The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/665812
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, April 13, 2016 D-1 OPINION Submit Letters to the Editor: Letters must be signed and received by noon on Mondays. Email: editor@pressdispatch.net or bring in a hard copy: 820 E. Poplar Street, Petersburg The Spirit Of The Anti-Christ The Olivet discourse found in Matthew 24 along with the Reve- lation of John and coupled with the book of Daniel paints a word pic- ture of the "end-times." Jesus speaks of the prophet Dan- iel it is he [Daniel] who first writes about an end of the human era and a "man of sin," who will emerge to demand worship from human- kind. The New Testament writers call this person the "Anti-Christ." These writings are a glimpse in- to the future, but the knowledge needed to develop an exact time- line for the "last-days" was not giv- en to the early church; however, for the most part, the church fa- thers did not concern themselves with the timing of the return of Je- sus, but with issues of doctrine and discipleship. Since the dawn of dispensation- alism in the mid-1800s, many ear- nest Christians have attempted to become prophets and proclaim when the Anti-Christ will be re- vealed. Dispensationalism is a disser- vice to the faithful for two reasons. The first is its predication upon a dual covenant that ignores Paul stating emphatically [to the Ga- latians] that Christ is the fulfillment of Gen- esis 12:3, and all who professes Christ are the seed of Abraham. The second issue is it organizes the com- ing of Christ into a neat package or a road map. As I wrote in an ear- lier column, dispensa- tionalism collapsed in 1988 when by its own teachings, the anti- Christ was not revealed, and Je- sus did not return. However, that does not negate the prophetic word; it simply means the fullness of God's time has not arrived. What can be deduced about the Anti-Christ is that before he emerges upon the world stage, an anti-Christian spirit will first per- meate society in such a way to en- snare the world. This is what the faithful need to realize; the entrance of the an- ti-Christ will be preceded by the demise of Christian morality and culture. That is now a real fact in Europe, and it is slowly creep- ing into America. Can you sense it? In many venues and social settings to say that you're a Chris- tian makes you a pari- ah—maybe not in ru- ral America, but with- in the halls of power it is very evident. You can talk about God, faith, and piety but just men- tion Jesus, and you will usually re- ceive a negative reaction. The prophet Daniel writes that this man will "Change the times and seasons, and will not honor the God of his fathers." Can't you see it? An "anti-Christ spirit" is evident within our own culture where what was not permitted 50 -years ago is commonplace today; marriage between a man and a woman has been changed into the "unseason- able" pseudo-marriage between same-sex couples." The killing of the unborn is said Continued on page 2 Continued on page 2 Continued on page 2 Observations by Thomas Sowell The Weekly by Alden Heuring Dangerous Donald Trump Continued on page 2 Points to Ponder by Rev. Ford Bond The spirit of the Anti-Christ Freedom to practice what one preaches? A time for real Republican leadership Heritage Viewpoint by Edwin J. Feulner Pursuit of the Cure by Star Parker Donald Trump's victories in the Republican primaries may make him seem like a sure winner. But those victories have been achieved by receiving either somewhat less than 40 percent of the votes or somewhat more than 40 percent, but never a majority. The fragmenting of the Republi- can vote among many candidates in the primaries made this pos- sible. But victory in the general election for President of the Unit- ed States in November is going to require a lot more than 40 percent of the votes. And polls consistent- ly show Mr. Trump to be the most negatively regarded of any of the candidates in either party. In some Republican winner- take-all states, 40 percent of the votes can be enough to get 100 per- cent of the delegates. This lever- age might enable Trump to gain a majority of the delegates need- ed to become the party's nominee. But Trump and his supporters want more. They are now talk- ing as if winning a plurality of the delegates ought to be enough to gain him the nomination, despite his failing to get a majority, as re- quired by long-standing rules. There is a reason why the rules require a candidate for the nomi- nation to receive a majority of the delegates. If you cannot even get a majority of the delegates in your own party, how can you expect to win the November election for President? Delegates get their first oppor- tunity to choose a candidate by voting according to the way their respective primary voters voted. But, if that process fails to pro- duce a winner, then delegates can vote again, this time on the basis of their own best judgments, for as many rounds of voting as it may take before someone gets a major- ity. None of this is new. Yet some Trump supporters are