What Does the Scripture Say?

Let me preface this article with the major point that many Christians may not be aware of and that is this fact: John McCain supports murdering babies in the womb. In cases where the human life is a result of rape or incest, McCain believes that even though that pre-born baby is fully human (he does believe life begins at conception), the mother has the right to murder her own child. I ask the rhetorical question: If a mother who is a rape or incest victim does not have the right to murder her two month old baby outside the womb, should she have the right to murder her two month old baby inside the womb?

Please visit this web page for a shockingly candid look at McCain’s pro-abortion position.

Now onto the the story of how one highly visible Christian man has exchanged his thinking on biblical principles for reasoning based on pragmatics and fear.

Dr. James Dobson is usually a man of high integrity and character. I have particularly appreciated his work in the political realm over the years. So it was with sadness that I watched him this year start strong on the pro-life position only to back pedal and cave into the Republican party’s scare tactics to change his position to one that supports a presidential candidate who is pro-abortion.

Below is Dr. Dobson’s original uncompromising statement regarding McCain back in February of this year (here’s the link to the audio file):

“I am deeply disappointed the Republican Party seems poised to select a nominee who did not support a Constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage, voted for embryonic stem cell research to kill nascent human beings, opposed tax cuts that ended the marriage penalty, has little regard for freedom of speech, organized the Gang of 14 to preserve filibusters in judicial hearings, and has a legendary temper and often uses foul and obscene language.

I am convinced Sen. McCain is not a conservative, and in fact, has gone out of his way to stick his thumb in the eyes of those who are. He has sounded at times more like a member of the other party. McCain actually considered leaving the GOP caucus in 2001, and approached John Kerry about being Kerry’s running mate in 2004. McCain also said publicly that Hillary Clinton would make a good president. Given these and many other concerns, a spoonful of sugar does NOT make the medicine go down. I cannot, and will not, vote for Sen. John McCain, as a matter of conscience.

But what a sad and melancholy decision this is for me and many other conservatives. Should Sen. McCain capture the nomination as many assume, I believe this general election will offer the worst choices for president in my lifetime. I certainly can’t vote for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama based on their virulently anti-family policy positions. If these are the nominees in November, I simply will not cast a ballot for president for the first time in my life. These decisions are my personal views and do not represent the organization with which I am affiliated. They do reflect my deeply held convictions about the institution of the family, about moral and spiritual beliefs, and about the welfare of our country.”

In this same NY Times Op Ed piece Dobson commented on a pro-family leadership meeting:

“After two hours of deliberation, we voted on a resolution that can be summarized as follows: If neither of the two major political parties nominates an individual who pledges himself or herself to the sanctity of human life, we will join others in voting for a minor-party candidate. Those agreeing with the proposition were invited to stand. The result was almost unanimous.”

So earlier this year Dobson based his thinking on biblical principles. Previous to these quotes he even made a vow before God to “never cast one vote for any man or woman who would kill one innocent baby”. Dobson was absolutely correct in his understanding of the issues of abortion in the cases of rape, incest, and the life of the mother. Those little babies are still babies whom God has granted life and no man has the right to take that life away.

The plain fact is that McCain is pro-abortion, he supports the murder of innocent children in the womb (from incest, rape, etc). We should not be voting for the lesser of two evils because that is still a vote for evil. We should cast a vote for righteousness. Whether one party wins or loses is not the primary principle, it is doing the right thing before God. Before the Sovereign God who is the One who lifts up rulers and casts them down. Our responsibility is to do what is right, what is biblical and leave the consequences to God.

Here’s a “what if” scenario. What if Obama is as terrible as he sounds. And what if McCain is exactly what he is, except for one new piece of information. What if McCain also happens to be a serial murderer. He happens to go out every weekend and murder an innocent human being. But his policies are all the same and Obama’s policies will take away all our freedoms. So would you still vote for McCain? Why not? Probably not because you have to stand before God and tell Him that you cast a vote for a murderer. God will not care about your reasoning that Obama was going to destroy this nation. You voted for a murderer. Now back to reality: anyone who votes for McCain, votes for a man who supports murdering babies in the womb. Do you want to stand before God saying you stood with this man?

Another scenario: what if Obama was a serial murderer and McCain was a serial rapist? Would you vote for the lesser of two evils? Or would you find a candidate who was a true Christian, truly pro-life and look into that candidate seriously?

