lol I received this in an email this morning. God bless America and God bless all who serve in all the branches of the armed forces of this One Nation Under God.
GOD IS BUSY
If you don't know GOD, don't make stupid remarks!!!!!!
A United States Marine was taking some college courses between assignments.
He had completed 20 missions in Iraq and Afghanistan . One of the courses
had a professor who was an avowed atheist, and a member of the ACLU.
One day the professor shocked the class when he came in. He looked to the
ceiling and flatly stated, GOD if you are real then I want you to knock me
off this platform. I'll give you exactly 15 min.'
The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop. Ten minutes went
by and the professor proclaimed, 'Here I am GOD, I'm still waiting.'
It got down to the last couple of minutes when the Marine got out of his
chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him; knocking him off the
platform. The professor was out cold..
The Marine went back to his se at and sat there, silently.
The other students were shocked and stunned, and sat there looking on in
silence. The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the
Marine and asked, 'What in the world is the matter with you? 'Why did you
do that?'
The Marine calmly replied, 'GOD was too busy today protecting America 's
soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid stuff and act like an
idiot. So He sent me..'
The classroom erupted in cheers!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
A Prayer For Today - CR Dickey article from DESTINY Magazine 1937-1968
A PRAYER FOR TODAY
Two statements from the Psalms of David sound the keynote of prayer for today. The first is in Psalm 25:5, “Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me”; and the second is in Psalm 43:3, “O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me.” Stated more succinctly, they read: “Lead me into Thy truth; let Thy truth lead me.”
The special need of this prayer for our time is due to the fact that we are living in an era of unprecedented lying and deception. Lying propaganda has always been the chief causal agent in the breakdown of orderly society. It was used prior to the expulsion from Eden, where the tempter said to the woman, “Ye shall not surely die.” It deluded the people of Noah’s time and buried a civilization in a watery grave. Lies played their part in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the downfall of every nation and civilization from that distant time to the present century.
Speaking to the drunkards of Ephraim and to all the “scornful men” of his own generation, the Prophet Isaiah said:
“Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning it shall pass over, by day and by night and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.” (Isa. 28:15-19.)
Such leaders as Isaiah portrays in this chapter are never concerned about truth. They feel secure in the refuge of lies concocted for them by false prophets, faithless priests and political hacks. Always bent on their own evil schemes, they never inquire, “What saith the Lord?” They do not want to know truth, nor do they want to be led by it. It was available to them, as it is to us. So much Divine truth is set forth in the writings of Moses that men who had access to them were without excuse if they failed to heed his teachings; however, access to both Old and New Testaments ignore the wealth of revelation at hand.
Later, as Isaiah looked down the centuries and saw the Israel peoples regathered under the covenant of their Redeemer, he was saddened by the vision that confronted him. In chapter 59, the prophet gives a remarkable description of conditions as they exist today in the United States, in Britain, and in all the other nominally Christian lands of the Western world. We quote in part as follows:
“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity….The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
“Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us:…in transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment.”
What could better describe the tumult, the conflicting opinions, emotions, uncertainties and confusion of the present time? Truth is fallen in the street. Consequently, equity cannot enter and there is no righteous judgment. When this condition exists, those who depart from evil become a prey, the victims of liars themselves are responsible. Truth must be rescued and reinstated in Christian society if our nations and churches and freedom are to survive.
What is one to believe? How can he know what is true and what is false in the midst of bedlam? There is only one way to know --- and that is the way of prayer --- earnest, prevailing prayer. When Israel’s beloved King and Psalmist faced problems similar to our own, he prayed:
"Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day….O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.” (Ps. 25:4-5; 43:3.)
Now, in this crucial election year, Christians of the United States should keep this in prayer in their hearts and lips. Already the political campaigns are heading toward an all-time low in demagoguery. The former Democratic and Republican parties, in which each served as a balance wheel to the other, no longer exist; they are now merely two arms of the same international body, which General Douglas MacArthur referred to in one of his speeches as “the invisible government.” Unless a powerful new movement arises from the grass roots soon, voters will have no choice at the polls in November. Both parties have been captured by anti-Christian international conspirators. A vote for either party promises to be a vote for more Socialism to speed Zionism’s dream of World Government.
The editor of Christian Economics writes as follows under the headline, “Are We Disfranchised?”:
“In his new book, Affairs of State – The Eisenhower Years, Richard H. Rovere points out that the Eisenhower administration resembles the Truman administration. Harry and Dwight are more alike than either would suspect or admit….
“Both believe in increasing socialization not only in fiscal affairs, but in schools, ‘social security,’ conscription, universal military training, enormous payments to farmers in return for producing goods that are not needed or wanted at the prices demanded, and special privileges for unions that amount, in some cases, to subsidizing Socialist governments abroad, thus increasing their grip upon the people and so postponing, if not preventing, the achievement of more freedom which would result in greater production and increased well-being.
Both pay lip service to free enterprise, while following a program that leads more and more toward statism. We said before the last election that, if one wanted more Socialism, he could vote either ticket and be sure of winning. How true that prophecy has proved to be! The country is urgently in need of a new political alignment that will permit those who wish to vote against Socialism to register their convictions at the polls.” (May 15, 1956.)
Unless Christian patriots with influence and wealth launch immediately a new political ticket dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution and the sovereignty of the United States, the means with which to do this, both monetary and legal, may be wiped out overnight by judicial or executive order.
It is time to emphasize the fact that a Christian has not done his full duty when he supports a church program and maintains his respectability. As a citizen in the “Commonwealth of (Christian) Israel” (Eph. 2:12), he is responsible for righteous government under God’s direction and laws. If one doubts his responsibility toward the maintenance of good government, let him note what happens to churches when nations lose their freedom. We need to pray for an awakened sense of obligation, not only in national affairs, but in the separate affairs of our forty-eight state governments. Many of us have known the truth about the Divine source of good government, and our duty to uphold it, yet we have failed to let that truth lead us into active participation in the processes of free government.
Nonparticipation on the part of good men and women has left the cultivation of political fields in the hands of the wrong kind of people. No wonder the tares “sprung up” and brought forth evil fruit “while men slept.”
In American Mercury, June 1956, Board Chairman Russell Maguire wrote:
“World Government is the Beast who will lead us to destruction….Never forget there are two strings on the Devil’s violin:
“1) You can get something for nothing.
“2) It’s too late; you can’t do anything about it.
“Both are phony promises. You definitely can do something about it! Will you?”
We would like to add a third string to the Devil’s violin:
“The Supreme Court has spoken. It is the law of the land. Nothing can be done about it.”
What fools people are to accept such palpable untruths! Any schoolboy with a smattering of civics ought to know better than that. The Supreme Court is not a legislative body; furthermore, its members, being liable to the elected representatives of the people, are subject to impeachment by Congress for improper acts and decisions.
Editorial writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News, Lynn Landrum, who is versed also in legal matters, made some pertinent observations recently in his column: “Thinking Out Loud.” We quote a characteristic bit of wisdom which heads the column and follow with excerpts from the article:
“When judges write the laws
To make us bond or free,
The throne is then the bench
And bondsmen all are we.
“In the opinion of the column, our present Supreme Court of the United States is dangerously subversive in that it tends mightily to destroy and set at naught the system of restraints on power which the Constitution of the United States established. Indeed, we are drifting rapidly toward a situation where what the Constitution says will make no difference to the court and little to the country….
“The present court, packed by the New Deal --- Queer Deal --- Re-deal (Roosevelt, Truman & Eisenhower), has lost respect with the country and has just about lost with it the practicing bar. Numerically, gravest accountability is on Roosevelt and Truman. But Eisenhower’s Chief Justice Warren is a toothy sample of as an unqualified judge as ever sat in such company. Mr. Warren was a Governor and his teeth are good. And he is on the bench. Therefore, he is Chief Justice of the United States….Not being real judges when appointed --- with such exceptions as, by their nature, add no prestige to the court --- our nine gentlemen on the bench cannot agree with themselves. Indeed they cannot stay of one mind on one case for as long as 24 months in succession, with the inglorious result that a litigant who wins a judgment confirmed by the Supreme Court is not safe in taking the money, lest, after he has spent it, the Supreme Court turn upon him and demand it back again.
“Mr. James F. Byrnes, himself a former Chief Justice on the Supreme Court, thinks Congress can do something about all this. Article III, Section 1, of the Constitution is what he is talking about. And Mr. Byrnes is not a man to talk through his hat. The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is subject to exceptions and regulations ‘as Congress may by law direct.’ It is time to direct.
The chief aim of deceivers is to make us think that we are helpless, that there is nothing we can do to counteract their ruinous policies. Truth falls in the street when citizens believe their lies and submit to their outrageous depredations. The Lord sees it, Isaiah reminds us, and it displeases Him when His people exercise no judgment in dealing with traitors.
All Western nations are being shoved toward destruction by widespread deception in high places. We have touched briefly on deception in the realm of government. But its poisonous tentacles reach into every phase of our personal and corporate lives. It would require volumes to record the ramifications of lying propaganda in the vast areas of education, both secular and religious, and in the various channels of public information --- the press, radio, television, cinema, et cetera.
Among the people who regard themselves as exemplary Christians, there are many who do not realize what a serious thing it is to tamper with truth. It may surprise some to find that the Bible puts liars in the same bracket with the lowest of criminals. Consider the following thought-provoking statements:
“A sword is upon the liars.” (Jer. 50:36.)
“Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers [kidnappers], for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.” (I Tim. 1:9-10.)
“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” (Rev. 21:7-8.)
Surely it is time to pray to be heard throughout all Christian lands. Someone has said that Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees. James says in his Epistle, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (4:7).
The Scriptures contain many helpful prayers to guide our thinking. He who seeks them out and makes them his own will grow in grace and truth and wisdom. Suppose all who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ would pray in sincerity every day: “Lead me in Thy truth; let Thy truth lead me.” Who can measure the power for truth one such prayer could generate in the world today?
Articles from Biblical Treasures (Volume II) – C. R. Dickey
INTRODUCTION
The Staff at Destiny Publishers, having read all the articles written by the late C. R. Dickey (Christina R. Dickey) found in DESTINY Magazines from July 1938 to October 1967, received such a blessing from her writings that we wanted to share the information with all who are seeking God’s wonderful truths. We are hereby publishing all her articles in two volumes, which we believe you will find most inspiring and of genuine interest and value.
Her knowledge of the Scriptures was unbelievable so she must have had a very close association with her Lord, as she certainly became a champion for His cause.
Our late beloved editor, Howard B. Rand, realized her talent as he published many of articles in booklet form.
The reader should take into account the time element when each article was written, which was from the late thirties to the middle sixties. We found her articles to be up to the minute as though she had written them yesterday. Her writings on various subjects are backed up with Scripture verses, as well as with quotes from reliable sources, when making a point. From her writings, the Lord surely made use of her God-given talents.
Although we do not have any knowledge of her background, we do know that she was a Congregational minister. Her sermons given must have been of interest and value to her congregation. We are sure her articles contained in this book will do the same.
OTHER BOOKS AND BOOKLETS BY THE AUTHOR
One Man’s Destiny
An Emerging Civilization – out of print
The Basic Principles in Bible Study – out of print
The Bible and Modernism
The Bible and Segregation
Facing the Sunrise
Origin and Transmission of the Bible
Two statements from the Psalms of David sound the keynote of prayer for today. The first is in Psalm 25:5, “Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me”; and the second is in Psalm 43:3, “O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me.” Stated more succinctly, they read: “Lead me into Thy truth; let Thy truth lead me.”
The special need of this prayer for our time is due to the fact that we are living in an era of unprecedented lying and deception. Lying propaganda has always been the chief causal agent in the breakdown of orderly society. It was used prior to the expulsion from Eden, where the tempter said to the woman, “Ye shall not surely die.” It deluded the people of Noah’s time and buried a civilization in a watery grave. Lies played their part in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and in the downfall of every nation and civilization from that distant time to the present century.
Speaking to the drunkards of Ephraim and to all the “scornful men” of his own generation, the Prophet Isaiah said:
“Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning it shall pass over, by day and by night and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.” (Isa. 28:15-19.)
Such leaders as Isaiah portrays in this chapter are never concerned about truth. They feel secure in the refuge of lies concocted for them by false prophets, faithless priests and political hacks. Always bent on their own evil schemes, they never inquire, “What saith the Lord?” They do not want to know truth, nor do they want to be led by it. It was available to them, as it is to us. So much Divine truth is set forth in the writings of Moses that men who had access to them were without excuse if they failed to heed his teachings; however, access to both Old and New Testaments ignore the wealth of revelation at hand.
Later, as Isaiah looked down the centuries and saw the Israel peoples regathered under the covenant of their Redeemer, he was saddened by the vision that confronted him. In chapter 59, the prophet gives a remarkable description of conditions as they exist today in the United States, in Britain, and in all the other nominally Christian lands of the Western world. We quote in part as follows:
“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity….The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.
“Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us:…in transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment.”
What could better describe the tumult, the conflicting opinions, emotions, uncertainties and confusion of the present time? Truth is fallen in the street. Consequently, equity cannot enter and there is no righteous judgment. When this condition exists, those who depart from evil become a prey, the victims of liars themselves are responsible. Truth must be rescued and reinstated in Christian society if our nations and churches and freedom are to survive.
What is one to believe? How can he know what is true and what is false in the midst of bedlam? There is only one way to know --- and that is the way of prayer --- earnest, prevailing prayer. When Israel’s beloved King and Psalmist faced problems similar to our own, he prayed:
"Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day….O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.” (Ps. 25:4-5; 43:3.)
Now, in this crucial election year, Christians of the United States should keep this in prayer in their hearts and lips. Already the political campaigns are heading toward an all-time low in demagoguery. The former Democratic and Republican parties, in which each served as a balance wheel to the other, no longer exist; they are now merely two arms of the same international body, which General Douglas MacArthur referred to in one of his speeches as “the invisible government.” Unless a powerful new movement arises from the grass roots soon, voters will have no choice at the polls in November. Both parties have been captured by anti-Christian international conspirators. A vote for either party promises to be a vote for more Socialism to speed Zionism’s dream of World Government.
The editor of Christian Economics writes as follows under the headline, “Are We Disfranchised?”:
“In his new book, Affairs of State – The Eisenhower Years, Richard H. Rovere points out that the Eisenhower administration resembles the Truman administration. Harry and Dwight are more alike than either would suspect or admit….
