Light Trumps Darkness

 

Four years in the wilderness is over.

After God rescued the Israelites from 400 years of captivity in Egypt, they endured forty years wandering in the wilderness before heading into the promised land. The United States has withstood just four years under the thumb of Joe Biden’s administration and their ever-increasing attacks upon Christians, the rule of law, common decency, and common sense. His administration’s reckless plunge into the wholesale implementation of insane leftist policies, directly led to the re-election of Donald Trump. Reason has finally prevailed, damaging policies have been revoked, and our nation is beginning a long and arduous return to normalcy.

“And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever practices the truth comes into the Light, so that it may be seen clearly that what he has done has been accomplished in God.” John 3:19-21.

Evildoers that desired to impose their radical leftist policies miscalculated their mandate to do so. When they felt it was safe to leave the darkness, their evil deeds were on display for all to see. Once the evil was exposed to the light, the people arose and rejected it. The people recognized that the nation was on a path toward the rejection of God and instead chose to return to the morals and values instilled in us by our Maker. The lightning-fast transformation back to accepted societal norms is happening in the light of God’s covenant, enjoined by the founders at the birth of this great nation. And the people are embracing the return to our Judeo-Christian roots.

When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second was Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside toward dishonest gain, accepting bribes and perverting justice. 1 Samuel 8:1-3.

The names and the faces may change, but when choosing to follow your own path and rejecting God’s plan, the results are the same. The Biden crime syndicate used their position for dishonest gain, accepted bribes, and perverted justice through lawfare against their political opponents. As he left office, Biden abused his authority by issuing blanket pardons for his drug addled, sex crazed son, Hunter, and his entire family for any crimes committed over the last decade. The Biden family unscrupulously profited from Joe’s position to the tune of $Millions during his time as Vice-president and President. As a comparison, President Trump will again forgo his annual salary all four years of his final term.

“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on another. For on whatever grounds you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. And we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, O man, pass judgment on others, yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?

But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will repay each one according to his deeds.” To those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow wickedness, there will be wrath and anger.” Romans 2:1-8

Evil thrives in this world, and some are becoming increasingly comfortable with applying it into their daily lives. Humanity is prone to selfishness, and it is not only the powerful who embrace it. Far too often, we attend to our needs first, without any regard for others, especially when it comes to our Lord and Savior. One of the easiest tasks is to forgive. It can also be one of the most difficult. When one places their trust in a friend, family or an institution, and that trust is abused or broken, it can be quite devastating, making it difficult to ever trust again. Over the last four years our government, equal justice under the law, and our public health system has not only lost the people’s trust but has also lost respect. No one is immune to falling when God is removed from our lives and the things of this world take precedent.

As we reintegrate the values instilled in us by our Creator, trust in our institutions will slowly return. We were carefully and wonderfully made by our God. We are empty vessels, lacking real purpose without our Lord and Savior foremost in our lives. These last four years have shone the light upon the evil in this world and how we cannot place blind trust in government. These last four years have taught us that we should always be skeptical of man and worldly institutions. These last four years were a harbinger of what a world without faith, overcome by the things of this world can become. We must place our trust in the One who gave His life so that we may live.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. John 3:16-18.

 

Thumb on the Scale

 

Truth matters?

In the past a dishonest merchant would “tip the scales” to cheat his clients and gain financial advantage. Utilizing deliberately inaccurate scales, adding additional weight, distracting the purchaser, or anything that would swing the transaction in their favor were some of the tactics employed. These disreputable merchants, once found out, were reviled, and were forced out of the area, if they were not jailed. Once lost, trust is not easily regained. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. There were no second chances for the corrupt. Liars and cheats have no place in a civil society.

When the 60’s anarchists realized that using violence to overthrow the government was failing, they decided to adopt Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. They hatched a scheme to infiltrate academia, journalism, and government. In doing so, they placed themselves in positions to indoctrinate young minds in the universities, report their chosen narrative on the various media platforms, and expand their influence through the deep state by directing legislation favorable to their objectives and working to elect like-minded or malleable individuals to office. When the ends justify the means, there is nothing too extreme for these radicals. And their strategy has been highly successful.

Marxist professors have done an excellent job imparting their leftist ideology to generations of their students, creating younger versions of themselves. University students have embraced the pro-Palestine movement and parrot the leftist slogans that have led to the resurgence of antisemitism. The absurdity of supporting an avowed enemy of Israel and the United States is staggering. They Ignore the deliberate attack of Israeli civilians on October 7^th, 2023 and the videotaped gleeful butchering, raping, and hostage taking, yet they denounce Israel’s legitimate defense, demonstrating an utter lack of understanding moral equivalency. To safeguard Israeli citizens from future attacks, Hamas must be eradicated. These students, useful tools for the left, have been taught to hate their country, hate their “whiteness,” disrespect authority, and support all manner of radical ideology.

