I am irritated by pseudo-intellectuals. 

There is a growing segment of our population who are quite similar to parrots. They can repeat sound-bites, but have no real understanding of the rationale behind philosophies that they espouse or eschew.

·        God has called us to “know in Whom we have believed…”

o       Jesus! What did He actually teach?!

·        We have a responsibility to know God’s Word since we have a heavy responsibility to teach the generations to come.

o       (Deuteronomy)

·        We are not excused when we choose to follow the wrong person or pick the wrong direction or believe the wrong report.

o       (Joshua & Caleb)

Many, including Alexander de Tocqueville, have written about the dangers of following the crowd in a democracy.

·        The strongest and most persistent voice generally gets the most credence by the largest majority of people.

·        The establishment of the opinion of the majority becomes the benchmark…even if it is wrong.

·        Emotionalism among the masses ultimately trumped reason, even in the Age of Reason.

We have a Biblical standard that supersedes any other code. It is critically important for us to understand this - not everything that is legal is ethically or morally right. There are imperatives of great urgency for which God will hold us responsible.

Eternal consequences are far more important than those of any nationalistic public policy.

The 'western civilization' church today isn't much different from the religious society of Herod's Temple in Jesus' day.

The temple society was marching step-in-step with the government. An example of that closeness was the back-and-forth of Jesus’ trial – between Pontius Pilate and the priests.

The Church, the living representation of the Holy God, eternal and universal, will have to be, of necessity, sometimes out of step with the government (any government) and loudly proclaim the path of righteousness.

“This is the way, walk ye in it!”

Isaiah 2: 3.  Many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

 4.  He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

 5.  Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD.

 6.  You have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and clasp hands with pagans. 

 7.  Their land is full of silver and gold; there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses; there is no end to their chariots.

 8.  Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made.

 9.  So man will be brought low and mankind humbled-- do not forgive them.

 10.  Go into the rocks, hide in the ground from dread of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty!

 11.  The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

 12.  The LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled),

Isaiah 30:20.  Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 21. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."

Those who don’t know the way; those who can’t find the way; and those who have lost the way, must hear the stronger message of God’s Way above the clamor of emotionalism, legalism and nationalism.

The way that is not God’s Way is described in this way – “There is a way that seems right to man but the end thereof is destruction.”

I don’t care how right the way sounds in this time of political maneuvering as we come up to the national election - if it doesn’t line up with God’s Way, it is wrong!