restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

True Patriotism

 David Alan Black

C. S. Lewis, formerly professor of Medieval and Renaissance literature at Cambridge University, once noted how words change their meaning through time. Thus, he said, the word gentleman originally referred to someone who had a coat of arms and some landed property. When, therefore, you called someone a “gentleman,” you were merely giving information about a person, not paying him a compliment. A liar could also be gentleman. Likewise, if you said a person was not a “gentleman,” you intended no insult.

Then people decided to sentimentalize the term and make it refer to behavior. Writes Lewis:

They meant well. To be honourable and courteous and brave is of course a far better thing than to have a coat of arms. But it is not the same thing. Worse still, it is not a thing everyone will agree about. To call a man “a gentleman” in this new, refined sense, becomes, in fact, but a way of praising him: to deny that he is “a gentleman” becomes simply a way of insulting him…. A gentleman, once it has been spiritualized and refined out of its old coarse, objective sense, means hardly more than a man whom the speaker likes. As a result, gentleman is now a useless word (Mere Christianity, p. 10).

Today the same thing could be said, I suppose, about the word patriotism. Today patriotism means little more than a sentimental attachment to one’s country of origin. Note, for example, the pabulum in Rachel Coughran’s definition:

It’s the tears that fall down a mother’s cheek…
It’s the empty arms of a lonely wife…
It’s the unanswered questions of a little child…
It’s the pride that swells as Old Glory flies…
It’s the hearts that break when she’s bruised and beaten…
It’s the lives that have been given for her cause…
It’s every American’s responsibility…
It’s the Love of our Great Country!

To this we might add parades, flag-waving, speech-making, and fireworks. When a “patriot” speaks you hear phrases like “the greatest nation in the world” and “land of liberty.” For most people, patriotism is like cheering for “my” team at a football game. It is “America—love it or leave it.” The implication is that people must abjectly follow their politicians. It is the blind leading the blind, as in Pieter Bruegel’s famous painting, Parable of the Blind Year.

None of these things, in my opinion, constitutes true patriotism. Let me suggest what patriotism really is, or at least what it meant originally. The true American patriot is the one who:

• is devoted, not to government per se, but to good government, which by definition is limited constitutional government, and to the freedoms of individuals as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and secured to them by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments.
• recognizes that occupants of public offices love power and are prone to abuse it and that our Founders desired, above all else, to secure to the people in a written Constitution every right that they had wrested from autocratic rulers while they were struggling for the right of self-rule and freedom.
• recognizes that all rights come from God and are therefore unalienable (i.e., they cannot be taken away) and that violation of these rights by government is nothing less than tyranny.
• understands that the supreme duty of government as envisioned by our Founding Fathers is to defend the Constitution and to oppose all enactments that violate the supreme law of the land.
• understands that it is improper to approve funds for any federal agency, program, or activity that is not specifically authorized by the Constitution.
• understands that it is never the proper role of government to take money from one wage earner and transfer that wealth to another.
• understands that the right to keep and bear arms is guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the Constitution and that it may not properly be infringed upon or denied.
• recognizes that only Congress has the constitutional authority to declare war.

Perhaps all this could be reduced to one kernel virtue. Historically speaking, the true patriot is one who strives to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States. That means, among other things, that a patriot is someone who knows what the Constitution says!

True patriotism is understanding the concept of freedom, and both living it and teaching it to others. It is not blind support of a politician—any politician! As Richard Falk once said, “Confusing patriotism with unconditional support for government policy does core damage to the meaning of citizenship.” Why, then, label “unpatriotic” those who make an honest effort to call Americans back to the Constitution? Criticize their ideas if you like, but not their loyalty!

That would be true patriotism.

March 11, 2004

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. His latest book, Why I Stopped Listening to Rush: Confessions of a Recovering Neocon, will be released this year.

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   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

The Trinity Strategy:

The Key to Lapping Nader and the Libertarians While Tripping King George W. Bush

Mark Dankof

(Pastor Mark Dankof gave this speech at the Maryland State Constitution Party Convention on May 22nd. In it he offered the gathered faithful and presumptive presidential nominee Michael Peroutka the achievable means to lap Ralph Nader and the Libertarians while tripping King George W. Bush. An excerpt of his remarks follows:)

I am pleased to be invited to address the fine people of Maryland in this auditorium who have given their Favorite Son and Daughter-in-Law, Michael and Diane Peroutka, an official blessing and sendoff before these two fine people stand on a stage at the Valley Forge Convention Center in Pennsylvania June 23-26 and receive the formal endorsement of the National Constitution Party as the next President and First Lady of these United States. We pray for them today–for their physical sustenance and protection; their spiritual discernment and wisdom; and their encouragement in this most incredible undertaking that has only just begun.

I am also pleased to tell you that my own credentials as a political prophet have been underscored with the developments of recent days. David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times, Pat Buchanan, CBS News, and the 3rd Party Project of the Hubert Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota all agree with one voice that George W. Bush is coming apart like a cheap suit in winter. More significantly, they are in complete accord that his undoing will come at the hands of an increasingly fed-up and angry American Right. The Real Right is now emerging to reject the Bush dynasty, their sleazy alliance with Corporate America and the Neo-Cons, and their continued sellout of the average American foot soldier in the war for control of our country’s destiny and future both domestically and abroad.

It has finally occurred to someone that no credible American conservative analysis of Mr. Bush’s record can conclude he is worthy of the votes of any Christian voter; any working-class American; those sickened by a Leviathan Federal government and New World Order; or those of us who are seething at the results of an un-Constitutional, preemptive war and foreign adventure in Iraq which is costing more lives and money by the hour, even as it creates a new breeding ground and recruiting center for anti-American activists and terrorists on a global scale. Woodrow Wilson Franklin Delano Bush seeks to export his version of “democracy” to the people of Iraq, even as he and his seek to rob all of us as Americans of every ounce of our own political, economic, and Constitutional wherewithal—for the well-being of less than 1- of the total populace of the United States. We must stop him–and not next year or in four more years. As the late Redskin coach, George Allen would say, The Future is Now.

The Bush record can be summarized as follows: a $550 billion dollar Federal budget deficit; a $600 billion dollar manufacturing trade deficit; the achievement of the dubious high bar figure of $7 trillion dollars in national debt; the outsourcing of another 2.7 million jobs abroad since his inauguration in January of 2001; the carte-blanche acceptance of another 12 million illegal aliens within our boundaries; the ongoing legitimization of New World Order trade agreements like NAFTA, GATT, the WTO, and PMFN for Communist China that preempt American law and sovereignty; a USA Patriot Act that destroys 4th Amendment guarantees against unlawful search and seizure by empowering Federal intelligence agencies to break into any home or business in this country without a warrant or even a consultation with a Federal judge; the continued tax subsidization of stem-cell research and Planned Parenthood abortuaries nationwide; spending increases for un-Constitutional and counterproductive Federal departments like the Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Arts; a closer alliance with the Log Cabin Gay Republican caucus; and a preemptive military strike against a foreign nation on faulty intelligence, false pretense, and without a formal Congressional declaration of war. In this latter instance, Mr. Bush has followed the script of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC); Ariel Sharon; and his Likudnik advisers, Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith, and Wurmser to a tee. The results are evident–a war costing $150 billion dollars and counting; 800+ American dead and counting; 20,000 Iraqi dead and counting; and the eternal animosity of everyone in the Middle East–Shiite and Sunni Moslem and Palestinian Arab alike–who does not support the Israel First foreign policy of the Republican-Democrat-AIPAC bankrolled crowd which continues to support death and destruction at the behest of Empire and the acquisition of a non-negotiated hegemony in the et ernal quest for oil, natural gas, and the accompanying pipeline routes—along with Mr. Sharon’s expanded vision for settlements from the Nile to the Euphrates.

