Events surrounding our military actions in Libya are being viewed with a collective yawn in many parts of our country. Yet what has happened and the way that it was done send shivers down the spines of those who realize that protections that our constitution are supposed to give us - and the way that it is not being followed. Yet for me, the danger here has been a long time coming - and has very little to do with our constitution.
A brief word of explanation is in order. Recent events in Libya have drawn the attention of our government. It is no shock to anyone conversant with history to know that the president of Libya is an insane thug who rules by the unjust use of power, torture, and intimidation of his people. It is just that recent events have drawn our attention to the mental unstability of Khadafi. Those events involved his people rising up and challenging his authority. As things quickly turned toxic in his nation he began to do greater and greater injustices to his people - and eventually he began using his air-force to bomb his enemies into submission. At that point the UN decided to jump into the fray - being urged by Europe to do something. What is not truthfully being reported to us is that Europe gets a large amount of their oil and gasoline from Libya - but for now we will leave that hot potatoe alone. To make a long story significantly shorter - the UN authorized a no-fly zone to be put into place. Sound military strategy and theory mandated that in doing this Libya's air defense capability be destroyed - as well as aspects of their air-force as well. This steamed ahead - and resulted in our country using its military to strike with its air-force to start the operation. Here is where things get sticky consitutionally.
What the constitution requires for us to act militarily is a declaration of war. This is to be done by the Congress - who then turns the operations of the war itself over to the presidency - who then prosecutes the war toward victory. Over the past couple of decades this whole aspect of our constitutional process has gotten foggy to say the least. More and more we have chosen to have Congress approve military action short of a declaration of war. But, even in these situations, we at least followed aspects of the Constitution having Congress involved in the decision making process. But, this time, under our current administration, this process was completely ignored - and the president authorized an action on his own. He did so on his own authority - and apart from any true submission to the ruling documents of our country. Again, as I said at the beginning of this article, outside of a few statements, our country has used the ends (a crazy dictator killing his own people) to justify the means (our president ignoring the law and acting on his own). But this action - along with countless others bode very ominous things for our country. Let me explain.
Jesus made a very interesting and ominous comment in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, that if the salt has lost its savor - it is good for nothing any longer, except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men." Throughout the history of the world this has happened again and agian as nations that began with Christian principles and ways, turned from them. In each and every situation what happened was that a godless ruler arose and pretty much crushed the church as a dictatorship developed in that country. Now some reading this may not be putting two and two together, so let me make this far more plain to you.
We currently do not have any political party that is willing to truly put moral issues at the forefront of its platform. Some might protest saying that the Republicans have a platform opposing abortion. This is true, but I do not think anyone is under the delusion that they truly have acted to DO something about it. In addition to this I have watched with a broken heart as this country (and both parties) have done nothing about the growing homosexual agenda. Homosexual marriage is gaining ground every year - as our elected officials have done little more than posture for votes about the issue. In the TRUE picture of our nation it is NOT the economy stupid - it is our morals - and our penchant to ignore and overlook the call of Scripture to be a godly nation that matters. Some decry the foolish decisions being made in the highest levels of our government. They wonder why decisions are being promoted that in effect are weakening and destroying our nation. Yet, none of these things are all that strange to me any longer. They are not strange because I am watching the evangelical movement in the United States leave God. They have decided that the moral issues of our day are global warming, social justice, and painting Israel as an evil state that is hurting the Palestinians. They do this while we continue to exterminate 4000 babies a day - and call what God considers an abomination - not so bad.
The "Ominous" truth that I see on our horizon is that of Matthew chapter 5:13 where Jesus says, "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. We've lost our saltiness and have become as tasteless as the world around us. We no longer speak with any biblical relevence to our society - because we are fear speaking the things said in the Bible. Therefore we will continue to watch our governing officials make no sense whatsoever. They will continue to weaken our nation. They will continue to ignore the Constitution and rule on their own authority. In fact, one day, unless we repent and return to God with all our hearts, I believe we will watch as our Constitutional Republic goes down in flames and is replaced by a dictatorship or an Oligarchy of the few. In that day - in light of how unpopular true biblical Christianity is becoming, we will then watch the systematic persecution of the church in America. I know that to some this may sound borderline crazy - but the more I study the Scriptures - the more I see it rising on the horizon of our own historical context.
How can we stop this from happening? First of all, I am not sure we can - nor am I convinced that God may not be engineering such a thing in His providence. The issue is if it is too late for us to truly "turn our nation around." But the real question here is not whether we can salvage our nation - but whether we are going to salvage our testimony in the midst of it. That is the real question to answer here. The church needs to repent - you and I need to repent. We need to return to Biblical Christianity - that puts the gospel and the glory and honor of God first and foremost in our lives. That would be a start. Then we need to turn from our sin and boldly preach and live the gospel of Jesus Christ. This may actually speed up the persecution in our nation. If we begin boldly proclaiming the gospel - people may become very offended with it. But that is not really the issue is it. THE issue for us is whether we are going to hold fast to the truth - preach it - live it - and if necessary - die for it. When the church begins living this way - it will return to its true roots. And those roots are not set in the protection of any one nation or people - but are firmly set in working for a kingdom that is not of this world.