“Both believe in increasing socialization not only in fiscal affairs, but in schools, ‘social security,’ conscription, universal military training, enormous payments to farmers in return for producing goods that are not needed or wanted at the prices demanded, and special privileges for unions that amount, in some cases, to subsidizing Socialist governments abroad, thus increasing their grip upon the people and so postponing, if not preventing, the achievement of more freedom which would result in greater production and increased well-being.
Both pay lip service to free enterprise, while following a program that leads more and more toward statism. We said before the last election that, if one wanted more Socialism, he could vote either ticket and be sure of winning. How true that prophecy has proved to be! The country is urgently in need of a new political alignment that will permit those who wish to vote against Socialism to register their convictions at the polls.” (May 15, 1956.)
Unless Christian patriots with influence and wealth launch immediately a new political ticket dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution and the sovereignty of the United States, the means with which to do this, both monetary and legal, may be wiped out overnight by judicial or executive order.
It is time to emphasize the fact that a Christian has not done his full duty when he supports a church program and maintains his respectability. As a citizen in the “Commonwealth of (Christian) Israel” (Eph. 2:12), he is responsible for righteous government under God’s direction and laws. If one doubts his responsibility toward the maintenance of good government, let him note what happens to churches when nations lose their freedom. We need to pray for an awakened sense of obligation, not only in national affairs, but in the separate affairs of our forty-eight state governments. Many of us have known the truth about the Divine source of good government, and our duty to uphold it, yet we have failed to let that truth lead us into active participation in the processes of free government.
Nonparticipation on the part of good men and women has left the cultivation of political fields in the hands of the wrong kind of people. No wonder the tares “sprung up” and brought forth evil fruit “while men slept.”
In American Mercury, June 1956, Board Chairman Russell Maguire wrote:
“World Government is the Beast who will lead us to destruction….Never forget there are two strings on the Devil’s violin:
“1) You can get something for nothing.
“2) It’s too late; you can’t do anything about it.
“Both are phony promises. You definitely can do something about it! Will you?”
We would like to add a third string to the Devil’s violin:
“The Supreme Court has spoken. It is the law of the land. Nothing can be done about it.”
What fools people are to accept such palpable untruths! Any schoolboy with a smattering of civics ought to know better than that. The Supreme Court is not a legislative body; furthermore, its members, being liable to the elected representatives of the people, are subject to impeachment by Congress for improper acts and decisions.
Editorial writer and columnist for The Dallas Morning News, Lynn Landrum, who is versed also in legal matters, made some pertinent observations recently in his column: “Thinking Out Loud.” We quote a characteristic bit of wisdom which heads the column and follow with excerpts from the article:
“When judges write the laws
To make us bond or free,
The throne is then the bench
And bondsmen all are we.
“In the opinion of the column, our present Supreme Court of the United States is dangerously subversive in that it tends mightily to destroy and set at naught the system of restraints on power which the Constitution of the United States established. Indeed, we are drifting rapidly toward a situation where what the Constitution says will make no difference to the court and little to the country….
“The present court, packed by the New Deal --- Queer Deal --- Re-deal (Roosevelt, Truman & Eisenhower), has lost respect with the country and has just about lost with it the practicing bar. Numerically, gravest accountability is on Roosevelt and Truman. But Eisenhower’s Chief Justice Warren is a toothy sample of as an unqualified judge as ever sat in such company. Mr. Warren was a Governor and his teeth are good. And he is on the bench. Therefore, he is Chief Justice of the United States….Not being real judges when appointed --- with such exceptions as, by their nature, add no prestige to the court --- our nine gentlemen on the bench cannot agree with themselves. Indeed they cannot stay of one mind on one case for as long as 24 months in succession, with the inglorious result that a litigant who wins a judgment confirmed by the Supreme Court is not safe in taking the money, lest, after he has spent it, the Supreme Court turn upon him and demand it back again.
“Mr. James F. Byrnes, himself a former Chief Justice on the Supreme Court, thinks Congress can do something about all this. Article III, Section 1, of the Constitution is what he is talking about. And Mr. Byrnes is not a man to talk through his hat. The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is subject to exceptions and regulations ‘as Congress may by law direct.’ It is time to direct.
The chief aim of deceivers is to make us think that we are helpless, that there is nothing we can do to counteract their ruinous policies. Truth falls in the street when citizens believe their lies and submit to their outrageous depredations. The Lord sees it, Isaiah reminds us, and it displeases Him when His people exercise no judgment in dealing with traitors.
All Western nations are being shoved toward destruction by widespread deception in high places. We have touched briefly on deception in the realm of government. But its poisonous tentacles reach into every phase of our personal and corporate lives. It would require volumes to record the ramifications of lying propaganda in the vast areas of education, both secular and religious, and in the various channels of public information --- the press, radio, television, cinema, et cetera.
Among the people who regard themselves as exemplary Christians, there are many who do not realize what a serious thing it is to tamper with truth. It may surprise some to find that the Bible puts liars in the same bracket with the lowest of criminals. Consider the following thought-provoking statements:
“A sword is upon the liars.” (Jer. 50:36.)
“Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers [kidnappers], for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.” (I Tim. 1:9-10.)
“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” (Rev. 21:7-8.)
Surely it is time to pray to be heard throughout all Christian lands. Someone has said that Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees. James says in his Epistle, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (4:7).
The Scriptures contain many helpful prayers to guide our thinking. He who seeks them out and makes them his own will grow in grace and truth and wisdom. Suppose all who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ would pray in sincerity every day: “Lead me in Thy truth; let Thy truth lead me.” Who can measure the power for truth one such prayer could generate in the world today?
Articles from Biblical Treasures (Volume II) – C. R. Dickey
INTRODUCTION
The Staff at Destiny Publishers, having read all the articles written by the late C. R. Dickey (Christina R. Dickey) found in DESTINY Magazines from July 1938 to October 1967, received such a blessing from her writings that we wanted to share the information with all who are seeking God’s wonderful truths. We are hereby publishing all her articles in two volumes, which we believe you will find most inspiring and of genuine interest and value.
Her knowledge of the Scriptures was unbelievable so she must have had a very close association with her Lord, as she certainly became a champion for His cause.
Our late beloved editor, Howard B. Rand, realized her talent as he published many of articles in booklet form.
The reader should take into account the time element when each article was written, which was from the late thirties to the middle sixties. We found her articles to be up to the minute as though she had written them yesterday. Her writings on various subjects are backed up with Scripture verses, as well as with quotes from reliable sources, when making a point. From her writings, the Lord surely made use of her God-given talents.
Although we do not have any knowledge of her background, we do know that she was a Congregational minister. Her sermons given must have been of interest and value to her congregation. We are sure her articles contained in this book will do the same.
OTHER BOOKS AND BOOKLETS BY THE AUTHOR
One Man’s Destiny
An Emerging Civilization – out of print
The Basic Principles in Bible Study – out of print
The Bible and Modernism
The Bible and Segregation
Facing the Sunrise
Origin and Transmission of the Bible
Thursday, January 7, 2010
HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE
HEALTH AND COMMON SENSE This is an article from DESTINY Magazine 1937-1968 by CR Dickey
An American Bible Society pamphlet by Daniel A. Poling is titled “What is the Bible?”. Dr. Poling begins an answer to the question by saying:
“What is the Bible? It is inspired common sense. The humblest man reads it because it meets his various needs; it appeals to his sound judgment; it is reasonable.
“What is the Bible? It is common sense adapted to every walk of life….And in all particulars its effectiveness has not diminished since its first edition came from the press. Human publications have their days and become obsolete; but God’s Word is like Himself, ‘the same yesterday, today and forever.’”
Does the Bible – this potent, unchanging volume of “inspired common sense” – have anything to say on the subject of health, which sooner or later becomes a matter of deep concern to every family? Indeed it has much to say, in fact, and says it with finality.
From the Bible we learn the incontrovertible source of health. It is announced clearly and emphatically in Exodus 15:26:
“If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.”
David, Israel’s beloved psalmist and king, states the source of healing and vitality in Psalm 103: 2-5:
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
There are scores of such informative statements on the subject of health from the writings of Moses and the prophets and the apostles. God’s concern for the physical welfare of His people may well be measured by the amount of time His Son, Christ Jesus, spent in healing diseases during the short span of His ministry. His healing activities, as recorded in the Four Gospels, absorbed Him so completely at times as to overshadow temporarily other phases of His great work. By His never-failing compassion for the infirmities and sufferings of humanity, Jesus demonstrated the divine source of man’s health and general well-being.
While most Christians agree that God is the ultimate source of health, there is much honest disagreement as to His methods of healing. Some devout believers hold that all healing must come through the direct intervention of God in the manner which was used by Jesus and His disciples, and they feel that it dishonors God to seek help from any other source, even when it is used as a supplement to one’s faith. Others, equally sincere, feel justified in using the professional services of men and women who have developed their natural gifts of healing.
How can we know who is right? How may we determine the method, or methods, God uses to restore health?
From the way different Christian sects have wrangled, often bitterly, over this question it may seem that authoritative information on the subject has never been available. On the contrary, such information is not only at hand now, but it has been silently awaiting recognition since long before the Christian era began. The answer is found in the Old Testament Apocrypha, literature which was familiar reading to Jesus, His disciples and the early Christians. It was formerly included in all our English Bibles. Since its removal from our Old Testament, numerous cults have arisen to plague Christians throughout the world with strife, schisms and an abundance of false teaching regarding the matter of health. The book is Ecclesiasticus, from which we quote the first 14 verses of chapter 38:
“Honour a physician with the honour due unto him for the uses which ye may have of him: for the Lord hath created him. For of the most High cometh healing, and he shall receive honour of the king. The skill of the physician shall lift up his head: and in the sight of great men he shall be in admiration. The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth; and he that is wise will not abhor them. Was not the water made sweet with wood, that the virtue thereof might be known? And He hath given men skill, that He might be honoured in His marvelous works. With such doth He heal [men], and taketh away their pains. Of such doth the apothecary make a confection; and of His works there is no end; and from Him is peace over all the earth.
“My son, in thy sickness be not negligent: but pray unto the Lord, and He will make thee whole. Leave off from sin, and order thine hands aright, and cleanse thy heart from all wickedness. Give a sweet savour, and a memorial of fine flour; and make a fat offering, as not being. Then give place to the physician, for the Lord hath created him: let him not go from thee, for thou hast need of him. There is a time when in their hands there is good success. For they [the physicians] shall also pray unto the Lord, that He would prosper that, which they give for ease and remedy to prolong life.”
How can the question of God’s method of healing be answered more completely? Where else can one find “inspired common sense” expressed with more clarity and simplicity? All the necessary elements are there – not implied but explicitly declared. There is no room for misunderstanding and argument. Wayfaring men, though fools, can read and comprehend the simple instructions which promise freedom from pain and the prolongation of life.
Only the Lord Himself knows how much suffering and how many untimely deaths might have been averted if these fourteen sentences had remained in our Bibles and had been frequently called to the attention of the people by consecrated ministers. Most clergymen and a few laymen now have copies of the Apocrypha. Some Protestant councils have advised ministers in their fellowship to use the Apocryphal books in their preaching. But this has been done rarely, if at all; thus only a comparatively few Christians ever hear of Ecclesiasticus 38:1-14.
Study the foregoing formula and note these eight factors involved in the process of healing: 1) the power of God from Whom all healing comes; 2) the skill of the physician; 3) medicines out of the earth; 4) the skill of the apothecary; 5) prayer on the part of the patient; 6) prayer on the part of the physician; 7) leave off sin and practice clean living; and 8) express gratitude in a memorial offering.
While recognizing the Most High as the Great Physician, we must also consider the fact that He utilizes physicians and medicines as cooperative agents in the process of healing. Many adherents of faith healing sects will not agree with this statement. They remind us that Jesus and His disciples went about curing all manner of diseases without physicians and medicines. In all sincerity they feel that we dishonor God by our lack of faith when we use any material means or human agencies. They ask, are we not promised that the prayer of faith shall save the sick?
On the other hand, it is well to remember that the work Jesus did in curing diseases and raising the dead formed a major part of the signs and wonders which necessarily accompanied His ministry in order to prove His Messiahship and to inaugurate the great Christian movement. In so doing Jesus used invisible forces still unknown to men. When some emergency arises prayer can bring these same forces into operation again, as it has done on many occasions in the past and is still doing today. Missionaries in our generations have reported thrilling instances of healing and protection when they were overtaken by disease in some lonely spot far from medical aid. Our servicemen in the present war have already sent back many stories of divine intervention when they were injured and stranded at sea or on barren islands – and the half of such remarkable testimonies have not yet been reported.
It is acknowledged by all reasonable thinkers that God can heal diseases fully and instantaneously with no visible means; it is further acknowledged that He has done so in the past and continues to do so now when necessity demands it, or when such demonstration serves His holy purpose. The question is, should Christian believers dispense with all the natural means of health at their disposal and expect the Lord to perform some special miracle of healing on their behalf? There is a principle expressed in the temptation of Jesus which seems to answer this question:
“Then the devil taketh Him up into the Holy City, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” (Matt. 4:5-7.)
Note in this example how Satan misapplied a Scriptural promise of protection in his effort to goad Jesus into committing a rash act. According to Jesus’ answer, one should not challenge God to uphold his willful disregard and violation of natural laws. Therefore, it seems that the man who demands instant and miraculous healing may be guilty of tempting God. Jesus knew that if He cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple in defiance of the law of gravity, merely to please the devil, He would suffer the consequences. And so it is with a sick man who spurns all divinely appointed aids for his recovery, meanwhile dictating to God the manner of his healing. God seldom works by the spectacular method of signs and wonders; more often He uses the slower processes of revealed laws and their operations in familiar, normal channels.
The one great hindrance to good health on a national scale is the personal equation, consisting of the indeterminate foibles, idiosyncrasies and pet aversions of each and every one of us, doctors of all kinds included. First, we ignore the fundamental principles of health for the nation as a whole; second, we pay no attention to the dietary regulations prescribed in the Bible; and third, we neglect contacting God, through Christ, in daily devotion and prayer.
