The old “convert or die” stance against these, His own brethren,
Whom Paul admonished us to treat well.
Dark, antisemitic words from the seminal Reformation voice;
The “Third Reich’s” falsely citing Christianity in its darkest wrongs.
And the surviving remnant of all these diabolical schemes
Understandably concluding that “Jews don’t believe in Jesus” –
Their orthodoxy sure to tell them “The New Testament isn’t for Jews.”
A false dichotomy!

What culture wouldn’t love to claim Yeshua?
But He bears a Hebrew name.
Yet the long, tragic story of the Jewish people
And the “leading” of their still-tradition-blinded guides
Still block recognition and reunion.
Many among the one nation that can claim Jesus continue to reject or ignore Him!
Yet God’s ultimate plan unfolds on course.

Through the story of Jacob’s son Joseph,
Yahweh shows us that, though Christ’s own brethren,
Like Joseph’s, through their evil leaders of His day,
May have treated Him terribly –
One day, like Joseph’s brethren, they will learn that He lives –
And have a private, impassioned conversation.
At long last they will be utterly reconciled to the Son — all argumentation will cease.
They will be freed from all the hurt, the blindness, the lie.

He will hasten to embrace and weep along with them,
Like Joseph with his astonished brothers long ago.
Like Joseph’s brothers, they had not recognized Him!
Yet it is He who has saved and will preserve them!
Yeshua loves — has always loved — Israel first and forever.
It is through Israel’s having prepared the way for Jesus that all nations have been blessed –
The Abrahamic Covenant forever fulfilled in Him.

© ccolbert for Voice of Revolution, 2013. | Permalink

This is actually a perfect illustration of American Charismatic Christianity, where you can say you love Jesus (like the rapper “The Game” claims to do) and still frequent strip clubs (as “The Game” still does), or where you can flow in the gifts of the Spirit and become a made-for-TV preaching sensation, only to announce that God told you that you married the wrong woman, leading to a quick divorce and remarriage.

Yes, this is the “gospel” of the 21^st century, “Spirit-filled” Church of America, where the cross is bypassed, denial of the flesh is scorned, purity is called legalism, and anything goes if it feels good.

It is the “gospel” of self, in which Jesus dies to make you into a bigger and better you, a “gospel” in which God is here to serve you and help you fulfill your dreams, and where the measure of all things is not how God feels about it but how you feel about it (or how it makes you feel).

Back in the late 1950’s (as I recounted in my 1990 book How Saved Are We?) there was a notorious gangster named Mickey Cohen. He attended a Billy Graham meeting in Beverly Hills, and although he expressed some interest in the message, as revival historian J. Edwin Orr explained, Cohen “made no commitment until some time later when another friend urged him, using Revelation 3:20 as a warrant, to invite Jesus Christ into his life. This he professed to do, but his life susbsequently gave no evidence of repentance, ‘that mighty change of mind, heart and life’ [as defined by Richard Trench]. He rebuked [his] friend, telling him: ‘You did not tell me that I would have to give up my work,’ meaning his rackets; ‘You did not tell me that I would have to give up my friends,’ meaning his gangster associates. He had heard that so-and-so was a Christian football player, so-and-so a Christian cowboy, so-and-so a Christian actress, so-and-so a Christian senator, and he really thought that he could be a Christian gangster.”

Today, in some charismatic circles, you can be a Christian gangster – or, at least, a tongue-talking, seductive starlet, or a Christian lingerie model, or a strip-club attending, Jesus-speaking rapper, just to mention a few. After all, as we are reminded day and night, “Who are you to judge?”

Actually, what Jesus taught was that we should not judge hypocritically or superficially or unjustly and that we should not condemn. But Jesus also said, “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment” (John 7:24). The Lord commands us to judge, as long as we do it rightly.

Paul taught the very same thing, writing to the Corinthians, “not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler–not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?” (1 Corinthian 5:11-12)

Why is it that everyone seems to know the words, “Judge not” (Matthew 7:1), but very few seem to know – or care about – the divine call to judge those “inside the church” (meaning those who profess to be followers of Jesus)?

Without a doubt, only the Lord knows who is saved and who is not. But the Word make things very simple for us, outlining God’s part and our part: “But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are his,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.’” (2 Timothy 2:19) There you have it! To quote the words of John, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9). Could God make himself any more clear?

Unfortunately, as Orr noted years ago, “Many have sadly forgotten that the only evidence of the new birth is the new life,” and the Scriptures make perfectly clear that if we profess to follow Jesus with our lips but do not follow Him with our lives, we do not belong to Him. (I’m not talking about momentary lapses in our walks with the Lord or about serious mistakes that we make, only to reject and renounce them. God’s mercy and forgiveness are great. I’m talking about the consistent, willful pattern of our lives. Are we following Jesus or not?)

It’s time to say goodbye to this watered-down, sin-excusing, so-called gospel that offers everything and calls for nothing. It’s time to get back to the cross and back to the truth. Otherwise, as America collapses in a heap of amoral ruin, the soft preachers of America will be largely to blame.

Dr. Michael Brown is the author of The Real Kosher Jesus and the host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show The Line of Fire on the Salem Radio Network.

© Bryan Purtle for Voice of Revolution, 2013. | Permalink

To be sure, Orwell never used the term “doublespeak,” but in his classic volume “1984,” he referred to “doublethink” and “newspeak.” Others have combined these terms into “doublespeak,” meaning to say one thing and mean the opposite. As noted on a contemporary Orwell website, “In 1984, when BIG BROTHER and the Party say PEACE they mean WAR, when they say LOVE they mean HATE, and when they say FREEDOM they mean SLAVERY.”

Today, in 2013, when this administration says “inclusion and acceptance of all Americans” it means “exclusion and rejection of multiplied tens of millions of Americans.” And when this administration uses the “diversity,” word, it means “narrow conformity,” in strict accordance with the Gay Activist Doublespeak Lexicon, as reflected in the comments of Addie Whisenant, spokeswoman for the Presidential Inaugural Committee.

Whisenant explained that President Obama had asked Pastor Louie Giglio to pray at the inaugural ceremonies before learning that this evangelical pastor had preached an evangelical sermon in the mid-1990’s entitled, “In Search of a Standard – Christian Response to Homosexuality.” Using the “diversity” word, she noted that the inaugural committee was “not aware of Pastor Giglio’s past comments at the time of his selection and they don’t reflect our desire to celebrate the strength and diversity of our country at this Inaugural.”

So there you have it: A popular evangelical pastor (well known, I might add, for his work against sex trafficking) was excluded from participating at the inauguration of President Obama in order to “celebrate the . . . diversity” of America and to reflect the “administration’s vision of inclusion and acceptance for all Americans” (both quotes from Whisenant).

As I noted on October 13, 2012, “In the upside down, gay activist lexicon, tolerance means intolerance, inclusivity means exclusivity, and diversity means my way or the highway.”

The whole inaugural event becomes even more Orwellian when you realize that: 1) President Obama will be using two Bibles when he is sworn in (the Lincoln Bible and the Martin Luther King Bible), yet he will be doing so while explicitly disavowing the contents of those Bibles on a number of critically important points (the divine mandate to protect innocent life and the divine disapproval of homosexual practice being two of the most glaring).

2) In 2009, at the ceremonies held one day before President Obama’s first inauguration, Bishop Eugene Robinson was asked to bring the opening invocation, yet Robinson has been one of the most divisive figures in American (and even world) religion since making history as the first openly gay bishop ordained by the Episcopal Church. So, a respected Protestant pastor like Louie Giglio is considered divisive whereas an openly homosexual bishop who has caused a fissure in the Episcopalian Church of America and the Anglican Church worldwide is considered an ideal choice. (Chad Griffin, president of the gay activist Human Rights Campaign, agreed that it would be right to exclude Giglio from this year’s event, since “Participants in the Inaugural festivities should unite rather than divide,” presumably just as Robinson “united” Americans in 2009.)

3) Although Pastor Giglio was branded as “vehemently anti-gay” by Think Progress, preaching one major sermon on the subject of homosexuality over a 20 year period hardly qualifies as being “vehemently anti-gay.” And when Giglio stated almost 20 years ago that acting on homosexual desires is a choice, that homosexual practice is “a sin,” that “homosexuality is less than God’s best for his creation,” and that the “only way out of a homosexual lifestyle … is through the healing power of Jesus,” he was hardly expressing viewpoints that were “vehemently anti-gay.”

4) Just four years ago, despite protests from gay activists and their allies, Pastor Rick Warren offered the benediction at Obama’s inauguration, even though he had publicly opposed same-sex “marriage” in California in 2008. Now, based on a mild sermon preached almost 20 years ago, Pastor Giglio has been excluded from offering the benediction. How dramatically things have changed in just four years.

In a very important article, Rev. Al Mohler was quick to label this “The Giglio Imbroglio — The Public Inauguration of a New Moral McCarthyism,” noting that, “The Presidential Inaugural Committee and the White House have now declared historic, biblical Christianity to be out of bounds, casting it off the inaugural program as an embarrassment” – along with the orthodox expressions of Judaism and Islam, among other world faiths.

Yes, the administration has decided to scorn the views of perhaps 150 million Americans (if not many more) in order to celebrate our country’s “diversity” and to reflect “this administration’s vision of inclusion and acceptance for all Americans.”

