Election 2012: Change Tracks Or Wreck The Train?

The future of our country may very well pivot on the election in November.  Many believe if we don’t change course a derailment is imminent and a train wreck is unavoidable.  We have but few options to avoid catastrophe.  

If you are a tax payer, you owe the federal government $1 million.  Our government has squandered the wealth of our nation as the national debt approaches $16 Trillion.  It feels like we are bobbing our way down the river toward socialism and perhaps even dictatorship.  Our first president, George Washington, demonstrated his humility by refusing the title of ‘king’.  Barack Obama may not have the title, but he certainly acts as if he is a king ruling over his subjects rather than a president answering to his people.

The economic survival of our nation is at risk.  Unemployment and foreclosure of homes has sent many families into a state of economic desperation.  Hope is like a ship drifting out to sea and the change we’ve experienced is nothing like those American voters envisioned when they cast their votes for Obama in 2008.

Absurdities abound!  The American government has been spending like a middle school teen armed with mom’s credit card in the world’s largest mall. Our juvenile acting congressmen have failed to balance the budget for three consecutive years.  All the talk of cutting spending goes in one American ear and out the other because sensible Americans realize that spending cannot be cut without a budget.

The U.S. economy looks like a train wreck.  Americans are worried, they are very worried.  Friday’s check is buying less and less.  Our government must borrow money to pay interest on the money they’ve already borrowed.  Surely, Americans will go to the polls in November screaming for the insanity to stop.  The message of ‘hope and change’ is the right message but Americans are weary of hearing cheap talk from egotistical politicians.  Americas want the real deal.

 

How often have you heard, “I voted for Obama last time but…”?  This year’s election will differ from the election of 2008 in that Democrats won't be able to play the race card in November: 'You are a racist if you don't vote for our guy".  If whites couldn't find reason to vote against Obama in 2008, there is plenty of reason to vote against him in 2012, and race has nothing to do with it. Of course, the election will swing on the economy.  Predictably, Obama will continue to blame any other living soul for this nation’s poor economic performance while denying that he and his administration now must claim ownership of this economy. Unfortunately, the Republicans seem to be running on a simple platform slogan of ‘Beat Obama’ and their economic plan to save the economy provides little substance revealing a dangerous attitude that says, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there, let’s just win the election first.”

The college kids were disillusioned by the thrill of making history when they voted for the first black president.  They bought into the idea that the wounds of racism in the U.S. would be healed by the young ‘messianic’ politician from Chicago.  Four years later, those young men and women have graduated from college, they have their degree but they’ve gone home to live with mom and dad because they can’t get a job.

 

They now see anything but a messiah.  They see a president who shoved his healthcare plan down the throats of unwilling Americans.  They see a president who, unlike Reagan, sees big government as a solution rather than a problem.  Many previous supporters will choose to vote against a president who has overseen the theft of economic security from future generations.  This young generation now sees The Great American dream setting like a sun about to dip below the horizon leaving a dark emptiness American’s are unfamiliar with.

Former supporters are beginning to see a vote for Obama as a vote to continue our slippery slide toward socialism and irresponsible government.  If they were motivated by hope in 2008, they will surely be motivated by fear in 2012.  They are asking themselves “Can this country survive another four year term of Obama’s smoke-filled, backroom politics?”  In less than four years, the Obama generation has morphed into the debt generation and those who are awake and alert think it is unfair that they are being forced to carry that pile of rocks on their back.

America is in desperate need of a great president, but this country needs more than that.  Many would question if America is in serious decline.  Are we witnessing the demise of a nation blessed with wealth and power and influence as no other country has been blessed in all of history? Is the great American experiment in democracy about to end….in failure? 

 

A serious student of world history will observe that countries and empires have come and gone throughout the ages.  No empire exists indefinitely.  Eternality belongs to God alone?  The fall of this great country cannot be avoided, but it can be delayed. 

Our problems are not just economical.  Our government is faltering in corruption and dishonesty.  Our society seems to be imploding right before our very eyes.  The influential cultural icons that have tremendous influence on our youth are unabashedly shaking their fist in the face of God and blasphemously denying his existence and even promoting a spirit of anti-Christ.  It is as if we have discovered that Christ will carry a great load of patience and long-suffering so we are now piling on to see just how much he can carry.

We can only label some of the things we are observing as nothing less than demonic.  The murder of 50 million unborn, the shocking incidents of cannibalism and a rural population losing their minds on meth are signs of societal implosion.  We have become a nation of zombies, hypnotized by our technological toys.  We are fleeing the doors of the church and avoiding the relationship we might have with God, a relationship purchased by the blood of his only begotten Son. 

