My 2021 finale

The Steve Deace Show's final episode of the year annually is an "awards presentation" of the best and worst of the year. Last year, I wrote down all of their categories without listening to their answers first. Then I answered them myself on a Facebook post before going back to see how many of the panel's responses matched my own. This year I decided to do the same thing I did last year but in a blog post. Again, I reiterate: the categories are theirs, the answers are mine. With that in mind, here we go:

• Biggest winner: Donald Trump. Despite having the entire media, pop culture, and most of our country's institutions against him, Donald Trump overcame the odds once again and won the 2020 election.
• Biggest loser: Donald Trump. Despite winning the 2020 election, a combination of stacking the deck in Democrat-controlled states, an unprecedented level of voter fraud, and having a terrible team and defense to go to bat for him, Donald Trump (officially) lost the 2020 election, making Captain Dementia the 46th President of the United States.
• Best politician: Dr. Fauci- The guy changes his mind every few days. He has literally changed his mind on every single COVID-related issue multiple times since before "15 days to flatten the curve" in March of 2020. Yet he still maintains his job and is the highest-paid government employee in the United States. So technically, even though he is not a politician and has never run for an elected position, he embodies all of the stereotypes about politicians, making him the best politician for 2021.
• Worst politician: This turned out not to be one of their categories. I just assumed it would be given the previous one. But I like my answer so much I decided to keep it: Liz Cheney. The Republican Representative from West Virginia supported the second impeachment of Donald Trump over the January 6 "mostly peaceful protest" (see CNN's 2020 definition of the phrase) after he was already out of office. I am still trying to figure out how you impeach a President who is no longer in office, but in the words of Sophia Petrillo, I digress. So Liz Cheney comes out against the most popular President among Republicans in the last 40 years, angering her own voters to the point that she was receiving death threats, and then gets appointed to a Commission by Nancy Pelosi to investigate the attack on the Capitol. She has no chance among her own voters in the future.
• Most defining political moment: Parents rising up around the country to take back their voices when it comes to their children's education, protest mask mandates, and attempt to stop the racism of Critical Race Theory.
• Biggest traitor- Bill O'Reilly, who built an entire career and reputation on "looking out for" "the folks" only to show his true colors by saying "the folks" should submit to tyranny about their vaccine status and be punished if they don't.
• Most boring- These stupid reaction videos on social media and YouTube where people record themselves watching and reacting to other videos.
• Most charismatic- CM Punk. His return to pro wrestling earlier this year on the AEW roster was one of the best crowd reactions I have ever seen and a reminder of his sustained popularity even while he has been away from the ring for years.
• Bummest rap- Kyle Rittenhouse was accused of murder despite video evidence to the contrary. He was called a racist and a white supremacist for killing other white people in self-defense. He should have been given a medal, not almost having his entire life stolen from him.
• Fairest rap- The Ahmaud Arbery killers. The jury got that one right too.
• Best comeback- CM Punk again for the same reasons I said above.
• Most original thinker- Andrew Yang. I wouldn't vote for him, but he's not a leftist, progressive, nut to the same degree that the rest of his former party has become. He's a critical thinker and, in these days when critical thinking is on life support, critical thinkers of all stripes should be celebrated.
• Most stagnant thinker- Sean Hannity this year and every year.
• Best photo op- The picture of Glenn Beck and Stu Burguiere trying to wear as many masks as they can on their face during Glenn's radio show to demonstrate how stupid all of this is.
• Enough already- The vaccines. Enough already. We get it. I need to cover myself with an umbrella so the rain doesn't fall on somebody six feet away.
• Worst lie- The idea that there is such a thing as "your truth" or "my truth" instead of just THE truth. A close second would be the idea of systemic racism and white supremacy still being a major problem.
• Destined for political stardom- Winsome Sears, the new Lieutenant Governor of Virginia.
• Destined for political oblivion- Liz Cheney for the reasons I said above.
• Best/Worst political theater- The manufactured outrage over January 6 and the Capitol.
• Most underreported story- The ineffectiveness of the COVID (possibly leaky) vaccines, which includes the false perpetuating of the idea that this is now only a pandemic of the unvaccinated. A related one is the willing participation in the deaths of many Americans by the medical community through denying them early/alternative treatments.
• Most overreported story- I'm happy for Britney Spears that she is getting her freedom back, but there are plenty of other stories that should have gotten the attention she did.
• Biggest government waste- A majority of elected Republicans who are not conservative and only exist because the Demoncrats are given over to the sinful desires of their hearts.
• Best government money spent- Anything they spent on me.
• Boldest political tactic- Treating real Americans, (I'm humming the Hulk Hogan theme now) from people who voted conservative in 2020 to labeling parents at school board meetings, as terrorists.
• Best idea- I can't say (that's how good it is).
• Worst idea- If my best idea doesn't happen.
• Sorry to see you go- Rush Limbaugh. 😢 I think I heard every one of his shows since 2002.
• The 15 minutes of fame that is almost up- Omicron because there will always be new variants to keep the fearful terrified and make Pfizer money.
• Best spin- Bill O'Reilly for that vaccine spin I mentioned earlier and because his show used to be called "The No Spin Zome."
• Most honest- Pastor Craig Groeschel for his continued transparency that invites others to be more open about their own "stuff."
• Most overrated- In honor of Rush, the "cesspool" known as Twitter.
• Most underrated- Senator Rand Paul for displaying Fauci for the fool that he is.
• New Year's resolution- To read the Bible through in a year chronologically.
• Capitalist of the year- Pfizer for making tons of money on a mandated product.
• Person of the year- Jesus Christ
• 2022 prediction- We will continue to see more and more signs that we are headed toward the end of the age. This will be accompanied by continued growth in the lack of interest in the study of the end times (especially in churches) even though this will be the time when that study is needed the most.

Our Cultural Mandate

In the last blog post I did before this one, I kept repeating the phrase, "We're not doing something right." We have an overwhelming percentage of our population still calling themselves Christians, and yet singular digits in the percentage of people who actually hold a biblical worldview. There is a gigantic disconnect between what many Christians say they believe and what they actually believe. It is tempting, maybe easy, to get disheartened when we look at this disconnect, but, for those of us who have a biblical worldview, this should not be surprising.

Are we living in the last days? Many people believe that we are. Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, that day will not come until the rebellion occurs (2 Thessalonians 2:3). There have been all kinds of rebellions in history. So what makes this rebellion any different? Why is this called THE rebellion? The Greek word is “apostasia,” from which we get our word “apostasy.” It refers to a falling away or defection. In this context, it refers to people falling away, defecting from, and forsaking the truth. The only other time this word “apostasia” is used is in Acts 21:21 when Paul is accused of teaching all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to Jewish customs. In both cases, the word is used to refer to turning away from one way and going another.

