A fallen nation

In 1532, a great war was coming to an end in the country of Peru, the empire of the Incas. The brothers Oascar and Atahualpa had been fighting great battles with over thirty thousand men each. It was on this day that the battle ended in the death of Oascar.Not long after that, Fransisco de Pizarro arrived in the capital of Cuzco, to meet with the Incan emperor. There was a fight, and the Emperor of the Incas, Atahualpa, was captured. After being captured the emperor promised Pizarro a room full of gold to a certain line on the wall. And so over the days and weeks the gold was collected, until rumors spread that more of the Inca's men were coming to attack the Spaniards. Pizarro, after wavering, ordered Atahualpa executed. Fighting continued, but it was the end of the Incan empire.

Now leave Peru with me, and fast forward almost four hundred years, allow the jungle to reclaim the houses, allow the cries of the last person with a memory of the nation that once was to be forgotten, and then let us come to America.


The grandfather, Hiram Bingham I, was a missionary to the Hawiian Islands, his son was a missionary as well, going to the South Sea Islands. That was Hiram Bingham II, his son, Hiram Bingham III was a history professor for a time and eventually headed up an expedition to Peru to search for the last missing cities.
In 1911-1912, his expedition forded rivers, climbed mountains and hacked through jungles as they searched and then, they found it. Resting on the top of a mountain, surrounded by impenetrable passes and un-fordable rivers, a city that no Spaniard had ever known existed, that no man had ever discovered since the collapse of the Incan empire, the city of Machu Pichu. These ruins were all that was left of an empire that had once stretched the length of a continent, and and had massive pyramids, complex architecture and incredible mathematical precision. What caused it all to fall at its height?
Internal conflict, battles between brothers, a low value of human life, a barbarism of sacrifice in which young girls had their hearts torn out and young boys were cast into pools of water. The nation may have been great, but its pride and corruption brought it low.
People like their bread and circuses, but when the baker is sick, and the clown's foot is hurt, the nation has nothing to sustain them with.
Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

We Are All Religous

From Charles Lyle, to John Dillinger, all men wear glasses. From the man with the twenty-twenty vision that flies a fighter jet, to the man that walks the streets with a cane and a cup, all of mankind wears glasses.

Any person that has ever stepped into a toy store has seen the green-tinted or blue-tinted glasses. Just as these glasses tint everything you look at, so does your worldview. From why you eat, to where you meet on Sunday for church, to your doctrine on the depravity of man, is tinted by your worldview glasses. Sometimes you are inconsistent, as when a Christian says “History repeats itself” or when an atheist says “It is wrong to kill” when they have no higher law to appeal to.

No man can say he wears no glasses, for saying he has clear glasses proves he is blind. If a man eats he proves his worldview has a belief in the continuance of existent life, if he makes his choices based on the fact that he thinks it is fun, then he proves his glasses are those which tint all things in the color of his desires. His religion is comfort, and his God himself.

If this is true, then as Christians we should seek to make our worldview glasses the Bible. We should take the Bible, and tint our entire outlook upon life by its color.   We should believe the Scriptures as we believe the sun has risen, not because we see the source, but because by its light, we see everything else.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

The Demographic Nightmare

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Not very long after that, He created man, when He did; He ordered them to be fruitful, and to multiply. Today, neither of these are happening as they should be.

America, according to USA TODAY, has a current birthrate 2.1, the bare minimum needed to resupply the population. However, this is expected to drop by 2014 to 1.87. At such a low rate, we are no longer even reproducing ourselves. By contrast, in 1800 the average birthrate for the American family was 6.0. However, America is doing seemingly better than most countries, Taiwan has a birth rate of 1.1, and I have been told that South Korea has a birthrate of .9.

So how did this happen? Ever since the flood the population has been growing (and still is, as people now live longer) what is causing this to happen? Why is no one having children? What has happened in a country where we are richer than anyone before us, have better houses, and, (we think) the best ever technology?

It is an interesting trend in our culture that we are having fewer children. However, culture is religion externalized; therefore, it must be something about the American religion and the world religion in general that is causing this.

Let us look at our religion shall we?

Education is valued highly, and our experts are our oracles. Life is worthless, and comfort is more important than anything else in life. We value things more than relationships, and our view of progress is miniaturization. As Rudyard Kipling said, we have a deep and unacknowledged boredom, everything has to be fast, or else we want none of it.

If this is our religion, is it any wonder that no one wants more children? A child costs money, money that could be spent on ourselves. A child costs time, time that could be spent on ourselves. A child is a life, yet we think little of life, as we are so desensitized to killing and blood by our televisions, games, and films. A child, in Adam Smith’s time was an asset, now, since they no longer work, and are spoiled to the hilt, they are liabilities which we must have tax breaks for.