Somewhere, Big Brother is smiling, and in America, it’s 1984 in 2013. In fact, it’s been 1984 for a quite a few years already. The problem is that most Americans don’t have a clue. Doublespeak has been doing a masterful job.

Dr. Michael Brown is the author of The Real Kosher Jesus and the host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show The Line of Fire on the Salem Radio Network.

© Bryan Purtle for Voice of Revolution, 2013. | Permalink

To be clear, though, I’m speaking of the circles in which I travel, meaning evangelical Christian circles, so my observations might not apply to other Christian groups in America.

What are some of the strengths of the American Evangelical Church?

1) We are at the forefront of feeding the poor and providing disaster relief worldwide. From the earthquake in Haiti to the tsunami in Japan, and from orphanages in Latin America to feeding programs in Africa, organizations like World Vision and Samaritan’s Purse are there, making a difference.

2) We are a generous people when it comes to funding gospel work in America and abroad. While we can sometimes be self-indulgent as we build our latest mega-edifice, we are a giving people overall.

3) We have produced an abundance of Christian resources. If you’re looking for the latest translation of the Bible or a book on any aspect of Christian living, and if you’d like to download it to your phone, look no further.

4) We have a positive, can-do mentality. This is part of the American psyche, but it comports well with the biblical message of “All things are possible with God.”

5) Our churches offer many practical programs to help everyone from recovering drug addicts to couples needing marital counseling. To this day, ministries like Teen Challenge, which help people with drug and alcohol addictions, put government organizations to shame in terms of consistent rates of success.

6) We are strongly pro-life and pro-morality. This is especially true compared to Christians in many other nations, who seem oblivious to the evil of abortion and who fail to take moral stands on other issues.

7) We are strongly pro-Israel. Even the Israeli Knesset recognizes that American evangelicals are its best friends in the world, although in recent years, some evangelicals have challenged this consistent support for Israel.

8) We have sent many missionaries to the nations, also providing them with financial support. Beginning in 1812, this has been a great part of our spiritual history, and it has not primarily been for the purpose colonizing foreign peoples or making them into Westerners.

What are some of the weaknesses of the American Evangelical Church?

1) Our Christian expression is often shallow and superficial. It has often been said that American Christianity is 3,000 miles wide and one mile deep.

2)  We have been plagued with scandals among our leaders. Hardly a month (or week?) goes by without news of the moral failure of another one of our leaders.

3) We preach a carnal prosperity message. This is not the Protestant work ethic of old; it is the message of, “Jesus died on the cross to make me financially rich.”

4) We export our false teaching around the world. The latest teaching coming from professing evangelicals is that you can practice homosexuality and follow Jesus at the same time, and from our shores, this message is going to the nations.

5) We have created a worldly, cultural Christianity. Rather than preaching a Jesus who radically changes us, we preach a Jesus who radically empowers us. That’s why we have “Christian” lingerie models and “Christian” rappers who frequent strip clubs.

6) We have perfected the gospel enterprise. We have learned how to make everything “Christian” and then market it. Someone once said, “What began as a movement in Jerusalem became a philosophy in Greece, a monument in Rome, a culture in Europe, and an enterprise in America.”

7) We run our churches like businesses. It is one thing to implement good business principles where applicable, but our “corporate Christianity,” especially in our bigger churches, is another thing, and the pastor has become the CEO.

8) We are self-dependent. Who needs God’s help and we can make it happen on our own? If you want a performance, just visit our church on Sunday morning.

9) We are heavily politicized. Rather than being a prophetic witness to the society, calling on political leaders to do the right thing, we have sold our souls to the political system.

10) We have produced super-star preachers. Didn’t Jesus teach that leaders were supposed to be the servants of all?

11) We are exceptionally gullible. Only in America can a TV minister be convicted of various kinds of scams, only to be back on TV racking in the big bucks and selling all kinds of cheap gospel gimmicks. We have confused simple faith with gullibility.

12) Our “pep talk gospel” is hardly the gospel at all. Being positive and encouraging is great, but not when it comes at the expense of leaving out the rest of the message. Put another way, Jesus was not a motivational preacher.

The bad news is that the list of negatives can go on. The good news is that American history has been marked by great awakenings and revivals, and if ever we needed one, it is now.

My suspicion is that the next great awakening will also be quite a rude awakening.

Dr. Michael Brown is the author of The Real Kosher Jesus and the host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show The Line of Fire on the Salem Radio Network.

© Bryan Purtle for Voice of Revolution, 2013. | Permalink

“I discovered Israel
like grapes in the wilderness.
I saw your fathers
like the first fruit of the fig tree in its first season.”

