Obama's Re-election: Opportunities for Christians in the 21st Century

Kevin Swanson conducts a fun and fascinating 28-minute interview on Generations SermonAudio with Doug Phillips as they discuss the re-election of President Obama and cast a vision for Biblical manhood and womanhood in the 21st Century.

Listen here: Surviving the Next 40 Years: The Character of the 21st Century Man

Christian Principles for the Ballot Box

Three election resources for the Christian voter in 2012:

1) I can highly recommend these articles as we move closer to election day here in the U.S. They are collected by Vision Forum. From Doug Phillips' blog:

"To go to our fully-updated Ballot Box section — which features all ten articles on biblical voting principles — click here.

Flip-Flopper-in-Chief: Should Mitt Romney Be Trusted to Serve as President?

By Wesley Strackbein
Article Summary: Gov. Mitt Romney’s record as a chronic flip-flopper on the issues is well known. In view of this fact, the following question must be addressed by wise voters: If a candidate running for public office says one thing on an issue and then repeatedly changes his views, should he be trusted with our vote? In “Flip-Flopper-in-Chief,” Wesley Strackbein explores Romney’s roller-coaster record on various issues Christians should be concerned about and explains the biblical case for electing “trustworthy” magistrates.
Click here to read the article.

Practice not Platform: Party Platforms are Irrelevant to Candidates’ Actions

By David Noor
Article Summary: Party platforms have historically been the bones thrown to the more principled members of the party base — those who think about issues and read more than slogans. They are also the bait, promising that the grassroots’ priorities will be pursued. Christians need to look beyond the platitudes contained in the Republican and Democratic Party Platforms and evaluate the candidates themselves. Look at the real predictors of their behavior if they are elected — their actual record and policy. Don’t blindly swallow the bait.
Click here to read the article.

Are We Electing a Pastor-in-Chief? How History Will Remember the Election of 2012

By Geoffrey Botkin
Article Summary: If you’ve followed American politics over the last several presidential elections, then you’ve probably heard this popular slogan: “We’re not electing a pastor-in-chief; we’re electing a commander-in-chief.” Yet what are the implications of this catch-phrase for the Christian and for our nation? In this insightful article, Geoffrey Botkin relates his own encounters with this slogan in 1992 while serving as a consultant for George H.W. Bush’s reelection campaign, examining the characteristic thought-process behind it in light of Scripture.
Click here to read the article.

The 2012 Elections: A Death Knell for the Christian Right

By Kevin Swanson
Article Summary: Why do Christians fear Obama more than they fear God? How should we best focus our resources during election seasons in view of a long-term strategy for Christ-honoring cultural engagement? Kevin Swanson hits these and other key questions head-on in this insightful article.
Click here to read the article.

Our Forgotten Birthright: The Pulpit’s Cry for Civil Liberty under God

By Dan Ford
Article Summary: In this helpful historical overview, author Dan Ford demonstrates that Christian ministers in colonial days called on their congregations to exercise their civic duties through active engagement in the affairs of the state. Ford’s conclusion is this: The men in our pulpits today must boldly embrace this legacy of America’s colonial clergy or else our liberties will be lost.
Click here to read the article."

Read more HERE.


2) A timely election sermon (a rare species now in our pietistic church culture) from Steve Bradley--Vote-Worthy Candidates Part 1. (Be sure to check SermonAudio this Sunday (11/04/2012) for Part 2!).
Updated 11/05/2012: Click HERE to listen to Vote-Worth Candidates Part 2.


3) Steve C. Halbrook at Theonomy Resources blog has a very good 5-part series on the upcoming election: "Reasons Not to Support Mitt Romney." Read the series HERE.

The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail Against the Church of Jesus Christ

For those of my brethren who have been feeling alone and even a little hopeless in the spiritual battle, I want to put forth this sermon, which I found so encouraging and inspiring, taken from Matthew 16:18.

Doug Phillips, of Vision Forum, in his sermon from SermonAudio called "The Gates of Hell."

Listen HERE

A Godly Man Is a Lover of the Word by Thomas Watson

Chrysostom compares the Scripture to a garden set with ornaments and flowers. A godly man delights to walk in this garden and sweetly solace himself. He loves every branch and part of the Word:

1. He loves the counselling part of the Word, as it is a directory and rule of life. The Word is the direction sign which points us to our duty. It contains in it things to be believed and practiced. A godly man loves the directions of the Word.

2. He loves the threatening part of the Word. The Scripture is like the Garden of Eden: as it has a tree of life in it, so it has a flaming sword at its gates. This is the threatening of the Word. It flashes fire in the face of every person who goes on obstinately in wickedness. “God will wound the head of His enemies, the hairy scalp of the one who still goes on in his trespasses.” (Psa. 68:21). The Word gives no indulgence to evil. It will not let a man halt half-way between God and sin. The true mother would not let the child be divided (I Kings 3:26), and God will not have the heart divided. The Word thunders out threats against the very appearance of evil. It is like that flying scroll full of curses (Zech. 5:1).

A godly man loves the menaces of the Word. He knows there is love in every threat. God would not have us perish; he therefore mercifully threatens us, so that he may scare us from sin. God’s threats are like the buoy, which shows the rocks in the sea and threatens death to such as come near. The threat is a curbing bit to check us, so that we may not run in full career to hell. There is mercy in every threat.