A brief word of explanation is in order. Recent events in Libya have drawn the attention of our government. It is no shock to anyone conversant with history to know that the president of Libya is an insane thug who rules by the unjust use of power, torture, and intimidation of his people. It is just that recent events have drawn our attention to the mental unstability of Khadafi. Those events involved his people rising up and challenging his authority. As things quickly turned toxic in his nation he began to do greater and greater injustices to his people - and eventually he began using his air-force to bomb his enemies into submission. At that point the UN decided to jump into the fray - being urged by Europe to do something. What is not truthfully being reported to us is that Europe gets a large amount of their oil and gasoline from Libya - but for now we will leave that hot potatoe alone. To make a long story significantly shorter - the UN authorized a no-fly zone to be put into place. Sound military strategy and theory mandated that in doing this Libya's air defense capability be destroyed - as well as aspects of their air-force as well. This steamed ahead - and resulted in our country using its military to strike with its air-force to start the operation. Here is where things get sticky consitutionally.
What the constitution requires for us to act militarily is a declaration of war. This is to be done by the Congress - who then turns the operations of the war itself over to the presidency - who then prosecutes the war toward victory. Over the past couple of decades this whole aspect of our constitutional process has gotten foggy to say the least. More and more we have chosen to have Congress approve military action short of a declaration of war. But, even in these situations, we at least followed aspects of the Constitution having Congress involved in the decision making process. But, this time, under our current administration, this process was completely ignored - and the president authorized an action on his own. He did so on his own authority - and apart from any true submission to the ruling documents of our country. Again, as I said at the beginning of this article, outside of a few statements, our country has used the ends (a crazy dictator killing his own people) to justify the means (our president ignoring the law and acting on his own). But this action - along with countless others bode very ominous things for our country. Let me explain.
Jesus made a very interesting and ominous comment in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, that if the salt has lost its savor - it is good for nothing any longer, except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men." Throughout the history of the world this has happened again and agian as nations that began with Christian principles and ways, turned from them. In each and every situation what happened was that a godless ruler arose and pretty much crushed the church as a dictatorship developed in that country. Now some reading this may not be putting two and two together, so let me make this far more plain to you.
We currently do not have any political party that is willing to truly put moral issues at the forefront of its platform. Some might protest saying that the Republicans have a platform opposing abortion. This is true, but I do not think anyone is under the delusion that they truly have acted to DO something about it. In addition to this I have watched with a broken heart as this country (and both parties) have done nothing about the growing homosexual agenda. Homosexual marriage is gaining ground every year - as our elected officials have done little more than posture for votes about the issue. In the TRUE picture of our nation it is NOT the economy stupid - it is our morals - and our penchant to ignore and overlook the call of Scripture to be a godly nation that matters. Some decry the foolish decisions being made in the highest levels of our government. They wonder why decisions are being promoted that in effect are weakening and destroying our nation. Yet, none of these things are all that strange to me any longer. They are not strange because I am watching the evangelical movement in the United States leave God. They have decided that the moral issues of our day are global warming, social justice, and painting Israel as an evil state that is hurting the Palestinians. They do this while we continue to exterminate 4000 babies a day - and call what God considers an abomination - not so bad.
The "Ominous" truth that I see on our horizon is that of Matthew chapter 5:13 where Jesus says, "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. We've lost our saltiness and have become as tasteless as the world around us. We no longer speak with any biblical relevence to our society - because we are fear speaking the things said in the Bible. Therefore we will continue to watch our governing officials make no sense whatsoever. They will continue to weaken our nation. They will continue to ignore the Constitution and rule on their own authority. In fact, one day, unless we repent and return to God with all our hearts, I believe we will watch as our Constitutional Republic goes down in flames and is replaced by a dictatorship or an Oligarchy of the few. In that day - in light of how unpopular true biblical Christianity is becoming, we will then watch the systematic persecution of the church in America. I know that to some this may sound borderline crazy - but the more I study the Scriptures - the more I see it rising on the horizon of our own historical context.
How can we stop this from happening? First of all, I am not sure we can - nor am I convinced that God may not be engineering such a thing in His providence. The issue is if it is too late for us to truly "turn our nation around." But the real question here is not whether we can salvage our nation - but whether we are going to salvage our testimony in the midst of it. That is the real question to answer here. The church needs to repent - you and I need to repent. We need to return to Biblical Christianity - that puts the gospel and the glory and honor of God first and foremost in our lives. That would be a start. Then we need to turn from our sin and boldly preach and live the gospel of Jesus Christ. This may actually speed up the persecution in our nation. If we begin boldly proclaiming the gospel - people may become very offended with it. But that is not really the issue is it. THE issue for us is whether we are going to hold fast to the truth - preach it - live it - and if necessary - die for it. When the church begins living this way - it will return to its true roots. And those roots are not set in the protection of any one nation or people - but are firmly set in working for a kingdom that is not of this world.
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