A Proposal for Obama’s Inaugural Address

For full version, go to Bayly Blog: Out of Our Minds, Too

What a wonder it would be if, to celebrate Lincoln’s 200th birthday, Senator Obama were to model his first after Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address:

Fellow-Countrymen: One-eighth of our whole population are unborn children, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the wombs of their mothers. These slaves constitute a peculiar and powerful interest. All know that these children are the cause of an impending war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend these little ones’ oppression and slaughter is the object for which the Democratic Party has made its name, being willing even to rend the Union to sustain that oppression. But the Republicans themselves claimed no right to do more than to seek a slow restriction of this bloodshed, and that half-heartedly.

Neither party expected the war over the unborn tearing apart the fabric of this Union to have either the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in the slaughter of their own progeny, but let us judge not, that we be not judged.

The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.”

If we shall suppose that American’s butchering of little children is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both Republicans and Democrats a terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that the mighty scourge of war may not be required to bring an end to the slaughter of our children. Yet, if God wills that the loss of the lives of our living children on battlefields be required for the blood of the fifty million unborn children already slain and buried, if He refuses to relent until every drop of blood shed by Planned Parenthood shall be paid by another drawn with bullets and bombs, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to end the slaughter of the unborn, the newborn, frail, and elderly, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace in the wombs of our mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives.

* * *

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “…For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail. (Jeremiah 7:3-8)

After the Election…

“We are people that know politics is important, but not ultimate. We know that politics has its place, an urgent and important place where, in the City of Man, decisions are made that can make the difference between life and death, injustice and justice, mercy and no mercy, commonweal or common disaster.

But we also know that there is in this world at its very best only a hint of the kingdom that is to come, where God’s reign is supreme.

No government will ever be able to say, ‘Every tear has been wiped away.’ No government will ever be able to say, ‘The blind have received sight and the deaf have received hearing and the lame now walk.’…That power is God’s alone.”

—Albert Mohler, “After the Election”

HT: Of First Importance

Weep

Writing from the deep sadness that invaded the hearts of many of us after November 4, Doug Groothius wrote the following poem:

Weep for America,
you who have tears
left for truth.

Weep for the continued
and soon to be intensified
slaughter of the innocents.

Weep for the supernatural stupefaction
that has overtaken us.

Weep that character
no longer counts,
that image is everything.

Weep that America has forgotten her
birthright.

Weep.

In God We Do Not Trust

In this extremely insightful post, Mark Driscoll pinpoints two very likely reasons why the American people voted for a man whose moral principles are practically non-existent, but who indubitably has a charismatic image and a ”golden tongue.” 

In my years of pastoral ministry I have worked very hard to not be political. I believe that my job as a pastor is to preach and teach the Bible well so that my people make their decisions, including their voting decisions, out of their faith convictions.

This election season which has dominated the cultural conversation for many months has been particularly insightful regarding the incessant gospel thirst that abides deep in the heart of the men and women who bear God’s image. Without endorsing or maligning either political party or their respective presidential candidates, I am hopeful that a few insights from the recent election season are of help, particularly to younger evangelicals.

First, people are longing for a savior who will atone for their sins. In this election, people thirst for a savior who will atone for their economic sins of buying things they did not need with money they did not have. The result is a mountain of credit debt they cannot pay and a desperate yearning that somehow a new president will save them from economic hell.

Second, people are longing for a king who will keep them safe from terror in his kingdom. In the Old Testament the concept of a peaceable kingdom is marked by the word shalom. In shalom there is not only the absence of sin, war, strife, and suffering but also the presence of love, peace, harmony, and health. And, this thirst for shalom is so parched that every election people cannot help but naively believe that if their candidate simply wins shalom is sure to come despite sin and the curse.

The bottom line is obvious to those with gospel eyes. People are longing for Jesus, and tragically left voting for mere presidential candidates. For those whose candidate wins today there will be some months of groundless euphoric faith in that candidate and the atoning salvation that their kingdom will bring. But, in time, their supporters will see that no matter who wins the presidency, they are mere mortals prone to sin, folly, and self-interest just like all the other sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. To help extend naïve false hope as long as possible, a great enemy will be named and demonized as the one who is hindering all of the progress to atone for our sins and usher in our kingdom. If the Democrats win it will be the rich, and if the Republicans win it will be the terrorists. This diversionary trick is as old as Eve who blamed her sin on Satan rather than repenting. The lie is that it’s always someone else’s fault and we’re always the victim of sinners and never the sinner.

