As you can well imagine, over the past several months, I have had a number of projects, concerns and prayers on my mind and on my “to do” list. Yet, as all these issues swirl around in my thoughts, there is one topic that consistently rises to the top – spiritual warfare. I suspect I am not alone in my consideration of this subject, because a believer who is well-acquainted with God’s Word understands that spiritual warfare is a reality in the daily life of a Christian.

Ephesians 6:10-17 gives us a battle plan that every every believer ought to implement:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, 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, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The older I get, the more I realize that our temporal life is, in fact, a battle. We are truly Soldiers of the Cross, engaged in non-stop spiritual warfare. But this is the Good News, our Heavenly Commander-in-Chief has given us supernatural power to demolish strongholds, to demolish arguments and every pretension that runs contrary to the Truth of God. He, working in and through us, gives us victory!

The apostle Paul tells us we cannot ignore spiritual warfare. We cannot ignore Satan and his schemes. We must suit up and prepare to do battle because attacks are imminent. If we are walking in the Spirit, armor in place, we will more readily recognize the snares of Satan – his temptations and lies that confront each one of us, every day.

We can clearly discern Satan at work in the ongoing cultural revolution that engulfs our state and nation even as it consumes the entire world. This revolution is better described as a rebellion because it is a conscious, deliberate rejection of God and His Word. Do not be naive or complacent! The rebellion has already taken captive the hearts and minds of some of our family members, friends, and neighbors, and its “deceive and destroy” mission is far from over. If we are foolish enough to think we are perfect, obedient servants of Almighty God and therefore, immune from rebellious attitudes, thoughts, and actions, we are, at the least, intellectually dishonest and, at worst, utterly heretical.

Dr. Del Tackett calls the armed confrontation between Christians and Satan the “cosmic battle” – a battle of Christ-followers who uphold God’s truth versus the father of lies and his forces of evil. Satan knows he has been defeated, but he is a very bitter, sore loser and he wants to exact maximum damage as he goes down in flames.

Revelation 12:17 says that Satan, after he was expelled from heaven, was greatly enraged that he could not thwart God’s plan of salvation:

So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Make no mistake – Satan is at open war with God, and his main target is mankind, God’s crown jewel of creation. His command to be fruitful and multiply was given in order to fill the earth with images of Himself because He desires and deserves an earth filled with worshippers.

Conversely, Satan is feverishly working overtime to bring death, destruction, disease, disorder, distractions, delusions, and disabilities in an attempt to limit and eliminate the number of God-worshippers on earth. The second part of verse 17 makes it clear — Satan is targeting those “who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”

Our enemy is opposed to Kingdom expansion. He does not want the Gospel to spread throughout the world or for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Satan does not want us to grow in sanctification and become strong, effective warriors; he is overjoyed when new believers remain immature, fruitless, and sidelined from the battlefield. One of Satan’s primary objectives is to entice followers of Jesus to pursue vain and temporal goals so we will be distracted and indifferent to the battle that wages around us.

Spiritual warfare has always existed, but I sincerely believe we have entered a time of heightened spiritual warfare – a time that will profoundly test the faith of man. Furthermore, I believe that God is allowing Satan to sift His church and, at the same time, He is looking for those whose hearts are faithful to Him.

Unsurprisingly, a good portion of spiritual warfare in our nation and the world today is waged on multiple levels, both culturally and politically. I believe this battle is exacerbated and accelerated by ignorance of the Word of God. Paul’s warning in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 remains as true in 2018 as when he wrote his epistle:

For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.

Brothers and sisters, that time is NOW. A recent Barna study reveals that only 14% of American adults use the Bible daily, while 13% use it several times a week, 8% once a week, 6% about once a month, and 8% only three to four times a year. Additionally, the study reports that “Bible use has remained relatively consistent since 2011.” That is a diplomatic way of saying that Bible use among American adults is flat or stagnant – there has been no appreciable growth.

The Bible declares that the Word of God is our spiritual sword (Eph. 6:17) and the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb. 4:12). Yet, how can we fight a spiritual battle without a sword? How do we stand firm against the relentless schemes of the devil if we are unarmed? Sadly, how can some of us justify possessing the most powerful weapon in the world, but never unsheathing it? Simply put, we cannot. Without the sword we are defenseless; we will be in constant retreat, beaten down, or defeated. In order to take up the sword and fight, we must know the Word of God and handle it rightly!

Scripture fittingly calls Satan the father of lies (John 8:44) because he actively attacks faith (1 Thess. 3:5; 2 Cor. 11:3), binds the minds of unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:4), exploits a lack of understanding (Matt. 13:19), misuses Scripture (Matt. 4:6), and hinders the spread of the gospel (1 Thess. 2:18).

What foolhardy person would dare to come out against the father of lies alone and unarmed? We would be foolish indeed if we thought we could successfully engage Satan in battle without a solid knowledge of the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Reflect once more on Paul’s words as he urges us to rely on God’s power:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ~ Ephesians 6:10-11

The battle rages around us, but retreat and defeat are unacceptable options. We must engage the enemy, clad in the full armor of God.

Take heart! “Be strong in the LORD and in HIS mighty power!”

End-of-Year Challenge

As you may know, thanks to amazingly generous Illinois Family Institute partners, we have an end-of-year matching challenge of $100,000 to help support our ongoing work to educate and activate Illinois’ Christian community.

Please consider helping us reach this goal!  Your tax-deductible contribution will help us stand strong in 2019!  To make a credit card donation over the phone, please call the IFI office at (708) 781-9328.  You can also send a gift to:

Illinois Family Institute
P.O. Box 876
Tinley Park, Illinois 60477

Before we even put a dent into the Thanksgiving leftovers, we leap wholeheartedly into “the most wonderful time of the year!” But, when the décor switches from gold and orange to red and green, do you find yourself wondering if you can use the “C word” when you interact with a cashier, co-worker, or barista? You know the word I mean . . . Christmas. Should you abstain on the chance you might offend someone or seem non-inclusive? Dennis Prager, a Jew, radio talk show host, and author, emphatically says, “No.” We couldn’t agree more!

In this video, Prager lays out a solid, common sense defense for the use of Merry Christmas, Christmas vacation, Christmas party, and the like. What Prager shares will prepare you to confidently articulate why Merry Christmas is actually an inclusive and wholly appropriate greeting.

Watch and share on social media!

Can you imagine what it felt like for the shepherds to hear, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  And can you imagine them witnessing the sky being basked in brilliant light when heavenly hosts appeared to announce, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased”?  What a moment they would never forget! 

God’s messengers announced the long-awaited news of the birth of the Savior.  They not only proclaimed His birth, but also the joy and peace that comes from only Him.

Sadly, not everyone experiences peace.  Recently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that showed life expectancy is falling, driven by suicides and drug overdoses.  The report shows that drug overdoses were up 9.6 percent in 2017 over 2016. It went on to say that there are now 14 suicides per every 100,000 people.

These are staggering numbers.  How can this be?  We live in a country where we have access to anything we want.  We have Big Screen TV’s.  We have $5 cups of coffee.  We have smart phones.  We have sexual liberty and tolerance.  We have nice homes.  We have fame.  We have fortune.  We have anything we want at our finger tips.  So, why on earth do we see these numbers from the CDC?

The reality is, things can bring us “joy” only but for a short season.  These things can only bring us “peace” for a moment.

But there is a true joy, and a peace that lasts.  Psalm 16:11 says, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”  True joy is being in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

It’s when we fill our lives with everything but Him, that we find ourselves feeling empty, lonely and depressed.  The only one who can truly satisfy the human heart is the One who made it.  Just as a square peg cannot fill a round hole, neither can the “God-shaped hole” inside each of us be filled by anyone or anything other than God.

