South Carolina
Who is to blame for the Trump win in South Carolina? I can think of several possibilities.
- Those classifying themselves as Evangelicals.
- Conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity not positioning themselves against the liberal candidate.
- Every true conservative who voted for a conservative candidate not selected by the Iowa voters. If Rubio and Carson had dropped out after Iowa and supported Cruz, it is unlikely Trump would have won SC even with the open primary. We can’t know for sure, but going forward the best thing these two candidates can do for our country is to stop splintering the conservative vote.
- Bible believers not fulfilling their responsibility to share the gospel. This may seem completely unrelated and directly it is, but indirectly a life changed by the gospel is much more likely to be reading their Bible and using it as measure of a candidate. If we experienced a national revival it would increase the quality of all our candidates and take us to a place where the distinction among them is akin to what we would call a superficial difference in the current race. Ultimately the prayer of the righteous would be heard and God would direct the thoughts of those voting to select the best candidate.
Donald Trump
Could you vote for Donald Trump if he were the nominee? For me that is a difficult question. Lets run down some issues in no particular order.
Health Care – Trump is at least as left as Sanders on this. He takes the Socialist position of being for a single payer health plan. On this point Donald’s rhetoric matches his action – liberal on both counts. He does so under the liberal guise of having to help everyone. This is a fallacy in that the best way to help everyone is to allow the free market to work. The free market will provide better health care to more people than any forced socialism.
Life – None of Trumps actions indicate a respect for life. From his support of liberals for public office to his statement about his extreme pro-abortion sister being a good candidate for a supreme court justice. His statements about why he considers himself pro-life now are entirely based on an emotional response to someone close to him. A position based on emotions alone (and not on principle) can easily be changed based on new emotions. His continued support of public funding for Planned Parenthood makes it crystal clear – anyone who thinks that an organization killing off half of their patients, can be trusted to do anything good doesn’t understand evil.
Economy – For all he touts about being a good business man, he’s worth Billions less than if he had invested in an index fund and has been at the helm of several company bankruptcies. While a bankruptcy is legal, it defrauds creditors of funds owed them and isn’t a sign of a healthy company – not exactly the type of businessman you want running a company in debt, much less a country deeply in debt.
Environment – His verbal stances on these issues are somewhat conservative, but with nothing firm to go on, they remain to be seen.
Establishment Influence – Trump claims that due self funding his campaign that he won’t be influenced by anyone. At the same time, in the very first debate he declared why he gave money to political candidates – so they would do his bidding. Being very transparent in this respect, we can expect no less of him when he is on the other side of the equation. He most certainly will make deals he considers to be in his own best interest without regard for what he is giving up to do so. The end result is that he will be the most easily swayed because he doesn’t stand at all on principle.
Trust – Trump is famous for his infidelity. Divorcing his first wife after an affair with the woman who became his second wife. This vow he also did not keep and is now in his third marriage. Now, past indiscretions to not mean a person realize the their deceit, confess it to God and ask for his forgiveness, but Trump shows no sign of this whatsoever. If he can’t be trusted to keep a promise to his wife, how can he be trusted to govern a nation?
Education – On his website Trump claims that he will end Common Core and make education a priority. Without more detail, it is extremely vague what this means, but it at least appears to remove the possibility of eliminating the department of education which would be the best thing that could be done for education.
Immigration – His verbal stances on these issues are somewhat conservative, but with nothing firm to go on, they remain to be seen.
National Defense – He seems to be all over the map on this one. He talks strongly against ISIS, but wouldn’t have stopped Iraq. As with many issues he lacks details about his plans going forward, so it is difficult to see even what he plans to do, much less how likely it is that he will follow through on his word.
Religious Liberty – His stance on Kim Davis clearly put him in the category of those against religious liberty.
In the end his only positions (of those I have covered) that seem conservative are immigration and the environment. Other than a few broad statements, we have no clear details of how he will govern on these and given his track record, have no reason to believe he will keep conservative positions on even these.
2016 Primary
This 2016 primary is significantly more important than the Presidential race that it precedes. Not because the choice of President isn’t significant, but because the first race determines the nature of the second. When Republicans run moderates like Dole, McCain, and Romney — they lose.
Conservatism isn’t the hope of America. America’s hope is the hope of all mankind – Jesus Christ. The ultimate way to save our country is to save the souls of individuals through personal witness. This is the only way lives and will be changed and saved from something much worse than a liberal President.