talking as if a failure to change the rules for the benefit of "the Donald" – by let- ting a plurality, rather than a ma- jority, choose the winner – would mean that Trump had been cheat- ed out of the nomination. But what of the voters who voted AGAINST Trump during the primaries? De- spite the fog of political rhetoric, we should not lose sight of the fact that those who voted against Trump in the primaries were far more numerous than those who voted for him. This might all be just an internal problem of the Republican Party, and of no concern for those of us who are not Republicans, except for one thing. This country is at a dangerous crossroads. We got here by electing a presi- dent on the basis of glib words and boastful promises. We cannot af- ford to repeat that mistake. In addition to internal polariza- tions, we are threatened by coun- tries that openly declare their ha- tred of America, and are develop- ing intercontinental missiles that can carry nuclear bombs. In addi- tion, there are international terror- ist organizations killing people in Europe and in the United States. In order to deal with these threats, and especially secretive international terrorist organiza- tions, we are going to need the co- operation of many other nations around the world. These nations, knowing that cooperating with the United States will make them tar- gets for terrorists, must first have confidence in the words and deeds of whoever is President of the Unit- ed States. They cannot have that confi- dence in someone who is constant- ly spouting off with irresponsible rhetoric – some of which has to be walked back by his apologists – or someone whose snap judgments about complex and weighty issues betray a superficial knowledge, if not sheer ignorance. If ever there was a time when we needed a serious, mature Pres- ident of the United States, with a depth of knowledge and a foun- dation of personal character – a grownup in the White House – this is that time. But seldom a week goes by without Donald Trump demonstrating, yet again, that he is painfully lacking in all these pre- requisites. Instead of offering coherent plans for dealing with the nation's problems, Trump skips that and To see religious liberty under attack in the United States is dis- heartening — and more than a lit- tle ironic. This nation was founded, af- ter all, by people seeking a land where they were free to live their faith without fear of persecution. Not simply to believe what they believe, mind you, but to live their faith. The freedom to keep your beliefs to yourself is no freedom at all. It seems logical in the abstract. Yet more and more, it's not work- ing out that way in the real world. Ask the people of Georgia. Gov. Nathan Deal recently vetoed a bill designed to protect the religious freedoms of state residents who don't want government forcing them to violate their faith. How would government do that? By siding with those who claim, for example, that the Chris- tian owner of a bakery must cater a same-sex wedding. That kind of thing has been happening with in- creasing frequency nationwide, and it deeply troubles many men and women whose faith teaches them that marriage is on- ly between one man and one woman. Another example of how religious free- doms could be violat- ed: Say that a church was hiring a teacher and rejected the ap- plication of someone who disagreed with one or more of its most fundamental beliefs. What if the government sided with the person who was reject- ed, insisting that the church had no right to do so? That's the kind of thing that Georgia's Free Exercise Protec- tion Act was designed to pre- vent. Yet, even though it had been greatly watered down in an effort to assure passage, Mr. Deal ve- toed it. Why? According to him, it didn't reflect Georgia's image as a state full of "warm, friendly and loving people." Uh-huh. And the fact that large cor- porations such as the National Football League, Coca-Cola and the Walt Disney Co. threatened to pull business out of Geor- gia if Mr. Deal signed the bill had nothing to do with it? Right. Its opponents insist that the Free Exercise Protection Act and other similar bills would sanction discrimination against the LGBT community. On the basis of what? The only people being discriminated against are those who ask simply that they not be made to violate their sin- cerely held religious beliefs. Legislators in Georgia and oth- ers states (Mississippi is work- ing on a religious liberty bill of its own now) want to protect their A fter the 2012 election, when Americans re-elected Barack Obama, Republican Party leader- ship rightly did some soul search- ing. Republicans were in shock that Americans could re-elect a man they saw as clearly bad for the country, weakening us at home and fueling instability abroad. Polls showed that Obama's sig- nature law, the A ffordable Health Care Act – Obamacare – was not popular. It was clear that economic recov- ery was moving far too slowly, and that the economy was of top con- cern to Americans. And that Obama's claim to un- derstand the mind