Western culture is frightened of overpopulation. –Utter nonsense! It is not overpopulation that causes famines, it is worldview. In Communist China, in 1967, 97% farming industry was put under government control. The 3% that was left in private hands produced a third of the food output.1

Perhaps the largest problem in the birthrate conundrum is the childhood of American boys. According to the book The Second Mayflower, Kevin Swanson, a radio broadcaster and pastor, states that 70% of young men are not grown up by thirty years of age. If they are not grown up by then they will not have gotten married, thus, they are not having children.

The problem with America will not be solved by education, it will not be solved by an economic upturn, it will not be solved by a compensation plan for those that have children, it will not be solved by another stimulus package, and there is only one way to fix this problem.

The fear of God.

The fear of God which says we must obey God’s word, which says children are a blessing, which says men must grow up, which says he who finds a wife finds a good thing. That is how you fix a family that is how you fix a church that is how you fix a nation that is how you fix Western Civilization.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

(1 Inclined to Liberty.)

Can You Legislate Morality?

Your source of law is your source of truth, your source of truth is what will ultimately control you.

Throughout all history there have been two types of law and two types only. Man's, and God's. There is nothing else, no other permutation. From these two springs come all the rivers of thought on law. Man or God.

Almost every Christian has subscribed to the idea that man can be a good expositor and creator of law.

Anyone who attempts to bring the law of God to bear on law, is told "Man cannot legislate morality." In one sense, they are right, you cannot make people be moral. However, all you can legislate is morality. Every law you pass is an imposition of morality. If a law is passed for the creation of a state park, a morality is being foisted on us, that the government can allocate land, that it is OK to create sanctuaries from dominion. Whether you agree with state parks or not, it is still an imposition of morality. From laws on blue-jeans, to allocations of funds to schools, from the laws of warfare to whether or not you can use fluoride, morality is being foisted on you every time the dotted line at the bottom of a bill is signed by an executive.

This being true, what then, should be the morality we foist on people?

God's.

If that is said, many people become very emotional and say "Christ did away with the law of Moses." While it is true that we no longer have to follow the ceremonial laws of God, we absolutely must still follow the case laws as well as the moral law of the Old Covenant.

I Corinthians 10 says:

For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? ...

1Co 9:14  Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.

Here we have an old testament law, and then an application. The heart of this law is "Do not hamstring your servants." So while we cannot muzzle our oxen today, it does not mean that if you have no oxen the law does not apply to you, nor does it mean if you have no pastor it does not apply to you. You must find the expositorial application. There is an old testament law that says you must put a wall around the roof of your house. That does not mean if you have an A-frame you have to put a wall around the roof. In there time people sat on the roof, and so you were accountable if someone fell off, so you had to put a roof. So today what would this include? Backs on chairs, seat-belts, railings on balconies, warning signs on electric fences.

However, most Christians do not follow the law of God, and today almost none of our laws our based on it.

There are two main types of false law today.

• Natural
• Positive

Natural law is something that began to be widely propagated in the seventeen-hundreds. It is the idea that by smelling flowers, staring at trees and animals, and watching butterflies, you can find out what law is. However, how in the world do you get law from that? There is no way that you can find out the right or wrong about excise taxes by watching foxes. The animal kingdom, if followed, would teach us one thing, EAT OR BE EATEN. And also, no one agrees on natural law, therefore, we always devolve from that into positive law, which America has today.

Positive Law is that idea which says that man can decide law.

Can man decide law? I will answer with a resounding no! When man decides law on his own, he must look to his own mind, and what he thinks. That is the difference between democracy and monarchy. Monarchy is relying on the  depraved mind of the one, while democracy is relying on the depraved minds of the many.

When man is left to decide law, with no higher law then his own mind to look to, we rely on a broken reed, on a frayed anchor cable. No man has a perfect mind, thus no man can make a perfect law. If man can decide law, who is to say that one man's law is better than anther's? Who is to says Osama Bin Laden cannot decide law, who is to say who can? The lawmakers then become the strongest and right is might. Then truly it is EAT OR BE EATEN.

However, there is hope in all of this mire. God's law is "Love the lord your God with all your strength, soul, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself." If this law is instituted, we need never fear economic downturns, for we know God is Sovereign, and we love his law. So let us not look to man, nor to butterflies, nor to some quaint idea in the mind of a senator, but let us look to God, who has the perfect mind, the perfect law, and the perfect Sovereignty.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott.