Beloved Arkansas Pastors, Legislators, Evangelists, Church Leaders, all Other Elected Officials, and Every Born-Again Christian in the State of Arkansas,
Yesterday’s first of the year 2017 ARPN_MT Event guided by our President, Buddy Fisher, was a refreshing time of fellowship, friendly conversation, serious time of biblical and constitutional reflection upon the time in which we live, and challenging and encouraging messages from our speakers, Dr. Jim Brettell, and Dr. Scott Stewart.
The event concluded with brief period of questions and comments from the attendees.
One attendee, aware of the seriousness of present day spiritual conditions in the United States, made the following comment in a spirit of hope after the meeting had ended, “I have never heard anything like this in my Church” – and that is a large part of the problem in our churches today.
Dr. Scott Stewart’s message was amazingly encouraging and challenging as he told of a little known meeting between our President, Donald Trump and televangelist James Robinson, upon which neither the liberal nor conservative press has reported. His many mission years in Nordic Europe have given him insight to warn that America is on that same spiritually devastating path. His message is recorded about 33 minutes into the live-stream on Facebook (search Jim Brettell).
Dr. Jim spoke from his notes to ensure attendees that he would remain within his time granted time-allotment. He humorously stated, “If the Holy Spirit can lead us to start on time, He can also lead us to stop on time” – and he did. His notes are posted here:
MESSAGE
Dr. Jim Brettell
January 26, 2017
Good morning brethren,
And thank you, Buddy, for the introduction.
Let me ask you to look at the picture on the top of your packet:
“THE BIBLE AND THE CONSTITUTION ORGANICALLY CONNECTED”
I want to demonstrate the difference between “UNITED” and “ORGANIC CONNECTION”.
(The following was demonstrated with one glass half full of clear water, and filled to the top with black motor oil. The oil floated on the water. A second glass was filled to the top with clear water into which was poured a tablespoon of black dye. The oil and water represent “united”, and the dye and water represent “organic connection”.)
UNITED
Black Oil represents the Bible
Water represents the Constitution
ORNANICALLY CONNECTED
Black Dye represents the Bible
Water represents the Constitution
The Bible and the Constitution are NOT united, they are ORGANICALLY CONNECTED.
This “organic connection” has a dramatic effect on protecting the natural and revealed rights of American citizens, and certainly protects those of Christians.
RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY IS OBEDIENCE TO GOD
I will use the word “tyranny” several times this morning to mean “oppressive rule”, and I will associate the term “tyranny” with unconstitutional overreach by any one or combination of the three branches of Federal Government that usurps our natural and revealed rights declared by the Bible, and declared by the Constitution that it was designed to protect.
Governmental overreach of authority has fanned the flames of spiritual warfare in our country, and Christians are being affected by these usurpations.
There is a war against God.
There is a war against the truth.
There is a war against America’s Christian heritage.
There is a war against the United States Constitution.
There is a war against The Bill of Rights.
There is a war against God given rights.
There is a war against the veterans.
There is a war against Patriots.
There is a war against “We the people.”
There is a war against life.
There is a war against morality.
There is a war against family.
There is war against woman.
There is a war against children.
There is a war on freedom.
There is a war on unity.
There is a war on peace.
There is a war on guns.
There is a war is on health.
Our Declaration of Independence says: “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them [that’s us] under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
At the moment of salvation, Christians become draftees into this spiritual war; however, many Christians are either AOL or have gone AWOL in this warfare.
How Has This Spiritual War Escalated?
Before I answer that, let me say the following:
God has always been: He WAS, He IS, and He SHALL BE forever.
God has a plan for the human race.
God is perfect; therefore, His plan is perfect.
And throughout the annals of human history,
Mankind has ignored, rejected, and even twisted His plan, thinking only to benefit themselves.
Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:
because thou hast rejected knowledge,
I will also reject thee,
that thou shalt be no priest to me:
seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God,
I will also forget thy children.
But in contrast, . . .
Proverbs 29:2 When the righteous are in authority,
the people rejoice:
but when the wicked beareth rule,
the people mourn.
Question: Are WE, as Christians, OBLIGATED to be obedient to UNCONSTITUTIONAL laws?
Baptist minister Chuck Baldwin asks the following questions of those who believe that Christians MUST submit to tyrannical authority:
Did John the Baptist violate God’s principle of submission to authority when he publicly scolded King Herod for his infidelity?
Did Simon Peter and the other Apostles violate God’s principle of submission to authority when they refused to stop preaching on the streets of Jerusalem?
Did Paul violate God’s principle of submission to authority when he refused to obey those authorities who demanded that he abandon his missionary work?
