The Sword Room

You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain (Exodus 20:7).

Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the LORD.” But I say to you, do not swear at all (Matthew 5:33-34).

Using God’s name in vain does not only refer to profanity, but to any flippant or self-serving mention of the divine name not intended to glorify Him. Expressions like, Oh God! or I swear to God! should be avoided because they are disrespectful and/or attempt to use God’s name as a means of gaining control of a situation. Likewise with saying God led you or told you to do something just to trump further discussion of an issue.

This week both major political parties blasphemed the name of God in the interest of furthering their agendas.

The Democratic National Convention hasn’t been without its bizarre moments this week. Observe the following Internet news blog entry:

On Tuesday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) got so touchy with Bret Baier during a Fox News interview when Baier was simply asking why the words “God” and “Jerusalem” had been omitted from the Democratic Party’s 2012 platform:

 “Harping on a trifle?” Well, apparently not according to President Barack Obama.

Upon learning of their omission, Obama ordered his staff to have the Democratic Party’s platform language changed to include God and affirm Jerusalem as the proper capital of Israel. The move on Jerusalem, a city claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians, put the Democratic Party’s platform in direct opposition to longstanding U.S. policy on Jerusalem, which has been that all “final status issues” be left to negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

That wasn’t the most bizarre part though.

On Wednesday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the convention’s chairman, held three voice votes on the matter, the first two of which failed. The crowd booed the third when Villaraigosa declared the change was approved by a two-thirds majority.

That’s right, the delegates of the DNC booed God and Jerusalem:

In other words, when observers noticed the conspicuous absence of “God” from the party platform and convention speeches, Obama and his advisers saw the potential fallout and went into damage-control mode. But the move appears to have backfired, as evidenced by the shouting and booing from the floor. Upon reflection I am not sure if the delegates were booing God or the cheesy attempt by Obama to inject God into the scenario. Of course there is no doubt that the democratic party has no use for the God of the Bible.

But in my opinion neither does the republican party. Mitt Romney and company were quick to jump on the glaring omission by the democrats. But Romney is no champion of biblical orthodoxy. Sure, he speaks of faith in God, but it is the god of Mormonism he worships. In case you didn’t know, the god of Mormonism started off as a man and came to earth as Adam with his celestial wife, Eve, from the planet Kolob in a distant galaxy. Their mission was to populate their own planet. According to LDS doctrine all men may become gods like Adam and populate their own planets with their celestial wives.

Most of the other professing Christians in the republican ranks hold to a faith in the god of apple pie, baseball, and the grand old flag. Those who are actually born again have been brainwashed with Arminianism and its anemic view of God. They are more informed in their theology by horrid books like The Shack than by the book written specifically to reveal God’s nature to us–the Bible.

Putting token prayers back into public schools, the name of God back into the pledge, or keeping His name on the currency really accomplishes nothing. Endless God talk without true inward change of heart is just empty blather–flippant and in many cases blasphemous.

Actually, I appreciated the honesty of the democratic delegates. Those who genuinely hate God made their voices heard; and those few believers present voiced their disapproval at the superficial self-serving verbal gyrations of the president and his lackeys.

The real idiot-phonies are the republicans for seizing the opportunity to vaunt themselves as the party of God. They are not the party of God, and we are no longer a nation of God. We have long-since abandoned the God of the Bible in the pulpits of our land and in our seminary classrooms. Token references to Him from the outhouse to the schoolhouse to the White House are just that. And such caricatures of real faith cannot long stay the hand of God’s judgment.

Basically the major parties are two shades of the same color. But at least the democrats know they are godless.

OK. For the past two years we have been hearing about the Tea Party Movement–back to the founders, constitution, smaller government, lower taxes, and all that. I went on record saying that even though some of these goals and convictions are worthy in terms of social and fiscal policy, they are not strictly Christian or biblical. There were political zealots in Jesus’ day, and he did not align Himself with any of them. Nor would He today. He came proclaiming a kingdom not of this world system, a kingdom entered and enjoyed not through societal reform but spiritual regeneration. We are sinners entitled to nothing but eternal damnation, and any common grace we experience here on earth is gravy. There is nothing wrong with getting involved in the political system, as long as it is a by-product of the work of the gospel in our hearts, and not a substitute for true sanctification.