of Islam and that he would usher in a new era that would calm the forces of ter- ror was false. Yet, despite it all, Obama was re- elected. When you lose, you can get mad or you can check yourself and change. Fortunately, Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus understood that the party needed to change. Not change what it stands for, but change its messag- ing and marketing to reach the growing mi- nority populations that have been lodged in the tent of the Demo- cratic Party. The fact that it is now possible to be elected president of the United States while receiv- ing the votes of only 39 percent of white Americans, the percent- age that Obama received in 2012, served as a wake-up call to Repub- licans. The Republican National Com- mittee drew up a game plan for reaching minorities and started implementing these programs over the last few years. How effec- tive they are remains to be seen. But you learn by doing. What is clear is that Republican outreach to nontraditional Repub- lican voters is vital. Projections are that white voters will constitute 70 per- cent of the electorate in in 2016, down from 72 percent in 2012 and down from 88 percent in 1980. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party keeps moving further to the left. The future of a free and prosperous America depends on the success of Republicans to get more blacks, Hispanic-Amer- icans, Asian-Americans, women, the unmarried and our youth to understand that they will be bet- ter off with a government that pro- tects their freedom rather than a government that taxes and spends and plunges us into trillions of dol- lars of debt. But at this halfway point in the primary season, the forces in the Puzzled about what to read? ..and you will have your solution. subscribe to 812-354-8500 While the wife's away... Jill had a straight week of substi- tute teaching recently, and stayed with her parents to be closer to the school and the babysitter. Left alone in my house, I realized: you get a lot of spare time when you're not taking care of a baby and new mother! This was my time! Yeah! Time to live like a bachelor again! Party time! Well... As it turns out, I'm not much of a bachelor anymore. You could make a pretty accurate pie chart of my time spent in the house alone with just three slices: one for writing, one for watching the "Cre- ate" channel (we don't have cable) with my cat, and one for doing home improvement projects. Most of what I wrote was crap, and you all know about my cat already, but I'm pretty proud of those projects. We've had several big ele- phants in the room whenever Jill and I have talked about making the house nicer in the past. First, the yard. Our mower's been kaput since last spring. A nice cousin-in- law of mine was mowing the yard for a fair price last year, but this year he's moved out of the county, so no dice. My mom brought over a couple of her push mowers and we tag-teamed the yard: the hilly parts for me, the flat parts for her. Most of the yard is hilly, but most of the live grass is in the flat parts, so it evened out. Another thing that's literally been sitting around for a while is the shelf we had foisted upon us for the baby's room. It's a nice lit- tle shelf, perfect for putting up a few books. It's got pegs for jack- ets, and a couple little bears and rabbits carved into it, too. That's the good news. The bad news is, the wood's hard as a rock, and it was permanently affixed with two display legs. Those got a crowbar taken to them, but the parts of the shelf itself that got ripped out with the legs were on the back anyway, so we just won't tell Flannery. Once I figured out how to find studs and put some holes in the walls, I just needed a second pair of hands to hold the shelf in place while I drilled in the screws. Mom stepped up to the plate again (the same night as the mowing actual- ly), and our little shelf is already holding up three baby jackets. So that took care of all the hang- ers-on we'd been talking about do- ing for ages. Thanks Mom! Finally, I had a little project of my own: re- arranging the bedroom. Our orig- inal layout had the bed in the mid- dle, dressers and nightstands on either side, and while that's all well and symmetrical, it turned our bedroom into a series of narrow passages. Then, like the white ra- ven announcing winter in Wester- os, Flannery's bassinet showed up next to the bed, and everything went to crap. A fter pulling furniture around at random for a while, discovering some species of dust animals here- tofore unknown to science, and nearly flattening the cat, I got ev- erything just right. Now the bed's in a corner, the dressers are in op- posite corners, both nightstands are pushed together, and we have a room with a visible floor again. One of us (me) has to get in bed from the foot instead of the side, but it is worth it and then some. Of course, once I'd finished all my projects, boredom set in almost immediately. It seems I'm just not cut out for the single life. But then Jill came back to her much-im- proved house, and things are all right.