That’s the way I “feel”! Really? I don’t “feel” that way – how do we reconcile?

Feelings are highly, if not totally subjective. They are internal for the person who is “feeling” that way. On the other hand, a standard or law is objective – it is there for all to view in the same words, and to be applied to all parties and/or entities involved both equally and impartially.

A standard says that one pound is 16 oz. and there is a weight established and maintained by and through public authority that reflects that 16 oz. exactly, and it becomes the “standard”. Weights and measures are standards – inches, feet, yards, meters, kilometers, miles, light years or whatever. A law, on the other hand, establishes constraints, and/or restraints upon behavior, and it has moral (behavior) implications.

If the law establishes one pound as a standard of 16 oz., and someone tries to sell 15 oz. as a pound of hamburger, that then becomes a violation of the law and has moral implications (i.e. stealing) with either civil or criminal or both penalties.

When the law is violated, it must be addressed in some sort of formal, and usually public, setting which is recognized by the people of a community, organization, state, nation or governing body, by mutual consent, to adjudicate, in a court of law, the matter and to enforce the decision. That is established in Romans 13:1 – 3 and The Book of {Church} Discipline both deal with the subject ecclesiastically, and government deals with the civil and criminal matters.

Grace, on the other hand, is the work of GOD in the hearts of men. Grace is mercy. James 2:13 says that mercy triumphs over judgment. Therefore, mercy is the higher, or greater good. Grace (mercy) and law go hand in glove. Mercy does not negate the law and judgment though. I Corinthians 2:15 says the spiritual man judges all things. John 14:15 – 23 says we had best obey Jesus’ commandments. Colossians 1:15 – 18 says Jesus Christ is GOD in the flesh and he has preeminence over ALL THINGS, and that means the law as well as mercy! The Bible does use hyperbole, but in this case, it’s reasonable to assume “all” means all, every, without exception, exhaustive, total, 100% etc. As a buttressing supplement to that thought, Philippians 2:10,11 in Scripture also says EVERY knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is LORD! Again, this writer believes the word every to be literal.

From the above, we can easily extrapolate that Jesus Christ is the Author of all of Scripture, and that means the Ten Commandments and all of the Old Testament statutes that they summarize. It also demonstrates John 14:15 – 23 that if we love Him, we will obey his commandments. If we don’t love Him, we won’t obey His commandments.

All true Christians already know that they cannot obey His commandments, at least not perfectly or completely. This is why mercy triumphs over judgment. If we were all judged accordingly to what we deserved, we’d all go to Hell! GOD in His mercy worked out a solution to the problem for those whom He chose to save from Hell and eternal death.

The question then becomes, are we exempted from the law? According to the above, “NO!”, and that is an emphatic “NO!” As a Christian, we must love Jesus, or we will go to Hell. If we love Jesus, we will obey His law, no matter how imperfectly, out of that love. Proverbs 24:12 makes clear that ignorance of the law and what goes on around us is no excuse. That is buttressed by Romans 1:20 which confirms that we have no excuse!

WLC 24 ” Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, any law of God, given as a rule to the reasonable creature.” We are told in Scripture that Jesus Christ saves us from our sins. We are told (by John the Baptist, Jesus, St. Paul, Peter), as the very first thing, to repent of our sins which means to change our ways. Hebrews 9:7 acknowledges that sins of ignorance do exist, and that there was a sacrifice for them in the Old Testament. Hebrews 10:26 condemns willful sins. It is therefore reasonable to assume that willful ignorance is a sin.

Now, if willful ignorance is a sin, then does it behoove a Christian, let alone a leader of Christians, to listen to what another Christian has to say regarding serious sins being committed that seriously and negatively affect a wide swath of people including believers and unbelievers alike? And, what if those sins are causing believers to make poor decisions and to suffer needlessly even to the point of destroyed families, death, slavery and even to the faith itself? I Corinthians 7:21 – 23 tells us to not become slaves of men. This writer has been told that doesn’t mean what it says – really?

When reading the Scripture, Calvin, and The Westminster Confession of Faith, one must take into account one thing. The United States of America is unlike any other country in the history of the world. We are not, nor never were, a monarchy, feudal society or dictatorship. We also are not a parliamentary form of government. Our “SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND” commences with the words “We the people...”! America is a democratically elected representative republic and the first tricameral government ever. Does Romans 13 apply here?

What does that mean? It means that we are ruled by laws and not man. Our law system, flawed as it may be, acknowledges the GOD of Creation and ends with a sign off of “In the year of our LORD….”. Although not by explication a declared Christian document, it is very Christian by implication – again imperfect as it is. At the time of America’s founding, Christianity was very predominant in the culture, and even the deists and secularists of the day were inculcated with Christian doctrine and practices. So, “We the people…” were entrusted, by our ancestors, to preserve that heritage and to pursue in our self-government the principles enshrined in the Constitution, and by implication in the Bible. Are we to be like the Jews of old and lose it all?