The United States of America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. But, starting from a time before I was born and continuing on through my whole life so far, America has been drifting away from its Christian foundation. What we see happening right now in the surveys that I pointed out in the earlier post did not happen overnight or in one generation. This has been, as one Christian song would put it, a slow fade. American Christians are entering a time that many of us have never personally experienced, at least those of us who have lived our whole lives here. However, just because this might be unique to American history does not mean it is unique to the world's experience or the Bible. Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3. In 1 Samuel 15, the prophet Samuel said to King Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’” Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt. He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed. Saul was given clear instructions from the Lord through the prophet, but Saul and Israel rebelled against the Lord. The history of Israel–and the human race as a whole–has been one of rebellion, judgment, repentance, restoration, and repeat. So again, this is not new, even though it may be new for all of us American Christians reading this as a whole in our culture.

Other Christians may look at this differently. Some believe that it is our responsibility to not be involved in the culture. Because of the Bible's commands that we live separate from the world, they think it means that we should separate ourselves from all earthly matters. In this viewpoint, earthly citizenship is considered to have minimal, if any, importance in the life of a disciple of Jesus. The reasoning goes that because this world as it is right now is not our home, it is useless to waste our time concerning ourselves with earthly things. This is not the view that the American founders had citizenship. And I do not believe it is a biblical one either. God blessed humanity, saying, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Genesis 1:28). The Tim LaHaye Prophecy Study Bible notes that this Cultural Mandate is a prophecy relating to the call and purpose for mankind. Psalm 8:3-8 indicates that the Cultural Mandate is to operate throughout all of history. It says, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.” That Bible’s commentary note on this passage reminds us that the Cultural Mandate provides the basis for human involvement in society, culture, labor, politics, and science. We cannot have dominion over that which refuse to engage with.

Regardless of where you come down on whether or not Christians should be actively engaged in the culture of war or whether we should separate ourselves from it to keep focused solely on "spiritual things" as if there is anything that the spiritual realm does not impact, I think it is clear from everything that I talked about in that previous post that we are losing ground in our world. But all is not lost. There is still plenty of hope out there. The kingdom of God is advancing in some areas and lives. But, when we look at the world's condition as a whole, can we really say that the church is living out the victorious nature that Christ prophesied for us when he said the gates of Hell would not overcome the church (Matthew 16:18)? Let us put actions behind our words, get involved, and stop hiding our lights under bowls (Matthew 5:15).

Merry Christmas

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: MATTHEW 1-2; LUKE 1-2 NIV

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,

    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.

When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,

    you may now dismiss your servant in peace.

For my eyes have seen your salvation,

    which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:

a light for revelation to the Gentiles,

    and the glory of your people Israel.”

The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for out of you will come a ruler

    who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

“A voice is heard in Ramah,

    weeping and great mourning,

Rachel weeping for her children

    and refusing to be comforted,

    because they are no more.”

After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

So he got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

How does the fruit look?

In Steve Deace's book Do what you believe or you won't be free to believe it much longer, he references the movie Mr. Mom starring Michael Keaton. The scene he talks about is one where Keaton's character drives up to his children's school parking lot, but does so from the wrong direction, causing a traffic jam for the other parents. The crossing guard confronts him, saying, "You're doing it wrong." Nobody likes to be told, "You're doing it wrong." I remember one time (embarrassingly not too many years ago) when I was putting my shoes on the wrong feet because I wasn't paying attention. When it was pointed out to me that I was "doing it wrong," I persisted in arguing that I wasn't even while looking down at my feet and clearly seeing that I was, indeed, doing it wrong. Why did I argue? Because I didn't like being told I was doing it wrong even though it was obvious. (Side note: I did not wear them the wrong way when I went out. I made sure to switch them).

Modern-day American Christianity, in many ways, is also "doing it wrong." I have personally seen that charge leveled recently in some daily encounters I had and saw, but the reasons given were often surface-level, minor issues that can be often chalked up to the individual preferences of Christians and congregations or sour grapes over perceived wrongs done toward the people making the complaints.

"They didn't do enough for me.

"They don't care about me."

"They're out to get me."

Do you notice a common theme in all of those? I'll give you a hint: it's the word, "me." Am I saying that individual Christians or churches don't have any room for improvement when it comes to caring for others and/or helping them? Not at all. Am I saying that in the name of Christian freedom, individual preference should not even be considered or factored in when making decisions? Again, no. But in diagnosing where the western church as a whole, and the American church, in particular, misses the mark, let us not focus on these superficial, surface-level, concerns confined to specific individuals with axes to grind. Jesus said, "Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire" (Matthew 7:17-19 NIV). Let's look at the fruit of the modern American Christian tree to see what is being produced.

George Barna is the founder of The Barna Group, a market research firm specializing in studying the religious beliefs and behavior of Americans, and the intersection of faith and culture. His research center regularly produces a report on how the spiritual beliefs of Americans and Christians evolve over time. Their criteria for what defines a biblical worldview is pretty basic stuff: "Absolute moral truths exist. Absolute truth is defined by the Bible. Jesus Christ lived a sinless life. God is the all-knowing and all-powerful Creator of the universe who still rules today. Salvation is a gift from God that cannot be earned. Satan is real. Christians have a responsibility to share their faith in Christ with other people. The Bible is accurate in all of its teachings." Their findings indicate that only 6% of Americans have a biblical worldview even though 51% of Americans claim to have one. The Family Research Council released the results of a national survey titled Perceptions about biblical worldview and its application in May. Their key takeaways were that only 31% of American adults say it is important that their professed beliefs impact every aspect of their lives. And among those who actually say it is important for their faith to influence every dimension of their lives, only 55-56% said that they had successfully integrated their professed Christian faith into their family lives, spiritual lives, or personal relationships. Founder and President of WallBuilders, David Barton, in his 2015 presentation titled Principles of Success cited another survey that found some disturbing results.

Job 31:15 says, "Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers" (NIV)? The angel of the Lord told John the Baptist's father Zechariah that John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born. God told the prophet, Jeremiah, that he knew him before he was formed in the womb. God told Jeremiah that he already had a will for Jeremiah's life before he was born (Jeremiah 1:5). Isaiah 44:2 and 44:24 tell us again that God forms us in the womb. "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Psalm 139:13-16 NIV). God says the shedding of innocent blood rightly calls for the death penalty (Genesis 9:5-6; Deuteronomy 19:11-13; Romans 13:4). Yet 76% of Protestants opposed ending abortion, meaning they were in favor of the ability to have a legal abortion. 65% of abortions every year (as of 2015) were performed on professing Christians. 200,000 abortions had been performed on those who specifically claimed to be born again. We're not doing something right.