Read Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 to learn the basic principles of health. Speaking to the newly formed Israel nation – not Jews, mind you, but the whole House of Jacob-Israel – the Lord God said:
“Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence My Sanctuary: I am the Lord. If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them; then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
“I will set My tabernacle among you: and My soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be My people.
“But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; and if ye shall despise My statutes, or if your soul abhor My judgments, so that ye will not do all My commandments, but that ye break My covenant: I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.”
Specific rules regarding diet are recorded in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Other suggestions will be found in various passages from the Pentateuch. For instance, Aaron was instructed to burn animal fats. We soak fried foods in lard and suet, leave fats in the gravy and actually eat the fat portions along with the lean meat. Surely we have no right to expect God to perform miracles of healing for us when we violate His rules of health, either willfully or ignorantly. Yet people as a whole are stubborn beyond all reason when it comes to changing life-long eating habits.
Modern physicians also have much to learn about these fundamental principles of health. They too are required to seek counsel of God in prayer. Because of their failure to do this, many secrets of healing have not yet been revealed to them. Furthermore, they are not giving due consideration to the Bible as a source of health knowledge; consequently, they often prescribe for their patients food that is forbidden in the Bible regimen. Doctors, like preachers, are slow to investigate anything that is not endorsed by the school in which they received their training. The heavenly Father does not confine all wisdom within the narrow limits of any particular school. Men should ever be on the alert for new revelation wherever it may be found.
Nutritionists have pioneered ahead of the medical profession in the science of foods in relation to health. They have rendered notable service in the matter of better balanced menus. Some among them, however, are obsessed with the idea that their method is the infallible cure-all for every known disease. Without discrimination and knowledge of conditions, each one unhesitatingly recommends his theory as the answer to Ponce de Leon’s desire for eternal youth and vigor. Sometimes it is an exclusive diet of fruit juices for days at a time – between fasts; or it may be raw vegetables that will turn the tide in the battle for health. While all these things are good in moderation when balanced with other essential foods, they may be positively harmful if used alone or to excess. Many people are allergic to raw foods and to certain fruits. But these extremists have one formula for all, without reckoning with the old adage, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.”
There is another important question the sick man must consider if he wants the Lord’s help; namely, what use does he intend to make of his strength? Will he use the gift of health for selfish ends only, or will he dedicate his renewed strength to whatever work will best serve the Lord and his fellowmen? Any honest man’s labor becomes hallowed when his purpose is to honor God and do His will. But he will miss if his motives are self centered:
“Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts [pleasures].” (James 4:3.)
An essential question faces the physician also. He must ask himself, why do I want power over disease? Do I want it in order that I may cooperate with God in alleviating human suffering and prolonging life? Or do I want it primarily to accumulate great fortune for myself, as many of my colleagues have done? A physician’s calling is too sacred to be guided by mercenary motives.
Medical science was practically undeveloped in Jesus’ day and what little was known at that time was inaccessible to the poor. So Jesus and His disciples graciously healed all who sought their help. Masses of people then were afflicted with diseases which modern surgery and medicines now eliminate readily. Yet unfortunately, at the present time, there is an increasing tendency to set a prohibitive price on all branches of medical service. It is felt most keenly by average middle-class people, who are not eligible for the free service in county hospitals and would not accept charity in any case. Physicians must see that proper care is within reach of all classes of citizens. It is a responsibility they cannot escape.
There remains one last fact to be taken into account: “It is appointed unto man once to die.” That verdict must be considered at some time in every life. Again, there are times when one may serve God’s purpose better in affliction than in health. We do not know to this day why Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was not removed. But we do know why he had to be imprisoned. It was for the purpose of writing his imperishable Epistles to the churches. His freedom to travel and preach had to be removed before he would take time to record his teachings for posterity. So in praying for restored health, remember always that even our Lord Jesus added these submissive words to His prayer in Gethsemane:
“Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42.)
In Ecclesiasticus are many statements worth remembering. The following are little commentaries on life, health and death, expressed in the philosophy of common sense:
“Let the counsel of thine own heart stand: for there is no man more faithful unto thee than it. For a man’s mind is sometime wont to tell him more than seven watchmen, that sit above in an high tower. And above all this pray to the most High, that He will direct thy way in truth. Let reason go before every enterprise, and counsel before every action.
“My son, prove thy soul in thy life, and see what is evil for it, and give not that unto it. For all things are not profitable for all men, neither hath every soul pleasure in every thing. Be not unsatiable in any dainty thing, nor too greedy upon meats: for excess of meats bringeth sickness, and surfeiting will turn into choler. By surfeiting [immoderate indulgence] have many perished; but he that taketh heed prolongeth his life.
“O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions, unto the man that hath nothing to vex him, and that hath prosperity in all things: yes, unto him that is yet able to receive meat! O death, acceptable is thy sentence unto the needy, and unto him whose strength faileth, that is now in the last age, and is vexed with all things, and to him that despaireth, and hath lost patience! Fear not the sentence of death, remember them that have been before thee, and that come after; for this is the sentence of the Lord over all flesh.” (Ecclesiasticus 37:13-16, 27-31, 41:13.)
Thus death was the sentence over all flesh when man renounced his allegiance to his Creator. Even so, there is a reason why the inspired writer could say, “Fear not the sentence of death.” Long after His work was done, a Man came from God and gave Himself a ransom to break the bond of death. The prophet Hosea foretold His coming in these dramatic words:
“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction.” (Hosea 13:14.)
Paul, in his first letter to Timothy, registered the fulfillment of Hosea’s prophecy:
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” (I Tim. 2:5-6.)
The Christian hope will not acquiesce in a sentence of death, because Christ brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. We look for the day He promised, when “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain” (Rev. 21:4).
In that day we shall see “the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Rev. 22:2).
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Articles from Biblical Treasures (Volume II) – C. R. Dickey
INTRODUCTION
The Staff at Destiny Publishers, having read all the articles written by the late C. R. Dickey (Christina R. Dickey) found in DESTINY Magazines from July 1938 to October 1967, received such a blessing from her writings that we wanted to share the information with all who are seeking God’s wonderful truths. We are hereby publishing all her articles in two volumes, which we believe you will find most inspiring and of genuine interest and value.
Her knowledge of the Scriptures was unbelievable so she must have had a very close association with her Lord, as she certainly became a champion for His cause.
Our late beloved editor, Howard B. Rand, realized her talent as he published many of articles in booklet form.
The reader should take into account the time element when each article was written, which was from the late thirties to the middle sixties. We found her articles to be up to the minute as though she had written them yesterday. Her writings on various subjects are backed up with Scripture verses, as well as with quotes from reliable sources, when making a point. From her writings, the Lord surely made use of her God-given talents.
Although we do not have any knowledge of her background, we do know that she was a Congregational minister. Her sermons given must have been of interest and value to her congregation. We are sure her articles contained in this book will do the same.
An American Bible Society pamphlet by Daniel A. Poling is titled “What is the Bible?”. Dr. Poling begins an answer to the question by saying:
“What is the Bible? It is inspired common sense. The humblest man reads it because it meets his various needs; it appeals to his sound judgment; it is reasonable.
“What is the Bible? It is common sense adapted to every walk of life….And in all particulars its effectiveness has not diminished since its first edition came from the press. Human publications have their days and become obsolete; but God’s Word is like Himself, ‘the same yesterday, today and forever.’”
Does the Bible – this potent, unchanging volume of “inspired common sense” – have anything to say on the subject of health, which sooner or later becomes a matter of deep concern to every family? Indeed it has much to say, in fact, and says it with finality.
From the Bible we learn the incontrovertible source of health. It is announced clearly and emphatically in Exodus 15:26:
“If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.”
David, Israel’s beloved psalmist and king, states the source of healing and vitality in Psalm 103: 2-5:
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
There are scores of such informative statements on the subject of health from the writings of Moses and the prophets and the apostles. God’s concern for the physical welfare of His people may well be measured by the amount of time His Son, Christ Jesus, spent in healing diseases during the short span of His ministry. His healing activities, as recorded in the Four Gospels, absorbed Him so completely at times as to overshadow temporarily other phases of His great work. By His never-failing compassion for the infirmities and sufferings of humanity, Jesus demonstrated the divine source of man’s health and general well-being.
While most Christians agree that God is the ultimate source of health, there is much honest disagreement as to His methods of healing. Some devout believers hold that all healing must come through the direct intervention of God in the manner which was used by Jesus and His disciples, and they feel that it dishonors God to seek help from any other source, even when it is used as a supplement to one’s faith. Others, equally sincere, feel justified in using the professional services of men and women who have developed their natural gifts of healing.
How can we know who is right? How may we determine the method, or methods, God uses to restore health?
From the way different Christian sects have wrangled, often bitterly, over this question it may seem that authoritative information on the subject has never been available. On the contrary, such information is not only at hand now, but it has been silently awaiting recognition since long before the Christian era began. The answer is found in the Old Testament Apocrypha, literature which was familiar reading to Jesus, His disciples and the early Christians. It was formerly included in all our English Bibles. Since its removal from our Old Testament, numerous cults have arisen to plague Christians throughout the world with strife, schisms and an abundance of false teaching regarding the matter of health. The book is Ecclesiasticus, from which we quote the first 14 verses of chapter 38:
“Honour a physician with the honour due unto him for the uses which ye may have of him: for the Lord hath created him. For of the most High cometh healing, and he shall receive honour of the king. The skill of the physician shall lift up his head: and in the sight of great men he shall be in admiration. The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth; and he that is wise will not abhor them. Was not the water made sweet with wood, that the virtue thereof might be known? And He hath given men skill, that He might be honoured in His marvelous works. With such doth He heal [men], and taketh away their pains. Of such doth the apothecary make a confection; and of His works there is no end; and from Him is peace over all the earth.
“My son, in thy sickness be not negligent: but pray unto the Lord, and He will make thee whole. Leave off from sin, and order thine hands aright, and cleanse thy heart from all wickedness. Give a sweet savour, and a memorial of fine flour; and make a fat offering, as not being. Then give place to the physician, for the Lord hath created him: let him not go from thee, for thou hast need of him. There is a time when in their hands there is good success. For they [the physicians] shall also pray unto the Lord, that He would prosper that, which they give for ease and remedy to prolong life.”
How can the question of God’s method of healing be answered more completely? Where else can one find “inspired common sense” expressed with more clarity and simplicity? All the necessary elements are there – not implied but explicitly declared. There is no room for misunderstanding and argument. Wayfaring men, though fools, can read and comprehend the simple instructions which promise freedom from pain and the prolongation of life.
Only the Lord Himself knows how much suffering and how many untimely deaths might have been averted if these fourteen sentences had remained in our Bibles and had been frequently called to the attention of the people by consecrated ministers. Most clergymen and a few laymen now have copies of the Apocrypha. Some Protestant councils have advised ministers in their fellowship to use the Apocryphal books in their preaching. But this has been done rarely, if at all; thus only a comparatively few Christians ever hear of Ecclesiasticus 38:1-14.
Study the foregoing formula and note these eight factors involved in the process of healing: 1) the power of God from Whom all healing comes; 2) the skill of the physician; 3) medicines out of the earth; 4) the skill of the apothecary; 5) prayer on the part of the patient; 6) prayer on the part of the physician; 7) leave off sin and practice clean living; and 8) express gratitude in a memorial offering.
While recognizing the Most High as the Great Physician, we must also consider the fact that He utilizes physicians and medicines as cooperative agents in the process of healing. Many adherents of faith healing sects will not agree with this statement. They remind us that Jesus and His disciples went about curing all manner of diseases without physicians and medicines. In all sincerity they feel that we dishonor God by our lack of faith when we use any material means or human agencies. They ask, are we not promised that the prayer of faith shall save the sick?
On the other hand, it is well to remember that the work Jesus did in curing diseases and raising the dead formed a major part of the signs and wonders which necessarily accompanied His ministry in order to prove His Messiahship and to inaugurate the great Christian movement. In so doing Jesus used invisible forces still unknown to men. When some emergency arises prayer can bring these same forces into operation again, as it has done on many occasions in the past and is still doing today. Missionaries in our generations have reported thrilling instances of healing and protection when they were overtaken by disease in some lonely spot far from medical aid. Our servicemen in the present war have already sent back many stories of divine intervention when they were injured and stranded at sea or on barren islands – and the half of such remarkable testimonies have not yet been reported.
It is acknowledged by all reasonable thinkers that God can heal diseases fully and instantaneously with no visible means; it is further acknowledged that He has done so in the past and continues to do so now when necessity demands it, or when such demonstration serves His holy purpose. The question is, should Christian believers dispense with all the natural means of health at their disposal and expect the Lord to perform some special miracle of healing on their behalf? There is a principle expressed in the temptation of Jesus which seems to answer this question:
“Then the devil taketh Him up into the Holy City, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” (Matt. 4:5-7.)
Note in this example how Satan misapplied a Scriptural promise of protection in his effort to goad Jesus into committing a rash act. According to Jesus’ answer, one should not challenge God to uphold his willful disregard and violation of natural laws. Therefore, it seems that the man who demands instant and miraculous healing may be guilty of tempting God. Jesus knew that if He cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple in defiance of the law of gravity, merely to please the devil, He would suffer the consequences. And so it is with a sick man who spurns all divinely appointed aids for his recovery, meanwhile dictating to God the manner of his healing. God seldom works by the spectacular method of signs and wonders; more often He uses the slower processes of revealed laws and their operations in familiar, normal channels.
The one great hindrance to good health on a national scale is the personal equation, consisting of the indeterminate foibles, idiosyncrasies and pet aversions of each and every one of us, doctors of all kinds included. First, we ignore the fundamental principles of health for the nation as a whole; second, we pay no attention to the dietary regulations prescribed in the Bible; and third, we neglect contacting God, through Christ, in daily devotion and prayer.
Read Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 to learn the basic principles of health. Speaking to the newly formed Israel nation – not Jews, mind you, but the whole House of Jacob-Israel – the Lord God said:
“Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence My Sanctuary: I am the Lord. If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them; then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
“I will set My tabernacle among you: and My soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be My people.
“But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; and if ye shall despise My statutes, or if your soul abhor My judgments, so that ye will not do all My commandments, but that ye break My covenant: I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.”
