Posts tagged ‘freedom’

The Complete  Incompatibility of Islamic Theocracy with Democracy – Islam’s 1400 Year Quest to Fulfill Muhammad’s Prophecy to Dominate the World 

John Quincy Adams, President of the United Sta...

John Quincy Adams, President of the United States, served on the Board of Trustees in 1832. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

6th President of the United States of America John Quincy Adams on Islam: 1824-1829

“In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar [i.e., Muhammad], the Egyptian, […..] Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST.- TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE…. Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. The war is yet flagrant … While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and good will towards men.”   

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the Unite...

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1955. Deutsch: Winston Churchill, 1940 bis 1945 sowie 1951 bis 1955 Premier des Vereinigten Königreichs und Literaturnobelpreisträger des Jahres 1953. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Winston Churchill on Islam:

“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.”

“A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.”

“Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyzes the social development of those who follow it.”

“No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”

— Sir Winston Spencer Churchill (The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899)

These were not uneducated men who knew nothing of their subject and had simply spoken recklessly. 

Rather, both of these great leaders of the free countries of Great Britton and of the United States of America spoke the real truth.

The word Islam means ,”Submit”. (Choice is ultimately not respected, and force is doctrine).

Qur’an (3:151) “We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve”

In America we do not understand that Islamic doctrine demands NO SEPARATION between church and state. All Muslims believe Islam must advance until all the world submits to Allah, that apostates must be killed, and what the Quran says must be followed. Unlike old Testament violence in the Bible only in a couple of special circumstances, the Quranic verses that call for violence in the name of Allah do so under all circumstances, even today.
There is no new testament in the Quran.

But in the Bible Jesus said, 

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”(John 8:36)

“He,(Jesus), stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. 

The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 

He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

(Luke 4:17-21)

One religion will bind you, the other resonates, defines, and inspires freedom.

filled in your hearing.”

(Luke 4:17-21)

One religion will bind you, the other resonates, defines, and inspires freedom.

One rules by fear, the other by faith and love.

These representations are based on the central tenets of the religions compared here and not the misrepresentations of said core beliefs. In short, it is when Christianity is misrepresented that violence is perpetrated. Islam is genuine when violence is perpetrated. The confusion comes when we mistake the natural tendancy for evil in human nature with religion in general. Islam is specifically designed to appeal to the darkness in men’s hearts. Genuine Christianity displaces the darkness.

One rules by fear, the other by faith and love. 

http://www.salon.com/2015/11/14/it_was_probably_not_the_amish_bill_maher_urges_liberals_to_wake_up_about_islam_after_paris_attacks
http://wikiislam.net/wiki/The_Story_of_Umm_Qirfa

80+ dead’ after truck crashes into crowd at Bastille Day celebrations in Nice ‘terror attack’. http://tiny.iavian.net/b8cx

The Deconstruction of Absolute Truth and the Foundation of a Free Society

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“It has been said that when human beings stop believing in God they believe in nothing. The truth is much worse: they believe in anything.”

Malcolm Muggeridge

 

Our Declaration of independence reads,”We hold these truths to be self-evident”…

So what happens when a previously free society no longer accepts Absolute Truth?

If; “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free,” then to deny the truth means you will loose your freedom.

Government becomes a kind of god because selfish people no longer behave responsibly with their freedoms.

Government gets big.

Government takes more and more.

The people stop providing for themselves and become slaves to the government.

Totalitarianism is inevitable to those who deny truth and the personal responsibility that comes with knowledge of the Truth.

Freedom cannot survive as our one and only truth.
Freedom is the result of acceptance and application of Truth.

Truth sets us free.
Without it we are slaves.

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
(John 8:32 ; 36)

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

Prophetic -“Marking the Watershed”- The Last Book by Francis Schaeffer

Francis Schaeffer

Francis Schaeffer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Written in 1984 ,Francis Schaeffer’s last book “Marking the Watershed” reads like a prophetic foretelling of what our future would look like if we fail to put Christ first in our hearts. In fact, it reads like a prequel to Ravi Zacharias‘s 2013 open letter to America.

Schaeffer uses a watershed as an illustration.
A Watershed is a place where snow would accumulate in the mountain peaks, and is it melts, the water would separate go in opposite directions and eventually end thousands of miles apart.
Schaeffer saw this beginning to happen to Christianity in regards to Biblical infallibility among evangelical Christian leaders as early as the early 1970’s.

My summary-Christianity ,in the past, has influenced the moral consensus for political debate, art, and books and movies in the United States of America, and the World. Now we are the minority, and so is our ability to influence culture.
As I’ve said before ,the will of the people is good so long as the people are good .</strong

These following excerpts,though almost thirty years old, resonate with current relevance.

“the Bible’s absolutes provide a consensus within which freedom can operate. But once the Christian consensus has been removed, as it has been today, then the very freedoms which have come out of the Reformation become a destructive force leading to chaos in society.” Francis Schaeffer

“The primary emphasis of biblical Christianity is the teaching that the infinite-personal God is the final reality, the Creator of all else, and that an individual can come openly to the holy God upon the basis of the finished work of Christ and that alone. Nothing needs to be added to Christ’s finished work, and nothing can be added to Christ’s finished work. But at the same time where Christianity provides the consensus, as it did in the Reformation countries (and did in the United States up to a relatively few years ago), Christianity also brings with it many secondary blessings. One of these has been titanic freedoms, yet without those freedoms leading to chaos, because the Bible’s absolutes provide a consensus within which freedom can operate. But once the Christian consensus has been removed, as it has been today, then the very freedoms which have come out of the Reformation become a destructive force leading to chaos in society. This is why we see the breakdown of morality everywhere in our society today — the complete devaluation of human life, a total moral relativism, and a thoroughgoing hedonism.”

