The Emptiness and Futility of Liberalism :: By Gene Lawley

The demise of the cartoon series called The Born Loser was disappointing to me. The characters were so aptly named to represent their characters.  Brutus, the born loser, had his own problems with himself and his family, but the secondary characters were often the cause of Brutus’ failures. The one named “Hurricane Hattie O’Hara” was a neighbor kid who constantly got under the Loser’s skin.

My favorite is the one showing “Hurricane Hattiee” approaching Brutus with her hands behind her back, asking him if he would like to see her do bird imitations. He looks on with his usual glum apprehension, and she pulls her hands from behind her, announcing, “Here is a mother bird feeding her young,” and proceeds to drop a worm, or the semblance of one, into her open mouth! The next frame shows Brutus turned away in the process of upchucking! But what does this have to do with this article’s topic? Think “born loser.”

When my brother and I were kids, we sometimes found a bird’s nest with young birds in it. At the slightest sound the young birds’ mouths would spring open as if all their heads were one big mouth. Our “benevolent compassion” would lead us to find a worm and drop it in their mouths, bit by bit.

What we did not know, and now I am very sorry for is this: The mother bird was away finding food for her babies, and our actions unjustly interrupted the normal flow of life as God had established it for those birds in the beginning. It is likely that when the mother bird found that her food was not needed, she took leave and abandoned her young, possibly in great frustration. Now, what does this have to do with this article’s titled subject? Think, “the ‘guv-mint’ is here to help you.”

Liberalism can be summed up, in my opinion, in two words, “government control.” The proponents of that philosophy call themselves “Progressives,” but that would mean toward government control and away from individual freedom. So let’s call them “Regressives.”

It is clear that any philosophy that has its roots in state control of its people in the manner, and objective that the “Progressives” embrace is a direct descendent of Karl Marx, the founder of communism. Apparently, few realize that our 16th Amendment that constitutionalized the graduated income tax is right out of Marx’s ten-step platform of his book, The Communist Manifesto.

Conservatism, on the other hand, is an embracement of personal freedom to the extent possible without invading the freedom and liberty of another person. The foundation of the United States began with the Declaration of Independence, which was a rejection of the serfdom control of the British crown, as I understand it. It declares that “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are rights established by God for each individual. Therefore, less government regulation, lower taxes, and restriction of other impositions of state oversight that inhibits opportunity for free enterprise are to be implemented.

However, it is not unreasonable to provide help for those who are unfortunate in their pursuit of benefits God has provided for mankind. We reject and do not embrace Cain’s rebuke of God when he responded to God’s inquiry of the whereabouts of Abel: “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9).

Just as Adam and Eve made a poor choice that day in the Garden of Eden by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, many of us make poor choices of lesser degree that sometimes result in devastating circumstances. But where is the freedom we are told of in the Declaration of Independence that we can personally seek—“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”—as we view it?

Yet, God has made it plain that we are given the opportunity to make choices, even in regard to finding eternal life. Peter tells us, in 2 Peter 3:9, “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” The decision to turn away from our embracing of the lures of this world and to seek God’s favor is one that even the Lord seems to “bend over backwards” in order to enable us to make that one-time decision for His mercy and grace.

The often quoted  Romans 6:23 is used to show the ultimate penalty of separation from God for ever and ever, but evidence shows that it reveals a truth that our poor choices begin that “payment of wages for sin” way before we would face that eternal judgment. And even during those days of resistance God is right there with that positive alternative:

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Once I had understood the difference between liberalism and conservatism as I watched the 1960 presidential campaign between Nixon and Kennedy, the contrasts became more apparent. The liberals were excited about the prospect of returning to the royalty and elegance like that of kings and queens, such as is “the just and proper place of the elite.”

It was the “return of Camelot,” they claimed. But there was a thread of integrity in the depths of John Kennedy’s being, perhaps revealed in his famous statement in his inaugural address: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country.”

When Kennedy later issued U.S. Treasury silver certificates as legal tender in defiance of the Federal Reserve System, and vowed to reveal the individuals and their shadow government actually running the country, it proved to be fatal for him. [1]

Therefore, he was conveniently executed that November day in 1963. (Much evidence supporting this conclusion is available to anyone who seeks it, yet it is not allowed to surface

by the controlling factions for obvious reasons.)

The puppeteers need a puppet to front for them, and whose strings they can pull to turn him in whatever direction they deem necessary. Lyndon Johnson, who claimed to be “the liberal of all liberals,” created the “war on poverty.” And now we have more people below the poverty line of income than ever before, especially with Obama’s obvious influence over the years. Johnson also quietly merged the Social Security tax receipts into the general fund to hide the deficits, and now we have “entitlements” that run the budget out of control on a continual basis.