Speaking of repentance, sadly, no matter who wins there will be no call to personal repentance of our own personal sins which contributes to cultural suffering and decline such as our pride, gluttony, covetousness, greed, indebtedness, self-righteousness, perversion, and laziness. And, in four years we’ll do it all again and pretend that this time things will be different. Four years after that, we’ll do it yet again. And, we’ll continue driving around this cul de sac until Jesus returns, sets up his throne, and puts an end to folly once and for all.

In the meantime, I would encourage all preachers to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and repentance of personal sin. He alone can truly atone for our sins. He alone can deliver us from a real hell. He alone is our sinless and great King. And, he alone has a Shalom kingdom to offer.

Lastly, for those preachers who have gotten sidetracked for the cause of a false king and a false kingdom by making too much of the election and too little of Jesus, today is a good day to practice repentance in preparation to preach it on Sunday. Just give it some time. The thirst will remain that only Jesus can quench. So, we’ve still got work to do….until we see King Jesus and voting is done once and for all.

A Nation of Murderers and Thieves

The election just past carried for me a crushing disillusionment with the American people. I strongly suspect that that devastating statement in Romans 1 – “So God gave them over” – could be said now of America.

The Thirsty Theologian  expresses similar thoughts:

“Before retiring last night, I typed out my thoughts on the election. I had pretty much decided not to post them, but for better or worse, here they are.

Well, it’s over. Now that Obama has been President, here is what we have to look forward to.Legal, unlimited abortion will now be the law of the land. Overturning Roe v. Wade is now meaningless. Obama has vowed to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. Justin Taylor explained what this means in a post I linked to last week:

So to summarize this act–which again, Barack Obama has promised to sign as his first order of business in the White House–abortion on demand will become codified, all regulations and restrictions will be stripped away, Christian hospitals and physicians will not have a choice regarding the performance of abortion (since their accrediting agencies are approved by the federal government), teenagers will not have to tell their parents about an abortion, and prolife taxpayers will be forced to pay for abortions at any stage of the pregnancy for any reason.

Many of us have long understood that the only way to end abortion is not to change the law (though we certainly favor that), but by changing hearts. Well, folks, now that’s all we’ve got. The legal battle is over, and we have lost.

We all know that Obama is a Marxist, pure and simple. There’s no denying it. He also knows that the Constitution denies the government the power to “redistribute wealth.” No problem, he says. We’ll just toss the Constitution. We need to “break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution.” This is the man who is now empowered to appoint Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States — the appointed guardians of the Constitution. He who has expressed his desire to deconstruct the constitution will take an oath to defend the Constitution, and immediately launch an attack against it.

The implications of this philosophy extend much further than economic freedom. This means that every liberty is up for grabs. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, everything. The day is swiftly approaching when we will have to choose to obey God rather than men, and pay the price for it.

We have elected a murderer and a thief, a man who despises the very principles on which this Republic was built. Indeed, he hates God. No, not the god in whom he professes faith. That god is alright with him. But that is not the God of the Bible.

What does that mean? What it means should cause us to fall on our faces and cry out to God for mercy; for it means that we are a nation of murderers and thieves.

God, have mercy!

In spite of the gloomy tone, I do know that God is still sovereign, that Jesus is Lord, and that I can still count on his promises. If the first century church could live under Caesar, I can live with an Obama Presidency. I can live even if the Republic crumbles entirely. Because my hope is not of this world.

1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

—Psalm 121

No matter who is President.”

If Christians Are Ever Going To Be Christians Again

Christopher Neiswonger writes a particularly thought-provoking post that calls the present age a time “when the Church has become the darkest of all places.”-JB

If Christians are ever going to be Christians again we need to remember that we see things other people don’t see and hear things that other people don’t hear, and live accordingly, worrying much less about whether or not everyone agrees with what we see and hear and much more about what we say and do in the limited time we have.

In the past Christians would simply protect the innocent and the weak, regardless of what the naturalistic and faithless thought about the matter. We would make laws according to the rule of ultimate good while not persecuting the ignorant because of their ignorance, but never particularly prone to be conciliatory toward people of a merely Natural mind. We would have never allowed people to strip the laws of their ordained purpose of protecting the innocent and punishing evil simply because some people can’t tell the difference between good and evil. And we would never have elected people to hold public office that we knew were faithless, because though they may use our words, they cannot understand them.