“Without a strong commitment to God’s absolutes, the early church could never have remained faithful in the face of the constant Roman harassment and persecution. And our situation today is remarkably similar as our own legal, moral, and social structure is based on an increasingly anti-Christian, secularist consensus.”

The New Neo-Orthodoxy 

There is only one way to describe those who no longer hold to a full view of Scripture. Although many of these would like to retain the evangelical name for themselves, the only accurate way to describe this view is that it is a form of neo-orthodox existential theology. The heart of neo-orthodox existential theology is that the Bible gives us a quarry out of which to have religious experience, but that the Bible contains mistakes where it touches that which is verifiable — namely history and science. But unhappily we must say that in some circles this concept now has come into some of that which is called evangelicalism. In short, in these circles the neo-orthodox existential theology is being taught under the name of evangelicalism.

Martin Luther said, “If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.” (1)

“For the existentialist it is an illusion to think that we can know anything truly, that there is such a thing as certain objective truth or moral absolutes. All we have is subjective experience, with no final basis for right or wrong or truth or beauty. This existential world view dominates philosophy, and much of art and the general culture such as the novel, poetry, and the cinema.”

Maxim-“The Will of the People is the Law of the Land” is Good Only as Long as the People are Good

This 1866 engraving depicts Washington praying... This 1866 engraving depicts Washington praying at Valley Forge (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“The foundations of our National policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality”

George Washington

max·im . A succinct formulation of a fundamental principle, general truth, or rule of conduct.

The word,”Choice”, has become synonymous with freedom in American society to the point that anything that restricts our freedom of choice is considered wrong.

Does not right and wrong exist and boundaries then are established to keep us and others from harm?

Violence shades our days and intrudes our peace of mind, and robs us of hope for a better tomorrow.

We can’t deny something is indeed wrong.

If WE THE PEOPLE want the freedom to practice the 2nd amendment, the right to bare arms, yet we fail to live the 1st amendment, freedom of religion, the result will be gun control for lack of heart control. In fact, all other freedoms grow out of the willful practice of the first amendment by the society at large.

True Freedom is composed of two conditions of restraint; The absence of externally imposed restraints by others, and presence of internally imposed restraints by ourselves.

The two are essential to have together, but self-imposed restraints are dependent on willful desire for moral virtue that comes from God.

The greatest challenge to a free people is not to throw off restraints to freedom, but to willfully impose responsible restraints on themselves by means of the pursuit of virtue.

But we have proven we are unable to help ourselves.

We are all like Lazarus in his tomb for 3 days,…dead and even unable to call out to God.
Christ calls us.

God gives life ,and awakens us to knowing Him.
American Christians have taken their gaze from steadfastly looking to our First Love, Christ, to things, status, power, pleasure and ease.

Christ Centered love, and then a resulting Christ Centered hunger for knowledge of the One we love above all other affections, is what America and the World needs most.

Heralding the truth of how ,”we love Him because He first loved us before we KNEW Him,” is the key to restoration and life, and freedom.

This is the definition of social reform

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

2 Corinthians 5:16-18

And with freedom comes great power and possibilities,…and great responsibility.

We will either be a people who worship our God who,”created all men equal and endowed us unalienable rights”, or we will ignore our creator and worship the creation instead, such as freedom or self.

In the final analysis, we will either pass an enduring freedom to the next generation, or destroy our future as a free people.

The choice is ours.

 “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.”
“No longer virtuous, no longer free;”

Benjamin Franklin

“Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are the gift of God?That they are violated but with his wrath? I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep for ever.”

Thomas Jefferson

“It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.” ― George Washington

The 4th of July and True Freedom

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Freedom.
We think we have it.
But do we?
Every Christian denomination in the USA is feeling a degree of pain right now. Statistics show we are closing 3,600 Christian churches per year. We are told that 80% of Christian  churches have zero growth or are in decline.
And Christian denominational Leadership seems to be clueless.
I get really concerned when the guys I admire most, from the denominations I amire most are blind to our predicament!
Its almost as if Christ has, “taken away our candelstick. I fear we already are Ephasis of the Book of Revelation.
As a result, we have a lot of discussion about ,”What the Church in America Needs”,but I keep thinking of a few stories from the Bible as I read such articles.
Like when the disciples were in a boat on a lake and a storm threatened to capsize the boat. The disciples thought they were going to die,even though Christ was also  in their boat,(asleep, but there). He rebuked them for not having faith.
Or the time Jesus was at the tomb of His friend Lazarus and everyone was weeping even though He was there. He,”groaned in the Spirit “,every time they showed a lack of faith. Each time their comments and actions reflected that they overlooked the reality of who Christ was and what He can do, and He wept.
For every believer, Christ is both WITH and IN you! And He promised to never leave!
So why are we asking,”What America Needs”, as if Christ were neither present nor the answer?
Why is the Gospel Coalition Senior Editor defending a certain moralistic view of Calvinism as the answer to the same problems in the reformed church yet Christ is merely given honorable mention in that article? (“Reformed or Deformed”).
I believe Jesus still weeps as He wept over Jerusalem for He changes not.
I can imagine Him saying to us as He did to Jerusalem;
O America, America! How often I would gather you under my wings as a hen her chicks, but you would not.
I pray we take note and turn back.
Denominations can do a few things wrong and still be successful if they hold up Jesus as preeminent.

If the Son of Man makes us free,  then we are truly free indeed.
HE is the answer.
Christ, the Son of Man.
If you really want to celebrate, accept the redemption Christ alone could afford! And you will be free indeed!

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