The Journey Purpose For The Pilgrim's Progress
By Al Cronkrite The Covenant News ~ October 27, 2005
I have been a Liberal; I have worshipped intellect and looked to smart individuals for leadership. I have been an Evangelical Christian, ardently supporting Zionism, seeking gifts and personal contact with the Creator. I have tried to make God my servant by seeking His benefits and ignoring His Laws. I have been a Republican, denigrated Democrats, and hoped for more freedom and less government. I have believed in the righteousness of our motives and the benevolence of our nation. I have supported American war and pined for victory. I have made allowances for those I supported when they failed to keep their promises. I have wondered why our government would legislate against our industries and businesses. And, yes, I have hoped America was on the right path and ignored the obvious in favor of immediate tranquility.
College years were Liberal years. The ego fostered by perceived intellectual superiority, real or imagined, set reason as the arbiter of morality. I slithered out of college with a copy of the "Saturday Review" under one arm and the notion that a gift had been bestowed on civilization. This bleary time was marked with frivolity and personal failure.
Conversion from skeptical agnosticism to fledgling Christianity brought diametrical change. God became token ruler and though wrought with recalcitrant sin, I embarked on a consuming Charismatic pietism involving Zionism, the End-Times, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Tongues, gifts, healings, and the soon Second Coming. Floods of emotion and a stifling lack of discernment marked this extended period. From a political Liberal, I became a political Conservative and a supporter of the Republican Party.
A decade or more passed and mass conversions to Christ failed to produce expected social changes. Numerical increases in Christian converts were inversely proportional to social righteousness. Rummaging about to determine the cause of this apparent anomaly, it seemed Christians had not learned how to love and prefer one another causing a lack of necessary winsomeness.
Christian leaders fixed their interests numerically. Success equated to God's blessings and was measured by the size and resulting wealth of congregations. Love was an emotional perception that might involve lots of hugs on Sunday morning and even providing care for the poor or handicapped. Leadership became bait and ambitious Christians strained to lead. Ministries were popular and before they learned to follow, many sought them. In mega churches a corporate type chain of command developed.
While all this was going on, Christian morality remained at par with the balance of pagan society and as ego-enhancing cameras invaded Charismatic churches, what should have been privately sacred was often subjected to public ridicule.
At this point, a detailed letter of concern to a longtime Charismatic leader failed to produce a response and a casual email to a crusty Christian protagonist that had strongly confronted a highly placed pagan on C-Span brought a recommendation to learn more about Reformed Theology. This suggestion ultimately lead to reading the late Dr. Rousas Rushdoony's "Institutes of Biblical Law". The task was daunting but the rewards were bountiful. King David claimed to love God's Laws. I now loved them too and I understood why American Christians were failing to impact society.
God's Laws contain the core of His love for His creation. His punishment for disobedience is similar to our punishing a child that has run into the street. We rob ourselves of peace and prosperity by disobeying His Laws and He loves us enough to punish us for our failure. His love for us seeks our obedience.
God's Laws are the sinew of Christianity; without them it is a ninety-pound weakling, sinful, confused and without redeeming social value. From the writings of Dr. Rushdoony, I learned that law forms the religious base of society and that America became a pagan nation through systematic destruction of Christian legal principles and this not of current origin but intrinsic in our founding.
Even before maturing, I had begun to question the reasons why our government would support programs that allowed the rape of our markets, the destruction of our businesses, and the compromise of our sovereignty. It was difficult for me to believe that American citizens of high station would conspire to bring down our nation. I learned that nefarious forces within our country were systematically undermining Constitutional law by calling it archaic and no longer valid. I learned that government power is increased through contrived wars that line the pockets of conforming elitists who are often part of a century old conspiracy to control the world through a single government entity. It was dreadful stuff widely denied, but for those who care, easy to confirm.
This was not the end of my post-Christian education. I began to wonder how the Zionist government of Israel could justify retaking their ancient lands when God, in fulfillment of His patiently merciful threat, had destroyed their nation and scattered its inhabitants. I learned that His timing coincided with their failure to accept the propitiation of Christ's death leaving them with a guilt that had overcome God's mercy. How then could God allow this land, now owned and occupied by others for centuries, to be raped by a Nation that had never repented from the practices for which it was destroyed? Would it not amount to a rape of justice?
