A BOOK THAT CHANGED MY LIFE AND OPENED MY EYES TO THE TRUTH ABOUT THE SCOTUS!

ORIGINAL INTENT: THE COURTS, THE CONSTITUTION, AND RELIGION

I have read this book through several times.  The first time I read it was in 2002, and it literally changed my life.  It is the source of much of the information I wrote/write about in my blogs and in my talks to young people and churches when I had my ministry "Broken Vessel Ministries" several years ago.

David Barton, the author, has a collection of over 70,000 documents that our founders wrote.  He researched them and references them in this book as he details to the reader how America was founded, what the personalities and beliefs of the founders were, and what they intended for America to be.  He contrasts that to what has happened since liberalism took a foothold in America, and the SCOTUS started systematically misinterpreting the US Constitution, either intentionally, or out of ignorance, and destroying the foundation of our nation's laws, and the original intent of the founders with regard to what America was to do to maintain God's blessings on our nation.  

To me, the book is spellbinding.  I wish every American with an open mind would read this book.  If they would, many of them (everyone not a brainwashed liberal, that is!), would be infuriated at what the SCOTUS has done.  There, at the foot of the SCOTUS justices, lies the root cause for why we have become such a divided and violent nation.

I highly recommend this book, and I have no financial interest with Wallbuilders at all!  I simply believe this book to be essential reading for anyone who wants to see America great again!.

Letter to SCOTUS Justices re: Christianity as USA's Foundation

I wrote this letter yesterday and sent it to every US Supreme Court Justice and the President of the United States.  We assume these Justices know everything about the law, but I wonder sometimes if maybe they only remember what they want.  I wanted to remind them of their responsibilities to "..protect and defend..." the Constitution.  They do not have the right to change it at their will by abandoning the principle the founders set up of interpreting it based on what the intent of the writers of the particular article(s) or amendments(s) that are applicable to the case they are deciding on were trying to accomplish when they wrote them, and the country adopted them.  

March 8, 2018

Chief Justice John G. Roberts

Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy

Associate Justice Clarence Thomas

Associate Justice Stephen G. Greyer

Associate Justice Elena Kagan

Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr.

Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Associate Justice Neal N. Gorsuch

Dear Justices,

As a retired U.S. Army Major who flew combat in Vietnam in the F4 Phantom II fighter-bomber (USAF), and commanded a transportation company in Operation Desert Storm (U.S. Army), I feel it necessary to express my concerns about the recent past history of the SCOTUS with regard to several Constitutional matters.  I KNOW I have earned that right through fighting in combat to defend the freedoms we all enjoy.  Most of you, however, have done nothing but study the law and practices in a courtroom where real life can be twisted, disguised, and bastardized to the point of completely obscuring the impact that the decisions that you have been a part of have on the rest of us who have to live by those decisions.  I feel the Court has errored in the past and where subsequent Courts, following those errant opinions, have moved America down a path that is leading America to the point of either another civil war, or at best, a nation divided with no moral compass to guide it back from the brink of self-destruction.

The Brown vs Board of Education decision was a terrible ruling.  It set a precedent which started a string of ridiculous lawsuits which have inevitably resulted in Christianity and any symbol of that religion being banned from the halls of government at the local, state and federal levels.  That is NOT what the founders intended, and any of you that have studied the writings of the founders know that!  All of you should know that America was colonized by religious refugees from England and other parts of Europe who fled here so that they could worship God as they pleased with NO government interference.  That was the entire purpose of the First Amendment.  Read the committee notes on the discussions of the wording of the 1^st Amendment.  “August 15, 1789.  Mr. [Peter] Sylvester [of New York] had some doubts…He feared it [the First Amendment] might be thought to have a tendency to abolish religion altogether…Mr. [Elbridge] Gerry [of Massachusetts] said it would read better if it was that “no religious doctrine shall be established by law.”…Mr. [James] Madison [of Virginia] said he apprehended the meaning of the words to be, that “Congress should not establish a religion, and enforce the legal observation of it by law.”…The State[s] seemed to entertain an opinion that under the clause of the Constitution…it enabled them [Congress] to make laws of such a nature as might…establish a national religion; to prevent these effects he presumed the amendment was intended…Mr. Madison thought if the word “national” was inserted before religion, it would satisfy the minds of the honorable gentlemen....He thought if the word “national” was introduced, it would point the amendment directly to the object it was intended to prevent”