In these lines God reveals His rejoicing over Israel. Certainly the Tanakh or Old Testament details Israel’s repeatedly falling into idolatry and various other sinful practices that greatly grieved God. Yet we see His great delight and hope in the people of Israel as well; His keeping His side of the covenant even when Israel repeatedly did not. More importantly, we remember Paul’s words to the effect that Israel had not stumbled, through her leaders of Jesus’ time, so badly as to be lost. “God forbid,” as he expressed it.

We know that Jesus wept over the Holy City shortly before the crucifixion. He recalled Israel’s long history of stoning the prophets who had been sent. He sadly predicted Israel’s misfortune as a result of her not knowing “the time of your visitation.” He undoubtedly saw Israel’s singular suffering down the centuries — right up to the present time. He alone knows “the end from the beginning.” Yeshua never stopped loving Israel.

Knowing that from ancient times the symbol of the fig tree had been used by God to represent Israel, we can understand the metaphor of Yeshua’s cursing the literal fig tree that failed to meet his personal hunger needs shortly before the crucifixion. The nation that God had painstakingly cultivated, in keeping His covenant to Abraham, had failed to recognize its long-prophesied Messiah. Her religious leaders had repeatedly tried to use Scripture to trip Jesus up — and to find an excuse to execute Him. He reminded them that it was these very Scriptures “that testify of Me.” Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 are prominent cases in point.

In Luke 13:6-8 we find Jesus’ informative “parable of the barren fig tree.”

“A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ But he replied to him, ‘Sir, leave it this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. Perhaps it will bear fruit next year, but if not, you can cut it down.’ ”   (my italics)

As we consider this earlier parable and His later weeping over Jerusalem because of the blind arrogance of its religious leaders, there can be little doubt about the figurative meaning of His uncharacteristic act of “cursing” the literal fig tree. For three years He had “come seeking fruit” from the religious leaders of Israel — and found none. Not only did they not rejoice in and work alongside of their long-desired Messiah — they sought to murder Him!

But in His parable we see as well His reassurance to Israel that — unlike the literal fig tree that He cursed — the “vinedresser,” Yeshua, intercedes for the “fig tree” with its “owner,” Yahweh — in the hope that at a later time, or as Scripture often puts it, “in that day,” with increased “fertilizing and cultivation,” a reference to the Holy Spirit, Israel would indeed recognize her Messiah and “bear fruit.”

In considering the uncharacteristic nature of Jesus’ cursing anything, we remember the disciples’ having asked Him if they should retaliate against those who had prohibited their evangelism. He responded that their question revealed that they didn’t understand His mission or His nature. His mission was and is not to destroy, but to save the lost; his nature is Love. We see His clear signal against anger and violence again as we consider His reaching up to restore the ear of the high priest’s servant, Malchus, who was among those who had come to Gethsemane to take Jesus captive. Peter had impulsively cut off Malchus’ right ear. We recall “the Prince of peace” admonishing Peter to put his sword away even as He restored the ear of His own “captor.”

Jesus didn’t come to curse, to criticize, or to destroy. He came to love, to forgive, to restore, and to save.

But He had repeatedly assailed the values of Israel’s religious leaders. Their regard for money, for esteem in the marketplace. Their willingness to “devour widows’ households,” and their hypocrisy. Their arrogant pride in and attention to every jot and tittle of “the law.” He had continually worked to get through to the leaders of Israel — and to obtain the “fruit” of His centuries-long husbandry of them — over the course of His three-year ministry.

After the cursing of the fig tree, when the disciples marveled to see that it had withered from its roots, Yeshua reminded them to “Have faith in God.” Perhaps He also intended that the fig tree, representative of what “religion” had come to be among the proud Jewish leaders of His day, deserved to be withered. That the emphasis was to be on faith, on the spirit of the law, which gives life — rather than on a belabored legal mindset and the letter of the law, which had been misused for personal aggrandizement to the extent of blinding its proponents to their own Messiah!

Israel, the covenanted, chosen people and nation, the figurative fig tree, had not “been there” for Him when He came to them in fulfillment of His covenant promise and their own Scriptures. Just as the literal fig tree that should have been in season was “without fruit” when He went to it in hunger, only a few days before the crucifixion that He clearly foresaw.

The fig tree figures again in the sacred text in the Gospel of Mark, where we find Jesus describing the dark passage at the end of the age, in answer to a question asked privately by Peter, James, and John, along with Peter’s brother, Andrew. This conversation is known as the Olivet Discourse because it took place on the Mount of Olives. Speaking of the last days, their question was, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign when all these things are about to take place?”

In replying Jesus describes false messiahs, wars and rumors of wars. He urges us not to be alarmed because “these things must take place, but the end is not yet.” He tells his disciples that nation will rise against nation, that there will be earthquakes and famines in “diverse” places, and that these are only “the beginning of birth pains.”

