Michael Bresciani
Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, or Forrest Gump's mom - - take your pick
By Michael Bresciani
Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly have a lot of good things to say but in the political climate of the day we may want to take heed to Forrest Gump's Mom. Let's see!
The 'Change we can believe in' is quickly becoming 'change that's hard to believe.' Perhaps it's not Rush Limbaugh we need to refer to but Forrest Gump's mom. If 'stupid is as stupid does' then 'socialism is as socialism does' thus we don't need O'Reilly's concurrence to call Obama a socialist.
The Chicago mob of the 1930s has returned to haunt us but with the spit and polish of the politician as its appeal and well placed appointees in high positions in government as its enforcers.
In kinder, simpler days people could be stirred with propaganda. The elite of today fancy themselves as elevated by education and now the means to assuage is carefully worded semantic argument. Same stuff different day.
Unborn babies, CEOs of large corporations, non-profit organizations, Bible believing Christians and conservative media are reeling from the effects of 'change we can believe in' and there are not enough PACs and political activist groups to calm the blitzkrieg type onslaught. Each quarter or group is busy covering their own losses and that effectively keeps them from coming together to uniformly deal with their collective problems.
As the 'change we can believe in fast becomes 'the storm we didn't see coming' it's hard to 'cling to our bibles and our guns as Barack Obama said we do. In a Stockholm syndrome kind of effect we grab at anything that is offered to keep from being blown away or washed out with the flood. We are captive to administration policy if only by its momentum and caught off guard by its perversity rather than its diversity.
It is at this point that we need to insert or perhaps revert to the rationale that first compelled our forefathers to produce the documents that guided this nation firmly until recent days. Our historical annals and the plethora of portraiture and paintings adorning the capital and other government offices attest to a time when patriots sought the living God for the nation's guidance and support.
Now the Godly faith that our founders were moved by is being moved to the archives of our consciousness. The forefathers are seen as some sort of uninformed patriot geeks who missed the higher enlightenment of Darwin, Dewey and do your own thing.
In theological circles a growing number of eschatologically versed ministers are saying it has to happen. They are concurring more each day that the prophesied demise of the world has to begin at sometime and they all agree we are now well out of the starting gate.
The biblical doctrine not as often discussed when prophecy is the subject is that of 'delusions.' It sounds more like a psychological term and thus it is overlooked more often than not. Since modern man sees himself as only a body and a brain unlike the tripartite divisions the bible speaks of, body, soul and spirit; we could safely say that this doctrine is bound to fly over a lot of heads un-noticed and unheeded.
In a discourse written to the Christians in the Macedonian capital city of Thessalonica the Apostle Paul wrote to quell the concerns of the Christians there about the coming of the antichrist. He told them that the antichrist would not come into the world until a great falling away (apostasy) happened first.
From the language used by Paul it is easy to see that the apostasy will include the church but is not limited to it. In fact it is a political change and a shift in the social order that is distinctly implied by the Apostle and it is the precursor to a universal event. That event is the rise of the world's last dictator who sees himself as on an equal par with God.
It almost seems befitting that a world that dismisses God out of hand will be saddled with a mere man who thinks he's as good or better than God and billions will buy it. Higher education will not prevent decisions that will bring man to the lowest levels of their entire history.
What is far more interesting is that the social climate preceding the rise of the antichrist is one of casting off the old school thinking and taking on the universal claim that a global consciousness is the way to dispel the old myths of a God ordered, morality based system of governance.
Paul declares that it is not the gradual disappearance of truth that brings on the day of the antichrist. Rather it is the love of the truth that dies. To wit; "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (2 Thess 2:9-10)
Unfortunately what follows the death of the love of truth is delusion. What follows delusion is the death of decency, democracy and nationhood. Paul said "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:" (2Thess 2:11)
This theological principle is perhaps the most shocking revelation in the bible. We think of all deception as coming from the 'arch deceiver' or Satan but never from God. The key to this enigma is simple. If the love of the truth is abandoned then God will no longer offer the truth. He will pull back the restraints so to speak and allow the flood gates of error, deceit and flagrant falsehood to fly wide open and it will come in with a vengeance.
Far from being a figure of speech it is precisely how God exacts his vengeance on a disbelieving and disobedient world. Leaving them to wallow in their own darkness creates their own doom. It is a theological thread repeated and announced throughout the entirety of the bible but even more so it is God's way of dealing with man throughout the ages. It is the biblical equivalent of "give a man enough rope and he will hang himself."
Oddly enough when men give up the love of truth it is mere vanities that are left to take its place. Each of these vanities is addressed in the bible and each of them sounds like America to the letter.
If it's a new socialistically motivated president that we choose to trust above all else then we might want to reflect on this verse. "Thus saith the Lord; cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. (Je 17:5)
But if its intellectualism, notions of being a military super power or our economic riches we are trusting in then this passage speaks to us. "Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:" (Je 9:23)
It sounds like there is nothing left. What can we revert to call upon or trust in? Try this. "But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercises lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." (Je 9:24)
This is the description of a God who has much more to do than to turn down his ear to every old lady mumbling a prayer in the corner of a dark cathedral. (No disrespect intended to those who pray,) but it is a picture of a God who wants the world to work right and for men to flourish in every endeavor but who will not tolerate the death of "the love of the truth."
