Good Wednesday Morning!

1. Question – Are you just sitting back and not planting any seeds?

2. Thought – The troubles of this age stem from born again Christians who are complacently sitting back watching and waiting for Jesus to come. They’ve decided that since the end of the age is near, no real revival is possible. Satan has also convinced them that to fight communism, one-world government and the apostate church is to fight God’s plan for the age. They go wrong three ways:

The end of the age seems near – but it is not certain. For over 2000 years men have looked for the imminent return of Jesus. In Thessalonica men became so certain that Jesus would return before winter that they failed to plant their fields. Paul was forced to warn them, “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.”

​Jesus commanded that we continue to work. Before He went to Heaven, He told His followers:​

“Occupy till I come….Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.” (Luke 19:10; Matthew 25:46)

Believers go wrong and forget “to serve the living and true God” because they know their salvation is certain. (The Death of a Nation by John A. Stormer, Copyright 1968)

“History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.” (General Douglas MacArthur)

Good Friday Morning and continued from yesterday!

1. Question – Does the nature of man influence his political views? (Where is Bernie, O, Hillary and Donald in this?)

2. Thought – Not only will man’s religion be affected by what he believes about the nature of man, but his politics will be influenced as well.  Man’s position on the Constitution, free enterprise, communism and socialism, capital punishment, slum clearance and urban renewal, juvenile delinquency, premarital sex and the new morality, and almost every other political, social and economic problem will stem from whether he believes man is basically good or inherently sinful. How does it work?

The success of pure socialism is predicated on the theory that if man is given the opportunity he will work to the utmost of his ability – and will want to take for his labor that which he actually needs for himself and his family.

In theory then (O & Bernie), in a socialist environment, a bachelor, a married man with two children, and a married man with nine children can all work side by side at the same job and the single man will be happy, if at the end of the week, he receives the $50 he needs to feed, clothe, and house himself while the man with a wife and two children takes home $125 and the man with ten mouths to feed receives a paycheck for $250.

Pure socialism has never worked anywhere in the world because it conflicts with the basic self-seeking nature of man.

Man wants to personally reap the rewards of his own labors. That’s why free-enterprise, even with its shortcomings, works better than any other system.

Apologists for socialism (Bernie) like to blame climate (O & H), poor soil, and a variety of other factors (O) for the poor showing of collectivized agriculture in the Soviet Union. However, their excuses are refuted by the excellent production achieved on the small amount of privately farmed land in Russia. Each Russian family employed on a state farm is assigned one acre of ground to produce livestock, fruits and vegetables for their own use (O, you listening?). They are permitted to sell what they don’t need. (Trump – I get it!)

A recent study by the London Observer reveals how Russian farmland will produce when the farmer can benefit from his labor. The report showed that….

….while “free enterprise plots” comprise only 3.7% of all the cultivated land in the Soviet Union, they produce 50% of all livestock, 65% of all fruit, 60% of all potatoes, and 45% of 11 other vegetables.

Under free enterprise it is to man’s advantage to produce as much as he can, as good as he can, as cheaply as he can. When he does, he’ll be able, after selling the fruits of his own labors, to buy more of the goods and services of other men for the enjoyment of himself and his family. Thus, more people benefit more under free enterprise than under any other system ever devised. It works because free enterprise stems from a recognition that man is basically self-seeking. (The Death of a Nation by John A. Stormer)

Sinful man and welfare continued tomorrow.

Question: Do you think Americans forgot how to work?

“If the American people ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers occupied. The issuing power of money should be taken from the banks and restored to Congress and the people to whom it belongs.” (Olive Cushing Dwinell, 1946)

Good Thursday Morning – This will be continued for several days!!!!!

1. Question – Are there only two religions?

2. Thought – All of men’s political, social, and economic differences are, whether they realize it or not, based on spiritual differences. All of men’s spiritual differences stem from differing answers to the question, “What is the nature of man?” Is man basically and inherently good – or is he basically selfish, self-seeking, self-centered, and sinful? How man looks at the Bible, Jesus Christ and man’s need for salvation – in other words, his beliefs about religion – is determined by his belief about the nature of man.

There are just two religions in the world – they encompass all of the world’s “religions,” denominations, sects, creeds, etc. One of these “religions” teaches that man, being basically good, has the inherent capability or divine “spark” within himself to grow to become like God through self-denial and following the teachings and example of a divine teacher sent by God. Whether this divine teacher is named Jesus, Buddha, Confucius or Mohammed makes little difference for their ethical teachings are essentially the same.

The other “religion” starts from the premise that man is by nature sinful and therefore incapable of pleasing God. It teaches that because of sin and rebellion against the God who made him, every man deserves to be punished and banned forever from the presence of the All Holy God. Because of his sinful nature, he is without hope except that God sent His Son to be punished in sinful man’s place. This “religion” teaches that after the penalty for sin was paid, God raised His Son from the dead to be the new life and new nature of all those who will receive Him by faith as their Savior.

If man is basically a sinner deserving punishment from God, it is essential that he places his faith, not in the example and teachings of Buddha, Mohammed, or even in a good man named Jesus – but in the sinless Son of God who died for man’s sin and was raised from the dead to be the new life and new nature of those who believe. (The Death of a Nation, copyright 1968 by John A. Stormer)

Tomorrow we will see how these two spiritual views affect our political thinking.