He describes persecution of Christians for their faith. He tells them — and us — not to worry about how we will respond to questioning in these difficult circumstances, because the Holy Spirit will speak through us. He indicates that family members will even betray one another “to death.” That Christians will be “hated by everyone because of My name,” adding, “But the one who endures to the end will be delivered.”

He describes an “abomination that causes desolation standing where it should not,” after which the text parenthetically admonishes “the reader” to understand. He warns people in Judea to flee immediately when this abomination occurs — without even going back to their homes to get extra clothing or important possessions. He tells us that unless God had “limited those days no one would survive. But He limited those days because of the elect, whom He chose.”

He speaks a second time of false messiahs, but reminds us that He has told us everything in advance. He describes a time after this tribulation when the sun, moon, and stars will be shaken. Speaking immediately to His four disciples and through them, down the centuries, to us, He reminds us that He tells us these things in advance so that we will be alert, so that we will be watching.

And then these most-beautiful words: “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. He will send out the angels and gather His elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.”

He then provides the clear “sign” that the four disciples had requested:

“Learn this parable from the fig tree: As soon as its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves, you know that summer is near.  In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that He is near — at the door!  I assure you: This generation will certainly not pass away until all these things take place.”    (Mark 13:28,29)

In addition to providing signals we can read in world events, He links them to Israel with the unmistakable “figure” of the fig tree. Israel has been described as “God’s prophetic time-clock.”

As we recall the passages from Joel and Hosea, and Yeshua’s own parable of the fig tree — subsequently illustrated by His actual cursing of the fruitless, literal fig tree, the meaning of His fig-tree reference in His answer to His disciples here becomes unmistakable. He was building on a well-established metaphor. The greening of the fig tree speaks of Israel’s having returned to its ancient homeland; of its having transformed a barren, desert place into an oasis growing bountiful crops, including tropical fruit and roses. We recall the scriptural verse to the effect that “the desert will blossom as the rose.” Israel, whose land for centuries had lain desolate, has become a leading exporter of roses to Europe.

Yeshua was following God’s long tradition of alerting his servants before He did anything significant. He told us the developments to be watching for; He encouraged us to be alert. He told us what we would need to know as we begin to experience perilous times.

Prophecy teachers perceive that Jesus was speaking of the generation that would see Jerusalem come under Israel’s control again after more than 2,000 years, which occurred in 1967, with His time-reference to “This generation” in Mark 13:29.

Are we watching?

© ccolbert for Voice of Revolution, 2012. | Permalink

The Book of Psalms, comprising lyrics that were set to music, and essentially poetry, provides some of the most beautiful passages in the sacred text.

Psalm 118′s many paragraphs, or perhaps we should say stanzas, speak of Israel’s history and even, interestingly, its present experience! This historic-and-current narrative regarding Israel is interspersed with liturgical supplication and praise.

We find here passages that speak of Israel’s being surrounded by enemies, of God’s strong protection; and others that generally reflect ancient Israel’s faith and thanksgiving toward God.

But in the midst of this setting of divergent themes and lyrical reprise, we find this powerful, prophetic jewel: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.”

Ancient Israel, the primary arrow in God’s quiver in His earlier mission through humanity, and His first-chosen “builders” of His holy Temple — and people — on earth, would reject God’s own “chief cornerstone” for that “Temple”! David or another lyricist speaks unmistakably here — amid the historical narrative and broad-stroke supplication and praise — of Yeshua, of Jesus.

We remember His weeping over the Holy City shortly before the crucifixion — the city He had so long loved. His telling Jerusalem that her people would not see Him again until they welcomed Him in recognition.

God, who had long worked through Abraham’s descendants to lift humanity, was not surprised by Israel’s religious authorities’ rejection of her own long-desired — and longingly-desired — Messiah. This stiff-necked opinion is still heard in the streets of Jerusalem — and New York, for that matter — today — from orthodox leaders who follow in the footsteps of those misguided religious leaders two millennia ago.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem — as He who is the resurrection and the life had wept over the grief of Lazarus’ sisters four days after his death. Jesus/Yeshua/Yahweh/the Holy Spirit was not surprised by the developments in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago. Psalm 118 even goes so far as to reveal that this appalling and well-known trajectory was “His doing.”

In Isaiah 49:6,7 we catch a glimpse of God’s plan:

He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also make You a light of the nations
So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”   (NASB)

Moving our focus forward several centuries, we see Paul venturing out toward the “gentile” or non-Jewish world that surrounded Israel. The very-Jewish, self-described “Pharisee of Pharisees,” by way of his dramatic conversion experience on the heels of his having facilitated the martyrdom of Stephen, “saw the light” and became a stunningly effective tool in God’s hand — toward the enormous work that is not “too small a thing” for our unbounded God.