3. He loves the consolatory part of the Word - the promises. He goes feeding on these as Samson went on his way eating the honeycomb (Judges 14:8,9). The promises are all marrow and sweetness. They are reviving to us when we are fainting; they are the conduits of the water of life. “In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.” (Psa. 94:19). The promises were David’s harp to drive away sad thoughts; they were the breast which gave him the milk of divine consolation.

READ MORE on visionforumministries.org...

Some Christian Views of War

A Christian View of War is a study guide written by Greg Bahnsen available in pdf form for free on the Covenant Media Foundation website (Note: I can only recommend Greg Bahnsen resources from that site; CMF is tainted with Federal Vision theology.) that any Christian can use with their Bible to assist them in studying a Biblical view of warfare and in considering and meditating on the important and timely topic of Christian Just War Theory.

This could be a profitable study to sharpen our thinking on this area. We could then use our minds sharpened by God's word and Spirit in spiritual warfare for Christ when discussing our nation's current or proposed military operations with the unsaved and especially with Christian brethren who have not thought through their war theory from a Biblical perspective.

An mp3 radio interview with Greg Bahnsen on just war:

http://www.sermonaudio.ca/bahnsen/Bahnsen_Iraq1990_WarJustifiedorNot.mp3

Other thought-provoking articles:

From Darash Press:
A Christian Perspective on Just War by William O. Einwechter

From American Vision:
Restoring Freedom in National Defense by Joel McDurmon
Discerning the Times...And the Wars (An Open Letter to a Friend) by Bojidar Marinov
Preventing the Warfare State: Biblical Laws for Kings by Joel McDurmon (Part 1) and
The Military and War in a Free Society by Joel McDurmon (Part II)

Finally:
Are They Coming to Draft Your Daughters? And Other Moral Issues which the Church Must Address by Doug Phillips (from visionforumministries.org)


Edited September 23, 2012, to add the following SermonAudio sermons:

Law of Nations I by Paul Jehle
Law of Nations II by Paul Jehle (If you only have time for one, listen to this one because Mr. Jehle briefly reviews the first lecture; you may need (as I did) to pause it to let your brain catch up with speaker speed! Jehle gives even better lectures on this same topic on Vision Forum's audio set, History of the World A.D., if you can get ahold of them.)
Just Warfare and the Sixth Commandment by Thomas Ray Floyd
Concepts of a Just War by John Weaver

And these Reformers on the Law of Nations:
On the Law of War and Peace by Hugo Grotius
The Rights of War and Peace, including The Law of Nature and Law of Nations (1901 ed.) [1625] by Hugo Grotius (available in several different formats, includ. for Kindle and iPad.)
Politica by Althusius

And these American documents regarding U.S. war policy:
The Constitution of the United States [1787] (specifically references the Reformational understanding of the "Law of Nations"
George Washington's Farewell Address [1796] (which the U.S. Senate supposedly re-reads annually)
Monroe Doctrine [1823; part of a speech by Monroe]

"Only a Dad" by Edgar Guest

Only a dad with a tired face,
Coming home from the daily race,
Bringing little of gold or fame
To show how well he has played the game;
But glad in his heart that his own rejoice
To see him come and to hear his voice.

Only a dad with a brood of four,
One of ten million men or more
Plodding along in the daily strife,
Bearing the whips and the scorns of life,
With never a whimper of pain or hate,
For the sake of those who at home await.

Only a dad, neither rich nor proud,
Merely one of the surging crowd,
Toiling, striving from day to day,
Facing whatever may come his way,
Silent whenever the harsh condemn,
And bearing it all for the love of them.

Only a dad but he gives his all,
To smooth the way for his children small,
Doing with courage stern and grim
The deeds that his father did for him.
This is the line that for him I pen:
Only a dad, but the best of men.

--from Poems for Patriarchs: The Verse and Prose of Christian Manhood, compiled and edited by Douglas W. Phillips, The Vision Forum, Inc., 2005.

Abraham's Seed: First Public School Book in America

From Abraham's Seed blog, First Public School Book in America, the New England Primer, 1690. "The purpose of the book was to help young children learn to read so they could learn the Bible and be good Christians and citizens."

View the great pics of pages from this old book on Andrew's blog at the link above. Also, view the dear rhymes the children were taught from earliest ages to learn the alphabet, e.g. for "A", "in Adam's fall, we sinned all." Or for "B", "Heaven to find, the Bible mind."

A new edition of The New-England Primer may be purchased from Vision Forum.

The Great Debate over Baptism and the Covenant

For anyone--credo-baptist, paedo-baptist, or "on the fence"--interested in more about the topic of baptism and the covenant, I highly recommend the audio presentation by William O. Einwechter called "The Great Debate over Baptism and the Covenant," sold by Vision Forum. Mr. Einwechter is a covenantal baptist, theonomist, pastor, husband, and father of ten. His presentation is Biblical, well-researched, charitable, and thorough, including responses to paedo-baptist objections.

Doug Phillips' Commentary on American Missionaries in Haiti Charged with Child Kidnapping

Doug Phillips of Vision Forum gives an excellent analysis of the recent charges brought against American missionaries in Haiti. Click on this link.