The United States of America was founded as an extraordinary experiment in freedom balanced by an almost universal worldview — the Christian or biblical worldview — which supplied inward moral constraints and rendered heavy handed government unnecessary and even repugnant.

But today, over 240 years later, America is a battlefield of opposing worldviews: secular humanists who have no transcendent truth to constrain them, versus people of faith who still embrace a biblical worldview. That biblical worldview includes exhortation to all manner of good and godly works and attitudes.

But what of The Left? Those with no moral compass who subscribe to the situational ethics school of thought? How can Progressive leaders and gatekeepers motivate their followers? Simple: fear.

People, in general, are either motivated by love or fear. Many times a healthy dose of fear is not a bad thing: ask the parent who loves their child unconditionally, yet understands the efficacy of fear of consequences.

Consider the notorieties of The Left and some of their chronicled pronouncements intended to evoke fear.

National Review columnist David French writes of fearmonger Al Gore:

In January, 2006 — when promoting his Oscar-winning (yes, Oscar-winning) documentary, An Inconvenient Truth — Gore declared that unless we took “drastic measures” to reduce greenhouse gasses, the world would reach a “point of no return” in a mere ten years. He called it a “true planetary emergency.” Well, the ten years passed today, we’re still here, and the climate activists have postponed the apocalypse. Again.

In case you missed seeing Al’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, here is the film’s synopsis:

Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global warming with former Vice President Al Gore’s personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change in the most talked-about documentary of the year.

An audience and critical favorite, An Inconvenient Truth makes the compelling case that global warming is real, man-made, and its effects will be cataclysmic if we don’t act now. Gore presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful and compelling way: often humorous, frequently emotional, and always fascinating. In the end, An Inconvenient Truth accomplishes what all great films should: it leaves the viewer shaken, involved and inspired.

Notice the hyperbolic language — cataclysmic — and the ultimate goal of the movie, “An Inconvenient Truth accomplishes what all great films should: it leaves the viewer shaken, involved and inspired.” Shaken. Indeed. Trembling with fear. Now that’s some motivation!

Now consider the collective works and declarations of Hollywood heavyweight (pun intended) Michael Moore. Take a look at the PR description of Moore’s 2009 film, Capitalism: A Love Story:

Filmmaker Michael Moore explores corporate greed, the global economic meltdown, and their disastrous effect on American lives. As he travels from the Heartland to the financial epicenter of New York and the halls of government in Washington, Moore delves into the price the country pays for its love of capitalism.

Moore’s earlier 2002 movie, Bowling for Columbine, delivers a foreboding message concerning guns in America:

Political documentary filmmaker Michael Moore explores the circumstances that lead to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and, more broadly, the proliferation of guns and the high homicide rate in America. In his trademark provocative fashion, Moore accosts Kmart corporate employees and pleads with them to stop selling bullets, investigates why Canada doesn’t have the same excessive rate of gun violence and questions actor Charlton Heston on his support of the National Rifle Association.

Leftist Moore crafts his documentaries to support his radical worldview: capitalism is unadulterated greed which will destroy America and the globe; guns and the NRA and Charlton Heston are evil and the cause of violence in America. Each of Moore’s films seek to instill fear in the audience.

Another purveyor of fear, Nobel Peace Prize Winning Barack Obama has the bully pulpit and the Progressive mindset to disseminate chilling, but fictitious, dictums. With the looming danger of Islamic terrorism, Obama dons his blinders and preaches:

Today there is no greater threat to our planet than climate change.

. . .

No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.

Secretary of State John Kerry warns:

It is [climate change], indeed, one of the greatest threats facing our planet today.

Even Veep Joe Biden gets in on the “scare-your-pants off with man-caused climate change doom” act:

Climate change is the threat multiplier.

Watch the video below with these and more scary quotes:

Now we all know we should live in fear and trembling of climate change, gun owners and capitalism. But wait, there’s more.

Slow Joe Biden warned the black community in August 2012, replete with his phony “black brother accent:”

[Romney] said in the first hundred days, he’s going to let the big banks write their own rules — unchain Wall Street. They’re going to put y’all back in chains.

Thus Americans can add Romney and all Republicans to the list of phobias. But, don’t put down your pen — if you’re taking notes.

President Obama decried flyover folks in 2008:

And when he spoke to a group of his wealthier Golden State backers at a San Francisco fund-raiser last Sunday, Barack Obama took a shot at explaining the yawning cultural gap that separates a Turkeyfoot from a Marin County.

“…And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

So there you go. According to Obama, working class Americans are bitter, God-clinging, gun-clinging, xenophobics who should be objects of suspicion and loathing.

Our universities have been indoctrinating students for several generations with this nonsense, instilling fear of patriots and what were once considered solid American values. Colleges advertise “safe zones” and decry “micro-aggression and trigger warnings.”

Oklahoma Wesleyan University President, Dr. Everett Piper, wrote an excellent rebuttal to all the PC/Lefty nonsense in his 2015 article, This is Not a Day Care. It’s a University!:

At OKWU, we teach you to be selfless rather than self-centered. We are more interested in you practicing personal forgiveness than political revenge. We want you to model interpersonal reconciliation rather than foment personal conflict. We believe the content of your character is more important than the color of your skin. We don’t believe that you have been victimized every time you feel guilty and we don’t issue “trigger warnings” before altar calls.

Oklahoma Wesleyan is not a “safe place”, but rather, a place to learn: to learn that life isn’t about you, but about others; that the bad feeling you have while listening to a sermon is called guilt; that the way to address it is to repent of everything that’s wrong with you rather than blame others for everything that’s wrong with them. This is a place where you will quickly learn that you need to grow up.

This is not a day care. This is a university.

Let’s face it, The Left is motivated by, and only by, feelings — not facts nor solid intellectual argument. With a worldview wherein man is both intrinsically good and, strangely, the enemy of the planet, the best mode of motivation is fear. Pure, unsubstantiated fear.

Contrast that with the Judeo-Christian, the biblical, worldview. Those who revere the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, those who read the Bible and try to live out its precepts. Those people of faith believe in right and wrong, in sin and mercy and grace. And they believe in absolute, transcendent truth.

If The Left motivates through fear, how does The Right, Conservatives of faith, motivate? Love.

There are over 360 passages in the Bible which tells us to “fear not.” And with great clarity the apostle John writes:

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18

Dr. R.C. Sproul of Ligonier Ministries notes:

We are fragile mortals, given to fears of every sort. We have a built-in insecurity that no amount of whistling in the dark can mollify. We seek assurance concerning the things that frighten us the most.

The prohibition uttered more frequently than any other by our Lord is the command, “Fear not …” He said this so often to His disciples and others He encountered that it almost came to sound like a greeting. Where most people greet others by saying “Hi” or “Hello,” the first words of Jesus very often were “Fear not.”

Our culture may be a war zone as we wrestle against principalities and powers who wield fear as a weapon of control.

The antidote for that fear is truth and love. We must be apologists of truth, striking down the nonsense of the fear peddlers. As John Mark penned:

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Sorry fearmongers, you don’t have a chance of winning: perfect love casts out fear.

Join IFI at our Feb. 18th Worldview Conference

We are excited about our third annual Worldview Conference featuring world-renowned theologian Dr. Frank Turek on Sat., Feb. 18, 2017 in Barrington. Dr. Turek is s a dynamic speaker and the award-winning author of “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist”

Join us for a wonderful opportunity to take enhance your biblical worldview and equip you to more effectively engage the culture:

Click HERE to learn more or to register!

The infamous Southern Poverty Law Center has been in the news for many years now, not for the good work it might have done early on after it was started, but for the anti-Christian hate group they have evolved into. While the liberal media has not been covering this corrupt evolution of the SPLC, the new media and the conservative media have been for over a decade. Here are just a sampling of headlines you will find if you peruse some of those sources.

The SPLC has shown up in many articles posted at the Illinois Family Institute’s website.

If you do a search at American Thinker for articles mentioning the SPLC, you will find too many to list here.

Here are others from a variety of sources:

Trump Should Condemn the SPLC

SPLC Should Lose Non-Profit Tax Status, Says Immigration Reform Group

Leftist Group: Saying Islam Has Problems Makes You A Terrorist

Everyone Who Disagrees with the SPLC Is Hitler

The Southern Poverty Law Center: Part Karl, Part Groucho

Selective outrage: Leftist, atheist critics of Islam enraged that SPLC hit list of Islam critics includes leftists and atheists

7 Things You Need To Know About The Southern Poverty Law Center

IFI Labeled Hate Group

When Will the Southern Poverty Law Center Stop Bullying?

The Morality Police at the Southern Poverty Law Center

The Church of Morris Dees

“The SPLC Exposed – Southern Poverty Law Center – Morris Dees and Hate Crimes

Grandma’ Shows Up On SPLC ‘Hare List

A ‘Progressive’ Bully Strikes Again

7 New Pro-Family Groups Added to Radical Leftist Group’s Infamous ‘Hate’ List

Southern Poverty Law Center – Manufacturing Hate for Fun and Profit

Supposed ‘Watchdog’ Sprews Hate and Encourages Violence

Southern Poverty a Poor Choice

Guess Who the Southern Poverty Law Center is Attacking Now?

The Southern Poverty Law Center Uncovers Just an Incredible Amount of Misogyny

Christians Branded ‘Hate Group’ for Opposing LGBT Agenda in Schools

SPLC Wages ‘Transgender’ War on Civil Rights Law

America’s Anti-Christian Group Exposed by Watchdog Organization

The SPLC’S Uncivil War

Liberal Lies, Brain Williams and the SPLC

The SPLC Owes Me an Apology Too

SPLC: Not an Honest Broker

The Real Hater and Their Targets

Southern Poverty Law Center Named Propagandist for Jihad Terrorists

SPLC’S Civil Rights — And Wrongs

FBI Should ‘Repudiate’ SPLC, NOT Just Drop it as a Resource

The Missing Link Between the FBI and SPLC…

Bullying and Bribes: Pink ‘Povety’ Forces School Propaganda

SPLC: Father of the Bribe

RUH ROH: Southern Poverty Law Center’s Criteria for Naming ‘Hate Groups’ Subpoenaed

SPLC’S Baseless Attack on Jewish Group is Evil Assault on Freedom

Obama FBI Partners With Leftist Extremist Group

The SPLC and ‘Hate Groups’

Southern Poverty Law Center: Wellspring of Manufactured Hate

Occupy the Southern Poverty Law Center

Isn’t the Southern Poverty Law Center the Real Hate Group?

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Its So-Called ‘Hate Groups’

Southern Poverty Law Center: Activities, Agendas, and Worldview

The Illinois Family Institute is completely dependent on the voluntary contributions of individuals just like you.  Without you, we would be unable to fight the radical agenda being pushed by the godless Left.

Please consider chipping in $25 or $50 to support our work to stand boldly in the public square.

Click HERE to make a tax-deductible donation.

To make a credit card donation over the phone, call the IFI office at (708) 781-9328.

Now that we’ve elected a President our news media will hold him accountable. Not that they’ve done a good job of this in the past, but let’s applaud this new resolve. In fact, the actions of all of our officials should be continually scrutinized.

If we’re to hold an official accountable then we need to decide how to judge his or her behavior. Any standards we compose are bound to embody Christian morality, because we have a Christian culture, and our political and legal framework comes from Christian traditions. This is a useful starting point because God Himself is judging our country. We ought to find out what He expects from us.

God judges all the nations, not just Israel

God paid special interest to Israel. He fulfilled His promise to their forefather Abraham by establishing Israel as a nation, giving it the land of Canaan (Genesis 15:7). He gave them the Law, His detailed description of right and wrong, and expected Israel to honor it.

However, careful Bible reading shows that God also expects righteousness of the nations surrounding Israel. Even though the non-Israelites didn’t have the Law, they could tell right from wrong because God’s righteousness and nature is readily seen all about us (Romans 1:18-20; 2:14-15). Some of God’s judgments were these:

• Among its sins Sodom failed to care for its poor (Ezekiel 16:49-50).
• Although God promised Canaan to Abraham’s descendants, He told Abraham to wait. Eventually the iniquity of the Canaanites would be enough for God to dispossess them (Genesis 15:16).
• God sent Jonah to preach Nineveh’s doom because of their evil (Jonah 1:1-2).
• Nebuchadnezzar was punished for his pride and being a ruthless ruler. After a spell of suffering the king was allowed to repent (Daniel 4:27-37). Even though he wasn’t king of Israel, God required much of him.
• His descendant Belshazzar also was punished for his pride (Daniel 5:24-30). That famous disembodied hand declared the king, and his kingdom, deficient in God’s scales of justice.

God revealed to Jeremiah that the nations exist through his determination (Jeremiah 18:7-10). He establishes and removes them at his pleasure.

God’s interest in the nations continues in the New Testament.

• John the Baptist tells tax collectors to be modest in their collections (Luke 3:12-13). Tax collectors were commissioned by the governor to get a fixed sum of taxes. Anything they collected beyond that was their income. John told these officials to not get greedy.
• John also tells soldiers to be honest, not shaking down people or extorting protection money (Luke 3:14).
• God slew King Herod for his pride (Acts 12:21-23). Herod thought that he was a self-made man, worthy of praise and adoration.

Paul notes that God appoints earthly rulers as his ministers (Romans 13:1,4). But God doesn’t give out free passes. With responsibility comes an accounting (Luke 12:42-48; 1 Corinthians 4:2).

Biblical Injustice

Through the Ten Commandments, and their exposition in the Law, God told Israel what a righteous nation does. In summary, the rulers must deter crime, provide even-handed justice, and defend the powerless. The people are to be honest, peaceable, living up to their promises, and caring for the poor and orphaned.

The prophets complained when officials or the people didn’t live up to God’s standards. Here are just a few admonishments.

• Provide even-handed and truthful justice (Amos 5:12).
• Punish evildoers (Isaiah 61:8).
• Don’t lie, slander or provide false testimony (Isaiah 29:20-21).
• Defend the powerless (Isaiah 1:17).
• Feed the poor, clothe the naked (Isaiah 58:7).
• Be honest, living at peace with your neighbors (Zechariah 8:17).
• Don’t break contracts or withhold wages that are due (Jeremiah 22:13).

These issues weren’t that nation’s only faults, just ones worthy of special comment. As a rule a society with one glaring fault will usually have problems in all areas.

Injustice might be done through practiced effort to pervert justice or by lazy indifference to good morality. Either way, it brings the fairness and reputation of the law itself into disrepute. No wonder that God judges the nations, for he is defending His own name and righteousness (Psalm 74:22; Isaiah 37:17).

Presidential responsibilities

The United States has many political divisions, each with offices of limited responsibility. Not every office deals with the full import of hearing disputes or deterring crime, yet each office should be handled with honesty and efficiency. Even dogcatchers can be bribed. What, then, are the President’s responsibilities, those things he ought to do rightly?

The U.S. Constitution gives the President these responsibilities:

Oversee the armed forces. The President is the highest leader of the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

Oversee the enforcement of laws. As leader of the Executive Branch the President is responsible for laws being “faithfully executed”. Considerable tension exists when the President wants to execute a different policy than what the law permits.

Oversee foreign policy. The President arranges treaties for the Senate to consider. The President also selects ambassadors and other officials that, once the Senate approves, represents the nation’s interests in foreign lands.

Nominate Supreme Court judges. The President gets to nominate Supreme Court judges and “all other Officers”, as required. If Congress isn’t in session, the President’s nominations are automatically approved, at least until Congress reconvenes and considers the appointments.

Pardon people who offend the United States. The President is permitted to grant “pardons for offences against the United States”. The language doesn’t say “convicted of offences”, which is why President Ford could preemptively pardon former President Nixon.

Report to Congress on how things are going. Every year the President provides to Congress a “state of the union”, either through a letter or a speech to them. The President is also entitled to reports from the heads of the various Departments (State, Defense, etc.).

Because the President is head over 15 executive departments he, has ultimate accountability over their actions. Having the power to appoint and oversee, the President has the ability to adjust how the federal government works. He can also pressure them to achieve certain goals. When there is scandal or controversy, such as in how the EPA handled the Animas River spill, or whether the IRS should grant tax exemptions to certain groups, it becomes the President’s fault. Truly, the buck stops here.

In addition to the official duties the President has a bully pulpit to promote policies and proposed legislation. He will be called upon to advance a multitude of projects.

Presidential scrutiny

We’ve seen that the President has Constitutional duties. We also assume that the President will champion various causes, depending on the politics and petitions of special interests. Finally, for the good of the nation he ought to pay attention to God’s requirements for righteous government. We can scrutinize the President’s actions in terms of what he has done and what should be done.

Constitutional duties.  When the President acts his activities are widely reported. Don’t worry whether the President is neglecting his duties, for there are many assistants to ensure that the President does them. Mostly, people have issues with the President’s actions when policy is promoted at the expense of existing law.

Recently the Title IX education law was interpreted by the Department of Education to require that public schools allow bathrooms to be used by both boys and girls. But since the Title IX law doesn’t define “sex”, the Department of Education isn’t faithfully executing the law. The President is responsible for his Departments, so the buck stops at President Obama’s desk.

The President, along with the executive departments, must be faithful to implement the laws Congress passed. When a executive department delays a law’s implementation, or twists regulations to work around the law’s intent, the department isn’t being faithful. A President that allows this to occur also isn’t being faithful.

The President can be judged on the unlikely event of shunning the office’s duties. He can also be judged on whether he thinks politics is more important than oathkeeping, implementing the laws as written.

Promoting policies. The President wins the office by promoting his vision for the future, promising that things will be done or undone. He might not agree with your policies, but like U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen once said, “when I feel the heat I see the light.” Politicians want to be liked and respond to lobbying, especially when it comes from a lot of their constituents. It’s been said that a letter received means that there are another four people of like mind.

When the President is faced with a choice of actions he is looking not only for guidance from counselors but also the opinion of the nation. That means on issues you care about, and especially on issues God has spoken about through the Bible, your lobbying can make a difference. You can pre-judge the President by counseling him or her to the correct course and warning what happens if a bad course is followed.

Here is how this can work regarding the issue of abortion where law, vision, and morals all come together.

• We don’t have laws restricting abortion because of U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
• The President has a bully pulpit to promote abortion or to condemn it. That is the vision role of the office.
• The President can choose new pro-life justices. They would have to be confirmed by a divided Congress, but convincing U.S. Senators to confirm them again exercises the vision role of the President.

You can examine what the President has already done and warn him not to do it again. In the case of hard-to-reverse actions like a U.S. Supreme Court nomination it would be better to pre-judge an action, warning the President ahead of time to not make a misstep. Unless you have a truly wicked politician, it is hard to argue with someone pleading a case directly from Scripture.

Where to go next

You’re ready to find your magnifying glass and badger the President into doing the right thing. First off, you must know your topic. Do you know the laws that should be followed, or which should be changed? For that you’ll have to visit the Federal Register or your favorite advocacy site.

You’ll also have to learn what righteous government means. Here are some resources.

• Among the things at Faith Facts is a page that presents concepts of government and what the Bible says about them.
• Cited earlier, the Acton Institute discusses limited government and the Bible.
• Kerby Anderson has a Christian view of government for your consideration.

