The One Absolute That High Profile Conservatives Are Avoiding!

An internet search will reveal that "conservative" talk show hosts and commentators are a rather large number of persons. Some are very high profile and quite popular among those who claim to be conservative in their view points. Listeners to these persons number in the millions each week. A major problem however is the fact that the Limbaugh's, Beck's, Hannity's, Coulter's, O'Reilly's, Ingraham's, Malkin's, Levin's, and (add your nominee) are missing the main and very critical ingregient when it comes to the restoration of our republic! --- information gathered from a Google search of the internet

The above named persons who are identified as being "conservative" in their philosophy have a multitude and then some of supporters and faithful followers. There are a large number of others who not so well known except in the immediate geographic area where they are located, which is usually a major U.S. city and ranging out for a number of miles from that city or however far their program may reach.

BUT, all this huge gang of conservatives has a common thread of neglect when it comes to what is really needed to get our republic back on track -- to get the economy "fixed" -- to get away from big government and its growing control of the many facets of our lives -- to regain the vision possessed by our founding fathers when the republic was born.

You cannot construct an arch if you omit the keystone - you cannot light up a home at night if you cut off the electicity or have no candles on hand -- you cannot make a delicious home-made cake if you leave out the eggs -- you cannot grow a beautiful flower if you do not give it water -- and you cannot go anywhere in an automobile if it doesn't have an engine to provide power!

So what is this "missing link" -- this absent "absolute" -- in all the conservative talk that goes on endlessly day by day? It is found in one rather simple word which is rare in its usage today and at times intentionally avoided. It is the word "repentance!" Yes, it has a distinct religious connection, which is why it is so critically important.

Almighty God, Who has plainly revealed Himself to the human race in a number of ways, has issued the call for the citizens of this nation and their leaders to make repentance a top priority issue in their experiences. It requires soul searching, honesty, deliberate choices, and a 180 degree turn in which God is sought in a spirit of remorse (for offenses committed) and humility. Honest confession in which each individual, no matter who that person may be, admits to being guilty of sin against God and one's fellow human beings. Further, the willingness to receive Jesus Christ into one's life as personal Savior and Lord and be committed to obeying Him on a daily basis. After all, Jesus' purpose for coming to this world 2,000 years ago was to sacrifice His life and satisfy the demands of divine justice on our behalf -- literally, He took upon Himself every sin of which every human being is guilty of committing in a lifetime! Forgiveness is freely offered, but one has to repent in order to experience it -- that is, confess known sin and indicate a desire to no longer continue to live in sin.

Simply put - repentance is intellectual (I realize and understand that I am a sinner and guilty before a holy God); emotional (I am very much troubled as it dawns on me that I am under condemnation for my sin); and volitional (I will no longer continue in my sinful way of life) -- I will turn my life over to the control of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

The mass number of "conservatives" omit this ingredient in all their talk about what needs to be done to get our republic "fixed." There would be objections to this by suggesting that it is not their business to bring a religious issue into their discussions. So, what's the use of wasting time -- it would be like giving a dying cancer patient an Advil tablet and a bandaid and telling him he'll be OK!

To Glenn Beck's credit, he has at times made reference to God and does so in his book, "Broke," but never really comes to grips with the issue of repenting from sin -- it is more in generalities, not in the specifics of the need to recognize sin and get rid of it. With all the "conservative" talk about our nation and its many problems, it is nothing more than an exercise in futility, if repentance from sin and turning to God are not highlighted!

Now then -- I have been around long enough to know that of the few who read this, most will conclude that this is just another rant coming from a religious fanatic and not to be taken seriously.

But I have done what my Lord put on my heart and conscience to do -- and I am in pretty good company -- better men than I will ever be -- the kind for whom I am not worthy to open a door for them to enter or leave a room -- but they sounded out a message in their times which warned of God's judgment if there was not extensive repentance from sin. And for the most part, that call to repent of sin was rejected -- what followed some time later was not at all pleasant. A classic example is seen at the time in which a man by the name of Noah lived!

Have you ever seriously thought about what the consequences will be of the massive shedding of innocent blood over decades (killing unborn children), rampant sexual immorality, entrenched idolatry, the misleading of our young regarding origins, the literal trashing of the day of the week that was intended for rest and the worship of God, and the growing hostility being shown against the Christian faith?