A Christian can do right no matter who is President/Dictator/Caesar/King, but that shouldn’t stop us from doing what we can to see that our leaders do things God’s way. By participating in elections we have a say in that and can find the candidate that best reflects the Word of God.
Iowa polling has the following current averages:
- 31.4% Trump
- 25.5% Cruz
- 14.4% Rubio
- 08.2% Carson
- 03.8% Bush
- 03.6% Paul
- 02.6% Huckabee
Polling can be off, so let’s say anyone below Trump has 10% more support than the polls indicate. That leaves Cruz as the only candidate that can beat Trump. But what if the polls are closer to accurate? Take half of the support of the other candidates and give it to Cruz and he beats Trump handily. By the numbers Cruz just needs 6% more to beat Donald. Since Iowa is a caucus this is a real possibility, but it seems to me that if anyone supporting a candidate below 10% right now wants to do what is best for the country, they will support Cruz.
Why do people support Donald? Here are a few reasons I have seen:
- Trump believes in American exceptionalism. – So does every other Republican candidate in their words and almost all more in deed than Donald.
- Trump is tough, unafraid to flex America’s muscles, and has the backbone America needs to take on the evil growing around the world. – Those that believe this subscribe to a different version of evil than I do. In Donald’s world anyone against him is evil including moderately conservative commentators who he won’t take on.
- Trump is an experienced and tough dealmaker. – We don’t need a President who will make deals, but one who will lead.
- Trump is not politically correct; he’s not afraid to say what he believes. – You can avoid the stupidity of political correctness without being rude. Proof: Cruz. So, what does Donald believe? His rhetoric has become less liberal sounding recently, but even so he still sounds like a liberal to me.
- Trump will run America like a business. – A business and a government have very different goals and responsibilities. A business strives to make itself bigger all the time with more power and control, certainly not something we want from a government with already too much.
- Trump’s loyalty will be only to America and Americans, not any political party, special interest group or foreign entity. – He debunked this in the first debate with his explanation of why he gave money to so many liberal candidates. Who has not been swayed from his principles even in the face of opposition from his own party – Cruz.
- Trump will have Mexico build a wall. – Since Donald supported Amnesty while Cruz was fighting against it, it’s not clear whether he will really do this or not.
- Trump is rich – There is no doubt he has made money, but how? His corporations (including casinos) have filed for bankruptcy four times, a tactic that though legal shows a serious inability to plan, keep commitments, and protect investments and investors. Democrats will bring this up in the general election if necessary.
- Trump’s loyalty will be only to Americans. – Everything he has done to date has been for himself, why would that change?
- Trump can bring in votes that no other candidate can. – This may be true in some respects as he will bring in Republicans that are so liberal they wouldn’t vote for any other Republican. He will pull in Democrats that like his brand of liberalism better than their own candidates. On the other hand he will drive away almost any group of people at any time and has. He will drive away conservatives even more if he becomes the nominee to try to pander to the Democrats. He will care more about closing the deal than staying true to principles.
Liberalism needs to be defeated no matter where it is, whether in Republicans or in liberals like Donald Trump who just like any liberal says anything to get elected. What argument can Donald use against Hillary for which there is not a similar problem with Trump? Not many.
As for the other candidates, Rubio lost me when he became part of the gang of eight. Even if he hadn’t, Cruz has far more knowledge and experience defending conservatism. Carson is surprisingly weak on religious liberty, so much so that he seems to even be against the concept. Bush is too liberal on immigration and size of government. Huckabee has had too many conservatives turn their back on him from previous elections to be viable. Santorum won Iowa in the past and so many other states because he was the best conservative running at the time. This time he isn’t.
I urge everyone to support Ted Cruz for President. If you live in Iowa or know someone who does, please caucus for the only candidate who can beat both Trump and the Democratic nominee. Let’s run a true conservative this time. We’ve tried running borderline liberals and they don’t win because they don’t stand for anything. People will vote for someone with a clear vision they don’t entirely agree with before they will vote for someone with no vision. If I’m wrong it won’t change the advance of liberalism, only the rate of advance – and then I return to my earlier point and am thankful that my hope and the hope for America is not in a political candidate.
Old Earth … Creation?
This is my response to the following post by Joshua Benson on the Facebook group “I attended Pensacola Christian College”.
The last thread was getting bogged down with too many rabbit trails for me to follow, so let’s start with a fresh thread. I’d like to ask you a serious question.
Is the Creation lying to you?
I would hope your answer is no! But I have a problem with YEC doctrine, because when you follow it to its conclusion, the answer from YEC is an unmistakable yes.