God completely destroyed Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding cities because of their sinfulness, the most wicked of which being homosexuality (Genesis 19:4-9). A similar incident is recorded in Judges 19. "Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable" (Leviticus 18:22 NIV). Jude 1:7 in the New Testament gives further commentary on this event. "Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire." God told the Israelites who were under the Mosaic Law, "If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads" (Leviticus 20:13 NIV). He also said to them, "A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this" (Deuteronomy 22:5 NIV). Romans 1:25-27 tells us about people who exchange the truth of God for a lie, worshiping and serving the created things rather than the Creator. "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way, the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error" (NIV). "Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-10 NIV). "We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine" (1 Timothy 1:9-10 NIV). Yet among active homosexuals, 27% claim to be born-again Christians. We're not doing something right.

The Psalmist said in Psalm 119:163, "I hate and detest falsehood, but I love your law" (NIV). Psalm 120:2 says, "Save me, Lord, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues" (NIV). Among the things that God says he hates and finds detestable is a lying tongue (Proverbs 6:16-17 NIV), but he delights in people who are trustworthy (Proverbs 12:22 NIV). "Each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body" (Ephesians 4:25 NIV). "The cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death" (Revelation 21:8 NIV). Yet only 35% of those claiming to be believers said that they had not deliberately told a lie in the past month. The top three excuses that they gave for lying were:

1. The truth might devastate the other person and I don't want to offend them.
2. God doesn't care about "little lies."
3. "I know lying is a sin, but that's why Jesus died on the cross."

All of those excuses ignore what God says about lying in the above passages I have already quoted. But they also violate the entire chapter of Romans 6 and what it teaches about grace empowering us to be free from sin, not giving us a license to sin more. We're not doing something right.

In 1 Samuel 28, God condemns consulting with mediums, people who attempt to contact the spirits of the dead and communicate with them. Concerning astrology, Deuteronomy 4:19 says, "When you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon, and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven" (NIV). "Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices, the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God. The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so" (Deuteronomy 18:10-14 NIV). The prophet Isaiah said to a rebellious Israel: "All the counsel you have received has only worn you out! Let your astrologers come forward, those stargazers who make predictions month by month, let them save you from what is coming upon you. Surely they are like stubble; the fire will burn them up. They cannot even save themselves from the power of the flame. These are not coals for warmth; this is not a fire to sit by" (Isaiah 47:13-14 NIV). God said in Micah 5:12, "I will destroy your witchcraft and you will no longer cast spells" (NIV). Galatians 5:19-21 lists some of the acts of the flesh: "Sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God." Yet this survey that David Barton references found no difference in the percentage of non-Christians and professing Christians who embrace astrology, fortune-telling, and psychics. Professing Christians are exactly the same as the world in these three areas despite all the Bible says about them. We are to "produce fruit in keeping with repentance" (Luke 3:8 NIV). Jesus said, "Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say" (Luke 6:46 NIV)? We're not doing something right.

Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6 NIV). "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12 NIV). Yet in this polling cited by David Barton during his 2015 presentation, he notes that 80% of professing Christians believe that religions other than Christianity will get you into Heaven. 52% of professing Christians believe that a belief in Islam will get an individual into Heaven. 53% of professing Christians believe that a belief in Hinduism will get an individual into Heaven. 42% of professing Christians believe that a belief in atheism would get a person into Heaven. 56% of professing Christians believed that if a person had no religious belief at all, they could still get to Heaven. We're not doing something right.

So what do we do? I believe the root cause of this is a couple of things. One is biblical illiteracy. People just don't know their Bibles. A Huffington Post article written on April 4, 2013, was titled, "Americans love the Bible, but don't read it much." I don't agree with that publication very often, but they got that headline exactly right. Their article pointed out that 88% of Americans surveyed by the American Bible Society in 2013 said they own a Bible, 80% think the Bible is sacred, 61% wish they read the Bible more, and the average household has 4.4 Bibles. Yet in that same survey, 57% admitted that they only read the Bible four times a year or less. "Only 26% of Americans said they read their Bible on a regular basis (four or more times a week). I believe the other cause is false converts. Ray Comfort writes, "False converts lack genuine contrition for sin. They make a profession of faith but are deficient in biblical repentance. 'They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good' (Titus 1:16 NIV). A true convert, however, has a knowledge of sin and has godly sorrow, truly repents, and produces the things that accompany salvation (Hebrews 6:9). This is evident by the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of righteousness, etc...Some of these professing Christians stay within the church, and they are the ones that often discredit the name of Jesus Christ." We must remember that the Great Commission is not just about evangelism, but discipleship. Jesus commands us to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19 NIV).

NO misuse of God's name

I want to begin by looking at our next verse, Exodus 20:7, in three different translations:

"You shall not use or repeat the name of the Lord your God in vain [that is, lightly or frivolously, in false affirmations or profanely]; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain" (AMPC).

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain [that is, irreverently, in false affirmations or in ways that impugn the character of God]; for the Lord will not hold guiltless nor leave unpunished the one who takes His name in vain [disregarding its reverence and its power]" (AMP).

“You must not ·use the name of the Lord your God thoughtlessly [take/lift up the name of the Lord your God in vain]; the Lord will ·punish [not hold/treat as innocent; not acquit] anyone who ·misuses [takes in vain] his name" (EXB).

When people think of this commandment, they usually think of not using God's name as a cuss word. There is the famous saying that has been made into a bumper sticker and on articles of clothing: "God's last name does not start with 'D.'" And that is certainly true. We should not use God's name in place of or along with other language. But the prohibition with this commandment doesn't stop there. That's why I chose to look at this verse in multiple translations. When we combine everything these translations reveal, we see that this commandment warns against using or repeating God's name in profanity, but also light frivolity, irreverence, false affirmations that impugn God's character, or in any form of thoughtlessness. When a person does this, it shows that they do not have the proper respect for the Lord. That is been a similar theme as we have looked at the first two commandments as well. To violate any of these three is to show that you do not hold proper reverence for your creator, the creator of the universe. It reveals the condition of the heart of the person that violates this commandment.

