Freedom and a Civil Society
There have been many times in America history where political battles have become very heated. When plantation owner, Charles Dickinson, accused future president, Andrew Jackson, of cheating on a horserace bet and committing adultery by marrying Rachel Jackson (who had been abandoned by her previous husband), the matter was resolved by a duel to the death. Another example of violence is when Preston Brooks severely beat Charles Sumner with a cane on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
We may be living in a time of little bloodshed in politics, but the verbal strife is clearly at an all-time-high. In the last exchange between Jackson and Dickinson one was called a poltroon (a spiritless coward), while the other a blackguard (the lowest kitchen servant of a household).
Today, we have people willing to say any form of profanity their minds can conceive about President Trump. So-called comedians have saturated their public venues with crude remarks about our president, which include having sexual relations with his daughter; that his son is mentally challenged, and he is Putin’s homosexual lover.
What is stunning is how once sophisticated news organizations have stooped to the low standards of tabloid publications. The endless cycle of printing anything that is negative about President Trump has resulted in headlines that read like schoolyard taunts:
Germany Can’t Stop Marveling at How Dumb Donald Trump Is
Even Trump Senior Staff Believes He’s a “Complete Moron”
Bernie Sanders: Trump’s Budget Is Immoral
President Trump Is Thought to be an Idiot
George R. R. Martin Likens Donald Trump To His Most Sadistic ‘Game Of Thrones’ Character
Robert Reich: Our European Allies Are Appalled by Trump
Taran Killam Says Trump was a “Moron” as SNL Host
Members of the media are not allowed to be pacifists in the war against President Trump. The Tonight Show’s host, Jimmy Fallon, had Trump on his show last year. After a very long period of contemplation, the press decided that Fallon made a horrible mistake in not being confrontational with Trump. Network executives have badgered Fallon into apologizing for his past sin. If you tune into the program and hear the president being mocked in the monologue, that is the result of Jimmy doing penance to save his job.
There are times when someone is scolded for going too far in mocking President Trump. Third-rate comedian, Kathy Griffin, was rebuked when she posed for a photo shoot holding an effigy of Donald Trump’s bloody and detached head. During the photo shoot, Kathy joked that she would need to move to Mexico once the picture was released, for fear she would be thrown in prison.
Griffin lost a New Years Eve gig on CNN over the photo, but I doubt there will be any lasting impact on her career. She was rebuked for cursing at Jesus during the 2007 Emmy Awards ceremony, but within a few months the blasphemy issue was totally forgotten.
I think these occasional outrages are used to try to maintain credibility with the public. The media will throw someone like Griffin under the bus as a convenient scapegoat, and then continue their attacks.
It is a very dangerous thing to have open hostility between the media and the head of state. When you have a battle between the media and government, the politicians always win because they have the guns, and federal prosecution power. The effectiveness of the hostile tactics of the press fall completely flat when opposition reporters are rotting in jail.
The press has the attitude that President Trump does not have any power to ward off their attacks against him. If they already have him pegged as the new Hitler, things can hardly get any worse for him. When you have a country become totally polarized, media harassment can emerge from many sources. In most South American nations, upsetting the police, the military, local politicians, or drug lords can be hazardous to a reporter’s health.
There are signs that the verbal warfare between the right and left are veering toward physical clashes. A Republican leader in Oregon says the party may use private militias to protect GOP officials. The newly elected representative of Montana triggered outrage when he body slammed a reporter. In the Texas state capital, a shoving match nearly turned into a fistfight over a sanctuary cities ban.
You can’t have freedom without a civil society. Without mutual respect you end up with a vicious struggle for power by any means. There is such a strong level of delusion in the media today, I fear we are about to find out how quickly are first amendment rights can vanish.
“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1 Timothy 2).
–Todd
Restrainer Working Overtime
Over the past year, I have received email castigating me for writing on politics and matters surrounding government and things of the world. The main irritation with me seems to come from those who believe I’m paying too much attention to this world and not thinking enough on the spiritual. That is, I should, in their opinion, drop supporting one political position or the other and just dwell on strictly biblical/spiritual issues–no politics or support for politicians. That I should support and dwell on only what God’s Word has to say about the end times is foundational to these critics’ primary exhortation.
