Politicians as a Breed are Lying Weasels

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/05/19/fred_thompson_blumenthal_is_a_lying_weasel.html

So the Attorney General of Connecticut who is running for the US Senate seat being vacated by Chris Dodd (another lying Weasel) was caught red handed lying like a trooper about having served in Vietnam. Blumenthal was caught on tape on more than one occasion saying or intimating that he served in Vietnam when in point of fact he received deferments and wouldn’t know the difference between the Viet Cong and a Donkey Kong.

My response?

Why is anybody surprised?

Politicians are a lying breed. Rare or unemployed is the politician who will not lie. Indeed, Blumenthal is a piker compared to some who have gone before.

In the 1920 Presidential Campaign FRD was on the Democratic ticket as Vice-President nominee. During his campaigning in Deer Lodge Montana Roosevelt speaking in support of the “League of Nations” issue, and seeking to do the same self-aggrandizement shtick as Blumenthal was caught doing said,

“Does anyone suppose that the votes of Cuba, Haiti, Santo Domingo, Panama, Nicaragua, and the other Central American states would be cast differently from the vote of the United States? We are in a very real sense the big brother of these little republics…. You know, I have had something to do w/ running a couple of these little Republics. The facts are that I wrote Haiti’s Constitution myself and, if I do say so, I think it is a pretty good Constitution.”

Roosevelt received such applause from the Deer Lodge, Montana folk on this stump speech that he also included his Constitution writing skills in his stump speech in both Butte and Helena Montana.

Of course Roosevelt was a shiftless worthless ne’er do well Mama’s rich boy. Roosevelt couldn’t successfully manage his own money or run his own life and he never ran a Central American Republic and he never came close to writing Haiti’s Constitution.

When confronted with his lie Roosevelt simply denied it and kept denying it throughout his life and this in spite of the fact that the Associated Press reported his lying gaffe and that 31 citizens of Butter signed a document swearing that they heard Roosevelt boast the he had written Haiti’s Constitution.

Politicians as a Breed are Lying Weasels

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends III

I met David Ehnis in Lansing approximately Eight years ago. He and his family attended the Church I pastor for several years and David served with me as an Elder on the Consistory. I have always considered David one of a handful that actually understands the large worldview picture of what the Christian faith is intended to be.

It is with great satisfaction that I recommend to you this post from my friend David Ehnis. (See link at bottom of post for David’s blogsite.)

Evangelism in the Old Testament

The great themes of the Scriptures start in Genesis and end in Revelation; where we get in trouble, as a Church, is to start imposing separations and systems that just aren’t there. One way that we do this is by placing a great divide between the Old and New Testaments. To not see great continuity between the Testaments one has to contort the scriptures to absurdity – thankfully most in Christendom aren’t consistent enough to accomplish that, even though their stated positions do. One such contortion is to read The Great Commission and Evangelism as a completely NEW, and thus unique, call to the Church. However, Evangelism is not new, it has been a part of the plan since the beginning.

Here are some examples:

* Israel being called to faith and repentance: Deut. 30:8; Josh. 24:15; Lev. 5:5; 16:29-31; Deut 10:16; Ezek. 18:30-31;
* Israel being called witness to their children: Deut. 6:7, 20-25;
* Israel being called to witness to their neighbors: Jer. 31:34;
* David’s call to witness to the nations: Ps. 18:49;
* David’s prayer that salvation would be known among all the nations: Ps. 67;
* David’s confidence that all nations would be converted: Ps. 22:27;
* The missionary work of the prophets: Isa. 2:2-4; 19:25; 40:5, 9; 42:6; 45:22; 49:6; 56:7; 66:19; Zech. 8:23; cf. Ps. 68:31; 85:92;

So, clearly, it is established that Evangelism was prescribed and practiced in the Old Testament; but what does that buy us? It gets us several things:

1. The consistent Character of God. Same God, same work, same destiny. This means, then that there has always been one plan of redemption, no changes, and no accidents.