Some people would claim that they are not doing this out of hatred for God. They may say, "It's not that big of a deal." "Everybody does it." "Lighten up." People who think things like this may not use God's name in vain out of active, conscious hatred for God, but again, I take you back to what Jesus said about the greatest commandment: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind (intellect)" (Matthew 22:37 AMPC). If you aren't loving him that way, do you really love or fear him at all? If you don't make him the ultimate priority of your life, you do not need to actively or consciously hate him because you are already dishonoring him as it is. Maybe you don't hate your concept of him that you have made up in your own mind in violation of the first two commandments, but this is hatred of the one true God of the universe found in the Bible.

Moses asked God in Exodus 33:18-19, "Please, I beseech you, show me your glory!" God replied, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim My name, The Lord, before you; for I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy and loving-kindness on whom I will show mercy and loving-kindness." God's name is synonymous with his goodness. If you violate his name, you are violating his goodness. Do you see how the two cannot be separated? That is why God tells us not to treat his name flippantly. When you do, you are treating him flippantly.

So what do you do if you hear God's name blasphemed in any of the ways that have been described here? The wrong response is to express disgust toward the person as if they have offended you. Perhaps they have offended you. But the real offense the guilty party should feel concerned about is not toward you, but the Lord himself. On Judgment Day, the blasphemer will not stand before you to be judged. They will stand before the almighty God of the universe and be judged by his unchanging, unwavering standard of perfection. Use the person's violation of God's name as an opportunity to share the Gospel with them. Our objective is not to elevate ourselves above them in self-righteousness, but to warn the blasphemer of the seriousness of what he or she has just done. The Lord will not hold guiltless or leave unpunished the one who takes his name in vain, disregarding its reverence and its power (Exodus 20:7). The Amplified Bible footnote on this verse says, "Using the name of God in a casual, frivolous way establishes a mindset that diminishes and dishonors the omnipotent God. Using the name of God to abuse, manipulate, or deceive invites judgment."

Author, commentator, and radio host Dennis Prager points out that committing evil in God's name is also a way of blaspheming the Lord. The Hebrew word "nāśā'," which is translated as "take" can also mean "to carry." The NIV translates Exodus 20:7 this way: "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name." Prager says this is much closer to the intent of the original Hebrew language. Thus, to carry or misuse God's name would be to commit evil in his name, which is why God takes it so seriously, he says he will not hold the person guiltless who does it. Prager argues that when a godless person commits evil, it does nothing to bring disrepute to God's name or reputation. But when a person who claims to be godly commits evil, especially in God's name, they are not only committing evil, they are doing terrible damage to the name of God. He uses the example of Islamists who torture, bomb, cut throats, and commit mass murder all in the name of God. This does terrible damage to God's name. He says it is not coincidental that what is called "the new atheism," characterized by the immense eruption of atheist activism, followed the 9/11 attacks on America by Islamist terrorists. The most frequent argument against God concerns evil committed in his name, whether it is done in the name of Allah today or whether it was done in the past in the name of Christ. That is why Prager considers religious evil to be one of the greatest sins that can be engaged in, because of what it does to God's reputation. This is also a reminder to me to be more careful about what I say and do in the future since I so publicly speak of Jesus. I pray that I would do a better job representing him in the future, especially in certain situations and circumstances where I have failed to do that in the past.

NO idols

Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment" (Matthew 22:37-38 MEV). If that is the first and greatest commandment, wouldn't failing to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind be the greatest sin one could commit? Let's think about this for a minute. God created the universe and everyone in it, including you. He created the people you love the most, even if that person is yourself...and for some people it is. God is the source of every truly good thing you have ever experienced (though not necessarily everything that seemed good at the time). To love something or someone more than him is to turn that person or thing into an idol as I mentioned in my last post. God said, "You shall not make for yourself any graven idol or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water below the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of them who hate Me, and showing lovingkindness to thousands of them who love Me and keep My commandments" (Exodus 20:4-6 MEV).

Why are humans so susceptible to idolatry? I think it is because anything or anyone that we make into an idol--notice that word "we"--is something that we--there's that word again--put there. The flesh loves self-gratification. If I am the kingmaker of whoever or whatever is king in my life that isn't God, then isn't that ultimately an elevation of self? I am a big pro wrestling fan. I have been since I was seven years old. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it was my idol growing up. Any money I got, that's what I spent it on, whether pay-per-views, videos, wrestling figures, or anything else wrestling-related. With all of my spare time, I was either playing with those wrestling figures or watching those videos. I even remember passing up a trip to Kings Island in 1996 so I wouldn't miss the weekend leadup to Summerslam that year. Mind you, I wouldn't be missing the big pay-per-view event itself, just the weekend countdown stuff, which I also recorded along with the events themselves. The number of facts, dates, title reigns, number of title reigns, length of title reigns, who defeated who when, and how still surprises a lot of people. To this day, I am still a big wrestling fan as I said. But it is no longer first in my life because Jesus is. It is no longer an idol, but it was for a long time. Again, anything or anyone you put first in your life that isn't God is an idol. That's why the first two of the 10 Commandments were so inextricably linked. If you have no other gods before God, then you have no idols. If you have an idol--something other than God that you have put first in your life--that is your god.

Before I was saved, I didn't really have a concept of God. I didn't really believe in God, but I didn't really have unbelief about him either. I guess that would indifferent agnosticism? I didn't know and, unless I was pondering the ultimate purpose of life, I didn't care. I wanted there to be a purpose to life. I didn't want death to be the end. That thought was the most depressing of all. What's the point of everything if we die and forget we were ever here and if we are all eventually forgotten? But I had my distractions, the biggest of which I described above. And as long as I had those, I could anesthetize myself from the doom and gloom thinking guaranteed to linger with one who has no eternal hope. So my God-concepts were more like uninformed wishes with nothing to base any hope on for their reality. Idols filled the vacuum. Thankfully that all began to change in what will be 21 years ago this Monday when I first believed in Jesus.

One false convert wrote a letter to Time magazine saying in part, "I am a devout Christian and I don't give much thought to Heaven. My spirituality isn't based on an anthropomorphic, kick-butt God who will throw four generations of children into eternal damnation because some distant forefather ticked him off. Heaven is the flip side of the absolutely barbaric notion of Hell that evolved under that kick-butt mindset...To me, God is a symbol for something unfathomable, an utter mystery that fills my heart with joy and my spirit with song." All I have to say after reading that deep, profound tearjerker is...what a total bunch of utter nonsensical gibberish! This is a classic example of idolatry epitomized by the two words I bolded..."To me..." This person literally fashioned a god that they were comfortable with that has no standards or expectations. In fact, forget standards and expectations, this person's god isn't even an actual being. It's an unfathomable symbol by their own definition! One time in the wilderness when Moses had gone up to Mt. Sinai to meet with the Lord,  "the people gathered themselves together around Aaron and said to him, 'Come, make us gods which will go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Aaron said to them, 'Break off the gold earrings that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.' So all the people broke off the gold earrings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. He received them from their hand, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into a molded calf. Then they said, 'This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.' When Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, 'Tomorrow will be a feast to the Lord.' So they rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. The Lord spoke to Moses, 'Go, and get down, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molded calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, 'This is your god, O Israel, which has brought you up from the land of Egypt'" (Exodus 32:1-8 MEV). What that individual did in their letter to Time was no different other than the fact that they didn't build an actual, physical golden calf. But a mental idol is still an idol.

