The Truth Manifesto

We Do Declare

The Declaration of Independence at its outset has two appeals that mention God. One is in the first paragraph to which it states:

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

In this they appeal to the right they have for the separation, namely that which is seen in nature and set about by God who is the power behind that nature.

The second mention comes very close thereafter:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Again, God is invoked, this time as the Creator. God alone is presented as the progenitor of inalienable rights, not man or governments.  When looking at this, we immediately see the presuppositions that were brought to the table:

1. There was a God.

2. There was one God.

3. That man was created by God.

4. God was the source of liberty, the ability to pursue happiness, and life.

So, from the beginning, God was the one these men appealed to form their political system.  Furthermore, in the writing of the First Amendment, one of the rights that are protect

ed is that of religion:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exerc

ise thereof…

It is therefore apparen

t that God and religion is a part of the political system in as much that the nation was founded on the appeal to God and that person cannot be compelled by the government or law to go against their conscience which is based on their faith.

Conscience and the Law

True faith is one that permeates the life and conscience of an individual. As it says in the Bible in the book of James 2:17:

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

Faith, when it’s genuine, shapes the conscience of a person. Not only this but it shapes their whole worldview. So, when a law, policy, or edict is passed in the political realm that is anathema to their faith, it’s also anathema to their conscience. This will force them to take an opposite view or different take based on their conscience which is shaped by their faith.

False converts and secularist perpetuate the lie that the two can be separated because they don’t have true faith. Faith is not only a belief in God or whatever you believe in. True faith translates into living in accordance with that faith, not just saying you have it but living in the exact opposite way your faith espouses.

In addition, the Moral Law (which God created), put within everyone, is a law that innately tells us what’s right and wrong. Though some may not have faith in God, they may form their beliefs in accordance with the Moral Law.  This is then assimilated into their conscience as well. This explains how atheists can still do and believe things that are right.

So, any man or woman who is put in a political office will make, create, and support laws based on their conscience (or lack thereof) which is shaped by their faith whether that faith involves God or not. As such, politically, it’s impossible to abandon and separate your faith from your politics. They are inextricably tied together.

Modern day America is drastically different from times past. One of the areas of change has been in the way we express ourselves in communicating. Profanity, slander, and gossip are the order of the day with many conservatives and Christians (yeah. Calling it out folks) joining right in.

WHAT’S IN A WORD?

Our culture is so inundated with verbal vulgarity and innuendos that people don’t equate certain words as being profane anymore. Many conservatives feel that they can talk however they want to talk yet espouse a belief in God as if that’s enough. May I remind them that even demons believe in God. A simple belief in God means nothing without action that reflects that belief  (James 2:18-19).

Words are powerful. It is by words that we (Christians in general) believe the universe was created and everything in it (Genesis 1). It was by words that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-45). It was because of the words he spoke and had written that Martin Luther, the reformationist, changed the way we view God. It was words that declared the that the United States would be a sovereign nation. Words are the compliment to our very souls being saved (Romans 10:9).

What’s in a word? More than we can imagine.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. (Proverbs 18:21)

A REFLECTION OF CHARACTER

There are over 170,000 words in the dictionary. Yet many people choose to use the most profane ones to express themselves. Why? Because there’s a black stain on their heart. In a word, sin.

O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.  A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. (Matthew 12:34-37)

The way we use words is a direct reflection of our character. It shows what’s truly in our hearts. So, if profanity spews from your mouth, it simply means your heart is full of profanity and in turn reflects you have a profane character.

THE STANDARD IS GOD’S WORD

Just because our culture embraces profane speaking doesn’t mean we need to follow suit. If the God of the Bible is truly your God, then He’s called you to raise the standard.

But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. (Colossians 3:8)

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: (Ephesians 4:31)

The ultimate call of a Christian is to be Christlike in whatever station God puts us. We can’t do this out of our own strength but through a daily refreshing in God’s word and submission to the Holy Spirit as He empowers us to be what God wants us to be. By doing this, we’ll begin to see the person we were meant to be.

The Word of God has many calls to those who would follow the Lord. One is paramount in our calling ourselves Christians. It’s being holy.

Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. ( 1 Peter 1:16)

This call for holiness goes beyond just being a moral person. Holiness is being separated and consecrated for use by God. It means to be ‘other than’ everyone else. It has the idea that it runs contrary to the working of this world with a new way of living and thinking.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:2)

This call is a serious one. Being moral might make you a better person in sight of others, but God knows your heart. A moral person is still a sinner that needs salvation that only the Lord Jesus Christ can give.

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)

This call of holiness is a stamp on our lives that we truly belong to the Lord. It’s not what church we gather with. It’s not whether we’ve gone to seminary of Bible college. It’s not because we may have gone to a private school. It’s whether we do what the Lord says. It’s whether our lives are changed and we become new people, something ‘other than’ we were before and that we are growing in this daily.

And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. (Ephesians 4:24)

This is by no means done through our own strength. It’s done through the power of the Spirit through an act of the will. That act is submission.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. (James 4:7-8)

Today, if you are identifying that you’re a Christian, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to God and walk in the holiness that He has given us.

Remember, as we are walking in this world, we will never be sinless. But as we walk with God daily, we should be sinning less.

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The last couple of posts we’ve been looking at the conservative Christian and what it means to be one. We’ve taken a look at a couple of the key pillars of conservatism and explained how from a biblical perspective that the tenets agree with the Bible.

Understand that whatever we do and think that it has to line up with scripture, not the other way around. Scripture is the final authority.

Today we’re going to end it with three other pillars of conservative philosophy: pro life, free market/capitalism, and what many call traditional family values but I’m gonna call what it is which is anti-homosexuality.

Pro-Life

I have touched on this in detail in another post titled Abortion And Slavery: Peas In A Pod and I want to refer you there to read on it. But in the interest of keeping everything in one place, I’ll reiterate some points while adding some others.

The big debate today over abortion hinges on when life begins. Conservatives belief it begins at the moment of conception and science agrees wholeheartedly. But scripture says that life begins before conception when God thinks about you.

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. (Jeremiah 1:5)

In Exodus we have a situation of infanticide being instituted by the Pharaoh and scripture testifying that this was evil (Exodus 1:15-22). Whether this was instituted by the government or by an individual, the act is what is evil. It shows a callous disdain for human life. Instead of looking at life as being precious and marvelous, agreeing with scripture that “I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well” (Psalm 139:14), we excuse this barbaric and murderous act as some right. Conservatives don’t believe that and neither does scripture.

Traditional Family Values (Anti-Homosexuality)

This one pillar is a new one because of the growth of homosexuality in this country since the late 70s. Some may argue earlier. Nevertheless, we’ve had to take a stand on this and now it’s one of the pillars of our platform.

Homosexuality is CLEARLY a disgusting, abominable act before the Lord:

Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. (Leviticus 18:22)

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (Leviticus 20:13)

For this cause God gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working unseemliness, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was due. And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; (Romans 1:26)

Or know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, (1 Corinthians 6:9)

On and on and on.

The reason for this is that it goes against nature itself and history has proven time and time again that once a society embraces homosexuality, that society ceases to exist. Allowing gay marriage is a stamp of approval to continue in a self- destructive lifestyle not only for those involved but for the nation’s survival.

Alarmism? Sure. Alarmism based on Truth is a warning from God we had better take heed.

Free Market/Capitalism

When we talk about free market, we’re tying to it the idea of limited government and personal responsibility and therefore the biblical reasons that apply there bleed over to this one.

I’m going to recommend a thorough analysis of biblical economics from Gary North who has done extensive research into the subject. I also recommend anything from Larry Burkett. But today, I’m going to give you the main points of why free market capitalism is biblical.

The Bible says in Galatians 6:4-5:

But let each man prove his own work, and then shall he have his glorying in regard of himself alone, and not of his neighbor. For each man shall bear his own burden.

It also says in 2 Thessolonians 3:10:

For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, If any will not work, neither let him eat.

When it comes to individual responsibility tied to free market, one of the passages that just screams at this in the area of finance is the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14 – 30). In this parable the Lord, clearly Jesus, was expecting His servants to produce a profit. He gives them all a different amount. He didn’t give them all the same amount as socialists want to do in their redistribution of wealth philosophy. He gave according to their ability and wanted results. The first two worked hard and got results. The last didn’t and what was given to him was given to the one that had produced the most. All because the servant was lazy and didn’t want to work.