© Michael Bresciani
April 8, 2009
Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly have a lot of good things to say but in the political climate of the day we may want to take heed to Forrest Gump's Mom. Let's see!
The 'Change we can believe in' is quickly becoming 'change that's hard to believe.' Perhaps it's not Rush Limbaugh we need to refer to but Forrest Gump's mom. If 'stupid is as stupid does' then 'socialism is as socialism does' thus we don't need O'Reilly's concurrence to call Obama a socialist.
The Chicago mob of the 1930s has returned to haunt us but with the spit and polish of the politician as its appeal and well placed appointees in high positions in government as its enforcers.
In kinder, simpler days people could be stirred with propaganda. The elite of today fancy themselves as elevated by education and now the means to assuage is carefully worded semantic argument. Same stuff different day.
Unborn babies, CEOs of large corporations, non-profit organizations, Bible believing Christians and conservative media are reeling from the effects of 'change we can believe in' and there are not enough PACs and political activist groups to calm the blitzkrieg type onslaught. Each quarter or group is busy covering their own losses and that effectively keeps them from coming together to uniformly deal with their collective problems.
As the 'change we can believe in fast becomes 'the storm we didn't see coming' it's hard to 'cling to our bibles and our guns as Barack Obama said we do. In a Stockholm syndrome kind of effect we grab at anything that is offered to keep from being blown away or washed out with the flood. We are captive to administration policy if only by its momentum and caught off guard by its perversity rather than its diversity.
It is at this point that we need to insert or perhaps revert to the rationale that first compelled our forefathers to produce the documents that guided this nation firmly until recent days. Our historical annals and the plethora of portraiture and paintings adorning the capital and other government offices attest to a time when patriots sought the living God for the nation's guidance and support.
Now the Godly faith that our founders were moved by is being moved to the archives of our consciousness. The forefathers are seen as some sort of uninformed patriot geeks who missed the higher enlightenment of Darwin, Dewey and do your own thing.
In theological circles a growing number of eschatologically versed ministers are saying it has to happen. They are concurring more each day that the prophesied demise of the world has to begin at sometime and they all agree we are now well out of the starting gate.
The biblical doctrine not as often discussed when prophecy is the subject is that of 'delusions.' It sounds more like a psychological term and thus it is overlooked more often than not. Since modern man sees himself as only a body and a brain unlike the tripartite divisions the bible speaks of, body, soul and spirit; we could safely say that this doctrine is bound to fly over a lot of heads un-noticed and unheeded.
In a discourse written to the Christians in the Macedonian capital city of Thessalonica the Apostle Paul wrote to quell the concerns of the Christians there about the coming of the antichrist. He told them that the antichrist would not come into the world until a great falling away (apostasy) happened first.
From the language used by Paul it is easy to see that the apostasy will include the church but is not limited to it. In fact it is a political change and a shift in the social order that is distinctly implied by the Apostle and it is the precursor to a universal event. That event is the rise of the world's last dictator who sees himself as on an equal par with God.
It almost seems befitting that a world that dismisses God out of hand will be saddled with a mere man who thinks he's as good or better than God and billions will buy it. Higher education will not prevent decisions that will bring man to the lowest levels of their entire history.
What is far more interesting is that the social climate preceding the rise of the antichrist is one of casting off the old school thinking and taking on the universal claim that a global consciousness is the way to dispel the old myths of a God ordered, morality based system of governance.
Paul declares that it is not the gradual disappearance of truth that brings on the day of the antichrist. Rather it is the love of the truth that dies. To wit; "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." (2 Thess 2:9-10)
Unfortunately what follows the death of the love of truth is delusion. What follows delusion is the death of decency, democracy and nationhood. Paul said "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:" (2Thess 2:11)
This theological principle is perhaps the most shocking revelation in the bible. We think of all deception as coming from the 'arch deceiver' or Satan but never from God. The key to this enigma is simple. If the love of the truth is abandoned then God will no longer offer the truth. He will pull back the restraints so to speak and allow the flood gates of error, deceit and flagrant falsehood to fly wide open and it will come in with a vengeance.
Far from being a figure of speech it is precisely how God exacts his vengeance on a disbelieving and disobedient world. Leaving them to wallow in their own darkness creates their own doom. It is a theological thread repeated and announced throughout the entirety of the bible but even more so it is God's way of dealing with man throughout the ages. It is the biblical equivalent of "give a man enough rope and he will hang himself."
Oddly enough when men give up the love of truth it is mere vanities that are left to take its place. Each of these vanities is addressed in the bible and each of them sounds like America to the letter.
If it's a new socialistically motivated president that we choose to trust above all else then we might want to reflect on this verse. "Thus saith the Lord; cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. (Je 17:5)
But if its intellectualism, notions of being a military super power or our economic riches we are trusting in then this passage speaks to us. "Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:" (Je 9:23)
It sounds like there is nothing left. What can we revert to call upon or trust in? Try this. "But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercises lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." (Je 9:24)
This is the description of a God who has much more to do than to turn down his ear to every old lady mumbling a prayer in the corner of a dark cathedral. (No disrespect intended to those who pray,) but it is a picture of a God who wants the world to work right and for men to flourish in every endeavor but who will not tolerate the death of "the love of the truth."
© Michael Bresciani
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