So we know what the cataclysmic problems are, along with the impending arrival of the consequences. Bush and Kerry are two sides of a fake, disastrous, and largely identical counterfeit coin as they lead the American public like the Gerasene swine over the edge of the Republic’s last cliff with these clinically evil policies. And in my humble judgment our Party is the only one with the correct policy prescriptions and recommendations. We also have in Michael Peroutka a man I truly believe to be the best Presidential candidate extant for all the reasons previously enumerated at this Maryland State Convention. And yet as Pat Buchanan observed recently in The American Conservative, our Party has yet to prove it can take our vision and our showroom Presidential candidate into the Political Marketplace of Ideas and Voter Preferences in a way which will begin making the difference in a national election at the polls in the first Tuesday in November.

This is why I have accepted Mr. Peroutka’s invitation to spend Saturday with all of you here in Maryland this morning and afternoon. For without braggadocio and pretension, I come with humble heart and spirit before our First Couple and each and every delegate in this auditorium to suggest that I believe I possess the keys– by God’s grace alone– to a stunning performance for our Presidential nominee and National Constitutional Party that will confound the Republicrats and their Corporate Media lapdogs in the first Tuesday in November. I offer it to Michael–and to all of you in the Party nationwide as the roadmap to victory in our attempt to reclaim the Old Republic again.

Directive Number One is this: While we would be most grateful for the services of an Alan Keyes, a D. James Kennedy or James Dobson [or the like], or a Senator Bob Smith in the implementation of our vision for this nation and the Constitution Party that will lead it, we must lose no further time or breath in waiting for them to leave a bankrupt Bush-led Republican Party. We must be grateful to God for the incredible leadership He has bestowed upon us with gifted servants and political leaders within our midst who have stepped out in discernment and faith-filled courage to jettison the hopeless Party of Lincoln. We are not in need of the galaxy of Republican and Christian superstars who contradict their message and claim by riding the horse of George Bush and Dick Cheney into the moral and political abyss. We are presently in possession of the components of the team that can recover our nation and what was the Old Constitutional Republic once more.

I discovered this in 1996 on Coronado Island outside of San Diego after the Republican National Convention, in that ill-fated year when our hopes of attracting Pat Buchanan as our Presidential standard-bearer were dashed on the Pacific’s rocks and shoals in the wake of Pat’s endorsement of Bob Dole. Driving across Coronado Bridge to the Constitution Party convention held that fateful summer at the Hotel Del Coronado, I was invited to a even brighter galaxy of stars who understood themselves to be our servants–and the Lord’s. These names included Howard Phillips, Thom Holmes, Daniel New, Debbie Hopper, Jim Clymer, Franklin Sanders, and Janine Hansen; since that time, new names have been added to the galaxy of lights I first discovered in 1996, including the two people in this auditorium–Michael and Diane Peroutka, who have put everything they have and are into this fight for those things that speak to the eternal and the transcendent in our lives–and in American and world h istory–at this moment. With no intended disrespect to Mr. Keyes, Mr. Dobson, Mr. Kennedy, Senator Smith, or my friend Pat Buchanan, I will not trade our players for theirs, nor the head of their Party for ours, nor their future for ours. The Future is Now and It’s Ours because this is our moment in history, with leadership that has jettisoned the comforts of book contracts, TV contracts, consultant fees, Washington cocktail parties, and all the rest of it, to lead you and me–the common foot-soldiers of God, Family, and Republic–in a movement that cannot be stopped. Michael Peroutka was not exaggerating earlier when he told each and every one of us that we are a part of the Express Train of History, even as those who stay on the passenger coach of the Bush-Republican-Kerry-Democrat Amtrak are headed for the most apocalyptic crash and derailment America has ever seen. We will not follow their course, but the great Biblical principles of our God and Party a nd Presidential standard-bearer into a new and brighter future for the City and Nation on a Hill.

Directive Number Two is as follows: We must become political guerrillas by taking the modern technology God has graciously given us, and adopting the unconventional hit-and-run tactics used by the great Gray Ghost of the War Between the States–John Singleton Mosby–to hit Mr. Bush, Mr. Kerry, and their Corporate Neo-Con pals whenever and wherever we can. These jaybirds have committed our American young people to a fruitless battle of counterinsurgency in Iraq. We will commit them to a battle of political counterinsurgency with us in our own homeland–with our own rules. We will engage them in battle in times, places, and with methods of our choosing, not theirs. And in the long, linear journey of history, it is we–not they–who will win.

How do we do it in an age of Corporate Media Conglomerates dedicated to the Leviathan State, the Empire, and its Babylonian front-men? I am convinced that the first and most obvious gift to be used is one already employed by most of the folks in this room today–the World Wide Web. I invite all of you to examine my links page on my Mark Dankof’s America web site. Contained therein are a spider-web of American Right, libertarian, and foreign news sites and agencies who are all in the business of circumventing the agit-prop and lies of Big Media and its benefactors. Never before in the history of humanity has a tool like the World Wide Web existed to contradict the Orwellian lies of central governments and their mercantilist friends in the multi-national corporations. Post to these sites; write Letters to the Editor whenever you can as our friend John Lofton has urged us to do today; consistently send your closest family members and friends the articles fr om these outlets that have stripped the Emperors of Their Clothes. Information is power. Determine who has it, and develop the network to disseminate it at the touch of a button. Eric Garris’s Antiwar.com; Strike-the-Root; LibertyPost.org; and SARTRE’s network of sites at Breaking All the Rules are prime examples of what currently drives Bush, Kerry, and Tony Blair to desperate drink. The Leviathan State and Empire are losing their ability to control your access and mine to information that contradicts the Party Line. To the extent that we learn how to use this tool, we can free more innocent people–while making the lives of our opponents miserable in perpetuity. Turn off prime-time TV and enter a world where you and I can make a difference nationally and globally–by finding information; by digesting the meaning of the data; and by disseminating that data to those who are most important in the battle between the Powerful and the Powerless. It is your choice and mine.