Read what Justice Joseph Story wrote about the purpose of the 1st Amendment’s clause: 

“Probably, at the time of the adoption of The Constitution, and of the Amendment to it now under consideration, the general, If not the universal, sentiment in America was that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from The State…An attempt to level all religions and to make it  a matter of state policy to hold all in utter Indifference would have created universal disapprobation [disapproval] if not universal indignation [anger].” On another occasion, in his “Commentaries”, he wrote, “The real object of the [First Amendment] was not to countenance, much less to advance, Mahometanism, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity, but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sect”

Clearly, the founders intended that Christianity was the predominant religion in this nation; not any one sect or denomination of Christianity, but clearly the principles and guidelines for behavior as outlined in the New Testament and in the Ten Commandments were to be the foundation for our laws as a nation.  Our founders did NOT believe that Christianity should be viewed legally on the same level as every other religion.  The founders and the majority of the people of the nation viewed the principles of Christianity as foundation for our governmental policies.  This is clearly stated by the founders.  As an example, this quote from Justice Story:  “One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law. . . . There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundations. . . . I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of civil society.  

In the following paragraph from David Barton’s book “ORIGINAL INTENT, THE COURTS, THE CONSTITUTION, AND RELIGION”:, , during a ruling on this case, Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States (1892) United States Supreme Court, Mr. Barton quotes from the ruling and mentions several other cases establishing that Christianity is the foundation of the laws of this nation, and the Courts expected it to always be that way!:   [W]e find that in Updegraph v. The Commonwealth, 11 S. & R. 394, 400, it was decided that, “Christianity, general Christianity, is, and always has been, a part of the common law . . . not Christianity with an established church . . . but Christianity with liberty of conscience to all men.” And in The People v. Ruggles, 8 Johns. 290, 294, 295, Chancellor Kent, the great commentator on American law, speaking as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New York, said: “The people of this State, in common with the people of this country, profess the general doctrines of Christianity, as the rule of their faith and practice. . . . [W]e are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply engrafted upon Christianity, and not upon the doctrines or worship of those impostors [other religions].” And in the famous case of Vidal v. Girard’s Executors, 2 How. 127, 198, this Court . . . observed: “It is also said, and truly, that the Christian religion is a part of the common law.” 4

I apologize to the members of the court that are not of the Christian faith, and I realize that there is no religion clause with regard to those who serve.  But the truth is the truth, and even if you are NOT a Christian, the founding fathers established the foundation of this nation and its laws upon Christian Principles and the Ten Commandments; not opinion, fact!  As the ultimate deciding authority of the Constitutionality of a law, it is YOUR DUTY to render your decisions not based on anything but one guideline:  the Original Intent of the author of the article or amendment to the Constitution.  If one of you interjects your personal values, then you would be violating your oath of office.  The Constitution is a document meant to be set in stone except when legally amended by the people of the United States through their elected representatives.  You have NO RIGHT to interject your personal beliefs into the rulings.  That is what many of your predecessors have done, and for that, theyt should have faced impeachment, except that the Legislature as allowed itself to be cowed by the Courts and they are as spineless and corrupt as many of the Court members have been in the past; they have become nothing but party lackies with no brain of their own and only know how to cow to the will of nut-cases like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Chuck Schumer. 