Although its viewpoint is more conservative than Christian, Prager University has excellent short videos discussing a whole range of conservative and government issues in America.

You can also enhance your Christian understanding of the world by getting your framework for understanding, your worldview, in better order. IFI is hosting its third annual Worldview Conference with Dr. Frank Turek on February 18th next year. We want to help equip you and your family with a solid biblical worldview. How do we think about the issues of the day? Do we think clearly and biblically about the issues, or is there something clouding or contaminating our understanding?  Are we buying into lies and distortions of the culture, or are we able to discern fact from fiction, truth from deception?

Join us for a wonderful opportunity to take enhance your biblical worldview and equip you to more effectively engage the culture:

What:  IFI Worldview Conference with Dr. Frank Turek

When:  Saturday, February 18^th, 10 AM to 3:30 PM

Where:  Village Church of Barrington, 1600 E. Main St., Barrington, IL 60010 (map)

How much:  $20 per person/$50 per family

Click HERE for a flyer for this event

Written by Dr. Rob Rienow

The recent election season has revealed in dramatic fashion the divisions, spiritual struggles, and confusion in our nation. While believers are called to do all in our power to shape our nation and culture through word and deed, perhaps our most important work is in prayer. I hope these brief prayer “focus areas” will encourage and accelerate your ministry of prayer during this vital moment in our history.

A Prayer of Repentance (2 Chron. 7:14, Deut. 12:8, Ps. 139, 2 Pet. 1:5) 

Lord, we humble ourselves before you. We acknowledge that there is no one who is righteous, not even one.

• We confess our sins, both personally and nationally, of doing what is right in our own eyes, while we neglect the truth of your Word.
• We confess, personally and nationally, that we have not valued and sought to protect the rights and dignity of each individual person, born and unborn.
• We confess that we have looked to human governments and human leaders to meet our needs, rather than you.
• We confess, as followers of Christ, that we have allowed political divisions to divide our relationships with our brothers and sisters in the church.
• We confess, as followers of Christ, that we have often lacked the courage and compassion to share the Gospel with those who are lost.

A Prayer of Spiritual Warfare (John 8:44, Eph. 6:10-18, James 4:7)

Heavenly Father, your Word tells us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. As your children, we pray against the demonic forces seeking to destroy our nation through hatred, racism, addiction, dependence, violence, and sensuality.

• We pray against the devil, who is a liar and the father of lies, who comes only to steal, kill and destroy.
• We pray against his lies that we are not created in the image of God; that you did not create male and female as unique, beautiful, and distinct; and that you did not create one human race.
• We pray against the lies of destructive sexuality, demonic racism, and godless evolution which rob life of meaning and dignity.
• We pray against those who stand in opposition to you and the truth of your Word. For the sake of your love, justice, and compassion, we pray that you bring them to repent of their sins and put their faith in Christ. If they do not turn from their evil, remove them from all places of influence and power in our nation.
• We pray that you would send your angels to engage in this spiritual battle for the strengthening of your people and for the glory of your Son.

A Prayer for Our President (Daniel 2:21, Romans 13)

Lord, we acknowledge that you are the one who gives and takes away all human authority and leadership. You have chosen President Trump for our nation at this time.

• First, we pray for his relationship with you. If he has not repented of his sins and trusted Jesus alone for salvation, cover him with your grace and give him the gift of faith so that he would be born again, and become a new creation in Christ.
• Give him wisdom beyond himself, wisdom that is rooted in your Word, so that he would lead with justice and compassion.
• Surround him with godly, faithful, Christian men and women who will support him in doing what is right and never what is wrong.
• To the degree that he leads well and makes decisions for the good of the nation, strengthen him, encourage him, and protect him against all his many adversaries. 

The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:10) 

Heavenly Father, your Son taught us to pray by saying, “your will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven.” We desire to see your will done throughout our nation, for the good of the people, and for your glory.

• We pray for your will to be done in saving babies from abortion. Two hundred years ago, many in our nation approved of slavery. Today in our nation, after hundreds of thousands of Christians rose up to abolish slavery, there is universal hatred for that great evil. Let the day come quickly in our land where there is universal hatred for the killing of innocent children in the womb.
• We pray against the growing spirit of racial hatred and division. Let our whole nation embrace your truth that you created only one race, the human race, and that it is evil and unjust to make decisions, judgments and policies about any other person or group based on the color of their skin.
• We pray for your will to be done in preserving religious freedom for every citizen. We thank you that we do not yet see the level of persecution of Christians in our country as we see in many other parts of the world. At the same time, we see these freedoms under attack and so we ask that you would protect the freedom for all to worship and live out their faith.
• We pray that you would uphold and honor your creations of marriage and the family. We pray against all those who would seek to confuse the next generation about their sexuality. We pray for a growing culture of godly manhood and womanhood, faithful marriages, and parents and grandparents who passionately seek to pass faith and character to their children.

Pray for the Gospel to Advance (Matthew 28:18-20, Romans 1:16) 

Heavenly Father, while this world is not our home, you have given us Kingdom work to do here as your servants. Our hope is not in politics, governments, or any human power. Our hope is in you alone, and our eternal destination is Heaven, the New Earth, where the government will be upon your shoulders.

• In the midst of this national turbulence, give your people a supernatural boldness to speak your truth and share your Gospel in private and in public.
• Fill us with your Holy Spirit so that we would not shrink back out of fear, anxiety, or embarrassment. Let us never be ashamed of the Gospel message!
• Help us be good stewards of the responsibilities that come with self-government. May we faithfully serve you as individual men and women, in the care and leadership of our families and churches, and work to preserve God’s blessing of political freedom for our children and grandchildren.
• Strengthen pastors around the nation to equip their congregations with the whole counsel of God, and fearlessly and prophetically speak out for justice, compassion, and righteousness in the public square.
• In our nation’s past history, you sent your Holy Spirit to accelerate massive spiritual revivals. Thousands upon thousands repented of their sins, were born again in Jesus Christ, and then blessed their communities with the light and love of their faith in God. Bring revival again to our nation, for the blessing of the world, and for your glory.

***Dr. Rob Rienow is the founder of Visionary Family Ministries (www.VisionaryFam.com) and serves as one of the pastors at Gospel Fellowship Church in Wheaton, IL (www.gfc1.org)

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter
the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will
of my Father who is in heaven.”  ~Matt. 7:31

Two influential bloggers who “identify” as Christians have rejected biblical orthodoxy in order to affirm homoeroticism as holy. Jen Hatmaker and Glennon Doyle Melton have chosen to reject two thousand years of church history to embrace heretical views of homoerotic activity and marriage.

Jen Hatmaker and her husband Brandon assure their followers that they studied the Bible closely using established hermeneutical principles; “engaged in hours of conversations with theologians, bishops, pastors, authors, and church leaders”; engaged in “a ton of prayer”; kept “a journal full of notes”; and even “researched the claims behind the Kinsey Scale” before they concluded that the Bible actually affirms the views that the Hatmakers were embracing before they embarked on their deep Scriptural studies.

The Hatmakers concluded that those theological views that emerged in the latter half of the latter half of the 20^th Century—views impelled not first by close study of Scripture but by the cultural movement to normalize homoeroticism—are correct. Like liberal theologians, the Hatmakers have concluded that only abusive homoerotic relationships are condemned by Scripture:

Every verse in the Bible that is used to condemn a “homosexual” act is written in the context of rape, prostitution, idolatry, pederasty, military dominance, an affair, or adultery. It was always a destructive act. It was always a sin committed against a person. And each type of sexual interaction listed was an abuse of God’s gift of sex and completely against His dream for marriage to be a lifelong commitment of two individuals increasingly and completely giving themselves to one another as Christ did for the church. But not one of these scriptures was written in the context of marriage or civil union (which simply did not exist at this time).

The Hatmakers evidently assume that the only reason Jesus defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman was that homoerotic “marriage” did not exist. They evidently believe that Jesus’ understanding of marriage as a sexually differentiated union was limited by his culture. In their view, Jesus’ understanding of marriage was a product of his limited knowledge.  The Hatmakers presume that if same-sex “marriage” had existed, surely Jesus would have defined marriage in the Bible as a union of any two people with their sexes being utterly irrelevant.

But if the sex of marriage partners is irrelevant, then what is the reason for limiting marriage to two people? Can’t three people love each other?

And since the Bible teaches that marriage is a picture of Christ—the bridegroom—and his church—the bride, are the Hatmakers saying there is no distinction in role or function between Christ and the church?

When asked if she would attend a friend’s “marriage” to a person of the same sex, Jen Hatmaker said, “I would attend that wedding with gladness, and I would drink champagne. I want the very best for my gay friends. I want love and happiness and faithfulness and commitment and community.”

Every Christian desires love, happiness, and faithfulness for their loved ones. But knowing what love is requires knowing first what is true. And no Christian should desire that an unholy relationship endure. Permanence does not mitigate the moral offense of homoerotic relationships. Commitment can no more transform an intrinsically immoral homoerotic relationship into a moral one than it could transform an intrinsically immoral incestuous relationship into a moral relationship.

Dr. Robert A. J. Gagnon, arguably the foremost authority on the Bible and homosexuality, has critiqued the late 20^th Century revisionist position that only exploitative, abusive homoerotic activity is condemned in Scripture. In his book The Bible and Homosexual Practice, Dr. Gagnon refutes the Hatmaker’s claim that the only homosexual acts condemned in Scripture are condemned were abusive or exploitative:

The prohibitions in Lev. 18:22 and 20:13 are unqualified: any man who lies with another male in the manner men lie with women (i.e., engaging in sexual intercourse) has committed an abomination. There are no exceptions. One finds no specifications regarding age of either participant. Neither is there any mention of the exploitative character of the relationship. If homosexual relationships were wrong primarily because they were exploitative, why would Lev. 20:13 specify a death penalty for both participants, the exploited as well as the exploiter?