This Christmas season, I pray that you would come to know the Prince of Peace, if you don’t already.  My prayer is that you would seek the One who died for you. The One who will forgive all your sins and the One who offers you the greatest gift ever given to mankind – with no strings attached – eternal life with Him in paradise.  And when you do, you will know true peace…with God.  Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

IFI depends on the support of concerned-citizens like you. Donate now

-and, please-

There is an interesting new scientific study with findings that are unsettling for those with a secular worldview.

Senior Research Associates, Mark Stoeckle and David Thaler of the University of Basel, Switzerland, told the media that “the conclusion is very surprising,” and that they “fought very hard against it, as hard as they could.”

The reason why the scientists probably did not like their findings is because it has a rather obvious Biblical connection. The UK Daily Mail story, below, made sure that a secular spin was put on this, but it seems obvious that this has Biblical possibilities too.

The study looked at the DNA of five million animals and humans and “deduced that we sprang from a single pair of adults after a catastrophic event almost wiped out the human race.” Stoeckle and Thaler concluded that 90 percent of all of today’s animal species come from parents that all began giving birth at roughly the same time, less than 250,000 years ago, which raises doubts about the theory of human evolution.

“One might have thought that, due to their high population numbers and wide geographic distribution, humans might have led to greater genetic diversity than other animal species. . . At least for mitochondrial DNA, humans turn out to be low to average in genetic diversity,” the researchers said.

The scientists don’t speculate on what that catastrophic event was, but one could assume it could be either creation itself, or perhaps a global flood as taught in Scripture. Some headlines said this study points to Adam and Eve, but one could also see conclusions pointing to Noah’s family.

Science isn’t omniscient or infallible. Evolution is the dominant worldview in which most research is viewed and presented. Still, it is a fascinating study that you can read more about HERE.

This article was originally published by AFA of Indiana.

Bernie Sanders, a socialist and U.S. Senator from Vermont, doesn’t like capitalist economics. Visiting the Pope in 2016, he made some serious accusations.

I told him [the Pope] that I was incredibly appreciative of the incredible role that he is playing in this planet in discussing issues about the need for an economy based on morality, not greed…[i]

Doubling down, Bernie went even farther:

At an economic conference held at the Vatican, Bernie Sanders found occasion to denounce capitalism. “At a time when so few have so much, and so many have so little, we must reject the foundations of this contemporary economy as immoral and unsustainable.”[ii]

Even if we don’t like his politics, suppose that he is right. What if capitalism really is immoral. Shouldn’t Christians then be working to make things right? This article explores capitalism and economic immorality. It aims to:

• Define capitalism, so that we can agree on is being discussed.

• Examine what it means to have morals in an economic system.

• Discover what the Bible has to say about property, economics, and morals.

• Look at the American economy, seeking patterns of economic injustice.

• Give thought on ways to fix patterns of economic injustices.

Capitalism in two minutes

To frame this discussion of capitalism we need a definition. According to one dictionary, capitalism is:

“an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.”[iii]

This definition implies:

People are allowed, even encouraged, to own things, tangible and intangible, useful for producing other things. A person always can use his or her own labor, ideas, and creativity. A person may also own the means of production: farms, mines, factories, and warehouses stuffed with useful items. Money stored in bank accounts is also good, for it can be used to acquire the means of production.

An owner gets to choose what happens to his or her property. What a person owns, or can produce, can be sold or gifted to others. It can even be kept idle, producing nothing. All of those choices are good.

Some people will become wealthy, but others won’t. When people have the freedom to apply talent, industriousness, social connections, and “luck” to their endeavors some of them will succeed and others will fail. Importantly, the successful people are allowed to keep their gains.

Capitalism has no built-in morals

The concept of capitalism is simple and short. It basically says that people can own things, and exchange ownership of their things. There is nothing there about morals, nothing prescribing prices, defining contract law, or prohibiting certain activities.

Economic morals come not from theories, but from application of that society’s morals and ethics. For example, a society that prohibits armed robbery will also condemn theft by way of dishonest weights and measures (Proverbs 16:11). Since discussion only of capitalist theory would make for a really short article, we’ll continue by concentrating on the American expression of capitalism.

When a society’s morals change then the marketplace soon reflects the changes. Here is an example from our too-recent past.

• Early in the 19^th century United States law permitted importing slaves from Africa.[iv] A slave buyer from America could go to Africa and purchase slaves from a seller. Buying foreign slaves was socially and economically acceptable for American society, at least in some states. Selling slaves to Americans was acceptable to this African society.

• In 1808 it became socially and legally unacceptable to buy and import slaves into the United States.[v] The practice was outlawed, and ceased, because of our society’s new morals, which were applied to the marketplace. However, African sellers stayed in business, for selling slaves was still acceptable to their society.[vi]

In this example the American and African societies expressed different moralities on the same topic, slavery and slave trading. It shows that you can’t usefully judge a society’s economic morality without also considering its general morality.

What does the Bible have to say about property and capitalism?

The Bible instructs us in righteous living. And unless you’re a hermit farmer, its instructions also cover the economic interactions you have with others. In fact, the Bible has over 2000 verses dealing with money.[vii] What does the Bible have to say about owning property?

God gave Adam and Eve the right to own things. God created everything, and still owns everything (Deuteronomy 10:14; Psalm 24:1; Psalm 50:12; 1 Corinthians 10:26, etc.). He delegated His ownership authority to Adam and Eve, giving them, and their descendants, dominion and the right to rule (Gen 1:28-30).

Mankind practiced capitalism from the very beginning. Cain was a farmer, Abel a shepherd. Each sacrificed to God out of his own provision, not from some community pool (Gen 4:2-5). They individually enjoyed the rights of private property and capitalism. After all, farms and flocks are means of production and thus capital goods.

The New Testament affirms private ownership. When Jesus warns us to store up treasures in heaven, He acknowledges that people can, and do, own treasures here (Matthew 6:19-21). He didn’t tell all of us to abandon them, but rather to use them as tools and not be enslaved to them (Matthew 6:24). The warning “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36) speaks of a common understanding of capitalist principles. To the people of Jesus era, capitalism was likely the only economics they knew.

Early in the Jerusalem church its people pooled their goods for the common good, selling property and land for the needs of the saints (Acts 2:43-45; 4:32-35). Yet communal life wasn’t the norm for Christ’s church. For example, Paul encouraged to the Corinthian church to prepare a gift they promised for the benefit of the Jerusalem church (1 Corinthians 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8:2, 6-8). If the Corinthians were living communally then Paul could have simply asked the elders about the gift. This means that members of a congregation may choose to act communally, but they aren’t obligated to do so.

It is OK to be wealthy. The Bible has no problem with a person being wealthy. Look at Abraham, who found favor with God (Genesis 12:1-3). He was blessed with enormous wealth (Genesis 13:2), so much so that it took a literal army to properly care for it (Genesis 14:14).

It was also OK to be wealthy even if you weren’t Abraham. When Moses was done leading Israel through the wilderness he lectured them about the kind of land they were to occupy and enjoy.

• They would occupy towns and homes they didn’t have to labor over, and eat from orchards they didn’t have to plant (Deuteronomy 6:10-15).

• They would have an abundance of crops, flocks, and children, along with the health to enjoy it all (Deuteronomy 7:12-16).

• They would have abundant land for farming and shepherding, with minerals to mine, refine, and use in factories. (Deuteronomy 8:6-10).

After being set up so nicely, all that they then had to do was to devote themselves to the Lord. Over time Israel failed to do that and had an up-and-down history.

The New Testament also has wealthy people, even wealthy Christians.

• Jesus challenged a man to give up his wealth. He saw it as a snare to the man’s devotion to God. The problem wasn’t that he was wealthy, but that the wealth was the man’s master. (Luke 18:18-27).

• Philemon had at least one slave, indicating a large, wealthy household. Paul encouraged him to free his slave Onesimus. But he was OK with Philemon’s wealth. If he wasn’t then Paul would have also rebuked him for being rich (Philemon 1:18-20).

• James admonished men going on a business trip. The problem wasn’t their occupation, but that they wouldn’t acknowledge the God who directs their steps (James 4:13-15).