I would remind the Justices that your opinion of the Constitution and its relevance to current times is totally irrelevant when it comes time to make your rulings.  I would remind the Justices that it is not your right to decide whether our Constitution needs changing or not.  I would remind the Justices that it is totally irrelevant as to how this Constitution rates in your opinions when compared to other nations when it comes times to make your rulings.  Your oath of office as a Justice compels all of you to do one thing…support and defend and interpret this Constitution according to the way that the authors of the relative articles or amendments in question intended them to be interpreted and implemented, NOT the way YOU think that they should be interpreted or implemented.  To do otherwise violates your oath of office, and should that happen, I would support immediate impeachment and removal from the bench, but sadly, our spineless Legislature and Executive Branches will simply bow down and kiss the feet of the Courts and screw the American public out of our basic freedoms from God and and as granted in the Constitution.

As members of the SCOTUS, your obligation is not to make laws as you see fit, but to render your OPINIONS based on the ORIGINAL INTENT of the writers of the particular Article or Amendment to the Constitution.  Original Intent was and still should be your guideline for judging on the Constitutionality of any decision you make.  It is not and was not the right of any previous SCOTUS justices to interject their interpretations, but to do your homework and rule as you believe the first SCOTUS justices, using Original Intent as their guideline would rule.  To prove my point, here are quotes from several of the founding fathers regarding Original Intent:

“On every question of construction, carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probably one in which it was passed”  Thomas Jefferson in a letter to SCOTUS Justice Andrew Johnson

“I entirely concur in the propriety of restoring to the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation.  In that sense alone is the legitimate Constitution.  And if that be not the guide in expounding it, there can be no security for a consistent and stable, more than for a faithful, exercise of its powers….What a metamorphosis would be produced in the code of law if all its ancient phraseology were to be taken in its modern sense.”  James Madison, 4^th President of the United States

“The first and fundamental rule in the interpretation of all instruments [documents] is to construe them according to the sense of the terms and the intentions of the parties.” Justice Joseph Story

“The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it.”Justice James Wilson

Your predecessors from earlier courts understood the dangers in letting ones person opinions influence their decision making with regard to the Constitution.  All I am doing at this point is trying to remind all of you that this is not a game.  Your decisions, because of the gutless ways that the Legislative and Executive Branches are letting the courts treat them as red-headed step children (of which I am one!), are extremely important.  In the past recent 70+ years of the Court’s practices, the attacks against religion have moved the scales of justice to exactly the opposite of what the founders envisioned, and I am strongly requesting that this Court pray about this matter, and return America to the vision of our founding fathers, an America where Christianity is recognized not as the national religion, but whose principles are certainly the foundation of our laws.  The evidence clearly points that out, and anyone with half a brain can just look at the laws and the Opinions that the Court has rendered over the last seventy years, and see that the founders’ vision for our nation has been totally reversed and frankly, put America on a path of destruction from within and eventually either another civil war, or a voluntary split into two or more sovereign nations, because Christians and conservatives like me will NOT allow the nation to be destroyed by people who ignore their oaths of office and intentionally make decisions that destroy the America our founders envisioned and established.

The true Christians on the Court will understand what I say when I tell all of you that because of past Court rulings and the impact that they have had on America, God has taken His had of protection away from America.  The Courts have kicked God out of schools, public buildings and offices, and even out of cemeteries.  The Courts have turned at least half of America into godless, amoral, self-centered individuals who have the “what’s in it for me, and to hell with the rest of you!” attitude.  The Courts have destroyed discipline in schools, destroyed support for teachers when trying to control their classrooms, and destroyed the ability of teachers and even parents from disciplining their own children as they deem fit.  The Courts have turned a well-deserved spanking into a federal crime of child abuse, and as a result, at least half of America’s youth are undisciplined, poorly educated, immoral or amoral agnostics who have no moral compass.  That is why there are so many school shootings; teachers and parents have been virtually neutralized from disciplining children and instilling in them a love of country, a duty of self-discipline, the need to be self-sustaining, and the morals of a person who respects the rights, feelings and bodies of others. Half of our society do not have the training that teaches them the value of human life, the responsibilities of a productive member of society, and the wonderful blessing to have been born in a country that recognizes our basic freedoms are NOT from the government, but are from God, and must be honored. 