Another component in Directive Number Two is this: Worrying about the Corporate Cash we will never have is as fruitless an endeavor as worrying about the Christian and Republican superstars we don’t need in our army of volunteers. But the cash of the average foot-soldier can compete when the network of ideas and contacts begins to coalesce in an Internet and Information Age. The $5 and $10 dollar contributions will add up to the dollars needed to fund full-page ads for Michael Peroutka in these next few months in some key publications with targeted constituencies. I recommend The American Conservative, Human Events, The Washington Times, Christianity Today, Christian News, and The American Free Press for openers, with special attention and priority placed on the first publication listed because its readers and positions are virtually identical with who and what we are–and what we can attract with any degree of targeted communication and advertisement.

And the final component in Directive Number Two is as follows: Corporate Media can also be circumvented yet again with the development of State, County, and Precinct organizations built for the long-haul. The more foot-soldiers we enlist in each of these jurisdictions is an additional component for a larger Internet Network and Communications Highway that Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry cannot preempt. Can you imagine what the impact of the distribution of the new Michael Peroutka campaign CD will be in such a nationwide network? Each contact is a victory. We will build the Campaign Network and Tree nationwide brick-by-brick, tribe-by-tribe, household-by-household, and State-by-State, until the Republican and Democratic National Committees wake up some morning to discover that there is a new game in town–and their carefully crafted charade is up.

And finally, I will ask all of us–Michael included–to pay the most attention to Directive Number Three. It shall be called The Trinity Strategy. It is the key to our fortunes in November. Follow its basic and obvious precepts and Michael Peroutka and the Constitution Party will walk away with 5-7- of the national vote in the first Tuesday in November, determining the eventual winner of the Presidential election in key battleground states while charting a course for future victories ahead. Ignore its precepts and risk garnering less than 1- of the national vote in less than six months, with consignment to the political wilderness for another four years I am convinced we may not have left in history as it is. The hour is late. The future is now. And the plan is this:

The Foundational Premise of the Trinity Strategy:

The Leviathan State is Not Divine. God Alone is Divine. The belief in the former is the foundational error that has led us into disaster in key three areas of subsequent endeavor.

The First Corollary of the Trinity Strategy:

War, Empire, and Military Draft are Destroying the Old Republic

Never before in the brief history of our Constitution Party has an effective issue been dropped in our lap like the tragedy of what Mr. Bush and his minions have wrought in the last 14 months. Billions of dollars spent, American sons and daughters dead, and thousands killed on the other side with no end in sight. Poll after poll now shows sagging American support for the war, along with a corresponding anger at the revelations emerging about how and why this war was fought–and for whom. Most incredibly, I am informed by Daniel New and Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) that the passage of House Concurrent Resolution 398 on May 6th is paving the way for an expansion of this lunacy into Iran. How many of you want to lose loved ones in this adventure and expedition? How many Americans at large do you think yearn for a return to military draft conscription for the purpose of supporting Oil and Sharon? The fact is this: Undeclared War and Draft illustrate th e principle and danger of a central governmental elite out of control and out of touch with the needs and desires of the American people. There are thousands–literally thousands–of votes for a Constitution Party candidate who takes what he already believes in his heart, and what is in our Party platform, and makes it the preeminent issue in his case to be taken to the American people. Michael Peroutka can lap Nader and the Libertarians–and begin drawing blood from George Bush and John Kerry–but only when he makes the issue of War, Empire, and Military Draft the First Corollary and the First Issue in his campaign proclamation, rhetoric, and initiatives. It is on this issue that our Party’s fortunes will rest in November–and on this issue that the rest of our presentation and appeal can unfold. The emphasis on this critical, paramount issue must emerge now–it and it alone will drive our public visibility and credibility upward. The Future is Now.

The Second Corollary of the Trinity Strategy

The Economy and the New World Order

I simply ask you this: Can the average American who figures out that the Central State is killing our loved ones in a War that has nothing to do with God, Family, and Republic get additionally riled enough to jump the Bush-Kerry ship when he or she similarly determines that the Central State is deliberately destroying the economic survivability of our families through the outsourcing of American jobs, the importation of slave labor, the imposition of confiscatory taxation, the spiraling of public debt as the dollar devalues, and the support of a full-fledged drive to World Government? It is self-evident that this must be the second leg of the Trinity in Michael Peroutka’s campaign and the national direction of the Constitution Party.

The Third Corollary of The Trinity Strategy

Reining in the Runaway Federal Judiciary

This is obviously the third leg in our national campaign strategy. But I will insist to Michael, to Howard Phillips, to Judge Roy Moore, and anyone else who asks that this is the third leg in the Trinity and not the first one. We are making a fatal mistake if we fail to recognize this.

Why do I say this? For a simple reason. This Third Corollary is an essential component in who we are and what we hope to achieve in the recovery of the Old Republic. But the American electorate will consider our claims in this arena of public policy only after we convince them that a runaway Federal judiciary purloining the rights of the States and the People is an extension of the same Central State and Federal Government that has committed us to a War for Empire and a World Government and Economy robbing them–and their children–of their very lives and sustenance. I am convinced that making the case of the First Corollary and the Second Corollary will cause our case for the Third to reach an audience that presently does not hear–and may not yet care–about what to us is painfully self-evident–the need to return our Federal government and courts to their Constitutional boundaries. Using the Third Corollary as our First will lose those who will hear us later–and vote for us now. It will also guarantee our loss of scores of votes–and subsequent political clout and capital–among those who will cast their ballots with us if they understand our commitment to the First and Second Corollaries of the Trinity: 1) War-Empire-Draft; and 2) Economy and the New World Order.

There is no question that we must not hedge on this Third Corollary. Yes, we must unequivocally support the Constitution Restoration Act in the Congress. Yes, an American President and Congress must appeal openly to the existing remedies in Article III, Sections 1 and 2 for reigning in a Federal Judiciary that believes it can also be an Executive and Legislative Branch of government whenever it so chooses. Yes, we must support the Right-to-Life of the unborn and oppose homosexual marriages not simply on the basis of our nation’s Constitutional heritage but on the basis of the natural and revealed law of the Biblical God. And yet I will insist today that when Michael Peroutka and the Constitution Party are perceived as the Party of pro-lifers and Christian homeschoolers exclusively, with no reference to the First and Second Corollaries of the Trinity in our appeal to voters in a national Presidential election, we are losing the war of communication for the heart s and minds of American voters who will seriously consider us this fall if our package and presentation follow The Trinity Strategy.

I conclude today with two Biblical passages for your consideration, as well as for the counsel and encouragement of Michael and Diane Peroutka in the days ahead. In contemplating the campaign plan and advice I bring before your State Convention and your Presidential nominee this afternoon, I would simply like you to meditate in coming days on the following text from Matthew 10:16 where our Lord informs us that:

I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

There is yet another verse for our prayerful consideration and conclusion today. I was thinking of it while making the drive today from suburban Philadelphia to your present location here in Maryland between Baltimore and Annapolis. It is one of my favorite Old Testament verses, as it speaks of an ominous and impending Babylonian Exile for a rebellious Judah. Yet the Lord assured His people through the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 29, verse 10f that the Exile would have a termination point after 70 years, to be followed by the restoration of the fortunes of a godly remnant recommitted to following God and His Word.