There was never a need to create a law that faithless people could not hold a public office; we were wise enough to not elect such people as the expression of our God given right to self determination in politics. Why elect someone to office that does not believe in our God given right to self determination because they recognize no God? Or something that is really just as bad, possibly worse, no God that we recognize. It’s not that we don’t recognize everyone’s right to run for office, we’ve simply forgotten our duty to not vote for them because they are opposed to our most fundamental understanding of who and what we are and what should be done in the world.

It is inherently self destructive to the Christian, their societies, their children, and their cause, to be found neutral on any matter of faith or practice, especially politics. Politics is the rule of the community, and community is part and parcel of the expression of the Christian life. As such, a Christian that is not “political” is no Christian at all, because a political life is one that expresses care and concern for the larger community. A Christian that cares only for themselves is a contradiction in terms.

We are committed, demanded, commanded, ordained to give ourselves for others in every way and at every opportunity. To abandon the community to merely Natural men and women is an act of the gravest kind of aggression against Christian love and moderation. Who will tell them right from wrong if not you? Who will guide them in the truth if not you? People that believe that the entire content of human experience and community is explicable in terms of an accidental arrangement of atoms in the void with no ultimate purpose and no meaning beyond today’s Natural lust?

How dare we forget how to be Christians and leave a world to collapse under the weight of its own tragic blindness? How would it last without the infusion of goodwill and reason attributable only to the insight of a Spiritually informed people? Every corner would inevitably descend into the madness of Hitler, and Stalin, Pol Pot, Genghis Khan, and Alexander. There would be no measurement of evil but the power of one man’s arm against another. The pedophile would become the norm again as he was in ancient Greece, and as he is becoming virtually in the West as sexual purity is explained away as the dying traces of a once robust Christianity. The King would become again an agent of innovative laws according to the dictates of his own unquestionable will. Half the population would be slaves, the other half wolves of varying descriptions. Women would be bought and sold as chattel because there is no naturalistic way to justify the rights of women. There is no Naturalistic way to justify any rights for anyone. It takes the insights of a Spiritually informed person to see the right and wrong that provide the philosophical capital for “Rights”.

We have no right to abandon that post, and more than that, a duty, a righteous charge to fulfill in this present dark age when the Church has become the darkest of all places.

Christopher Neiswonger

Revolt Against Heaven and Earth

from The Constructive Curmudgeon

The Democratic Party has issued a statement in favor of homosexual marriage and opposed to The Marriage Protection Act. This is the party of Senator Obama.

The big picture on all this is this: humans, qua rebels against God, are wanting to be autonomous of God’s standards for creation and gender. They want to redefine marriage in a way it has never been defined previously. This goes against common sense, natural law, common law, the teachings of all the world’s religions, and, of course, then, against the Bible.

Now that the Dems have (for the hundredth time) securely set themselves against God, creation, and the common good, how many Christians will be voting for them in November?

Political Activism

There is a world of difference between Christians in political service and Christians seeking to usher in the Kingdom of Christ by political activism, as Phil Johnson so ably points out in this post:

Slaves, not rulers

ere’s number three in our list of four biblical principles politically-obsessed evangelical churches and parachurch organizations need to remember. To review:

1. Preaching, not lobbying, is how we make truth known.
2. Gospel, not Law is what changes sinful hearts.

And now—

3. Service, not dominion, is the most effective way to win people in any culture

In Matthew 20:25-28, Jesus addresses the very question that lies at the heart of this series of blogposts: If we want to maximize our influence for the kingdom of Christ in our culture and our community, what’s the best way to do it? If we want to be a great leaders and influencers of men and women, what approach should we take?

Here’s Jesus’ answer: “Jesus called [the disciples] together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise dominion over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’”

The command includes both negative and positive elements. Jesus is emphatic about the negative aspect: we’re not to seek greatness, or influence, or power in the kingdom of Christ by the raw exercise of authority over other people. He’s talking specifically about governmental and legislative authority.

And the “positive” part certainly won’t sound very appealing to the average person jockeying for political clout or partisan power. Instead, Jesus says, serve. Not in the sense of serving a term in office—but in the sense of making yourself a slave to others.

Now, let’s be clear here: Jesus is not spurning the idea of legal authority or human government. We’ve already seen that Scripture recognizes and affirms the proper role of rulers. Romans 13 defines that role, and verse 4 expressly says that when a ruler properly wields the sword against evildoers, “he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.”

