Avoiding a Second Civil War
Two competing religions are struggling in a battle against each other for control of our nation’s numerous institutions such as the civil government, the military, education, and even the church. Whatever labels you use for the two sides of the conflict, either wokeism versus traditionalism, or Cultural Marxism versus Christianity, the clash between the two factions is heated and intense. We call them culture wars, but we need to be reminded that culture is downstream from religion.
America is no longer a republic. The President of the United States, whether it be a Biden or a Trump, has now become something akin to a king. Executive orders and regulatory agencies have replaced congressional action. Also, it is now being recommended that Supreme Court decisions should either be ignored or circumvented. As Andrew Jackson allegedly said, “John Marshall made the law, now let him enforce it!”
Government agencies are no longer considered to be neutral, but they have been weaponized to protect the king in power. Some mothers of children in public schools are now classified as domestic terrorists, and some political opponents are already in prison. If Donald Trump goes to jail before the next election, then expect the “Storming of the Bastille 2.0.”
Two competing religions are struggling in a battle against each other for control of our nation’s numerous institutions such as the civil government, the military, education, and even the church. Whatever labels you use for the two sides of the conflict, either wokeism versus traditionalism, or Cultural Marxism versus Christianity, the clash between the two factions is heated and intense. We call them culture wars, but we need to be reminded that culture is downstream from religion. In essence what we are witnessing today is a religious war. Both sides desperately want to win. Any semblance of neutrality is gone. There is no white flag being waved.
Christendom has controlled the west for hundreds of years, but there is a revolution seeking to overthrow it. Hatred between zealots on both sides of the division looms under their skin, and many men that I personally know are about to explode with violence. Most Americans will not want to be involved. Life is just too good. Some will choose slavery over liberty. A small minority will choose to fight. Small minorities often are responsible for revolutions, and the majority will be dragged into the fight whether they like it or not.
The next presidential election may be a threat to our sanity in this country, regardless of who is elected. In just a little more than a year, as a nation, we may face the greatest danger to our very existence since the Civil War. We are in the middle of a cold war, and I am afraid that it may quickly turn into a hot war, where blood could literally flow in the streets. We could see our civilization as we know it collapse. With whom the military will side, I am not sure—usually it does side with those in power at the time. But they will have to make a choice.
I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet. I am not sensational by nature. I avoid conspiracy theories like a plague. One does not have to be a prophet to see into the future. He just needs to be a man immersed in good biblical theology who can see trajectories. Printing money produces inflation. Debauchery in morals produces depression. Religious conflict produces hatred. A divided nation cannot long endure.
I am a post-millennialist and believe that the long-term future on this earth before the second coming of Christ will witness a spread of the gospel that will capture the nations (and not just a few elect from the nations). However, in the near-term, I fear that our country may face a bloody trauma not seen since the Civil War. Ideas have consequences. Cold wars rooted in malicious hatred often become militant conflicts.
What are we to do? How are we to prepare? I am no prophet. Only God knows the future, but he usually works within the realm of cause and effect. Just remember, if I am wrong, I never claimed infallibility.
First, don’t go and hide under a pillow. Don’t retreat into Netflix movies to escape reality. Read a lot but read the right stuff.
Secondly, find a biblical church where you can be part of a network of believers. No one will come to your side like another Christian with whom you have built a long-lasting and trusting friendship. Pray a lot. God does answer the prayers of his people. This may be our most powerful weapon.
Thirdly, prepare to protect your family. Whether it be learning a new skill (such as plumbing), stocking up on food, or learning how to shoot a gun, formulate a plan.
Lastly, encourage your state and local political leaders to study the issue of states’ rights as delineated in the Constitution. One obvious evidence of the present conflict is the division of our country into Red and Blue States. Multitudes of people are moving to Red States looking for freedom. Churches in my home state of Tennessee are growing like wild-fire because of the transfer of other Christians from places like California and New York.
As I was discussing this issue with a good friend recently, we both agreed that one way to avoid bloodshed is a return unto the states the powers that constitutionally belong to the states. Negotiation between State Governors and a king in Washington, D.C. may be the last option to prevent bloodshed. How that will look exactly is not for me to speculate, but it may be our only hope. We need strong State Governors. Next to prayer, decentralization and negotiation may be the only way we can avoid a Second Civil War.
Remember, God is sovereign and he loves his people.
Larry E. Ball is a retired minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is now a CPA. He lives in Kingsport, Tenn.