In the Bible we see some people thrive with wealth. It is a blessing to them. Other people get rich and it warps them into selfish oppressors. We see how wealth can corrupt (1 Timothy 6:9-10) and cause the possessor to worship their treasure rather than God who provided it (Luke 16:13).

What does the Bible have to say about the responsibilities of wealth?

Has God blessed you with wealth? Do you get regular meals, a good job, a place to call your own home? Very good. Is God pleased with how you handle your bounty? Or are you only vaguely aware that with wealth comes responsibility (Luke 12:48).

Here are some of the Bible’s charges regarding wealth.

Don’t trust in your wealth. Wealth has its uses, but you can’t eat gold during a famine (Genesis 47:15). What you have saved can be taken from you by thieves or armies. And your wealth won’t help you at all when you die – you can’t take it with you (Luke 12:15-21). You need to look to God to provide for your needs (Luke 12:28; Philippians 4:19).

Don’t use your wealth and position to subvert justice. Those with wealth and influence can influence leaders and judges to achieve more favorable outcomes. The Bible shows this, how David tried evading acknowledging his adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:1-4, 14-17), and how Ahab acquired Naboth’s vineyard by arranging a lynching (1 Kings 21:8-16). Judges are to be upright and honest (Exodus 23:6-7; Isaiah 1:26), not favoring the rich or the poor (Exodus 23:1-3; Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 1:16-17; Proverbs 18:16), and never open to bribes (Exodus 23:8; Proverbs 17:23).

Have honest business practices. Honesty isn’t just a personal ethic (Exodus 20:15, Proverbs 22:22-23). It also covers how you gain your wealth, and how you run your business.

• Do you delay paying your bills? It gooses your cash flow, but it also cheats your creditors of the payments they need today (Leviticus 19:13; Deuteronomy 24:10-13; Deuteronomy 25:13-15; Jam 5:4).

• Shortchanging your customers is not only dishonest but theft (Leviticus 19:35-36; Deuteronomy 25:13-15; Proverbs 11:1; Proverbs 20:10; Amos 8:4-8).

• You can stretch expensive supplies by “watering it down.” But diluting or adultering food and medicine is theft by misrepresentation and shortchanging. It can also sicken or kill those who consume your products.

• Counterfeit parts are low-quality products represented to be the genuine article. When counterfeit parts are installed in high-stress situations, where a high-quality part is expected and needed, it can cause accidents and death.

In brief, be a straight shooter (Matthew 7:12). Knowing the right thing, and then doing it, might cost you your job. But it also might save lives, and certainly save your conscience.

Be generous to those in need. The Bible reminds us to be generous to those in need (Deuteronomy 15:7-8; Matthew 25:31-46; 1 Timothy 6:17-19; Hebrews 13:16; James 2:15-16). And not just generous, but cheerfully generous (Deuteronomy 15:10; 2 Corinthians 9:7). You’re cheerful because you’re using God’s grace to you to help someone else, effectively sharing the Gospel in a practical manner. You’re mastering your wealth, rather than the other way around.

We also learn whom to be generous to.

• Support your family, including your extended family (Exodus 20:12). Jesus criticized those who wouldn’t support their parents, who instead devoted resources for Temple use (Mark:7:9-13). If we support church ministries, but not our family members who are in material need, then we’re doing things wrong. Charity begins at home (1 Timothy 5:3-4).

• Support the church. In Paul’s letters a recurring theme is collecting for the saints in Jerusalem (Romans 15:25-27; 1 Corinthians 16:1-4; 2 Corinthians 8:1-6; 2 Corinthians 9:1-4). Paul himself is supported by the Macedonians, who were poor and yet generous in support of spreading the Gospel (2 Corinthians 11:7-9).

• Support your neighbor. Jesus’ parable about the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29:37) shows that Christians shouldn’t limit their help to just their physical neighbors, or confine it to other Christians. Yet understand that in your charity you’ll have to learn how to tell the needy from the deceivers. You ought to be working to get needy people “on their feet” again, and not merely easing your conscience by flipping a few dollars their way.

The rich and the poor alike can have a generous heart. The Macedonians were very poor, and yet dug deep for the church in Jerusalem out of heartfelt concern (2 Corinthians 8:2-3). You’re never so poor that you’re disqualified from caring. The degree of your generosity is something you can discuss with God.

For a deeper discussion on wealth and its responsibilities, visit the web sites referenced in this end note.[viii]

Selected success stories of repairing American capitalism

The Bible says the wealthy are to be honest, not influencing officials to favor them versus the poor. These warnings also apply to businesses. They could easily defraud their customers through false weights or adulterated products. And they could oppress their own workers by misusing the employer / employee relationship.

American business practices haven’t always been the finest examples of applied Christianity. But America has also been open to reforming, collectively willing to see our errors and change. Here are some past examples of successful changes in economic morality.

• Occupational safety: Whether at a factory or construction site, work activities can be dangerous. Examples include machines with exposed moving parts, fumes or dust that damage workers’ lungs, and inadequate fire exits.[ix]

But adding safety guards, and implementing safety procedures, increase operating costs. This puts a safety-minded producer at a price-competitive disadvantage with less scrupulous competitors (Exodus 21:28-36; Deuteronomy 22:8). Without external pressure, whether moral, economic, or legal, worker safety loses out.

Since businesses were unable to collectively reform on their own initiative, activists campaigned for safety laws. After about sixty years of effort, by 1948 all the U.S. states had workplace safety laws and workmen compensation laws.[x]

• Child labor in factories: In the 1800s children were encouraged to work in factories, sometimes alongside their parents. Although it may have increased the family income, it also kept the children out of school and stunted their adult career possibilities.

After many years of passing child labor laws, only to have them struck down, those passed in 1938 stuck. These laws, in addition to side effects of the Great Depression, effectively ended the employment of children in factories.[xi]

• Food and drug laws: In the 1800s an increasing amount of our food was processed and packaged in factories. With the processing hidden from consumers, unscrupulous vendors did much to cheapen the products, yet selling them as the genuine article. For example, diseased or rotten meat was disguised to seem good. These business practices were unhealthy for consumers, and robbed them by not providing the purity or quantity they paid for.

Although food safety activists had campaigned for decades to implement food purity and inspection laws,[xii] nothing substantial happened until the author Upton Sinclair published his novel The Jungle.[xiii] He hoped that his expose of horrific conditions in meat packing plants would promote a socialist revolution. What actually transpired was a successful push for increasingly effective food and drug laws.[xiv]

These examples show a pattern for getting the desired social change. Mere moral outrage doesn’t produce the desired change in society. Rather, persistent argument works to change individual beliefs. Eventually enough people believe that the complaint has merit, and social pressure results in a permanent individual behavior change. Usually the social pressure is reinforced with legal sanctions having a painful bite.

How to fix an economic immorality

In the past, Americans responded to patterns of unjust business practices and fixed them. But do we still have the ability to overcome such challenges? Let’s examine something that I think should get changed, a form of worker oppression. We’ll discover how could we change our attitudes and behaviors to eliminate it.

A sweatshop is “a factory or workshop, especially in the clothing industry, where manual workers are employed at very low wages for long hours and under poor conditions.”[xv] Frequently these factories have dangerous workplace conditions. In the United States corrective labor laws have almost eliminated sweatshops.[xvi] Some of this change is through improved working conditions, but the biggest reduction is caused by this sort of work having moved to foreign factories.

A problem with this job export is that workplace conditions in these factories are worse than we ever imagined. Many articles show that these foreign factories make their employees work long hours,[xvii] in unsafe workplaces,[xviii] while spewing pollution into the neighborhood.[xix] Americans get cheap fashion and these workers pay for it with their health, even their lives.

This is really an American economic scandal because we’re hiring these factories. We’re letting them sin on our behalf, by contracting for goods at prices we know are too low to provide decent working conditions.