Helping my proper understanding was a rabidly Zionist Jewish friend with a visceral hatred for St. Paul and for the teachings of Christ who assured me that I should be following his Jewishness rather than the Lord Jesus Christ. This Pharisaical arrogance ignited a quest for a sound understanding of Jews and Zionism that involved several months of research.
I learned that the history of post-Diaspora Jewry has been marked by a clannish acquisition of self-serving power in the nations where they have been welcomed. This was followed by a backlash of anti-Semitism that forced them into a nomadic existence. It was a centuries old pattern particularly noticeable in Twentieth Century Russia, Germany, and the United States.
The emotional regard for things Jewish was ultimately replaced by a clear understanding of their common hatred for things Christian and a conviction that those who support their apostasy are working against the Will of God.
Dependence effects reality. God's chosen depend upon Him and are endowed with a fresh ability to view secular reality without the distortion of needing it. The quest for popularity has been squelched and freedom to speak truth to fantasy has been activated. Properly taught, Christians should be law-abiding truth tellers.
Armed with the legal standards God, Himself, decreed and understanding that He created the world and everything in it, they are uniquely equipped to speak righteousness to sin.
What should these Christian truth tellers be confronting?
1. Does our Christian God enjoy singular status in America? He claims to be a jealous God and demands that we have no other Gods before Him.
2. Do those involved in our government bow down to graven images? How about secret societies and the ever-present owl at their common playground at Bohemian Grove, California? Do they engage in secret rites or take pagan oaths? What is the significance of that pyramid with the eye that graces our currency?
3. Are our leaders careful not to dishonor the Name of the Lord? Do they refrain from coarse language and protect the sanctity of God's name?
4. Do we desecrate the Sabbath? Do the laws of our land promote such desecration? On the seventh day God rested. It is Holy in remembrance of His creation.
5. Are we taught to honor our fathers and mothers? Does our government support the family? How about our churches? God's primary government involves the family. Failure to honor fathers and mothers works against God's order.
6. Does the murder of innocent babies in the womb breach the Commandment not to kill? How do we view the ancillary deaths of thousands of civilians in nations that have done us no harm? Can the wanton murder of innocents escape God's mandate against killing?
7. How about adultery and fornication? Is our society producing movies that glorify sexual promiscuity and are we allowing it to continue? Do we dabble in it and give it our tacit approval? The incidence of adultery and fornication among members of Christian Churches is as high as it is in the pagan population.
8. Is our government guilty of theft when it confiscates money earned by the rich and distributes it to the poor? How about taking the personal property of those arrested for breaking certain laws? What about government debasement of the currency, commonly known as inflation or the oil wells in Iraq? Are the spoils of imperialism stolen property?
9. How does God view the false allegations used to foment our attack on Iraq? Were these allegations the same as bearing false witness against a neighbor?
10. Might imperialism be defined as coveting a neighbor's autonomy? Is America's attempt to dominate the world a breach of the Tenth Commandment?
These Ten Commandments do not include all of the Law to which God seeks our obedience but they do offer a microcosm of the behavior He expects.
America, founded by Christians, no longer heeds any of God's basic Commands. Our leaders depend upon their own wisdom and follow the path of humanism. The Christian church has been too busy with its own narcissism to properly address the desecration of God's creation. Leaders are proud, stiff necked, and unteachable.
We not only flagrantly disobey every one of the Ten Commandments but we fail to accept sound doctrine and repent of our foolishness. Is this not what Christian truth tellers should be addressing?
The Seventh Chapter of the Book of Jeremiah expresses God's impatience with the abominable behavior of His People. In the sixteenth verse, God says, "Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee." Jeremiah 7:16
America has allowed itself to be overtaken by a group of Pharisaical Neo-Conservatives who have brought us the same spirit that caused the Diaspora. His warning to ancient Israel could well be duplicated in contemporary America.
Sadly, the American Christian Church and its leaders have been complicit in this travesty.