Problem is, the two are not mutually exclusive to my way of thinking. Politics and the machinations of politicians these days are, in my estimation, linked to Bible prophecy in ways I cannot ignore. To do so would be to neglect the watchman commission I believe I’ve been given.
It is thus with this admission to you that I begin yet another rant–as my critics would have it–on what is going on in the political world as connected to the spiritual. I make no apologies that I come down on one side of the issue that I wish to address. Actually, the “rant” involves a number of issues under the wider problem of the evil that pervades our nation’s capitol and other power centers here and abroad.
Satan has always worked, and continues to do so, in the power centers of the world. His record of success can’t be denied for the most part. Every man-made government that has ever existed has harbored evil at every level. The fallen one has brought every empire to destruction in one way or the other through his seduction and deception. The masses of people under the various regimes throughout history have suffered by the billions. They have died by the multiplied millions.
Purists among the scholars who observe the rise and fall of great nations and empires would, if they are biblical in their analysis, say God brings those entities down. But, it is Satan who has led them–and continues to do so–to their demise as they get farther and farther away from God in comportment.
In getting back to my dwelling on present political realities and the media and politicians who have created this incendiary atmosphere of hatred for America’s current president, I would like to offer the following.
As stated above, Lucifer the fallen one has managed through corruption, seduction, and every other way of his evil methodologies to bring down great nations and even empires. Anyone who has the good sensibility to admit the in-our-faces truth of things going on in opposition to President Donald Trump can testify to the hatred at its center. Washington, D.C., is the greatest power center, perhaps, of all of history. The evil doings there are staggering.
I find myself agreeing with the president’s words when he said recently that no president has been subjected to the degree of hateful treatment to which he has been subjected. Not even Richard Nixon had media so blatantly arrayed against him during the time of Watergate. It is an assault of unprecedented virulence we are witnessing. It is going to get much worse, and I’ve pointed out before why that is the case.
Satan’s plan to install a one-world order has been disrupted. He is as determined as ever to put his man–the son of perdition–into power. The American electorate voted the anti-globalist Mr. Trump into office, and the end-times war began in earnest.
The minions, both demonic and human, are looking for any crime and anything else that might rise to the level of impeachable offense so that they can carry out another Watergate–type coup-d’état. Short of that, they obviously intend to keep the vitriol flowing, even if there is no offense to be found. They have proven capable of creating charges–lies, out of whole cloth.
Trump’s election has brought on the observable manifestation of a specific end-times signal. The Restrainer, I am convinced, can almost visibly be seen going about His office of holding back the evil onslaught.
The Restrainer and His work in this Age of Grace (Church Age) are explained by my good friend, Ron Graham, in an excellent article posted a couple of years ago. Ron, before he died in 2013, partially wrote the following, and his wife, Nathele, completed it in 2015. The article is in relationship to prophecy Paul the apostle gave in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2.
“For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way” (2 Thessalonians 2:7).
The Greek word translated into English for “letteth” is katechō and the definition of this Greek word is somewhat different than the definition of our English word “let,” which means “to allow or permit.” The Greek word is actually just the opposite; it means “to restrain, to hold back, detain, retain.” What we must ask ourselves is “Who is the ‘He’ that Paul is referring to in this verse?”
First of all we find the apostle referring to the “who now letteth” as a “He” and secondly that this “He” is currently holding back a flood of wickedness which is straining at the bit to be loosed. Who could be so powerful to be able to hold back worldwide wickedness but the Holy Spirit? (“Restrainer,” by Ron and Nathele Graham, raptureready.com, 2015)
One, if spiritually attuned to the current political climate, senses the constant surge of anger and hatred trying to excise the president from office. This will not happen so long as God the Holy Spirit says otherwise. Christians must pray as diligently as when praying before the 2016 election that the Restrainer continues to hold back the evil that is intended to bring about the installation of human history’s final dictator.
(And, yes…I’ve gotten the notes that say those writing them think Donald Trump could be that man–a thing his actions thus far refute in my view.)
Soon, Christ will call His Church to Himself. The Restrainer will at the same time remove from acting on the consciences of mankind. Meanwhile–thankfully–He is working overtime.
–Terry