Is there a judgment coming?  Of course there is.  Many believe that the economic failure and social implosion is indeed God’s judgment on a nation that has turned its face from him.  A holy and just God ceases to be God if he allows a defiant people to push him into a canyon of disbelief.   What can we do?  Options are limited.  We must either; humble ourselves, seek the face of God and repent of our sins or God must be true to his nature and bring his judgment on a nation that no longer has a fearful respect for The Almighty.

2 Chronicles 7:14   “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.

The 'Living Dead' Among Us

George A. Romero’s film, The Night of the Living Dead, tells the story of a set of siblings, Johnny and Barbra, who drive to rural Pennsylvania to visit the grave of their father.  There they are encountered by a zombie and they retreat to a farmhouse where they attempt to ward off the living dead who are hungry for their flesh.  There fear intensifies when they hear on the radio that the living dead are spreading murder and terror throughout the eastern U.S. 

Zombies are the fictional ‘unliving’ among us.  They are empty shells who move about and react as if they did have souls, but they don’t.  Romero may have constructed his concept of soulless creatures from the superstitious religions of Haiti. But the concept can be traced all the way back to one of the earliest literary works known to man, the Epic of Gilgamesh of the early Mesopotamians.  In this epic the goddess Ishtar promises:

“I will knock down the Gates of the Netherworld,

 I will smash the door posts, and leave the doors flat down,

 and will let the dead go up to eat the living!

 And the dead will outnumber the living!”

  The concept of the zombie is man’s attempt to ask the question, “Where does the soul come from?  What is the source of our consciousness?”  This is an easy question for a Christian to answer.  Our consciousness comes from God.  But for those who don’t believe in God they must ask, “Why are we not all Zombies, simply empty shells without a soul?”

Our Christian theology teaches that God exists in three persons.  We refer to this as the Holy Trinity.  He is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  He is one entity consisting of three persons.  Because man is created in God’s image, he too was created a trinity.  Man has a body, a soul and a spirit.  Man’s body is that part which we can all see.  It is the physical part of man and he shares this trait with animals.  Man also has a soul.  The soul is that part of man that reveals to him his identity.  He knows who he is and therefore he fulfills the role of man.   One might argue that animals also have souls for they have a sense of identity.  Jesus said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests.”  They know who they are and they function as animals in the realm of God’s creation.

The similarities between men and animals end there.  Man has something no animal will ever have.  He has a spirit or at least he possesses the potential for one.  The spirit is that part of man that gives him a consciousness of God.  It is why man worships God and animals do not. 

Unfortunately, when man was living in the garden that was created for him by God, he was told that he could eat from any tree  accept the one tree that was located in the center of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  The tree represented man’s dependence on God.  Adam and Eve resented the tree and declared their resistance to and independence from God by deliberately disobeying him.  At this point death was introduced to man.  Death revealed itself first in man’s spirit, his consciousness.  Man’s desire to have fellowship with God evaporated and he hid from God among the foliage of the garden.

Man’s soul died.  He was depraved in his intellect.  He was still able to reason but he could not reason his way to God.  His “thinking became futile” and “their foolish hearts were darkened” and “although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” (Romans 1:21-23)

Finally, under the strain of years and years of sin and depravity, man’s body died.  Were it not for God the Son all men would experience an eternal death of the body, soul and spirit. 

There was no other solution for man’s rebellion except to offer a sinless sacrifice to satisfy the perfect justice of God the Father.  The only one ever qualified to do that was God the Son.  Therefore, he was incarnated as a human over 2,000 years ago to fulfill his mission to save mankind.  He saves none against their own will.  But for those who are willing to “confess their sins,  he is faithful and just to forgive them their sins and purify them from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)  Until we make this confession and ask the Spirit of God to replace our rebellious spirit with a spirit of obedience we remain spiritual zombies.  We are empty shells, dead men walking.

When Christ saves us he restores us in reverse order.  First, the spiritual zombie experiences a restoration of his spirit.  He is justified through the precious blood of Christ.  He is made aware not only of the existence of God but of the fact that as a child of the living God he might have relationship with him.  God then restores our souls.  He changes the very essence of who we are through sanctification.  The old soul won’t do.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  (2 Corinthians 5:17) 

Finally, the body is restored through resurrection.  The old body will decay and turn to dust but those living in Christ will receive a new body.  “While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it's not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.” (2 Corinthians 5:4)

 

 

Our world is filled with spiritual zombies.  Take a walk through your local mall and look at the expressionless faces of the multitudes.  Notice the emptiness in their eyes.  These are outward expressions of an inward emptiness, people without spirits, without souls.  The enemy of their souls has brought them death.  They are the walking dead.  But they need not despair for there is great hope because Jesus, the Savior, said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.