Deception - What You See Is Not What You Get
By Al Cronkrite The Covenant News ~ August 28, 2009
“As a result, we are in a cultural revolution. It is a revolution from the new man, Jesus Christ, to the old man, Adam, from supernatural man to fallen man. This is the culture of the Enlightenment, of Romanticism and Revolution, of Rousseau, and of our time.” Dr. R. J. Rushdoony
From antiquity varieties of woods have been glued together and used for functional and decorative purposes. Veneers are laminates but not all laminates are veneers. Veneers usually involve a surface that is superior to the underlying structure.
There are scores of legitimate uses for laminates and veneers. Violins and guitars are often constructed from laminates that produce a particular sound. Plywood was invented in 1905 by a Portland, Oregon man named Gustav Carlson. It was called “3-ply veneer work” and quickly became popular. Read about it here. Veneers were used in ancient Egypt to conserve scarce supplies of decorative woods. Properly used veneers can provide products that are functionally superior. Read a short history of veneer.
Veneers provide an opportunity for deception. When a product is skillfully veneered and sold as a homogeneous entity the transaction is fraudulent.
Human depravity is often veneered. United States has a large Christian population living under a secular Constitution and governed by humanistic politicians who often cover their guile with Christianity because they are well aware that the nation is predominantly back-slid Christian. Our 43rd president, George W. Bush, veneered his persona with an attractive coating that deceived scores of Christian leaders. Christians twice helped elect this wolf in sheep’s clothing to the nation’s top office. Though he campaigned against foreign entanglements he deceived us into illegal foreign wars. Professing an intention to shrink government he expanded it and spent more money than a composite of several of his predecessors. Early in his administration he met with Mexican President Fox; shortly thereafter hundreds of thousands of Mexicans began crossing our porous Southern border. He strutted about the Capitol, used foul language, and wrote dozens of unconstitutional, freedom robbing Executive Orders. Christians should have known him by his fruit but few did.
Rome’s Emperor Constantine was converted to Christianity and pressed a Christian veneer on the Roman Empire. This extensive Christian mandate was undoubtedly responsible for extending Christian influence throughout Europe but there was a troubling strain of impurity in Constantine’s effort. It was Constantine that designated December 25th as the day of Jesus’ birth and Easter as time of the Resurrection. Christmas was veneered over the Roman celebration of Saturnalia, itself a convert from the prior worship of a Semitic sun-god named Shamash, which involved the giving of gifts, and parades that included singing and pine wreaths.
While censoring numerous important issues world news sources operate under a veneer that claims to be honest and forthright. We are bombarded with a media contention that those who wish to see an authentic birth certificate for our multi-racial, multi-national president are kooks. Lou Dobbs is being vilified and may soon be forced to recant or resign because he wants to see a properly documented birth certificate. Yet, while the media brands the quest for a verifiable birth certificate crazy, they fail to properly cover the issue or to produce what they claim exists.
What passes for entertainment is veneered with propaganda and stuffed with hidden agendas. Heroes are predominately Blacks, Women, Jews and an occasional Oriental. They are uniformly secular with Christian characters invariably portrayed as immoral wretches. Homosexuality, promiscuity, gutter talk, and social depravity are portrayed as the norm. Generally there is no particular story line. Movies often depict slices of dysfunctional life with criminals avoiding punishment. There seems to be a concerted effort to destroy the moral integrity of our society.
Christians have been fighting the secular scourge by attempting to veneer our Founders and the documents they produced with Christianity. Like Constantine their efforts miss God’s intention. The design of the Roman republic was one of the sources used in constructing our founding documents. Rome allowed religious plurality and was home to many different religions. It had a representative government with elected officials. Roman emperors who sought deification often wanted their subordinates to take oaths of loyalty. Oaths have a sacramental component; they are vows made before God. Ironically, the oath to obey a Constitution involves a request for God to witness a transaction that is a direct affront to His Law.
