Volume 19 Issue 11 - November 2004 SAVING BABIES AND SAVING SINNERS
"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 abominable, and murderers, and
whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have
their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the
second death." (Revelation 21:7,8)
At some point, I’d really like to do a series of messages called "Whatever Happened To Sin, Evil, and Hell?" As I travel throughout America the absence of these Biblical realities in most churches is glaring. For whatever reasons, the Church today has chosen to make light of these critical truths to somehow spruce up the image of God in order to strictly promote the love, mercy, and grace of God. A weak, ineffective church that has lost its flavor is our reward for our silence concerning these vital truths of Scripture. The irony of this problem is the more we lessen the vindicatory justice of God, the more we cheapen the love, grace, and mercy of God, the very attributes we highlight in our services. Sin, evil, and abominations are a contradiction to God’s holy character. Therefore He must, if He is to remain consistent to His own nature, act against these transgressions with holy indignation. Divine retribution must be meted out. It is only when the Church upholds the moral standards of God’s Law, the immutable dictates of God’s holiness, and His unflinching demands for justice that the salvation of God can be seen in its brightest glory. In other words, the more the church emphasizes the inflexible demands of God’s justice and holiness, the more marvelous the love of God becomes with all its wonderful provisions. Below is a message from John Piper that really ministered to and challenged my heart as we continue in the battle for souls, our children’s lives, and the future of our nation. It affirms to a degree what we have tried to communicate for years to the Church of Jesus Christ in America. Abortion is a Gospel-Kingdom issue that can only be won as the Church repents and brings forth fruit meet for repentance that ends the holocaust. There is no educational, political, or financial solution left that can solve this spiritual, moral atrocity. It is going to take a Church that is obedient to plead the cause of the fatherless to win it (Jeremiah 5:28). The only ones that can take on and take out the Evil One that comes to kill, steal, and destroy are those who are washed in the blood of the lamb, hold fast to the word of their testimony, and love not their lives unto the death (Revelation 12:11). As Flip Benham has succinctly stated, "Abortion will end when the Church of Jesus Christ decides it will end and not one second sooner." The only caution concerning this article is Mr. Piper presents this as an either, or ministry. It should be both. The abortion battle should be a battle that not only boycotts the abortion industry, but boycotts hell. Abortion should be the platform that presents the Gospel that saves sinners and subsequently saves babies. Thoughts on the Horrors of Abortion and Hell by John Piper
Then we saw the pictures. The pictures don't lie. Everything can lie but the pictures. We can escape anything but the pictures. Worldwide indignation came from the pictures. Without the pictures it is unimaginable; it couldn't have been like that. Or, yes, it could have, but I can't come close to feeling what I should feel- not without the pictures. So it is with abortion. It is the pictures that stun me this morning-the incredible scenes from Eclipse of Reason and the photographs of legally mangled corpses. What shall I do? Would petitions and prayers really have sufficed in Nazi Germany Then I think of the immensity and horror of the sin of disbelieving God. I think of the offense against his immeasurable honor. I think of the reality of hell and the word pictures in the Bible: "And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night." (Revelation 14:11, RSV) Suddenly, it hits me what an utter inconsistency it is to feel indignant as a Christian about the Holocaust of the Jews and the holocaust of abortion, but not about the holocaust of sinners perishing in unbelief. Killing babies is a horrendous evil and their destruction is hellish. But not trusting God is a more horrendous evil, and the destruction of unbelieving people is not hellish but hell. Therefore I am frustrated that I have only one life to live for the glory of Christ. One life should surely be devoted to stopping the carnage (we must speak graphically or we lie) of abortion. Another life should surely be devoted to saving people from hell. What shall I do? What is the solution to my frustration? The solution is the diversity of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ. I cannot go to all the unreached peoples of the world with the good news of salvation from sin. I cannot spend all the time I would like writing, speaking, traveling, and agitating for the cause of threatened children. The only solution I know is you! Which horror in the world makes you ache most? Where will you pour yourself out in the few years you have before you give an account to the righteous Judge of all the earth? "sammy" A voice calling to this generation!