The Hatmakers were motivated to critically reexamine what Scripture teaches about homosexuality by seeing “so much pain among the LGBTQ community: Suicidal teenagers. Divided families. Split churches. So. Much. Pain.” Let’s pray the Hatmakers don’t notice the pain of “zoophiles,” adulterers, and sibling-lovers. Let’s also pray that the Hatmakers do notice that church splits are largely caused by biblical revisionists like them and that the pain that results is felt not just by homosexuals but by the theologically orthodox as well.

While Jen Hatmaker until recently embraced theologically orthodox views, self-indulgent “Christian” blogger Glennon Doyle Melton has long made her unorthodox theological views known on her blog Momastery.

Melton, a recently divorced mother of three known for such faux-pearls of wisdom as “Life is brutal. But it’s also beautiful. Brutiful, I call it,” announced on Sunday night that she is “deeply, finally, FINE. Fine through my bones and soul and mind and just every fiber of me.”

And what is the cause of this deep, final bone and fiber-penetrating fineness? Could it be a renewed relationship with Jesus Christ? Nope. It’s her newfound homoerotic relationship with lesbian soccer star Abby Wambach.

For those who are unfamiliar, Melton, who has 645,000 Facebook followers, is a professional confessor in the mold of self-indulgent professional confessor Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love. Interestingly, Gilbert left her second husband for a homoerotic relationship with her best friend.

Oprah-esque/Gilbert-y Doyle rationalizes her self-indulgent, relativistic worldview to her children—a worldview manifestly non-Christian—arguing that through her selfishness she is a brave, empowering, feminist role model:

Now we are entering a new time which calls for a different type of leadership. And now it is my job as a leader not to concern myself too deeply about what you think and feel about me- about the way I live my life. That is what I want to model now, because that is what I want for YOU: I want you to grow so comfortable in your own being, your own skin, your own knowing – that you become more interested in your own joy and freedom and integrity than in what others think about you. That you remember that you only live once, that this is not a dress rehearsal and so you must BE who you are. I want you to refuse to betray yourself. Not just for you. For ALL OF US. Because what the world needs — in order to grow, in order to relax, in order to find peace, in order to become brave—is to watch one woman at a time live her truth without asking for permission or offering explanation.

When it comes to homoerotic activity, there is no such thing as “her truth.” There is only objective, eternal transcendent truth. And the betrayal revealed by Melton, who claims to be a Christian, is her betrayal of her commitment to Christ and rebellion against the will of the Father.

Those who care about Melton’s children and the temporal and eternal lives of both Melton and Wambach should pray that they will be called to Christ like Rosaria Butterfield who was deeply entrenched in a life defined by homosexuality and recently wrote this:

I was not converted out of homosexuality. I was converted out of unbelief. I didn’t swap out a lifestyle. I died to a life I loved.

The worldly view of “identity” stands diametrically opposed to a biblical view of identity. As I wrote in an earlier article, “progressives” always in thrall to subjective feelings have redefined “identity” to render it immune from moral judgment:

Homosexual activists began transforming the concept of “identity.” They sought to recast identity as something intrinsically inviolable, immutable, and good. They sought to refashion identity in such a way as to make it culturally taboo to make judgments about any constituent feature of identity. They re-imagined identity in such a way as to move homoeroticism from the category of phenomena about which humans can legitimately make moral distinctions to one about which society is forbidden to make judgments.

Identity in its former incarnation was merely a way of saying that a thing is itself. Identity when applied to individual persons simply denoted the aggregate of phenomena constituting, associated with, affirmed, or experienced by individuals. Identity was “the set of behavioral and personal characteristics by which an individual is recognizable as a member of a group.”

Identity was not conceived as some intrinsically moral thing, because identity could refer to either objective, non-behavioral, morally neutral conditions (e.g., skin color) or to subjective feelings, beliefs, and volitional acts that could be good or bad, right or wrong. Prior to the new and subversive conceptualization of identity, there existed no absolute cultural prohibition of judging the divers elements that constitute identity.

By conflating all the phenomena that can constitute identity, “progressives” demanded that society should no more make judgments about feelings and volitional acts than they should about skin color.

In contrast, Christians should find their identity in Christ which means we must die to ourselves. Butterfield writes about the meaning and challenge of being a new person in Christ:

Conversion to Christ made me face the question squarely: did my lesbianism reflect who I am (which is what I believed in 1999), or did my lesbianism distort who I am through the fall of Adam? I learned through conversion that when something feels right and good and real and necessary—but stands against God’s Word—this reveals the particular way Adam’s sin marks my life. Our sin natures deceive us. Sin’s deception isn’t just “out there”; it’s also deep in the caverns of our hearts.

How I feel does not tell me who I am. Only God can tell me who I am, because he made me and takes care of me. He tells me that we are all born as male and female image bearers with souls that will last forever and gendered bodies that will either suffer eternally in hell or be glorified in the New Jerusalem. Genesis 1:27 tells me that there are ethical consequences and boundaries to being born male and female.

While the world tells us that our identity is found and secured by yielding to our emotions, Christ tells us that our identity is found in obedience to him through which our feelings will be redeemed from their fallen distorted state.

These women, Hatmaker and Melton, influence people—particularly women. These two attractive women use flowery rhetoric to describe pseudo-love. It is pseudo-love in that it is severed from truth. By promoting sexual deviance as holy, Hatmaker and Melton are wolves in adorable sheep costumes.

Warn your loved ones about them and their false teachings, and please have conversations with your children about the differences between fallen man’s view of identity and Christ’s.

Listen to this article HERE.

Save the Date!  Feb. 18th Worldview Conference

We are very excited about our third annual Worldview Conference featuring world-renowned theologian Dr. Frank Turek on Saturday, February 18, 2017 in Barrington. Dr. Turek is s a dynamic speaker and the award-winning author of “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist”

Join us for a wonderful opportunity to take enhance your biblical worldview and equip you to more effectively engage the culture:  Click HERE to learn more or to register!

Click HERE for a flyer.

Written by Rosaria Butterfield

If this were 1999—the year that I was converted and walked away from the woman and lesbian community I loved—instead of 2016, Jen Hatmaker’s words about the holiness of LGBT relationships would have flooded into my world like a balm of Gilead. How amazing it would have been to have someone as radiant, knowledgeable, humble, kind, and funny as Jen saying out loud what my heart was shouting: Yes, I can have Jesus and my girlfriend. Yes, I can flourish both in my tenured academic discipline (queer theory and English literature and culture) and in my church. My emotional vertigo could find normal once again.

Maybe I wouldn’t need to lose everything to have Jesus. Maybe the gospel wouldn’t ruin me while I waited, waited, waited for the Lord to build me back up after he convicted me of my sin, and I suffered the consequences. Maybe it would go differently for me than it did for Paul, Daniel, David, and Jeremiah. Maybe Jesus could save me without afflicting me. Maybe the Lord would give to me respectable crosses (Matt. 16:24). Manageable thorns (2 Cor. 12:7).

Today, I hear Jen’s words—words meant to encourage, not discourage, to build up, not tear down, to defend the marginalized, not broker unearned power—and a thin trickle of sweat creeps down my back. If I were still in the thick of the battle over the indwelling sin of lesbian desire, Jen’s words would have put a millstone around my neck.

Died to a Life I Loved

How I feel does not tell me who I am. Only God can tell me who I am, because he made me and takes care of me. He tells me that we are all born as male and female image bearers with souls that will last forever and gendered bodies that will either suffer eternally in hell or be glorified in the New Jerusalem. Genesis 1:27 tells me that there are ethical consequences and boundaries to being born male and female. When I say this previous sentence on college campuses—even ones that claim to be Christian—the student protesters come out in the dozens. I’m told that declaring the ethical responsibilities of being born male and female is now hate speech.

Calling God’s sexual ethic hate speech does Satan’s bidding. This is Orwellian nonsense or worse. I only know who I really am when the Bible becomes my lens for self-reflection, and when the blood of Christ so powerfully pumps my heart whole that I can deny myself, take up the cross, and follow him.

There is no good will between the cross and the unconverted person. The cross is ruthless. To take up your cross means that you are going to die. As A. W. Tozer has said, to carry a cross means you are walking away, and you are never coming back. The cross symbolizes what it means to die to self. We die so that we can be born again in and through Jesus, by repenting of our sin (even the unchosen ones) and putting our faith in Jesus, the author and finisher of our salvation. The supernatural power that comes with being born again means that where I once had a single desire—one that says if it feels good, it must be who I really am—I now have twin desires that war within me: “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Gal. 5:17). And this war doesn’t end until Glory.

Victory over sin means we have Christ’s company in the battle, not that we are lobotomized. My choice sins know my name and address. And the same is true for you.

The Cross Never Makes an Ally with Sin

A few years ago, I was speaking at a large church. An older woman waited until the end of the evening and approached me. She told me that she was 75 years old, that she had been married to a woman for 50 years, and that she and her partner had children and grandchildren. Then she said something chilling. In a hushed voice, she whispered, “I have heard the gospel, and I understand that I may lose everything. Why didn’t anyone tell me this before? Why did people I love not tell me that I would one day have to choose like this?” That’s a good question. Why did not one person tell this dear image bearer that she could not have illicit love and gospel peace at the same time? Why didn’t anyone—throughout all of these decades—tell this woman that sin and Christ cannot abide together, for the cross never makes itself an ally with the sin it must crush, because Christ took our sin upon himself and paid the ransom for its dreadful cost?

