Light Brings Salt

Volume 3, Issue 25 June 19, 2005

Iron Range Bible Church

Dedicated to the Systematic Exposition of the Word of God

Newsletter from Dr. Jobe Martin

I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.

I will meditate on all Your work And muse on Your deeds.

Your way, O God, is holy; What god is great like our God?

You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples.

.Psalm 77:11-14

Listen, O my people, to my instruction; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old,

Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us.

We will not conceal them from their children, But tell to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.

That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, That they may arise and tell them to their children,

That they should put their confidence in God And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments,

And not be like their fathers, A stubborn and rebellious generation, A generation that did not prepare its heart And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Psalm 78:1-4, 6-8

The children have now grown up and they are the jury and the judge in American culture. The fathers and grandfathers of this generation, with notable exceptions, indulged their selfishness and pride. They idolized Elvis, the Beetles, Madonna and Michael Jackson, as they, whether intentionally or not, moved away from submission to biblical authority into (sophisticated and culturally respectable) pagan Postmodernism which redefines what we want morality to be for us—even in the church. Now with the blending of cultural Christianity (“I believe some of it in theory, but it hasn’t penetrated my heart”) and postmodern thinking (“I determine the meaning I want the words to have, and what is sin for others isn’t necessarily sin for me.”). Thus we have the moral relativism that is, to a great extent, the universal philosophy of our current western culture. Think back to the 50’s and the book, I’m OK, You’re OK. Nothing is necessarily wrong, or, if it is, it is someone else’s fault! We are brainwashed with “tolerance” toward everything except the Judeo-Christian biblical roots upon which our country was founded, and great pains have been taken by the liberal media, and the humanistic forces (ACLU for one) to NOT allow this particular type of freedom. So much so, that in the last 15 years we cannot even have “Merry Christmas” on our public school marquees, nor can we mention “Jesus.” However, we can talk and discuss at great length Mohammed and Buddha with no recriminations at all! So we daily watch the unfolding history of our world, reflecting on the truth that history, including the history we are making with our individual families, does repeat itself. We just don’t seem to learn from our mistakes.

At our particular juncture in history, we have discarded a real and true God Who has acted in space and time, to the belief that “God is dead.” In turn, this logically evolved into nothing less than “I am God.” I determine what is right and good for me. If there seems to be a biblical principle that I am violating, for instance, “I will set no wicked thing before my eyes” (Psalm 101:3), then my perception is that God has not convicted me that this or that is wicked for me, even though it may be wicked for you! Since we have been deceived into believing it’s the Ten Suggestions, rather than the Ten Commandments, we no longer accept the biblical absolutes of our Founding Fathers, and in turn we do what “feels good” and what is “right in our own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

Does this sound harsh? Perhaps, but when will it be time for judgment to begin with the household of faith (I Pet. 4:17)? The hours spent in electronic and Internet games alone (not to mention sports, music, TV, movies, and malls) is staggering. Even though they were raised in the church, this current generation has almost no knowledge of the Bible, much less the hymns of the faith! We know more about other religions than our very own. What has happened? Could it be that we dads and granddads entertained ourselves and showed little if any vital relationship with our dear Lord Jesus? Have we turned aside from our Lord to travel paths to our own destruction? Should we expect our children to follow in the footsteps of Jesus if the reality of a godly life and the truth of God’s Word was never or rarely, practiced in the home? The Scriptures in Psalm 77 and 78 are very obvious and easily understood. It is a sacred trust from God to us that our children be reminded of all the miracles of God and His truth and reality, not the counterfeit truth and feelings of the world. It is our responsibility to pass this on to our children. What ARE we passing on? What will be the legacy we leave behind for our children? How will we stand before the ONE who judges the living and the dead on that literal judgment day? Everyday is Father’s Day, let us as dads decide to invest more into the eternal destiny of the lives of our children—over those matters that will not last for eternity. The best Father’s Day we men could give our wives and families would be to start consistently reading God’s Word, praying, and memorizing Scripture with our families. Let us all practice our Christianity, starting at Home!

