DeeGeesLifeBlog ~ Life as Art ~ Or is it Heart?

America’s dwindling Christian population. Lincoln, Trump, and commonality…

JAMES, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. ~ James: 1-4

Samuel E. Tolley, III, American Thinker: According to James 1:8, A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. [To which] Christians must never abdicate biblical responsibilities upon entering the voting booth. While we render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, we must first render to God what is His. God instituted religion and politics; therefore, he has Supreme Authority over both. The Christian who attempts to separate the influence of faith over politics, forgets that Caesar is subject to God as are we. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. ~ 2 Timothy 1:7

The biblically minded will not cast votes based on political party preferences but based on biblical precepts and our commanded interest to spread the gospel and enlarge God’s Kingdom. Unfortunately, many believers have been swayed by the “Separation of Church and State” fallacy.

The intent of Jefferson’s Danbury Baptist letter was to assure the Danbury Baptists that the federal government would not infringe on their form of worship. Thomas Jefferson was not advocating the removal of religion from political thought. He appealed to the Creator and Supreme Judge of the world in the Declaration of Independence; thereby, acknowledging in our country’s founding document, that God’s sovereignty has no limits. No wall can block God. The wall of separation Jefferson spoke of could only block government’s influence on the church, not the church’s influence on government.

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DGH: For a Christian, it is not only important to vote based on Biblical principles, but also important to vote, period. Refusing to vote because candidates aren’t perfect, simply hands victory to the worse, instead of the better. If we vote for those who support good rather than evil, we are fulfilling our responsibility.

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Samuel E. Tolley, III: Consistency demands that our vote agrees with our voice. We must continue to speak against abortion, transgenderism, sodomy, drag queen story hour and other cultural abnormalities. We must vote for people who refuse to support those abominations. The United States is a representative republic. The politicians we vote for are required to represent our interest. If they fail to provide proper representation, we must replace them with politicians who will. If we knowingly vote for politicians who proclaim their opposition to biblical mandates, they are not in error, we are.

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DGH: The 1st Amendment is not just a group of six rights. It is a methodology for transferring moral teaching to government. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

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America’s dwindling Christian population. The circumspect irony of Juneteenth…

M.B.Mathews, American Thinker: When America was formed, the foundation was God; the Founding documents were drawn from a Judeo-Christian ethic. Today, God has been shown the door, along with right and wrong. Today, everything is right and nothing is wrong. The distinction between good and evil is passé. When Time magazine’s 1966 cover asked, “Is God Dead?,” many cheerfully shouted “YES!,” but they had no idea what they were cheering. God is not dead. He is very much alive and doing what He does — He acts. He has kept America alive as a free nation for now. God is not only not dead; He is not inactive, either. But He is cheesed off.

We kicked him out of schools, out of the public square, out of businesses, and even out of churches in some cases. There will be judgment. Did you know there is an atheist chaplain at Harvard? He said this: “There is a rising group of people who no longer identify with any religious tradition but still experience a real need for conversation and support around what it means to be a good human and live an ethical life,” Epstein told The New York Times. “We don’t look to a god for answers. We are each other’s answers.” Meaning we are all gods with the answers. If you are an atheist psychologist or ethicist, perhaps that is true. You don’t look to God.

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DGH: In all of these, the key common aspect is a coming judgement. A righteous nation does not usually come under divine judgement. Our founders recognized this aspect of righteousness as a requirement for preserving the government they gave us. Historically, nations that abandon righteousness are often more harshly judged than nations that were never righteous at all. Part of the work of God is separating the true worshipers from those that are not. In addition, the number of faithful is often reduced to a “remnant” prior to judgement.

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M.B.Mathews: But anyone, especially one who calls himself a “chaplain,” who says the answers come solely from “each other,” is sadly mistaken. Human beings, with few Solomonic exceptions, are not known for being cosmically wise or having the best answers. But anyone, especially one who calls himself a “chaplain,” who says the answers come solely from “each other,” is sadly mistaken. Human beings, with few Solomonic exceptions, are not known for being cosmically wise or having the best answers.

In the past ten years, those calling themselves Christians have declined, but it can be safely assumed that God is threshing His floors, separating the wheat from the chaff, the good from the bad, the redeemed from the unredeemed.

Both the Old and New Testaments refer to the threshing floor as a symbol of judgment. When people turn away from God, as America is doing, they will be like chaff on a threshing floor. America is experiencing a threshing-floor sorting. GotQuestions.Org far and away one of the best Christian information websites, talks about God separating believers from nonbelievers. So, when we mourn the fact that in America, people of God are dwindling in number, we need to remind ourselves that it is precisely God’s plan that this be so.

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DGH: “…. and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel…” Judges 2:10. As a boy going to Sunday school and church in the days of 1960’s and 70’s, England, I’ve often wondered how this all happened. As an adult, I now have a grip on it. We didn’t teach our children enough that belief in God was important. Very important. Prayer, however, was soon taken out of school, Hollywood openly began to make fun of church people, televangelists got caught living sinful lives, weekend soccer tournaments (“guilty your ‘onor”) grew to be more important than church attendance. America’s dwindling Christian population all became incredibly sad.

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If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. ~ James: 5-8

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• M.B.Mathews, American Thinker: America’s dwindling Christian population
• See also Samuel E. Tolley III, American Thinker: Christian votes must line up with Christian voices

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Soli Deo Gloria!

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