Specific rules regarding diet are recorded in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. Other suggestions will be found in various passages from the Pentateuch. For instance, Aaron was instructed to burn animal fats. We soak fried foods in lard and suet, leave fats in the gravy and actually eat the fat portions along with the lean meat. Surely we have no right to expect God to perform miracles of healing for us when we violate His rules of health, either willfully or ignorantly. Yet people as a whole are stubborn beyond all reason when it comes to changing life-long eating habits.
Modern physicians also have much to learn about these fundamental principles of health. They too are required to seek counsel of God in prayer. Because of their failure to do this, many secrets of healing have not yet been revealed to them. Furthermore, they are not giving due consideration to the Bible as a source of health knowledge; consequently, they often prescribe for their patients food that is forbidden in the Bible regimen. Doctors, like preachers, are slow to investigate anything that is not endorsed by the school in which they received their training. The heavenly Father does not confine all wisdom within the narrow limits of any particular school. Men should ever be on the alert for new revelation wherever it may be found.
Nutritionists have pioneered ahead of the medical profession in the science of foods in relation to health. They have rendered notable service in the matter of better balanced menus. Some among them, however, are obsessed with the idea that their method is the infallible cure-all for every known disease. Without discrimination and knowledge of conditions, each one unhesitatingly recommends his theory as the answer to Ponce de Leon’s desire for eternal youth and vigor. Sometimes it is an exclusive diet of fruit juices for days at a time – between fasts; or it may be raw vegetables that will turn the tide in the battle for health. While all these things are good in moderation when balanced with other essential foods, they may be positively harmful if used alone or to excess. Many people are allergic to raw foods and to certain fruits. But these extremists have one formula for all, without reckoning with the old adage, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.”
There is another important question the sick man must consider if he wants the Lord’s help; namely, what use does he intend to make of his strength? Will he use the gift of health for selfish ends only, or will he dedicate his renewed strength to whatever work will best serve the Lord and his fellowmen? Any honest man’s labor becomes hallowed when his purpose is to honor God and do His will. But he will miss if his motives are self centered:
“Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts [pleasures].” (James 4:3.)
An essential question faces the physician also. He must ask himself, why do I want power over disease? Do I want it in order that I may cooperate with God in alleviating human suffering and prolonging life? Or do I want it primarily to accumulate great fortune for myself, as many of my colleagues have done? A physician’s calling is too sacred to be guided by mercenary motives.
Medical science was practically undeveloped in Jesus’ day and what little was known at that time was inaccessible to the poor. So Jesus and His disciples graciously healed all who sought their help. Masses of people then were afflicted with diseases which modern surgery and medicines now eliminate readily. Yet unfortunately, at the present time, there is an increasing tendency to set a prohibitive price on all branches of medical service. It is felt most keenly by average middle-class people, who are not eligible for the free service in county hospitals and would not accept charity in any case. Physicians must see that proper care is within reach of all classes of citizens. It is a responsibility they cannot escape.
There remains one last fact to be taken into account: “It is appointed unto man once to die.” That verdict must be considered at some time in every life. Again, there are times when one may serve God’s purpose better in affliction than in health. We do not know to this day why Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was not removed. But we do know why he had to be imprisoned. It was for the purpose of writing his imperishable Epistles to the churches. His freedom to travel and preach had to be removed before he would take time to record his teachings for posterity. So in praying for restored health, remember always that even our Lord Jesus added these submissive words to His prayer in Gethsemane:
“Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42.)
In Ecclesiasticus are many statements worth remembering. The following are little commentaries on life, health and death, expressed in the philosophy of common sense:
“Let the counsel of thine own heart stand: for there is no man more faithful unto thee than it. For a man’s mind is sometime wont to tell him more than seven watchmen, that sit above in an high tower. And above all this pray to the most High, that He will direct thy way in truth. Let reason go before every enterprise, and counsel before every action.
“My son, prove thy soul in thy life, and see what is evil for it, and give not that unto it. For all things are not profitable for all men, neither hath every soul pleasure in every thing. Be not unsatiable in any dainty thing, nor too greedy upon meats: for excess of meats bringeth sickness, and surfeiting will turn into choler. By surfeiting [immoderate indulgence] have many perished; but he that taketh heed prolongeth his life.
“O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions, unto the man that hath nothing to vex him, and that hath prosperity in all things: yes, unto him that is yet able to receive meat! O death, acceptable is thy sentence unto the needy, and unto him whose strength faileth, that is now in the last age, and is vexed with all things, and to him that despaireth, and hath lost patience! Fear not the sentence of death, remember them that have been before thee, and that come after; for this is the sentence of the Lord over all flesh.” (Ecclesiasticus 37:13-16, 27-31, 41:13.)
Thus death was the sentence over all flesh when man renounced his allegiance to his Creator. Even so, there is a reason why the inspired writer could say, “Fear not the sentence of death.” Long after His work was done, a Man came from God and gave Himself a ransom to break the bond of death. The prophet Hosea foretold His coming in these dramatic words:
“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction.” (Hosea 13:14.)
Paul, in his first letter to Timothy, registered the fulfillment of Hosea’s prophecy:
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” (I Tim. 2:5-6.)
The Christian hope will not acquiesce in a sentence of death, because Christ brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. We look for the day He promised, when “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain” (Rev. 21:4).
In that day we shall see “the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Rev. 22:2).
===============================
Articles from Biblical Treasures (Volume II) – C. R. Dickey
INTRODUCTION
The Staff at Destiny Publishers, having read all the articles written by the late C. R. Dickey (Christina R. Dickey) found in DESTINY Magazines from July 1938 to October 1967, received such a blessing from her writings that we wanted to share the information with all who are seeking God’s wonderful truths. We are hereby publishing all her articles in two volumes, which we believe you will find most inspiring and of genuine interest and value.
Her knowledge of the Scriptures was unbelievable so she must have had a very close association with her Lord, as she certainly became a champion for His cause.
Our late beloved editor, Howard B. Rand, realized her talent as he published many of articles in booklet form.
The reader should take into account the time element when each article was written, which was from the late thirties to the middle sixties. We found her articles to be up to the minute as though she had written them yesterday. Her writings on various subjects are backed up with Scripture verses, as well as with quotes from reliable sources, when making a point. From her writings, the Lord surely made use of her God-given talents.
Although we do not have any knowledge of her background, we do know that she was a Congregational minister. Her sermons given must have been of interest and value to her congregation. We are sure her articles contained in this book will do the same.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Colorado Winter Sunset 122909
Colorado Winter Sunset 122909
Originally uploaded by rosethistleartworks
Beautiful winter sunset as we finally got to just above freezing yesterday! Where's our global warming? lol
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Ronald Reagan - We Must Fight!!!
"Political Correctness" died on a plane with heroes that said, "Let's roll".
Ronald Reagan – We Must Fight
Now let’s set the record straight. There is no argument over the choice between peace and war. But, there’s only one guaranteed way you can have peace. And you can have it in the next second. Surrender. Admittedly, there is a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement. And this is the specter our well-meaning, liberal friends refuse to face; that their policy of accommodation IS appeasement and it gives no choice between peace and war; only between fight or surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand, the ultimatum. And what then? Well, Nikita Kruschev has told his people, he knows what our answer will be. He has told them that we’re retreating under the pressure of the Cold War. And someday when the time comes to deliver the final ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary, because by that time, we will have been weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically. He believes this because from our side he’s heard voices pleading for peace at any price, or better red than dead, or as one commentator put it, he’d rather live on his knees than die on his feet. And therein lies the road to war, because those voices don’t speak for the rest of us. You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin? Just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refuse to fire the shot heard ‘round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools and our honored dead, who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis, didn’t die in vain. Where then is the road to peace?
Well, it’s a simple answer, after all. You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, there is a price we will not pay. There is a point beyond which they must not advance. Winston Churchill said the destiny of man is not measured by material compensations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits, not animals. He said there’s something going on in time and space and beyond time and space which whether we like it or not, spells DUTY. You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We’ll preserve for our children, this the last best hope of man on earth or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
AMERICA HAS BEEN TOO BUSY
AMERICA HAS BEEN TOO BUSY - article from Destiny Magazine 1938-1967 by CR Dickey
George Washington, in his Farewell Address to the people of the United States said:
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morals are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props to the duties of men and citizens.
“And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, both reason and experience forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle….
“It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period a great nation to give to mankind the magnanimous and, too, novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence.”
That the revered Father of our Country referred to Christianity in particular, rather than to religion in general, we know from his record as a Protestant churchman and from such statements as the following which he made when appointing the hour for worship in the brigades:
“The Commander-in-chief directs that divine services be performed every Sunday at eleven o’clock. While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.”
It is a well-known fact that Washington and his compatriots built our national structure upon the principles of Jesus Christ and the Common Law, both of which are rooted in the writings of Moses and the prophets. These notable statesmen were the instruments of Providence to lay the foundation of a unique nation in a new land. It has been said that “Washington was as divinely selected, endowed and blessed as any man in the world’s history.” One cannot find outside the Bible narrative a record of men so devoted to “exalted justice” as were these moral and intellectual giants who charted the course of our Republic and framed its Constitution. They trusted not wholly in their own wisdom, nor in the force of arms, nor in commercial genius; they knew, as did the Psalmist, that “Except the Lord built the house, they labour in vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” (PS. 127:1).
We Americans in a world at war must think on our ways. We must re-examine our beginning if we would maintain those elements which guarantee life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In I Kings, Chapter 20, there is a strange little parable. It was directed to ancient Israel and yet, oddly enough, it is even more strikingly applicable to modern Anglo-Saxon Israel. Let us review it briefly.
One fateful day Ahab, king of Israel, traveled along the highway toward Samaria. A prophet in disguise met the king by the way and related to him this story:
“Thy servant went out into the midst of the battle: and, behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, Keep this man: if by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else thou shalt pay a talent of silver. And as they servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” (I Kings 20:39-40.)
Quickly the stranger removed his disguise and the king discerned that he was of the prophets. Facing Ahab boldly the prophet gave an explanation that was also a stern accusation:
“Thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people.” (I Kings 20:42.)
Then Ahab understood the parable. Israel’s king was the servant; Benhadad, the Syrian king and Israel’s deadliest foe, was the man whom God had delivered into Ahab’s hand for utter destruction. While Ahab dawdled --- busy here and there with peace negotiations and covenants --- Benhadad slipped through the noose and was gone.
“Thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people.” In anger and heaviness of heart Ahab continued on his way to Samaria.
Alas! America too has been busy --- here and there --- extending hospitality and undue consideration to the nation’s enemies. It would be most interesting to know how many malignant foes have slipped through the hands of our national administrators during the generation of which we are a part. Danger lurks in the fact that we can never get our foes deported, nor keep them in prison long enough to serve a sentence. They ought to be put to death; that is the Scriptural method and the only one ever known to work effectively. How much longer will the present laxity be tolerated? How many more of the nation’s youth will be sacrificed on the altar of criminal negligence? Their blood will be on the heads of those who protect the traitors among us; but that will not bring back the dead, nor mitigate the sorrow of wives, mothers and children. It is to our shame that, instead of punishing the betrayers in our midst, we persecute the men who point them out.
Again let George Washington speak these words of warning; “Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow citizens), the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial.”
This same warning is stated innumerable times in the Bible as a safeguard to the Lord’s people. Israel was never known to win when in league with the enemies of God. We are not profiting as we should by our knowledge of Israel’s experiences. Unfortunately, many of the nation’s leaders are heeding neither Bible, nor the counsel of George Washington. Using the war emergency as an excuse, they are injecting totalitarian methods into our national life with increasing frequency. Yet is it logical to suppose that America’s treasured freedom can be preserved by adopting the methods of dictators?
Bishop James E. Freeman spoke wisely when he said: “Nothing alien to our traditions may assume to govern or control us in our course or determine for us our relation to problems at home or abroad….The recognition of the immutable laws of God, unfailing allegiance to those fundamental principles of life given to mankind by Jesus Christ, these we may not ignore or neglect, except to our peril.”
We have been too busy worshipping Mammon and chasing empty pleasures to see the totalitarian secret agents at work within our borders. While crafty masterminds were forging ahead in Europe and Asia with well-laid plans for world conquest, they kept us talking about disarmament, peace, reconciliation, brotherly love and international good will. And now our hearts stop a beat and a sickening horror fills our souls as we read that American boys --- precious boys like yours and mine --- are being captured and dragged into enemy camps to suffer a fate that we dare not contemplate. Like Ahab we are facing the results of our stupendous folly. Having disregarded God’s decrees for our national safety, we are now under the sentence of His irrevocable verdict: “Thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people.”
Many of America’s enemies have come from foreign shores; others were born in this country but maintain alien connections and loyalties; and still another group --- the most contemptible of all --- is composed of native stooges who serve as a smoke screen for the first two groups. World revolution, as a means to world dominion, is the program of certain internationalists who own allegiance to no nation and are traitors to the welfare of all. We are forgetting to watch them at the present moment. When the watchman sleeps, or is busy elsewhere, the betrayer has his opportunity. If we become too absorbed battling rats at the back door, we may not see the bear and the wolf when they enter the front door to take possession of the house.
Subversive workers find ridicule a most efficacious tool. They use it in season and out of season on everything that gets in their path. For some years they have directed ridicule toward the good old American virtue of patriotism. They know that the easiest way to produce disintegration in any country is to break down the affection and loyalty of its citizens; to convince them that there is really nothing worth fighting and dying for. Ridicule is a subtle and poisonous barb; many grew lethargic under its influence. That is why it took the Pearl Harbor stab in the back to wake us up.
A true patriot’s attitude is summed up in this terse sentence: “My country, right or wrong, when right to keep her right; when wrong to put her right.” Valiant men are going out now to die for our country. Do we, who remain on the home front, have the stamina to live for it and make it right? Have we the courage to overthrow every civil system that thrives by exploiting our citizenry and undermining our republic? If not, then we, like millions in occupied Europe, will pay dearly in blood for our cowardice.
Out of a glorious past comes this thrilling challenge from Daniel Webster: “I was born an American; I live an American; I shall die an American; and I intend to perform the duties incumbent upon me in that character to the end of my career. I mean to do this with absolute disregard of personal consequences. What are the personal consequences? What is the individual man, with all the good or evil that may betide him, in comparison with the good or evil which may befall a great country, and in the midst of great transactions which concern that country’s fate? Let the consequences be what they will, I am careless. No man can suffer too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he suffers, or if he fall, in the defense of the liberties and constitution of his country.”
