I try to keep politics out of the pulpit and off my blog. But, there is a political bone I want to pick with you. It has to do with the “Change we can believe in.” ideal going on in Washington, DC.
A couple of weeks ago I had heard the rumor that the next stimulus package was going to get rid of a long, time-honored deduction…Charitable contributions. My first reaction was outrage. (I usually can never trust my first reaction.) I thought, “Here’s another tool the secularists, atheists, and agnostics, can use to kill the Church.” I began to think about, and hold contempt for those who not only proposed it, but also those who are advocating for it.
Could you imagine the United States of America not allowing charitable contributions to be deductible? I mean, forget the Church aspect for a minute. The United Way, PETA, ACLU, your local animal shelter, children’s homes and many, many more people and organizations who depend on charitable donations, will be affected tremendously! And, what about MY church; MY congregation; OUR sister congregations. Will the death blow to the Christian Church in America come in the form of “Change we can believe in?” Isn’t that ironic?
Then, it hit me. Christ’s Church not only survived, but thrived under conditions much worse than this proposal. How about the Romans? There was a time when whether or not they could deduct their tithe to the church, would have been the most minimal thing that could happen to their congregation. They actually had members of their body, jerked up and thrown into the Coliseum, crucified, beheaded, disemboweled and simply beaten to death, for having one verse of one letter from the Apostle Paul!!!
Yet, the Church thrived! Money had nothing to do with it! The absurdity of thinking the Church in Rome being called a “faith-based initiative” or a “Charitable Organization” or “Jesus was a community organizer!” It just reeks of H.S.D. (Human Secular Disease).
That’s the basis of the question, isn’t it? Has HSD infiltrated the Church so much that when/if this deduction is taken away, will Christ’s Church survive in America? If HSD is a part of the Body, every cell (each person) within the Body could be contaminated. I mean, those who give to Christ’s Church because they get a deduction, will consider whether or not they will give any more. There will be those who will still exploit all they can from the activities and ministries the Church provides, but stop giving because of…HSD. These people very well may even develop a guilt complex over taking advantage of the Church without giving to support her activities. That’s when we know the disease has become terminal for them.
But, there are the other cells within the Body. Those unaffected… immune to HSD. Because they have been inoculated by the serum which prevents HSD…Christ living in you…C.L.Y. That’s the difference, isn’t it? Will the Church survive when/if the deduction is taken away? The answer is plain and easy. Those who have been inoculated with CLY will not be affected by HSD…ever. Their giving is based on the knowledge that their assets are God’s anyway. Whether or not the government was to make it advantageous in the tax code, to give, is absolutely and inextricably irrellevant.
Have you been inoculated?
I’ve spent a few minutes contemplating my response. Let me try.
When Jonas Saulk invented the polio vaccine, we virtually wiped out Polio as an endemic pathogen. We wanted to make sure that no person ever had to be disfigured and disabled like that ever.
Therefore, all children were vaccinated. Come to find out that there were some very bad science behind the vaccine. Some children actually got polio from the vaccine. A very small amount, but some did. Some of the procedures for making the vaccine became tainted with, the AIDS virus… the likely original source of the AIDS epidemic.
Come to find out, not everyone needed the vaccine. There were people with immunity. The means by which Polio was passed, was limited in its scope and could easily have kept its spread from happening…IF… we had the knowlege of what we were doing. But, we didn’t. Therefore, an entire generation of people were vaccinated out of fear.
That’s exactly the case with HSD. Only, now we know the cause. We know how it is cured. We know how it is passed. The latter being the most important part.
Judges 2:10-13 ( note: Baal and Ashtoreths = HSD) confirms we are only one generation away from extinction as a faith.
Now we have an entire generation of Americans who less than 50% embrace Christianity, in a nation which was founded upon the principles of Christianity. George Washington said (paraphrase) that this democracy could not stand without morality and religion keeping individuals aligned with a moral code of ethics and personal responsibility.
This is this generation. Obama is a child of this generation. He, on one side, claims to be a man of faith, but doesn’t recognize life beginning at conception. An intellectually dishonest position. Instead, he says science, not culture, must lead the way.
It is our American Culture which has led the way to greatness, NOT SCIENCE!
So, now he will innoculate everyone in our society with the HSD virus, as a cure, when it actually is the death sentence for our culture…out of fear. But, Obama is only the focal point of the snapshot. In the blurry background are the societal doctorates who make up the 50+ percent of Americans who do not embrace the Lord Jesus and the even smaller percentage who view all religions as pathogens, especially Christianity.
Their cure? Science, humanism, academia, and power structure. We, my friend, are the ones immune to the virus, yet are forced to be innoculated. All the time wondering what other diseases lie within this miracle cure known as HSD.
Mark, I think we are going to need more than a shot. We are looking at full body biohazard suits! The current powers that be, want us to depend on them for everything. They want us to believe that they are our saviors and that in them we can trust.
We like Christians of old must put on the armor of God Eph – 6:11 (our bio suits) and pay attention to what is going on in this and all future adminstrations. We can no longer stand by like sheep. We must be bold against HSD and all flamming arrows headed our way!
Since this article was posted, it seems the Obama administration has backed down from this position somewhat. How much, we don’t know. Keep it in prayer, though.