Suppose a factory were to change things to provide a better worker experience. Those changes would raise its production costs. However, their American buyers won’t accept those higher costs and would move their business elsewhere. So, instead of making changes, they merely cheat at workplace inspections and keep abusing their workers.[xx]

We shouldn’t turn a blind eye to how our goods are made. We mustn’t accept ruining someone’s health just to get inexpensive clothes and toys. How can we go about fixing things?

Recognize that there is a problem. Acknowledge that there is a problem with these imported goods, then tell others. No significant changes will occur until there is a critical mass of people demanding them.

Pay more to patronize the good guys. Learn which firms insist on better labor conditions, then give your business to them. Hewing to something like a “Healthy Workplaces Seal” creates public opinion about the issue. Be willing to pay a premium for such goods, for merely seeking the lowest price is how the foreign sweatshop problem got started.

Criticize the bad guys. Investigate business supply chains, and shame those who keep using oppressed labor. See through those cover-up reports that hide workplace problems. This is the flip side of patronizing the good guys. No business wants bad publicity.

Get the government to lean on the bad guys. We can’t prosecute foreign producers for not hewing to American workplace or environmental standards. But we can sanction their imports. Create a foreign EPA, a foreign OSHA, inspecting their factories and supply chains. Their findings can lead to punitive tariffs. If a factory won’t spend for safety or cleanliness, why should they pocket their savings? They’ll soon learn to spend on health and safety, rather than lose their business, or line Uncle Sam’s wallet.

As with other social change campaigns, expect that this effort will require long, persistent effort before there are signs of success. By the way, can someone tell me where to get shirts made with the “Healthy Workplaces Seal?”

Conclusions

Let’s return to our original question: Is capitalism immoral? No, it isn’t. The Bible likes private property ownership, and endorses capitalism.

A more pointed question is: Can there be immorality in society’s capitalism? But of course! This article has shown many examples of this in American economic history. It comes about because society is, or was, willing to tolerate immorality.

A society’s morals are the collective result of individual morals. There isn’t an amorphous “it is society’s fault,” where we get to blame our environment for our own attitudes and deeds. Each of us are responsible for our own sins, our own failings. The great thing about this is how we can change and learn to act more morally. Changing beliefs and behaviors is the beginning to fixing any social, or economic, problem.

Footnotes:

[i] Nichols, John, Bernie Sanders Went to Rome to Discuss the Immorality of Unfettered Capitalism, The Nation, April 17, 2016, https://www.thenation.com/article/bernie-sanders-just-met-with-pope-francis-to-discuss-the-immorality-of-unfettered-capitalism/

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capitalism

[iv] Smith, George H., The Slave Trade and the Constitution, Libertarianism.org, September 29, 2017, https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/slave-trade-constitution

[v] US law abolishing transatlantic slave trade takes effect, Oxford University Press, January 2, 2012, https://blog.oup.com/2012/01/slave-trade/

[vi] Sieff, Kevin, An African country reckons with its history of selling slaves, Washington Post, January 29, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/an-african-country-reckons-with-its-history-of-selling-slaves/2018/01/29/5234f5aa-ff9a-11e7-86b9-8908743c79dd_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7f453fdfe6fb

[vii] Brown, Chris, 3 Things the Bible Says About Money, Stewardship, May 21, 2015, https://www.stewardship.com/articles/3-things-the-bible-says-about-money

[viii] These web pages are well-composed summaries of Bible teaching on wealth and its responsibilities. They’re worth visiting.

• What Does the Bible Say About Money and Wealth?, Christian Bible Reference Site, https://www.christianbiblereference.org/faq_money.htm

• What Does the Bible Say About Generosity and Duty to the Poor?, Christian Bible Reference Site, https://www.christianbiblereference.org/faq_generosity.htm

• Sunshine, Dr. Glenn, Rich and Poor 2, Institute For Faith, Work & Economics, May 29, 2012, https://tifwe.org/rich-and-poor-2/

[ix] Brown, Don, 3 TURNING POINTS IN THE HISTORY OF WORKPLACE SAFETY, BasicSafe, August 5, 2014, https://info.basicsafe.us/safety-management/blog/3-turning-points-in-the-history-of-workplace-safety

[x] Aldrich, Mark, History of Workplace Safety in the United States, 1880-1970, EH.Net Encyclopedia, August 14, 2001, http://eh.net/encyclopedia/history-of-workplace-safety-in-the-united-states-1880-1970/

[xi] Child Labor in America: History, Policy, and Legislative Issues, EveryCRSReport, February 9, 2005 (revised through November 18, 2013), https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL31501.html

[xii] Saxowsky, David, Milestones in U.S. Food Law, North Dakota State University, https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/foodlaw/overview/history/milestones

[xiii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle

[xiv] Pure Food and Drug Act: A Muckraking Triumph, United States History, https://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h917.html

[xv] https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/sweatshop

[xvi] Segment hosted by Zwillich, Todd, When ‘Made in America’ Means Made in Sweatshops, WNYC, September 11, 2017, https://www.wnyc.org/story/when-made-america-still-means-sweatshops/

[xvii] Merchant, Brian, Life and death in Apple’s forbidden city, The Guardian, June 18, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/18/foxconn-life-death-forbidden-city-longhua-suicide-apple-iphone-brian-merchant-one-device-extract

[xviii] Barboza, David, In Chinese Factories, Lost Fingers and Low Pay, New York Times, January 5, 2008, https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/05/business/worldbusiness/05sweatshop.html

[xix] Yardley, Jim, Bangladesh Pollution, Told in Colors and Smells, New York Times, July 14, 2013, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/world/asia/bangladesh-pollution-told-in-colors-and-smells.html

[xx] Roberts, Dexter and Engardio, Pete, Secrets, lies, and sweatshops, Bloomberg Businessweek, November 17, 2006, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15768032/ns/business-us_business/t/secrets-lies-sweatshops/

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5: 10, 11)

I recently posted this on my personal Facebook page:

How many conservatives say or do anything about their public schools teaching positively about homosexuality or the “trans” ideology in English classes, health classes, or in purported “anti-bullying” activities?

How many say or do anything when their local schools allow “trans”-identifying students to use the restrooms and locker rooms of opposite-sex students?

How many conservative teachers—including conservative Christian teachers—in public schools refuse to use incorrect pronouns when addressing “trans”-identifying students, choosing instead to lie?

How many conservatives show up at school board meetings to publicly oppose the indoctrination of children with Leftist sexuality dogma on the public dime?

How many conservatives would show up at a library board meeting if librarians decided to host a “drag queen story hour”?

Oh yeah, we complain to each other where it’s safe. But that’s about it. Most Christians will say and do nothing unless they’re guaranteed it’s cost-free. And then we wonder how we got here.

We are the Christians who said nothing during the slave era. We are the Christians who said nothing during the era of Jim Crow laws. And we are the Christians who said nothing when the Nazis hauled off Jews to the gas chambers.

How do we reconcile our cowardly capitulation with these words of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ: “… whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”

So, while doctors are amputating the breasts of 13-year-old girls who pretend to be boys, Christians largely say nothing because saying something is costly. We should be ashamed. Our thankfulness for Jesus’ suffering that we might live eternally with him doesn’t extend much beyond our comfort. It certainly doesn’t extend to those children whose hearts, minds, and bodies are being destroyed.

In response I received this Facebook message from a friend (emphasis added):

Regarding your post. What your average normal non activist taxpayer needs is a way to do what you ask. It’s very intimidating to go against a fascist bureaucracy. If we had a sheet of talking points of provable facts with links to the studies or articles of proof, normal busy people might feel more empowered to do so. But it’s so easy to be labeled a hater and a bigot.

Example: Oprah declared that you’re born gay. Yet we know of multiple studies proving otherwise.

Parents need to be able to point to articles saying transgender encouragement and surgery is child abuse and here’s why. Make it easier for parents to make a stand and we’ll do it. But no one wants to stand up to be shot down without any help. Then your reputation in community is shot.