But here in this context Jesus was speaking to His apostles as representatives and leaders of His church and ambassadors for His kingdom. And He makes this clear differentiation between the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of Caesar: The two kingdoms are run with completely different principles—because they operate in totally separate arenas; they function with exactly opposite strategies; they are pursuing entirely different goals; and the way they leverage their power and influence is therefore likewise thoroughly and radically different.

To illustrate, it’s clear from Romans 13 that the government is authorized by God to use force—up to and including deadly force and even capital punishment. Paul says it is both good and legitimate for earthly governments to wield their power—and even use the sword—to enforce submission to their rightful authority and to punish evildoers who deserve punishment. Romans 13:4 again: “He is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.”

But nowhere in all the New Testament is the church ever authorized to use the sword for any purpose—including the punishment of damnable heresy in her own midst. The most extreme remedy available to the church for punishing evildoers is excommunication. It would be a terrible sin for the church to overstep her bounds and employ any kind of force against heretics or evildoers, because she has no authority from God to do that.

Again: Christ and Caesar rule different kingdoms, by different principles.

Moreover, the church has no commission from God to harness the power of Caesar—even under a democratic regime—in order to attempt to advance the kingdom of Christ by legislative force, doctrinal dominionism, or any other kind of constraint. What Jesus was saying in this text (Matthew 20:25-28) forbids exactly that, in the most emphatic terms: “The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise [dominion] over them. It shall not be so among you.”

When Christian Reconstructionism was having its heyday back in the mid-1990s, I often encountered post-millennial theonomists who were convinced that the key to ushering in the kingdom of Christ on earth was for the church to gain dominion over our culture and our government’s public policy—chiefly through legal maneuvering and political means. They weren’t merely saying, as I already have, that government service (or even a career in politics) is a legitimate and honorable vocation for individual Christians whom God places in those positions. They were teaching that political activism is the duty of the church as a corporate entity. They were in effect teaching that gaining and exercising political power is one of the most vital ingredients to the advancement of Christ’s kingdom.

That flatly contradicts what Jesus Himself said in Matthew 20:25-26 (“the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion . . . But it shall not be so among you.”) It also conflicts with the pattern of ministry in the New Testament church. Even Paul, who appealed his own case to Caesar, did so not with the hope he might influence Caesar’s public policy (which, to be candid, was a thousand times more evil than anything the American Democratic Party has yet proposed)—but Paul asked for a hearing in Rome because he longed for an opportunity to preach the gospel there. He was happy to go there in chains—not to protest the treatment he had received at the hands of Roman officials, but to preach to Caesar and his household the gospel of redemption.

That should be our spirit as well. I’d be thrilled if America ever elected a president who really believed Scripture and followed its principles without compromise. But to be totally honest, I doubt that’s possible in any democratic system. Furthermore, on those rare occasions when truly devoted, Bible-believing Christians have found themselves in possession of the reins of significant political power, they have almost always managed to make a mess of it.

Remember what Will Durant wrote about Cromwell: “His private morals were impeccable, [but] his public morals were no better than those of other rulers; he used deception or force when he thought them necessary to his major purposes. No one has yet reconciled Christianity with government.”

The problem, I believe, is the very thing Jesus highlighted in Matthew 20:25-28 the kingdom of God is ultimately not advanced by the flexing of political clout.

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Schaeffer and Obama

from The Constructive Curmudgeon

Years ago, Francis A. Schaeffer argued that “modern men” (as he put it then) had fallen into a “divided field of knowledge.” Having given up on reason to deliver meaning, they instead put meaning into an “upper story” immune from argument, proof, or disproof:

Upper story: meaning, universals, faith, values, religion
——————————————————-
Lower story: reason, evidence, history, facts, science

(For the development of this thesis, see Escape from Reason [1968] and The God Who is There [1968]. Nancy Pearcey has further applied these ideas wonderfully in Total Truth [2004].)

Many considering the presidential election are held captive by a similar dichotomy:

Upper story: “hope,” Obama as savior figure
—————————————————
Lower story: Obama’s actual policies, track record, (in)experience

There is no good reason, no evidence from his life, beliefs, associations (think: Jeremiah Wright, NARAL endorsement) or voting record, that Obama can deliver hope (based on a coherent policy or presidential resume) at home or abroad. All he presents is an “upper story” mysticism sans logic, reason, or evidence.

America, wake up! Romantic and irrational idealism is not the stuff of American politics in a post-9/11 world. Don’t take a leap of political faith. Think through all the issues rationally. Pursue political knowledge.