What now constitutes the direst threat to our freedom and to what we like to call our American way of life? It lies in the fact that so many honest, true-hearted citizens do not realize what is happening to our republican form of government. Again we have been busy --- here and there --- too busy to notice what enemies within have been doing to our cherished liberties.
How naïve we are! What simple means serve to confuse us and blind us to elementary truths! A carefully designed misuse of a single word on the part of clever propagandists has led approximately 130 million people to accept a fundamental error: and that word is “democracy.” Perhaps no other word was ever used so much and understood so little. It adorns the pages of every newspaper, magazine, and book; it resounds in oratorical splendor across the continent from the little red school-house to the congressional and senatorial chambers of the national Capitol. “Our Democracy!”
Does no one remember that our Founding Fathers almost never used the word democracy? In their public addresses they talked about “our Republic” and “our republican form of government.” Democracy? The following paragraphs from Lawful Money Explained by Gertrude M. Coogan, answer the question briefly but adequately.
“The stock-in-trade of a demagogue in all controversy and confusion is the skillful bandying about of words. He artfully uses words in a way intended to convey different meanings to different listeners.
“A word now artfully and deceptively used in this country is DEMOCRACY . Democracy means rule by direct action of the people. Our Constitution did not provide for a democracy, and real democracies have ever produced nothing but chaos and slavery. They have always turned into mobocracies.
“The Founders of America established a Republic. Under a republic the power of government is vested in the citizens, but is delegated and exercised by the representatives of the people. The specific powers our representatives received from us (citizens) were granted to them in our Constitution and its amendments.
“In our particular type of Republic three branches were set up; the legislative could pass laws in accord with the power granted by the citizens and the States, the executive was to see that the laws were carried out, and the judicial was to interpret the laws in accord with the Constitution.
“In speaking of a Republic or Democracy, we are not referring to the Republican or Democratic political parties. The Republican party of today was born sixty-five years after the Constitution was adopted. Partisanship has nothing whatever to do with the fundamental principles underlying our government. All elected officials, whether Democratic or Republican, take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States. The immediate job is to get rid of all, regardless of party, who have not kept oath!
“The Constitution would not have guaranteed one form of government if those intelligent men who drafted it had another form in mind. According to Webster, a Republic is ‘A state in which the sovereign power resides in the whole body of the people, and is exercised by representatives elected by them.’ A Democracy is ‘A form of government in which the supreme power is retained and directly exercised by the people.’
“The word ‘democracy’ or any of its derivatives is not to be found in our Constitution but we do read in Article IV, Section 4: ‘The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government and shall protect each of them against invasion.’ The public utterances and writings of those who drafted the Constitution of the United States should be considered authentic evidence of their intent.”
George Washington, in his reply to the Senate, said that he was happy in the conviction “that the Senate will at all times cooperate in every measure which may tend to promote the welfare of this confederated Republic.”
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, said in his first inaugural address: “If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error or opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.”
James Madison, who is honored more today for the part he took in drafting and ratifying the Constitution of the United States than for his career as President, stated why he and his illustrious coworkers decided upon a Republic instead of a Democracy. Ponder these relevant words from the “Father of the Constitution”:
“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property, and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. A Republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking.”
Despite this irrefutable evidence that the United States of America is a Republic with a republican form of government, men and women, claiming the intelligence to lead their fellowmen, speak and write incessantly about the glories of our Democracy. That shows how dutifully they are following the path prescribed by our enemies!
Professor Harold J. Laski, who numbers among his faithful disciples most of the pseudo “liberals” of Britain and America, tells us that “Soviet Russia is the world’s hope of democracy, alongside of the United States.” There you have the key to the situation! Professor Laski does us a real service by pointing out the ultimate aim of the democracy now being foisted upon unsuspecting American citizens. This spurious democracy is exactly the same thing as Communism in Russia, Nazism in Germany, Fascism in Italy and military dictatorship in Japan. It is designed to undermine the form of our government and to negate the principles and rights guaranteed under our great Constitution. If allowed to complete its deadly course, it will turn our Republic into a totalitarian state and destroy the last vestige of freedom in America, just as it has scourged and desecrated the lands and people of Europe and Asia.
Doubtless unwary citizens in those conquered lands were busy --- here and there --- before the day of desolation and did not see what was happening to them until it was too late. Can it happen here? Will it happen here? It can and it will --- unless --- the populace rises in mighty indignation and rids the land of ALL traitors, regardless of nationality, race or sex.
Will the destroyers of freedom escape justice at our hands as Benhadad eluded Ahab? If so, we need no longer sing, “God bless America”, nor pray “God help America”, for God blesses and helps only those who help themselves.
Theorists who have spent a lifetime advocating various “isms” and the overthrow of representative constitutional government have nothing to offer in its place as a satisfactory way of life. Note the wistfulness in this confession of defeat by England’s veteran socialist, George Bernard Shaw: “I am ready to admit that, after contemplating human nature for nearly sixty years, I see no way out of the world’s misery but the way which would have been found by Christ’s will if he had undertaken the work of a modern practical statesman.”
Joseph Chamberlain was once asked why, in his opinion, so many fall short of the goal. He answered, “They come to the place where they turn back. They may have killed the dragon at the first bridge, and at the second, perhaps even at the third, but the dragons are always more formidable the further we go. Many turn back disheartened, and very few will meet the monsters to the end. Almost none is willing to have a try with the demon at the last bridge; but if he does, he has won forever.”
In conflict with satan, Jesus Christ won at the last bridge. His weapon was the Sword of the Spirit --- “It is written.” Today the United States needs more men who are acquainted with that Sword and not afraid to use it; more men who realize that the independence of our nation was established by statesmen unashamed to acknowledge their dependence on God; and more men who know our beginnings as recorded in the Holy Bible and in the annals of this American Republic.
George Washington, in his Farewell Address to the people of the United States said:
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morals are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props to the duties of men and citizens.
“And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, both reason and experience forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle….
“It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and at no distant period a great nation to give to mankind the magnanimous and, too, novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence.”
That the revered Father of our Country referred to Christianity in particular, rather than to religion in general, we know from his record as a Protestant churchman and from such statements as the following which he made when appointing the hour for worship in the brigades:
“The Commander-in-chief directs that divine services be performed every Sunday at eleven o’clock. While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.”
It is a well-known fact that Washington and his compatriots built our national structure upon the principles of Jesus Christ and the Common Law, both of which are rooted in the writings of Moses and the prophets. These notable statesmen were the instruments of Providence to lay the foundation of a unique nation in a new land. It has been said that “Washington was as divinely selected, endowed and blessed as any man in the world’s history.” One cannot find outside the Bible narrative a record of men so devoted to “exalted justice” as were these moral and intellectual giants who charted the course of our Republic and framed its Constitution. They trusted not wholly in their own wisdom, nor in the force of arms, nor in commercial genius; they knew, as did the Psalmist, that “Except the Lord built the house, they labour in vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” (PS. 127:1).
We Americans in a world at war must think on our ways. We must re-examine our beginning if we would maintain those elements which guarantee life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In I Kings, Chapter 20, there is a strange little parable. It was directed to ancient Israel and yet, oddly enough, it is even more strikingly applicable to modern Anglo-Saxon Israel. Let us review it briefly.
One fateful day Ahab, king of Israel, traveled along the highway toward Samaria. A prophet in disguise met the king by the way and related to him this story:
“Thy servant went out into the midst of the battle: and, behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, Keep this man: if by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else thou shalt pay a talent of silver. And as they servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” (I Kings 20:39-40.)
Quickly the stranger removed his disguise and the king discerned that he was of the prophets. Facing Ahab boldly the prophet gave an explanation that was also a stern accusation:
“Thus saith the Lord, Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people.” (I Kings 20:42.)
Then Ahab understood the parable. Israel’s king was the servant; Benhadad, the Syrian king and Israel’s deadliest foe, was the man whom God had delivered into Ahab’s hand for utter destruction. While Ahab dawdled --- busy here and there with peace negotiations and covenants --- Benhadad slipped through the noose and was gone.
“Thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people.” In anger and heaviness of heart Ahab continued on his way to Samaria.
Alas! America too has been busy --- here and there --- extending hospitality and undue consideration to the nation’s enemies. It would be most interesting to know how many malignant foes have slipped through the hands of our national administrators during the generation of which we are a part. Danger lurks in the fact that we can never get our foes deported, nor keep them in prison long enough to serve a sentence. They ought to be put to death; that is the Scriptural method and the only one ever known to work effectively. How much longer will the present laxity be tolerated? How many more of the nation’s youth will be sacrificed on the altar of criminal negligence? Their blood will be on the heads of those who protect the traitors among us; but that will not bring back the dead, nor mitigate the sorrow of wives, mothers and children. It is to our shame that, instead of punishing the betrayers in our midst, we persecute the men who point them out.
Again let George Washington speak these words of warning; “Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow citizens), the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial.”
This same warning is stated innumerable times in the Bible as a safeguard to the Lord’s people. Israel was never known to win when in league with the enemies of God. We are not profiting as we should by our knowledge of Israel’s experiences. Unfortunately, many of the nation’s leaders are heeding neither Bible, nor the counsel of George Washington. Using the war emergency as an excuse, they are injecting totalitarian methods into our national life with increasing frequency. Yet is it logical to suppose that America’s treasured freedom can be preserved by adopting the methods of dictators?
Bishop James E. Freeman spoke wisely when he said: “Nothing alien to our traditions may assume to govern or control us in our course or determine for us our relation to problems at home or abroad….The recognition of the immutable laws of God, unfailing allegiance to those fundamental principles of life given to mankind by Jesus Christ, these we may not ignore or neglect, except to our peril.”
We have been too busy worshipping Mammon and chasing empty pleasures to see the totalitarian secret agents at work within our borders. While crafty masterminds were forging ahead in Europe and Asia with well-laid plans for world conquest, they kept us talking about disarmament, peace, reconciliation, brotherly love and international good will. And now our hearts stop a beat and a sickening horror fills our souls as we read that American boys --- precious boys like yours and mine --- are being captured and dragged into enemy camps to suffer a fate that we dare not contemplate. Like Ahab we are facing the results of our stupendous folly. Having disregarded God’s decrees for our national safety, we are now under the sentence of His irrevocable verdict: “Thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people.”
Many of America’s enemies have come from foreign shores; others were born in this country but maintain alien connections and loyalties; and still another group --- the most contemptible of all --- is composed of native stooges who serve as a smoke screen for the first two groups. World revolution, as a means to world dominion, is the program of certain internationalists who own allegiance to no nation and are traitors to the welfare of all. We are forgetting to watch them at the present moment. When the watchman sleeps, or is busy elsewhere, the betrayer has his opportunity. If we become too absorbed battling rats at the back door, we may not see the bear and the wolf when they enter the front door to take possession of the house.
Subversive workers find ridicule a most efficacious tool. They use it in season and out of season on everything that gets in their path. For some years they have directed ridicule toward the good old American virtue of patriotism. They know that the easiest way to produce disintegration in any country is to break down the affection and loyalty of its citizens; to convince them that there is really nothing worth fighting and dying for. Ridicule is a subtle and poisonous barb; many grew lethargic under its influence. That is why it took the Pearl Harbor stab in the back to wake us up.
A true patriot’s attitude is summed up in this terse sentence: “My country, right or wrong, when right to keep her right; when wrong to put her right.” Valiant men are going out now to die for our country. Do we, who remain on the home front, have the stamina to live for it and make it right? Have we the courage to overthrow every civil system that thrives by exploiting our citizenry and undermining our republic? If not, then we, like millions in occupied Europe, will pay dearly in blood for our cowardice.
Out of a glorious past comes this thrilling challenge from Daniel Webster: “I was born an American; I live an American; I shall die an American; and I intend to perform the duties incumbent upon me in that character to the end of my career. I mean to do this with absolute disregard of personal consequences. What are the personal consequences? What is the individual man, with all the good or evil that may betide him, in comparison with the good or evil which may befall a great country, and in the midst of great transactions which concern that country’s fate? Let the consequences be what they will, I am careless. No man can suffer too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he suffers, or if he fall, in the defense of the liberties and constitution of his country.”
What now constitutes the direst threat to our freedom and to what we like to call our American way of life? It lies in the fact that so many honest, true-hearted citizens do not realize what is happening to our republican form of government. Again we have been busy --- here and there --- too busy to notice what enemies within have been doing to our cherished liberties.
How naïve we are! What simple means serve to confuse us and blind us to elementary truths! A carefully designed misuse of a single word on the part of clever propagandists has led approximately 130 million people to accept a fundamental error: and that word is “democracy.” Perhaps no other word was ever used so much and understood so little. It adorns the pages of every newspaper, magazine, and book; it resounds in oratorical splendor across the continent from the little red school-house to the congressional and senatorial chambers of the national Capitol. “Our Democracy!”
Does no one remember that our Founding Fathers almost never used the word democracy? In their public addresses they talked about “our Republic” and “our republican form of government.” Democracy? The following paragraphs from Lawful Money Explained by Gertrude M. Coogan, answer the question briefly but adequately.
“The stock-in-trade of a demagogue in all controversy and confusion is the skillful bandying about of words. He artfully uses words in a way intended to convey different meanings to different listeners.
“A word now artfully and deceptively used in this country is DEMOCRACY . Democracy means rule by direct action of the people. Our Constitution did not provide for a democracy, and real democracies have ever produced nothing but chaos and slavery. They have always turned into mobocracies.
“The Founders of America established a Republic. Under a republic the power of government is vested in the citizens, but is delegated and exercised by the representatives of the people. The specific powers our representatives received from us (citizens) were granted to them in our Constitution and its amendments.
“In our particular type of Republic three branches were set up; the legislative could pass laws in accord with the power granted by the citizens and the States, the executive was to see that the laws were carried out, and the judicial was to interpret the laws in accord with the Constitution.
“In speaking of a Republic or Democracy, we are not referring to the Republican or Democratic political parties. The Republican party of today was born sixty-five years after the Constitution was adopted. Partisanship has nothing whatever to do with the fundamental principles underlying our government. All elected officials, whether Democratic or Republican, take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States. The immediate job is to get rid of all, regardless of party, who have not kept oath!
