"Whoever believes in Jesus will ....."

I would submit that there are several Biblical ways to complete this, and all the completions are complementary. James says that the faith that saves is a faith that issues in obedience: "faith without works is dead." You SEE that a man is saved by works (because only God can see faith; all we can see is its results). Jesus said, "If you love Me you will keep My commandments." A "faith" that does not create any visible change in the life of the person is not a saving faith.

"Do I have to be baptized?"

That's probably not the real issue. The issue seems to me to be, "Just how disobedient and rebellious can I remain and still avoid hell?" These folks aren't particularly interested in loving God, submitting to Christ, becoming holy .... all they want is fire insurance. They want to remain fleshly; hence their aversion to burying the old man.

I see this throughout "organized" Christianity; people who want to "follow the program" so they won't go to hell, but who at the same time don't want to allow the Lord to transform them. That's why they continue to listen to the same garbage music, watch the same garbage movies and TV programs, run with the same worldly crowd, and let their Bible gather dust.

Baptism is a HUGE privilege. Those unwilling to submit to it are not going to fool God on the day of judgment. He won't be swayed by their theological rationale. But on the other hand, those who submit to the "ritual of baptism" and obey from the flesh rather than from the heart, and who don't continue in faith and obedience, will be just as lost as they were before they got wet. Baptism isn't magic; it's obedience. Talking about "saving faith" that does not issue in an obedient life is like talking about a one-ended stick. There is no such thing.

Rumor has it ....

Rumor has it that Michael Newdow, a fairly well-known atheist from California, has taken umbrage at the use of the phrase "so help me, God" in the inaugural oath of the President.

Anyone who doesn't believe in God is unfit to "serve" in government.

Period.

I don't care how many PhD's he may have, how popular he may be, how long he's been around, or how clever his arguments against the existence of God may be. He is UNFIT to serve.

Why do these morons keep giving Newdow and his ilk a platform?

Interesting - Newdow will marshall a "constitutional" argument against references to God, but says nothing about Obama's constitutional disqualification because he was born in Kenya. What a hypocrite.

There. I said it. I'm done ranting. Have a nice day.

Intemperate Thoughts About 'Christmas'

I am happy that the world has not dressed Jesus in red and white, and had Him sliding down the chimney with His twelve apostolic-elves. I'm glad that His mother has not been re-cast as Mrs. Santa Claus ... or some similar abomination. Still, I'm sure Madison Avenue has at least toyed with the ideas, along with making gift-giving a new sacrament.

But I have abandoned Christmas. The "Christmas Story" is such a twisting of the biblical history that it's an embarrassment. This "baby Jesus" is not what the world needs. Jesus -- displayed as a helpless Babe in a manger is the only Jesus that our crumbling world can tolerate. But it needs to see Jesus Christ the Triumphant, the Judge of the World, the Lord of all the earth, the One Whose fierceness against sin this country will soon face.

We do our country no favor by going along with a pagan Saturnalia feast that's been recycled for the American pseudo-Christian culture. There is no historical record of Jesus or the early church celebrating Jesus' birthday. Why we trot out His baby pictures once a year in a commercialized buying frenzy, laden with guilt and sugar cookies, and then think there's something redeeming about the whole exercise, remains a mystery. "Christmas" is not Christian. It does not honor Christ, it does not edify His people, it does not minister to the lost.

The message America needs to hear now ... ESPECIALLY now .... is "Repent! Judgment is here!" ... not "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" or "Away in a manger."

Let the church BE the church.

Do we REALLY want revival?

I have yet to hear anyone with any credibility suggest that things in this country are going to get better any time soon. Yesterday's pessimist is today's realist. The fact is that our country has been incredibly blessed by God for many, many years. We know from Romans 2:4 that God's goodness is intended to lead to repentance. But unfortunately, the more God has blessed us, the harder and more reprobate we seem to have become.

I believe we are now seeing "Plan B" -- the removal of God's hand of blessing from our land. Our problems are not, nor have they ever been, economic. They have ALWAYS been spiritual.

This is the year for us to get our lives right. This means relationships, not stuff. We can afford integrity, but not reputation. We should invest in caring for others, not impressing them.

Please devote some time to the following two items. The article is good and the audio is better.

How To Have a 'Personal' Revival (article)

How To Experience Personal Revival (audio)

I believe this is the year that will make or break a lot of families. This isn't me pretending to be a prophet or anything; just looking at current trends and extrapolating their likely convergence and results. The economy is in melt-down, and nobody really trusts anyone. We're addicted to creature comforts and a police state is in the offing. These are all in-our-face symptoms of a formerly Christian culture that has repudiated its heritage.

In short: there is a problem. I believe God will raise us up and allow us to be part of the answer, but only if we submit to Him.

Please spend some quiet time reviewing the above links. Let's re-align our lives in the light of God's priorities.

Prepare To Be Horrified

We got on the 'slippery slope' of infanticide and euthanasia back in the 1950s (remember?) when Thalidomide was being given to pregnant women to ease the discomforts of morning sickness during pregnancy. As it turned out, use in Germany had already revealed that birth defects were a likely result, but this information was withheld, possibly to foment debate on the "ethics" of aborting a pregnancy if it were known that the baby would be severely deformed, retarded, or both.

Back then, the alarm bells sounded ... but alas! we wound up with abortion on demand about twenty years later.

Then partial-birth "abortion" - the gruesome murder of the baby at the time of birth. And "benign neglect" - allowing a baby to die after birth if the baby survived the attempted abortion.

Now, Baroness Warnock has weighed in with the second-to-the-last step on the slope: The DUTY to die if one's life has become burdensome, either to others or to the state. According to Warnock, "Old people with dementia have a duty to die and should be pushed towards death." She doesn't say how hard a push should be administered, but the "duty" to die can only be followed by one thing: the "duty" to kill those who won't do their "duty" voluntarily.

We can see this one coming, folks. This will be doctors REQUIRED to KILL THEIR PATIENTS if the patient's care becomes "too expensive" in the eyes of some state bureaucrat or, more likely, some formula developed by a committee so no one person need shoulder all the blame.

We are talking about the State creating a DUTY to violate the 6th commandment. These are scary times, people. Surely, the return of the Lord and the Day of Vengeance cannot be far off. Jesus said, "Unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved." The scripture also warns of a day when the living would envy the dead, and when people would cry out for the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of the Lamb. (Rev. 6:16)

This nation is being turned into hell. Too many are still slumbering; aware of the dire straits we find ourselves in, but more afraid of Obama than they are of the Lord, or perhaps believing that "Messiah Obama" will actually 'turn things around' and get back to the way things used to be.

Well, with the blood of over 50 million innocent children already spilled, and apparently more on the way, this will not happen. There is no spirit of repentance sweeping the land, and as much as we long for and pray for a spiritual revival, that revival will not protect those wicked among us who have chosen to defy the Law of God (including many, I might add, who are hiding out in churches).

Don't be distracted, deceived, or dismayed. Judgment is almost here. Are you ready?

"The Fix Has Been In"

I found out through Devvy Kidd's research published in her column on NewsWithViews.com that the McCain-Palin Compliance Fund was incorporated in Delaware in February of this year. My first reaction -- and I posted to the first version of this blog entry -- was that the whole "primary campaign" was a sham and a fraud.

I found out subsequently, from another source, that the Fund was re-named after Sarah Palin accepted McCain's invitation to join him on the ticket.

However, this does not serve to disabuse me of my original conclusion: that the whole game is RIGGED -- We, the People, have no more voice in the selection of our leaders than the Framers of this republic had in the matter of who sat on the British Throne.

The "campaign" was almost totally for show, though it did serve a useful purpose in smoking out folks like Dr. James Dobson and a few other "Christian leaders" who neglected principles on their way to the polls because of their terror at the prospect of living in an ObamaNation come January.

And I still believe that the folks who own The System had already decided who the winners and losers would be. They simply were not as careless with the 'smoking gun' as Devvy would have us believe. Every dime spent on "the campaign" for ANY candidate was wasted money down the rat hole (or, more properly, into the coffers of the Friends of The System in the media), with the exception of at least some of the money given to the Ron Paul effort, as his campaign was highly educational.

This is no longer a Constitutional Republic, and we are no longer self-governing people. We are a conquered people. Through fraud, deceit, lies, and our own trusting stupidity, we have allowed our servants to become our masters.

My first conclusion was that we now have a Duty to Disobey. We really have a primary duty to repent and discern the will of Jesus Christ as we go forward. It is, after all, to Him that we must give an account. That being said, our incoming administration and the federal bureaucracy upon which it rests ("the woman who rides the beast") are still illegitimate and they rule by force and terror, not by legitimate authority.

Once Saved - Always Saved?

I'm plugged in to the ACA network, sponsored by Ning. It's membership is limited to members of the Church of Christ; that is, all "true" believers who follow the Bible in faith and practice.

One of my fellow network members opened a discussion thread on the forum to discuss the idea of "once saved, always saved." This idea is generally rejected by the Church of Christ, and we were fairly freely discussing the issue.

I say "fairly" because it must be understood that concluding that OSAS is true would be heresy. So the conclusion of the discussion is foregone. But the discussion remained civil and some of the points raised were intriguing .... at least, some of us thought so.

And then .... alas! .... some questions were apparently posed that the Guardians of Orthodoxy could not answer and ... the discussion was electronically terminated.

If you've browsed this blog, you already know that I don't like tyranny in any of its forms. But there is something stirring in the hearts of many Christians, and we may yet see the revival we've prayed for. And we will also see, once again, that the biggest resisters will be the religious establishment.