for the last 150 years. And that’s just how we find the International Church of Cannabis appealing to their ‘Constitutionally-protected’ religious freedoms. Because our nation—Christians included—has gone along with the belief that the Constitution, and consequently all law, can exist and preserve social order without a Christian foundation, we now find ourselves confronted with open paganism.

Why is this the case? Why does a silent secularism end up manifesting itself as open paganism? Because nature abhors a vacuum. If there is a moral vacuum, something has to fill it. Man is homo adorans, he was created to worship something, so when God is stripped of his public relevance, the public will find other things to worship, like cannabis, or himself, or whatever that thing on the courthouse in New York is.

Secularism is never truly secular. There is always a god of the system. In a liberal democracy such as our own, the god is demos, the people. Just listen to any political pundit invoking Omniscient Polls and Almighty Consensus—such things are imbued with godlike characteristics, and everyone must fall down and worship before demos.

Christians must reclaim the public square, not ceding an inch to secularism. We must not buy into the notion that laws can be value-neutral. Law, morality, and social order have no rational basis other than the Triune God of Scripture.

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Good job, David French, Ed Stetzer, Christianity Today, Lincoln Project, and other assorted Never-Trumpers. The senile, morally corrupt President-Elect of the once great United States of America just nominated a delusional man with a cross-dressing fetish to be the Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services. Now decent people won’t be able to teach their young children about our president’s Cabinet. With Dr. Richard “Rachel” Levine‘s appointment will come Big Brother’s prohibition of “misgendering” Levine. In other words, Big Brother and his minions will command all Americans to mis-sex the burly Dr. Levine. Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.

Oh, but that’s not all.

Biden has a plan to spread the leftist sexuality ideology within the United States and export it to infinity and beyond. Biden—the self-identifying Catholic—chooses to offend the God he claims to serve rather than offend the gods of homosexuality and “trans”-cultism he actually serves. In terrifying rebellion against God, Biden calls theologically orthodox biblical beliefs about homosexual acts “hatred,” specifically identifying Mike Pence’s beliefs as such.

Further, Biden says, “defeating” those beliefs “is an essential first step” in achieving the leftist goal of full societal approval of homosexuality, which he fallaciously calls “equality.”

Biden has committed to passing the Equality Act, which has nothing to do with equality and everything to do with eradicating First Amendment protections of religious free exercise. Biden has said that through the Equality Act, he will force women’s shelters to house biological men who pretend to be women. Those places where abused women and their children take refuge, often from abusive men, will under Biden, house men.

Biden has committed to reversing the ban on sexual passing in the military. In other words, female soldiers will be forced to bunk and shower with men who pretend to be women, and U.S. taxpayers will be forced to subsidize elective cosmetic procedures and ongoing cross-sex hormone-doping for delusional soldiers.

Biden has committed to forcing Christian adoption and foster care agencies to place children in the homes of homosexuals or lose access to all government funds. In other words, Biden will discriminate based on religion when funding adoption agencies.

Biden has promised that on his first day in office he will require all public schools to allow “trans”-identifying students to have full access to the restrooms, locker rooms, and sports of opposite-sex students. I’m sure that will go over well with Muslim parents.

We can’t forget that Biden has promised to restore funding to America’s abattoirs, Planned Parenthood. With Biden ensconced in the Oval Office, Christians from sea to shining sea will be forced to fund human slaughter. But at least now that the uncouth, boorish Trump is gone, Never-Trumpers will be able to sleep at night.

And this is just the tip of the cold, dark iceberg, Biden and Never-Trumpers kept hidden during the campaign.

Never-Trumpers, besotted with dreams of Downton Abbey’s Lord Grantham (without the white skin, biological sex, or elitist title, of course) running for president, couldn’t abide the coarse, abrasive, pugilistic Trump winning a second term, so they colluded with leftists to kneecap him.

Never mind that Joe Biden is an inveterate liar and plagiarist. Never mind that he inappropriately touches women. Never mind that he has been accused by Jill Biden’s first husband of having an affair with her when Joe’s wife was still alive and Jill Biden was still married. Never mind that he was accused of digitally raping a staffer years ago. Never mind that there is good evidence that Joe and his corrupt son and brother colluded to line their pockets with the filthy lucre of America’s chief enemy. Never mind that with a straight but slightly confused face, he lied during election season, telling voters that he knew nothing about Hunter Biden’s shady business dealings. To Never-Trumpers, Biden’s plans to destroy America are trivialities to be ignored.