The non-Christian members of the Court have the same responsibilities as the Christian members, and that is to decide on Opinions using the guidelines of Original Intent, NOT the trending social fad of behavior.  That is why we are in the mess that we are in now, and if the Courts continue on as they are doing now, then the responsibility for the destruction of America as a “shining light” that the rest of the world looks up to will be place squarely on your shoulders and will be shot to hell and gone forever, and instead, we will be living in a cesspool of a nation like much of the European and African nations of today are living in. 

Sincerely,

Carey Scott O’Neal, Jr.

MAJOR, USAF/USAR (ret’d), MBA

Cc:  Donald J. Trump

       President of the United States of America

Guns and Liberals-Bad KARMA

I am a seventy year old retired U.S. Army MAJOR.  I served in Operation Desert Storm as a Company commander, and also flew 117 combat missions in Vietnam in the USAF (F4 Phantom II Fighter-Bomber.  I grew up in the south (Louisiana), and have lived around guns all my life.  I own several, including several semi-automatic rifles.  I have been plenty mad lately at people, especially liberals and Democrats to kick their butts, but NEVER have I had a serious thought of shooting one of them with one of my rifles!  Why?  Because I was brought up in a generation where faith in God was a central part of my life, and that faith generated a value system that centered around Christian principles and God’s Ten Commandments.

Liberals want America to believe that the Constitution and our founding fathers were not religious people.  That is a bald-faced Lie.  All one has to do is look at the list of the 200+ names of our founding fathers and the signers of the Declaration of Independence shown in this link List of Christian founders and signers of Declaration of Independence, and it becomes readily evident that our founders were, indeed, to the man, Christians.  There is also ample proof in the writings of the founders that they intended for this to be a nation based on Christian principles.  As the founders put it, it was to be a nation where every man could worship God as he saw fit.  As Chief Justice Joseph Story, of our 1^st Supreme Court wrote, “Probably, at the time of the adoption of The Constitution, and of the Amendment to it now under consideration, the general, If not the universal, sentiment in America was that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from The State…An attempt to level all religions and to make it  a matter of state policy to hold all in utter Indifference would have created universal disapprobation [disapproval] if not universal indignation [anger].” On another occasion, in his “Commentaries”, he wrote, “The real object of the [First Amendment] was not to countenance, much less to advance, Mahometanism, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity, but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sect”

Our founders did NOT believe that Christianity should be viewed legally on the same level as every other religion.  The founders and the majority of the people of the nation viewed the principles of Christianity as foundation for our governmental policies.  This is clearly stated by the founders.  As an example, this quote from Justice Story “One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law. . . . There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundations. . . . I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of civil society. “ 

Why is it important for America to know that our founders viewed the principles of Christianity to be the foundation upon which our laws were founded?  Because they also realized that for this Constitution to be effective, it was written FOR a Christian people in a Christian nation.  It protected the rights of other religions to be worshipped freely, but the founders DID NOT believe that any other religion was to be viewed by the government on an equal level with Christianity, because they believed that only Christianity had the moral and spiritual principles that would insure our nation’s future and security, both internally and externally.  Again, do not just believe me, but look at the writings of our founding fathers!

John Adams, 2^nd President wrote:  “…The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were …the general principles of Christianity….Now I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God….I could therefore safely say, consistently with all my then and present information, that I believed they would never make discoveries in contradiction to those general principles.”

“…We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion….Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any others”

Samual Adams, Organizer of the Boston Tea Party and Signer of the Declaration of Independence:  “Religion and good morals are the only solid foundations of public liberty and happiness…..A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of American than the whole force of the common enemy….”

