Of loving enemies, and the President's words - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com
We have heard many criticize the President for his allegedly insensitive remarks about his political enemies at the national prayer breakfast. It is important to keep things in context. What is the context of Christ's exhortation of praying for your enemies? Christ consistently spoke about loving our neighbors as we would love ourselves; Praying for our enemies-yes a sincere prayer that they would know the Lord! But we are also supposed to stand against evil, just as his example in taking authority over the Pharisees and Sadducees. Love our enemies, because the greatest love is that they would know the Lord and have life everlasting.
Let's look at the context in which the President was speaking. Trump pointed out his exact experience with these people. They present an image to the public of being so righteous, yet they speak hate and label others with hateful names. They say they pray for him, but it is obvious their prayers are for his demise. Pointing out hypocrisy and truth does not always equate to hating enemies. Trump conveyed his experience as he saw it. What did Christ do in revealing the very judgmental and hypocritical Pharisees? He called them white-washed sepulchers. He told them that they were of their father the devil and that they lied like their father. We may not necessarily agree with how Trump communicates his message (I myself have many issues with this), but he definitely was telling the truth.
Let's now look at the overall context. The people Trump was speaking of are not lovers of God as they claim. We see it in their actions and deeds, as well as their words. They stand for ungodliness, they support the enemies of Israel (also the traditional enemies of God), and they seek to enrich themselves through the tearing down of or exercising tyranny over others in word, deed, and policy. So what are we to say? Is Trump justified? Most likely yes. Is his way of saying it eloquently presented or presidential? Not always. But in the end, it is truth. This is why believers can support this flawed man over the eminent evil we see in those who oppose Trump, oppose us, and most importantly, oppose the God we serve.
We have countless examples in the New Testament letters about overcoming evil with good, holding accountability, and having done all, stand. AND we have countless examples that believers should treat others as we would want to be treated. It's both pointing out truth in love AND holding accountability where possible. We are to love our enemies because, as Christ said in the very same teaching (Matthew 5:48) "Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." This is our goal to be like our Father in heaven. He loved us unto salvation. It's easy to hate your enemies, much harder to love them. Loving our enemies means to see them as humans who need God's love. It doesn't mean we appreciate what they do or condone it. And there are times their deeds need to be exposed.
Contempt of Congress - Bill Wilson -
In John 13:34, Christ said, "A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another." Certainly, Christ was talking to his followers, those who know and love God because if you love God you will also love others. This doesn't mean that you have to always agree with them. But it lays out a guideline of respect, and respect is a product of love. What we have seen in America from the leadership of the Democratic Party is nothing but contempt for its political foes and any good news that benefits fellow humankind. They are the first to criticize Christian values, the first to claim they follow God, and the first to level utter contempt for anything good.
While it may seem that I am picking only on Democrats, it is the Democratic Party leadership that is demonstrating this contempt for America, Americans, Christians and Christian values, and the good news that is impacting Americans. What is wrong with people having jobs, people coming off of welfare, minorities who so long have been oppressed being employed at the highest rates in history, that the American standard of living is being restored after the middle class was nearly wiped out? What is wrong with applauding and celebrating these accomplishments? There is something terribly wrong with the Democratic Party that it cannot and will not accept or celebrate what is good for Americans.
Evangelist Franklin Graham noticed this as well when he tweeted, "What we saw from President Donald J. Trump's opposition last night during the State of the Union address felt like a very personal resentment and hatred for the successes of America that had just been spoken of. How could leaders in Congress be so indignant about good news for the people of this country? Why would they not celebrate people seeing increases in their wages, our military being strengthened, a young girl receiving a scholarship, victories in the fight against ISIS, a military hero reunited with his family, a 100-year-old three-war veteran being honored, and other great news? It reveals contempt for the heart of America. What's wrong with these people? As one senator said, "You can tear up the speech, but you can't tear up the accomplishments.""
Isaiah 5:20 says, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" I'm not saying that Republicans have a monopoly on what is good and true. They certainly do not and are also part of the problem. The focus on politics in this nation has resulted in deadly division. And this division shows more than ever the void of Christ in our country-the lack of light; the recognition of good; the stand against evil, or even understanding what is evil. We need to return to the ancient paths of righteousness-Love for one another; Respecting opinions even though we disagree; Making the case for what is right and good; and calling good, good and evil, evil. All this contempt is destructive.
The Prospects of President Bernie Sanders - Todd Strandberg -
I had already planned to write this article over the likelihood of Bernie Sanders having a strong show, winning the Iowa Caucuses. When I learned from the internet that the whole event was turning into a fiasco, I turned on CNN and laughed for Two hours straight. The next days, the clown-car Iowa Democrat party finally said Sanders had more votes than the other candidates.
It is absolute insanity to have a man who is a Communist being the front-runner of a major party. Sanders and the press like to use the soft label of socialist, but his history shows that he is a "card- carrying" commie. Bernie admitted He didn't mind being called 'A Communist' during a 1972 Run for Governor of Vermont. After all, this is a man who honeymooned in the Soviet Union back in 1988.
The odd quality that draws people to him is that he is consistent with his views. He claims he still has the same political beliefs he's had since 1963. His 1976 call for the nationalization of most major industries still stands. "I favor the public ownership of utilities, banks and major industries," Sanders said in one interview with the Burlington Free Press. He also proposed a 100% income tax on the highest income earners in America.