Another religious group has gone so far as to make their idolatry acceptable by trying to change the 10 Commandments themselves. Ray Comfort writes, "Bear in mind, when you speak with Roman Catholics, that this commandment doesn't exist in their catechism. When you mention the second commandment, don't be surprised if they think it is, 'You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.' It's, therefore, understandable why many sincere Roman Catholics bow down to statues, even though the Bible makes it clear that this is a great sin in God's eyes.'"

So how can we guard against idolatry? Take an inventory of your life. What do you spend the most time and money on? What consumes your thoughts? If it is something other than the Lord, his Word, etc., pray about that and see if the Lord leads you to make a change. That doesn't necessarily mean completely cutting out something, though sometimes that is also called for. But, at the very least, a re-prioritizing is sometimes needed. Regardless, scripture is clear that nothing is to come before God. He is not only supposed to be first in our lives, but he is to be the central focus around which everything else in life revolves.

NO other gods

I recently spoke over the last couple of weeks with the primary theme that we are no longer under the Law of Moses as New Testament Christians, but we are under grace with the only laws we are to follow written in our hearts. "And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us" (1 John 3:23 NLT). This most important commandment to love Jesus Christ, who is God, is reflected in that first commandment ever given to the Israelites: "You must not have any other god but me" (Exodus 20:3 NLT). To those who truly follow Christ, God is not just first in your life. He is central to everything in your life. D. James Kennedy said it this way, "You cannot say, 'No, Lord,' and mean both words. One annuls the other. If you say no to him, he is not your Lord." That is because, as I mentioned in my last blog post, the word "Lord" as used here is a reflection of him being the master of your life, not just of his deity. In one sense, Jesus is Lord of all, but he is not your Lord unless you have submitted to him.

But doesn't God say that he is the only one? Yes, he does. “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone" (Deuteronomy 6:4 NLT). "I am the Lord. There is no other God" (Isaiah 45:5 NLT). But in reality, anything can be made an idol or false god. Even though the God of the Bible is the only true God, anything that is most important in your life is essentially your master, whether that is God or something else. For some people, money is their god. And that can be true whether someone is rich or poor. There are plenty of rich people who aren't greedy and there are plenty of poor people who think of nothing but money. For some, fame is their idol. As much as I enjoy social media because it allows me to see what's happening in the lives of people I care about,. many people use social media in pursuit of fame. This is not the same as using it to promote a church, business, product, blog, etc., but the idea of using it just for the sole purpose of getting likes and comments as I heard someone explain earlier this morning. I have been guilty of this in the past. It's an easy trap to fall into. Entertainment can be an idol. Who doesn't like to be entertained? "Americans do find some time to enjoy their lives, as reflected in the $2,564 the average household devotes to entertainment each year" (Average Household Budget). But entertainment can become an idol if that is the centerpiece of your life. Family relationships: spouses, parents, children can also become idols. We are to love everyone, especially those that I just listed. But when "a large crowd was following Jesus, he turned around and said to them, 'If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple'" (Luke 14:25-26 NLT). Jesus isn't teaching that we should hate everyone, but that we love him so far above anyone or anything else, that we don't give our lives to anything but him. Even if it means losing any of those people to obey Christ, that is the only correct course of action IF that is the only option. What it means to love God is clear: Nothing and no one can replace him for you to truly be his follower.

Most of humanity has such a shallow understanding of what God requires of them because the Good News is hidden behind a veil, hidden from people who are perishing. "Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God" (2 Corinthians 4:3-4 NLT). Despite my own clear understanding of God's requirement, the number of ways that I can think of--not counting the ones I may have forgotten--in which I have transgressed this commandment are countless. I am not pointing a finger at anyone who could not point it back at me, but all that does is leave us in the same boat. "As the Scriptures say, 'No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one. Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave. Their tongues are filled with lies. Snake venom drips from their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. They rush to commit murder. Destruction and misery always follow them. They don’t know where to find peace. They have no fear of God at all'" (Romans 3:10-18 NLT). We are all in need of the blood of Christ to cleanse us from our sins. Only when the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us when we put our trust solely in him are we empowered to live this out and truly keep God first in our lives. Jesus demonstrated this commandment in its most pure form when he was in the Garden of  Gethsemane right before going to the cross when he said, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine” (Luke 22:42 NLT). We should put God first because he put us first during the greatest event of all time.

Ray Comfort tells the story of a father who "once purchased a TV for his kids to watch cartoons in the afternoon. When he arrived home that night, his kids didn't come to greet him; they were busy watching TV. His homecoming had become a non-event. He walked over to the TV and turned it off, explaining to them that he purchased the TV for their pleasure, but if it came between him and their love for him, it was going. They were setting their affection on the gift, rather than on the giver. If we love anything more than God--our spouse, child, car, sport, or even our own life--we are setting our affection on the gift rather on than the giver."

A foot in light, a foot in darkness

SCRIPTURE READING: 1 JOHN

The apostles could write with confidence about what they knew of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their faith could not be shaken by arguments or persecution because they actually heard, saw, and touched the resurrected Jesus many times in the 40 days between his resurrection and ascension to Heaven. The fellowship of Christians today, just like those first-century disciples, is based on being a community of people who have also had encounters with Christ. Though we were not with the original first-century disciples who saw him after he rose from the dead, the fellowship of Christians today is based on an equally-real encounter with Jesus Christ today. But you can’t have fellowship with people if you are not being real with them. There have been many times I have not lived my life as Jesus did even after publicly acknowledging him. I got really good at deceiving myself. Internally, I was often loving the things of the world in wickedness while appearing outwardly like I had it all together. I often wondered if I was so disconnected that it was too late for me. I would read the story of Pharaoh's hard heart in Exodus or Esau's lack of repentance and feel hopeless. But God could see me the whole time and he has never stopped pursuing me. He loved me before I made a profession of faith in him and he continued to love me while having an appearance of loving him that did not match up way too often with what was happening on the inside of me. Not only did I fall short of God's perfect standard, but I also have proudly and defiantly run far in the other direction way too many times.