Maybe it is time we begin to give thought to the very real possibility of judgment at the hands of an angry God! But don't expect such a subject as this to be mentioned, even in a whisper, by those who claim to be "conservative" on their programs -- they might lose too many sponsors!

"For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, 'We are delivered to do all these abominations'?" --- Jeremiah 7:5-10

Playing the Devil’s Advocate for Just a Moment!

For the leaders of this people cause them to err, and those who are led by them are destroyed. --- Isaiah 9:16

Ooooh! Howls of protest are intensifying as it has been learned that the Muslims are having a prayer time on Capitol Hill in Washington DC later today! There is a web site (http://www.islamoncapitolhill.com) which focuses on the event. The home page has a close up of the U. S. flag. Imposed over a part of the flag is a banner which says “Islam & America” and a graphic of two arms with a handshake taking place plus some other stuff on the banner. Another eye catcher on the page is, “IN THE NAME OF ALLAH…..”

Coinciding with this has been the news release with a lot of attention given by Fox News reports as well as on its web site to the incident of small children in a school in New Jersey singing the praises of President Obama. Here is just one stanza of what the little tykes were singing – “He said red, yellow, black or white, All are equal in his sight. Mmm, mmm, mm! Barack Hussein Obama.” This is, of course, a take off on the Sunday School song titled, “Jesus Loves All the Children of the World!” But then it is not “legal” to mention Jesus in school and besides, Barack Obama rates much higher than Jesus by choice of a lot of U. S. citizens anyway!

Do we not claim to be a nation that is one of rich “diversity” and ought we not to honor our leaders – is that not a keystone in our democratic way of life? At least that is the sentiment we are often told by those in high and powerful places (both religious and political) in our republic these days. So if the Muslims want to have a prayer meeting on Capitol Hill and if a bunch of little kids with strong urging by their teacher want to sing lyrics that exalt Barack Obama to the status of a new “deity” in our nation, who is to say they shouldn’t?

Such developments should be of no surprise – this stuff has been in the making for decades. It started as we closed out the 19th Century and entered the 20th. Something subtle and sinister was taking place. It was the importing of theological garbage from the European continent and disseminated in a number of seminaries in our country. Basically this junk questioned the integrity of the Scriptures and information as reported therein. Reported miracles were questioned or outright denied as ever taking place. The Person and work of Jesus Christ were looked upon with great skepticism – especially His atoning death on the cross for the sins of the human race and His literal resurrection from the dead immediately following His crucifixion.

The opening years of the 20th Century witnessed a war of a kind erupting known as the “Modernist vs. Fundamentalist” controversy. As time dragged on the labels sometimes were changed and pastors became known as “liberal” or “conservative” or something sort of in between or maybe more extreme on one side or the other.

Seed was sown over the decades with skepticism gaining the upper hand and the whole culture was impacted. Our system of morals and values saw a major shift over time. Powerful influences further underscored the fact that the Bible no longer is to be taken seriously, except for a small minority that often is labeled in the most negative terms.

A recent survey not all that long ago came up with the fact that only about 51 per cent of Protestant pastors hold to a Biblical world view. That means that about 49 per cent have problems with believing what is revealed in the Scriptures! Don’t want to risk being called a “fundamentalist” you know! Added to this is the troubling fact that less than half of our population can make it to a place of worship on a Sunday morning. Sunday is now clearly established as a day of business, pleasure seeking and spectator sports events -- that is the priority, and horror of all horrors -- "pray" and hope it doesn't rain to spoil our fun!

No, in reality I am bothered by Muslims having a prayer meeting on Capitol Hill – you can see why in my earlier post on Christianity being the only TRUE faith and the only way to God’s Heaven.

And the little kids singing the praises of Obama brings to mind the effective tactic of indoctrination employed in Nazi Germany in the 30’s and early 40’s that resulted in something called the Hitler Youth. They were taught to sing the praises of their Fuehrer and that he was “The One” who would lead them to Germany’s Promised Land! They learned too late that Hitler led them to an indescribable hell.

There are moments as human history churns along that God will allow the rebel spirit of a culture to prevail for a time and permit certain people to influence that culture in way that is not good – that is, until He eventually intervenes and does something that makes the ears of all who hear the details tingle more than just a little.