Thomas Jefferson, writer of the Declaration of Independence and 3^rd President of the United States wrote: “The practice of morality being necessary for the well-being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain.  We all agree in the obligation of the moral precepts of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses”

Our founding fathers understood that a nation without a moral compass such as the general principles of Christianity would be a nation that would not endure.  They encouraged the teachings of the New Testament in public schools.  (Yes, that is a fact:  Until the American people wake up from the deception and liberal indoctrination being spewed out in our universities and by liberal politicians and judges, and reject their lies and deception, then sadly, it is doomed to fulfill Thomas Jefferson’s prophesy from over two hundred years ago where he said:

“The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal judiciary; an irresponsible body, (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow,) working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little to-day and a little to-morrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the States, and the government of all be consolidated into one.” - Letter to Charles Hammond, August 18, 1821

“The great object of my fear is the federal judiciary. That body, like gravity ever acting, with noiseless foot, and alarming advance, gaining ground step by step, and holding with it gains, is engulfing insidiously the special governments into the jaws of which feeds them.”
- Letter to Judge Spencer Roane, March 9, 1821

No nation without a moral compass can secure the freedoms of its people against the incessant encroachment of an out-of-control government.  Government cannot stop the slaughter of its citizens by simply taking away their guns, the only way the slaughtering can be stopped is by instilling in its people the principles of Christianity, where life is valued as a gift from God, where people fear God’s wrath and the just punishment awaiting those who break its laws.  Trying to seize all guns in this nation would lead to an outright violent overthrow of the government and the destruction of our national structure.  Our founders knew what/who would protect our freedoms, and they instilled it in the Constitution.  The SCOTUS has destroyed that foundation, and the other two branches must step up and restore the founders vision of the nation and put the judiciary back into its place, e.g., using Origional Intent as the guiding principle to issuing their opinions and NOT be allow to create law by declaring unconstitutional laws that comply with the original intent of the Constitution as written by the founders.

WEAPONS DO NOT KILL PEOPLE; PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE!

When will people stop looking at a weapon and blaming it for innocent people being killed?  That is so symptomatic of this “victim” society, but it is an absolutely stupid view!.  The gun does not kill until a person points it at someone and pulls the trigger; same for a knife, a bomb, poison, a car, or anything else!

Anyone ever wonder why mass shootings like this almost never occurred prior to the late 1980s and began with regularity in the late 1990s?  Although a few occurred prior to this, random shootings with no real grievances against someone being a motivation really did not start until 1998.  Although there are some who disagree with my beliefs, there are also many experts who say that violent games promote aggressive behavior and condition players to view the act of killing someone and the gory results of shooting somebody in the head, or cutting off a body part as not so repulsive an act.  In other words, they cheapen the value of another life to the players.  Virtually all of the extremely graphic video games came out after 1995 (ex:  Mortal Combat 1993; Grand Theft Auto 1998; Call of Duty 2003; World of Warcraft 2004 ).  It is my belief that these games cheapen the value of life and slowly desensitize players to the actual horrors of taking someone's life violently.  The more graphic and realistic the video games actions become, the more that they desensitize the players to the gore associated with shooting someone in the head and seeing their blood and brains splattered all over the walls and floors.  If killed in the game, then just restarting the game brings the characters back to life.  The finality of a death in real life is cloaked and softened in the minds of the players. 

           Again, there are conflicting beliefs on both sides of the argument whether the games do or do not stimulate violent behavior on the players.  I tried playing those games with my sons for awhile, and I observed that the graphic depictions of snipers blowing peoples' heads wide open, the blood and brain matter being sprayed graphically, and the mayhem done to people in those games was very disturbing to me personally, but seemed to have no effect on my sons.  Personally, I believe that although they may or may not stimulate the violent behavior, they do desensitize individuals to the gore and finality of the act of taking someone's life by a bullet.

There is also no question that the rise of violence and the exponential growth of gun violence is directly correlated to the disintegration of the family unit which is directly correlated in time line with the SCOTUS’s numerous rulings which removed prayer from public schools (1947), then government buildings, legalizing abortions (1973), government interfering with parental disciplining of their own children, and the school systems’ being sued by parents accusing teachers of improper disciplining of students in class.

The Surgeon General of the United States stated in 2001 that "...According to the report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings center are mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure."  As long as history has been documented, life has been centered around family.  The Bible tells us that after God created man, he created woman because it was not good that man should be alone:  Genesis 2:18-24:  "¹⁸ The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.  ...²¹ So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs^[g] and then closed up the place with flesh. ²² Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib^[h] he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.  ²³ The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”  ²⁴ That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh."  