The book of 1 John tells us that we belong to the devil if we keep on making a practice of sinning. Words are important, but they are empty words if they are not backed up by actions. We are not saved by works, but our faith is dead if works do not accompany the faith we claim to have as the book of James teaches. If a professing Christian is not willing to give up their life for their fellow believers (in service to them or literally if circumstances ever call for such an extreme sacrifice), then that person is still dead in their sins no matter what they may say.

This heart-change that is required is not something we can strive for or work really hard to obtain. You cannot conjure up that which you do not have. If you want your heart to change, you can't do it yourself no matter how hard you try. No amount of self-help can result in a lasting change from the inside out. Luke 9:24 in The Message paraphrase of the Bible reminds us that self-help is no help at all. It is the Lord that must change our hearts because we cannot. You cannot conjure up that which you do not have. Our part is to give up trying harder and instead choose to surrender to God by the power of the Holy Spirit, trusting in what Jesus did on the cross. We must use our free will to make the choice to surrender our will to God's will. Only when you do that can God grant you what you cannot get any other way. Choose to repent of your sins and then trust in what Jesus has done. Don't strive or struggle within yourself, but have faith in the Lord to help you to do it. Only when we do this can we really truly know and understand who God is. Only the Holy Spirit can change the default settings of our sinful nature so that what comes out of us is godly rather than evil.

But what if, like as I described of myself earlier, you feel like you have gone too far and there is no turning back? I have talked to many people while praying with them who have expressed that very concern. They say things like, "I feel too filthy. I have gone too far. God could never forgive me. What's the use in trying when I just keep failing?" I have had all those same thoughts. But 1 John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins to God the Father, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. He can do this only because of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus on the cross because he is the only one who lived a sinless life and then died in our place. We broke the law and Jesus paid our fine. I owed a debt I could not pay. He paid a debt he did not owe.

The Apostle John warns us not to love this world nor the things it offers us. Jesus said we ccannot serve two masters. We will be loyal to and love only one master. When we call Jesus our Lord, it is not an expression of his divinity or equality with God. The Greek noun translated "Lord" is "kyrios." Your lord is the person or thing to whom you belong. Your lord is the person or thing that makes decisions for you or by which you make decisions. Your lord is your master. When you refer to Jesus of Nazareth as the Lord Jesus Christ, you are identifying Jesus as the Messiah not just of the Jewish people but of the world, and you are calling him your master. Before conversion to Christ, Satan is your owner and controller. Whether you intellectually accept or deny the reality of Satan's existence is irrelevant to the fact that he actually does exist and he is your master if you do not belong to Jesus. If you love the things of the world and what it offers you, Jesus is not your master. God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not practicing the truth. This is a state I chose to live in off and on far too many times and it has had disastrous results every time I have drifted that way. That is why I write about this now, not just as an encouragement and warning to my readers, but also for my own future accountability.

On the other hand, if your actions and not just your words are righteous, it will give you confidence when you stand before God on Judgment Day. Again, this is not because our actions save us. Ephesians 2:8-9 is clear that God saves by his grace when we believe. We cannot take credit for God's grace when we choose to surrender to it. We would have nothing to surrender to if he wasn't offering his grace to all people as a gift. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. If we are professing believers in Christ, let us go through the rest of this day and all future days acting as Jesus does and not just talking a good game. Let us cleanse ourselves and our surroundings of everything that does not please God. Live today actively trusting in what the Lord has done. Don't strive to earn what you can only trust in to legitimately receive.

The Real Story of Thanksgiving

Anybody who has known me for even a little bit of time or has visited any of my social media pages knows what a fan I am of Rush Limbaugh. One of the annual Thanksgiving traditions on The Rush Limbaugh Show was the reading of the real story of Thanksgiving. It comes from chapter 6 of Rush's second book written in 1992 titled See I Told You So. The chapter this story comes from is called Dead White Guys or What Your History Books Never Told You. To keep this tradition alive and to share information of America's real history with people who might not have heard this story,  I present selected and self-edited portions of this chapter that I consider most relevant for this year. You can find the whole book by clicking on this link.

The real story of Thanksgiving actually begins long before the first Thanksgiving. For me, I feel like Rush Limbaugh's telling of the first Thanksgiving should start back earlier in the chapter before he talks about the actual first Thanksgiving. For me, it should all begin with Christopher Columbus about 130 years earlier. As Rush points out, the politically correct view of Christopher Columbus today is that the Italian explorer did not actually discover America because people were already living here. According to the revisionist history that we are taught in schools today, Christopher Columbus brought nothing to the “peaceful New World paradise” but oppression, disease, brutality, and genocide. But this is not an accurate picture of Christopher Columbus, as I have also pointed out in some of my own Wisdom On Wheels blogs and podcasts, especially around Columbus Day. Christopher Columbus really did discover America. That does not mean that no human being had set foot on the continent before 1492 when Columbus discovered it. But just because there were people already here doesn't mean he didn't discover anything. I discovered a very small amount of money I didn’t know I had recently, but that doesn’t mean I’m denying its presence before I discovered it. But that doesn’t make me any less of a discoverer either. Maybe my middle name should be Columbus! Anyway, it was Christopher Columbus that brought this continent to the attention of the technologically advanced, civilized world and paved the way for the expansion of Western Civilization. In 2021 (and really long before that), Western Civilization has been wrongly equated to white supremacy. Nothing could be further from the truth. But that is the nature of the newspeak society in which we live today.

When Christopher Columbus discovered this land in 1492, what kind of a place did he discover? Did he find blissful natives living in perfect harmony with one another and communing with nature, as the politically correct history of today would have us believe? No. Nobody was painting with all the colors of the wind as sang in the Disney movie by Elizabeth Warren--I mean Pocahontas. What Columbus found was a land sparsely inhabited by nomadic hunting tribes. Many were constantly on the verge of starvation. They had not yet discovered the wheel and had no written language. They lived a violent, tribe against tribe, brutal existence. One of the Caribbean Indian tribes that Columbus came into contact with was the Arawaks. The Arawaks attacked and enslaved the Siboney. Another tribe, the Caribs, literally feasted on both tribes because they were cannibals. One of Columbus' search parties found large cuts of human flesh. Arawak boy captives were being fattened for the griddle. Girl captives were mainly used to produce babies for the Caribs to dine on. Did I mention you probably shouldn’t read this until after you have had Thanksgiving dinner today? Oops. Oh well, better a late warning than none at all, right? In today's history books, Native American life is often romanticized. But even a cursory examination of the historical record shows that life was far from utopian for these people long before Columbus. That's not to say that there were no atrocities against Indians by white people. But there were just as many committed against them by other Indians and with a greater degree of savagery. It is also worth pointing out there are more American Indians alive today than there were when Columbus arrived or at any other time in history. If Columbus was trying to commit genocide, he sucked at it.