This is what the Lord says: ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to 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, ‘and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.’

This is God’s promise to Michael; to Diane; and to all the faithful who have committed themselves to serving the Biblical God and His Son while undertaking the seemingly impossible recovery of the Old American Republic and our Constitutional heritage long dormant. Our exile in these last few years and decades has been a long and arduous one. Our trials, tragedies, and tribulations may only be beginning. But the Lord who sustains His people will end our exile; He will restore our fortunes; He will grant us a future; He will again be found by us as we seek Him, His Word, and His Son. On that note we move forward into a perilous and uncertain time, buoyed by our knowledge of the Savior and the anticipation of a glorious Kingdom of God for His devoted Saints, at a future time to be chosen by a sovereign and purposeful Father.

God bless you all. And may he be with each and everyone of you in your journey to Valley Forge and beyond, in the recovery and revival of the presently flagging fortunes of our land, people, and American Republic.

May 28, 2004

Mark Dankof is a Lutheran pastor and free-lance journalist, occasionally contributing to Breaking All the Rules, Iran Dokht, Al Bawaba, Nile Media, CASCFEN, and other Internet news sites. Once a third party candidate for the United States Senate in Delaware (2000), he maintains the web-site Mark Dankof’s America while pursuing post-graduate theological education at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.

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   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

The Travails of a Lonely Resister

Lessons on Statism from the Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

David Alan Black

“Unser Christsein wird heute nur in zweierlei bestehen: im Beten und im Tun des Gerechten unter den Menschen.” D. Bonhoeffer, May 1944

I have always been fascinated—and put to shame—by the courageous example of the young German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945). Our life paths have been similar in some respects. He belonged to a music-loving family and enjoyed athletics. He had a talent for learning foreign languages and took an early interest in theology. He was blessed with a good university education (his was Tübingen, mine Basel). He traveled widely. In fact, it was during a visit to Libya that he was confronted for the first time with the brutal logic and incomprehensibility of war. The decision to pursue a theological career was not an easy one for him, but it was always his relationship with God that gave him the most joy and satisfaction in life.

There the similarities end. Bonhoeffer is justly remembered not only as one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century but also as a courageous individual of faith. For participating in the conspiracy to kill Adolf Hitler, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by the Nazis at Flössenburg Concentration Camp in the last month of World War II. He had been arrested two years earlier for helping 14 Jews escape to Switzerland. 

What led him to risk it all?

Few would have thought that the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partie, starting as a gang of unemployed soldiers in 1919, would become the legal government of Germany by 1933. In fourteen short years, Adolf Hitler, a once obscure corporal, would become the Chancellor of Germany.

World War I had ended in 1918 with a total of 37 million casualties, including nine million dead combatants. German propaganda had ill prepared the nation for defeat, resulting in a sense of injured national pride. The military and political leaders who were responsible for the defeat claimed that Germany had been “stabbed in the back” by its leftwing politicians, Communists, and Jews. When the Weimar Republic tried to establish a democratic course, political parties from both the right and the left struggled for control, at times violently. The new regime could handle neither the depressed economy nor the rampant lawlessness. Into this void appeared Hitler and the Nazi Party, promising to right all wrongs and reestablish Germany as a great national power.

In an excellent discussion, Professor Michael Moeller shows how Bonhoeffer’s religious contemporaries succumbed to the delusion that the church had to be ushered into Nazism. As Moeller puts it, “To speak against what was regarded as a proper Germanization of the church evoked passionate opposition in a time when the majority of the populace was drunk with nationalism.” For Bonhoeffer, however, the Gospel could never be found in worldly ideologies.

On May 28, 1933, Bonhoeffer preached a sermon in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin. The Nazis had just seized power and were tightening their grip on the nation. Political developments happened quickly in the first five months of Nazi rule in Germany. As Moeller has shown, the Nazi takeover was a textbook example of a revolutionary movement’s successful exploitation of an unstable situation to consolidate its power. The chronology of events may be summarized as follows:

January 30, 1933: Hitler sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.

February 27, 1933: The Reichstag set on fire.

February 28, 1933: A State of Emergency proclaimed.

March 23, 1933: “Law for Removing the Distress of People and Reich” (“Enabling Act”) enacted. Legislative power transferred to the Executive.

April 7, 1933: “Law to Harmonize the State Governments and National Authority” enacted and the federal structure dissolved.

The “Enabling Act” curtailed the constitutional freedoms of Germans, based on peril to the homeland, with a promise that they would be fully restored in four years. The German parliament, which was similar to our U.S. House and Senate, was also promised that the new powers used would be only those “essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures” for the protection of the state and people, and that the “recourse to such a law [would be] in itself a limited one.”

In bringing about these sweeping changes, the Nazi government enjoyed broad support from the public. After the chaotic end of the twenties and Germany’s terrible economic crisis, it seemed that national pride was finally possible again. Law and order had been restored. Hitler was regarded by many as the new Führer (leader) who would bring Germany out of the chaos of the Weimar republic and create a stable society.

As Moeller and others have noted, Hitler’s rapid ascendancy was greeted with enthusiasm by church leaders who felt that the radical change in the nation’s political system should also take place in the church. If the new Germany needed a new leader, the church also needed a new Reichsbishof (national bishop) to usher it into the new era. The party working for the Nazification of the church called itself the Deutsche Christen (German Christians). In a now famous photo, German Christians are shown marching to a worship service at the Berlin Cathedral while SS guards stand at attention.  Bonhoeffer, now an ordained pastor, immediately distanced himself from the German Christians and their program. Believing that the church had taken on the form of paganism, some Protestant Christians issued the Barmen Declaration to protest the theological claims of the Nazis. Among its authors was the famous Swiss theologian Karl Barth.

In his sermon of May 28, 1933, Bonhoeffer addresses the changes being advocated by the German Christians. Basing his sermon on the story of the Golden Calf in Exodus 32, Bonhoeffer distinguishes between the church of Aaron and the church of Moses. The church of Aaron, he says, is the church of this world. It answers the demands of humans by encouraging them to go their own selfish ways. The Aaron church asks for sacrifices, but the sacrifices themselves are self-serving. The Aaron church is the church of idols and will ultimately be destroyed by God, because “in the cross all making of gods, all idolatry comes to an end. The whole of humanity, the whole church is judged and pardoned. Here God is God.”

Clearly, the struggle of the German church was uppermost in Bonhoeffer’s thinking. The statist fervor of the German Christians impelled him to say that the true church must constantly defend itself against idolatry. Long before the excesses of the Third Reich forced Bonhoeffer to join the political resistance, acceptance by the German Christians of Nazi ideology had driven him into a state of protest against the church in which they were so dominant.

What, then, was the role of the pastor for Bonhoeffer? And what is the responsibility of church leaders today? Moeller, who carefully studied this issue, concluded: “The pastor has to speak the truth. Not the truth of ideologies, but the truth of the Gospel which the world does not like to hear. The role of the pastor is not to be the master of ceremonies for the world celebrating itself. The role of the pastor might be more the role of the fool, the one who is set aside to speak the truth even though nobody really wants to hear it.”