God created the family.  God made that family unit a man and a woman.  It is through family that mankind grows in number.  It is through family that generations of individuals have learned proper manners, respect for others, belief in God, and the right ways to love one another as human beings and kin. But that family unit has been systematically destroyed by liberal judges making rulings that have destroyed the moral compass of this nation.  They have made rulings which have subjected Americans to pornography which poisons the minds of men, women, and even children with sensual stimulations stressing sex with anybody at any time, where adults have sex with children, and humans with animals, and sex where men and women are abused physically, mentally, and emotionally.  Pornography destroys the proper bond between men and women and replaces it with a fantacy world where people live out their fantasies with strangers they see on the screen, sometimes permanently destroying the relationship with their spouses.  They have made rulings which destroy the family structure that God designed and have imposed upon society a made-up family structure that is offensive to many individuals and groups that think God's plan is the ONLY plan that will effectively unite the country again.  What individuals do behind closed doors is between them and God, but to force through judicial mandate society to view and tolerate and have to not be critical of the perversion to Biblical guidelines that many of us believe the overriding mandate guiding our lives is extremely offensive, is hypocritical, and in my opinion illegal.  We have a government telling us what we have to think and what we can and cannot say, and that is antithetical to everything that the founding fathers believe and provide for in the Constitution.

To sum up, America functioned until the late 1940s under the concept of Original Intent, e.g., interpreting the Constitution by first looking at the intent of the writer(s) of the particular article of the Constitution and using that as the guideline principle by which the decision was conformed to the intent of the writer.  Starting in 1947 and continuing through today, the liberal judges adopted the concept of Judicial Activism, wherein they used the social norms and trends of the day to guide them in their interpretations of the Constitution.  That shift left the nation with an ever-changing basis upon which right and wrong was defined, leading us to a situation where today, in many cases, right or wrong is defined by each person, by the loudest protesting voices, or by special interest groups lobbying powers, rather than by the Original Intent of the founding fathers.  This is wrong, it is immoral, definitely unconstitutional, and goes against the spirit and promise of freedom that our founders wrote in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

The majority of our founders were Christians, and the evidence is found in their writings.  David Barton, President of Wallbuilders, has collected over seventy thousand of the original writings of our founders.  It should be noted that many historians agree that there are 204 individuals that qualify to be called "founders" of our nation.  Of that 204 individuals, every last one of them identified with a Christian sect.  Of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, all fifty-six identified with a Christian sect.  The breakdown can been seen here:  List of Christian founders and signers of Declaration of Independence Those who claim that our founders were not Christians are simply lying or do not know what they are talking about.

America has lost its moral compass, which our founders intended to be the principles of the Christian faith, and frankly speaking, until that is reversed, all the laws in the world will do NOTHING to stop mass shootings in schools, and gun violence on our city streets.  People kill other people, and if a gun is not available, they will find another weapon to do it.  The hearts, minds, and souls of America’s citizens must be changed before it can expect any behavior changes.  The concept of gun control changing anything is proven to be a pipe dream; just look at Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and many other cities where guns are as available as cigarettes to anyone with money and the will to look for them.  The government trying to control anything is ridiculous.  Prohibition didn't work, the War on Drugs didn't work, and gun control didn't work in the past and won't in the future. 

Let's face it; if history has proven anything, it is that evil is going to be a part of this world as long as it exists until Christ comes back and establishes His kingdom here on earth and banishes Satan and his demons to hell.  But until then, we will be fighting that evil, and unless we do so based on a belief in Christ and governing by His principles, it will be a losing battle.

AM I READY FOR THE RETURN OF CHRIST? YES!!!, AND NO...