It's amazing that the Stock Market did not drop 800 points the day after he and three other leftists made a strong showing in Iowa. If Sanders is going to have a 30% rise of taxes on companies and stockholders, the value of these holders should be nearly cut in half. If his climate-change regulation drives all the oil companies into bankruptcy, 30% of zero equals zero.
What drives the young people to his rallies is the promise of goodies. Sanders promises the wiping out of student loan debts and free medical care for all. We'll just add that 1.4 trillion of student loan debt to our federal tab of 23.2 trillion. The medical bills will run free until the world cuts us off by refusing to buy our Treasury IOUs.
The general image of socialism is people joining together to share equally with each other in love. In reality, this movement naturally draws people who are sadists. History teaches us that because socialism requires the use of force, the greatest human atrocities ever committed have been inflicted by socialist governments. Out of the graves of 145 million people will come the cry that socialism is a lie:
- 70 million killed in China
- 60 million killed in USSR
- 4 million killed in Cambodia
- 5 million killed in North Korea
- 1 million killed in Yugoslavia
- 1 million killed in Ethiopia
- 1 million killed in Indonesia
- 800,000 killed in Rwanda
The Sanders campaign organization is full of people who would spark revolutionary acts in a moment's notice. In South Carolina, Project Veritas provided the following highlights of things that Sanders campaign field organizer Mason Baird allegedly said:
"I've canvassed with someone who's an anarchist, and with someone who's a Marxist-Leninist. So, we attract radical, truly radical people in the campaign ... obviously that's not outward-facing."
"We would need a federal government and a labor movement that is working together to strip power away from the capitalists and preferably directing that violence towards property."
"It would, it's gonna take, you know, it's gonna take militancy ... like a militant labor movement that's willing to ... strike, and if necessary, you know, just destroy property and things like that."
"... after we abolish landlords, we don't have to kill them ..."
I ask myself why Bernie Sanders is not being asked tough questions about his basic views, and I know they are never going to be challenged. The demonic forces that protect him turn people away from a logic question like: If you tax away 100% of someone's income, why would they continue to work? Never mind that Bernie's dangerous Communist ideas failed dozens of times in the past 20 years, people want to give them a fresh try.
The Sanders organization has already said that if Bernie should win the Presidency, they would hit the ground running with dozens of presidential executive orders. Many of these will be unconstitutional. Some are so radical in nature, they would do profound damage to America before they could be reversed. Since Sanders said he would move to open the border to all comers, we would have millions of people pouring into the nation before the Supreme Court could restore order.
I hope that if Sanders is in a face-off with Trump, he gets absolutely creamed in the November election. The average citizen has become so removed from Godly wisdom that it is possible for our nation to vote in a Communist. Since the Bible promises the enemies of God a brief window of victory, the rapture may occur right before the election, which would be fitting of the Lord to leave the left with a hollow victory.
"The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).
The worldview division - Bill Wilson -
A recent Gallup poll gives a pretty clear indication of how Democrats and Republicans are extremely divided on issues of religion, their worldview of America, and acceptance of socialism. Some 76% of Democrats said they would vote for a socialist for president, compared with only 17% of Republicans surveyed. While 88% of Republicans said they would vote for an evangelical Christian, 77% of Democrats would do so, but 88% of Democrats said they would vote for a Muslim and 89% would vote for a gay or lesbian candidate. This compares with only 42% of Republicans saying they would vote for a Muslim and 62% for a gay or lesbian candidate.
Gallup reports: "The views of political independents fall midway between those of Republicans and Democrats for several candidate types -- including socialists, with less than half of independents saying they would vote for such a person. Independents are closer to Democrats than Republicans in their greater reluctance to support an evangelical Christian candidate, and in their greater willingness to support a candidate who is a woman, gay or lesbian, someone under age 40, a Muslim or an atheist....Being gay or lesbian, Muslim, an atheist or a socialist wouldn't cause much stir among Democrats, but these candidates could have difficulty attracting support from Republicans and, to a lesser extent, from political independents."
Gallup says, "Democrats express at least somewhat more willingness than Republicans to support most of the candidate types tested, with the widest gaps seen for Muslims, atheists and socialists. While at least two in three Democrats say they would vote for presidential candidates with these profiles, support among Republicans drops to just over 40% for Muslims and atheists, and to only 17% for socialists. Republicans are more accepting than Democrats of evangelical Christians and candidates over 70. While President Donald Trump falls into the latter category, so do four of the leading Democratic candidates: Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg. Republicans and Democrats are about equally likely to support Catholic and Jewish candidates."
Let's think about this a bit. Some Christians believe that criticism of the Democratic Party is unwarranted and that Republicans are equally part of the problem. Just in worldview alone, look at the differences. Democrats are more willing to vote for a gay/lesbian or a Muslim than they would an evangelical Christian. And they are far more likely to elect a socialist president. How does socialism, Islam, homosexuality stack up against the precepts of God? Socialism is akin to communism, where the state replaces God. Islam persecutes Christians and Jews, and traditionally is an enemy of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Homosexuality is an abomination to God. Proverbs 6:17 says "a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood" are an abomination to the Lord. Who does this in word, deed, and policy?
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