Abraham was told that through him all nations would be blessed. At one level we see the tiny, long-troubled nation of Israel — its many achievements that are noticeably disproportionate to its size, and their striking benefits to all humanity.

At another, much-higher level stands Yeshua — Abraham’s “seed” through Mary. We remember God’s revealing words to Satan in Genesis: “The seed of the woman shall crush your head.” Baruch haba b’shem Adonai. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD.

© ccolbert for Voice of Revolution, 2012. | Permalink

Without a doubt, I have grave concerns about where our nation could be heading under four more years of President Obama and I grieve over the steady erosion of our liberties.

I am burdened by the deepening division within our country and troubled over real questions about our relationship with Israel along with issues concerning our national security. And I am pained by the fact that, for the first time, Americans voted to redefine marriage and make it genderless (and we did in all four states where this was on the ballot).

But I also believe that Obama’s reelection could be exactly what is needed for the Church to be the Church in our country, since we know we can’t look to the White House for change. And, as much as I hate to say it, it may take a serious national decline before the people of God awaken and arise. Unfortunately, as long as we pour so much of our time and energy and money and emotion into politics, we will fail to give ourselves fully to the Great Commission and to living as Jesus revolutionaries. (I certainlyl believe in the importance of politics; I’m talking here about a question of emphasis.)

On Sunday night, I felt prompted to write an article to be posted Monday morning, warning moral conservatives about the pitfalls in putting our trust in Governor Romney if he was elected president, and I’m glad I wrote the article. The warning stands, especially if we had deluded ourselves into thinking that a Romney presidency would have brought about radical moral and cultural changes in America, such as the end of legalized abortion on demand.

But I closed the article with these words: “And what if Barack Obama is re-elected? Then we would do well to avoid the trap of putting most of our energies into rebuking the president’s latest transgressions. Instead, we will have to focus our efforts like never before on fomenting a moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Come to think of it, that would be a sound course of action if Mitt Romney is our next president too. Can I count you in?

“The time for this kind of revolution – not a violent one but an ideological, cultural one – is long overdue, and I for one am not waiting for the White House to make it happen. How about you?”

Now, with the most radical pro-abortion, pro-gay-activist president in our history elected to a second term, we will not deceive ourselves into looking to the White House for help (although we should pray fervently for God to get hold of him and turn his heart). Instead, we must give ourselves to personal and corporate repentance, to faith-filled, persistent prayer for revival and awakening, to a renewed commitment to preach the gospel without shame and compromise, and to an unshakable resolve to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

In the year 2000, I wrote these words in The Jesus Manifesto: A Call to Revolution: “The dawning of the 21st century finds the church of America in a moral and spiritual crisis. Decades of self-centered living and worldliness have taken their toll. Years of compromise and toothless gospel preaching have had their effect. And now we have reached the moment of truth: Either we wake up, stand up, speak up, and act up, or we run the risk of becoming a mere historic curiosity, an irrelevant religious sideshow, an entertaining, harmless spectacle. Something must change, and it must change now. There is no other choice.”

Twelve years later, this message is more urgent than ever, and that is the very thing that gives me hope. The charade is over. The curtain has been lifted. Lightweight “Christianity” has been exposed.

Our watered-down, barely recognizable “gospel” has produced disastrous fruit and our pitiful attempt to become relevant to the world by becoming like the world (not in terms of cultural sensitivity but in terms of moral and spiritual compromise) has failed miserably. We must have a spiritual awakening coupled with the restoration of the real gospel message. It truly is a matter of revival or we die.

Charles Finney brought this strong charge back in 1873: “The error that lies at the foundation of this decay of individual and public conscience originates, no doubt, in the pulpit. . . .

“Brethren, our preaching will bear its legitimate fruits. If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree.

“If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it.

“If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the    pulpit is responsible for it.

“Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation.”

Let the awakening begin with each one of us, especially those of us who serves as leaders in the Body, and let the Jesus revolution arise in our midst until the nation is shaken with the gospel.

On with it!

Dr. Michael Brown is the author of The Real Kosher Jesus and the host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show The Line of Fire on the Salem Radio Network.

© Bryan Purtle for Voice of Revolution, 2012. | Permalink

But being forewarned is being fore-equipped, and that negative scenario does not have to unfold. Instead, if we do our job and urge the president to do his, calling him to account at every point and offering positive support, whether he fails or succeeds, our mission will continue unabated. In fact, the more he fails, the more will we realize that the responsibility for moral and social change falls on us, not on him.

Now, my hope is that President Romney will follow through on his promise to defund Planned Parenthood, that he will be a champion for the rights of the unborn, that he will appoint excellent justices to the Supreme Court, that he will offer compassionate and practical solutions to help and empower the poor, that he will push for a federal amendment defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, and that he will defend DOMA in the courts in accordance with the pledge he signed for the National Organization of Marriage. (In stark contrast, one shudders to think what Mr. Obama would do if elected to a second term, barring a miraculous change of heart.)

That is my hope for President Romney, but it is not my expectation. Rather, I expect that his overriding emphasis will be on fixing the economy, that he will work hard for a bipartisan base, that he will seek to govern as a statesman who unites the country, and that he will avoid “divisive” issues. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if some of his first appointees were anything but moral conservatives.

Of course, this is not to downplay the importance of the economy, which itself has all kinds of moral implications. As stated in the recent New York Daily News endorsement of Romney, “Nine million jobs evaporated. The typical American family saw $50,000 vanish from its net worth, and its median household income dropped by more than $87 a week.” This is nothing to snivel at.

And if President Romney can help breach some of the deep divisions in our country, assuring the nation that he is the president of all Americans, that too would be a positive moral and social accomplishment.

But I am not putting my trust in a political savior, especially one with a mixed track record like Mitt Romney when it comes to abortion and gay activism, and I am determined to learn the lessons from the past. No more looking to the White House to transform America!

Really now, how many times will we aggressively get out the vote for the latest conservative savior – or at the least, the conservative antidote to the latest evil emperor – only to say, “We’ve been used! You let us down!” How many times we will live out Einstein’s famous definition of insanity, namely, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”?

So, my vote is for Mitt Romney, with some hope, with a lot of reservation, and without a lot of expectation, although I would be absolutely delighted to have my reservations proved wrong.

And what if Barack Obama is reelected? Then we would do well to avoid the trap of putting most of our energies into rebuking the president’s latest transgressions. Instead, we will have to focus our efforts like never before on on fomenting a moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Come to think of it, that would be a sound course of action if Mitt Romney is our next president too. Can I count you in?

The time for this kind of revolution – not a violent one but an ideological, cultural one – is long overdue, and I for one am not waiting for the White House to make it happen. How about you?

Dr. Michael Brown is the author of The Real Kosher Jesus and the host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show The Line of Fire on the Salem Radio Network.

© Bryan Purtle for Voice of Revolution, 2012. | Permalink

In May, Rev. Billy Graham took out full page ads in North Carolina newspapers stating in part, “The Bible is clear — God’s definition of marriage is between a man and a woman. I want to urge my fellow North Carolinians to vote FOR the marriage amendment.”

Gay activist Wayne Besen responded by asking, “Do we now make our civil laws based upon Christian Sharia?” (Note to the reader: This was meant to be taken seriously.) “Do we all have to follow his version of the Bible or be punished by government? And if this is the case, are we really a free country? Are we really much different than Iran, or is it only by a matter of degrees or a matter of time until these so-called ‘Christian Supremacists’ get their paws on all of our laws?”

Markos Moulitsas, founder of the radically left-leaning DailyKos.com, published an entire book on these themes in 2010, entitled American Taliban: How War, Sex, Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists and the Radical Right. In the Introduction he wrote, “the Republican Party, and the entire modern conservative movement is, in fact, very much like the Taliban. In their tactics and on the issues, our homegrown American Taliban are almost indistinguishable from the Afghan Taliban. . . . the Republican Party, and the entire modern conservative movement is, in fact, very much like the Taliban. In their tactics and on the issues, our homegrown American Taliban are almost indistinguishable from the Afghan Taliban.” (Additional note to the reader: This book is not intended to be a spoof on the left, a la the old Mad Magazine parodies. It too is meant to be taken seriously, even if it does make for some unintended comedic reading.)

Already in May, 2005, John McCandlish Phillips, formerly a Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times reporter, penned a telling article in the Washington Post: “I have been looking at myself, and millions of my brethren, fellow evangelicals along with traditional Catholics, in a ghastly arcade mirror lately — courtesy of this newspaper and the New York Times. Readers have been assured, among other dreadful things, that we are living in ‘a theocracy’ and that this theocratic federal state has reached the dire level of — hold your breath — a ‘jihad.’”

He observed that, just days earlier, “Frank Rich, an often acute, broadly knowledgeable and witty cultural observer, sweepingly informed us that, under the effects of ‘the God racket’ as now pursued in Washington, ‘government, culture, science, medicine and the rule of law are all under threat from an emboldened religious minority out to remake America according to its dogma.’ He went on to tell Times readers that GOP zealots in Congress and the White House have edged our country over into ‘a full-scale jihad.’”

Bringing us back to reality, Phillips noted that, “If any ‘emboldened minority’ is aiming to ‘remake America according to its dogma,’ it seems to many evangelicals and Catholics that it is the vanguard wanting, say, the compact of marriage to be stretched in its historic definition to include men cohabiting with men and women with women. That is, in terms of the history of this nation, a most pronounced and revolutionary novelty.”