It is becoming more obvious as time passes that we shall learn lessons in the same way as did the ancient Israelites of long ago!

They soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert. And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul. --- Psalm 106:13-15

Even the Fox News People Are Missing the Real Issue!

“fair and balanced” – “we report, you decide” --- a couple of slogans thrown out by Fox News personnel from time to time in promoting the network

They have somewhat of a reputation of being “conservative” within the collection of personalities that make up what is known as Fox News. Some of those personalities have been dominant or nearly so in ratings of TV programming in certain categories. Bill O’Reilly recently noted with a lot of hoopla that he had been at the top for 100 months. Glenn Beck has been stirring the pot quite a bit and is getting a lot of attention and publicity. Sean Hannity has likewise drawn a lot of attention since he and “liberal” Allan Combs have parted company on the network.

Perhaps they smile a bit and are tempted to pat themselves on the back due to President Obama making reference to the Fox outfit as not being too positive in its reporting and references to him and his administration.

This is, however, a network which at times causes a person to pause and wonder whether it is more of a competitive beauty pageant liberally saturated with ads and a few bits and pieces of news headlines tossed in so that the title, “Fox News,” has a degree of credibility!

While discussion and at times, some debate, appears to focus on a more conservative position on the many political issues of the day, even these people are not facing up to the real issue of what is needed to bring our republic out of the quagmire in which it presently finds itself.

There is a constant parade of “experts” consulted on a regular basis – a kind of revolving door experience week after week. The opinions are boldly expressed as to what Obama, his people, and the Congress of the U. S. are doing wrong, and what needs to be done in order to bring the republic back on track. There is the rhetoric that we are on the road to socialism and the abandoning of the principles which made our nation great.

But there is the avoiding of the real issue and what is absolutely necessary to restore this nation as to what it ought to be and what the founders by certain statements made by them intended the nation to be – which basically was that the republic would and should honor God, and seek to be obedient to Him in the personal lives of the citizens as well as collectively within institutional groupings such as government, business, church, etc.

You might hear such things as “principles” and “values” mentioned in a general sense, but never the central issue of repentance, turning from our many sins as a nation and as individuals, and asking for God to have mercy and forgive us.

Here are the issues and Fox News people have been informed about them, but have never responded – which is not surprising – because who is going to listen to an old farm boy who lives out in the middle of nowhere anyway?

Those issues are:

• Note: the following are links which will take you to an area where these are all discussed in greater detail – use return feature on your web browser to come back to this place.
  
  
• A Confounded Love
  
  
• A Conceding Church
  
  
• A Contradictory Government
  
  
• A Contagion of Idolatry
  
  
• Consigned Children
  
  
• A Conflagration of Immorality
  
  
• Contaminated Sabbaths
  
  
• Contrived Origins
  
  

All the foregoing are posted under the general subject of Driving the Final Nails!

In spite of claiming to be “conservative” and attempting to stake out a “conservative” position in discussions and debate, Fox News has never gotten to the real heart of what is needed to heal and restore our republic, and it is highly unlikely those people ever will! They will continue to bask in their high ratings and big incomes -- for the time being, that is.

And there are those who from a religious perspective consider themselves to be “evangelical” in the faith, but seem all too often to skirt the above stated issues and the fact that Almighty God is calling this nation to repentance. Evidence is mounting that time has about run out and the only thing left so far as this nation’s future experience is concerned is the pouring out of God’s wrath in judgment!

Before dismissing all of the above as those “conservatives” at Fox News would do, be sure to read about some other nails which were driven centuries ago – go to Hope for Time and Eternity!

Too bad, with their dominance in many of the ratings and extensive influence, that Fox News folks are missing completely what it is that is actually needed to get the nation back on track and headed in the right direction. Unless they recognize the real issue, they too will be among that number in the future that will ask the heart rending question, “Why is God doing all these terrible things to us?”

And if you say in your heart, "Why have these things come upon me?" For the greatness of your iniquity your skirts have been uncovered, your heels made bare. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil. Therefore I will scatter them like stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness. This is your lot, the portion of your measures from Me," says the LORD, "Because you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood. Therefore I will uncover your skirts over your face, that your shame may appear. I have seen your adulteries and your lustful neighings, the lewdness of your harlotry, your abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! Will you still not be made clean?" --- Jeremiah 13:22-27

Those Book, Radio, and TV “Conservatives” Are Missing the Key Ingredient!

"Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead." --- Acts 17:29-31

Most of them are very popular and have to be rated as being highly successful. A number of them have written books which have been best sellers. Others have TV cable programs that rate very highly when those rating surveys are taken. And there is talk radio which has a number of rather high profile personalities. Among the latter the name of Rush Limbaugh is dominant and has been for some time.

These together constitute a mighty chorus calling for a return to values which made our republic a great nation. There is constant decrying of the expansion of big government, out of control spending, and loss of personal liberties. There is no lack of singling out by name those whom these professed “conservatives” consider to be responsible for the quagmire into which our republic has sunk!

But they in common share this glaring omission. Let’s put it this way – it’s like building an automobile without a transmission – it’s like manufacturing an aircraft designed to transport 350 passengers and not putting wings on it – it’s like building a modern day Titanic with all the new technology but not installing the propellers and rudder – it’s like preparing to bake a two layer chocolate cake and not adding the chocolate to the bowl of ingredients which make up the cake! In each case something very critical is missing and that being the case, there will be nothing but failure as a result.

The missing ingredient is genuine and sincere repentance from sin and rebellion which has been committed against the God Who brought this mighty universe into existence out of nothing by simple command!

You can talk about your values, principles and even occasionally refer to God Almighty all you want, but if you avoid the issue of repentance, it is all in vain and our republic travels down the slippery slope toward collapse and disaster at an accelerated pace!

Three critical elements are involved in repentance in which God grants mercy and forgiveness:

• intellectual – a crystal clear awareness that one is a sinner and guilty of countless acts which Almighty God condemns. The light has been turned on and what used to be so “acceptable” or what was felt to be OK if one could get away with it, are now recognized to be ethically, morally, and spiritually wrong in the sight of a holy God Who has us all under constant surveillance.
  
  
• emotional – that is, to feel remorse and regret over having sinned against God and one’s fellow human beings. The problem, however, is too often a sense of regret may come on a person, but it is only regret at having been caught in the act of doing wrong, not at having sinned against God!
  
  
• volitional – that is, by deliberate choice one ceases to do those things that are now recognized to be sinful against God and/or against one’s fellow human beings. This is the thrust of 2 Corinthians 5:17 which states that if a person is in Christ (having repented and accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord) then that person is a new creation with old things passing away and all things becoming new!
  

Repentance is not just an individual experience, though that is where it has to begin, but also a corporate experience in which groups of persons become involved. Anywhere you look the evidence is overwhelming of the need for corporate repentance – in business, corporations, education, government at all levels, the professions, and of course, churches!

But as mentioned at the beginning, you will not hear the high profile conservatives speaking of these things. In all likelihood they would have some “excuse” for not mentioning such a subject. And why should they since it is not mentioned all that often in the churches.

Many years ago a pastor who was in his retirement years said that repentance was the lost doctrine in the church and mentioned by name a mainline denomination in which this problem existed.

Will the time come when all over the United States there will be millions of people declaring by words spoken and deeds done that their top priority is seeking God in a spirit of genuine repentance -- that a chorus of voices is in unanimous agreement that we as individuals and collectively in groups as well as an entire nation have grievously sinned against Almighty God?

There is a possible shocking response that God may make if that should happen due to the fact that He has been calling this nation to repentance for a long, long time and there has been no serious heeding of that call. Read carefully what that response might be:

Thus says the LORD to this people: "Thus they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore the LORD does not accept them; He will remember their iniquity now, and punish their sins."
Then the LORD said to me, "Do not pray for this people, for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence." --- Jeremiah 14:10-12

But those conservatives will continue to write their best selling books, do their TV shows, and do their talk radio programs – they will be quick to tell us what ought to be done to set this nation on the right course, but will never, never mention the key ingredient that is absolutely necessary to get the country into a favorable relationship with the Creator of this mighty universe!

By the way, I have an automobile for sale – it doesn’t have a transmission in it – are you interested?

And it came to pass after many days that the LORD said to me, "Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the sash which I commanded you to hide there." Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the sash from the place where I had hidden it; and there was the sash, ruined. It was profitable for nothing. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Thus says the LORD: 'In this manner I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be just like this sash which is profitable for nothing. --- Jeremiah 13:6-10