Remember that Apostles of Christ were killed by hostile civil authorities who were opposed to their endeavors.
Christians throughout church history were imprisoned, tortured, or killed by civil authorities for refusing to submit to their various laws and prohibitions.
Did all of these Christian martyrs violate God’s principle of submission to authority?
The answer is NO!
ACTION BY OUR FOUNDING FATHERS
Our Founders came to the point where they not only said “enough is enough,” they acted by throwing off King George III’s ungodly rule.
Psalm 94:20 speaks to us today: Will you permit a corrupt government to rule under your protection—a government permitting wrong to defeat right?
Thomas Jefferson, who was the chief architect of the Declaration of Independence said,
“Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.”
“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable — on certain occasions — that I wish it to be always kept alive.”
Benjamin Franklin added,
“Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.”
John Adams, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman all echoed these sentiments.
John Hancock, 1st Signer of the Declaration of Independence.
“Resistance to tyranny becomes the Christian and social duty of each individual. … Continue steadfast and, with a proper sense of your dependence on God, nobly defend those rights which heaven gave, and no man ought to take from us.”
In 1776, a short time after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were assigned to design an official seal for the United States of America.
That seal is in your packet.
Scripture: Romans 13:1-7
Brethren, I am going to share an interpretive translation of Romans 13:1-7 that reads as follows:
13 1-2 Every Christian ought to obey the [legitimate] civil authorities, for all legitimate authority is derived from God’s authority [is there any among us today who believes that God’s authority is NOT legitimate], and the existing [LEGITIMATE] authority is appointed under God. To oppose [legitimate] authority then is to oppose God, and such opposition is bound to be punished.
3-4 The honest citizen has no need to fear the keepers of [legitimate] law and [legitimate] order, but the dishonest man will always be nervous of them [who is them? — the keepers of legitimate law and legitimate order]. If you want to avoid this anxiety, just lead a law-abiding life [a life that acknowledges legitimate law], and all that can come your way is a word of approval. The [legitimate] officer [and it is right there, in that word “officer” that elected officials are included] [who is in a position of legitimate authority ] is God’s servant for your protection. But if you [as a citizen] are leading a wicked life you [the citizen] have reason to be alarmed. The “power of the [legitimate civil] law” which is vested in every legitimate officer, is no empty phrase. He [the legitimate officer] is, in fact, divinely appointed to inflict God’s punishment upon evil-doers.
5-7 You [citizens] should, therefore, obey the [legitimate] authorities, not simply because it is the safest, but because it is the right thing to do. It is right, too, for you to pay taxes, for the [legitimate] civil authorities are appointed by God for the good purposes of public order and well-being. Give everyone his legitimate due, whether it be rates, or taxes, or reverence, or respect!
So, even the great prophets, apostles, and writers of the Bible (including the writer of Romans Chapter 13) understood that human authority – even civil authority – IS LIMITED. – but we will never know that until we understand the Bible, the original intent of the US Constitution, and American history
Now, I have another question: Wherein lays the problem? The problem will be found in my “boil-the-frog” analogy.
Boiling the Frogs
For over 100 years, three frogs have been boiled — one frog in each of three different pots:
POT #1
The Bible is in the first pot and has been slow-cooked in the waters of political correctness.
POT #2
Public education is in the second pot and has been slow-cooked in the water of behavioral psychology. (Dewey, Thorndike, Kattell, McKeen)
When changes began in our education system, John Dewey wrote: Change – must – come – gradually.
To force it unduly would compromise its final success by favoring a violent reaction.”
DON’T MISS THIS:
“To John Dewey, the ONE part of OUR identity that is the most private, THE MIND, [Dewey says] is really not the property of the individual at all, but of humanity, which is simply a euphemism for the collective or the state.
Now, when Washington DC believes that you and I are not competent enough to handle all that life deal us, the federal government begins to take over, in a slow and malignant way, to handle the affairs of our lives — in comes government, and out goes our natural and revealed rights.
That concept is the very basis of our progressive-humanist-behaviorist education system.”
POT #3
The US Constitution is in the third pot and has been slow-cooked in the water of political progressivism.
Now, when you slow-cook the Bible, and when you slow-cook public education, the door swings wide open for a majority of elected officials in Washington DC to slow-cook the Constitution, and turn the table of sovereignty upside down in favor of a centralized government to the detriment of the natural and revealed rights of “we-the-people”.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. admonished the modern-day church, and we need to hear his words.
He said that the church is “so often, the arch-supporter of the status quo.”