As a Christian, for decades I have been hearing about the pending return of Christ. At least twice in my lifetime, that coming again has been forecast, and both times obviously was incorrect. When those times approached, I felt pretty sure those forecasts were misguided in nature, but still I pondered the "what-if" scenario; was I ready or not if by chance they were correct. Though the Bible says that not even Jesus knows when the Father will send Him back to bring His Church home to Heaven, still hearing these people so certain of that time made me both curious and cautious in saying whether or not these prophets of the pending return of Christ were wise, crazy, fanatics, or just publicity seekers.   In the end, I told myself that I was ready, and actually prayed that the forecasters would be correct.

But now, as I think about that, I question the wisdom of that prayer. Not from a selfish standpoint, however, but because of the state of many of my countrymen and actual friends and loved ones that I now know were not then, and are not now ready for that coming event.  I feel like I have failed to be the best I could be for Christ, and I am ashamed and disappointed in that failure.  I am one of the millions of Christians who took the "let someone else..." or "I am not goid enough to..." position, and will regret that probably forever as I do now.  My friends, acquaintants and loved ones have been deceived by Satan and this evil world, and had Christ come then, I am certain would have been condemned to hell for all eternity.

I guess the reality of that has hit home because I personally have friends and loved ones that I know do not believe that Christ is the only way to Heaven, that the Bible was written not by prophets and the disciples of Christ, but by men simply trying to improve their position in history, or that the translations are in error, or that a loving God would not condemn a "good person" to hell. And I am not ready to accept their fate yet; I am still praying that God will be merciful and open their eyes to see the truth. And I am convinced that Jesus IS the only way to Heaven, that one can never be "good" enough to earn one's way to heaven, and that the Bible IS God's words and instructions to us and is truth!

I say that NOT from pride, but because of evidence that God has shown through others, through the inspiration of His word, and through God's own speaking to me on two different occasions clearly. I cannot deny God's truth, His existence, His sovereignty, and His love because I have experienced it first hand, and have seen too many instances where He has revealed Himself to the world in undeniable ways.

So God, personally, I will say that I long to see Jesus come and save this world, and should You choose to call me home, I am ready and long to lay any jewels in my crown at your feet and thank You for your sacrifice and love for me that You would go through what Jesus did so that a miserable sinner such as I might know the redemptive love and freedom that You gave through Christ. But for the love of others, for the burning desire in my heart to not see ANYONE and especially those that I love and care for so very much suffer the indescribable misery of eternal punishment in hell separated from you, in Your infinite mercy, forgive my selfish desires .  Please let me stay here long enough to hopefully share my faith in ways that honor you and open the eyes of those I know and love personally, and those You love and would allow me to share my faith in a way that helps them see the loving God that I see as my sovereign God, the only God, and Jesus as my Savior and Messiah. This is my prayer. AMEN

Why Jesus Had to Die!

 

Why did God send Jesus Christ to earth to become the Messiah; to take on the burden of being the  bearer of every sin committed by every person that will ever live from the time of His resurrection until the final judgement?  Theologians and Biblical scholars can give great, in-depth explanations about how and why it had to be that way, but it really boiled down to a very simple reality:  there was no other way for man to be reconciled to a Holy God.

FACT 1:  Sinful man cannot abide with a Holy and righteous God.
FACT 2:  Since the fall of man (and woman) in the Garden of Eden, man has been sentenced to live in a sinful world, and to have a sinful nature.
FACT 3:  GOD gave man laws to live by through Moses, but mankind failed to live by those laws over and over, proving that we were incapable of being holy and living a sinless life.  No amount of animal sacrifices were enough to keep man free from the guilt of sin against God.
FACT 4:  Left to ourselves, man is going to sin against God, causing separation from God, and is incapable of obeying God's law and living a holy, righteous, and sinless life.

When we think about God creating us, we can understand why God followed the path He did in redeeming us.  SATAN will use every means available to attack, including trying to destroy our children, grandchildren, friends, family, and other loved ones.  I am also learning very painfully that Satan is the most evil, despicable entity in God's creation.  The pain that Satan causes people is indescribable and so cruel and, sadly, often so unnecessary if only people would understand that He is relentless in his attacks.  What is Satan's purpose in attacking us?  The answer is very simple:  To keep as many souls for himself and from following Jesus.  Satan is a fallen angel.  When the final judgement of Christ comes, Satan and all his demons, and every soul that has refused to accept Christ as their personal Savior, unfortunately, will be condemned to eternity in hell with Satan and separated from God. 