2. More proof that God’s Word (and Law) applies to all people, in every time, everywhere. There is a modern error afoot that teaches that all has been abrogated until reinstated in the New Testament. This is a more “palatable” form of Dispensationalism and one that is counter-Scriptural.

3. It further lends proof to the idea that the New Testament is NOT a starting point, at least not in the same way it is held in the modern church. Now, granted most people would never admit this but practically speaking, especially when they ask the question “where do you see that in the New Testament”, they are implicitly relying on this fallacy.

4. Understanding the above would also lend one to the understanding that God is at work and His work is large and grand – what He started in Israel is now EXPANDING to all the nations, and that’s exciting.

5. In tends to inoculate us against the error that makes “saving lost souls” the primary concern and over-individualizing all things Evangelical.

Personally, I find it incredibility reassuring that Kingdom growth has always been a part of the plan Israel the Church, and that I get to live in the “last days” on the other side of the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15 to witness His Kingdom expansion. What a great time to be alive!!

http://www.joyinchristendom.org/joy/2010/05/evangelism-in-the-old-testament.html

The Kingdom Of God Is Within You

Luke 17:20-21

“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”

‘The Kingdom of God is within you,’ some one once quoted to Fredrick Maurice. ‘Yes,’ he replied,’ and so is the Kingdom of England.'”

Christianity and the American Commonwealth
Charles B. Galloway

Typically when Luke 17:20-21 is taught what is emphasized is that the Kingdom of God is not a real corporeal Kingdom that exists but rather the Kingdom of God is Spiritual — and so invisible. This teaching comes from the idea that if the Kingdom of God is within one then it must be the case that Jesus is speaking of a non-corporeal Spiritual reality.

But what if the point of Luke 17 is not that the Kingdom is Spiritual, invisible and so doesn’t manifest itself corporeally, but rather what if the point is that the Kingdom of God doesn’t come from the outside in — i.e. “Lo here or, Lo there”? (Which is after all what the Pharisees were looking for.) What if the Kingdom of God cometh not with observation precisely because nobody observes the Kingdom of God coming from the outside in (like some attacking army) when the Kingdom is coming from the inside out as people live out the Kingdom that is within them?

The Kingdom of every potentate is always within the individual and the people who pledge allegiance to that Kingdom. Kingdoms couldn’t exist if that were not true. So when Jesus says, “The Kingdom of God is w/i you,” that doesn’t mean that God’s Spiritual Kingdom is non-corporeal or invisible. What Jesus seems to be getting at in Luke 17 is that the Kingdom of God doesn’t descend upon a people top down and outside in like the Mongol Kingdom descending upon poor hapless Asiatics.

It is precisely because the Kingdom of God is w/i God’s people that God’s Kingdom manifests itself corporeally. Just as it is true that it is precisely because the Kingdom of Satan is w/i the Devil’s people that the Devil’s Kingdom manifests itself corporeally. Those who belong either to God or to the Devil carry within them their respective anti-thesis Kingdoms and because that is so the respective peoples will incarnate those Kingdoms into the cultures they build.

Yes, the Kingdom of God is Spiritual. Yes the Kingdom of God is within. But precisely because it is within God’s people we should expect that Kingdom to manifest itself corporeally among God’s people in the cultures and institutions that they build.

Just as Western Missionaries took the Gospel to Africa in the 19th century, having their respective homeland Kingdoms within them, would often set up little “English” or “American” compounds in the heart of Africa — thus expressing that they had taken their English or American Kingdoms with them (and often confusing those City of Man Kingdoms w/ the Gospel Kingdom itself) — so Christians bearing within themselves the Kingdom of God will always set up Kingdom of God compounds wherever they live out their lives. The Kingdom of God, within God’s people, will always express itself corporeally in the lives they live. If that Kingdom of God does not express itself in the lives of God’s people, in everything they build and touch then the Kingdom of God does not reside within them.