I’m responding to this message publicly because I believe it reflects the thoughts and feelings of many Christians.

First, IFI (and many other websites) has provided refutations of leftist claims—including publishing articles about research that refutes them—and our refutations are condemned as bigoted, hateful, and disreputable. Sound research will not protect against epithets.

Second, there are no provable facts that are immune from challenge—not on our side or the other. How does one prove that humans ought not be compelled to undress or go to the bathroom in the presence of or near people of the opposite sex? What provable and inarguable facts can be marshaled to support the claim that homoerotic acts are immoral or that couples in naturally sterile homoerotic unions ought not acquire children, or that government schools ought not proselytize for the “LGBTQ” movement? Sure, there’s social science research demonstrating that children fare best when raised by a mother and father in an intact relationship and that homoerotic unions are more unstable on average than heterosexual unions, but such research is disputed and scorned by Leftist ideologues. Any organization that challenges the assumptions of the “LGBTQ”-ideology will be vilified and mocked because it challenges the “LGBTQ”-ideology, no matter how reputable the doctors or research is: If you cite them, your reputation will be shot down.

The best arguments against pro-“LGBTQ” claims are based on first principles and logic—not provable facts. The reason those are the most effective arguments is that Leftists have not made such astonishing cultural headway via arguments based on indisputable or provable facts. They’ve made such cultural headway by appealing to emotion and name-calling. The research they appeal to is flawed and their propositions irrational and contradictory.

Third, this friend evidently missed my whole point: We should be willing to be shot down and have our reputations ruined. No one can make this battle easy or cost-free. I and many others do our best to equip people to do battle, but we can’t make it easy.

Would we today admire people like William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer if they had said, “I’ll speak out when I can be guaranteed no one will call me names and my good reputation will remain intact”? As long as we say we are unwilling to speak truth if it harms our reputation, we will remain not only complicit in the grievous harm being done to children, but we will also remain profiles in cowardice for our children and grandchildren.

It won’t be easy for Christians today or tomorrow or next year to take up their crosses and follow Jesus. Feeling anxious about our reputation is not a justification for keeping our cross in the closet; it’s a rationalization.

And it’s a rationalization for Christians who don’t want to do this hard work to claim they aren’t “called” to do it.

Do they really believe that when their taxes are used to teach Leftist beliefs about homoeroticism and the “trans” ideology through novels, plays, essays, health class, “social and emotional learning standards,” and “anti-bullying” activities, God calls them to silence? Do they really believe that when their schools have children sharing private spaces with opposite-sex peers, God calls them to silence? Do they really believe that when their public libraries host drag queen story hours, God calls them to silence? It’s weird that God calls so few people to oppose the anti-science, anti-truth “LGBTQ” ideology, which affirms the chemical sterilization and surgical mutilation of children.

Finally, standing up for truth about children’s needs and children’s rights is a Christian duty—analogous to standing up for the dignity and rights of blacks during the execrable time of slavery and the era of Jim Crow laws—and fulfilling that duty does not in any way violate the separation of church and state. Christians must not let “progressive” ideologues deceive them that it does.

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” (John 15: 18-21)

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Cross_Carrying2.mp3

A bold voice for pro-family values in Illinois!

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If you haven’t heard the mid-term elections are coming up, you’ve obviously been living under a rock–a giant rock.  Between the constant political calls, mailings, TV and radio ads, and social media headlines, most of us are very aware of the upcoming election on Tuesday, November 6^th.

There is a lot at stake for our country in this election. From healthcare to immigration policy to family values, there’s a lot riding in this year’s mid-terms. What are we to do? Here are two things Christians should be doing this election season.

1. Vote

At a recent Bible study at church, we looked at the account of Daniel in Chapter 1 when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon besieged Jerusalem. He took over and was running the nation. He took Jews captive and trained them in the ways of the Babylonian culture, changing their language, literature, and names. For three years, he immersed them in a Babylonian worldview. He tried everything to remove their Hebrew background and their God from their lives. This constituted an overreach of “government.” In those days, kings had the final word. They could kill, destroy, rob, and tax without reason or cause.  Today, we are blessed to have a say in our government. We are blessed to have the right to make our voices heard through elections. Go out and vote. You have a privilege many wish they had.

2. Pray

We not only need to vote this election season but also to pray for our government. This is not an option, suggestion, or recommendation but a command. God used Paul in 1 Timothy 2:1 to tell us, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.”

It is extremely easy to air our disgust on social media. But what if we took that same energy and brought it before the King of kings? What if we went to the One who truly has the power to change things? What if we went into the throne room of God and intervened for our nation? After all, there isn’t anything too hard for Him.  (Genesis 18:14)

Pray for God’s will to be done

In the model prayer in Luke, Jesus taught us to pray for His will to be done on earth.  Let’s pray for God’s will to flourish on Tuesday, November 6^th.

Pray for righteousness to prevail

Proverbs 14:34 says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” We need to pray for more leaders who will stand for life.  We need to pray for more leaders who will stand for biblical marriage.  We need to pray for more leaders who will stand for religious liberty. We need to pray for more leaders who will stand for righteousness. In other words, we need to pray that more leaders will embrace those things that are important to God.

Pray for the leaders who will take office

Pray that the leaders who will be taking office will truly seek the heart of God as they govern and lead. Ask the Lord to surround them with wise advisers who seek God’s will. Pray too for their salvation, which can only be found in the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Pray for God’s mercy

Though we don’t deserve His mercy, God truly is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in love. Anyone who reads their Bible knows that God’s wrath could come any day because of the sinfulness of this nation and the reluctance of believers to stand strong for the things of God against an increasingly rebellious culture. But 2 Peter 3:9 should encourage us and the verse speaks volumes of His mercy. “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some count slowness. Instead, He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” There’s also an incredible promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14. “… if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Our land and those who live in it are in desperate need of healing.

Remember, there isn’t anything too hard for Him.

Written by John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera

Forty years ago, a group of evangelical leaders and scholars took a clear and unapologetic stand on a fundamental tenet of the faith.

This month marks the fortieth anniversary of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, which was signed in October of 1978 by more than 200 evangelical leaders, including R.C. Sproul, J.I. Packer, and Francis Schaeffer.

The Chicago Statement was not only a landmark document in evangelical history, it played an important role in the work of the late Chuck Colson and our ongoing work at the Colson Center.

Here’s a bit of history to set the stage. If there was one phrase that summed up the ethos of the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was “Question Authority.” The phrase emerged out of opposition to the Vietnam War and Watergate, but then it spread well beyond the world of politics into various arenas of culture, even into the church.

We know, for example, the story of how liberal “mainline” churches doubted the Bible and its claims of supernatural miracles. But the culture-wide distrust of authority crept into Evangelicalism, as well, which has—given its diversity and independent congregations—kind of always struggled with ecclesial authority.

Phrases such as “Christianity isn’t a religion; it’s a relationship” entered the lexicon and became an excuse for some to radically privatize the faith, to reject historical teaching, and even embrace new ways of reading and interpreting the Bible.

For instance, a survey of students at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the mid-70s found that the longer a student attended the seminary, the less likely he was to agree with the statement “Jesus is the Divine Son of God and I have no doubts about it.”

In 1971, messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting passed a resolution that supported abortion, not only in cases of rape and incest, but also in cases where there is “clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother.”

This was just two years before Roe v. Wade.

I don’t mean to pile on the SBC. First, by no means were they alone… this stuff was in the air. Second, the SBC has since experienced quite a renewal, which is at least partly due to the Chicago Statement.

The Statement was about more than a particular way of reading and interpreting the Bible: It was an unequivocal assertion of biblical authority over the lives of believers and the Church, in an age when all authority was being questioned.

It was an unequivocal assertion that Christianity, while it does involve a relationship with God, is also a “religion,” in the original sense of the Latin word “religio,” which means “bond,” “obligation,” and “reverence.” It’s a faith, in other words, with content, not just a warm fuzzy feeling.