While facilitating the election of Joe Biden—a man who will enact policies that destroy the bodies, minds, and hearts of children—apparently has no bearing on our Christian witness, voting for Trump does—or so goes the argument of Ed Stetzer, dean and professor at Wheaton College and contributing editor at Christianity Today.

Stetzer thinks the dim view the world has of evangelicalism has everything to do with gullible, non-thinking, Trump-voting evangelicals. No mention of the hatred the world has for the word of God when it comes to homosexuality and sexual passing.

No mention either of the unconscionable cowardly silence of theologians and pastors who have said next to nothing as the world captured the hearts and minds of children in their own houses of worship and whose silence contributed to the spread of evil so dark and ugly that many evangelicals, when faced with the choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, believed rightly that Trump was better.

Trump offered hope to parents who didn’t want their daughters sharing locker rooms with boys. He offered hope that Planned Parenthood would be defunded. He offered hope for a Supreme Court that would protect their religious liberty.

In Stetzer’s myopic view, expressed in a USA Today editorial devoid of nuance, “far too many [evangelicals] failed to live up to their promise of speaking truth to power.” Perhaps. But there are tens of thousands more evangelicals who voted for Trump than there are well-known evangelicals who had access to Trump to speak truth to power, and Stetzer lumps them all together.

What about the well-known evangelicals who have had opportunities for decades to speak truth to power about the poisonous, enslaving “LGBTQ” ideology and have said nothing either to the powerful or publicly. How does Stetzer think the world—whose opinion he seems to care so much about—would think about evangelicalism if every well-known evangelical spoke truth to power publicly about the “trans”-ideology and homosexuality?

Has Stetzer considered that maybe evangelicals wouldn’t have been so attracted to Trump’s muscular rhetoric, if evangelical leaders had not been speaking in such emasculated tones for so many years?

Maybe Stetzer doesn’t know any, but there are scores of evangelicals who see with clarity Trump’s flaws and who worship no political (or evangelical) leader. Those evangelicals were careful to distinguish between Trump the man and the policies of his administration. Given a choice between a corrupt man with terrible policies and a corrupt man with better policies, they chose the latter.

The dark shape of things to come

The 1619 Project has changed the date of America’s founding. All summer, Orwellian monsters—also known as Biden voters—rampaged through our cities, tearing down statutes and demanding that buildings and streets be renamed and artwork replaced. Birth certificates are now legally falsified to indicate a biological male was identified at the time of his birth as female. Birth certificates will now identify a biological woman who was impregnated by a biological man and birthed a baby as the “father.” Within a nanosecond after the announcement by a Hollywood starlet at age 33 that she will henceforth pretend she’s a man, the Internet was scrubbed of any past references to her by female pronouns. Her history was erased.

In the novel 1984, George Orwell wrote,

Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.

As I wrote several weeks ago, “Leftists See Orwell’s Novel 1984 As a Blueprint for Progress.”

So, tell me again, Mr. French, Mr. Stetzer, and Christianity Today, how exactly does facilitating the election of the patently corrupt Biden who heartily endorses sexual perversion, religious persecution, human slaughter, and the erasure of history enhance the witness of theologically orthodox Christians?

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/auThe-Shape-of-Things-to-Come.m4a

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I recently wrote about the value of asking ourselves during challenging times the question “What is true about God right now?”

With all that’s going on in our nation these days, perhaps now would be a good time to reflect on that question in the context of current events.

Here are ten things that are true about God no matter what’s going on in the world around us.

#1: He’s Still in Control

Psalm 97:1: “The LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.

No matter the outcome of an election, God is still on His throne and will never be voted out or removed from office!

#2: Jesus is Still the Same

Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

We don’t know how long it will be before Jesus returns, but whether He comes today or a hundred years from now—and no matter what happens in the meantime—Jesus is still the same and always will be.

#3: His Word is Still True

John 17:17b: “Thy Word is truth.”

We can still turn to Scripture for help, hope, and wisdom even in the midst of a culture that has lost its way. Our society may not be able to agree on the truth, politicians may stretch the truth, schools might not teach the truth, but we can still find the Truth in the Word of God!