Bonhoeffer’s decision to join the plot against Hitler wasn’t an easy one. But his realization that the truth requires suffering enabled him to take the fateful step. “I believe that God can and wants to create good out of everything, even evil,” he said. “For that he needs people who use everything for the best. I believe that God provides us with as much strength to resist in every calamity as we need. But he does not give it in advance, so that we trust him alone. In such a trust all anxiety about the future must be overcome.”

February 6, 2003

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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Transvestitism, Egalitarianism, and Women in Combat

Darrell Dow

Conservative Evangelicals have become unquestioning in their fealty to the modern warfare state and its imperial ambitions, and no longer even see fit to object to the continuing sexual integration of the armed forces.  In their zeal to prop up a Christ-professing president, Evangelicals are turning a blind eye to the fact that some grand moral failings are taking place on his watch while he cruises the heartland flipping-off the unsuspecting, takes in Shinto shrines, celebrates Ramadan, and publicly equates Allah with the triune God. 
 
Having swallowed the egalitarian presuppositions of the Enlightenment, Christians routinely deny that there are in fact God-ordained sexual roles.  And why should we be surprised?  Look at our churches. 
 
In January, 1996, John Ortberg, then a teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, authored a position paper distributed to staffers at the Illinois mega church.  Mr. Ortberg wrote that on the issue of gender equality, the church “has sought to insure an appropriate level of consensus on this issue with new staff members” in order to avoid a divisive environment that “would be destructive to authentic community and effective ministry.”  Ortberg goes on to say that “when the Bible is interpreted comprehensively, it teaches the full equality of men and women in status, giftedness and opportunity for ministry.”  Really?
 
Christians who aren’t embarrassed by their Bibles might beg to differ and could point to numerous texts, including Deut. 22:5, where we read, “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.” 
 
The law obviously made reference to clothes, but the meaning is far broader.  The intention is to maintain distinctions between the sexes.  As R. J. Rushdoony said in commenting on the text, it “forbids imposing a man’s duties and tools on a woman, and a woman’s on a man.  Its purpose is thus to maintain God’s fundamental order.”  That fundamental order is hierarchical and, for lack of a better word, patriarchal, and you shouldn’t allow braying theologians with more degrees than sense tell you otherwise. 
 
It is also striking that the Bible calls gender-confusion an “abomination.” There are various Hebrew words translated “abomination,” but the word used here is toebah, which according to Strong means “something disgusting” or “an abhorrence, especially idolatry.”   Keep in mind that it is the person, not the act, which is considered loathsome. 
 
The elimination and obliteration of distinctions between the sexes is rooted in rebellion against God’s order.  Indeed, egalitarianism denies the very principle of order and attempts to arrange creation on its own terms. Equality thus becomes a philosophical and religious faith that demands the fidelity of every individual and institution.  And since “conservative” evangelicals have been loath to do battle with the egalitarian ethos in our homes and churches, what shall we say when it attacks the military?
 
The Abu Ghraib prisoner scandal and the capture and rape of Jessica Lynch should have put the issue of women in combat into the national dialogue.  That it did not shows the degraded character of our culture and the seared state of our collective conscience.
 
The inclusion of women in active combat roles has been an ongoing feminist preoccupation.  Today, according to Bonnie Erbe, women comprise 15- of the active-duty military, 24 percent of the reservists, and one in seven soldiers in Iraq. 
 
But again, the Scriptures are clear that there is a comprehensive pattern of differentiation between men and women.  It is men who protect and lay down their lives for women, even as Christ died for the Church, and it is women who bear a responsibility as nurturers.  In Joshua 1:14, we read that the “wives, young children, and livestock” of Israel remained on the other side of the Jordan River while the “fighting men” crossed the river to wage war against the Canaanites.  Today, Christian men prefer to send their wives, sisters and daughters to die on foreign battlefields instead of fighting themselves. 
 
The progressive desexualization of our culture is running amok, and the distinctions between male and female are increasingly blurred, witness the rise of the “metrosexual.”  To quote Rushdoony again, “modern culture has a strongly transvestite character.  Here as elsewhere it prefers the character of perversion to the law of God.”  
 
Where are the pastors with the courage to preach on what God says about sending women into combat, and where are the Christian publications and leaders who will stand up and call the problem of women in combat what the Bible does: an “abomination”?  Where are the teachers who will call the doctrine of equality what it is: “heresy”?

July 22, 2004

Darrell Dow writes from Jeffersonville, Indiana where he works as a statistician.  A misanthropic Paleoconservative, Darrell is the husband of Kathy, and the father of Joshua and Andrew.  To see pictures of the boys and get a small glimpse into the Dow house, visit the family website.  Darrell also maintains a website and a new blog.  Darrell can be contacted here.

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Trails and Temptations

 David Alan Black 

My horses have taught me a great deal about the Christian life, particularly about how the Lord Jesus, my Master and Lord, treats me.

Just as I own my horse, so the Lord Jesus owns me. Yet it is a benevolent dictatorship. I love my horse dearly, yet at the same time I have high expectations of him. Because I love him, I make sure he is well cared for with shelter, food, water, and pasture. Then, for one hour a day (at the most), I ask him to focus on me. Not in a slavish sort of way, mind you. I work with him, aware of his great strengths (and his even greater weaknesses) to try and produce a partnership wherein he provides the locomotive power and I the brainpower.

The test of a true horseman is his riding. Likewise, the test of any man’s Christianity is his life. Creed must issue in conduct. Position must produce practice. Just as my horse must enter into my world during our daily ride – even though he cannot possibly understand why I am asking him to do the things he does – so I must concentrate on Christ in my daily “walk” by seeking those things that are above (Colossians 3). Since I have risen with Christ, I must pursue heavenly things, not earthly things, even when I cannot understand what the Lord is trying to do.

It’s all a matter of perspective. When the German army overran Western Europe in 1940, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and Charles DeGaulle of France fled to England. While they lived in Great Britain they were not seeking the things of the British Empire nor her welfare. They were seeking the things of Holland and France, according to the place of their birth. Because they were dwelling only temporarily in England, they sought the things of the countries in which they were citizens. Likewise, all of my interests should lie in another city whose Builder and Maker is God (Heb. 11:10). Since I am a citizen of another country, I am to seek and practice that which will redound to the honor and glory of Christ.

Not only am I to be concerned with the things of the Lord Jesus Christ; He is to be the center of all my affections, of all my thinking. When I come home from work in the evening, all I have to do is whistle and my Thoroughbred comes running up to me, grinning, as it were, from ear to ear just to see my face and to hear my voice. Just so, our lives are to be set to see the face of the Lord and to hear His Word. But in order to make this partnership practical and effectual, the flesh must be kept in the place of death. All the evil desires of the old nature – our selfishness, our sloth, our pride – are to be slain daily in self-judgment. The horse is a naturally lazy creature and will often do no more than what is required of him. It is a sad thing, indeed, to see so many Christians who are no better. There seems to be no effort to mortify the flesh. But our walk must match our talk if we are to be fruitful. Such holy conduct is not dependent upon our strength, for we are weak, but in our weakness is His strength.