Now we are hearing about another movement, called Occupy Wall Street. From what I can gather, the main bullet points of this movement seem to be that the banks and corporations control way too much of the world’s money, which they greedily horde to the detriment of the poor and working classes. The solution is to create a kind of state-ism that regulates every aspect of business and commerce based on fairness–whatever that might be. The government, not the employer, determines what the living wage and benefit package will be for a given position in the work force. The government puts a cap on how much the CEO’s of large corporations can make, so that an executive who earns multi millions of dollars for the company is limited in the reward he will receive for his work. As you can see, incentive and creativity would be stifled by such an approach.

Despite the fact that none of the above concepts is biblical, I spoke with a Christian woman recently who thought the whole idea of redistribution of wealth is a great idea. Believers like her cite the many Old Testament texts commanding justice for widows, orphans, and sojourners as evidence. Then there is the passage in Acts where it talks about the Christians sharing all things in common.

The problem is, none of these texts teaches that it is the government’s job to take money from productive people and give it away to unproductive people. Biblical charity is voluntary, not coerced. Not only that, but the charity of the Old Testament was not a free handout. Read the book of Ruth, for example. Ruth was a Moabite widow of a Jewish man who had come into the land of Israel with her mother-in-law, Naomi. In accordance with the law of gleaning widows were allowed to go into the grain-fields to gather from the corners of the fields where the reapers had missed. It was sweaty back-breaking  sun-up to sun-down labor. Ruth was not afforded the luxury of sitting on her derriere waiting for her monthly check in her apartment in front of the flat screen, eyes glued to the latest episode of Jerry Springer wolfing down a third bowl of Top Ramen. Nor could she milk a bogus SSI or L&I claim for her hangnail.

Nor am I denying that we live in a fallen world full of greed, graft and corruption. The psalmists cry out to God for an answer to why the wicked prosper and the rich often oppress the poor. Jesus and Paul both tell us that riches can be a snare and cause of haughtiness. Many become rich through nepotism, cronyism, and other forms of favoritism. But any and every attempt by government to level the playing field in the name of  “fairness” has only compounded the problem because at the end of the day when there is a ton of capital to be managed those holding the purse strings will greedily skim the cream off the top for themselves. Just look at the former Soviet Union, the Iron Curtain Block countries, the nations of the Bamboo Curtain, and the nations of Central and South America who have fallen for Liberation Theology (a.k.a. Marxism). It has never worked anywhere else, and it will not work here.

Free market capitalism may not be perfect, but it beats whatever is in second place by a mile.

Look, if you want to join the Tea Party, go ahead. If you want to join up with the Occupy Wall Street bozos that is your prerogative in this country. Just don’t call it biblical or Christian–because it is not. If you want it God’s way then occupy the narrow road and enter by the straight gate which many will miss and few will find. Let your life be guided by biblical truth, not the the latest trendy winds of worldly flatulence. Here today and gone tomorrow.

God’s kingdom is a kingdom built without human hands. It shatters the worldly kingdoms of men to dust. It endures for ever. If you want to be a zealoot then be a zealot on team Jesus, because it is the only winning team.

No more talk radio or cable “news” for me until after the next presidential election. Both sides are in full campaign mode. For those whose minds are already made up there is no reason to watch the talking heads spout their bullet points.

This time it is dangerous. Not just because the future of our nation seems to be at stake, but because professing believers have mistaken the real issues and misidentified the true enemies. God is neither Republican nor Democrat, and Jesus Christ cannot be exclusively owned or claimed by the Tea Party Movement or any other gaggle of voices clamoring for attention.

In Ephesians 5:9 Paul tells us that we were once darkness but now we are light and we are to walk as children of light. He goes on to explain that as children of light we are to approve in our lives what is pleasing to the Lord (v. 10). We are to walk wisely, making full use of the time God has entrusted us with (v. 15-16). Enlightened by His Word and indwelling spirit we are to know God’s revealed will (v.17), as opposed to being drunk.

When Jesus came to earth He was the light of the world. But the religious rulers and the political zealots alike hated the light and refused to come to the light because of their own sinful pride. Today we in America have a sense of entitlement that says we deserve peace and prosperity just because we are us. News flash–Jesus is still the light of the world and He is in absolute control over our present economic and political situation. When He stood before Pilate it did not seem any more so than it does now, but we must be clear on this point. And we must stay awake and alert through prayer and diligent attention to the sound teachings of Scripture lest the philosophies of the world pull us into their orbit.

You see from now until the election candidates in search of your vote will suddenly become devout Christians. They will say whatever they think will make you believe them. In the end you will be voting for the lesser of two evils. If you already know which party you will be casting your vote for–as I do–then be done listening to all the propaganda. Let God’s word be the lamp that illuminates your path. Stay awake and smell the coffee.

And the BS.