Recently, Dick B from Hawaii has been creating considerable turbulence attempting to establish Christianity in Alcoholics Anonymous (A. A.) by promoting the idea that it has Christian roots. His organization, the Christian Recovery Coalition, recently held a meeting in California.
A. A. was born in the Oxford Group which was a Christian rooted cult originated by Dr. Frank Buchman.
Dick B is attempting to provide a Christian overlay to a secular organization. There was Christian influence but Christian influence and Christian principles do not constitute a Christian entity. Bill W. is reported to have gone forward at a Christian meeting and accepting Christ as his Savior. However, the fruit of a converted life never materialized in Bill. His influence on the A.A. program was humanistic and his personal behavior reprehensible.
Atheists, agnostics, humanists, scoffers, and puffed up authorities on human success are all welcome in A. A. meetings but, unfortunately, an authoritative witness to Jesus Christ is scorned.
A. A. has always hosted the pragmatic idea that too much emphasis on god might drive new members away. Their contention is that the “spiritual part of the program” must be spoon fed. Dr. Bob’s approach was different from today’s generally accepted norms. He prayed with newcomers that god would remove their defects of character and allow them to enjoy sobriety. He was more successful than Bill W. but Bill W. constructed the Big Book and was influential in setting the foundations of the program. God is described as a “higher power” but the One True God is not mentioned in the Twelve Steps. When the word “God” is used in the Big Book it is incorrectly capitalized.
There is no organization better suited for helping alcoholics get clean and sober than Alcoholics Anonymous But when this fine programs is used as a religion it becomes a humanistic cult.
There is only One True God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Salvation for alcoholics and addicts is the same as for everyone else. It was purchased by God through the sacrifice of His Only Son and given first to His chosen people, the Jews, and when they rejected it, to the Gentiles. Christians are now God’s chosen people; the salt of the earth. When Twelve Step programs fail to embrace Christianity and Christians they loose God’s blessing.
God is not satisfied with laminates and veneers. King David prayed for truth and wisdom in his innermost being. Preachers who have been taught in seminaries to preach friendly sermons cannot be servants to the Living God. God is not seeker friendly. He has no interest in mega churches or in expository preaching. He does not seek revered leaders. He seeks obedience. The Apostle Paul did not preach with a flowery tongue. His message was Christ and Him crucified. Christ was sent to provide forgiveness from sin and power to obey. Consider Hosea. God chose Hosea to emulate the behavior of His chosen people and told him to marry a prostitute. Hosea was not expected to build a big church and become personally popular. His job was to rebuke God’s people by emulating their sinful behavior.
James Dobson has attempted to put a Christian veneer over Conservative politics. He has failed because he has missed the mark. God redeems from the inside creating a depth that endures. Dispensational, antinomian Christians like Dobson are bereft of legal authority. Their protestations lack the legal foundation of God’s Law and as a result fall flat. Christians who do not espouse God’s Law represent an illegitimate political system that cannot produce righteousness. Wake up Christians! We represent the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the One and Only True God and His political system which is spelled out in His Law. Our job is to promote righteousness through obedience.
I am an old man. I have been a Christian for over 46 years. In all those years I have been blest to see hundreds of thousands of my fellows convert to Christ. Initially, I thought our society would change and a moral revolution would result. As time went on it became apparent that my expectation was vain. God graciously saved me from despair by allowing The Law I had feared and forsaken, to fill out the Gospel as it sublimely rose through the lines of Dr. R. J. Rushdoony’s Institutes. I now understood why Christianity had failed. It had forsaken God’s Law. Like the nation of Judah during the time of Josiah contemporary Christians have been disobedient and Dr. Rushdoony, like Josiah, has revived the true Gospel of Jesus Christ by bringing us knowledge of the Law.
The New Testament veneer that the Western World has placed over the Christian Gospel is an abomination to the Great God of All Creation. He does not change and is the same in both the Old and the New Testaments. Our disobedience is forgiven through the propitiation of Christ but like the woman at the well, we are to go and sin no more. Sin is disobedience to the Law – we are to be obedient!