Finally, we must seek to serve the Lord, our benevolent Master, in all that we do. My horse Traveler understands that, as the object of my affection and care, he is to willingly and joyfully submit to his one master in all that he does, whether it be reasonable or (to him) unreasonable, interesting or drudgery, hard or easy. The Christian is likewise to do all things as heartily unto Him.

Dear friend, the Lord has chosen us, has called us to serve Him, our only Master in life and in death. Let us take heed to that calling which we have received of the Lord, to fulfill it.

May 25, 2005

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. If you would like to know more about becoming a follower of King Jesus, please feel free to write Dave.

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The Tragedy of Secular Education

 David Alan Black

The fact that state education is compulsory in America is no argument that it is legitimate. Indeed, the church must be extremely jealous of any attempt on the part of the state to take control of any aspect of the work of religious education.

Yet that is just what is happening in America. The entire weight of state-controlled education is molding the child to believe that the church and its message are unessential to the complete or normal life of an American citizen. No academic skepticism, no secularistic authors, no blatant materialism can so undermine the spiritual life of the country like the completely secularized training of the child under the authority of the state.

If and when the weight of the state is thrown against the Christian faith, the state has become the enemy of the faith and disaster lies ahead. The state, for the sake of its own legitimate functions, must recognize that national life is not conserved but destroyed if the policy of the state as a wholly secularized mode of education is to undermine the authority of the church.

State schools dare not teach the spirit of the Constitution as set forth in the Declaration of Independence. They dare not teach it because it says that all men, not just the majority, are endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Again, state schools dare not teach that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed. Instead, they teach the outmoded philosophy of the divine right of kings, only now they call it the divine right of the majority. State schools have to completely repudiate the ideals of the American way of life. They dare not teach the meaning of liberty. They dare not teach the meaning of the Golden Rule. They dare not teach youth that the ideal form of government—the only form of government that can be of value to mankind—is one that is limits the power of politicians by the “chains of the Constitution,” as Thomas Jefferson once put it.

The best solution to America’s education fiasco will be to get the federal government out of our classrooms entirely, to repeal all federal meddling, and to let local communities (or, better yet, individual families) educate their children as they see fit. In the U.S. Constitution’s careful enumeration of its powers and responsibilities (Article 1, Section 8), there is no mention of “education.” Yet the Department of Education and the teachers’ unions have ruined our nation’s schools, and everyone knows it. Isn’t it time to take back our schools and start a new American Revolution?

May 7, 2003

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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Top Ten Misconceptions about Missions

 David Alan Black andTracy J. McKenzie

1) Missions requires manmade methods. Missions is not a method but a Person: Jesus Christ. Never let your method harden into a system.

2) Missions is an extra option for Christians who enjoy that sort of thing. Missions is the duty and privilege of every follower of Jesus. Three alternatives exist for the relationship of a Christian to missions: Either they are involved and passionate about missions in some manner; or they are not living out who God has made them in Christ Jesus; or they are not a Christian.

3) Missions is either proclamation or presence alone. The Gospel must be proclaimed and lived out or it will ring false and achieve nothing. Love is crucial.

4) Missions is a chore. Not so! When we are truly filled with the Spirit and on fire for Jesus, we will inevitably participate in what the Spirit is doing, namely, missions! If the Spirit of God indwells and controls the believer, and if the Spirit of God is associated with missions (see Ezek 36:24–2; Col 1:24–29), why would the believer not participate in God’s mission?

5) Missions is easy. The opposite may well be true. The earliest Christians faced persecution, danger, and death. The modern world hates the Gospel just as much.

6) Missions is evangelism only. This is like saying that all that matters is birth. Post-natal care is as vital as birth. Moreover, it is like saying that the goal of missions is salvation from hell rather than similarity to Christ, the King. A great deal of modern missions is pathetically weak in follow-up and growth into the likeness of the Son.

7) Missions requires that the missionary be supported. In fact, most missionaries today would never think of going to the mission field without first being supported. Of course, such support is not sinful. But why couldn’t this money be used to support foreign nationals who are better able to reach their nations for Christ? Why couldn’t this money be spent on helping the needy or providing health care for the poor in the name of Jesus? Something is wrong when our foreign missionaries do not even consider the possibility of becoming tentmakers. Paul knew it was wrong for him to become a financial burden on his fellow Christians when he could work for his own living. Until we accept self-denial, as Paul did, we will never see the Great Commission fulfilled in our generation.

8) Missions requires formal seminary training. A degree in missions is not required to be a missionary. No human book can teach us missions. We must look instead to the writings of the Old and New Testaments as authoritative in a way that no man-produced book is authoritative. We must learn from the future-oriented perspectives of Moses and the prophets and from Jesus, Paul, and the apostles not only why we should do missionary work but also how. The basis, the mandate, and the model for missions emanate from God and must be patterned after the example of Jesus Christ. In short, our desire should be to follow the Scriptures, which stress the power of the Holy Spirit in God’s plan to gather his people and in the life of the church – not organizations, methods, programs, or personalities.

9) Missions is a Western phenomenon. Wrong again! The shift of the majority of Christians from Europe and North America to the Majority World (Asia, Africa, Latin America) has more than numerical significance. As Western missionary forces are shrinking in numbers (and possibly also in influence), the role of Western missions will undergo a dramatic shift away from leadership to a more modest (and healthier) goal of assisting local churches in foreign countries.

10) Missions means going “over there.” From the perspective of churches in America, doing missions means traveling to another nation. To put it another way, the church in America thinks it is the center of God’s plan. However, this is obviously not the biblical perspective. In the Old Testament, God’s plan involved gathering his people from andamong the nations. In other words, if there is a center, it is an idealized Jerusalem. Any individual among the nations (including Israel) is the goal of missions. Reaching Caucasians in Virginia is missions, reaching Hispanics in North Carolina is missions, reaching Italians in New Jersey is missions, reaching Jews in New York or Israel is missions. The list goes on almost endlessly, including those areas and nations often associated with missions. In other words, the mission field is anywhere in the world, including right where you live. The unnamed believers who took the Gospel to Antioch (Acts 11) were simply living out their Christianity in the midst of their daily existence. What better way to be a witness? What better way to be salt and light than to become enmeshed in the fabric of society by working alongside locals? We need to learn to view our employees, our co-workers, our fellow students as our mission field.

November 17, 2011

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

Tracy J. McKenzie teaches Old Testament and Hebrew at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and is an elder at Restoration Church in Wake Forest, NC. He holds a Ph.D. from SEBTS and is pursuing a second doctorate in Old Testament at the University of Göttingen, Germany. His publications include Idolatry in the Pentateuch (Wipf & Stock, 2010) and “The Hebrew Bible and the Nations,” in Theology and Practice of Mission: God, the Church, and the Nations, ed. Bruce Riley Ashford, B&H Academic, 2011

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Top 20 Books on the New Testament

 David Alan Black 

Life is good. There are plenty of great books to read, and several I still want to write. My magnum opus, if I ever get around to finishing it, will be called Godworld: Enter at Your Own Risk. It will be an examination of the New Testament teaching about the kingdom of God.