The legacy media abandons their responsibility to objectively report the news and instead becomes an echo chamber, amplifying talking points of the democrat party. Even though the bias is readily apparent, those so blinded by political fealty cheer on “fake news” as it favors their personal beliefs. Prejudicial application of the law is acceptable to the left if it is directed at political enemies. The constant drumbeat against Christianity, gender bias, “white privilege,” and conservatism, particularly to Donald Trump, has unduly influenced the weak-minded. When the Biden/Harris administration is exposed for colluding with Big Tech to control the narratives around COVID, election fraud, and to suppress information that disproves otherwise, the media ignores and attempts to debunk the story.

Leftists and their willing accomplices denounce those in which they disagree as enemies This is more than disturbing. Far too many have been unduly influenced to the point that they border on the neurotic. Mainstream media is arguably culpable for the attempted assassination of Donald Trump (Remember that? The media has apparently forgotten.) by continually promoting a false and overtly divisive narrative that accuses Trump as an existential threat to democracy. Democracy is dying before our very eyes in the darkness of an untrustworthy and blatantly biased media.

The Deep State is very real and extremely influential in our government. Its tentacles reach deep within the inner workings of the Federal government. And it protects its status with a vengeance. Outsiders are not welcome and if elected are controlled by obstruction and obfuscation. There is good reason that government continues to expand and take more tax dollars to feed their insatiable spending that has the US more than $34Trillion in debt. Rampant spending allows the Deep State and their democrat allies to continue to add layer upon layer of taxes, fees, and regulations on the taxpayer. Electing Trump in 2016 was just a speed bump for the bureaucracy that was able to stymie much of his agenda, with help from the elected ruling class on both sides of the aisle. Handing over the reins to Kamala will lead us in the wrong direction. The godless, anti-life, pro-Hamas, pro child mutilation, government censorship, and the military industrial complex that is the Deep State will continue to balloon out of control.

The choice for Christians could not be clearer. Democrats embrace radical ideology that does not represent this nation. Donald Trump is not perfect, but only one person in history was. Currently we are at a tipping point. Another four years with a democrat in the White House and control of Congress will likely be the death knell of this nation. We must elect our representatives that uphold the values we hold dear. It is clear that democrats have not earned our trust and there are enough Republicans that are in this for themselves, but a conservative majority is a far better option. Cleaning house will take some time, but with Republican leadership it can begin. We need to roll back the insanity that is the left and return to normalcy. it is up to each of us to ensure that happens.

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12

Will Democracy die in Darkness

All good things must come to an end. In human history, empires rose and empires fell. The Roman Empire fell, not because of marauding armies, but it destroyed itself from within. Its’ many excesses caused it to weaken, until it could no longer maintain its’ borders and defend itself from its’ many enemies. Today, we find ourselves in a similar situation as the Roman Empire. We are not at war with a foreign enemy, our enemy is within. Today, our excesses have caused the fabric of our society to begin to erode and tear. Today, there are those who take advantage of our constitutionally guaranteed rights to divide society and demonize those in which they disagree. And now, an election rife for fraud, when one party takes advantage of a pandemic to unleash millions of ballots without the safeguards necessary to guarantee that all votes cast are legitimate. Half of the country has lost faith in the validity of this election. In order to maintain a Constitutional Republic, it is imperative that the citizenry have faith in open and honest elections.

In the preliminary vote totals, Joe Biden has been declared the victor by the media and the democrat party. President Trump has been “taken to the woodshed” and is lambasted for not conceding the election and preventing a peaceful transition of power to occur. Our Constitution guarantees certain rights for the candidates and President Trump is well within his rights to demand that every legal vote is counted and every illegal vote discarded. Whether or not there still remains a path to victory is not necessary. The citizenry has the right to understand and trust that our system of elections remains valid, fair and accurate. President Trump is criticized for causing mistrust of our election system by calling out numerous circumstantial instances that would lead a reasonable person to believe that a fair election did not occur. He is doing nothing of the sort, but the mainstream media is actually breeding mistrust with their hyperbolic accusations and insistence that there is nothing to see here. Our failure to address systemic fraud in our voting in cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas and Milwaukee, all democrat strongholds, has caused voting fraud to fester and grow unencumbered. A fair and balanced audit of all ballots cast at the polling sites in these cities is essential to determine that the vote was legitimate and accurate to satisfy the nation’s uncertainty and to also add credibility to the winner.