Anyone who followed Chuck Colson can see how he was indebted to this effort. For him, Christianity was objectively true, and that truth could be communicated to others, both inside and outside the Church.

And the primary way God had revealed truth to His Church was the Scriptures. Not personal experience, and certainly not popular intellectual fads.

The need to reassert biblical authority may be more urgent today than it was forty years ago. When we hear things like “the Gospel is about radical inclusivity,” that just means the Gospel is being defined without Scripture. When we hear that “Jesus would’ve baked the cake,” that Jesus is not the Jesus of Scripture.  When we hear, “It’s a relationship, not a religion” still, that often means we are ignoring the significant portions of Scripture that describe the people God is calling out to restore and activate for His Kingdom.

This article originally posted at BreakPoint.org

There is no hiding the ugliness of Louis Farrakhan’s latest antisemitic comments, in which he likened Jews to termites. There is one thing you do with termites. Exterminate them!

Termites are destructive. Termites are nasty. Termites survive by destroying. Termites do nothing good. Rid the earth of them!

My good friend, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, was therefore right to tweet this in response: “Louis Farrakhan calling Jews termites is a virtual call to genocide. The Nazis regularly referred to Jews as roaches and pests who needed to be exterminated. I call on African-American leaders like my close friend @CoryBooker to immediately condemn this vile and loathsome attack.”

These were Farrakhan’s exact words from a speech on October 14 in Detroit where he mocked his Jewish adversaries: “I can go anywhere in the world and they’ve heard of Farrakhan…I’m not mad at you, because you’re so stupid.”

Then, a little later in his speech, he said, “when they talk about Farrakhan, call me a hater, call me anti-Semite…I’m anti-Termite. I don’t know nothing about hating somebody because of their religious preference.”

He then reinforced his message with this tweet, linked to a video from his message: “I’m not an anti-Semite. I’m anti-Termite.”

Remarkably, Twitter has declined to act, leaving Farrakhan’s tweet intact. This is beyond crazy. This is immoral.

In 1943, the Nazis printed an educational pamphlet titled, “The Jew as World Parasite.” (In German, “Der Jude als Weltparasit.”)

It begins by saying:

“In this war for the very existence of the German people, we must daily remind ourselves that Jewry unleashed this war against us. It makes no difference if the Jew conceals himself as a Bolshevist or a plutocrat, a Freemason or uses some other form of concealment, or even appears without any mask at all: he always remains the same. He is the one who so agitated and spiritually influenced the peoples that stand against us today such that they have become more or less spineless tools of International Jewry.”

You can imagine just how ugly the whole pamphlet is.

Better still, don’t try to imagine. Just read it. How much Jewish blood was spilled because of these lies?

But this rhetoric is far from dead.

On January 2, 2018, BBC News reported that, “A self-proclaimed Nazi told gatherings of far-right activists that Jewish people were parasites who should be eradicated, a court has heard.”

On July 28, 2018, a headline in Haaretz stated, “’Jews Drink Blood:’ Britain’s Labour Party Suspends Councillor for Facebook Post.”

Reference was then made to Facebook posts containing language like this: “Talmud Jews are parasites! . . . All Talmuds need executing!”

Last year, on December 15, 2017, the Times of Israel reported that, “A professor emeritus from an esteemed university in the Netherlands whose father was a Nazi called Jews ‘parasites’ in a televised interview.”

Jan Tollenaere, described as “a lecturer on medicinal chemistry who retired from the Utrecht University in 2001, is the son of Raymond Tollenaere. His father “was in charge of propaganda for the Belgian pro-Nazi collaborationist government of Flanders during the German occupation of Belgium in World War II.”

According to Jan, “Jews ‘are not a nice people, I don’t feel any warmth toward them.’ They are, he added, ‘parasites, speculators and mean people.’”

Parasites should be exterminated!

They suck your blood and drain you and eat you alive.

They are obnoxious and insidious and hard to get rid of.

Special efforts must be taken to destroy them before they destroy you!

Such is the mentality of violent antisemitism. And with full knowledge and clear intent, Louis Farrakhan played right into this mentality by likening Jews to termites.

Shame on Twitter, infamous for its overzealous censoring of conservative views, for letting this tweet (and Farrakhan’s account) remain intact.

And shame on all people of conscience who do not distance themselves from such remarks. (Can  you be a person of conscience and not denounce them?)

It is spineless passivity like this that leads to the shedding of blood. Jewish blood.

This article was originally published at Townhall.com

In light of a recent sermon series, my regular Bible reading, prayer and the resulting contemplation and conviction, I am seeing some Scripture passages in a new light.

How is it possible – in fact, necessary – for the sinless, perfect, and holy Son of God to deny Himself? John 10:30 clearly states: I and My Father are one. Yet, in Philippians, the Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus, being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used for His own advantage.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.  ~Philippians 2:5-7

Jesus laid aside His privilege. He relinquished His authority, yielded His rightful position in the throne room – even though He was and is worthy of all glory, honor, and praise. Our Lord did this so He could be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and do the will of the Father.

My meditation on these passages and other Scriptures has led to a heightened awareness of my propensity to rationalize, even justify my old nature – my sinful thoughts, selfish attitudes, and inclination to cling to everything that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, I ought to demolish. Praise God that He is softening my heart and revealing these truths to me! I am realizing afresh that the high calling of following Jesus requires me to willingly and intentionally choose to deny myself if I desire to be filled with the Spirit and be used by God.

Mark’s gospel account tells us:

When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”  ~Mark 8:34

Hearing those words is difficult. Putting them into practice seems utterly impossible. We cringe at the mere thought of self-denial, as it is so contrary to our human nature. Are we supposed to take Jesus at His word? Self-denial – did He really meant that? Surely we ought to pursue self-fulfillment or self-actualization instead of self-denial.

And yet, self-denial – “deny himself” – is clearly there, annoyingly, and not just once, but repeatedly in the gospels. If we aspire to be devoted disciples of Christ, we need to seriously consider these words: “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”  ~Matt 16:24

When we indulge selfish thoughts and sinful tendencies, we give free rein to our rebellious nature. Rather, we should deal with our sin and rebellion as Paul writes in Ephesians 4:22:

. . . put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires . . .

Those who are born-again followers of Jesus Christ are new creations in Him, and the new creation must rise up and repeatedly say NO to the old self. In addition to denying our sin-riddled former self, Jesus instructs us to take up our cross.

Continuing on in the passage from Mark, Jesus says:

“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”  ~Mark 8:35

I believe we err if we apply the “take up your cross” portion of Scripture to temporary trials such as illness, unemployment, strained relationships, etc. Jesus is not talking about a temporary inconvenience or burden. When we read His words closely, and in context, we discern that He is telling us if we avoid the cross of self-denial in this life, we will lose that life.

Our Savior’s loving counsel is this – don’t throw away your life living for yourself . . . but follow Me. Don’t follow the old self, because he is a liar and a fool; he wrongly believes the immediate and temporal pleasures and distractions of this world are more important or better than the infinite satisfaction of eternity with God the Father.

Some of us want all God offers and we want all the world has to offer as well. The truth is, we cannot have both. We cannot follow Christ while we are also following the world. Jesus said:

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” ~Matthew 6:24

When we choose to take up the cross of self-denial, we must turn our back on the things of this world – all that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles. In doing so, we become free to follow Christ. We die to our old self in order to live with Him.

Jesus knows that our old self wants to give in to worldly temptations – possessions, fame, wealth, power, security – and dangerous distractions such as alcohol, drugs, and pornography. Our world tells us if we have these things, we will be happy. But this message leads not to happiness, but to perpetual bondage, because there is always MORE to possess, MORE to control, MORE to build and achieve. The pursuit of MORE is never-ending and unsatisfying, and ultimately, it will cause us to lose our life.

