An article called "Who's in Charge Here?" in the Summer, 2006, edition of "the Wilson Quarterly" opens with these words: "The 20th century taught us that repressed desires are the source of human unhappiness. Now, with more possibilities for pleasure and fewer rules and constraints than ever before, the happy few will be those able to exercise self-control." The article continues with an excellent assessment of the dangers of modern temptations. One section deals with the removal of restraints. Very little keeps people from doing whatever they desire to do. Among those restraints that are weakened today are stigma (social shame for wrong doing), financial constraints (there is always credit), family (broken families provide little reason to do right), neighbors (they used to watch out for each other), and church (where sin has all but disappeared). But in the Bible, temperance (self-control) is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and "every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things" (1Corinthians 9:25). Where are the Christians who will re-establish the virtue of self-control?
Gary North, in "Millennialism and Social Theory" (p.136-137), demonstrates the worldly outlook of the Christian Reconstructionists. He labels those who disagree with his postmillennial doctrine as "pessimillenialists." That is, they are pessimistic because they do not believe that Christians will conquer the world before the physical return of Christ. One of the greatest faults he sees in premillenialists is their conviction that Christians should be looking for the return of Jesus Christ. According to him: "Christians were told to look skyward prior to the fall of Jerusalem... But their deliverance came in history... That one-time deliverance of the early Church is today long behind us. It is surely time for Christians to begin lookingforward, in time and on earth, for their deliverance, not upward." He even scolds an amillennialist for saying, "Come, Lord Jesus, come."
In the 1780's, the Baptist pastor John Leland was fighting against Virginia state taxes going to support the Episcopalian clergy. One clergyman argued that they had to have the tax income in order to have the time needed to prepare for sermons. Leland responded that he could expound the scriptures without special preparation and the Episcopalian challenged him to prove it by preaching on a text provided just before the sermon. "Leland went into the pulpit and was handed a text which proved to be Numbers 22:21, 'And Balaam saddled his ass.' Mr Leland first commented on the account from which the text was taken, and then said he should divide his subject into three parts: 1st, Balaam, as a false prophet, represents a hireling clergy; 2nd, the saddle represents their enormous salaries, and 3rd, the dumb ass represents the people who will bare such a load." Quote taken from "How Satan Turned America Against God" by William P. Grady (p.159-160).
We just received this in a letter from a missionary we support in Nepal: "As we recently returned from church, we came upon a commotion along the side of the street. At first, I was too far away to understand what was happening; but as we walked closer I then saw one man hit another. Dust flew up as the struggle began and quickly two others joined the first in attacking the one man now stunned by the blow he had received. These three strong-men, larger than most Nepali, grabbed the one and would not let him go. 'What are you doing?' some asked in an attempt to stop the struggle. But when the three answered that the one had stolen something of theirs, all dissent came to an end. Thieves are often not turned over to the police here, but are taken by whoever captures them and beaten severely. This is not the first time I had seen such a thing, but it was the first time, I had seen it in the light of day. Finally, with all hope for escape and mercy spent, the thief began to cry. Forty-five years old or so, he whimpered like a baby as he was dragged away to be beaten.
One of the most interesting short verses in the Bible reads, "And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying." In seven simple words (seven being the number of perfection), The Bible identifies the source of what Moses wrote. It did not come from Moses, but directly from the Lord Himself. The words of the law are the words of God. This is an important doctrinal truth. However, I do not know what Bible reference to give you for this verse. It occurs with these exact seven words a total of 72 times in the Bible. 72 is 6 times 12 (6 being the number of man and 12 the number of Israel). Perhaps this indicates that God used Israel to bring His words to man.