The Bible always says that hard work will produce wealth and a lack of nothing (Proverbs 6:10-11, 14:23, 28:19, 1 Thessolonians 4:10b-12). Wealth is not evil as liberals love to pontificate even though they themselves are no where near poor while their constituents stay poor. You’d think that would be a hint.

It’s our attitude towards wealth that’s evil (1 Timothy 6:10), not wealth in and of itself.

Deuteronomy 28:12-13 states:

Jehovah will open unto thee his good treasure the heavens, to give the rain of thy land in its season, and to bless all the work of thy hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And Jehovah will make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if thou shalt hearken unto the commandments of Jehovah thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them.

One sure way to get out of poverty is to start working hard at what God has gifted you at and trust that God will be true to His word. Working hard means that. It won’t be easy. But diligence will produce no lack. To say that it’s the government’s responsibility to make sure everyone gets the same thing is ludicrous and unbilblical.

In the book of Acts 4:32-37, we have the evidence of what happens when our hearts are changed and we act as a true Christian community. This was not by force but by individual choice. When that happens in a free market full of hard working people, no one lacks a thing. It was not done by force of the governing body of the apostles for in the next chapter, we have a situation where Peter confronts two people who lied and said they had given all when they really hadn’t. Peter makes it clear:

While it remained, did it not remain thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thy power? How is it that thou hast conceived this thing in thy heart? thou has not lied unto men, but unto God. (Acts 5:4)

It was their property to do with as they chose and no one was forcing them to do otherwise. Whether they gave or not, no one was going to take it away from them or look differently at them because they hadn’t.

Socialism forces people to give what they have worked hard for to others that they do not know all in the supposed interest of equality and need. But God’s economy works in a way where people have the freedom to choose what to do with the fruit from their labor and not have it extorted from them in the guise of taxes, tariffs, and fees. Socialism likes to spread your wealth how it sees fit, not how you see fit even though you worked for it. Socialism promotes oppression while capitalism promotes freedom.

Behold, that which I have seen to be good and to be comely is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labor, wherein he laboreth under the sun, all the days of his life which God hath given him: for this is his portion. Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor – this is the gift of God. (Ecclesiastes 5:18-19)

This is the laborer’s portion, not someone else’s who doesn’t work for it. Let the laborer decide how to distribute what they earn. In addition, righteous wealth is God’s gift. To tamper with that and say that it should be given to someone else is to say that God doesn’t know what He’s doing and is an affront against God. Socialism, as much as MLK wanted to support it, is anti-Bible.

So yeah, he was wrong.

So Now You Know

So know you know why I’m a conservative Christian and why many like me are. Because it lines up with the principles and tenets of the scriptures.

I could go on with the death penalty, gun control, immigration, the whole wop and I probably will touch on each of those individually at some time in the future. But I really wanted to just hit on the majors. We can do the minors at another time.

I’d be interested in hearing the views of some people and why they are Christians and a conservative. So make sure you leave comments as this is meant to be more of a detailed summary overview.

Always interested in what you have to say.

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What a difference a day makes.

In that time, Christians come to my blog and just had a hissy fit over what I’m writing and how I’m writing it. On the one hand, I find it pitiful because they can’t seem to actually read what I post and interpret it correctly. On the other hand, I find it humorous because…well...they can’t seem to read what I post and interpret it correctly.

My Conservative Christian Creed really got ‘em riled up. So I feel that I would be remiss if I didn’t finish it for them. Not to be annoying…but this may take a little longer than I thought.

Yesterday I laid out, from my own words, what being a conservative Christian meant. Today I’m going to present stance by stance, from a Biblical perspective (as always), the conservative platform and why they’re congruent with the Bible. My focus is going to be personal responsibility and limited government.

Limited Government

As a Christian, we understand that the best form of government is a theocracy where God is ruling things. However, since that’s not here and won’t be for a good minute, even if the rapture happened today, we have a government run by man.