Fully understanding the allure and pull of the MORE mentality, Jesus cautions us with these words:

“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” ~Mark 8:36

Of what value is it to desire and accumulate the perishable possessions, prestige, and power of this world if that worthless pursuit causes a man to lose the one thing that will last forever – his soul? Therefore, if we genuinely want to come after Jesus, if we treasure and long for the peace and joy of eternal life with the Father, we will do battle daily with our old self in order to be able to take up the cross of self-denial.

Finally, in this discourse with his disciples, Jesus says:

“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” ~Mark 8:38

Lest there be any misunderstanding, Jesus makes it clear that it is not only the pursuit of “stuff” that keeps us from carrying the cross of self-denial, it is also the yearning and pandering for the approval and accolades of others – other sinners! – that impedes us.

Our old self seeks the approval of the world, and the selfish aspect of our sinful nature is determined to have its own way. We can spend weeks, months, even years in a perpetual stew because someone belittled our brilliant idea or a minor detail didn’t go exactly as we planned.

This is an area where I struggle, and I suspect I’m not the only one who does so. When I’m tempted to fuss and fume, worry, or sulk when my ideas, opinions, or plans are dismissed, I have to consciously remind myself that I have no right to expect to get my way. I must be vigilant to not allow the “root of bitterness” to spring up and cause trouble.

James addresses the issue this way:

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” ~James 4:1

I wonder – how often do church fights and schisms happen because pride and ego keep us from extending grace to each other? Do we refuse to give in solely for the petty reason that concession will mean we won’t get our way — are we really that self-centered? Perhaps we are, but when we are willing to take up the cross of self-denial, we are freed from the obsession to be in control. When we are willing to empty ourselves, as our Savior emptied Himself, we will discover it is easier to live at peace with each other and there will be room for the Holy Spirit to fill us with His power, enabling us to do the Father’s will.

We must daily wage war against the old self. Each day we must choose to take up the cross of self-denial and follow Jesus’ example of emptying Himself to do the Father’s will. As new creations in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are well-equipped to bear the painful, difficulty, glorious, and temporary cross of self-denial.

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SWAT Team Mobilization
Spiritual Weapons and Tactics

Written by Pastor Myles Holmes

This call-to-prayer is in response to an event taking place on Saturday in New York, when witches claim they will place hexes and curses on President Donald Trump and U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. They are selling tickets for $10 to attend this event. Twenty five percent of the proceeds will be donated to Planned Parenthood.

Christians should respond to this malicious event in prayer! Please join us as we petition God Almighty through Jesus Christ for His protection and rich blessing for Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump, Mike Pence and other national and state political leaders:

Heavenly Father, You are the God of Creation and the God of history. You are the God of time and the God of Eternity. You are the God of the right here – right now!

We boldly approach Your Throne of Grace knowing that You hear our prayer.

You see the hatred of the enemy toward righteousness. You see those who give themselves to darkness to celebrate evil and perversion. You see the wickedness of a generation rebelling against Your Presence and Your Word and Your Law. You see those who call upon evil spirits, demons and fallen angels to thwart Your purposes and hinder the coming of Your Kingdom and Your Will being done.

But at this moment we thank and praise and worship Your Holy Name, so grateful that You have given Your Bride, Your Church, the privilege to intercede, pray, and repent on behalf of our nation. We are also aware of the responsibility you have anointed us with to prophesy the grace and glory of God into our land.

We come not in fear but in faith.

We respond not in paranoia but in power.

We live with no pathetic limitations, but in the power of limitless love.

We sense zero intimidation, but we are aware of our Resurrection Life.

We fight and wrestle not with people or personalities, but we wage war with principalities and powers!

Oh GOD, the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly or human, they are mighty in Your Name for pulling down strongholds.

No weapon formed against us can prosper.

We gather in prayer and intercession not in our own name, not in our own identity, but in the Name that is above every other name, the Name of Your Son, Jesus Christ.

We speak in the authority of Your written Word!

We pray, covered by the Blood Jesus shed on the Cross.

We prophesy out of the identity we have received because of the Power of the Empty Tomb.

We speak confusion to their curses and cause.

We announce anathema to their agenda.

We declare mayhem to their mission.

We pronounce chaos to their concoctions.

We decree failure to their formulas.

We pray in the Name of Jesus that these witches and covens of warlocks will be astounded and amazed by the brilliance and the glory of the manifested Presence of God! We speak repentance and conviction to these rebellious hearts. We speak brokenness in the place of hardness. We speak the warmth of your love to embrace cold hearts. We ask that wounding and hurt and pain and shame in their lives would be met by the mercy and grace and love of Jesus. We ask that anger and violence and hatred will be overwhelmed by the loving presence of the Holy Spirit.

Almighty God, just as you met Saul in his hardness of heart and rebellion and determination to wipe out the people of God,  in your mercy, in your grace, we ask you to pour out Your Spirit of repentance and conviction upon these witches and draw them to your grace and mercy Show them your miraculous healing grace and demonstrate to them Your power and Your glory.

Silence their curses by filling their mouth with praise.

Blot out their hexes by filling their lips with worship.

Stop their poison and profanity and blasphemy by filling their lives with conviction for sin and adoration for the Savior.

You turned Saul the persecutor into Paul the preacher.

We ask You in the power of Your grace and glory to turn these wicked witches into worshipful warriors of the Cross!

Heavenly Father, we ask that You grant Your church boldness to stand for the Name of Jesus, courage to speak up for truth and morality, and prophetic clarity to lead; to be the head and not the tail!

Lord Jesus, fill Your Bride with a passion for holiness and consecrated living.

Remove far from our hearts any spirit of judgment, condemnation or self-righteousness, let us live in the light of eternity, the glorious hope of salvation with a heavy burden for the lost and the hopeless.

Bless President Donald Trump with an increasing sense of discernment, wisdom and discretion. May Your Word become his anchor and Your Presence his strength.

Bless Vice President Mike Pence and the entire cabinet and their families.

Lord, we ask you to protect Associate Justice Brett Kavanagh, his wife and daughters from any plan of the enemy to discourage, destroy, defeat or diminish.

We pray all of this in the Name at which every knee shall bow, the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.”

Please continue to pray for our state and nation in the days ahead of the next election. (1 Timothy 2:1-2)

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Never in our lifetimes has America been so divided, and we are in danger of tearing ourselves at the seams. What’s more, it looks like things will only get worse — much worse — in the days ahead.

An article on the Study Finds website states that, “It may not be so hard to believe during this murky political landscape, but a new study finds the divide between Democrats and Republicans is the worst it’s ever been, more so than many people may even think.

“The research, conducted by Zachary Neal, an associate professor of psychology and global urban studies at Michigan State University, is among the first to measure polarization not only by examining the frequency of parties working together, but also by demonstrating how they’ve grown more distant than any other time in modern history.”

With the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh, followed by the midterm elections, that polarization will only increase in the days ahead. That, in turn, will lead to the stiffening of each opposition position, as the left attacks the right and the right attacks the left, confirming each side’s worst suspicions about the other: “You are even worse than I thought you were!”

The pro-life movement will be freshly energized with another conservative jurist on the Supreme Court and with a pro-life president at the helm. The pro-abortion movement will be freshly energized as well — not to mention utterly outraged — launching an all-out assault on conservatives and pro-lifers. And this is just one aspect of today’s massive cultural and political divide.

Politically Polarized

According to Prof. Neal, “What I’ve found is that polarization has been steadily getting worse since the early 1970s. Today, we’ve hit the ceiling on polarization.”

The early 1970s reflected the turbulence of the counterculture revolution, a time of massive division between the young and the old in America.

The older generation was shouting, “America, love it or leave it!” The younger generation responded by raising two fingers for the peace sign, saying, “Make love, not war!”

Since then, those divisions have worked themselves out along sociological lines more than generational lines. And over the decades, the lines have been drawn more clearly.

More recently, President Obama had a chance to be a unifying leader as our nation’s first black president. Unfortunately, he often chose the way of identity politics, thereby enflaming a spirit of division in our midst.