#4: He Still Loves His Children

Romans 8:38-39: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

If none of those things can separate us from the love of God, I don’t think elections or worldwide pandemic can do it either!

#5: Jesus Still Saves

Romans 10:9: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

That was true when Paul wrote it, and it’s true today. God is still at work in the world to bring lost sinners to Christ.

#6: Jesus Has Overcome the World

John 16:33: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

Jesus foretold it two thousand years ago: in the world, we’ll have trouble. But His encouragement can still give hope today: He has overcome the world!

#7: He Still Has a Plan for You

Psalm 37:23: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.”

In times of upheaval, it’s good to know that God still orders our steps. His plans for us aren’t thrown off track based on the changing circumstances around us.

#8: He’s Still Working All Things Together for Good

Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

All things? That’s what Paul said! That’s a big promise that I have a hard time getting my head around, but we can believe by faith that it’s true.

#9: He’s Still Working to Sanctify His People

Philippians 1:6: “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ . . .”

Our problems aren’t just “out there” in the world—we still have the problem of our own sin nature right inside us. Thankfully, God is still at work sanctifying His people and conforming us to the image of Christ. That’s great news!

#10: He Will Never Leave Us

Hebrews 13:5b: “for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

God is always with His people. What a promise! In good times and bad, in times of plenty and times of poverty, in times of peace and times of chaos, in times of sickness and times of health, in times of joy and times of sorrow, in times of peace and times of conflict, He is always there. Always.

There may be plenty of things to be concerned about in our world, but let’s not forget that we have hope beyond this world. Take a few moments to reflect on what is true about God today, and let Him encourage and strengthen your heart!

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Have you ever noticed how easy it is to be lazy sometimes?

Or distracted?

Or preoccupied with “important” things?

Or forgetful of our values and what really matters?

I was thinking about parenting recently, and it struck me that it’s easy to talk about how vitally important Christian parenting is in a broad, general sense, but then get lazy in our day-to-day practice.

In other words, it’s easy to say how important good parenting is, then act as if we don’t believe it.

My guess is that just about any sincere Christian parent will agree that being a good Dad or Mom is important to them. They’ll agree that a lack of good parenting hurts kids and is bad for our society as a whole. We would agree that we need a return to good, solid, Biblical parenting.

We agree with all of that in principle. Say any of those things from a pulpit in America and you’ll probably get some nods and “amens” from the congregation.

But none of those things matter only in a theoretical, big-picture sense. They matter in daily practice. And they matter today.

I want to focus on that word today.

See, God doesn’t want us to believe in the importance of our parental role only in theory. He wants us to act on that belief. He wants us put it into practice.

In other words, we need to believe not just in the vital importance of Christian parenting in general, but in the vital importance of being a good parent to our children today.

Not tomorrow.

Not next week.

Not sometime when it’s easier, simpler, or more convenient.

Today.

Because in a very real sense, today—this moment—is all I have.

Let me give you an analogy.

Many of us want to lose a few pounds. We know we should. We know it would do us good. We know it would improve our health and the quality of our lives. We see the importance. And so we decide to start dieting and exercising—tomorrow.

As I remember my mother once observing, however, we never really live a “tomorrow.” Tomorrow is just another today that hasn’t arrived yet. And when it gets here, it’s not going to feel any easier, simpler, or more convenient to make good choices than it does today.

We always have reasons (excuses?) for why today isn’t a good day to begin. I’m meeting friends for coffee. There’s leftover birthday cake on the counter. It’s supposed to rain so I can’t go for a walk. Tomorrow will be better.

If we’re not careful, we can take the same attitude with our parenting. We’ll be late if I take time to deal with the tantrum now. I’m too tired to sort out another squabble. I just need to finish sending this text.

We get lazy. Complacent. Distracted. Preoccupied. It’s not that we’ve stopped believing in the importance of being a good parent; we just don’t want to put in the effort to be a good parent right now.

I’m talking to myself here as well. How many times have I missed opportunities to be the Dad God wants me to be because I was too lazy, distracted, or preoccupied?

The truth is, we can’t embrace our calling tomorrow. We can only do it today. I can only be a good Dad moment by moment, decision by decision. If I lack the character to overcome my natural laziness and apathy and be the involved Dad God wants me to be, it’s not going to be magically easier tomorrow.