We have all failed miserably at loving fellow image bearers who identify as part of the LGBT community—fellow image bearers who are deceived by sin and deceived by a hateful world that applies the category mistake of sexual orientation identity like a noose. And we all continue to fail miserably. On the biblical side, we often have failed to offer loving relationships and open doors to our homes and hearts, openness so unhindered that we are as strong in loving relationship as we are in the words we wield. We also have failed to discern the true nature of the Christian doctrine of sin. For when we advocate for laws and policies that bless the relationships that God calls sin, we are acting as though we think ourselves more merciful than God is.

May God have mercy on us all.

This article was originally posted on The Gospel Coalition blog.

America has spoken. Expect change. Yet Christian leaders warn that the Left will still be on the offense and will fight efforts to instill traditional morals in our county. How do Christians respond?

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Illinois resident, Mike Meadows, was found dead in his food pantry last week. He was discovered by a neighbor who was surprised he hadn’t seen him for a few days. When the autopsy results came back, it was confirmed that he died of starvation.

“That just doesn’t make a lick of sense!” his neighbor declared. “There was an entire pantry, stocked to the brim with food, but he apparently just wouldn’t eat any of it! It doesn’t make any sense!”

Okay, none of that really happened. At least not on a physical level. But the fact is, hundreds of millions of Americans are starving themselves spiritually, even when they have more access to the Bible, in every conceivable format, than any previous generation ever has.

Spiritual Starvation

According the Barna Research Group:

“Nearly nine in 10 households own at least one Bible (88%) and the average number of Bibles per household is 4.7. Being pro-Bible doesn’t necessarily mean Americans use the Bible regularly, however. Only 37% of Americans report reading the Bible once a week or more. Among those who have read Scripture in the previous week, not quite six in 10 (57%) say they gave a lot of thought to how it might apply to their life. While the Bible’s place in America as a cultural icon endures, it’s not always perceived as a transformational text. Even as Bible ownership remains strong, readership and engagement are weak.” [i]

The younger you are, the less likely you are to see a need for the Bible, or to respect it as being the Word of God.

According to the American Bible Society, only 39% of practicing Christian Millennials view the Bible as their top source for moral truth. Sadly, 62% of non-Christian Millennials have never read the Bible, but, of course, that doesn’t keep them from having a definite opinion of it! Reportedly, 27% say the Bible is a dangerous book of religious dogma used for centuries to oppress people, and an additional 19% believe the Bible is an outdated book with no relevance for today. [ii]

Elders and Baby Boomers are more likely to say that the Bible doesn’t have enough influence in society today, while Millennials are more prone to say that it has too much influence. [iii]

You Can’t Live What You Don’t Know

Biblical illiteracy is leading to a worldview that is increasingly anti-Christian. According to LifeWay Research:

Almost two-thirds (65%), of Americans believe that while everyone sins a little, people are basically good. 74% percent don’t like the idea of eternal punishment being meted out for those who only commit small sins. Half of all Americans will not say that sex outside of traditional marriage is a sin. 59% of non-Evangelicals see no moral problem with abortion. 64% of Americans believe that God accepts everyone, regardless of their religious beliefs. [iv]

Homosexuality Accepted

According to Pew Research: In the past 15 years, America’s views on homosexual marriage have totally flip-flopped. Over 70% of American Millennials support same-sex marriage, and 64% of white, mainline protestants do as well. [v]

In fact, many Evangelical church members are beginning to support homosexual marriage. [vi] Today, 43% of white, Evangelical church-goers between the ages of 18-33, fully support homosexual marriage. [vii]

Just last week, the tension over this issue was brought to the forefront as LifeWay Christian Resources (a division of the Southern Baptist Convention), made the decision to pull books from their shelves when a popular Christian author made comments that were accepting of homosexual marriage.

In Search of a Biblical Worldview

Very few Christians have a Biblical worldview. That is to say, that most do not know what the Bible teaches on issues of Politics, Economics, Education, The Arts and Entertainment, Marriage, Parenting, Bio-Ethics, Origins, or other important issues of life.

Most Christians have been taught that Christianity is simply about Jesus saving your own little personal heart so you can go to Heaven when you die. They have never thought about the Bible being applicable to all areas of life.

Only 9% of American adults have a Biblical worldview. Only half of all pastors in America have a basic Biblical worldview, only 19% of “born again” adults, and only 11% of children in church possess the fundamentals of a Biblical worldview. Most shocking is the revelation that less than 0.5% of American Millennials have a basic Biblical worldview!

The Solution

The good news, is that studying the Bible has never been easier! We now have phone apps, audio Bibles, free online study helps, and every kind of study Bible and commentary you can imagine (for better or worse). The fact remains, however, that the Bible won’t study itself. We have to make time to read it. Even in the midst of our busy lives, we find time to do the things that are important to us.

We check our email, Facebook, sports stats, stock market portfolios, daily news, weather, etc. Most people even find time for watching television, NetFlix or doing online gaming. Our problem isn’t that we don’t have enough time. The problem is that we aren’t disciplined enough to make the most important thing of all a priority (knowing God through His Word).

As parents, we cannot sit back and hope that our children will learn the Bible by osmosis. We can’t hope they will get enough in Sunday School to counter-balance the 30,000 hours of anti-Christian indoctrination they receive during their K-12 years from government schooling and the media. We have to take full responsibility for the spiritual training and instruction of our own children.

But we can’t do that, if we don’t know God’s Word ourselves, or know how to apply it to the real world around us.

Biblical Worldview Conference

To help equip Christians to think and live Biblically, the Illinois Family Institute is hosting their Third Annual Illinois Family Institute Worldview Conference with Dr. Frank Turek, dealing with issues such as religious liberty, LGBTQ agenda, and more.

What:  IFI Worldview Conference with Dr. Frank Turek

When:  Saturday, February 18^th, 10 AM to 3:30 PM

Where:  Village Church of Barrington, 1600 E. Main St., Barrington, IL 60010 (map)

How much:  $20 per person/$50 per family

Click HERE for a flyer for this event.

Footnotes:

[i] https://www.barna.com/research/the-state-of-the-bible-6-trends-for-2014/

[ii] http://www.americanbible.org/features/state-of-the-bible

[iii] http://www.americanbible.org/uploads/content/State_of_the_Bible_2016_report_Politics.pdf

[iv] http://lifewayresearch.com/2016/09/27/americans-love-god-and-the-bible-are-fuzzy-on-the-details/

[v] http://www.pewforum.org/2016/05/12/changing-attitudes-on-gay-marriage/

[vi] http://www.prri.org/spotlight/attitudes-on-same-sex-marriage-by-religious-affiliation-and-denominational-family/

[vii] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/29/evangelical-christians-support-marriage-equality_n_7690408.html

In less than two weeks, Americans will know which candidates will direct the course of our state and nation for the next two to four years.  Unfortunately, too many Christians do not understand exactly what is at stake.  With each passing election cycle, we ought to be ever more concerned with the vital issues of essential liberty, morality, and ethics. Right now, due to the steady erosion of long-held liberties, coupled with the rise of bigger, more tyrannical government and a blatant disregard of corruption in leadership in all areas of government, our Christian values and way of life are quickly disintegrating.

This progressive disintegration is exactly what we can expect to happen when Christian citizens choose to ignore their responsibility to actively participate in self-government.  When we refuse to fulfill our obligation, we squander a precious gift given to us by God.  By declining to take part in the political process, we are relinquishing our God-given authority and handing it over to atheists and humanists who will abuse, distort and exploit it for themselves or for godless agendas.

It is unthinkable that Christians would refrain from the political process, knowing full well that the absence of their voice and vote will allow godless ideologies and philosophies to influence and capture the culture!

Romans 13 tells us that “there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.”  Who has been appointed as authorities here in America? The first three words of the U.S. Constitution tell us:  “We the people” are the appointed rulers.  In our republican form of government we delegate our authority to certain offices and branches of government, but we are ultimately responsible for the authority that we delegate.

Therefore, when the Bible we profess to believe in tells us that political power comes exclusively from the very God we worship, it is unconscionable for Christians to excuse themselves from the public arena on the grounds that “Christians shouldn’t be involved in politics.”

I must also point to the fact that a Biblical view of love requires our political engagement.  In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with your entire mind.”  He goes on to tell us that the second great commandment is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

If we truly love our neighbors as ourselves, shouldn’t we be more intentional about opposing or supporting certain candidates and their legislative proposals in Springfield and Washington D.C. because we know how it will affect not only our family, but our neighbor and his or her family as well?

If we truly love our neighbors, we should be actively promoting candidates who are pro-life, pro-marriage, and who understand pro-family concerns in regard to bigger government, higher taxes, drug legalization, school indoctrination, gambling expansion, and pornography.

Then there is the issue of stewardship.  As it has been pointed out before, roughly 20-30 million Christians did not vote in the last presidential election in 2012. This is certainly not good stewardship of God’s gift of self-government!

Consider the passage of Scripture in which Jesus praises a servant by saying “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.” (Matthew 25:21)  In light of this Scripture, is it any surprise that Bible-believing Christians are sparsely represented in Springfield and Washington, D.C?  Moreover, if we aren’t faithful in the little things that God has given us to do – such as voting or communicating with our elected representatives – why are we surprised that we aren’t successful when it comes to the bigger things?  (This is why you should voluntarily enlist in IFI’s Gideon’s Army!)

Even if America was a monarchy or a dictatorship, where citizens have very little influence in civil government, Christians would still have a responsibility to be salt and light in the dark and decaying culture. In America, however, we are blessed with the benefit of living in a country not only founded on Christian principles, but also established on the maxim that power is derived from the consent of the governed. “We the people” have both a civic and Christian duty to be engaged in culture and government.