Meanwhile, I’ve done a good bit of reflecting on the books that have impacted me the most for the kingdom. Hence this list. Please note: These are not necessarily books written by New Testament scholars. Nor does my list include perfunctory choices (such as New Testament introductions, which, by and large, simply repeat what everyone else has been saying). These are books that have spoken to me, and spoken to me deeply, about what it means to be a New Testament Christian, that is, an obedient follower of the Lord Jesus. Some of them you may have never read. Perhaps most of them. Yet what great books! What challenging authors!

As I write this essay, the sun has begun to shine after a long rainstorm. So gorgeous. The beauty here redoubles the message: “Keep on following Jesus, Dave!” I hope and pray that by reading these books you will be encouraged to do the same thing.

And now, without further ado and in no particular order, my 20 favorite books on the New Testament (excluding my own, of course):

1.Ephesians by Markus Barth. Barth was an outstanding lecturer in Basel. He was even a greater writer. Just read what he has to say about marriage in Ephesians 5 and see if you don’t agree.

2.The Subversive Kingdom by Jacque Ellul. We manifest true kingdom living when we experience the perfect love of God toward us and then manifest that love toward others. If you share this vision of the kingdom, will you join me in praying for the church in North America that God will awaken us to the political delusion that has descended upon us?

3.Christian Anarchy by Vernard Eller. I’ve summarize this outstanding work in my bookChristian Archy.

4.Christology of the New Testament by Oscar Cullmann. I was a fan of Oscar Cullmann long before I met him in Basel. He was a tireless and fearless champion of biblical truth among liberal scholars. No better introduction to New Testament Christology exists than his.

5.The Byzantine Text Type and New Testament Textual Criticism. For more, see myHarry Sturz: New Testament Textual Critic. I am currently trying to get this book back into print.

6.Biblical Words and Their Meaning by MoisésSilva. Silva took James Barr’s works and popularized them.

7.Greek Words with Hebrew Meanings by David Hill. A follow-up to Barr’s tome on semantics. It completely changed the way I viewed New Testament lexicography.

8. The Synoptic Problem by William Farmer. Bill and I shared similar views about the historical origins of the Gospels. His was the first book to get me to rethink Markan Priority.

9. The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? by F. F. Bruce. This is the best apologetics book on the subject.

10. A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research by A. T. Robertson. Elsewhere I have written (Ten Best Books for Studying New Testament Greek):

I seldom felt so pitifully incompetent as when I first picked up this book. It almost counts as a “mental autobiography.” Robertson tried to show the effect, upon a growing new science, of the profound transformation that modern linguistics had brought in the way scholars approached the Greek of the New Testament. Most modern teachers of Greek give the book faint praise, then promptly ignore it. In my opinion, that is a huge mistake. I require the book in my Advanced Greek Grammar course, but even intermediate level students who are willing to work will benefit from it.

11.1 Corinthians by Gordon Fee. A Pentecostal writing a commentary on 1 Corinthians? What a novel idea. But note: he is a very self-critical Pentecostal.

12. The New Testament Era by Bo Reicke. You’ve probably never heard of the author. He was my doctor father in Basel and a New Testament historian. If you can read this work in the original German, so much the better.

13. Church Dogmatics by Karl Barth. I read all of these volumes, in German, when I was studying in Switzerland. Barth’s theology may be off in places, but his exegesis of specific New Testament texts is often impeccable.

14. The Mystery of Marriage by Mike Mason. The best book written on Christian marriage. Ever.

15. Exegetical Fallacies by D. A. Carson. This book shook me up in seminary, as well it should have. If fallacies are still being perpetuated in sermon and commentary, we can’t blame Don for the problem.

16. The Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder. A fellow Basel grad, Yoder exemplifies all that is good about Anabaptist theology. As Christians who pledge ultimate loyalty to Jesus, we should individually and collectively engage in social activism in a Christ-like way. If you don’t know what that looks like, read Yoder.

17. Baptism in the New Testament by Beasley Murray. The best defense and explanation of believers’ baptism ever written.

18. Ephesians by Harold Hoehner. See myHarold Hoehner: Co-Yoked with Christ.

19. Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon. “This world is not my home, I’m just a-passin’ through.” Note: Adherents of Christendom will not like this book.

20. The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. This book plays “the Devil’s advocate” as none other. We all have “distractions” that would keep us from following Jesus wholeheartedly. The problem is that we are usually unaware of them. This book will help us.

Whether or not you end up reading any of these books (or any of mine, for that matter), prayerfully consider what genuine New Testament Christianity ought to look like. And I’d appreciate your prayers … Satan does not want me to finish my book on the kingdom. So keep me covered, will you?

July 24, 2014

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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To Whom Shall We Sacrifice?

 David Alan Black

In the early church, the essence of Christianity was uncompromising obedience to Christ. That’s it. It takes no theologian to realize that.

That’s why human magistrates were so often struck with the obstinacy of Christians. These civil authorities understood citizenship in terms of unquestioning obedience to the state and its laws. This included not merely living orderly lives but veneration of the emperor himself as a public act of allegiance to the state.

The early Christians rejected all this. To agree to sacrifice to Caesar meant false allegiance to Christ. To refuse to sacrifice was to “confess” Christ. (Remember: The “public profession of faith” in the early church was not raising a hand or signing a pledge card or “going forward” but baptism, that singular event at which a new believer pledged his or her allegiance to Christ by uttering the words “Jesus is Lord”). In other words, the church rejected any possible compromise with the Caesar cult.

The ensuing confrontation between church and state was inevitable. Christianity was considered a source of “superstition” – a capital offense – while its closed meetings were view with deep mistrust. Both Nero and Domitian demanded worship during their lifetimes by everyone – Christians included. For these demands the believers had a ready response. When God-given authority was transgressed and Christians were confronted with a choice between obedience to civil authority and the commandments of God, it was “for us to obey God rather than man” (Acts 5:29). To capitulate to the unjust demands of civil government was tantamount to blasphemy (this is how the church read the book of Revelation, chapter 13). As Tertullian summarized it, “As the divine and human are ever opposed to each other, when we are condemned by you, we are acquitted by the Highest.”

One might argue that the church in modern America, like the church in Nazi Germany, has failed to understand any of this. An authentic, biblical doctrine of church and state is sorely lacking today both among the masses of evangelical Christians as well as among our theological elites. Like the early believers, we need Christians today who will refuse to compromise their biblical faith when confronted with emperor or empire worship in whatever modern guise it may appear.

The church of today has two complementary responsibilities, as I see it. On the one hand, it must say no to the state whenever the occasion demands it; and on the other hand it must create conditions within the state under which the need to say no would never arise. The first is the duty of every believer individually; the second is a corporate duty of the church at large. This would mean, for example, that I could never vote for an individual who supported murder (abortion) since the latter is a clear violation of the law of God. But it would also mean that I could never support a political party that tolerated the taking of innocent lives.