“The Constitution would not have guaranteed one form of government if those intelligent men who drafted it had another form in mind. According to Webster, a Republic is ‘A state in which the sovereign power resides in the whole body of the people, and is exercised by representatives elected by them.’ A Democracy is ‘A form of government in which the supreme power is retained and directly exercised by the people.’
“The word ‘democracy’ or any of its derivatives is not to be found in our Constitution but we do read in Article IV, Section 4: ‘The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government and shall protect each of them against invasion.’ The public utterances and writings of those who drafted the Constitution of the United States should be considered authentic evidence of their intent.”
George Washington, in his reply to the Senate, said that he was happy in the conviction “that the Senate will at all times cooperate in every measure which may tend to promote the welfare of this confederated Republic.”
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, said in his first inaugural address: “If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error or opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.”
James Madison, who is honored more today for the part he took in drafting and ratifying the Constitution of the United States than for his career as President, stated why he and his illustrious coworkers decided upon a Republic instead of a Democracy. Ponder these relevant words from the “Father of the Constitution”:
“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property, and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. A Republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking.”
Despite this irrefutable evidence that the United States of America is a Republic with a republican form of government, men and women, claiming the intelligence to lead their fellowmen, speak and write incessantly about the glories of our Democracy. That shows how dutifully they are following the path prescribed by our enemies!
Professor Harold J. Laski, who numbers among his faithful disciples most of the pseudo “liberals” of Britain and America, tells us that “Soviet Russia is the world’s hope of democracy, alongside of the United States.” There you have the key to the situation! Professor Laski does us a real service by pointing out the ultimate aim of the democracy now being foisted upon unsuspecting American citizens. This spurious democracy is exactly the same thing as Communism in Russia, Nazism in Germany, Fascism in Italy and military dictatorship in Japan. It is designed to undermine the form of our government and to negate the principles and rights guaranteed under our great Constitution. If allowed to complete its deadly course, it will turn our Republic into a totalitarian state and destroy the last vestige of freedom in America, just as it has scourged and desecrated the lands and people of Europe and Asia.
Doubtless unwary citizens in those conquered lands were busy --- here and there --- before the day of desolation and did not see what was happening to them until it was too late. Can it happen here? Will it happen here? It can and it will --- unless --- the populace rises in mighty indignation and rids the land of ALL traitors, regardless of nationality, race or sex.
Will the destroyers of freedom escape justice at our hands as Benhadad eluded Ahab? If so, we need no longer sing, “God bless America”, nor pray “God help America”, for God blesses and helps only those who help themselves.
Theorists who have spent a lifetime advocating various “isms” and the overthrow of representative constitutional government have nothing to offer in its place as a satisfactory way of life. Note the wistfulness in this confession of defeat by England’s veteran socialist, George Bernard Shaw: “I am ready to admit that, after contemplating human nature for nearly sixty years, I see no way out of the world’s misery but the way which would have been found by Christ’s will if he had undertaken the work of a modern practical statesman.”
Joseph Chamberlain was once asked why, in his opinion, so many fall short of the goal. He answered, “They come to the place where they turn back. They may have killed the dragon at the first bridge, and at the second, perhaps even at the third, but the dragons are always more formidable the further we go. Many turn back disheartened, and very few will meet the monsters to the end. Almost none is willing to have a try with the demon at the last bridge; but if he does, he has won forever.”
In conflict with satan, Jesus Christ won at the last bridge. His weapon was the Sword of the Spirit --- “It is written.” Today the United States needs more men who are acquainted with that Sword and not afraid to use it; more men who realize that the independence of our nation was established by statesmen unashamed to acknowledge their dependence on God; and more men who know our beginnings as recorded in the Holy Bible and in the annals of this American Republic.
Monday, November 30, 2009
FRUITS OF THE SOCIAL GOSPEL by CR Dickey
FRUITS OF THE SOCIAL GOSPEL article from Destiny magazine 1938-1967 by CR Dickey
During the momentous years between 1920 and 1940 that strange phenomenon known as the Social Gospel reached the apex of its popularity. Many church conferences of that era were built largely around the Social Gospel as the main triumphant theme. Church dignitaries vied with one another in extolling its glories, all of them confident that its application would bring harmony and peace to the whole world within a few short years. The old Gospel of salvation by repentance, by faith in the efficacy of Christ’s death and resurrection, was laid aside like a worn-out garment. At last society had found a way to save itself.
A few of us detected sour notes in the theme. At that time we knew nothing about the background of the Social Gospel, or its ultimate intent, but instinctively we didn’t like its overtones and undertones. It just didn’t seem to ring true; consequently, it made us vaguely uneasy and left us cold. Soon we were seared by the withering scorn of seminary professors and leading pulpiteers for refusing to accept the teachings and aims of the Social Gospel as the highest expression of the will of Christ. So completely did our colleagues go all out for the newfangled salvation, that we sometimes wondered if novices like ourselves could possibly be right.
So, as pariahs, we sat apart and watched our church and other leading denominations organize various councils and committees to promote the Social Gospel. Queer revolutionary doctrines, alien alike to the spirit of the churches and to the spirit of America, were openly presented in ecclesiastical assemblies. A steady stream of mail began to flow from these councils and committees to the churches across the nation. Bulletins, newsletters, plebiscites, program suggestions, et cetera, deluged the churches; they were designed for the church school, and for every department including men, women and children. No group was neglected in this program of indoctrination. Speakers were sent out from the headquarters of these various Social Action councils, and churches were urged to use them when available.
Before considering the results of the Social Gospel, let us examine briefly its beginning and how it was handed down to us. In an excellent summary of this development under the title, “The Origins of the Social Gospel,” Irving E. Howard, minister of the Hope Congregational Church, Worcester, Massachusetts, writes:
“The Social Gospel was born in the optimistic atmosphere of the nineteenth century conquest of the vast American continent and its abundant natural resources. Man was rapidly becoming the master of nature, aided by the new mechanical inventions which were creating both an industrial and an intellectual revolution. Men everywhere were embracing two new congenial dogmas, that progress was inevitable and that man was essentially good.
“These two doctrines became the fundamentals of the Social Gospel and the impetus to a shift in faith from God to man, from eternity to time, from the individual to the group, individual conversions to social coercion, and from the church to the state. The main inspiration of the new movement was non-Christian, and from the beginning it drifted readily into doctrines increasingly removed from biblical faith.
“Both Unitarianism and Transcendentalism were a part of the blooming of this spirit. Ralph Waldo Emerson became a patron saint of the liberal Protestant, and Emerson’s dogma of an immanent God inherent in nature, and of man who partakes of God to the extent that he himself is divine, became an important dogma to the new movement.
“The pagan origin of the Social Gospel was from the beginning apparent in its readiness to sacrifice Christian faith to the new order. As early as 1873, for example, the Unitarian, Octavius Brooks Frothingham, published The Religion of Humanity, dismissing altogether any faith in God in favor of the new god, man. His challenge, although premature, revealed clearly that the drift was from God to man, and that the new dogma would be preserved through sacrifices in theological faith. Collective man and his society were the new god and the new Jerusalem.” (Faith and Freedom, May 1852.)
From these facts one can readily see how the pagan rationalistic philosophy, which flourished in European universities and theological schools in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, paved the way for the so-called Social Gospel. German historical criticism undermined belief in the authority of the Bible and opened the door to humanistic interpretations of religion and life. Prominent clergymen lost the biblical concept of individual responsibility and began to apply the collectivist idea to the interpretation of Christian teachings. Horace Bushnell, in 1847, published his book Christian Nurture, in which he applied John Locke’s theory of environmentalism to religious experience.
Concerning his work, Irving E. Howard says:
“Instead of converting the individual by evangelism, Bushnell argued, children should be molded by a religious environment. Apart from the obvious fact that children should be taught religion, this was the beginning of an idea that formed the core of the Social Gospel. Instead of the converted individual changing his environment, a changed environment was supposed to convert the individual. It is not difficult to conclude from this, the Social Gospel viewpoint, that the environment, not the individual, is responsible for human behavior.”
Twelve years later Darwin’s Origin of Species appeared and, it was thought by some theologians, put a prop under man’s revolt against the authority of the Scriptures. “The Puritan tradition leaned toward science,” comments the Reverend Howard on this point, “and by the 1880’s the majority of the clergy in this tradition had adjusted their thinking to Darwinism. They drew from the Darwinian theory the optimistic conclusion that an immanent God was at work in history evolving by slow process the Kingdom of God on earth. This furnished the Social Gospel with its philosophy of history.”
Next in the development of the Social Gospel was the idea of using the force of the state to bring about social righteousness. This idea was introduced at a conference at Saratoga, New York, in 1885, attended by such notables as Washington Gladden, Simon Patten, Edwin F. A. Seligman, Edmund J. James, John Bates Clark, Richard T. Ely, Andrew D. White and Woodrow Wilson. Some of these men “were fresh from graduate studies in Germany where they had become enamored with Bismarck’s use of the state in the area of human welfare.”
In 1889, Gladden spoke on “Christian Socialism” at the National Council of Congregational Churches. At that time he said:
“It begins to be clear that Christianity is not individualism. The Christian has encountered no deadlier foe during the last century than that individualistic philosophy which underlies the competitive system.”
Josiah Strong was another exponent of this “nameless drift away from individualism”, yet he said in Our Country, published in 1885, “Socialism attempts to solve the problem of suffering without eliminating the factor of sin.”
Thus we see how Socialism occupied the minds of men almost an hundred years ago. In 1889, an Episcopal minister, William Dwight Porter Bliss, was so influenced by Henry George’s Progress and Poverty and Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward that he organized the Society of Christian Socialists consisting of about twenty ministers representing the Episcopalian, Congregational, Unitarian, Universalist, Baptist, Methodist and other denominations. A monthly journal published by the Reverend Bliss declared its purpose in the first issue as follows:
“Business itself today is wrong…it is based on competitive strife for profits….But this is the exact opposite of Christianity….We must change the system.”
Under the influence of the Baptist, Walter Rauschenbusch, and other intellectual lights at the dawn of the twentieth century, the Social Gospel began to take firm root in most of the large Protestant denominations. Official organizations were set up in the churches to advance the Social Gospel. One of the first was the Presbyterian Department of Church and Labor of the Board of Home Missions. In 1901, the National Council of the Congregational Church founded a Labor Committee. The Federation for Social Service was organized by the Methodist Episcopal Church (North) in 1907. The next year thirty-three denominations organized The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America and adopted a Social Creed much like that of the Methodists. 1912 saw the beginning of the interdenominational “Men and Religion Forward Movement,” which advocated government ownership of land, mines, water and other resources.
During the early 1920’s, there was a temporary reaction against socialism which led the “social gospelers ” to shift their emphasis from class conflict to international and interracial affairs. This was a period marked by countless peace organizations and spurious racial propaganda. The ineffective League of Nations was hailed by the Federal Council of Churches as “an international manifestation of the Kingdom of God.”
Then came the economic crash of 1929. It provided a most favorable opportunity for the spread of socialism. As Irving E. Howard aptly says, “During the depression, a reawakened Social Gospel found the time ripe for its message of sanctified covetousness.”
In 1934, delegates to the National Council of Congregational-Christian Churches established a Council for Social Action to carry out the program set forth in the following resolutions:
Therefore be it resolved: That we set ourselves to work toward:
1) The abolition of the profit system, the elimination of its incentives and habits, the legal forms by which it supports, and the moral ideas by which it justifies itself.
2) The inauguration of a thoroughly planned and organized social economy, which apply all our natural and human resources directly to the meeting of human needs, in pursuit of values, democratically chosen: which will,
a) Adjust production to measured consumption requirements, and maintain and extend social services --- health, education, recreation and insurance for all.
b) Eliminate private ownership in the means of production and distribution wherever such private ownership interferes with the success of a planned social economy, making profit unnecessary and impossible.
c) End unemployment, abolish poverty, enable maximum prevention of disease and crime, and stimulate the fullest development of the arts and sciences. Be it further resolved: That this Council urge that the members of our Fellowship increasingly seek to understand and cooperate with the forces and groups making for the above changes in our society.
The Council for Social Action was an extension of the functions of the Social Relations Commission. In “A Proposal for the General Council,” published in the Advance for May 10, 1934, Dr. Arthur E. Holt said:
“With these considerations in mind, it would seem appropriate that the Department of Social Relations be lifted to the rank of a major society in the denominational structure, taking rank alongside the societies which represent church establishment extension at home and abroad; that it be equipped with resources and personnel comparable to the magnitude of the demands upon it.”
Immediately the new Council for Social Action went into high gear, with the same personnel, organization and program as the old Social Relations Commission. Hubert C. Herring became director of the Council for Social Action; two of his assistants, Miss Helen G. Murray and Miss Katherine Terrill, were formerly coworkers in the Department of Social Relations.
It is important to know how these directors of the Council for Social Action propose to accomplish the ends outlined in the resolutions adopted by the General Council. Therefore, we shall let them speak for themselves on the subject. In a News Letter for April 1, 1934, put out by the Department of Social Relations, Miss Murray refers to a speech made by Mary Van Kleeck and discusses it in part as follows:
“In conclusion Miss Van Kleeck drew a picture of a classless society where there will be production for use instead of for profit, the only way out of our difficulties, using the Soviet Union as an example not only of how things must be managed, but also of how power is to be taken from the exploiting class. It is primarily a struggle of the workers against their exploiters, she maintained, and in this struggle Christian people should be on the side of the exploited --- not to give leadership which must be in the hands of the workers themselves, but to serve quite humbly under their direction.”
On June 23, 1934, Mr. Herring delivered an address to some nineteen hundred delegates to the General Council in Oberlin, Ohio, on this subject, “A Crusading Church in Days of Revolution.” His address was printed in full in the Advance for July 5th and 12th, 1934. It is so amazing, so revealing, that we quote at some length:
“It is revolution. The old patterns are torn up. Rugged individualism, the sacred right of capitalism, the vaunted right of a man to run his business as he sees fit without regard to the rights of society, are dead….
“I am not speaking as a protagonist of the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The New Deal represents a gallant and chivalrous effort to meet the challenge, and to save in orderly and peaceful fashion something out of the wreckage of our capitalistic order….
“I marvel at the logic of those who damn the New Deal….
