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Clive Staples Lewis [1898-1963] was an Oxford medieval scholar who held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University and Cambridge University. In 1931, Lewis converted to Christianity, abandoning his strongly held atheism, and would go on to be christened ‘The Apostle to the Skeptics.’
As one of the most influential apologists in Christian history, he said: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
C.S. Lewis was the name the world would come to know as he authored 40 books, including “Mere Christianity,” which was voted in 2000 by Christianity Today the most outstanding book of the 20th century. That particular work was derived from a series of 15-minute talks on BBC radio by Lewis during the dark days of World War II in England. Originally broadcasted under the title “Right and Wrong: A Clue to the Meaning of the Universe,” Lewis ultimately made the case for the divinity of Jesus Christ.
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice.
“Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.”
There is no neutral ground in the universe, C.S. Lewis observed, every square inch, every split second is claimed by God, and counterclaimed by Satan.
A century earlier, Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer [1801-1876], a Dutch Protestant political leader and staunch critic of the French Revolution, brought up arguments in defense of Christian politics, prudence, liberty and opposition to the revolutionary anti-god movement that had begun in 1789. Boldly fighting against capitulation to the secularism of his day, Groen van Prinsterer called his perspective the Anti-Revolutionary or Christian Historical Worldview.
“In its essence, the Revolution is a single great historical fact: the invasion of the human mind by the doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of man, thus making him the source and centre of all truth, by substituting human reason and human will for divine revelation and divine law.
“The Revolution is the history of the irreligious philosophy of the past century; it is, in its origin and outworking, the doctrine that—given free reign—destroys church and state, society and family, produces disorder without ever establishing liberty or restoring moral order and, in religion, inevitably leads its conscientious followers into atheism and despair.”
Not more than a week ago, a Gideon rose in Raleigh, North Carolina, in the person of Pastor John K. Amanchukwu, Sr., who is described as “a rising voice exposing the racist ideologies of abortion and critical race theory.”
On October 18, 2022, Pastor John stood before the Wake County School Board and thundered: “This past year we spent $1 million on a ‘diversity’ office … we’re wasting money on a diversity, equity and inclusion office while we are failing Black students in the name of diversity. Today students are trapped, and many students need options, they need school choice, they need the opportunity to take their taxpayer dollars and take them to school systems that will benefit them, support them and educate them.
“As we talk about inclusion and making sure that the trans student feels comfortable and the queer student feels comfortable, what does that have to do with reading, writing and arithmetic?
“We are teaching cultural Marxism and grooming children to be the next pervert, we are damaging our kids in this public school system and it needs to stop!”
Matthew Henry [1662-1714] was born in Wales but spent much of his life in England. He first started studying law in 1686, but instead of pursuing a career in law he began to preach in his neighborhood. After the declaration of liberty of conscience by James II in 1687, he was privately ordained in London, and on June 2, 1687, he began his regular ministry as non-conformist pastor of a Presbyterian congregation at Chester.
In 1704, he started working on his famous “Commentary on the Whole Bible,” later titled “An Exposition of the Old and New Testament,” completing it from Genesis to Acts by his death 10 years later. After his death other like-minded authors prepared the remainder from Henry’s manuscripts.
In a chapter on 1 Samuel, Henry writes: “If God and His grace do not rule us, sin and Satan will have possession of us.”
American Christendom seemingly doesn’t understand Civics 101, or that culture is the public manifestation of someone’s religion. Over the last 100 years, with the church in a culturally inactive or dormant state, secularism’s disciples and exponents have elected their representatives, created and passed legislation reflecting their values and codified into law their religion.
If America is to make it through, every church in America must have a pastor, elder, deacon or congregant running for local office.
Dr. Tim LaHaye [1926-2016] was an evangelical Christian minister who wrote more than 85 books, both fiction and non-fiction, including the Left Behind series of apocalyptic fiction. In his “The Battle for the Mind: A Subtle Warfare,” published in 1980, he proposed:
“Let me show you one simple method by which ministers could change the moral climate of our age in just one decade. If all 110,000 ministers in our country would ask God to use them to recruit just two members each year to run for public office, starting with school boards, city councils and so forth, assuming elections every other year, that would total 550,000 candidates. With adequate support from their friends, church associates and neighbors, at least 25% would be elected. Many would gain name recognition and proceed to state and national office, and eventually a majority of the 537 now misrepresenting us in Washington would be replaced by those who would truly represent the moral majority. Personally, I believe this plan is so practical and feasible . . . “
All in all, there is very good news! Gideon’s and Rahab’s are beginning to stand. {eoa}
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David Lane is the founder of the American Renewal Project.
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