Come witness a drama that will move you from laughter to tears. Come experience the hard hitting reality presented in this powerful production. Come cheer one young man’s brave journey from the school house to the court house as he stands alone against the lies and injustice that have corrupted his generation. Come join with Sammy as he confronts the hypocrisy of the times by shining the light of truth upon the darkness of this age. Dates: December 4th, and 5thTimes: Saturday 7pm, and Sunday 7pm Location: Church of the Open Door 900 N. Loop 340 Waco, TX 76705 For more information contact: Church-254-799-2656 or Rusty Thomas-254-836-1037 The following tract is the message I wrote to hand out on the second day of our "God’s Going Back To School" campaign. For one week, two teams, will go to two separate highschools in Waco. Each day from November 29-December 3rd, Christians will take the Gospel of the Kingdom to the gates of our schools. Each day we will pass out either Bibles or tracts that deal with a different Biblical, Christian truth, along with a flyer inviting the young to come see Sammy. Prayerfully, between the Bibles, tracts, public preaching, and the drama "Sammy," God will intervene to touch hearts and change minds amongst the youth of our city. Let the "Gentle Revolution" begin! America’s Christian history
"A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about...America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture." -President Woodrow Wilson What can we glean from Woodrow Wilson’s quote? If we don’t know where we’ve been, we cannot possibly know where we are going or for that matter, we won’t know what to do once we get there. Without understanding history, His-Story, God’s providential plan and will through the eons of time and through His covenant people, man loses his vision and will, as a result, forfeit his destiny. Without a clear understanding of our godly legacy, there is no reliable rudder to steer the great ship called America. History is one of two lights that can assist man as we seek to navigate through the darkness, traps, and pitfalls that abound in this world. Patrick Henry in his famous "Give me liberty or give me death" speech affirms this truth, "I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging the future but by the past." Patrick Henry is pointing to a powerful principle that provides a lamp for mankind in the midst of murkiness and uncertainty, it is the light that comes through the study of history. There is another light that shines as well. It is the brightest light of all. It is called the Bible, the word of God. God’s word provides an accurate filter or grid to correctly assess history. It will expose the so-called "history’ that has been rewritten or revised for political gain or cultural corruption. Together, God’s word and history act similar to the relationship of the sun and moon. One is the greater light that rules the day and one is the lesser light that rules the night. Both are important, however, if we are going to see clearly enough to secure a future and a hope for America. A philosopher once stated, "The surest way to destroy a people is to sever her roots." Karl Marx, the father of communism, declared, "Take away the heritage of the people and they are easily persuaded." Psalm 88:12 states, "Righteousness cannot long endure in the land of forgetfulness." All these quotes reveal the dangers of what happens to a people who become ignorant of, revise, or deny their history. Their root system that supplies their freedom, liberty, and prosperity will become severed and their foundations will be destroyed. Thus we will be easily led astray and will become a prey to enemies from within and enemies from without. There is overwhelming evidence of God’s hand in establishing America and developing it to be a city on a hill, a light to the nations. A University of Houston study of the founding era wanted to see why the American form of government had endured so well. They wanted to see whom the founders quoted in their writings. Out of 15,000 writings they examined, they found 3,154 direct quotes: · 34% (or about 1000 quotes) were taken directly from the Bible· Another 60% (close to 2000 quotes) were based indirectly on the Bible.The Founding Fathers, though not perfect, were Biblical in their orientation and used the Bible as their political textbook, which became the basis for our government and laws. Their understanding of God’s word and history gave to mankind the freest and most prosperous nation in mankind’s brutal history. If we, as Americans, do not return to their understanding of God’s word and history, then America as we know it will cease. Daniel Webster, esteemed as one of the five greatest senators in U.S. history warned, "If religious books are not widely circulated among the masses in this country, I do not know what is going to become of us as a nation. If truth be not diffused, error will be; If God and His Word are not known and received, the devil and his works will gain the ascendancy; If the evangelical volume does not reach every hamlet, the pages of a corrupt and licentious literature will; If the power of the Gospel is not felt throughout the length and breadth of the land, anarchy and misrule, degradation and misery, corruption and darkness will reign without mitigation or end." Judge for yourself, if his warning is not coming to pass in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Quotes From The Founding Fathers "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible." -George Washington, the Father of our Country. "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here." -Patrick Henry, the Trumpet of the American Revolution. (America, today, still wants the fruits of Christianity; asylum, freedom to worship, and prosperity, we just don't want the root of Christianity that produced these blessings. Can we long endure?) The highest glory of the American Revolution was this; it connected "in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity...Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Saviour of the World, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day (July 4th)? Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the Progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Saviour and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets 600 years before." -John Quincy Adams, sixth President of America "Education is useless without the Bible." "The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all of our civil constitutions and laws....All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible." -Noah Webster, Father of American Education. "I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them…we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government; that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible; for this Divine Book, above all others, constitutes the soul of republicanism." -Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration of Independence. "All societies of men must be governed in some way or other. The less they have of stringent State Government, the more they must have of individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them, or a power without them; either by the word God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet." -Robert Winthrop, U.S. representative, author and orator. "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." -John Adams, Second President of America. "I sought for the key to the greatness and genius of America...Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." -Alexis de Tocqueville, Historian. "Our Founding Fathers knew our goodness came from our faith in Jesus Christ and His word. They knew that only ‘One Nation Under God’ can produce order in society and freedom to individuals. They knew freedom was the power to do as we ought and not to do as we want. They knew there were two enemies to liberty, licentiousness amongst the people and tyranny in civil government. They knew self-government was the key to protect liberty. Only a religious, moral, and virtuous people who put restraints upon their appetites, lusts, and greed can remain a free people. Both the Bible and our history attests to these truths. May we return to these truths before America sinks into lawlessness, tyranny, destruction, and despair."-Rev. Rusty Lee Thomas OPERATION: SHINE THE LIGHT "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined (Isaiah 9:2)." There is no question that the adversary Satan has used Planned Parenthood to bring a shadow of death upon America. Their agenda of deceit has produced in our city and nation what is aptly described by the prophet Jeremiah, "For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets (Jeremiah 9:21." To help combat the culture of death promoted by Planned Parenthood, we plan on shining the light of God’s truth to expose their hidden works of darkness.As the Lord supplies, we plan on sending a tract I recently wrote to every home in the greater Waco area. The tract concentrates on the three main evils propagated by Planned Parenthood, which are abortion, their racial genocide agenda, and their cover up of sexual predators that abuse young girls. All the information is documented and it should create quite a stir in our community. Prayerfully, God will use this to break their stronghold over Waco and vanquish their bloody, immoral scourge from our city. Brethren, pray for us! IN KING JESUS' SERVICE, Rusty, Liz, and the Thomas Nation P.O. Box 3126, Waco, TX 76707 Voice: (254) 836-1037 Fax: (254) 836-4092 E-mail: elijahmin@ifriendly.com Websites:
http://mttu.com/elijahmin |