“We cannot turn back. Roosevelt’s New Deal, halting and shifting as it may be, is a halfway house along the road which leads to a new ideal of the democratic state.
“Toward what are we to work? Is it the state in which a revived and controlled capitalism shall be enthroned? Is it the socialist state? I dislike labels, especially labels redolent of European conflict and experience. I am not afraid of the word socialism, nor are you. The ideas comprised by the word are the ideas which steadily push toward the fore….
“Assembled amid the ruins of a bankrupt society, we can be sure that the future holds a very different kind of state than any we have known. We may not like the idea of change. We may hanker for the old fireside and the old slippers, but the fireplace no longer draws, and the slippers are lost. Mr. Insull took them away from us.
“We can but conjecture as to the blueprint of the new society. It is dangerous to prophesy, but what, after all, are speeches for if not for conjecture and prophecy? Let me, then, suggest some of the directions in which we may be embarked.
“First, we are definitely headed toward the totalitarian state….The state will increasingly become supreme, and the rights of the individual will correspondingly decrease. In such a state, individual freedom will be disciplined and regimented. This may be distasteful, but it is inevitable….Social control of the means of production is a clear postulate of democracy….
“Second, we hope to move toward an increasingly democratic state….
“Third, we will move toward new motives. The profit motive rules supreme in the industrial era. The profit motive stands bankrupt, shivering and shaking as the chill winds of economic revolution bear down upon it. The day of profit is done, in any such sense as the word has been used during the past one hundred years. The assumption by the state of the principle of responsibility for the welfare of all its citizens carries the corollary of increased taxation. The makers of profit, on the one hand, create a national economic situation in which from ten to fifty million do not share in the profits. The state turns upon the profit-makers and cuts ten percent, twenty percent, seventy-five percent from their profits in order to equalize the load. This happens today. The next step is already apparent. That state says to the steel master, You must use more men, each man will work less hours, each man will receive more pay. The state goes on to say, You must cut your executive salaries, you must limit dividends, you must coordinate your production with your competitors. If this does not work --- this controlled and regimented capitalism --- the time will soon come when the state will say to the steel master, Your business is no longer yours; you will move out and the state will move in. You do not like the picture? It does not matter. The logic of events will transcend our likings.”
It must have been in the autumn of that same fateful year that the Mid-West Regional Meeting of Congregational Churches convened in Grinnell, Iowa. Mr. Herring arrived from the meeting somewhat travel-stained, having come directly from Mexico City, and was received with the acclaim of a warrior returning from a victorious and decisive battle. Shortly before this, newspapers had carried reports of Leon Trotsky’s flight to Mexico. We learned later that Hubert Herring, along with Nathan Straus of New York and a few more radical Protestants and Jews, whose names do not come to mind at this time, had been on a pilgrimage to the Mexican retreat of the late Jewish Communist Trotsky (real name Bronstein).
The enigmatic Dr. Edward A. Steiner then held a professorship in Grinnell College and was one of the principal speakers at the conference. Just what common purpose created a bond of fellowship between Straus, Herring, Steiner, Trotsky and company may very well be known by scrutinizing the points quoted from Herring’s speech. The air at Grinnell was charged with something indefinable and evil; with whisperings and sly meetings of small groups; with strange sayings from the lecture platform which had no place in the thinking of loyal Christian citizens of the United States.
It is significant that one of the main plebiscites sent out by the Council for Social Action for the signature of all pastors and church members was a pledge that they would never take up arms in defense of the United States, even in the case of attack by foreign country. So, the Council for Social Action “was lifted to the rank of a major society” for the purpose of selling a program of revolution to the churches. It is almost unbelievable that American Christians would give their approval to such treasonable acts against God and country.
Let no one think, however, that the Congregational-Christian Church is alone in permitting such treachery. We merely use it as an example of what has happened in many denominations, both large and small. At the recent Quadrennial Conference of Methodist Churches, the delegates demanded that the Methodist Federation for Social Action (or Service) drop the word “Methodist” and move out of the Methodist headquarters building. If memory serves us rightly, a similar move was attempted years ago, yet apparently no change was made to the organization’s policy. Many Methodist pastors and laymen are rising up against the Federation but, unless certain Marxist bishops are removed from seats of authority, there will probably be little change in the status of the offending organization.
As a matter of fact, the Federal Council of Churches --- now the National Council of the Churches of Christ --- has been dominated from its beginning by a strong, aggressive left-wing group that advocates the complete program of radical socialism. This minority presumes to speak for 320,000 Protestants, who have never authorized it to speak for them on any subject whatever. Nevertheless, this element always manages to take over the educational work of the churches and the publicity for everything concerning them. Consequently, a whole generation of Christian youth has been brought up under the baneful influence of socialism, internationalism, and poppycock racialism, disguised as social aspects of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By such means the secret plotters provide a religious background to conceal their real goal of world government or, more accurately, international dictatorship.
Congregationalists too are now rising up to protest the trends and coercion of the Social Gospel, but, like Rip Van Winkle, they are twenty years behind the march of events. Twenty years for the sowing of tares; twenty years for them to blossom and bear their evil fruit --- and what will the harvest be?
In a recent brochure, “Congregationalism and the Social Gospel,” Howard Conn, Minister of Plymouth Congregational Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota, writes:
“There is moral objection to the use of denominational funds for propaganda purposes. Such monies are raised from the membership-at-large, and ought not to be appropriated by any group to be used as propaganda in opposition to the convictions of many of the donors….
“The Council for Social Action should be prohibited from all lobbying activity, from testifying before Congressional subcommittees, and from attempting to speak in behalf of the Congregational Churches. Any such activities as these are a violation of our principle of the autonomy and independence of the local parishes. No person or group can speak responsibly or authoritatively for us….
“Therefore it is organically wrong for the CSA to speak in behalf of the Congregational Churches. It is wrong even when the Council tries to make clear that it speaks only for itself because the impression given is that this agency is in some way spokesman for a great body of one million Congregationalists. The distinctive genius of Congregationalists is that they will have such spokesman.”
In Matthew it states:
”Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” (Matt. 7:15-16.)
At last the fruits of the Social Gospel are revealing the nature of its promoters. They stand exposed as wolves in sheep’s clothing. Their evil deeds are finally catching up with them. Irving E. Howard puts it this way: “The Social Gospel has been challenged to produce its intellectual and ethical credentials --- and it has none.”
Socialism never could have taken root in Christian society if it had not been propagated by the clergy. If church leaders had stood firmly on biblical principles and denounced the Social Gospel for the false teaching that it is, no other influence within or without could have induced Christian citizens to accept the doctrines and policies that threaten our nation today.
Some people, for instance, have been led to believe that the social aspect of Christ’s Gospel require the elimination of nationalism. But nothing could be farther from the truth. What, indeed, would be the consequences to the Gospel itself if national entity should be destroyed? One can find the answer to that question by noting what is happening to the churches in countries which have already lost their national character. A whole nation pays the price when its church leaders are sold a false bill of goods.
Walter R. Courtenay, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Nashville, Tennessee, said in one of his sermons:
“I have a feeling that, if Jackson and Jefferson should visit the Democrats in Washington today, they would challenge about 85 percent of them to duels in the cherry orchards within the next twenty –four hours. I cannot imagine these true Americans feeling at home with the present administration or feeling that the wise men who are leading us to Statism and a ‘planned’ (Socialist) economy are Americans save by birth.”
We heartily agree with this statement. However, the picture is incomplete. If preachers like John Wesley, Whitefield, and Charles G. Finney should visit our churches today, they would challenge them to unfrock all socialistic clerics and boot them out of Christian pulpits. This would give our elected representatives in Washington the moral support they need to deal with the nation’s enemies. Too often they have felt the pressure of the church against them in their battle to hold the line for constitutional government and national sovereignty.
It is interesting to observe that the social gospelers --- those who graft the branch of rational theology on the vine of Marxism and loudly decry the evils of the profit motive --- are most eager to hold positions which make them the recipients of other people’s tainted profits. What will they do when the tithers and taxpayers no longer have any profits with which to support the parasite?
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Articles from Biblical Treasures (Volume I) – C. R. Dickey
INTRODUCTION
The Staff at Destiny Publishers, having read all the articles written by the late C. R. Dickey (Christina R. Dickey) found in DESTINY Magazines from July 1938 to October 1967, received such a blessing from her writings that we wanted to share the information with all who are seeking God’s wonderful truths. We are hereby publishing all her articles in two volumes, which we believe you will find most inspiring and of genuine interest and value.
Her knowledge of the Scriptures was unbelievable so she must have had a very close association with her Lord, as she certainly became a champion for His cause.
Our late beloved editor, Howard B. Rand, realized her talent as he published many of articles in booklet form.
The reader should take into account the time element when each article was written, which was from the late thirties to the middle sixties. We found her articles to be up to the minute as though she had written them yesterday. Her writings on various subjects are backed up with Scripture verses, as well as with quotes from reliable sources, when making a point. From her writings, the Lord surely made use of her God-given talents.
Although we do not have any knowledge of her background, we do know that she was a Congregational minister. Her sermons given must have been of interest and value to her congregation. We are sure her articles contained in this book will do the same.
During the momentous years between 1920 and 1940 that strange phenomenon known as the Social Gospel reached the apex of its popularity. Many church conferences of that era were built largely around the Social Gospel as the main triumphant theme. Church dignitaries vied with one another in extolling its glories, all of them confident that its application would bring harmony and peace to the whole world within a few short years. The old Gospel of salvation by repentance, by faith in the efficacy of Christ’s death and resurrection, was laid aside like a worn-out garment. At last society had found a way to save itself.
A few of us detected sour notes in the theme. At that time we knew nothing about the background of the Social Gospel, or its ultimate intent, but instinctively we didn’t like its overtones and undertones. It just didn’t seem to ring true; consequently, it made us vaguely uneasy and left us cold. Soon we were seared by the withering scorn of seminary professors and leading pulpiteers for refusing to accept the teachings and aims of the Social Gospel as the highest expression of the will of Christ. So completely did our colleagues go all out for the newfangled salvation, that we sometimes wondered if novices like ourselves could possibly be right.
So, as pariahs, we sat apart and watched our church and other leading denominations organize various councils and committees to promote the Social Gospel. Queer revolutionary doctrines, alien alike to the spirit of the churches and to the spirit of America, were openly presented in ecclesiastical assemblies. A steady stream of mail began to flow from these councils and committees to the churches across the nation. Bulletins, newsletters, plebiscites, program suggestions, et cetera, deluged the churches; they were designed for the church school, and for every department including men, women and children. No group was neglected in this program of indoctrination. Speakers were sent out from the headquarters of these various Social Action councils, and churches were urged to use them when available.
Before considering the results of the Social Gospel, let us examine briefly its beginning and how it was handed down to us. In an excellent summary of this development under the title, “The Origins of the Social Gospel,” Irving E. Howard, minister of the Hope Congregational Church, Worcester, Massachusetts, writes:
“The Social Gospel was born in the optimistic atmosphere of the nineteenth century conquest of the vast American continent and its abundant natural resources. Man was rapidly becoming the master of nature, aided by the new mechanical inventions which were creating both an industrial and an intellectual revolution. Men everywhere were embracing two new congenial dogmas, that progress was inevitable and that man was essentially good.
“These two doctrines became the fundamentals of the Social Gospel and the impetus to a shift in faith from God to man, from eternity to time, from the individual to the group, individual conversions to social coercion, and from the church to the state. The main inspiration of the new movement was non-Christian, and from the beginning it drifted readily into doctrines increasingly removed from biblical faith.
“Both Unitarianism and Transcendentalism were a part of the blooming of this spirit. Ralph Waldo Emerson became a patron saint of the liberal Protestant, and Emerson’s dogma of an immanent God inherent in nature, and of man who partakes of God to the extent that he himself is divine, became an important dogma to the new movement.
“The pagan origin of the Social Gospel was from the beginning apparent in its readiness to sacrifice Christian faith to the new order. As early as 1873, for example, the Unitarian, Octavius Brooks Frothingham, published The Religion of Humanity, dismissing altogether any faith in God in favor of the new god, man. His challenge, although premature, revealed clearly that the drift was from God to man, and that the new dogma would be preserved through sacrifices in theological faith. Collective man and his society were the new god and the new Jerusalem.” (Faith and Freedom, May 1852.)
From these facts one can readily see how the pagan rationalistic philosophy, which flourished in European universities and theological schools in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, paved the way for the so-called Social Gospel. German historical criticism undermined belief in the authority of the Bible and opened the door to humanistic interpretations of religion and life. Prominent clergymen lost the biblical concept of individual responsibility and began to apply the collectivist idea to the interpretation of Christian teachings. Horace Bushnell, in 1847, published his book Christian Nurture, in which he applied John Locke’s theory of environmentalism to religious experience.
Concerning his work, Irving E. Howard says:
“Instead of converting the individual by evangelism, Bushnell argued, children should be molded by a religious environment. Apart from the obvious fact that children should be taught religion, this was the beginning of an idea that formed the core of the Social Gospel. Instead of the converted individual changing his environment, a changed environment was supposed to convert the individual. It is not difficult to conclude from this, the Social Gospel viewpoint, that the environment, not the individual, is responsible for human behavior.”
Twelve years later Darwin’s Origin of Species appeared and, it was thought by some theologians, put a prop under man’s revolt against the authority of the Scriptures. “The Puritan tradition leaned toward science,” comments the Reverend Howard on this point, “and by the 1880’s the majority of the clergy in this tradition had adjusted their thinking to Darwinism. They drew from the Darwinian theory the optimistic conclusion that an immanent God was at work in history evolving by slow process the Kingdom of God on earth. This furnished the Social Gospel with its philosophy of history.”
Next in the development of the Social Gospel was the idea of using the force of the state to bring about social righteousness. This idea was introduced at a conference at Saratoga, New York, in 1885, attended by such notables as Washington Gladden, Simon Patten, Edwin F. A. Seligman, Edmund J. James, John Bates Clark, Richard T. Ely, Andrew D. White and Woodrow Wilson. Some of these men “were fresh from graduate studies in Germany where they had become enamored with Bismarck’s use of the state in the area of human welfare.”
In 1889, Gladden spoke on “Christian Socialism” at the National Council of Congregational Churches. At that time he said:
“It begins to be clear that Christianity is not individualism. The Christian has encountered no deadlier foe during the last century than that individualistic philosophy which underlies the competitive system.”