Satan wants to keep people from focusing on worshiping God, on giving God control of their lives, from accepting Jesus and on rejecting Satan's deceptions.  What is sad to me...so very sad...is that people are gullible and susceptible to Satan's deceptions because they/we/I are not grounded in their faith; we do not realize that we must commit to following Christ's example every hour of every day.  We must constantly be on the lookout for Satan's deceiving ways or we will be swept away by the world and out of God's leadership if we give Satan even a toehold in our minds and hearts.  Think it cannot happen to you?  Do not be foolish!  Think about what the Israelites saw when Moses went before Pharaoh to free them.  They saw God turn the waters of the Nile to blood, God strike the Egyptians with plagues of locusts and frogs, and the Passover when he killed the the firstborn of every Egyptian, including Pharaoh’s.  Yet, when they were camped on the banks of the Red Sea and saw Pharaoh’s Army of chariots approaching, they crumbled in fear until Moses told them to watch and see the redemption of God and God parted the Red Sea for them to cross on dry land, the drown the Army of Pharaoh as they tried to follow.  Then, as Moses was on Mt. Sinai and receiving the Ten Commandments from God, they grew impatient and weak, and built golden idols and worshipped false God's.  God then kept them wandering in the desert for forty years until the last of the old generation died off before allowing them to enter the promise land.  

If the Israelites, having seen such miracles first hand can be deceived by Satan and his followers so easily, it is absolutely ridiculous for us to believe that in today's world of information overload, the internet, and the availability and glamorization of sin through pornography, drugs, and corruption of all that is good and decent, that someone not firmly grounded in Christianity could be easily led astray.  The truth of this is obvious and evident by the growing war against Christianity by liberals, homosexuals, politically correct fanatics, and radical Islamist.  Satan is on the attack, and is winning!

God knew that because of the sinful nature of humans, try as we might, we could not ever successfully resist Satan's deceptions and live keeping the laws of Moses and stay sinless and in a redemptive state with fellowship with God.  He gave the Israelites opportunities over and over again where they fell away from following and worshipping God, were conquered and enslaved, cried out to God for redemption and forgiveness, were redeemed, and eventually the Israelites fell away from God again and again.  God allowed prophets to announce that eventually a Messiah would come and restore the Israeli promise land and kingdom on earth. 

God knew from the beginning of time that man would need a Messiah, but man had no idea that the promised Messiah would be like Jesus!  The Jewish people expected the Messiah to be another King David, a warrior king protected and enshrined by God and the earthly kingdom  would endure forever.  But God knew that mankind needed another type of a Messiah, one that would establish an entirely different type of earthly kingdom that encompassed the entire breadth and scope of humanity.  Jesus would open God's kingdom and freedom to every human who would ask forgiveness of their sins and accept Him as God's son and the Messiah. 

Mankind had demonstrated for thousands of years that it was incapable of following the laws of God and being "good enough" to earn salvation.  God demonstrated over time that we were incapable of living by the “law”, and that only an ultimate sacrifice such as Jesus made could free man from the condemnation of our sin.  I am so thankful that God made it simple; simple to accept His mercy through Jesus; simple to accept the forgiveness of our sins through Christ; simple to receive grace and assistance through the Holy Spirit which indwells us.

Satan...in Jesus's precious name I curse you to the depths of hell.  God...you have my life; forgive my weakness, my lack of commitment, my lack of discernment, and my lack of courage.   Make me ever mindful of Satan's deception attempts.   Please give me the Godly wisdom I need to recognize Satan's attempts to destroy my witness for you and the courage to reject them and to call on You as my salvation and strength.  Thank you for Jesus, through whom I am justified and forgiven for my sins, redeemed from condemnation, sanctified to you forever, and will be glorified to you in Heaven when I close my eyes in death.