He continued, “Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church,
the power structure of the average community
is consoled by the church’s silent
and often vocal sanction of things as they are.”
In a nutshell . . .Dr. King was saying that . . .
- The church is either silent in the midst of government overreach, or
- The church condones government usurpations.
I ask each of us who are here — evaluate the status of the church today:
Was Dr. King not addressing the church in our day and time?
Concerning the three frogs that I mentioned a moment ago, . . .
- Pastors, whoever we are, across the State of Arkansas, we need to abandon messages steeped in political correctness and once again return to declaring the entire council of God’s Word with a biblical worldview in mind, so that our congregations can be salt and light in the public square.
- Pastors across our State of Arkansas need to realize that neither the Constitution nor the Bill of Rights prohibit the church from involvement in the political arena.
- In fact, it’s just the other way around.
Pastors are the voices for God to the church, and we as Pastors CANNOT legitimately separate the U.S. Constitution from the Bible.
Historically, the Bible chronologically preceded the Constitution, and our Founding Fathers developed and ratified a Constitution and Bill of Rights that was designed to protect our natural and revealed rights declared in the Bible.
The Bible and the Constitution cannot be separated, and the Bible is sovereign.
In spite of this, the religious and political progressives in our country . . .
- are bent on destroying the organic connection between the Bible and the Constitution;
- they are bent on distorting the intended meaning of both the Bible and the Constitution;
- they are bent on spreading the deceptive lie that the Bible should have no impact in the public arena.
I have another question: Should any rational Pastor believe that God the Father has decreed the legitimacy of tyrannical governments?
I say emphatically that the answer is NO.
In the USA, our federal government becomes tyrannical when the Legislative Branch passes unconstitutional laws, the Executive Branch writes unconstitutional Executive Orders, and the Judicial Branch rules unconstitutionally.
It should further be understood that State Government fails when it fails to INTERPOSE between Arkansans and Federal Government overreach. (The 10th Amendment remains Constitutional in spite of the Doctrine of Inclusion).
We are not required to obey illegitimate government laws, regulations, or policies.
Tyrannical government begins to emerge when the pulpit fails to teach the moral and civil law contained in the Bible, and when public schools are mandated by the government to remove the Bible from its classrooms, hallways, sports complexes, and meetings – contrary to our Constitution, Bill of Rights, and American history.
If we as Pastors will preach and teach a biblical worldview, we will instruct our congregations in both their moral and civil responsibilities.
Our present administration in Washington DC, as of January 20th, 2017, cannot by itself, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
But it can, if and when, we as Pastors begin, or continue, to preach and teach the whole council of God’s Word, with a biblical worldview, uniting the Bible and an originalist interpretation of the Constitution in our messages, and then encourage Godly-righteous men and women in our congregations to run for public office.
With this in mind, I want to encourage every Pastor and Elected Official in Arkansas to STAND IN THE GAP with ARPN as we fulfill our MISSION, VISION, and PURPOSE in Arkansas.
Based upon Romans 13:1-7, the ARPN_MT INITIATIVE is designed to bring Arkansas Pastors and Legislators together to move toward these three reachable goals:
- To re-establish the CORRECT biblical relationship between “Church and State”.
- To re-establish the CORRECT historical relationship between “Church and State”.
- To create opportunities to build relationships between Pastors and Elected Officials on a BIBLICAL basis rather than on a POLITICAL
May God bless each one of us, and may GOD BLESS AMERICA.
Mission, Vision, Purpose
The Mission
- To identify, encourage, equip, educate and network pastors and church members to “Stand in the Gap for Truth”
- To be a voice for Truth and an advocate for Pastors in the Public Square by providing Bible-based and Constitutionally consistent analysis and recommendations on matters of public policy.
- To strengthen the Biblical relationship between pastors and elected officials, through various private and public meetings for prayer, study, and policy discussion.
The VISION
In order to fulfill the mission of ARPN/APN, we will endeavor to:
- Apply the Truth of Scripture to every aspect of life – Family, Civil Government, Church
- Encourage pastors to boldly preach the Truth and engage their congregations in taking part in our political process on a non-partisan basis
- Motivate Christians to become informed and participate in cultural issues from a Biblical basis
- Strengthen the Biblical relationship between pastors and elected officials as fellow “Ministers of God”
The PURPOSE
To establish a dynamic network of Biblically faithful pastors and citizen leaders who are committed to the Truth, who believe in the Authority of Scripture, who boldly preach the whole counsel of God with a disciplined application of a Biblical World-view to public policy, and who are building a permanent infrastructure of Biblically faithful.
PLEASE VISIT www.arpastors.net