The education establishment and the media have also twisted history when it comes to the contributions of America's earliest permanent settlers, the pilgrims. The story of the pilgrims begins in the early part of the 1600s. The Church of England under King James I was persecuting anyone and everyone who did not recognize its absolute civil and spiritual authority. Those who challenged ecclesiastical authority and those who believed strongly in freedom of worship were hunted down, imprisoned, and sometimes executed for their beliefs. A group of separatists first fled to Holland and established a community. After 11 years, about 40 of them agreed to make a perilous journey to what they called the New World. They knew in advance they would face hardships, but they also knew they would finally be able to live and worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including 40 pilgrims led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract, that established just and equal laws for all members of their new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs. The ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact came from the Bible. The pilgrims were a people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments. They looked to the ancient Israelites for their example. And because of the biblical precedent set forth in the scripture, they never doubted that their experiment would work. But this was no pleasure cruise. The journey to the new world was a long and arduous one. When the pilgrims landed in New England in November of 1620, they found a cold, barren, desolate wilderness. There were no friends to greet them. There were no houses to shelter them. There were no inns where they could refresh themselves. And the sacrifice they had made for freedom was just the beginning. During the first winter, half the pilgrims, including William Bradford’s wife, died of either starvation, sickness, or exposure. When spring finally came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod, and skin beavers fur coats. Life improved for the pilgrims, but they did not prosper yet.

Rush points out in his book that this is where American history lessons often end. Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives rather than as a devout expression of gratitude with biblical roots. Here is the part that has been omitted: The original contract the pilgrims had entered into with their merchant sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store. Each member of the community was entitled to one common share. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well. William Branford recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the pilgrims as the first harsh winter was, which had taken so many lives. So as governor of the colony, Bradford decided to take bold action. He assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of the marketplace. What we learn from this story in Rush’s book is that before Karl Marx was even born, the pilgrims had experimented with socialism and it didn't work! What Bradford and his community found was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else unless they could utilize the power of personal motivation. The pilgrims decided early on to scrap socialism permanently. Bradford wrote that by taking away private property and trying to force the community to split their wealth evenly amongst themselves, they were trying to act wiser than God. For the community, this bred much confusion and discontent. The young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did not believe that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense. They thought it was an injustice to expect such a thing. The pilgrims found that people cannot be expected to do their best work without incentive. So instead, they harnessed the power of free enterprise through the capitalistic principle of private property. Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and was permitted to market its own crops and products. They saw immediate, successful results, as it made all hands industrious. Much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been. It is here that Rush points out that supply-side economics existed before the 1980s and Ronald Reagan. All you have to do is read the story of Joseph and Pharaoh in Genesis 41. Following Joseph’s suggestion in Genesis 41 34, Pharaoh reduced the tax on Egyptians to 20% during the seven years of plenty and the earth brought forth in heaps. In no time, the pilgrims found they had more food than they could eat by themselves. So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with Indians. In other words, their prosperity enabled them to be more generous. The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London and the success and prosperity of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans. This began what came to be known as The Great Puritan Migration.

One of those attracted to the new world by the success of Plymouth was Thomas Hooker, who established his own community in Connecticut, the first full-fledged constitutional community and perhaps the freest society the world has ever known. Hooker’s Community was governed by the Fundamental Order of Connecticut, which established strict limits on the powers of government. So successful was this idea that Massachusetts was inspired to adopt its Body of Liberties, which included 98 separate protections of individual rights. These ideas and concepts are tied directly to the Bill of Rights in the United States Constitution.

Nevertheless, the pilgrims and Puritans of early New England are often vilified today as witch burners and portrayed as simpletons. On the contrary, it was their commitment to pluralism and free worship that led to these ideas being incorporated into American life. Our history books purposely conceal the fact that these notions were developed by communities of devout Christians who studied the Bible and found that it prescribed limited, representative government and free enterprise as the best political and economic systems. There was a time when every schoolchild learned these basic lessons of the American culture. But now thanks to censorship, these truths are being systematically expunged from the history books in a favor of leftist claptrap.

That’s not where Rush’s chapter ends, but that is the end of the part that I found most relevant to us on Thanksgiving today. There is a part I want to focus on here at the very end that Rush points out. The first Thanksgiving was not primarily about the pilgrims thanking the Indians, although I am sure they were thankful for the help they received from them. But they recognized that their ultimate help came from the Lord. It is to him that they expressed thanks for. That is what Thanksgiving was about and continued to be about for a long, long time. What about today? What about you and your family? Is this just Turkey Day (or in my case Ham Day since that’s what I ate for Thanksgiving dinner)? Or is today for you about being thankful to God for what he has done in your life? Even if your life is pretty rough right now, you still can’t say he hasn’t done anything for you. He did the greatest thing he could ever do when Jesus came to Earth, lived a perfect, sinless life, and died on the cross. He paid a debt he did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay. All we have to do to avail ourselves of that is to follow Romans 10:9-10. If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved (NLT). With an offer like that, we all have something to be thankful for this and every Thanksgiving.

God's holiness and mercy

The Lord brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt around 1446 B.C. Repent of your sins and trust alone in what Jesus did on the cross for your salvation. If you do, then you will also be brought out of slavery, the slavery of sin. God has delivered us from Satan through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, not through our own works. We don't earn our salvation. We do the right things in response to and out of thankfulness for what God has already done. It is Jesus' righteousness that gives us eternal life that is a relationship with God, not our own. And it is Holy Spirit that empowers us to do those right things to say "thank you" to Christ.

It has been three months since the Israelites were delivered from the bondage of slavery by the time we get to Exodus 19:1. That would also be a couple of weeks after the Lord first started providing manna in the wilderness in Exodus 16:1. Mount Sinai (or Horeb as it is also called) gets its name from the desert where it is located (Exodus 19:2). God said that after the people had been camping at Mount Sinai for three days, he would come down on Mount Sinai in a cloud and in the sight of all the people (Exodus 19:11). After three days, Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in a fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked with great violence (Exodus 19:18). When the Lord came down to the top of Mount Sinai, he called Moses up there, and Moses went (Exodus 19:20). The people could not come up to Mount Sinai because God had warned them to set boundaries around the mountain and set it apart for God (Exodus 19:23). Before the New Covenant and before you personally accepted Christ as your savior (if you have), there were barriers between you and God. The picture of the people being separated from God depicts that spiritual reality.