But that is the voice of clearheaded, rational thinking. In the world of Chris Matthews, if you argue that a baby in the womb, upon conception, is entitled to personhood status, you are espousing a position “almost like Sharia,” which Matthews sums up by exclaiming, “This is extremism!” Indeed, for Matthews, in the early stages of pregnancy, we are certainly not dealing with a baby in the womb, let alone “a fetus,” but “rather an egg that had just been fertilized, right after sex, if you will.”

So, the high regard for life and the protection of the innocent that fuels the Republican platform on abortion is nothing more than Sharia-like extremism. (To repeat once more, this is meant to be taken seriously.)

The good news is that the more these leftwing commentators play their “Jihadist, Sharia, Taliban” card, the more the absurdity of their positions will be revealed. The bad news is that a considerable number of listeners and readers will continue to believe them.

Perhaps it would be worthwhile if some wealthy benefactor could pay for Matthews, Besen, Moulitsas, Rich and their ilk to spend six months, all expenses paid, living in a country like Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia, where the hanging of gays and the beheading of adulterers is commonly practiced (and fully sanctioned) under Sharia Law, and where conversion from Islam to another religion is punishable by death.

Perhaps they could even write their columns or do their broadcasts from there (that is, if the prisons would allow them to after their arrests).

Dr. Michael Brown is the author of The Real Kosher Jesus and the host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show The Line of Fire on the Salem Radio Network.

© Bryan Purtle for Voice of Revolution, 2012. | Permalink

Our online dictionary includes this definition for the word “Hebrew”:

ORIGIN: from Old French Ebreu, via Latin from late Greek Hebraios, from Aramaic ‛i b ray, based on Hebrew ‛i b rî — understood to mean ‘one from the other side (of the river).’

Abraham’s descendants’ escaping from Egypt and, with divine Providence, rushing across the “parted” Red Sea certainly do come to mind. Hebrew = one from the other side — or, as this is sometimes expressed, “one who crossed over.” The Red Sea is a long, narrow, land-locked sea; in some ways it is more like a river. Further, Joshua would much later lead the Israelis into the Land by crossing the Jordan River near Jericho.

When we visited Israel a couple of years back, we learned that “Bethlehem” means in Hebrew “house of bread.” He who has been referred to as “Panis Angelicus,” Bread of Angels, the ultimate “manna,” the one who illustrated His “body, broken for you” with bread — was born in the House of Bread!

Yeshua’s kind of “bread” differs from the ordinary kind, however. When we eat ordinary bread, it becomes us, so to speak. But when we appropriate Christ, we become increasingly like Him through the new birth.

Jesus spoke of the importance of being “born again” to Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee and had come to Him at night in the hope of not being seen by his own colleagues. When we think about the definition of “Hebrew” meaning essentially “one who crossed over,” the word itself seems to speak of this new birth — in addition to Israel’s exodus. Consider Abraham, Rahab, and Ruth. They left their very different former lives to become Israelis — to “cross over” to a new and unknown life; they somehow summoned the faith to move toward this new life in preference to what was familiar. They sensed something better; they crossed over.

In Isaiah we find the stirring words, “Behold, I am doing a new thing; can you not perceive it?” We find a paraphrase of the first part of this statement in Revelation: “Behold, I make all things new.”

Astrophysicists tell us that more than 200 finely-tuned characteristics of Earth reveal that the universal stage was set in advance for us — for billions of years. And that Earth is in a unique place and time parameter that enables us to observe these exquisite elements of design. A personal Creator had you and me in mind.

Scientists who have also studied Scripture recognize in it a setting forth in several texts — not only in those in Genesis 1 — of the astonishingly-unique process of setting the stage for our world for the very purpose of creating — not suns, but sons.

When He was physically present with us, Jesus often referred to Himself as “the Son of man.” He is described this way in the fiery-furnace story in the book of Daniel in the Old Testament as well. But after the resurrection His description, in the epistles for example, consistently becomes “the Son of God.”

“Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but He has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ  appears. But we do know that we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He really is. And all who have this hope will keep themselves pure, just as He is pure.”    (1 John 3:2,3)

The goal that Jesus put before Nicodemus is the same one He puts before you and me — to become citizens of the newer creation that “eye has not seen and ear has not heard.” The one in which weapons will have been transformed into garden tools that facilitate life. In which there will be no more killing or evil or death. No animal predation. No sickness or sorrow or night. The perfect creation — as God would design it.

“You must be born again,” Jesus told Nicodemus, the apparently wise, older man.

“Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness — without it no one will see the Lord.”    (Hebrews 12:14)

God’s love and mercy are freely extended to all. He waits as long as He can. His desire is that as many as possible will enter the Kingdom of all things new.

© ccolbert for Voice of Revolution, 2012. | Permalink