In 2000, the nation waited for Florida to count dimpled and pregnant chads on ballots before the US Supreme Court put an end to the count and determined that the winner of the election was George W. Bush. We fail to remember that the democrat appointed head of the GSA, David Barram, refused to release transition funding until after the Supreme Court finally ruled on the Florida election, over 4 weeks after election day. "Until the results are clear, and as long as both sides are going to court, the results are not clear yet," GSA spokeswoman Beth Newberger had insisted. No one questioned the motives at that time. No media outlet cried that a partisan coup was conspiring to obstruct an incoming administration. No one accused either candidate’s litigation as unfounded conspiracy theories. Our Constitution provides a way to remedy contested elections. It’s time to let cooler heads prevail and let the courts shine the light of truth and determine how this should end. Evil revels in darkness, we can wait for the truth to come out into the light. All citizens of the United States deserve no less. 

In God We Trust

Trust is something that is difficult to earn, yet easily lost. In order to gain someone’s trust, you must first be proven to be truthful. You must place the needs of others before your own. You must be able to step out of your comfort zone and be there for that someone when times are tough. Losing that trust can happen in an instant. Even a minor indiscretion can break a trust. There is only one trust that can never be broken, our trust in our God. Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” When we believe, we have an absolute trust in our Lord that He will fulfill His promise to us. As Christians, we also have an innate trust of the body of Christ, His church. We believe and trust that those that are called by God to preach the Word and lead the church are empowered by the Holy Spirit and, as such, our God is speaking to us, through them. When we are in the pews on Sunday, we believe that we are hearing the Word of God, spoken through one that is indeed inspired by God. The thought that the message from the pulpit or that the leadership of the church is misguided or unsound doctrinally, is just not on our radar screens.

For years many of the more liberal ELCA seminary professors have taken it upon themselves to reinterpret God’s intent through His Holy Word, the Bible. These progressive professors that are so enamored with the secular world have taken to ignoring God’s will and reinterpreting His word to transform the message to incorporate the opinions of society. As the years have progressed, more radical thinking theologians have been elevated to teaching positions in the seminaries and the truly biblically based professors have been phased out and have become a dying breed. Theological discussions among these new, enlightened and progressive professors have led to the teaching of seminarians a diluted form of Christianity. Universalism, affirmation, social justice, and tolerance have replaced faith, forgiveness, sin and making disciples of all nations as the tenets of this new enlightened church. Papers submitted by seminarians that fail to follow these progressive professor’s new interpretations are deemed unacceptable and required to be resubmitted. Our future pastors are being taught a religion that believes that a Savior is pointless, since sin and forgiveness are unimportant and superfluous. These enlightened professors are teaching a new generation of pastors to lead the ELCA into the future, and that future is looking more problematic with each passing year. So, now when we worship or read our Bishop’s statements that he makes on behalf of the 4.6 million ELCA members, we must do so from a different perspective. Our trust in the ELCA’s message has been severely damaged, and as long as the current leadership persists on the path that they have chosen, it will likely remain broken beyond repair.

Those traditional Lutherans that adhere to the truth that is the foundation of our faith are looked upon as trapped in an archaic belief system rooted in a 16th Century understanding of Scripture. The leaders and scholars of the ELCA consider our founding confessions irrelevant to their new and improved interpretation of Scripture. The problem is that these progressive scholars only disapprove of those verses of Scripture that deny them their modern cravings. Those verses that lift up or are ambiguous enough are cited as the rationale to reinvent Scriptural intent. Traditional understanding of Scripture does not fit in with the way our modern society views morality. The leaders of the ELCA long to have their church looked upon favorably by the secular world, so Biblical morality is obsolete, to be replaced with the more politically correct world view.

What of those leaders of the church that are no longer faithful to our Lord and lose the trust of those that they are called to serve and protect? 1 Corinthians 4:1-2, 4-5, “So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. 2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.” Those who pervert the Lord’s church will be exposed for who they truly are. Their motives are known by our Lord and they will have to answer to Him for leading His flock astray. Psalm 118:8, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.” Trust not in man and his wicked schemes, but put your trust in God. While the leadership of the ELCA continues to preach a gospel other than the Gospel our Lord preached, we have no choice but to find a new church, true to God’s word, that we can walk faithfully upon the path that our Lord has set before us.