In 1 Samuel 8, the people say they want a king. God Himself says it’s a bad idea. However, since the people rejected God, He gave them what they wanted but laid out the consequences of their decision. Their hearts were so hardened that they didn’t care.

Because the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), having him rule over other men is simply not in man’s best interest as long as sin exists. This is played out so many times in the Bible that I’m not even going to go there. If you read 1 and 2 Kings, you’ll get where I’m coming from.

King David realized this in 2 Samuel 24. He had sinned against the Lord and had realized his sin, God had given him three choices as punishment.:

And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man. (1 Samuel 24:14)

This really goes to the root of why limited government is the way to go.

Personal Responsibility

Oh Mylanta. Where in the world do I begin?

Because I believe scripture says it so much better than I do, I’ll just go ahead and post a small sampling of what the Bible says on this:

The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin (Deuteronomy 24:16) .

If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself: but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it (Proverbs 9:12).

…the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him (Ezekiel 18:20b).

But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden. (Galatians 6:4-5)

There are more. Suffice it to say that the Bible speaks plainly about personal responsibility and how we individually are held responsible for what we do and don’t do.

These two stances have ridiculously strong support from a biblical perspective and therefore I’m down like Charlie Brown. In like Flynn.

Next post: fiscal conservatism, pro-life, and anti-gay marriage or anti-homosexuality. Take your pick (yeah. I called it like it was instead of wrapping that up with the phrase ‘traditional family values’. I know…I’m just mean).

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With the way the word conservative has been demonized everywhere a liberal has the forum to give an opinion, it’s no wonder that people would get the wrong idea of what it truly means to be a conservative, especially a conservative that’s a Christian (trust me, they’re not the same). Today, I’m going to begin to define what that means.

Because I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding, I’m going to take my time with this. Even so, there may be some of you who wholly do not agree with me and you’re welcome to comment.

Though not widely popularized, there are many political parties: democrat, republican, libertarian, green , independent, constitution, falconist, on and on. Each party has it’s own philosophy. These philosophies define the foundation of the party’s core beliefs. They are liberal, moderate, and conservative.

I’ll explain in other posts why I’m not a democrat and why I’m not a republican though I’m still registered as one. I am a Christian that’s politically conservative. Or a conservative Christian. Take your pick.

What does that mean? Let me explain in my own words.

The Conservative Christian Creed

I believe in the Holy Bible, the Old and New Testaments. I believe that it testifies to who God truly is. I believe it is God’s word and the final authority for mankind and how He would want us to conduct ourselves as His creation. I believe that His word is borne out of love and, so being, works in the best interests of His creation.

I believe that the laws of man are only beneficial when they agree with the express law of God. I believe that everything should be tested by God’s law and that it is the foundation of true freedom.

I believe that God, being eternal, reflects in His law that same eternalness. That it is timeless and therefore applicable from generation to generation.

I believe that the moral foundation of a nation defines that nation and the principles by which they live. I believe that when the moral fabric of a society strays away from God and His law, that society sets itself up for God’s judgment as history has shown repeatedly.

Why Conservative?

All of that being said, you may be asking why conservative. Aren’t there Christians that are liberal? I suppose there are but I believe that they have got to have a crisis of conscious and doctrine if they kotow to an agenda that is anti-Christ.

The conservative philosophy is founded on a belief in things like limited government, encouraging industry, personal responsibility (something that is just straight from the pages of scripture), pro life, pro traditional marriage (In other words, anti-gay marriage. Hey, call an ace and ace), pro Constitution (freedom of religion, freedom of the press, personal defense). These are the main tenets of the conservative agenda and line up with the principles of scripture. Therefore I stand in that camp.

Now, how are these things biblical? We’ll look at each one through the eyes of scripture and see if each can stand up in my next post.

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I was talking to a couple friends the other day and they were obviously frustrated about the election. One of them said the that we were in a bad way and that there was just nothing we could do about the situation. I beg to differ. 58 million people voted for McCain compared to 66 million that voted for Obama. I’m convinced the black vote changed everything in this election. But 58 million people for a weak candidate like McCain is nothing to sneeze at.

For those of you that have been coming to the blog for a while, you may have noticed that it’s been over a month since my last post. There’s a reason for this.