By their fruits you shall know them. If the Kingdom of God is within us, then the fruit of that Kingdom presence within us will be the corporeal manifestation of that Kingdom in the every day lives of God’s people.

Test Driving College Commencement Invocation II

Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier — Triune God

As we invoke your presence and common blessings upon us this morning during this Commencement ceremony we are mindful that there are none who can contend with thee, nor any who can challenge thy regal majesty and awful splendor. With that in mind we are full of gratitude that thou art mindful of all your creatures and are even now fully considering all our ways.

At this celebratory milestone grant us your undeserved favor that we might learn to number our days so that we might live w/ our appearance before you as our final end. Do this that we might live for your glory, thus discovering true joy and robust mirth through all our days.

In keeping with your common providence bless our time now and extend to all gathered the joy that comes from the satisfaction that arises when hard work meets goals achieved.

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we pray,

Amen

More That Upsets The “Mean Cruel White People” Racial Narrative

Fact: As the census in the previous post revealed, given the opportunity, Negroes were 13 times more likely to own slaves than Whites were. Even if we reduce the percentage somewhat to account for free blacks purchasing their family and being required to continue to hold them as “slaves,” the numbers still de-mythologize the current cultural Marxist racial narrative that is crammed down our throats in this country.

Fact: The vast majority of slaves brought to the US came from the Caribbean, not directly from Africa, though clearly, they came to the Caribbean from Africa.

Fact: Slaves were almost never captured by Whites in Africa, and so we see that the whole ROOTS fantasia was a work of fiction. Slaves were usually the spoils of war of the incessant tribal conflicts in Africa, where, before they became an object of value, the ones the winning side didn’t need were usually killed out of hand, while the others had a short miserable life. After the international trade came into being, these slaves were brought down to the West African coast by their black owners, where they were traded to European, Jewish, and Mulatto (and years earlier Arab) interests for guns, spear points, cloth, rum, beads, etc. They were held in these factories until the trading ships arrived from Europe or Yankee New England with loads of these trade goods, and, after the exchange, they were packed for shipment to the Caribbean Islands. Once in the Caribbean, they were sold and cargoes of sugar cane molasses were taken on board, to be taken back to the home country to make rum. It was called the triangle; molasses, rum and slaves. Slaves coming here were later shipped from there. Over 90% of the slaves who reached the Americas’ mainland ended up in Latin America.

Fact: Slaves purchased in North America were delivered from the hell of working in the Sugar cane fields of Brazil and Cuba where life span expectancies were incredibly reduced as compared to those purchased by Southern Plantation owners. Also, the cruelty and bondage experienced by the slaves in those Sugar cane fields was barbaric. Though the Southern Plantation owners certainly did not intend to do those they purchased any favors the purchase of slaves by Southern Plantation owners certainly served to rescue those purchased slaves from a fate far worse than what they would have experienced in the Sugar Cane fields had they not been purchased by Southern Plantation owners.

Fact: Slaves had better working conditions, shorter hours, more benefits, and a notably longer average lifespan than the factory workers of the time — many of whom were woman and children who worked in Northern wage slave factories — and much better than the average Negro remaining in Africa, then and now. Slavery still exists in Africa, BTW, and is fairly widespread.

Fact: There seems to be no long lines to go back to Africa; instead, it looks like the Africans want to come here to this “racist” country.

Fact: No one is alive today who was involved in slavery in any way, shape or form, so why are people still whining about it?

Fact: there were more Irish slaves, or indentured servants imported in 1600-1700 than African slaves. Indeed, black slaves were so valued by Southern Plantation owners as property that this Irish would often be hired, at miserly wages, to do dangerous, life threatening work that the slave owners did not want their slaves to preform for fear of losing their property value in the case of death. White Irish, in this case were less valued than black slaves.

Fact: A large holder of Slaves were the native American Tribe the Navajo. The Navajo had been in the slave trade LONG before the Africans were brought to our shores.