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GITMO COCKTAIL

By RALPH PETERS LtCol Ret.

The demands to shut down our Guantanamo lock-up for terrorists have nothing to do with human rights. They’re about punishing America for our power and success.

From our ailing domestic left to overseas America haters, no one really cares about the fate of Mustapha the Murderer or Ahmed the Assassin. The lies told about Gitmo are meant to undercut U.S. foreign policy and embarrass America. The Gitmo controversy is about many things, from jealousy of the United States and outrage that we refuse to fail, to residual anger that we won the Cold War and exploded the left’s great fantasy of a dictatorship of the intellectuals. But the one thing the protests aren’t about is human rights.

Except, of course, as a means to slam the United States. Torture? Who and when? Koran abuse? I’d rather be a Koran in Gitmo than a Bible in Saudi Arabia. Illegal detentions? Suggest a better way to handle hardcore terrorists. Maltreatment? Spare me. The food the prisoners receive is better than what I had to eat in the Army. Another thing: Would it be more humane to incarcerate the declared enemies of civilization in northern Alaska, rather than on a Caribbean beach?

Has the Bush administration made mistakes regarding Guantanamo? You bet. The biggest one was attempting to placate the critics. By launching a new investigation every time a terrorist had a toothache, our government played into the hands of its enemies. The truth is that the terrorists and their defenders have something in common. It’s not courage, which is one quality violent fanatics don’t lack. It’s that neither can be appeased. Any concession only increases their appetites. The Clinton administration’s reluctance to respond to terrorist strikes encouraged al Qaeda. If the Bush administration closed the Guantanamo facility, any alternative holding center would be attacked just as rabidly and dishonestly. If we put our captives up at the Four Seasons, we’d be condemned because somebody smelled bacon at breakfast. You can’t negotiate with terrorists. And you cannot reason with ideologues — whether they’re Islamist fanatics or pathetic old lefties fishing for a cause to give meaning to squandered lives. Terrorists, French and German neo-Stalinists, and our own democracy-hating intelligentsia aren’t interested in facts. It’s all about the comfort of belief.

Let’s get this straight: Nothing we could do would appease those who feel a need for our country to fail. We must stop trying to satisfy them.

There’s a military maxim that applies to all the nonsense about Gitmo: Don’t let the entire battalion get bogged down by a sniper. By attempting to respond to the wild charges leveled by those who offer no solutions themselves — who have no interest in solutions — we’ve allowed anti-American basket cases from Harvard Yard to the German parliament to create an issue from nothing. Oh, and thanks to the “mainstream” media for assuming that our country’s always wrong.

There is a culture of torture in the world. Blessedly, America isn’t part of it. When a few of our troops make mistakes, they’re punished. Given the magnitude of our task and the unprecedented conditions we face, it’s remarkable our errors have been so few. What should enrage every decent citizen is that the real torturers — from Zimbabwe to China, from Syria to North Korea — get a pass from the political left. If terrorists behead defenseless captives on videotape, it’s simply an expression of their culture. But if a handful of U.S. troops play an ugly round of Candid Camera, that’s a new gulag.

As someone who takes human rights seriously, I’m appalled by the lack of sympathy the left feels toward the victims of any regime other than the Bush administration. Let’s shout it to prisoners everywhere: If you’re not harmed by an American, your suffering doesn’t count.

The left’s hypocrisy is immeasurable. The grandchildren of those who defended Stalin are mortified that Saddam Hussein will stand trial. By taking such irresponsible voices seriously, we grant our critics a strength they otherwise lack and simply help them keep their lies alive.

No matter what our country does, we will never please a global intelligentsia outraged that all their theories came to nothing. We can’t satisfy al Qaeda, and we can’t please those discontented souls who need to blame the United States for their personal inadequacies. It’s time we stopped trying.

What should our nation’s leaders say about Guantanamo and our treatment of captured terrorists? A lot less. When comments are unavoidable, try this: “We’re human. We make mistakes. We fix those mistakes. And we move on. Nothing will divert us from our mission of defeating terror and keeping our country safe.”