I’ll let you chew on that while I post an example below. But bear in mind, God’s character is at stake.
For example, we are told that existence has been created with the illusion of age. This seems to make sense at first. Adam and Eve were made as adults, why not everything else?Keep in mind that the text never explicitly says that God created everything with an illusion of being older than it really is–so that idea is speculation, not doctrine.
If it is night for you right now, take a look at the stars in the sky. One particular light in that sky is known as supernova 1987A. It is a star that exploded at a distance of approximately 170,000 light years from the solar system. So the light from that explosion takes 170,000 years to reach our eyes.
Did that star explode? Or did God just make it look like it did?
A scientist looks up at the light from supernova 1987A, and he measures the distance that light traveled, and how fast light travels. He calculates that it took the starlight 170,000 years to reach us. No foundational belief, whether evolutionary or YEC, affects the math of the measurement. With the right equipment you can go measure it yourself with unquestionable accuracy.
So we’re left with only these options.
1. God caused the light to instantly zap from that source to us for the purpose of of signs in our sky. The star didn’t actually explode 170,000 years ago, although if we could fly there, we’d see exploded “star guts”. The Creation has fooled our senses. Math, the universal language of truth, has lied to us.
2. The light was not instantly zapped, but instead was under the effect of some phenomena, such as time dilation. So the star did explode, but for some reason the light arrived at earth much faster, at least from our point of view. This viewpoint says that there’s a variable in the math that’s missing.
3. The star did explode 170,000 years ago, and we can trust the math. The Creation has not deceived us.
Joshua,
Your premise is that existence has been created with the illusion of age, and then you cite a common example used to support that view, complete with a few of the ways it could fit in a YEC view (these are called rescuing devices). The flip side is to question why existence has been created with the ‘illusion’ of being only functionally mature/young and then cite an example such as the existence of Comets and a corresponding rescuing device – an Oort Cloud.
The point is that with our limited knowledge of the universe, both points of view will have something that can be difficult to understand, but if we start with faith in the word of God, that He exalted above his name and preserved from the generation it was written, forever, then we can believe it when it says the stars were created on day 4 of creation.
Dr. Ben Carson
While I like some of the positions of Ben Carson, the closer I look at him as a Presidential Candidate, the less I like.
A big reason was when he came out against Kim Davis, but since then I have looked at his website and I’m concerned that his stance on religious freedom is far too narrow. On his campaign website he has the following statement in his section entitled “Keep Faith in Our Society”:
This is a far too limited view. practicing faith is far more than “praying privately” and “private prayer”.
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Random thoughts
Here are some random thoughts I’ve collected, mostly from Sermons.
Battle the fire of your child’s will early and often. Matches extinguished prevent wildfires.
A little sin is just as bad as a big sin. God hates sin, all sin of all sizes, including yours. Who wants a little cyanide?
If there is no loss of fellowship, there is no recognition that there is a problem, and nothing to restore when there is repentance.
Love is doing right by the person you love. – Bill Rice III
When a husband loves he shows submission and when a wife submits, she shows love. – Bill Rice III
The best lies are plausible and the greatest truths require faith. – Will Rice
If I choose when and how I am going to obey, I am not obeying – Will Rice
If I’m searching for happiness, its the last thing I’ll ever find. – Will Rice
Serving God is not slavery unless serving sin is freedom. – Will Rice
Things don’t always have to make sense, but they do in the Bible. – Will Rice
Parenting isn’t about what kind of kids you have, its about what kind of parents you are. – Bill Rice III
The way you get a child’s heart is through his compliance. – Bill Rice III
The quality of your life will never exceed the quality of your attitude. – Will Rice
By the time most people figure out what is not going to make them happy, they are dead. – Will Rice
Music Identification
We all choose music that identifies us with things and people. As a Bible believer we ought to choose music that identifies us with believers. The world has it’s genres of music — rock, rap, country, etc. — none of which are distinctively Christian. I want to identify myself as a Christian, as part of the church, the bride of Christ, not just with the words of my music, but with what and who it represents and is associated with.
1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Opportunity
A new opportunity has come up. I was laid off of work Monday afternoon. It was not entirely unexpected given the changes taking place in the company, but was unexpected given that those changes weren’t complete, I was told I would be retained, and had quite a lot of work in progress. In any case, it makes no difference if someone meant it “for evil” or not, because God means it for good. We don’t know exactly how yet or when, but there can be no mistake that he does. I have several very good references and am working with several recruiters, but of course it is God that will do the providing.
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