I will admit that the situation we face is difficult – but we are not without hope and we have political tools and spiritual resources at our disposal!

Let me challenge each and every one reading this today:  Take a stand.

Make sure you research the candidates using the IFI Voter Guide and/or the IFA online guide at ILVoterGuide.com.  Then be sure you make the time to vote!

But let that not be the only political engagement you partake in this year.  There are other ways to be involved and to engage the culture.  The reality that the godless Left has been able to effectively influence the culture, where we have not, should spur us to do all that we can to present a Biblical worldview.

Many will try to dissuade us from influencing the culture with our faith and political views – telling us that we should not talk about religion and politics – but that is a ploy to silence us!

How are people to know about Jesus Christ if we refuse to talk about our faith?  Likewise, how are people going to know about the good candidates and policies if we won’t engage in political discourse?

George Washington understood the importance of one’s influence.  This quote expresses his thoughts:

“It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn.”

We cannot extend our views on faith and politics if we remain silent, distracted, and disengaged from the public square.

So, first and foremost, I encourage you to vote! And after you vote, please do not disengage from the political arena until the next election cycle.  Now is the time for Christians to be intentional about engaging the culture!  It is time that we become good stewards of the duty of self-government and it is time we get serious about being Christ’s ambassadors! (2 Corinthians 5:20)

Finally, I want to encourage you to PRAY for our state and nation.  We don’t deserve God’s mercy, but we should still wholeheartedly pray for it!

PRAY that citizens in Illinois and across America will choose to go to the polls to support candidates who will honor biblical truth, uphold life and marriage, and defend religious liberty and our Christian faith.

And after this election cycle, continue to PRAY for all of our government officials as you are led, and as  1 Timothy 2:2 instructs us to do.

Please share this on social media and
with your Christian neighbors & family members!

(Click HERE for the Español version of this article.)

(Click HERE for a Romanian version of this article.)

Our get-out-the-vote campaign is up and running. We are distributing the IFI Voter Guide to hundreds of churches, civic groups and tea party organizations. Will you financially support our endeavor to educate Illinois voters and promote Judeo-Christian values?  Donate today.

P.S. Listen to recent IFA podcast episodes at : illinoisfamilyaction.org/podcast

America is not like most other nations around the world. We have a different history and heritage. America is a nation that was founded on prayer. That is something we should not forget during this election year.

A History of Prayer in America

In December of 1621, Gov. William Bradford and the Pilgrims in Massachusetts called for a day of thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God for His provision and protection.

During the Revolutionary War, Congress issued a total of 15 official proclamations, calling for times of fasting and prayer.

On the celebration of the first national Thanksgiving Day, President George Washington declared:

“Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor. . . Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November [1789] . . . that we may all unite to render unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection.”

The most visible signer of the Declaration of Independence, Gov. John Hancock, proclaimed in 1790:

“[I] appoint . . . a day of public thanksgiving and praise . . . to render to God the tribute of praise for His unmerited goodness towards us . . . [by giving to] us . . . the Holy Scriptures which are able to enlighten and make us wise to eternal salvation. And [to] present our supplications…that He would forgive our manifold sins and . . . cause the benign religion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to be known, understood, and practiced among all the inhabitants of the earth.”

In an appeal for prayer, Benjamin Franklin said to his colleagues in the Continental Congress:

“All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth-that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the Ground without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid?”

All throughout the history of our nation, our leaders have called for prayer to Almighty God.

It’s Time to Seek the Lord

In this election year, many people are expressing fear and anger. Both of these emotions come from a similar place. Things feel out of control. Our future seems uncertain. People are desperate for something that can stop the freefall our nation seems to be in.

The fact is, our greatest problems in America all have moral and spiritual roots. We cannot, as a nation, turn our back on God, and pretend that we don’t need Him, and then expect His blessings.

Ronald Reagan’s words at the 1982 National Prayer Breakfast ring so true:

“I also believe this blessed land was set apart in a very special way, a country created by men and women who came here not in search of gold, but in search of God. They would be free people, living under the law with faith in their Maker and their future. Sometimes, it seems we’ve strayed from that noble beginning, from our conviction that standards of right and wrong do exist and must be lived up to. God, the source of our knowledge, has been expelled from the classroom. He gives us His greatest blessing, life, and yet many would condone the taking of innocent life. We expect Him to protect us in a crisis, but turn away from Him too often in our day-to-day living. I wonder if He isn’t waiting for us to wake up.”

I believe now is the time for us as Americans to wake up, and hear the call for repentance and humility. Rather than the anger and arrogance that has typified much of this election season, let’s approach our Maker with bended knee, and seek His mercy and pardon for our wayward hearts. Only then can we expect the needed rebuilding and restoration of our country to begin.

“Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me,
and I will hear you. You will seek Me and find Me,
when you seek Me with all your heart.
I will be found by you, declares the LORD.”
~Jeremiah 29:12-14a

Written by Alan Shlemon

Two thousand years ago, Paul sounded a warning to his protégé Timothy. He said that a time will come when people will no longer “endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths” (2 Tim. 4:3-4).

Paul’s warning 2,000 years ago is still relevant today. Many Christians are turning to the myth of pro-gay theology, the belief that Scripture can be interpreted to be gay-affirming.

Early advocates of pro-gay theology invented arguments that were easily refuted. They claimed that David and Jonathan were gay, that Jesus and John (the “disciple whom Jesus loved”) were homosexual lovers, and that according to Isaiah 53:8 Jesus was a eunuch (“cut off,” castrated). These types of claims have been abandoned in favor of more modern arguments.

The new approach is to claim that the Bible does condemn homosexuality, but only abusive or exploitive homosexual acts. Scripture, they say, prohibits homosexual gang rape (i.e. Sodom and Gomorrah), pederasty (men who have sex with boys), master-slave sodomy, and other coercive same-sex acts. Since homosexuals today don’t engage in those kinds of abusive behaviors, the biblical prohibitions of homosexuality don’t apply to them.

That sounds clever, and unfortunately, many believers are buying it. This reinterpretive approach, though, is undermined in one step.

If you can show that any biblical passage categorically condemns all forms of homosexual sex (and not just abusive forms), then this new approach to pro-gay theology is mistaken. It turns out that all five passages that directly address homosexuality (Lev. 18:22, 20:13; Rom. 1:26-27; 1 Cor. 6:9; 1 Tim. 1:10) entail a wholesale prohibition of all forms of homosexual sex.

Take Leviticus 18:22, for example. It simply reads, “You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.” The verse before it condemns child sacrifice, and the verse after it condemns bestiality. Nowhere in the context is there an indication that any particular type of homosexual sex is in view, and no exception is made for loving, consensual homosexual relationships. The verse categorically condemns all same-sex sexual behavior.

The same is true with the almost identical verse in Leviticus 20:13, which says, “If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them.” Notice that both participants are punished, which indicates this is a consensual act, not coercive.

Had Leviticus been referring to homosexual gang rape, master-slave sodomy, or some other coercive act, only one of the men would have been punished. In Deuteronomy 22:25-26, for example, if a man rapes a woman, then the aggressor alone is put to death. Since he is forcing himself on another person, this instance of sexual activity is coercive. In the case of homosexual sex in Leviticus, though, both men are punished because they mutually engage in the act.

Don’t misunderstand me, though. I’m not claiming homosexual sex is a sin today because it’s forbidden in Leviticus. The Mosaic Law was written for Israel’s theocracy, which we are no longer under. My point is to show that the attempt to reinterpret the Bible in this way is mistaken. Besides, the prohibition of homosexual sex is carried over into the New Testament and under the New Covenant of Christ in three of Paul’s epistles.

In Romans 1:26-27, for example, the Bible teaches a wholesale prohibition of all forms of homosexual sex. Starting in verse 18, Paul places his comments about same-sex behavior in the context of a creation narrative. He doesn’t specify the type of homosexual sex that’s in view here, though. On the contrary, he points out that all homosexual sex abandons the male-female complementarity God established in the Genesis creation account. “Men,” Paul writes, “abandoned the natural function of women and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts….” They rejected the women God designed for them. Homosexual sex exchanges the natural male-female sex for unnatural male-male or female-female sex—what Paul called an “indecent act.”

It’s worth noting that the behavior Paul describes is “toward one another, men with men,” indicating mutual, consensual, non-exploitive, reciprocal affection. Also, verse 26 mentions lesbianism, which was not exploitive in Paul’s time. Indeed, by listing both males and females as violating this complementarity, Paul condemns all homosexual behavior.

Of course, 1 Corinthians 6 and 1 Timothy 1 also categorically reject all types of homosexual sex. All that’s needed, though, is to show that just one passage makes that point clear, which we’ve shown at least three do. Therefore, the modern case for pro-gay theology fails. It’s an example of how people “turn away their ears from the truth” and reinterpret the Bible to fit their desires.

Article originally published at STR.org.

At the University of Illinois “Pride Festival” you can learn:

“…how to use verses from the Bible to debunk the “homosexuality is a sin” message — and how to make downstate Illinois more LGBTQ supportive. [i]”

To make you like them they want to change you and your worldview. Why is changing your worldview so important to them, and to you?

Your very own worldview

Worldview is just a fancy word describing what you’ve learned, the experiences you’ve had, and your future expectations. For example:

• You know some parts of the Bible better than many other people, but other parts of it still puzzle you.
• You might be afraid of heights but fearless about spiders.
• You’re could be unafraid of hardships but need great courage to greet strangers.