So to set the scene again, the Israelites left the land of Egypt three months before arriving in the wilderness of Sinai. They encamped around the mountain once they got there. All the instructions that God gave to Moses were to be given to the people. God said he had brought them out of Egypt on eagles' wings and brought them to himself. The language God uses stands out to me because of what God reveals in Revelation 12:14. In the middle of the seven-year Tribulation before the return of Christ, Israel will flee from the Satan-indwelt Antichrist and flee "on eagles' wings" to Petra. God doesn't change, and his covenant does not change either. That being said, God does give Israel a promise here, but it does have some fine print. Israel could be God's treasured possession IF they obeyed God fully and kept his covenant. They would be considered a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. When the people heard this, Israel said it would do everything the Lord said.

The next thing the Lord did was for the benefit of Moses, although it was spoken so that the people could hear it. God did this so the people would finally respect Moses' authority and listen to him rather than always grumbling against him. Remember in earlier chapters how many times they complained against Moses. Now, God was communicating directly with Moses. The Lord was cementing in the minds of Israel that Moses was their leader. One of the things that God makes clear to Moses, the priests, and the nation is to be careful about coming into the Lord's presence. Anyone who gazes upon the Lord without having been set apart for him will surely die. So, the Lord warned the people for their own sake to be careful and to consecrate themselves before coming into his presence.

It is different under the New Covenant. When Jesus died on the cross, the temple sanctuary's curtain was torn in two from top to bottom, and the rocks were split because of an earthquake (Matthew 27:51). Now anyone who has had their sins washed away by the blood of Jesus does not have to approach him with fear and trembling. We can draw near to the throne of grace with confidence and boldness. We do not have to fear, not because we merit God's favor, but because the blood of Jesus allows the Father to grant us mercy and grace (Hebrews 4:16). Let us view this in a balanced way. Before the cross, we could not even gaze upon the Lord. Now, if you are covered by the blood of Christ, you are invited into his presence without restriction. But let us not approach him flippantly. Let's come near to him with the love, honor, respect, and reverence that he deserves. And if you are still not covered by the blood of Christ, then you are still under the wrath and judgment of the Lord. Pastor Craig Groeschel of Life Church has a new sermon this week called "A Voice from Hell." You can watch it all week at https://live.life.church/. I encourage you to check it out. God offers mercy and grace to ANYONE no matter how evil they may have been, but you must come to God on his terms. Acknowledge and confess with your mouth that Jesus is your Lord and master. And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Getting saved from the eternal wrath of God is that simple (Romans 10:9-10). And don't put it off. You never know how much time you have left. Your next breath could be your last.

Jethro visits Moses

After several days in Exodus 17, we are now ready to move on to Exodus 18. Early on in the chapter, we see that Moses had two sons: Gershom and Eliezer. The name "Gershom" means "a sojourner there." The name "Eliezer" means "God is my help." Moses gave the name Gershom to his first son because he rightly noted that he had been a sojourner in a foreign land. He gave the name Eliezer to his second son because God was his help by delivering him and the nation of Israel from the sword of Pharaoh.

As the most famous leader of God’s chosen people, Moses had a strong influence on the people he led. But he also had a strong influence on his father-in-law, Jethro. At the beginning of Exodus 18,, we see that Jethro had heard about all that God had done for Israel and that Moses had done for his people. Moses was gaining quite the reputation with Jethro and so was the God that Moses served. What kind of reputation does God have among the people you know?

The relationship between Jethro and Moses was obviously based on respect and personal care. We know that because Moses bowed down and kissed Jethro upon seeing him. then they spend some time asking each other how they were doing. It would appear from the details that they were more than just cordial with each other. They actually cared about one another. When they went into the tent, Moses spent a good deal of time telling Jethro of all the miraculous things God had done on behalf of Israel. I can imagine the enthusiasm with which Moses explained all of this to Jethro and Jethro’s facial expressions as he heard for the first time Moses’ firsthand accounts of what we have recorded for us in our Bibles today. What a great time it had to be for both of them. Jethro rejoiced because of all the goodness which the Lord had done for Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. “The Lord be blessed, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods, for, in the matter in which they treated the people insolently, He was above them.” Then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God, and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God. Jethro was a priest of Midian of the Kenite clan. The Kenites were coppersmiths and metalworkers. They played an important role in the history of ancient Israel. Jethro’s statement that now he knows that the Lord is greater than all gods shows the power one’s testimony can have on those around them. Don’t discount or doubt that you have something to say that can lead others to Christ. Moses doubted God on this subject for a time, but the life of Moses is also a testimony of what God can do through a willing vessel.

More evidence of the relationship between Moses and Jethro is Jethro’s concern for Moses when he saw how much Moses was working. Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from the morning until the evening. When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why are you sitting by yourself while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?” Jethro was concerned that Moses was taking on too much. Although the Mosaic Law had yet to be given by God to Moses, God had already established the 6-to-1 day ratio of work to rest. On the seventh day, God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it He had rested from all His work which He had created and made (Genesis 2:2-3).

Then Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a dispute, it comes to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor, and I make known the statutes of God and His laws.”

Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. You will surely wear yourself out, both you, and these people who are with you, for this thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it by yourself. Now listen to me, I will advise you, and may God be with you: You be a representative for the people to God so that you may bring their disputes to God. And you shall teach them the statutes and laws and shall show them the way in which they must walk and the work that they must do. Moreover, you shall choose out of all the people capable men who fear God, men of truth, hating dishonest gain, and place these men over them, to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. Let them judge the people at all times, and let it be that every difficult matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge, so that it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you shall do this thing and God commands you so, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.” God commands us to choose leaders that fear him. When governments are corrupt in places where voters elect their public officials and anyone can run for office, it is because those governments are reflections of their people. For Americans reading this, an interesting side note is that Article IV, Section 4 of the United States Constitution says that the United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government. This is a reflection of Exodus 18:21 and Jethro’s idea to provide out of all the people leaders who were rulers of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.

So how can we apply this to our lives? I don’t know if I could improve on the note in the Life Application Study Bible for Exodus 18:13-26. They say that Moses was spending so much time and energy hearing the Hebrews’ complaints that he could not get to other important work. Jethro suggested that Moses delegate most of this work to others and focus his efforts on jobs only he could do. People in positions of responsibility sometimes feel like they are the only ones who can do necessary tasks, but in actuality, others are often capable of handling part of the load. Delegation relieved Moses’ stress and improved the quality of governance. It helped prepare the Israelites for the system of government that would later be set up in Canaan. Proper delegation can multiply your effectiveness while giving others a chance to grow.