President Trump, by appealing to the dissatisfied state of many Americans, has rallied tens of millions. But in so doing, he has poured salt in our festering wounds, deepening rather than bridging those divides.

As for Congress, it is totally split along party lines. This is the least likely group in America to bring unity, at least for the moment.

As for the media, there’s hardly anything even close to the middle. Left has gone farther left and right has gone farther right.

As for the Church, we seem as divided as the rest of the society and hardly more civil.

Who, then, can bring healing to our nation’s wounds? Who can be peacemakers rather than troublemakers?

Christians, Let’s Lead the Way

I’ve argued in the past that followers of Jesus are uniquely equipped to lead the way, given our emphasis on the message of redemption (see here and here).

But let’s be real. Most Bible-based followers of Jesus hold to strongly conservative moral and social views.

By and large, we are strongly pro-life. We are strongly pro-family (starting with marriage as God intended it, namely one man and one woman). We oppose LGBT activism. And we are not about to change, since these beliefs are sacred to us.

How, then, can we bring healing when we are part of the division?

I, for one, don’t plan to compromise a single one of my convictions, nor am I expecting LGBT activists or pro-abortionists to simply abandon their cause.

And I do not believe that the solution for our country is for everyone to meet in the middle, where we’ll live happily ever after.

But what I am saying is this. Very few people thrive on hostility and anger. Most of us would prefer to get along with our co-workers and neighbors and family members. So, why don’t we take the initiative to be peacemakers and bridge builders and reach out to our ideological opponents?

You could start a conversation by saying, “Look, we’re poles apart politically and culturally, but we don’t have to fight and be nasty. Would you mind telling me a little bit about yourself? About your family? I’d like to get to you know as a fellow human being and not just as a supporter of Hillary Clinton (or Donald Trump) or an opponent of Brett Kavanaugh.

“Maybe we could be friendly co-workers (or neighbors) despite our differences. After all, just because we have such strong differences doesn’t mean we have to hate each other. And if I can help you in any way, I’m here.”

Let’s Build Bridges

Not everyone will accept our offer. Some will hate us simply because we hold passionately to our views. Others will reject us all the more. The better they get to know us, the more they will despise us.

But bridges can be built, like the bridge built between myself and the gay rabbi who performed my mother’s funeral.

There was also a bridge built between leaders in my home congregation and the gay man (and his partner) who led a protest against us.

What we have to remember is that behind the position there is a person, and we might have much more in common with the person than with their position. Along with that, the heart of the gospel is the message of reconciliation. That includes both the reconciliation of people to God along with the reconciliation of people to people.

So, while we pray for a massive national awakening and while we ask God to have mercy on our land, let’s build some bridges along the way. When the fissures are this deep, every little bit helps.

This article was originally published at AskDrBrown.com

Recently, accusations of sexual assault against U.S. Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh have dominated the news. Judge Kavanaugh adamantly declares his innocence, while his accuser proclaims his guilt. Some say the accusation is false, while others believe the accuser. Since there is nothing new under the sun, it is helpful to turn to Scripture where we find stories of two men who were accused of rape.

In 2 Samuel 13, we read that Amnon lusted after his sister Tamar. His desires consumed him. The wickedness of his desire was so deep that he raped his own sister. His assault left her broken. She lived as a “desolate” woman, grieving, ashamed, unmarried, and childless. Amnon was guilty. He had committed the crime.

In contrast, we read the story of Joseph and wife of Potiphar. Genesis 39 tells us that Joseph worked in the house of Potiphar, the captain of the guard. Potiphar’s wife was quite taken with the handsome Joseph. She asked him continually to join her in her bed, but he refused. One day she took him by his cloak and insisted that he lie with her. He refused and ran out the door, leaving his cloak in her hands. She was so angry with his refusal that she used his cloak as “evidence” in a false allegation that he had attempted to rape her.  Joseph was innocent. He had not committed the crime despite the so-called “evidence.”

Today, we have women like Tamar and women like Potiphar’s wife, both of whom are broken but in different ways. We need to pray for people like Tamar who have been sexually assaulted. We need to pray that God will mend their broken hearts and restore to wholeness what has been crushed in acts of violence. We also need to pray for those like Potiphar’s wife, who have falsely accused men of crimes they did not commit.

And we must pray for men whose lives are destroyed by false accusations.

We need to pray that God will shine His revealing light on the matter before us today and bring forth truth. We need to pray for all the brokenness involved as well as the restoration of any names that have been smeared. No matter which side of the political aisle we stand, we should pray for God to reveal the truth.

Written by Vijay Jayaraj

Environmental problems have become part of our everyday lives. There isn’t a news website homepage that does not highlight news related to our environment, and environmental issues have become central themes of major elections.

But we have reached a point where we no longer understand the role of man in the environment around us. What brought us here?

Humans and the environment are inseparable. Whether you are a theist or an atheist, you cannot be disconnected from the environment. All of human civilization’s needs come from the environment.

Darwin’s evolutionary theory concludes that man is part of the environment and a product of the evolutionary process from fishes to mammals. In Darwin’s naturalistic framework, human survival is interconnected with the complex environmental system.

Theism, especially the Judeo-Christian worldview, asserts that man is a creation of God. The Judeo-Christian worldview requires humans to steward the environment with proper care and use the resources wisely.

Either way, taking care of the environment is a crucial aspect of everybody’s life unless we want intentionally want to tamper with it. Although that may sound a straightforward fact, it has been subjected to much confusion in the 21^st century.

In recent decades, radical environmentalists have made man appear alien to the environment—not part of the system but merely extracting resources from it.

They have caricatured man as the destroyer of the environment. The radical environmentalists’ prioritization of the environment ahead of human welfare cannot be defended from either the naturalistic and or the theistic framework.

In the naturalistic framework, man has every right to do what it takes to succeed and outsmart other species on earth, more commonly known in evolutionary circles as ‘survival of the fittest’. Humans (or any species) do their best to survive and flourish throughout the earth.

Within the theistic framework, the Judeo-Christian worldview offers a solid basis on which the environmental interactions of man are defined and structured, allowing man to use resources for his propagation.

In both theistic and naturalistic worldviews, there is no reason to believe that man cannot use the resources the world offers and continue to flourish as a species.

So radical environmentalism clearly is not the ideal framework to support any endeavor that aims to improve the condition of our environment, for it despises the current success of the human species.

Between the theistic and the naturalistic frameworks, the Judeo-Christian worldview (within the theistic worldview) offers the better framework for the rightful use of our environment.

In naturalism, there is no over-arching moral law that prohibits him from enjoying the resources of the world. Any existing man-made law and courts of law are mere intra-species subjective moral laws that do not have an objective authority.

The Judeo-Christian worldview, in contrast, offers a more realistic prescription for the stewardship of the environment. Man can be held responsible for his actions that could have potential negative environmental impact on other human beings. Certainly, Christianity is by far the eco-friendliest philosophy.

Some may argue that theists have abused the environment by polluting it. But an abuse of the environment by a theist should not be viewed as an abuse by the worldview itself.

The Judeo-Christian worldview is very detailed on the responsibility that citizens are to have towards one another. In fact, its whole tenet is based upon love—love towards God and love towards fellow human beings. And one cannot love his neighbors by polluting their front yards or their water sources.

Christianity in America has been wrongly caricatured by the radical environmentalists as a worldview that promotes human greed ahead of preserving the environment. This is false and blatantly misrepresents the two-millennia history of the Christianity, which has mostly produced individuals and institutions that have cared for the environment in various ways.

Like adherents of any other worldview, there are Christians who may have abused the environment, but that does not warrant abandoning the only framework that can bring meaningful change to the way we treat our environment.

In fact, a meaningful solution to the world’s environmental challenges can only rise out of laws and regulations that embody the Christian ideal of Biblical stewardship: men and women working together to enhance the fruitfulness, the beauty, and the safety of the earth, to the glory of God and the benefit of our neighbors.

This article was originally published at Townhall.com