You’ve experienced events and learned things in ways that nobody else has. All of what you’ve done, have learned and have come to believe contributes to your own personal worldview.

Tiny changes all of the time

When you experience something different that adds to your worldview, giving you an opinion about something new. When you do something repeatedly that also changes your worldview, reinforcing your opinion about that task. So merely living your life will daily adjust your worldview. Some adjustments come from singular or major events, like being in a car accident or having a child married off. But most of the time you’re having multiple, tiny adjustments to your worldview.

Some worldview changes are innocuous, such as reinforcing your opinion about public transit. Other changes might affect your character or your attitudes about certain people. For example, if you work with profane or coarse people you could, over time, end up changing your speech and sense of humor to “fit in”, seeking their acceptance.

Almost invisible biases

We’re amply warned in the Bible to be continually on guard, for each of us to work out our personal sanctification and be conformed to Christ’s character [ii]. We are quite wary of major snares, like stealing from work or acting coarse to “fit in.” But it can be hard to see un-Christian behaviors and attitudes when they’re baked into the culture.

Marshal McLuhan said that fish can’t know about water because they’re always in it [iii]. They’ve nothing to compare it with. A similar statement can be made for modern culture, that it is hard to see built-in biases and so-called “truths.” For example, examine these popular sentiments:

• The “coexist” bumper sticker, insisting that we’re all searching for the same God.
• The middle class is under economic pressure.
• The rich should pay their fair share of taxes.
• Scientists are altruistic, interested only discovering the truth.

These seem reasonable and beyond argument. But if you look deep you can see the bias.

Religions just don’t coexist. Certainly not Christianity. Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God is like yeast worked into dough, getting into every corner of society [iv]. We know that all the earth will become subject to Him [v]. A society can’t have Christ-honoring laws and also laws of some other religion. Asking for coexistence is to claim that an even Higher Law exists. That was the sin of Adam [vi].

What is this “middle class?” The middle class is a way of grouping that part of the American populace considered to earn a moderate amount of money. However, the concept of grouping people by “class” comes from Marxism.

In Marxist thought a society supposedly thinks only in terms of class, dividing itself by economics (lower, upper, middle), race or sex. These classes are always at war with each other, each championing itself at the expense of the others. An individual who thinks outside of his or her assigned role is to be reviled. For example, consider the disrespect accorded to Justice Clarence Thomas for his conservative rulings.

Yet classifying people, or class warfare, isn’t what Christ taught us. We know that there is no difference in race or occupation or anything in Christ [vii]. We’re not to favor the rich or the poor when judging [viii]. Perhaps it is time to stop using “class” to describe people.

What is a “fair share” of taxes? Our governments created tax codes that define what to pay. Current law says that wealthy people should pay a higher income tax rate than do poorer people. What’s abused here is “fair”. That means no matter what tax was paid, it’s only fair that the person in question should have paid even more. The Bible’s word for this thought is envy. How dare he be rich and only pay what is required!

Scientists are truth seekers. People who become scientists have hopes, dreams, moral strengths and failings. In short, they are human and not angels. A truthful scientist executes research and reports the results, even when it disproves his or her own theory. A less honest one might skew tests, or invent data to report something more profitable.

Does untruthful research happen? All of the time. Notable examples are:

• Soviet biology research under Dr. Lysenko: This scientist promoted faulty or fraudulent research regarding agriculture and plant breeding. He promised such improved crop yields that Stalin promoted him and his ideas above all other biological scientists. Some 3000 biologists that opposed his views were fired, imprisoned or killed by the Soviets. His influence over Russian biological research lasted over twenty years, until after Stalin died.[ix].

• Parkinson’s disease researcher faked results: In an attempt to continue funding for his Parkinson’s disease research Dr. Murdoch made up things. He apparently never conducted any clinical trials and forged consent forms of its supposed participants. [x]

• Global warming: Some weather scientists created the concept that people are permanently changing our planet’s weather. But the data didn’t agree with this theory. No problem: they just changed historic weather records, adjusted new incoming data, and suddenly there’s a crisis! [xi]

  Science works when many researchers look at the same data and, when their analyses agree, they confirm the theory. A researcher must gather the data and then change the theory so it fits the data [xii]. That isn’t happening here. Instead these scientists and their friends are trying to stifle all criticism of their theory

  [xiii].

We can expect that some scientists – with human nature this is inevitable – will produce fraudulent research. Scientists aren’t truthful just because they are scientists. They’ll be truthful only as much as they honor this clearly Christian virtue over a love of fame or money.

How to see invisible biases?

There is no magic formula for finding invisible biases. You’ll see them if you continue accepting God’s sanctifying work in you [xiv]. Be curious in the words you use, or are asked to accept. Measure them against the Bible. You’ll not only be made more like Christ but wiser, able to discern good from evil [xv].

Equip and inform your Christian worldview

That is why IFI is hosting its third annual Worldview Conference with Dr. Frank Turek on February 18th next year.  We want to help equip you and your family with a solid biblical worldview. How do we think about the issues of the day? Do we think clearly and biblically about the issues, or is there something clouding or contaminating our understanding?  Are we buying into lies and distortions of the culture, or are we able to discern fact from fiction, truth from deception?

Join us for a wonderful opportunity to take enhance your biblical worldview and equip you to more effectively engage the culture:

What:  IFI Worldview Conference with Dr. Frank Turek

When:  Saturday, February 18^th, 10 AM to 3:30 PM

Where:  Village Church of Barrington, 1600 E. Main St., Barrington, IL 60010 (map)

How much:  $20 per person/$50 per family

Click HERE for a flyer for this event.

Learn more about worldviews

You might like to study the concept of Bible-based worldviews and what it implies. Here are some sites to start with these links:

http://www.foundationsforliving.org/articles/foundation/worldview1.html

http://www.focusonthefamily.com/faith/christian-worldview/whats-a-christian-worldview/whats-a-worldview-anyway

Footnotes:

[i] http://dailyillini.com/features/2016/09/09/c-u-pride-festival-offers-education-entertainment/

[ii] 2 Corinthians 10:5

[iii] http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/187497-one-thing-about-which-fish-know-exactly-nothing-is-water

[iv] Matthew 13:33

[v] Matthew 22:44

[vi] Genesis 3:5

[vii] Galatians 3:28

[viii] Leviticus 19:15

[ix] http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/when-the-soviet-union-chose-the-wrong-side-on-genetics-and-evolution-23179035/?no-ist

[x] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/04/01/when-scientists-lie-about-their-research-should-they-go-to-jail/

[xi] http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/16/editorial-climate-scientists-manipulate-data-to-su/

[xii] http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/richardpf160383.html

[xiii] http://www.akdart.com/warming5.html

[xiv] Philippians 2:12

[xv] Hebrews 5:14

Written by Chet Richard

I am a Conservationist.  I am not an Environmentalist.  What?  Aren’t the two the same thing?  No, they are not.  In fact the two movements are diametrically opposed.

John Muir was a Conservationist, not an Environmentalist.  He saw the wilderness as a “primary source for understanding God: The Book of Nature.”  Muir did not worship Nature, as modern environmentalists do.  Muir worshiped God, the Judeo-Christian God.  So, here is the difference:  Conservation derives from the Hebrew Bible.  Mankind is to be Stewards of the Land.  We are charged to husband God’s creation.

Environmentalists, for the most part, believe that the Earth’s biosphere is God.  And, that human beings are destructive parasites, eating away at the life of their deity. In effect, most environmentalists are atheists searching for something larger than themselves to worship.  But environmentalists see themselves as not being the riff-raff parasites that the rest of mankind are.  Environmentalists believe they are the elect, the knowing, the superior beings, the priests, the Gnostics.

This notion that people are parasites really got started in the 1960’s.  A couple of highly promoted bad actors started this environmental heresy.  The first was Rachel Carson with her hysterical polemic about DDT and its purported harm to birds and other wild life.  Her ideas proved to be, at best, problematic, but millions of people have died as a consequence of the resulting international banning of DDT.  The second, and even more dangerous, problem child was Paul Ehrlich.  This curmudgeon has even greater responsibility by amplifying environmental hysteria.  Ehrlich should have known better.  After all, he is a biology professional.  But his mistakes suggest that he may not be all that professionally gifted.

Ehrlich predicted the death of the oceans due to insecticides and other chemicals washing into the sea.  He did not account, as he ought to have, for the rapid evolution of plankton to adapt to these foreign substances.  (The smaller the organism the faster its evolution – witness antibiotic resistance.)  It was a bonehead mistake that no competent evolutionary biologist should make.  More famously, Ehrlich predicted mass famine and hundreds of millions of deaths within a few years because of the so-called “population bomb.”  He completely ignored the 1960’s technological “Green Revolution” which today has China and India exporting food.  And, he completely missed the natural reduction in birth rates, and the consequent leveling of population, as the standard of living of Third World countries increased.  Again, that process was something that population experts already knew and understood.

And then came James Lovelock with his “Gaia Hypothesis.”  This is the notion that the biosphere is an environment-regulating ensemble of living organisms.  In the large, the biosphere, together with its non-organic matrix, could be considered an organism, itself.  The idea is interesting.  Indeed, it has proven to be scientifically fruitful.

But other people latched onto the biosphere and made Gaia a god.  And, with it, made environmentalism a religion.  A religion, which Lovelock himself rejects as misinformed – if not dangerous.  Lovelock went through his hysteric period in the early years of the ecology mania, but he has since moderated his outlook now that his predictions of imminent environmental doom have proved unfounded.

Why do people do it?  Why do they fall into these overblown quasi-religious enthusiasms?  I speculate that there are three complementary reasons:  Ignorance, Insecurity and Hubris.