It was Kierkegaard who said that where everyone is a Christian, no one is. Our culture is desperate for Christians to be the church. I often wonder what redemptive effect the church would have on the social order in the United States if it lived up to its calling. Whatever else may be said about the evangelical church in America, it most certainly cannot be described as offering its exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ.

September 21, 2004

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. His latest book is Why I Stopped Listening to Rush: Confessions of a Recovering Neocon.

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To Go On Living Is Christ

Becky Lynn Black  

“Because of my boldness, Christ will be exalted in my body, now as always, whether I live or die.For to me, to go on living is Christ, and to die is gain. Now if I go on living in this body, that will produce more results, yet I do not know which I would prefer. Indeed, I cannot decide between the two. I have the desire to leave this life and be with Christ, for that is far better. But for your sake it is better that I remain in this body” (Phil. 1:20-24).

These words were written by the Apostle Paul when he was on “death row” in a Roman prison. He did not know the appointed day of his death, nor even for certain that it would happen. But all evidence pointed in that direction. Statistically, his days were ending.

The implication of Scripture is that from eternity past the days of our lives are set….a time to be born and a time to die. Although there have been instances in Scripture when God altered His calendar for individuals, generally-speaking He has a plan for all of His creation. He is a God of order, and His orderliness flows to even small details.

Sometimes He allows us to have some indication of when we are approaching the last of our days; sometimes He takes us suddenly, without warning. But although we as humans might struggle with the situation, He never is taken by surprise. He remains faithful to His character throughout all the days of our existence; He cannot change.

In the providence of God, 5 days ago I was given a diagnosis of “uterine papillary serous carcinoma.”  Statistically, only 1 percent of women with my symptoms have this diagnosis. It is classified as an aggressive cancer that spreads quickly. And it has the worst prognosis of all the uterine cancers, especially if it has already spread. At this point we do not know the “stage” (spreading) of the cancer. This type of papillary serous is automatically given a Stage III (second worst spreading) until proven otherwise. I am scheduled to see the gynecologic oncologist on Monday afternoon (August 10), and surgery is expected soon thereafter. After surgery we will know better the stage of the cancer in my body.

All of this information is from the human side of things; we delight to wallow in statistics, don’t we?  But the Truth is that the loving Father to whom I have committed my soul is still in control, and He will continue to perfect that which concerns me.

Let me be very clear: I do not long to live. What I long for is that I be useful for the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus. I’m in the same position as the Apostle Paul….I am ready for Heaven, to see His face…but if I can be useful for the Kingdom, to help believers (including my own family) grow strong, to influence others for Jesus, then I am willing and happy to remain on earth a while longer.

This does not mean that tears are not shed. Tears have been shed, and will be shed again. When Paul met with the Ephesian elders and said “good-bye” to them, tears were shed; he knew he would not see them again on earth. When the Lord Jesus was living, He cried; although only one instance of His tears is recorded in detail, the Scriptures call Him “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” When we cry, it is not a demonstration of lack of faith; we do not cry in despair. In the midst of our tears is a certain calm, an undercurrent of rest in His character, a sweetness of spirit that is founded upon His love.

It is our desire that as we walk through this “shadow of death” the Lord Jesus be lifted up and glorified. He will be glorified as we affirm Truth in the midst of difficulty. In the coming weeks/months we expect many days of physical and emotional pain, times of spiritual assault as the Evil One bombards us with falsehoods, hurting comments by spiritually-distracted people, periods of feeling abandoned and alone.  But it is our resolve to lay hold on the Truth of the Scriptures, to discipline our minds, to affirm His character – and in that exercise to bring glory to His Name.

Scripture is clear that our lives are not to be lived “under a bushel.” We are to live honest, sincere, open lives of faith. This means vulnerability. We expose ourselves to misunderstanding, to ridicule, to lovelessness, to mockery. But there is no other way to live and still bring glory to the Lord Jesus.

In our culture, high-profile people often “go public” with their medical issues in an attempt to increase awareness and cultural discussion of the medical issue.  We are “going public” with my situation in an attempt to increase awareness, not of the medical condition, but of the wonderful Lord Jesus, and to increase discussion of Him and His wonderful salvation.

There is power in prayer. I still do not understand why it is that the Creator of the Universe will bend His will to ours through our prayers, but I do know that He invites us to pray and He delights to hear our heart desires. We have seen Him do marvelous things in Ethiopia because of our prayers. If His Spirit urges you to pray for me and our family, then we welcome your prayers on our behalf.  He will guide you in how to pray for us. For ourselves, we are praying 1) that His will be done, for His own glory, 2) that if I can be of more use to the Kingdom, He would allow me to be healed, and 3) that He would fill me with courage to trust Him and His character. In addition to praying for me, please pray for my family (Dave, Nathan/Jessie, Liz/Matthew/boys, parents, siblings), that God will fill them also with courage to trust Him completely with whatever the future brings.

You might be wondering about the work God has given to us in Ethiopia.  Until God shows us differently, and puts a complete road-block in the way, we will continue the work. We have always said “This is the Lord’s work,” and it remains His work. If He chooses to set aside one of His workers, then He will raise up another for the work that is needed. Those who have gone with us on our Teams know this: we continue on with the ministry that God has appointed us, regardless of challenges, until God Himself stops us. So I will continue on in the work at hand, and if it is His will to set me aside, then He will raise up another to do that portion of the work that I have been doing. So our trip in December and our taking a Team in July are still on the calendar. We will keep our speaking engagements. We will continue to encourage, counsel, and support the Ethiopian church leadership and the clinic operations. And the funds that have been sent to us for the Ethiopian church will continue to accomplish His purposes for them.

While driving back from the doctor on Tuesday, I was listening to BBN (Bible Broadcasting Network). Each week, this station has a memory verse for all the listeners. The verse for the week was Psalm 95:1: “O Come!  Let us sing unto the Lord!  Let us make a JOYFUL noise to the rock of our salvation.”

When I returned home, I read the rest of the psalm. Why do we sing to Him?  Why do we rejoice in our Rock?  Verses 3-5 tell us why: because He is a great God and a great King, because He holds all creation in His hand (even the small deep places…like abdominal cavities), because He is full of strength.  Such a wonderful God we serve!

But the climax comes in verse 7. He is OUR God, and we are the people of HIS pasture, and the sheep of HIS hand. We can have a personal relationship with this great, strong, knowledgeable God and King. This is the ultimate reason why we can sing and rejoice!

I am in His pasture, I am His sheep, I am under His care. Because of that, I can sing and be joyful!

Will you sing and be joyful with me?  Will you join me in giving glory to His Name, for what He is about to do in and through this cancer situation in the coming weeks/months/years? I hope you know Him personally, and I hope you are learning to trust His character and to rejoice in who He is, no matter the circumstances. 

May our Lord be glorified in me, in my family, in the Ethiopia work, and in you!

August 9, 2009

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