For some reason liberals are staunchly intent on maintaining the right of a woman to choose to have an abortion and for any reason and at any time. Since the Roe vs. Wade decision in the 1960s there have been at least 58 million, perhaps many more, abortions in America. And when they complain about losing their Social Security benefits because the fund is broke, I think of what those 58 million could have been contributing to the Social Security fund had they been allowed to live.

It is clear that the goal of the puppeteers is to destroy the middle class, for they are the source of “free thinkers” who treasure freedom and the desire to pursue their own destiny. They plan for a reduction of population to a more manageable level of perhaps one billion. Millions of bond-slaves would serve the elite, and it would be a happy and perfect world…for them.

It is amazing how this spiritual warfare—and it is spiritual, for Ephesians 6:12 says, “…We do not war against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in high places”—has openly progressed so well while its proponents purposely remain hidden to the broad public. And as well, how many followers are embracing the anti-God faction, just like they crowded around Nimrod, the alleged builder of the Tower of Babel centuries ago?

Just as God judged the people in that day, He will also do so with this generation, for “He sets up one and puts down another” that He might bring His judgment into play at the proper time, according to Psalm 75:6-8. 

As former President Obama muttered last April 30, 2016, at the Annual Correspondence Dinner, “The end of the Republic has never looked better.” He was sure that his intent to “fundamentally transform America” had almost been achieved, and Hillary Clinton was in place to finish that purpose, apparently the destruction of American sovereignty for the introduction of a New World Order.

Both Obama and Clinton are followers of that radical leftist, Saul Alinsky, who was born in Chicago in 1909 and educated at the University of Chicago where he later promoted his Marxist ideology as a professor at the University.  Clinton wrote her political science term paper in 1969 with the title, “All That Is Left Is…the Fight – An Analysis of the Alinsky Model” which no doubt was based on his book, Rules for Radicals.

Some might say, “So what is the problem; what’s wrong with progressive thinking? Those with a southern flavor may understand this illustration: If you have a pot of beans cooking, they look really good and their aroma can almost be tasted, yet there is some amount of poison in the pot too; it would be deadly to eat the beans. Likewise, Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom….”

If wisdom begins with a respect and reverence to God as the judicial sovereign of the universe and God is rejected as a non-entity, not to be taken seriously, what kind of wisdom will be the result? The goal of the New World Order (as it rises out of the ashes of its necessary destruction of individual freedoms), is that its leaders will be a god unto themselves. Unfortunately, that is exactly the goal of Satan, the master deceiver and opponent of the God of righteousness.

Barack Obama declared himself to be a Christian, and the main line media and its leaders took him at his word. Yet the Bible tells us that “we can know them by their fruits [of godliness].” That can be said, too, of Hillary Clinton if honest and objective consideration is made.

The continuity of Obama’s goal was not to be, however—for God’s time-frame for this generation is drawing to a close. And when Jesus comes as a thief in the night, it will be when  there is no desolation in the economies of the nations and social activities will have no let-up due to an end of the USA Republic.

God “sets up one and puts down another,” just as it says in the Psalm. President Donald Trump is committed to restore and make right that which Obama very clearly has “fundamentally transformed.” Donald Trump is not the pure and righteous person so many demand that he be, but I think of the obvious alternative. 

And who among us are any different? For God says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23). At the least Trump has re-introduced God to a nation that had chosen to rule Him out of its life, for many. And also, God says, “Those who honor Me, I will honor” (1 Samuel 2:30).

By these events we must realize that the age of the Gentiles is very near its end, for Jesus said, in Luke 21:28, “When you see these things begin to happen, look up, for your redemption draws near.” Without any hesitation, the last statement of the Bible says, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”

End Notes                                                                                                                                                     

[1] (JFK)   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c7eVxure0Y

Contact email:  andwegetmercy@gmail.com   

The Sting of Death Is Sin :: By Gene Lawley

An old non-biblical parable illustrates the issue very well. A frog and a scorpion arrived at the shore of a swollen stream at the same time and were pondering how to get across. The scorpion pleaded with the frog to let him ride across on the frog’s back. The frog replied, “That won’t work. Halfway across you will sting me and we both will drown!”

The scorpion argued back, “Oh no, I won’t do that; I promise.” After much debating, the frog finally relented, and they launched into the stream, the scorpion riding on the frog’s back. And, of course, about halfway across, the scorpion stung the frog. The frog cried out, “Now, see what you have done! Now we’ll both die! Why did you do that?” The scorpion replied with resignation, “I am a scorpion. We sting things. That’s what we do!”