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If Perfect Love Casts Out All Fear, Why Should We Fear the Lord?
The Fear of the Lord must of a category that differs in part. And yet: the fear of the Lord—often assumed to mean awe—could easily mean the fear of the Lord’s judgment due to our irrational dread. If so, then this indeed is the BEGINNING of Wisdom. And love would be its end. Since this type of fear should recede, the more we come to realize the love of God in Christ for us.
Maximus the Confessor is helping me understand the fear of the Lord better these days. I have found it a bit hard to understand how fear can be sinful, we should fear God, and yet love casts out all fear. The Bible speaks in different ways about fear.
Maximus goes straight to Jesus, as he always does, to clarify the idea of the fear in Scripture.
First, we can fear in two ways, Maximus argues. We can fear in the natural way to preserve our existence. So we might fear being too thirsty since we need water to live; or we might fear heights since we know that falling might kill us. There is no sin in this fear. God made us to have this fear.
The second way of fear, Maximus explains, is the irrational fear that leads to dread.
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Alabama Supreme Court, Embryos, and the Confusing Ethics of IVF
In the Alabama case, the court established that the moral nature of an embryo gives it the same legal protections as a born human under the state’s “wrongful death” statute. Why, then, should the same embryos not be afforded protection from imprisonment, trafficking, experimentation, and eventual destruction? Strictly speaking, IVF can be done in a way that does not lead to the creation of “excess” embryos.
A decision by the Supreme Court of Alabama, that the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to “all unborn children, regardless of their location” including “extrauterine” embryos stored in a “cryogenic nursery,” has resulted in at least three fertility clinics suspending in vitro fertilization (IVF) services. In an interview on The Daily podcast, New York Times reporter Azeen Ghorayshi claimed that the decision “puts all fertility care in Alabama in limbo.”
It sets a huge and quite scary precedent for anyone who is undergoing IVF, anyone who works in the fertility industry in Alabama who is working with these embryos that are suddenly considered children.
That panic, which has been typical of the media coverage about the decision, makes sense given that the court finally addressed the central question of IVF, a question that the IVF industry has largely depended upon not being answered in order to grow and expand. Specifically, the court’s decision has only put a certain kind of fertility care “in limbo”: fertility care that involves the creating, storing, preserving, and destroying of human embryos. Asking the question “what are they?” was long overdue, given that approximately 1.5 million embryos left over from IVF services are currently stored in freezers in the United States, the vast majority of which are destined for either destruction or donation for medical testing,
Even if late in coming, pro-lifers have been right to celebrate this small bit of ethical clarity for an industry with little of it. During IVF, eggs are fertilized with sperm in a lab. Often, multiple embryos are created and tested for viability before being transferred into the uterus of the mother or a surrogate. This is done in rounds of one to five embryos at a time. If a pregnancy occurs, the remaining embryos are frozen.
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Nourished on the Words of the Faith
If God says sound doctrine is good for us, then that’s the way it is. If He says meditating upon His law day and night is what makes a man prosper and mature (Ps. 1:3), then that’s simply what we’ve got to do. It matters very little if our flesh objects otherwise. God’s Word sets the standard. Our part is to believe and obey. So what does this look like practically? In short, it looks like giving ourselves wholeheartedly to the means God has supplied for the instruction and upbuilding of His church.
…being nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. (1 Timothy 4:6, LSB)
If you were to ask the average Christian today how they are “nourished” in the faith — that is, how they are strengthened, fed, built up, or trained in spiritual maturity — what do you suppose they would say? Many might answer something along the lines of: community, fellowship with other believers, listening to worship songs, or putting on a good podcast, all of which of course are good and helpful things.
But if you were to ask the apostle Paul, it might surprise you to find he had quite a different answer to this question. According to him, the way we are trained in spiritual maturity is not primarily through any of these means, helpful as they are, but rather through the plain yet powerful instrument of words: “…being nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following” (v. 6).
Words. Teaching. Sound doctrine. These are the building blocks of spiritual maturity, according to the apostle. They are the means God has supplied for nourishing and strengthening His saints.
Now, this is a very helpful thing to point out, especially since, for us, none of these things seem at first to be very nourishing. In fact, few things might sound more drab to our modern ears than “sound doctrine.” And yet, there it is, right in the text.
What we have to remember, then, in order to not be at odds with Scripture, is that we are creatures of our age.
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