Ignorance:  Back in the ‘60’s I was a graduate student in physics at one of the University of California campuses.  One day I had the opportunity to sit and chat, at length, with one of our leading ecologists.  Naturally, I was curious about some aspects of the so-called ecology movement that Rachel Carson had engendered.  Much to my surprise, in response I received a long rant about this movement.  This eminent scientist was scathing in his comments — particularly about the sheer ignorance of the movement’s devoted followers.  “Not one of them,” he said, “has even heard of a logistic equation, much less predator-prey relationships.”  He concluded that harangue by dismissing the movement as nothing but political manipulation of less than astute people.  Nothing much has changed since then.  The true believers still believe without understanding.  Environmentalism is a religion after all.

Insecurity:  Most everyone is insecure about something – about many things, perhaps.  Long established religions have traditionally provided a framework for ordering one’s life and for reducing this natural sense of insecurity.  As we have discovered, there is something about the post World War Two world that has, at least in the West, broken these traditional religious frameworks.  Something happened during the war to cause people to no longer trust religious authority.  Perhaps it was the sheer evil that was manifest and undeniable during those years of horror.  The Cold War amplified that developing sense of insecurity.  People started looking for something new to believe in – something that, once again, would provide spiritual tranquility.

The environmental movement seemed to provide the needed solace.  Emotional peace may be given through participation in something larger than oneself.  But, I note that few of the true believers, being mostly city dwellers, have any real experience of the wilderness.

For those who have experienced it, the gift of wild nature can induce spiritual grace.  John Muir felt it.  I have felt it.  I have felt it in many lonely places around the world.  I have been changed by it.  I have felt this spiritual tranquility on remote white water rivers, on mountain glaciers, while hiking across Muir’s Sierras, when diving to narcosis depths of the sea, while surfing imposing waves.  But Nature didn’t care what I was experiencing, what I was feeling.  Nature is utterly indifferent.  Nature is dangerous.  A momentary lapse in the wilderness and Nature will likely kill you.  There is no empathy in Nature.  No intelligence.  No awareness.  Nature is not a caring god.  Nature is not even a god.  Nature just is.  Gaia just is.  My companions on these many excursions were savvy, alert, and extremely cautious.  Despite some very close calls, we survived.  That said, we always sacrificed to the River God before putting in!

Hubris:  In the early years of Christianity there were Gnostics.  These were Christians who claimed special knowledge about Jesus and what he really taught.  Gnosticism eventually was suppressed.  Its followers were rejected from the Christian community, in part because of their smug, arrogant, airs of intellectual superiority.  While Christian Gnosticism may have died out, the type of people who adopt Gnostic superciliousness remain all too common.  In the first half of the twentieth century Marxism was their fashion, and still remains so with a Globalist twist.  In the second half, the Gnostics adopted Environmentalism.  Doing so made them into superior beings, don’t you know.

Unfortunately, Gnostics are easy marks for the con.  A skilled confidence man knows that the best way to hook a victim is through the victim’s vanity.  The environmental movement is a con.  Its leadership preys on the ignorance, insecurity, and hubris of its followers.

The environmental con takes many forms.  In recent decades man-caused global warming is the con game.  That scare was deliberately manufactured in the 1980’s.  Its purpose was, and is, to cripple the U.S. economy, foremost, and the economy of Western Europe secondarily.  This program has had considerable success.  Many have bought into the con and the economy is hurting.  In particular, some who have knowingly promoted the con are politicians who seek to accumulate power and wealth.  Using the scare tactic of climate runaway, stupendous resources have been wasted on misguided attempts to reduce carbon dioxide:  solar power, wind power, alcohol fuels, suppression of coal, gas, oil and nuclear energy production.  Millions of jobs have been lost through unneeded environmental regulations.  Fortunately, Nature did not cooperate with the conmen and politicians.  The world did not heat up, as predicted.  Belief in global warming is rapidly diminishing, as it should.

But there is always another con, and each new con means further loss of freedom.  For half a century the environmental movement has been the primary tool of those leaders who wish to suppress individual freedom and individual initiative.  The erosion has been slow, but it has been steady.  Most adults, today, have never experienced the freedom that I, and others of my cohort, once enjoyed.  Not having that experience they simply don’t know what they are missing.  Consequently, they are easily preyed upon by those who would impose further restrictions – for the benefit of mankind, of course.  It’s a con:  Trade your freedom for a better environment. Trade your freedom for a sense of security.  Trade your freedom for a belief that you are doing good by protecting the environment.  Trade your freedom for a sense of moral superiority.  Trade your freedom and then live in poverty.  That’s all right, say the Gnostics, people are parasites, they get what they deserve.

Poverty:  There is the source of real irony.  True care for the environment, true care for nature, is a rich man’s game.  Only the prosperous have the resources to protect the natural world.  Only those living in comfort believe that it matters.  Only those with wealth – the middle class and more – can be stewards of the land.  Impoverish America and the land will be despoiled.

Poor people care little for Nature.  Poor people struggle just to live. They don’t have time for environmental diversions.  The environmentalist con takes away freedom and replaces it with diminished prosperity.  Carried far enough, political environmentalism ultimately will drive people into impoverished serfdom and, with the greatest irony of all, it will wreck the environment.

This article was originally posted at AmericanThinker.com

No, the title of this article was not ripped from the virtual pages of the satirical website Babylon Bee.

A Time Magazine article on InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s (IV) 20-page internal policy position paper on human sexuality is generating a huge brouhaha.

IV, an evangelical parachurch organization that includes 667 college chapters as well as InterVarsity Press which publishes books by D.A. Carson, William Lane Craig, Os Guinness, J.I. Packer, R.C. Sproul, and John Stott, distributed this position paper, which addresses sexual abuse, divorce, premarital sex/cohabitation, adultery, pornography, and same-sex “marriage,” to employees in March 2015. Beginning in November 2016, employees will be required to affirm these historical and biblically consonant positions.

It will come as no surprise that the IV position that is causing all the vexation,  huffing, and puffing is its position on marriage—a position that “progressive” disciples of diversity believe no individual and no organization should be permitted to affirm. And I guess that goes for Jesus who created marriage:

“He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

As theologian Denny Burk tweeted, “We live in a day when this is news: Intervarsity stands with scripture and the consensus of the entire 2,000-year history of the Christian church.”

Leftists are fake-enraged over this non-news, and others are wondering why the theologically orthodox IV is making clear its theologically orthodox views on marriage now.

There are two good reasons for IV to make clear its views on marriage now, neither of which should need to be identified but for the cave-dwellers among us, here they are:

1.)  If churches and parachurch organizations are not crystal clear in articulating their positions on matters related to sexuality and if they do not require affirmation of and behavioral adherence to these theological positions, the litigious Left will come after them.

2.) The anti-cultural mess we’re mired in has resulted in either the church’s cowardly silence on essential matters pertaining to homosexuality or its embrace of heretical views on these matters. Between the corrosive ideas on sexuality in general and marriage in particular that pervade American public life, Christians and especially young Christians are being deceived. Christians need clarity, correction, and unequivocal, unambiguous teaching.

A young IV worker cited in the Time Magazine  article provides troubling evidence of the heretical views being adopted by Christian youth:

Bianca Louie, 26, led the InterVarsity campus fellowship at Mills College, a women’s liberal-arts school in Oakland and her alma mater….Louie and about 10 other InterVarsity staff formed an anonymous queer collective earlier this year to organize on behalf of staff, students and alumni who felt unsafe under the new policy. They compiled dozens of stories of individuals in InterVarsity programs and presented them to national leadership. “I think one of the hardest parts has been feeling really dismissed by InterVarsity….The queer collective went through a very biblical, very spiritual process, with the Holy Spirit, to get to where we are. I think a lot of people think those who are affirming [same-sex marriage] reject the Bible, but we have landed where we have because of Scripture, which is what InterVarsity taught us to do.

I’m pretty sure it was neither Scripture nor the Holy Spirit that led the queer collective to affirm same-sex “marriage.”

Theologically orthodox pastor and well-known speaker Skye Jethani has written a very good blog post articulating the reasons IV’s policy directive is both a “big deal” and a good and even necessary document. That said, Jethani concludes his post with this head-scratching comment:

However, I do grieve that rather than allowing Christians, and particularly younger Christians, grow in their understanding of these matters in an environment of grace and inclusivity, wonderful ministries like InterVarsity are being forced to take premature and artificially divisive stands.

Would Jethani grieve if IV were to take an unequivocal and explicit position on consensual adult incest, bestiality, polyamory, or slavery? Would he grieve if IV required employees to affirm biblical positions on these issues rather than allowing them to “grow in their understanding of these matters in an environment of grace and inclusivity?” How is requiring employees to hold fast to biblical truth lacking in grace?

And although Christianity (like “progressivism”) is exclusive in that it holds some beliefs to be false, it is inclusive in that anyone who repents and follows Christ is included. In order to repent and receive God’s grace and mercy, people need to know what constitutes sin. And surely those, like IV employees, who already claim to be Christ-followers, should know and affirm truth.

Moreover, IV’s position is neither premature nor artificially divisive. If IV has employees who reject biblical truth on marriage, heresy has created the division—not IV. And if IV has employees that embrace heresy, IV is late to the party decorated with rainbow-appropriated streamers.

Marriage is a picture of Christ and his bride, the church. The belief that marriage can be the union of two men or two women necessarily entails the belief that there is no difference in role, function, or nature between Christ the bridegroom and his bride, the church. Further, affirming the false belief that marriage can be a same-sex union undermines respect for the authority of Scripture and not just on marriage.

Every church and parachurch organization and every Christian should explicitly affirm the biblical view of marriage as InterVarsity Christian Fellowship has done.

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