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:55-56, “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.”

Mankind has been trying to get the Adam-ridden flesh and blood to perform righteously and to no avail. It is impossible!  That old scorpion that Paul called “this body of death” cannot change its spots, just as the leopard cannot either (Romans 7:24 and Jeremiah 13:23).

In that context with Romans 7:24 is verse 25, which says, in Paul’s conclusion, “I thank my God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so with my mind I will serve the law of God and with my flesh, the law of sin.”

What is that “law of sin?”

The ruling principle of sin is that sin always craves for more…more…more! I knew a man once who had a weakness for alcohol and that cry of his flesh would not go away. (He finally took a fifth of whiskey to bed with him with the intent of not waking up, and he did not wake up!)

The sting of death is sin!

One summer during my college years I worked for my brother in his fledgling bookkeeping service. He had acquired a small business client, an older couple who ran the business together…rather, she did it. The husband stayed drunk continually. He told my brother that he loved whiskey and would drink it until he died. It was a pitiful thing, especially the dutiful wife, who carried the appearance of a total resignation to hopelessness in her body language.

For the believer, Romans 6:14 says, “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace.” The ongoing challenge is to claim that and hang onto it with all possible desperation.

Death for a believer, the physical death of this life, is like closing your eyes, then opening them and finding you are in the presence of the Lord. I have no personal knowledge of it being that way, but I saw my wife come to that place and cry out, “Help me, Jesus,” and immediately her body responded voluntarily with great gasps for breath that repeated two or three times, then all was quiet.

She had made the transfer from physical being to totally spirit being. As Paul wrote, “Absent from the body, present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). (Please forgive me for the graphic account of this experience displayed here. I am hopeful that its reality may grip the reader with renewed confidence that heaven really is beyond that last breath we take, and Jesus is waiting with open arms!)

As the one who remained behind, I must tell you that it is a wonderful memory of her transition to the arms of the Lord Jesus. Just knowing what she saw and reported in that last statement means much for a sense of peace and glad expectation for that day when my time comes—even if it may be when that “last trump” is sounded.

But for the unsaved there is a sting in death, the sting of sin that comes rushing into the conscience, for Hebrews 9:27 says this:

“And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”

The sudden realization of a lost opportunity brings forth a cry for mercy because of good works that were done, but it is muffled under an austere voice saying, “Depart from Me, for I never knew you!”

No doubt is it that the greatest sting of sin at death is when one who has denied the Lord intensely during his life. Suddenly face to face with that One who gave His own mortal life on a cruel cross so that the one now facing Him could live forever rather than die forever, as the situation really becomes.

Many years ago we had neighbors who were common folk like us, and our two wives became close friends in fellowship together with the Lord. The husband, however, would become almost out of control, emotionally, when any conversation turned to a matter of faith in God and a relationship with Him. I never was able to learn the root of his problem, what might have occurred in his background to cause such a rejection, adamantly, of the Lord. He claimed that his wife had enough religion for both of them—an obvious empty excuse for the rejection.

They moved away, but our wives stayed in touch.  Some forty plus years later, after several other moves and his retirement, we had a call from their son, telling us that his dad had passed away. Our further inquiry brought out the awful truth that he had taken his own life. Apparently, as I surmised it, as old age began to creep upon him, the hopelessness of his existence became too much for him to overcome. The reality of that sting of death surely came with a tremendous shock.

Again, forgive me for such graphic displays of mortal realities, but the fact that they bear directly upon immortal realities must grasp our own hearts, as believers, that “today is the day of salvation,” for tomorrow may never come. For that reason, I hope these are not dismissed as the rambling memories of an old man in his eighth decade of mortal existence and his sixth decade of spiritual enlightenment in the knowledge of the Lord’s mercy and grace. It may well be that the One who is coming as a thief in the night may already be at the door, looking down upon a world that has largely dismiss Him as a non-entity and unworthy of man’s consideration.

A couple of times as a youngster on the farm, I suffered the sting of a scorpion. Picking up a rock or a dead stick brought that result as the scorpion resented its disturbance underneath. It seemed that the pain was about double that of a wasp or a bee. It brought tears, for sure!

Those stings, however, would never have been as deep and long-lasting as that which would have been forthcoming had I not have given my heart and soul to Jesus some years later. It works this way: If the sting of death is sin, but all of my sins have been forgiven and removed from me, “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12), then there is no sting in that moment when I will cross over Jordan, so to speak, and see my Savior, face to face.

The pivotal issue is centered on what Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except by Me,” and underscored by John 3:18, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

 Contact email:  andwegetmercy@gmail.com