So how about it? Will you join me in asking God to help you believe in the vital importance of being a good parent today? And if—like me—you know you need to grow in your own character so you can be the Dad or Mom He wants you to be, will you join me in asking God to bring that change?

Because after all, Christian parenting is important.

And it’s important today.

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In a cowardly effort to lick the jackboots of Black Lives Matter, the NFL is reportedly going to have every NFL game during Week 1 open with the song “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” long known as the “black national anthem,” followed by the American national anthem, the “Star-Spangled Banner.” According to the Associated Press, the NFL is also “considering putting names of victims of police brutality on helmet decals or jersey patches.” (Maybe the NFL wants to tackle another serious societal problem and allow players to put the names of victims of domestic abuse committed by professional athletes on their helmets or jerseys. #LogInTheirEye)

African American James Weldon Johnson wrote the lyrics to “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” in 1899, and his brother John Rosamund Johnson composed the music. It was first performed by 500 black students at a segregated school on the occasion of Abraham Lincoln‘s birthday. In 1919, the NAACP adopted it as their official song. It is a moving and inspiring hymn to God, deeply meaningful to the black community. But is it an appropriate song for sporting events that bring together diverse peoples from all over the world for some diversionary entertainment?

Is a song that emerged from and reminds listeners of the most grievous historical sin of this great country a fitting song to start an event that is intended to entertain? And why now? Why when racial discrimination is at historic lows should we use sporting events for this purpose? When slavery and Jim Crow laws are long gone; when we have had a black president; when we have black congressmen and congresswomen; when we have blacks serving and performing at the highest levels of every institution and profession in the country; and when we have interracial children, families, churches, and friend groups, why begin a diversionary bit of entertainment with a song about the “blood of the slaughtered” blacks killed by whites?

Of what other historical sins or political causes should we use sporting events to remind attendees? How about a Chinese anthem reminding Americans of their treatment when they built the transcontinental railway? How about a song at the start of entertainment events reminding Americans about the internment of the Japanese during WWII? How about reminding Americans at sporting events of the anti-Semitism that has percolated throughout American history? How about a song reminding Americans about the ongoing slaughter of the unborn? How about a song about the grievous and systemic/institutional injustice done to children by divorce and/or their fathers’ abandonment?

Sin and injustice mar the story of every country and institution that has ever existed because sin is the state of man. But America has been a marvel in the annals of history as a place in which racial, ethnic, and religious diversity can flourish. That’s why emigrants from around the world continue to come.

Our national anthem should be one like the third verse of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” (a verse that leftists likely detest) that places God first in leading us to a better place—a place in which we judge people by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. It should express the foundational principle that we are all created by God and endowed by Him with unalienable rights and that out of many, we become one as American citizens. I’d say this does the job quite nicely:

O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
…
O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto – “In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

If the NFL pursues this controversial political act—an act which will result in yet more lost revenue—let’s pray the third verse of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” is sung to Lord:

God of our weary years
God of our silent tears
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light
Keep us forever in the path, we pray
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee
Shadowed beneath Thy hand
May we forever stand
True to our God
True to our native land

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/The-NFL-and-the-Black-National-Anthem_audio.mp3

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Black lives do matter, but not because they’re black—which, as “progressives” continually tell us—is just a social construct. Black lives matter not because of the color of their skin but because they are human lives created in the image and likeness of God and endowed by God with unalienable, intrinsic rights.

Since society is composed of fallen humans with desperately wicked hearts, many forces conspire against blacks, including some toxic systemic forces that demand solutions. Few if any of these solutions are proposed by Black Lives Matter (BLM), Antifa, or the Democratic Party. In fact, in the grimy, grasping quest for power of BLM, Antifa, and “progressives,” they double-down on the policies and cancerous ideologies that undergird those policies, thereby increasing their own political power and the suffering of those whose votes they covet.

Because black lives matter, here are some ideas for uprooting or transforming malignant systemic dysfunction that harms black (and red, yellow, brown, and white) lives:

• Because black babies matter, we should end the barbaric practice of feticide that results in a disproportionate number of black babies being slaughtered every year.

• Because black women matter, we should create a public service campaign like no other—one that encourages men to marry women before having sex with them, or to marry women they impregnate.