It seems that fear of losing our freedoms (or personal peace and affluence) is the motivating factor to vote for someone who supports murdering babies. But the Scriptures are clear that we are to fear God rather than men. The Christian life is not about comfort, but about God’s glory. We are to focus on bringing glory to God, pleasing Him and allow Him to bring us comfort and joy in His timing. We don’t need to seek our own comfort, especially if that includes compromising God’s values.

For example, my children’s comfort is not my highest priority in life. My most important duty and desire (in regards to my children) is that they love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. If this means they must endure persecution and discomfort in order to have them be conformed to the image of Christ, then so be it. It will not be easy for me to see in the flesh, but in the Spirit, my soul will rejoice knowing that persecution for Christ’s sake will bring blessings in the long run.

What I’m trying to get at is the foundational principles of why Christians are disagreeing on who to vote for president. I will be voting for the thirdy party, Christian, pro-life candidate because he will honor God by supporting life. Others seem to be voting for the pro-abortion republican because they are afraid of what the democrat will do to America. The Republican party seems to be very successful using its scare tactics. But once again, God calls Christians to not fear what men can do. Trust in the sovereignty of God, that He will accomplish his will in this election. Our human responsibility is to do what is right in the sight of God regardless of the consequences. Sometimes this will mean persecution for the Christan, prison or even death but we must make our decisions based on God’s word, not based on pragmatism. Cast your vote in light of eternity, in light of biblical principles, for the glory of God.

In the fear of the LORD,
Tony

Here’s an independent website that compares all the candidates. This particular webpage shows Chuck Baldwin’s take on the issues http://www.ontheissues.org/Chuck_Baldwin.htm This page shows McCain’s specific stand on abortion. http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/John_McCain_Abortion.htm

Please cast your vote “Corum Deo”, i.e. before the face of God and vote according to biblical principles. I pray that we remember God is sovereign over all things including our nation and who leads it.  Whoever our next leader may be will be God’s doing to work out glory for Himself, be it blessing for us or a curse on our nation.  May the Lord bless you as you seek to honor Him with your vote.

The following is a tract I read recently by G. D. Watson (1845-1924). I hope it is a blessing to you.

If God has called you to be really like Christ in all your spirit, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility and put on you such demands of obedience, that He will not allow you to follow other Christians, and in many ways He will seem to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.

Others can brag on themselves, and their work, on their success, on their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing, and if you begin it, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

The Lord will let others be honored and put forward, and keep you hid away in obscurity because He wants to produce some choice fragrant fruit for His glory, which can be produced only in the shade.

Others will be allowed to succeed in making money, but it is likely God will keep you poor because he wants you to have something far better than gold and that is a helpless dependence on Him; that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day - out of an unseen treasury.

God will let others be great, but He will keep you small. He will let others do a great work for Him and get credit for it, but He will make you work and toil on without knowing how much you are doing; and then to make your work still more precious, He will let others get the credit for the work you have done, and this will make your reward ten times greater when He comes.

The Holy Spirit will put strict watch over you, with a jealous love, and will rebuke you for little words and feelings, or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over.

So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign, and has a right to do what He pleases with His own, and He will not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle you in His dealing with you. He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and let other people say and do many things that you cannot do or say.

Settle it forever, that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue, or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes, in ways that others are not dealt with.

Now, when you are so possessed with the Living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this particular personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of heaven.

Stephen and Faith were playing down in the basement when I came upon them. They are so cute. They were practicing their Bible verses “preaching” over an amplifier. Praise the Lord for these little ones!

 Stephe and Faith Preaching: Downloads 908

This is a message I taught last Sunday. It is from Titus 3:4-7 “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, so that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to righteousness.”

One of my favorite aspects of our Church is the fact that our teaching time is interactive, it’s not merely a monologue. That is, folks can interrupt the preacher and add some thoughts or ask questions. My son Stephen, who is 5 years old, added quite a bit to this message. He quoted a few Bible verses for me and asked a number of good questions as well as interjecting numerous helpful comments. At one point when I was explaining the Greek term philanthropia, he asked, “Is that like Theanthropos?” He makes me laugh, what a joy! Listen through and I hope you’ll be blessed by the truths of God’s word as well as hear my firstborn son help his Daddy ‘preach’.

 Titus 3-4-7: Downloads 278

We had the tremendous privilege this week of hosting Mike and Jane Gendron while they visited the Creation Museum. Mike was a Roman Catholic for 37 years who really fell hook, line and sinker for the false gospel of penance, mass, sacraments, etc. Praise the Lord that He opened Mike’s eyes to the fact that he was worshiping another jesus, a jesus who is not able to save completely from sins and who’s death on the cross is not sufficient for the forgiveness of all sins.

After being redeemed by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, Mike went to seminary and started up an evangelistic ministry called Proclaiming the Gospel (see www.pro-gospel.org) to Roman Catholics. He now travels the world preaching the true Jesus of the Bible who frees us from the bondage of legalistic rituals, vain prayers, idolatry, etc. simply by repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Praise the Lord I actually had the opportunity to proclaim the gospel with Mike Gendron to a professing Catholic! We tag teamed a man who said he was a Catholic but didn’t attend the church. I spoke with him for about 45 minutes. Please pray for this man.

Interestingly, the last few years it seems his ministry is broadening to include warning the church not only of the false religion of Roman Catholicism, but other false teachings and false prophets in the visible church such as the emergent church movement, easy-believism, etc. Below is an excerpt from one of his DVD’s called “Which Gospel?”. Each of his DVDs come with two stirring messages and I highly recommend them. I have just about all of his materials and they are excellent!

The second clip on the bottom is an excerpt from a message on “Catholics & Evangelicals: How Different Are We?”. Both messages are available on one DVD for purchase HERE.

Other video clips for download:
http://WhatDoesTheScriptureSay.com/video/HardQuestionsforGoodCatholics.flv

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Below are excerpts from a very good article on the modern practice of “the alter call”. Attached at the bottom is the entire article which is worthy of a read. Be blessed in Christ!

What is often shocking to many who use the modern invitation system is that the altar call is just that modern. The practice, although widespread, is a very new phenomenon in the Christian church. For nearly nineteen centuries no one had ever heard of the practice. Such well known evangelists as George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and even John Wesley had never even heard of such a custom. And Charles Spurgeon, that passionate winner of souls par excellence, although well acquainted with the practice, firmly refused to adopt it and even criticized it severely.

Ironically, “the old fashioned altar call” was unheard of until the nineteenth century. It first came into being by the influence of Charles Finney, the pioneer of modern evangelistic methods. In Finney’s crusades (c. 1830) seats at the front were reserved for those who, after the sermon, would respond to the challenge to come to the Lord’s side. Those who were thus “anxious” for their souls were invited to walk forward to the “anxious seat” where counsel and prayer would be given them.

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Now this may not prove that the altar call is wrong, but it surely demonstrates that the non-practice of the altar call is not wrong. If neither Jesus nor His apostles employed the method, and if they never commanded such to be done by the church, then it obviously cannot be wrong to decide against the more modern method. It is not a question of Biblical necessity but of modern custom and convenience. A church which refuses the practice can never be criticized for that refusal; indeed, such a church is at that point more in line with the apostolic church than are those churches which have adopted it.

So then, the altar call is not a matter of Biblical command or precedent. Our Lord does not require it of anyone at any time.

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First, it is often noted that the Scriptures abound with invitations to salvation. Such offers as, “Come to me!” and “Come to me and drink!” and “Be reconciled to God!” are well known, and they deserve to be. These are marvelous offers of life to those who will trust Christ.

But all this really says nothing about the propriety of the altar call. The altar call is for a man to physically move from one point to another. The gospel call is for a man to flee to Christ. The gospel call is for a man to spiritually identify with Christ through faith, to reach out with the hand of faith and lay hold of Him Who is life. Accordingly, the duty of the evangelist is to command and even plead with men to run to Him for refuge. But this must never be confused with a command to move anywhere physically. Neither Jesus nor His apostles ever instructed anyone that in order to be saved they must “come to the front” or “come for prayer” or “go to the inquiry room” or go to any geographical location. They needn’t go anywhere. They were exhorted to go to Christ and nowhere else. Moreover, they are exhorted and assured that going to Him they need go nowhere else.

Everyone acknowledges that Charles Spurgeon emulated well the New Testament practice of evangelism. It would be difficult to find anywhere in the history of the church a man who was more passionate concerning the salvation of the lost and whose preaching brought more into the Kingdom. Yet in his preaching to sinners he refused to direct anyone to an “altar” or to the front of any building. He directed them only to Christ. “Go to your God at once, even where you are now!” he would insist. “Cast yourself on Christ, now, at once, ere you stir an inch!” Spurgeon’s practice was according to the Biblical model exactly. He would allow nothing to confuse the direction of the sinner’s attention: it must be to Christ, and to Christ alone they are instructed look and go. Nor would they be allowed to entertain any notion that they should go somewhere else first. No! “Ere you stir an inch! Cast yourself on Christ now!”

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“But then how will people be saved?” After the supporting arguments fail the next question which arises, often in honest and sincere frustration, is, “How then will anyone be saved?” If we cannot invite them to step forward to the “altar,” how will they ever make a profession of faith at all?

We should be patient with this frustration. When people are taught that “this” is the way people are saved, it will be confusing at first to think any differently. But only a little thinking will clarify the matter easily. How will they be saved? They will be saved just like every Christian was saved for eighteen-plus centuries before the invitation system was ever heard of. They will be saved just as so many since have been saved. They will look to Christ. They will turn to Him in faith and believe. It may be as they are with a friend who shows them the gospel. It may be while listening to a man preach the gospel. It may be while they are home alone reading the gospel. It may be in any of a great number of circumstances. But all that is required of him is that he look to Christ, trust Him, and he will be saved. We need not and dare not complicate the matter with any other considerations.

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A Confusion of Mediators The modern altar call further runs the risk of confusing the idea of mediatorship. Who is our only mediator? With whom does the sinner need to do business if he is to be saved? Must he talk to you? To me? No, he must do business with Christ, for He alone is the one who can bring us to God. But instructing a man to “come and talk to a personal worker” may well confuse matters. It again distracts from the One of Whom he should be thinking. The sermon itself is the invitation, and it gives direction to Christ and to no one else.

This is our great argument with Roman Catholicism. We need no priest but Christ! There are no other mediators, living or dead. We must go to God only by way of His Son or we will never reach him.

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A Confusion of Profession of Faith with Saving Faith Saving faith is not a decision that is made, and it is not a mouthing of a certain formula. Even if the formula is recited in prayer, this is not saving faith. Manipulating a person to say go through certain motions and say certain words does him no good whatever. This is not saving faith.

This is dangerous indeed. Can a man really be saved by saying “yes” to a series of questions? Have we done them any favor by allowing them to think so? This is a misunderstanding of saving faith. It is a confusion of professed faith with true saving faith.

This mistake has resulted in the unprecedented number of false converts which this century of evangelism has produced. Decisions and numbers there are, but the “converts” are notoriously unconverted. This is a direct result of confusing decisions with true faith, and it is a blight on the church. As Lewis Sperry Chafer said,

Careful students of evangelism have noticed that where the necessity of public action as a part of conversion has been most emphasized there has been a corresponding increase in the God-dishonoring record of so-called “backsliding”; and this is natural.

It is also inevitable. And it is shameful. And it is harmful, for we have convinced unconverted people that they are safe.

We must not mistake mere professions of faith with true, saving faith. Whether in formal preaching or in private witnessing or in special counseling, our instruction must not be directed to “decisions” but to Christ. We must show our hearers that Christ is the Savior, and we must exhort them to trust Him. This saving look to Christ may well be an event which you witness. But it just as well may be something that occurs later on when the person is alone with God. No matter. We give them the gospel, and we urge them to trust Christ. But there our work ends and God’s work begins.

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A Creation of False Assurance Moreover, this modern practice has tended to promote false assurance. We must frankly acknowledge that the modern invitation system has become a kind of third sacrament in the church. We all know so many who “know” they are Christians, because they were baptized as infants or as adults for that matter. The same is true of countless people who have “walked the aisle.” They were assured that if they would “come forward” and “make a decision” they could be saved. They came, and there some well-intentioned personal worker convinced them that because they came and answered “yes” to the various questions and then prayed “the sinner’s prayer” that now they are saved and no one should ever make them doubt it! Then they left. And they went back to the same old life they had. They made no real public profession of Christ, but because they did as they were instructed they “know” they are safe. This is a needless problem which we have created.

Once more the example of Charles Spurgeon is instructive. In his preaching he would address the sinner, saying, “Go home alone, trusting in Jesus.” Then he would enter dialogue with the sinner,

“I would like to go into the enquiry-room.” I dare say you would, but we are not willing to pander to popular superstition. We fear that in those rooms men are warmed into fictitious confidence. Very few of the supposed converts of enquiry-rooms turn out well. Go to your God at once, even where you are now. Cast yourself on Christ, now, at once, ere you stir an inch!”

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Published by Word of Life Baptist Church, Pottsville, PA
copyright © 1998 All rights reserved
Copying and other reproductions are permitted for non-commercial use only.

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