Hindsight is 20/20

by Dana Halliday

EDITOR'S NOTE: Dana Halliday is a highly regarded theological scholar and writer, as well as an educator in the US. CSWI welcomes the addition of Mrs. Halliday to its literary panel, and fully endorses the content of the article found below.

November 9, 2008 - Hindsight is 20/20

What is this strong delusion going around our country? The delusion that all who say the name of Jesus are being truthful in their beliefs in Him.

I'm trying to come to grips with the outcome of the election. I know whatever happens is in God's hands...that He is the One in charge who puts leaders into position. But have we forgotten in our ego-centric ways that sometimes God puts leaders into position to bring nations down to their knees? Have we forgotten the saga of the Old Testament in which the nation of Israel continuously went through bouts of belief and disbelief...following the morality of God and following the immorality of man? God allowed Pharaoh to take His people captive because they began to turn his back on God, and call that which was sin, "not sin". When Israel turned her face once more to God, Pharaoh's grip on them was loosed, and they were set free. Have we forgotten the stories of Saul? Of Nebuchadnezzar? Of Belshazzar? Wicked Kings who God allowed to take control of His people for a time...because His people had turned their backs on God. Yet in the face of sin, there were still men like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who would not follow popular opinion, and God blessed those men. Even still, we cannot ignore the whole nation who claimed to follow God, yet turned away from His path.

We as a nation have turned our backs on God.

We have taken Christianity out of schools. Don't believe me? Have you ever tried to have a patriotic concert without saying the name of God for fear of being fired? That was the position my mentoring teacher was in while I was in my graduate year of college. She, along with all the other music teachers (both Christian and non-Christian) warned me emphatically to never mention God. Yet, as a student in middle school, I was forced to sit in a Hindu meditation position with the symbol of a Hindu god painted on my forehead as my teacher led our class in a prayer. As both a student and teacher, I have been subjected to other teachers whose mission is to prove Christianity is wrong...who allowed no questioning in their class and ridiculed and intimidated those who dared have a different opinion, even backed up by human logic and reason. If a Christian teacher acted in such a manner, they would be fired. I agree in both cases they should be fired. Why are Christians discriminated against?

We have become a nation of murderers and those who are guilty through inaction. Ever stop and consider the horrors of the Holocaust? Six million Jews brutally murdered, along with countless others...Christians, elderly, sick, disabled.... Six million!!! And yet, we have blood on our hands that far exceeds that number. 48,589,993 abortions have taken place in our country alone, according to the National Right to Life website. It's kind of sadistic to me to even think that we have this graph to look at showing the numbers. Can you imagine Germans during the Nazi era being presented a graph showing the yearly amount of Jews murdered? And people studying it without taking it to heart that every inch of color is a life snuffed out? Are there women who believe they have no other choice due to economics? I'm sure there are. That makes them no less guilty. There were plenty of Germans who believed they had no choice but to follow the rules laid out by Hitler's regime, mostly out of fear that they too would be murdered...still selfish. Inaction is an action. Who's to say what would come of someone actually having the guts to stand up for what's right? Everyone saw Schindler's List right? Or read the story of Corrie ten Boom? They weren't loved by the majority, but they saved lives, in the face of grave danger, even at the expense of their own lives. We've now put into office one who defends the choice to murder. And you think he's "in Christ"?

Read Hindsight is 20/20 in its entirety

"America must decrease so the Kingdom of Christ may increase"

by Aaron Hecht

EDITOR'S NOTE: Aaron Hecht is a freelance writer living in Israel and a contributor to the Jerusalem Post Christian Edition. CSWI welcomes the addition of Mr. Hecht to its literary panel, and fully endorses the content of the article found below.

November 9, 2008 - The election of Barack Hussein Obama to the Presidency of the United States has been met with joy and celebration by many people, including many professing Christians, all over the world.

I don't share in this joy.

I feel like I'm about the see the woman I've loved my whole life raped by my worst enemy who I know is infected with AIDS, and there's nothing I can do about it.

Maybe you feel the same way.

My thoughts are this.

Although I love America I do not consider myself a citizen of that country, or any other earthly kingdom. I consider myself a citizen of the Kingdom of Christ, and I'm privileged to live in Israel, which is the Embassy of that Kingdom here on this earth (the Rabbis' vehement denials of this notwithstanding.)

For many American Christians, the USA was a bit of an idol, which we worshipped six days a week and only forgot about for a short time on Sunday. We were so confused that we thought that part of being a good Christian was being a patriotic American. I myself was the most
guilty of this, along with other idols I worshiped, like guns and American military power. I worshiped them by loving them, putting my hope in them, and by trusting in them for my protection. It is time to get rid of those idols, and concentrate all our worship on the One
True God.

There will be no American Flags flying when Christ returns to this earth.

Another Idol we need to get rid of is the Republican Party. Many American Christians vote Republican, and there's nothing wrong with that. But when we start to think of it as the institution that can "save" us and when we devote an inordinate amount of time, money,
effort and energy to it, when we start to worry more about the health of the Republican Party then the health of the Body of Christ, then it becomes an idol.

The American people overwhelmingly rejected the Republican Party in this election, and the reasons are many. But one of the most often heard complaints about the Republican Party among the rank and file people who used to support it but no longer feel like they can is that
it is "too right wing and Christian." Among the largely secular leadership of the Party apparatus, there have long been murmurings about the "infernal nuisance" of all these "God people" who the Party needed for financial support and votes but whose Biblical Ideology the
"pragmatic, realistic" Moderates wished they didn't have to cater to.

For many years there has been a tug of war for the soul of the Republican Party, between the Christians who wanted the Party to focus on Biblical issues and the Moderates who wanted the Party to focus more on social and economic issues.

My prediction is that with this election, the secular Moderates will win this tug of war by pointing out (correctly I'm sorry to say) that the vast majority of voters will be more likely to support the
Republican Party if their agenda instead of the Christian agenda is focused on.

Therefore, my advice, which I know will shock and dismay many, is to stop wasting precious time, talent and resources on the Republican Party. Leave gracefully, before the Moderates throw you out. Wish them well, and turn your attention to the more pressing work of
re-building your own churches and communities from the ground up, because that's what is needed.

The sad fact is that the Church in America is a mile wide and an inch deep. You can see that in the fact that almost half of American Christians (and 78% of American Jews BTW) just voted for the most unapologetically "anti-God" candidate ever.

For far too long, it has been possible to be a lukewarm Christian in America. The one good thing about this election is that this will no longer be an option. There is coming a time of
tremendous persecution on the church in America, and as much as it pains me to say this, that might be exactly what the church needs. It will be a time when the wheat will be separated from the chaff and people will have to make a choice to either get serious or get out.

This persecution will come in the form, at first, of a revolution in popular culture that will embrace the idea that Mankind is destined to unite in peace and brotherhood, under the aegis of Secular Humanism, Science, Socialism and Progress.

The governments of the world will take advantage of the chaos and confusion caused by this financial crisis to push through further integration of the world’s economic and political systems.

There will be only two really big roadblocks in the way of this plan: The Bible Believing Church, and the Nation of Israel.

Read America must decrease so the Kingdom of God can increase in its entirety