• Because black children matter, this public service campaign should urge mothers and fathers to stay together. There is no greater protection against poverty and criminality than being raised by both a mother and father in an intact family. Fatherless homes reliably produce boys vulnerable to gangs who are tutored in the ways of criminality and then grow up to commit violent crimes against their own communities, thereby demonstrating that black lives don’t matter to them.

• Because black families matter, tax policy and public aid should incentivize marriage and employment.

• Because black families matter, they have a right to safe schools and to school choice. Black families living in deteriorating and dangerous urban communities (most of which have long been run by Democrats) should have choices regarding where their children are educated.

• Because black children matter, teachers’ unions must be eradicated. Teachers’ unions protect the jobs of terrible teachers, and through excessive pensions are impoverishing already cash-strapped states which then pass these costs on to taxpayers.

• Because black children matter, government schools should not propagate as truth ideologically biased ideas like those found in The 1619 Project or Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States. Teaching erroneous history and/or teaching that America is a country of unparalleled oppression and racial bigotry in which blacks cannot positively affect their own futures does a grave disservice to blacks and truth. Such inaccurate resources foster divisiveness rather than unity or love of the principles on which this country was founded. Untruthful depictions of America’s history in either direction—intensification or minimization of failures— are wrong. It is leftist ideas embedded in “teaching for social justice” that foster hatred of America and racial division. These ideas cultivate feelings of bitterness, resentment, and envy on the parts of “people of color” toward colorless people who have never harmed them. And these ideas cultivate the false belief in communities of color that improving their lots in life is impossible unless colorless people who have committed no sin of racial oppression take the knee.

• Because black lives matter, police unions that protect brutal police officers must be reformed. In a recent National Review article titled “It’s Past Time to Examine How Police Unions Protect Bad Cops,”  John Fund draws attention to an article in the Stanford Law Review in which Katherine Bies writes,

[D]uring the rise of police unions to political power in the 1970s, police unions lobbied for legislation that shrouded personnel files in secrecy and blocked public access to employee records of excessive force or other officer misconduct. Today, these officer misconduct confidentiality statutes continue to prohibit public disclosure of disciplinary records related to police shootings and other instances of excessive force. … [P]olice unions often strategically frame any opposition to their agenda of secrecy as endangering public safety and harming the public interest. However, police unions often conflate “the public interest” with the private interests of police officers. … Additionally, police unions have established highly developed political machinery that exerts significant political and financial pressure on all three branches of government.  

• Because black women, men, and children matter, we should address the existence and easy accessibility of pornography that is destroying families.

• Because black families matter, we should rethink legalized gambling and recreational marijuana that are hurting families economically and spiritually.

• Because black lives matter, celebrities should throw their hefty influence behind all these life-affirming proposals through their music, films, streaming programs, and tweets.

Because black lives matter, theologically orthodox Christians must better employ their creativity and tenacity in figuring out how to “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” Because black lives matter, they—like people of all colors and no color—must hear the good news that in Christ “there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.”

Pastor Doug Wilson exposes the worldly “rival reconciliation project” that exacerbates  division and arouses hatred:

[B]ecause secular man has rejected the one in whom we all live and move and have our being, all his attempts are of necessity a downward integration into the void. Their proud project of universal toleration consistently spirals downward into the acids of hatred and violence.

In America, because of our Christian heritage, this project is an attempt to reconcile the trappings of traditional Christianity with the central dogmas of cultural Marxism, and it represents the high water mark of duncical folly. It is an attempt to reconcile squares and circles, good and evil, light and darkness, folly and wisdom, God and the devil. The cosmic reconciliation purchased by Christ has nothing whatever to do with this sort of monstrosity. …

The reason the streets of Minneapolis are on fire is because secular man in his pretended wisdom has been trying to reconcile two completely different methods of reconciliation — the way of atonement through the blood of Christ together with his way of accusation, recrimination, reparations, and retribution. …

But there can be no peace between the God of forgiveness and the god of recrimination, the God of no condemnation and the god of all condemnation.

Should we reconcile blacks and whites who were caught up in bitter enmity with each other? Of course. That is what the gospel does. Should we try to reconcile the world’s way of reconciling with God’s way of reconciling? Of course not. The world’s way only foments more and more bitterness, while God’s way breaks down the middle wall of partition. The world’s way is impotent, and God’s way saves to the uttermost.