Josiah Strong was another exponent of this “nameless drift away from individualism”, yet he said in Our Country, published in 1885, “Socialism attempts to solve the problem of suffering without eliminating the factor of sin.”
Thus we see how Socialism occupied the minds of men almost an hundred years ago. In 1889, an Episcopal minister, William Dwight Porter Bliss, was so influenced by Henry George’s Progress and Poverty and Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward that he organized the Society of Christian Socialists consisting of about twenty ministers representing the Episcopalian, Congregational, Unitarian, Universalist, Baptist, Methodist and other denominations. A monthly journal published by the Reverend Bliss declared its purpose in the first issue as follows:
“Business itself today is wrong…it is based on competitive strife for profits….But this is the exact opposite of Christianity….We must change the system.”
Under the influence of the Baptist, Walter Rauschenbusch, and other intellectual lights at the dawn of the twentieth century, the Social Gospel began to take firm root in most of the large Protestant denominations. Official organizations were set up in the churches to advance the Social Gospel. One of the first was the Presbyterian Department of Church and Labor of the Board of Home Missions. In 1901, the National Council of the Congregational Church founded a Labor Committee. The Federation for Social Service was organized by the Methodist Episcopal Church (North) in 1907. The next year thirty-three denominations organized The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America and adopted a Social Creed much like that of the Methodists. 1912 saw the beginning of the interdenominational “Men and Religion Forward Movement,” which advocated government ownership of land, mines, water and other resources.
During the early 1920’s, there was a temporary reaction against socialism which led the “social gospelers ” to shift their emphasis from class conflict to international and interracial affairs. This was a period marked by countless peace organizations and spurious racial propaganda. The ineffective League of Nations was hailed by the Federal Council of Churches as “an international manifestation of the Kingdom of God.”
Then came the economic crash of 1929. It provided a most favorable opportunity for the spread of socialism. As Irving E. Howard aptly says, “During the depression, a reawakened Social Gospel found the time ripe for its message of sanctified covetousness.”
In 1934, delegates to the National Council of Congregational-Christian Churches established a Council for Social Action to carry out the program set forth in the following resolutions:
Therefore be it resolved: That we set ourselves to work toward:
1) The abolition of the profit system, the elimination of its incentives and habits, the legal forms by which it supports, and the moral ideas by which it justifies itself.
2) The inauguration of a thoroughly planned and organized social economy, which apply all our natural and human resources directly to the meeting of human needs, in pursuit of values, democratically chosen: which will,
a) Adjust production to measured consumption requirements, and maintain and extend social services --- health, education, recreation and insurance for all.
b) Eliminate private ownership in the means of production and distribution wherever such private ownership interferes with the success of a planned social economy, making profit unnecessary and impossible.
c) End unemployment, abolish poverty, enable maximum prevention of disease and crime, and stimulate the fullest development of the arts and sciences. Be it further resolved: That this Council urge that the members of our Fellowship increasingly seek to understand and cooperate with the forces and groups making for the above changes in our society.
The Council for Social Action was an extension of the functions of the Social Relations Commission. In “A Proposal for the General Council,” published in the Advance for May 10, 1934, Dr. Arthur E. Holt said:
“With these considerations in mind, it would seem appropriate that the Department of Social Relations be lifted to the rank of a major society in the denominational structure, taking rank alongside the societies which represent church establishment extension at home and abroad; that it be equipped with resources and personnel comparable to the magnitude of the demands upon it.”
Immediately the new Council for Social Action went into high gear, with the same personnel, organization and program as the old Social Relations Commission. Hubert C. Herring became director of the Council for Social Action; two of his assistants, Miss Helen G. Murray and Miss Katherine Terrill, were formerly coworkers in the Department of Social Relations.
It is important to know how these directors of the Council for Social Action propose to accomplish the ends outlined in the resolutions adopted by the General Council. Therefore, we shall let them speak for themselves on the subject. In a News Letter for April 1, 1934, put out by the Department of Social Relations, Miss Murray refers to a speech made by Mary Van Kleeck and discusses it in part as follows:
“In conclusion Miss Van Kleeck drew a picture of a classless society where there will be production for use instead of for profit, the only way out of our difficulties, using the Soviet Union as an example not only of how things must be managed, but also of how power is to be taken from the exploiting class. It is primarily a struggle of the workers against their exploiters, she maintained, and in this struggle Christian people should be on the side of the exploited --- not to give leadership which must be in the hands of the workers themselves, but to serve quite humbly under their direction.”
On June 23, 1934, Mr. Herring delivered an address to some nineteen hundred delegates to the General Council in Oberlin, Ohio, on this subject, “A Crusading Church in Days of Revolution.” His address was printed in full in the Advance for July 5th and 12th, 1934. It is so amazing, so revealing, that we quote at some length:
“It is revolution. The old patterns are torn up. Rugged individualism, the sacred right of capitalism, the vaunted right of a man to run his business as he sees fit without regard to the rights of society, are dead….
“I am not speaking as a protagonist of the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The New Deal represents a gallant and chivalrous effort to meet the challenge, and to save in orderly and peaceful fashion something out of the wreckage of our capitalistic order….
“I marvel at the logic of those who damn the New Deal….
“We cannot turn back. Roosevelt’s New Deal, halting and shifting as it may be, is a halfway house along the road which leads to a new ideal of the democratic state.
“Toward what are we to work? Is it the state in which a revived and controlled capitalism shall be enthroned? Is it the socialist state? I dislike labels, especially labels redolent of European conflict and experience. I am not afraid of the word socialism, nor are you. The ideas comprised by the word are the ideas which steadily push toward the fore….
“Assembled amid the ruins of a bankrupt society, we can be sure that the future holds a very different kind of state than any we have known. We may not like the idea of change. We may hanker for the old fireside and the old slippers, but the fireplace no longer draws, and the slippers are lost. Mr. Insull took them away from us.
“We can but conjecture as to the blueprint of the new society. It is dangerous to prophesy, but what, after all, are speeches for if not for conjecture and prophecy? Let me, then, suggest some of the directions in which we may be embarked.
“First, we are definitely headed toward the totalitarian state….The state will increasingly become supreme, and the rights of the individual will correspondingly decrease. In such a state, individual freedom will be disciplined and regimented. This may be distasteful, but it is inevitable….Social control of the means of production is a clear postulate of democracy….
“Second, we hope to move toward an increasingly democratic state….
“Third, we will move toward new motives. The profit motive rules supreme in the industrial era. The profit motive stands bankrupt, shivering and shaking as the chill winds of economic revolution bear down upon it. The day of profit is done, in any such sense as the word has been used during the past one hundred years. The assumption by the state of the principle of responsibility for the welfare of all its citizens carries the corollary of increased taxation. The makers of profit, on the one hand, create a national economic situation in which from ten to fifty million do not share in the profits. The state turns upon the profit-makers and cuts ten percent, twenty percent, seventy-five percent from their profits in order to equalize the load. This happens today. The next step is already apparent. That state says to the steel master, You must use more men, each man will work less hours, each man will receive more pay. The state goes on to say, You must cut your executive salaries, you must limit dividends, you must coordinate your production with your competitors. If this does not work --- this controlled and regimented capitalism --- the time will soon come when the state will say to the steel master, Your business is no longer yours; you will move out and the state will move in. You do not like the picture? It does not matter. The logic of events will transcend our likings.”
It must have been in the autumn of that same fateful year that the Mid-West Regional Meeting of Congregational Churches convened in Grinnell, Iowa. Mr. Herring arrived from the meeting somewhat travel-stained, having come directly from Mexico City, and was received with the acclaim of a warrior returning from a victorious and decisive battle. Shortly before this, newspapers had carried reports of Leon Trotsky’s flight to Mexico. We learned later that Hubert Herring, along with Nathan Straus of New York and a few more radical Protestants and Jews, whose names do not come to mind at this time, had been on a pilgrimage to the Mexican retreat of the late Jewish Communist Trotsky (real name Bronstein).
The enigmatic Dr. Edward A. Steiner then held a professorship in Grinnell College and was one of the principal speakers at the conference. Just what common purpose created a bond of fellowship between Straus, Herring, Steiner, Trotsky and company may very well be known by scrutinizing the points quoted from Herring’s speech. The air at Grinnell was charged with something indefinable and evil; with whisperings and sly meetings of small groups; with strange sayings from the lecture platform which had no place in the thinking of loyal Christian citizens of the United States.
It is significant that one of the main plebiscites sent out by the Council for Social Action for the signature of all pastors and church members was a pledge that they would never take up arms in defense of the United States, even in the case of attack by foreign country. So, the Council for Social Action “was lifted to the rank of a major society” for the purpose of selling a program of revolution to the churches. It is almost unbelievable that American Christians would give their approval to such treasonable acts against God and country.
Let no one think, however, that the Congregational-Christian Church is alone in permitting such treachery. We merely use it as an example of what has happened in many denominations, both large and small. At the recent Quadrennial Conference of Methodist Churches, the delegates demanded that the Methodist Federation for Social Action (or Service) drop the word “Methodist” and move out of the Methodist headquarters building. If memory serves us rightly, a similar move was attempted years ago, yet apparently no change was made to the organization’s policy. Many Methodist pastors and laymen are rising up against the Federation but, unless certain Marxist bishops are removed from seats of authority, there will probably be little change in the status of the offending organization.
As a matter of fact, the Federal Council of Churches --- now the National Council of the Churches of Christ --- has been dominated from its beginning by a strong, aggressive left-wing group that advocates the complete program of radical socialism. This minority presumes to speak for 320,000 Protestants, who have never authorized it to speak for them on any subject whatever. Nevertheless, this element always manages to take over the educational work of the churches and the publicity for everything concerning them. Consequently, a whole generation of Christian youth has been brought up under the baneful influence of socialism, internationalism, and poppycock racialism, disguised as social aspects of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By such means the secret plotters provide a religious background to conceal their real goal of world government or, more accurately, international dictatorship.
Congregationalists too are now rising up to protest the trends and coercion of the Social Gospel, but, like Rip Van Winkle, they are twenty years behind the march of events. Twenty years for the sowing of tares; twenty years for them to blossom and bear their evil fruit --- and what will the harvest be?
In a recent brochure, “Congregationalism and the Social Gospel,” Howard Conn, Minister of Plymouth Congregational Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota, writes:
“There is moral objection to the use of denominational funds for propaganda purposes. Such monies are raised from the membership-at-large, and ought not to be appropriated by any group to be used as propaganda in opposition to the convictions of many of the donors….
“The Council for Social Action should be prohibited from all lobbying activity, from testifying before Congressional subcommittees, and from attempting to speak in behalf of the Congregational Churches. Any such activities as these are a violation of our principle of the autonomy and independence of the local parishes. No person or group can speak responsibly or authoritatively for us….
“Therefore it is organically wrong for the CSA to speak in behalf of the Congregational Churches. It is wrong even when the Council tries to make clear that it speaks only for itself because the impression given is that this agency is in some way spokesman for a great body of one million Congregationalists. The distinctive genius of Congregationalists is that they will have such spokesman.”
In Matthew it states:
”Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” (Matt. 7:15-16.)
At last the fruits of the Social Gospel are revealing the nature of its promoters. They stand exposed as wolves in sheep’s clothing. Their evil deeds are finally catching up with them. Irving E. Howard puts it this way: “The Social Gospel has been challenged to produce its intellectual and ethical credentials --- and it has none.”
Socialism never could have taken root in Christian society if it had not been propagated by the clergy. If church leaders had stood firmly on biblical principles and denounced the Social Gospel for the false teaching that it is, no other influence within or without could have induced Christian citizens to accept the doctrines and policies that threaten our nation today.
Some people, for instance, have been led to believe that the social aspect of Christ’s Gospel require the elimination of nationalism. But nothing could be farther from the truth. What, indeed, would be the consequences to the Gospel itself if national entity should be destroyed? One can find the answer to that question by noting what is happening to the churches in countries which have already lost their national character. A whole nation pays the price when its church leaders are sold a false bill of goods.
Walter R. Courtenay, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Nashville, Tennessee, said in one of his sermons:
“I have a feeling that, if Jackson and Jefferson should visit the Democrats in Washington today, they would challenge about 85 percent of them to duels in the cherry orchards within the next twenty –four hours. I cannot imagine these true Americans feeling at home with the present administration or feeling that the wise men who are leading us to Statism and a ‘planned’ (Socialist) economy are Americans save by birth.”
We heartily agree with this statement. However, the picture is incomplete. If preachers like John Wesley, Whitefield, and Charles G. Finney should visit our churches today, they would challenge them to unfrock all socialistic clerics and boot them out of Christian pulpits. This would give our elected representatives in Washington the moral support they need to deal with the nation’s enemies. Too often they have felt the pressure of the church against them in their battle to hold the line for constitutional government and national sovereignty.
It is interesting to observe that the social gospelers --- those who graft the branch of rational theology on the vine of Marxism and loudly decry the evils of the profit motive --- are most eager to hold positions which make them the recipients of other people’s tainted profits. What will they do when the tithers and taxpayers no longer have any profits with which to support the parasite?
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Articles from Biblical Treasures (Volume I) – C. R. Dickey
INTRODUCTION
The Staff at Destiny Publishers, having read all the articles written by the late C. R. Dickey (Christina R. Dickey) found in DESTINY Magazines from July 1938 to October 1967, received such a blessing from her writings that we wanted to share the information with all who are seeking God’s wonderful truths. We are hereby publishing all her articles in two volumes, which we believe you will find most inspiring and of genuine interest and value.
Her knowledge of the Scriptures was unbelievable so she must have had a very close association with her Lord, as she certainly became a champion for His cause.
Our late beloved editor, Howard B. Rand, realized her talent as he published many of articles in booklet form.
The reader should take into account the time element when each article was written, which was from the late thirties to the middle sixties. We found her articles to be up to the minute as though she had written them yesterday. Her writings on various subjects are backed up with Scripture verses, as well as with quotes from reliable sources, when making a point. From her writings, the Lord surely made use of her God-given talents.
Although we do not have any knowledge of her background, we do know that she was a Congregational minister. Her sermons given must have been of interest and value to her congregation. We are sure her articles contained in this book will do the same.
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