As the nation crumbles before us, what do we do? (Part 2)

Thank you for reading yesterday's post concerning Jeremiah and the destruction of Judah. I would like to follow up on that with, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story. In the book of Jeremiah, written during the latter stages of Judah's collapse, right in the midst of the dire prophecies of impending doom, there is this ray of glorious hope - the prophecy of the New Covenant, in which ...

God would restore His people, and give them new hope, new birth - a New Covenant. However, this newness of life would not come until not only the near-total destruction under Babylon, but would also be delayed until the total annihilation of the Old Covenant system, which finally came 40 years after the resurrection of Christ, when the Romans utterly destroyed Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple. What was the blackest of events for the Jews became the glorious light of hope through the preaching of the Gospel to the whole world, from which and through which God is gathering His elect people. So let us continue in hope, for Jesus, the King of the Universe, will have His will done on earth as it is heaven. That day will come. Maybe not in our time, but it will come. Soli Deo Gloria!

As the nation crumbles before us, what do we do?

Jeremiah watched the crumbling of his beloved nation. Inspired by God, he wrote a book about it. It's called "Lamentations". Though God raised up Babylon to punish Israel for their sins, it was not a joyous thing, but lamentable indeed. And He raised Babylon, not because He loved Babylon, nor because they were righteous, but because He loved His people, and saw to their discipline; but He hated Babylon whom He raised up, for they were evil to the core, and in due time saw to their just deserts, and reduced Babylon to dust. O that He might grant us repentance, and visit His enemies today.

Do Fundamentalist Christians Want to Kill Jews?

I no longer consider myself a fundamentalist, but liberals would call me one because I do believe the Bible is God's word.  And I am convinced that that branch of Christian theology to which I once adhered, known as dispensationalism (which represents the theology of nearly all fundamentalists), and it's offspring Christian Zionism, is an IMMEDIATE, LETHAL THREAT to Orthodox Christianity, which is best represented by that branch of Christian theology known as Covenant Theology.  I do not overstate that threat.  (See my series on dispensationalism and covenant theology beginning here.) 

However, though I oppose their theology as it pertains to the future and Israel, I do not go along with misrepresenting my fundamentalist brother's views nor do I go along with manufacturing evil motives that my brothers do not posses.  While fundamentalism/dispensationalism may be a threat to good theology, it is not in any way whatsoever a threat to human beings.  To the contrary, they are among the truest friends both a individual and a nation can have. 

Mark Alan Siegel, chairman of Florida’s Palm Beach County Democratic Party, told an interviewer the following about what he thinks about Christians and their relationship with Jews:

“The Christians just want us to be there so we can be slaughtered and converted and bring on the second coming of Jesus Christ.

“The worst possible allies for the Jewish state are the fundamentalist Christians who want Jews to die and convert so they can bring on the second coming of their Lord. It is a false friendship. They are seeking their own ends and not ours.
“I don’t believe the fundamentalists urging a greater Israel are friends of the Jewish state.”

Mr. Siegel commits a gross error when he says that fundamentalists “want” the Jews to be killed. As far as I’m concerned, that statement blackens out any light that might have otherwise shown. While vast majority of fundamentalists (i.e., dispensationalists) are unaware of the contradictory nature of their theology, and have not thought through the consequences of their notions, they nevertheless do not WANT Jews to die.  It’s preposterous to think such a thing.  They are indeed Christian Zionists and it is equally preposterous to allege that they are not friends of modern Israel.

I suspect that Siegel, like all liberal jews, is opposed to all forms of expressive religion, not just Christian Fundamentalism. He is a secularist above all else, and that’s the motivation for his rant.  He is anxious over the fundamentalists either because he himself is actually opposed to Zionism or he is a Zionist himself but strongly desires to exclude Christians from the movement.  Either one could be the case.  But no matter the case, his statements are irrational, and it's unfortunate that this type of lie spreads among mankind.

ObamaCare: My Prediction

Predictions:

1.  Obamacare will not be repealed, no matter who wins the election.  If Romney is elected, he will push for and get a bill introduced in Congress which he knows will not pass, leading to more drum-beating for more Republicans to be elected to Congress, which will not make a difference anyway.

2.  Regardless of who gets elected as President, sometime between the first Tuesday in November and the Presidential Inaugural, a bill will be introduced in congress proposing to require all sales of new vehicles be restricted to hybrid or fully electric vehicles.  The bill will be extremely leftist, and will have no chance of passage.

3.  The bill will be tamed down to trim off its more extreme elements, and will be re-introduced four years later and will pass with strategic Republican support, and will be signed into law by either Obama or Romney, who will justify it as “good for the country”.

4.  Conservatives will be furious, but will re-elect the deceiver Romney anyway, because he will still be “the lesser of two evils”.  If Romney is not the President, they will be furious but will nominate another liberal like, say, Jeb Bush, and will vote for him.  They will do this because they are sheep.

The only way to prevent these events and events like them, is 1) conservatives must return to their classical roots, shaking off the neo-conservative addiction to war money and big government power; 2) change ballot access laws to end the republicrat one-party monopoly so that we the people can vote for someone that actually represents our views, and not be expected to vote for a lesser evil, which by definition is evil.

USA TODAY Editors Think That War is Good for the Economy

Richard Kogan, senior fellow at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, says defense cutbacks hurt the economy. “When the economy is operating below capacity, more spending is good and less spending slows it down,” he says.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/story/2012-07-02/defense-spending-cuts-affect-economy/56016706/1?csp=ip

Factual guidance for USA TODAY editors:  1) Military is an expense; 2) expense is expensive; 3) expense is not revenue.

In its print version, USA TODAY editors headlined this article with this tidbit: “Defense cutbacks hinder economy: Less spending for war saps growth”.

The idea that war brings prosperity is a cosmic expansion of the “broken window fallacy“. It is also a cosmic lie.

I can understand the average person on the street not understanding the concept, but the supposedly educated editors at one of the world’s largest newspapers should know better. Here they expose either their phenomenal ignorance of basic economics, or their sycophantic devotion to The Lie.

The Greatest Hinderence to the Conservative Movement: The Republican Party

Apparently millions continue to harbor the strange delusion that the Republican party is the party of free enterprise, and, at least since the New Deal, the party of conservatism. In fact, the party is and always has been the party of state capitalism. That, along with the powers and perks it provides its leaders, is the whole reason for its creation and continued existence. By state capitalism I mean a regime of highly concentrated private ownership, subsidized and protected by government. The Republican party has never, ever opposed any government interference in the free market or any government expenditure except those that might favour labour unions or threaten Big Business. Consider that for a long time it was the party of high tariffs — when high tariffs benefited Northern big capital and oppressed the South and most of the population. Now it is the party of so-called “free trade” — because that is the policy that benefits Northern big capital, whatever it might cost the rest of us. In succession, Republicans presented opposite policies idealistically as good for America, while carefully avoiding discussion of exactly who it was good for. (Clyde Wilson)

It is not the blatant leftist Democratic Party that is the hinderance to progress for conservative ideals – it is the Republican party, with all of its bluster about free markets and small government, that is pulling the proverbial wool over the sheep’s eyes. You must understand that the GOP never was, and is not today, the party of individual freedoms or state’s rights. That doesn’t mean that the Donkey Party IS – but what it indicates is that the two parties are two heads of the same body, fighting over control, to see who will dictate the future to the masses.

The best thing that can happen for conservative is to: 1) understand the relationship between war-making and tyranny; 2) understand that neither party has the interest of the common man or the small business man in mind; 3) neither party believes in individual rights; 4) neither party believes that rights are granted by God, or even nature; 5) the only hope for freedom is the break up of the two party system, or else the American Union itself will break up.

For a primer, Clyde Wilson gives us an accurate history of the founding of the Party of Lincoln:

The Republican Charade: Lincoln and His Party

Moving In to Blogger

My name is Joel Watson and this is http://www.joelwatson1.blogspot.com/. I started my blogging experience over at Wordpress at www.joelwatson.wordpress.com, under the title of “Theology, Philosophy, and Other Thoughts”, and then later moved to www.sovereigngod.wordpress.com, due to the fact that almost all of my postings were of a theological or church-related nature, and also because my main duty in life at the time was hosting Bible studies and propagating the Good Word. As time rolled on, I found more and more difficult and inhibiting to frame all of my thoughts in a theological setting. Oh, don’t take that the wrong way – everything can be tied to one’s theology – every thought and action. Nothing in my view of this has changed. It’s just that my readers may find it disingenuous or clumsily contrived to associate a bad day at work with, say, Ecclesiology, or Anthropology. I will still attempt to show the relationship of all of life to the God who created it, but under a more populist banner. And I intend to be more personal, relating some of my personal history to readers – something that should never take place in a sermon or serious treatise of any sort.

The range of subjects is not limited – from religion to politics to music to warts to anything else.

This move from Wordpress to Blogger is happening at this time due to certain restrictions at Wordpress that do not exist at Blogger.  Wordpress is a good blog service and I have nothing bad to say about them, just that they have restrictions on Adsense that Blogger does not have for some reason.

This blog is for a General Audience, which means that comments must be done in a way that doesn’t send the wrong message to children, and must not be obscene, or else I will disapprove them. Words that express anger are welcome, but they must be tamed down enough to meet the criteria for approval. The final arbiter is my opinion of what is appropriate and what is not. It is my blog, after all.

Feel free to explore my other blogs (address given above), and leave comments here or there.

Religiously, I have journeyed from fundamentalism (Christian, not Muslim !!) to a type of Reformed Theology (I sometimes list my religion as “Primitive Baptist”, but I have not actually joined a Primitive Baptist Church). Politically, I have journeyed from conservative (in reality, a “neo” conservative), to something between a Christian Libertarian and a political agnostic (i.e., just stay out of it).

My writing is often riddled with missing words and prefixes, etc. I am one of those that can read scrambled words very easily, and that seems to affect my ability to find scrambled words and phrases when I write. Spellcheck doesn’t catch everything. So please be charitable toward me on that issue. Thank you.