The Bill of Rights as an example of a Christian influenced heritage includes in The 1st Amendment – “No establishment of religion” conforms to WCF 23 g “…it is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the church of our common Lord, without giving the preference to any denomination of Christians above the rest…” and continuing, the free exercise thereof “…shall enjoy the full, free, and unquestioned liberty of discharging every part of their sacred functions…” nor abridging the freedom of speech i.e. preaching the Gospel (see above). “…the right of people to peacefully assemble…” go to church. and, something new that did not exist prior to America “…and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” This would include not only petitions, but voting for those petitions and candidates for office to represent them in those petitions. Of course for Christians these petitions should conform to Biblical law and wisdom!

Let’s not stop there. The 2nd Amendment allows for individual self defense by being able to own and bear “arms” without that right ever being “infringed” which under the original definition meant “anything a man could pick up and hurl in anger or self-defense.” What did Jesus say to his disciples in Luke 22:36? And, in I Samuel 13:20,21, the Philistines inflicted the first form of gun control long before guns existed.

The 3rd Amendment I did not investigate for a Biblical basis. The 4th Amendment demonstrates a respect and protection for private property, and the examples of private property and wealth in both the Old and New Testaments is myriad (Abraham, Job, David, Solomon, Joseph of Arimathea etc.). The 5th Amendment protects someone from having to testify in a court of law against themselves – that protects them from having to tell a lie through either commission or omission. The 6th Amendment mandates just treatment, transparency and expeditiousness in adjudicating any criminal prosecutions. The word justice is used 136 times in the Bible OT and NT both, and it is important to GOD!

The remaining Amendments to the Bill of Rights are not, as best this writer can tell, directly relatable to Biblical examples, although they do harmonize.

So, where is all of this leading? It is the contention of this writer, that the church is failing to address “SPECIFIC” sins (violations of GOD’s laws) in today’s society. The church is also failing to address the specific nature of some of these very egregious sins like making the ephah small and the shekel large Amos 8:5,6. It can be easily demonstrated that this is a form of stealing, and in today’s society it is manifested through fiat currency and inflation. America’s money was defined as gold and silver in the 1792 Coinage Act. GOD mentions gold and silver as money in the Old and New Testaments, and those are the only consistent and long term forms of acceptable money throughout all of history. PAPER CURRENCY is not money! For a few years after the Federal Reserve was instituted, we had paper currency that was backed by gold money. (Note, this writer does not have a problem with paper currency backed by real money) Then gold was outlawed and we had only silver backing. In 1965 silver backing was taken away, and now it is just backed by the “Full Faith And Credit of the United States of America”. In other words, accept it or get beat up by our military or Federal government thugs. It allows the private banking cartel, known as the Federal Reserve, to debase our currency at will destroying savings, lives and civil order not to mention undermining Christianity. Christian, former Congressman, economist, author, podcaster and speaker, Ron Paul, is likely going to be auditing the Federal Reserve which to date has never been audited! This writer says; “It’s about time!” It’s been over 100 years of secrecy, treason, thievery and skullduggery against America and Americans.

There are other issues from the church pulpit that either get very short shrift or are ignored completely such as abortion, fornication, adultery, debt, profanity, blasphemy (we used to have blasphemy laws), violation of the Sabbath (we used to have blue laws), pornography, homosexuality (homosexuality was illegal in all 50 states until 1962), homosexual marriage, pedophilia, bestiality, transgenderism, lying, stealing, cheating, gossip, false witness, etc. etc. Yes, the Ten Commandments get read frequently if not every week, but are not well understood, and certainly not preached with any kind of frequency let alone exposited with detail and specifics so it is clear to someone what those sins entail. And, remember what the Scripture says about money in I Timothy 6:10 – loving money plagues Americans now, and that “love” has been engineered by the Federal Reserve and propagated by our “leaders” in Congress.

Failure to preach and teach on these sins makes it more comfortable for the preacher, and certainly more comfortable for the congregation which never feels the discomfort of knowing that they are real sinners – not just sinners in general. When all you hear about is you’re saved and going to Heaven; that is very, very comfortable. Sin should not be obscured by ignoring it, glossing over it, diminishing it, coloring it, or accepting it. Sin is sin – it’s ugly, devastating, hurtful, troublesome, disturbing, uncomfortable when exposed, aggravating, obnoxious, divisive and unBiblical. If not faithfully, consistently and frequently preached and exposed, then it insinuates itself into society, government, and yes, even the church to the point at which nobody can recognize it PARTICULARLY in its more subtle forms and ultimately sin becomes acceptable and normal. Just read the Biblical history of ancient Israel if you doubt the veracity of this observation! Shall we lose it all like they did in ancient Israel?

Pensiamento Peligroso