There are many Christians who do not see what is happening, and who do not understand a blessed thing about it, but who are trying to help out with this monstrosity by decking out the secularist approach to reconciliation in the language of Christian reconciliation. They point out that ethnic reconciliation is a good thing in Scripture, which is true enough, but then they want to drape the Christian language of reconciliation over the secular way of doing it, which contains no authority, no sap, no salt, and no blood.

The short form of this atrocious compromise is this: Because the blood of Christ puts all ethnic enmities to death, we think we can just go straight to the group hug, declare all ethnic enmities a form of bigotry and a violation of America’s core values, and dispense with the blood of Christ. And then we wonder where all this hatred is coming from.

Listen to this article read by Laurie: 

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Because-Black-Lives-Matter_audio.mp3

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Black lives do matter, but not because they’re black—which, as “progressives” continually tell us—is just a social construct. Black lives matter not because of the color of their skin but because they are human lives created in the image and likeness of God and endowed by God with unalienable, intrinsic rights.

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A survey conducted online between June 5-9, 2017 by the Barna group poll shows that many Americans still rely on prayer as a means to communicate with God. The study shows that prayer is the most common faith practice among adults with 79 percent of the population engaging in prayer at least once in the past three months.

Here are some of the interesting things the study found:

Eighty-two percent of praying adults most often pray silently and by themselves. 13 percent pray audibly by themselves. And 2% pray audibly with another person or group or collectively with a church.

When asked what the content of their prayers were, 62 percent listed gratitude and thanksgiving, 61% listed the needs of family and community, 49 percent listed personal guidance in crisis, 47 percent for health and wellness, 43 percent for confession and forgiveness or things they suddenly felt the urge to pray about, 41 percent for safety in daily tasks or travel, 37 percent for a sense of peace and blessings for meals, 34 percent for specific requests from others, 24 percent about concerns in our nation or government, 20 percent about concerns over global problems or injustices, 12 percent about their sleep, and 8 percent reciting Scripture, meditations, or liturgies.

Elders are 30 percent more likely to pray for health and wellness than 38 percent of millennials, who reported doing so. Lower income earners, 52 percent (under $50,000) also pray this type of prayer more often than higher income earners, 42 percent (over $100,000). Those living in rural areas as opposed to more urban locations are more likely to pray for health, perhaps because access to medical services and gyms and health centers are not as easily accessible.

Thirty-seven percent of prayers are for a sense of peace. Those with children under the age of eighteen are more likely to pray for a sense of peace, likely because raising children can feel rather chaotic at times. People who live in big cities are also more prone to pray this prayer (43 percent) over those who live in small, rural areas (29 percent).

Elders are more likely than their younger millennial counterparts to cover prayer requests from others. 27 percent of millennials said they actually follow through with praying for specific prayer requests from others, while 47 percent of elders said they cover requests from others.

Twenty-four percent of paying adults make it a point to pray about their concerns for the nation or government. When it comes to global problems or concerns, only 20 percent, or 1 in every 5 Americans pray specifically for these issues.

Millennials and parents with children under the age of 18 are most likely (both at 19 percent) to pray for sleep. Just 1 percent of elders are likely to pray for sleep, and 9 percent of adults with no children under the age of 18 pray for sleep.

Women are more likely than men to cover each category listed in the survey. Evangelicals are also most likely to be praying actively about each category. Evangelicals are especially prevalent to pray for the needs of their families and communities (89 percent), gratitude and thanksgiving (69 percent), and confession and forgiveness (77^ percent).

Though 89 percent of those surveyed direct their prayers to God, this does not mean that they are all praying to the same god – some do not even pray to a diety. No specific definition for God was given in the survey so the widespread meaning of the word usage could be very broad. “For instance,” the survey notes, “Only half of praying adults (50 percent) pray to Jesus, and less than one-quarter (23 percent) pray to the Holy Spirit.” 28 percent of those surveyed claimed to have no faith whatsoever.

Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

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The new sexual morality did not emerge from a vacuum. Massive intellectual changes at the worldview level over the last 200 years set the stage for the revolution in which we currently find ourselves. We are living in times rightly, if rather awkwardly, described as the Late Modern Age. Just a decade ago, we spoke of the Postmodern Age, as if modernity had given way to something fundamentally new. Like every new and self-declared epoch, the Postmodern Age was declared to be a form of liberation. Whereas the Modern Age announced itself as a secular liberation from a Christian authority that operated on claims of divine revelation, the Postmodern Age was proposed as a liberation from the great secular authorities of reason and rationality. The Postmodern Age, it was claimed, would liberate humanity by operating with an official “incredulity toward all metanarratives.” In other words, postmodernity denied all of the big narratives that had previously shaped the culture and specifically put an end to the Christian narrative.

And yet, postmodern thought eventuated, as all intellectual movements must, in its own metanarrative. Then it just passed away. We still speak of postmodern thinking, even as we speak rightly of postmodern architecture and postmodern art, but we are speaking, for the most part, of a movement that has given way and given up. In retrospect, the Postmodern Age was not a new age at all; it was only the alarm that announced the end of Modernity and the beginning of the Late Modern Age. Modernity has not disappeared. It has only grown stronger, if also more complex.

The claim that humanity can only come into its own and overcome various invidious forms of discrimination by secular liberation is not new, but it is now mainstream. It is now so common to the cultures of Western societies that it need not be announced, and often is not noticed. Those born into the cultures of late modernity simply breathe these assumptions as they breathe the atmosphere, and their worldviews are radically realigned, even if their language retains elements of the old worldview.

The background to this great intellectual shift is the secularization of Western societies. Modernity has brought many cultural goods, but it has also, as predicted, brought a radical change in the way citizens of Western societies think, feel, relate, and reason. The Enlightenment’s liberation of reason at the expense of revelation was followed by a radical anti-supernaturalism that can scarcely be exaggerated. Looking at Europe and Great Britain, it is clear that the Modern Age has alienated an entire civilization from its Christian roots, along with Christian moral and intellectual commitments. This did not happen all at once, of course, though the change came very quickly in nations such as France and Germany. Scandinavian nations now register almost imperceptible levels of Christian belief. Increasingly, the same is also true of Great Britain. Sociologists now speak openly of the death of Christian Britain—and the evidence of Christian decline is abundant.

Some prophetic voices recognized the scale and scope of the intellectual changes taking place in the West. Just over thirty years ago, Francis Schaeffer wrote of a shift in worldview away from one that was at least vaguely Christian in the memory of society towards a completely different way of looking at the world. This new worldview was based on the idea that final reality was impersonal matter or energy shaped into its present form by impersonal chance. Significantly, Schaeffer observed that Christians in his time did not see this new worldview as taking the place of the Christian worldview that had previously dominated northern European and American cultures, either by personal conviction or cultural impression. These two worldviews, one generally Christian and the other barely deistic stood in complete antithesis to each other in content and also in moral results. These contrary ways of seeing the world would lead to very different sociological and governmental results, including the conception and implementation of law.

In 1983, writing just a few years after Francis Schaeffer made that contribution, Carl F. H. Henry described the situation and future possibilities in terms of a strict dichotomy:

“If modern culture is to escape the oblivion that has engulfed the earlier civilizations of man, the recovery of the will of the self-revealed God in the realm of justice and law is crucially imperative. Return to pagan misconceptions of divinized rulers, or a divinized cosmos, or a quasi-Christian conception of natural law or natural justice will bring inevitable disillusionment. Not all pleas for transcendent authority will truly serve God or man. By aggrandizing law and human rights and welfare to their sovereignty, all manner of earthly leaders eagerly preempt the role of the divine and obscure the living God of Scriptural revelation. The alternatives are clear: we return to the God of the Bible or we perish in the pit of lawlessness.”[1]

Writing even earlier, Carl Henry had already identified the single greatest intellectual obstacle to a cultural return to the God of the Bible. Released in 1976, Henry’s first volume of his six-volume magnum opus, God, Revelation, and Authority, began with this first line: “No fact of contemporary Western life is more evident than the growing distrust of final truth and its implacable questioning of any sure word.”[2] This obstacle to the return to the authority of a Christian worldview is really part of a vicious circle that begins with the departure from at least a cultural impression of God’s revealed authority. Leaving a Christian worldview leads to a distrust of final truth and a rejection of universal authority, which then blockades the way back to the God of the Bible.

Read Part 1 — Secularization and the Sexual Revolution

ARTICLE CITATIONS

This article was originally posted at AlbertMohler.com