Latest Martyr: Charlie Brown
December 2nd, 2009We Elected a Grinch
Obama knocked Charlie Brown off the air so he could hold a Tuesday night press conference. Does anyone else think this is completely appropriate?
Obama is a humanist. He is nominally Christian, but he opposes Christian goals as a matter of course, and he thinks Israel is no more important than any other nation. To many, including me, he appears to see himself as a secular messiah who will fill in the gaps where God (in the humanist mind) has failed. The Charlie Brown Christmas special is one of our nation’s few prime-time, network-TV celebrations of God’s greatest gift. It only makes sense that Obama would have no feelings for this beautiful program, and it may very well be that hidden forces motivated him to oppose it. God was supposed to be glorified last night. Instead, Obama got the spotlight.
You’ll notice that he didn’t mess with “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” which is a cartoon that denies God glory. Dr. Seuss and liberal Chuck Jones removed all mention of Jesus from the holiday and turned it into an exaltation of pretty but powerless and limited earthly love. Jesus was not primarily about good behavior or warmth or kindness; those are only parts of the picture. He was about total submission to God’s will, and he was about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He was about the Torah and sacrifice and sin and redemption. He did not save humanists or Muslims or Buddhists, no matter how nice they may be. He saved only those who admit their sins and their need for salvation. He works in our lives today, not just by moralizing and correcting, but by giving us the supernatural power to behave righteously. You can’t get that from philosophy or self-help books.
People forget that the Bible says Jesus will eventually make his robe wet with the blood of his human enemies. He will literally kill them in person, just as the Holy Spirit executed Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts. He sent an angel to kill 185,000 soldiers in a single night. He killed the firstborn males of Egypt, including babies and puppies. He allowed Hezekiah’s descendants to be taken captive and castrated by the Babylonians. He caused Herod to be eaten alive by worms. He turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt. Lovey-dovey pacifist humanists don’t act that way. There is more to Jesus than hugs and kisses. Maybe pastors don’t talk about it much, because God is not blessing their ministries with followers, and they think the answer is to tell people what they want to hear. But anyone who makes an effort to read the Bible will see that our loving God can be the most terrible enemy imaginable. This, after all, is the person who created hell.
I love Dr. Seuss, but even I am not dumb enough to prefer his work to the gospel.
The pleasant thing about God’s severe side is that he uses it to chastise us, for our own instruction, and to fight our battles. When your enemies attack you unfairly and without reason, you don’t want a pacifist on your side. You want the God who sent his angel to kill 185,000 Assyrians. At the very least, you want the God who closed the mouths of the lions for Daniel.
It seems like Obama’s behavior is calculated to offend Christians and observant Jews. I’m sure it’s not (at least not in Obama’s mind), but it works out that way, over and over. We all need to pray this man gets a clue.
I’ll be pretty busy today. I’m working on something important, and I would appreciate prayers for my success. I have learned that there is absolutely nothing I can be sure of accomplishing without God’s favor.
ABC says Charlie Brown will return next week. Let’s hope Obama does not return in 2012.
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:16 AM
Just a Cigar, in this case. Charlie Brown has bee the first of the two shown for every 39 years of my life, and The President has always done 8:00 pm pressers.
Here’s a notion to consider in Prayer: God Alone decides to whom He extends salvation. Yes, He has promised salvation to people who repent and turn to him. As God, He reserves the right to extend it elsewhere as well.
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:49 AM
“Just a Cigar, in this case. Charlie Brown has bee the first of the two shown for every 39 years of my life, and The President has always done 8:00 pm pressers.”
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People always read every third word of what I write and then comment anyway. I’m glad they don’t have to work as hard as I do.
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There are 52 weeks in a year. Which other weeks feature a treasured half-hour network show devoted to the gospel? There are seven nights a week. Which other night this week features such a show?
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What does “just a cigar” mean? Are you suggesting I accused Obama of a conspiracy? Can you show me where I did that?
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“Here’s a notion to consider in Prayer: God Alone decides to whom He extends salvation. Yes, He has promised salvation to people who repent and turn to him. As God, He reserves the right to extend it elsewhere as well.”
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So God saves nice people based on their works. Can you cite scripture? Do you know anyone who qualifies? I don’t. The Bible makes it clear that Jesus is the only way to the Father, and that works can save no one.
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People who have had visions of heaven tell us aborted babies reside there. Is this what you’re referring to? These are human beings who have no sin; God has no reason to condemn them. Are you comparing them to grown Buddhists and Muslims? The Bible says Enoch was taken up before he died, and the Jews teach that he was assumed before he could sin, so he never faced condemnation. Are you comparing him to Buddhists and Muslims? We are taught that righteous people who lived before Jesus were held in reserve until the sacrifice, and that they were then granted salvation. Are you suggesting that nice people who live today and ignore the gospel are the same as Moses and Noah and Abraham who, according to doctrine, received salvation through Jesus?
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I don’t think any Christian can, in good conscience, say something that might encourage another person to deny Jesus.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:20 PM
“It seems like Obama’s behavior is calculated to offend Christians and observant Jews. I’m sure it’s not (at least not in Obama’s mind)” –
I’m not so sure it’s not calculated, and I’m still praying for Obama (Psalm 109:8 especially). 2012 is a long time to put up with him!
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:45 PM
It will always be about Obama the Almighty anything else is a lesser god.
I am fortunate that I have the DVD and my 4 yr old has asked to watch it every day since Thanksgiving. Truthfully, I am surprised the networks still run it, unedited. In the future, I can see them muzzling Linus. We still plan on sitting down next week and watching it on the network. There will always be something special about looking forward to the one opportunity to see it run during the season on a station rather than the instant gratification of popping in a dvd.
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:46 PM
“So God saves nice people based on their works.”
Just an observation: Greg didn’t say that. If you’re going to take him to task for not reading your post more carefully… I’m just sayin’.
December 2nd, 2009 at 7:54 PM
“Greg didn’t say that.”
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This is not a helpful comment. Greg implied it by suggesting God saves people who don’t accept Jesus, in response to my argument that God does not save people because they are nice, i.e. because they have good works. You are making things less, not more, clear.
December 3rd, 2009 at 1:59 PM
RE Cigars – “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” I really don’t think Obama was targetting Charlie Brown. I think that’s reading too much into it.
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RE Nice people – Not what I’m saying.
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Budhists are actually a good example, though. I can’t cite an exact passage, but from what I understand Christ died once for all Mankind, bearing all their sins. God’s power and wisdom are infinite, so to put Him in a box and say only Formula A leads to heaven doesn’t make much sense.
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Settle down – Yes, Scripture says that if we repent our sins and turn to Christ he will redeem us, we will have eternal life, and we will have an abundant life. That through Christ, The Kingdom of God can come. That’s the Good News we should all speak.
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But…God’s power and wisdom are infinite. He will be what He will be, and is not subject to any limits, especially those imposed by our earthly understanding. God will redeem whomever He chooses, and leave out whomever He chooses. We don’t know what He chose to do with those generations of mankind who preceded Christ, Save possibly Enoch. We don’t know what he chose to do with every person who’s died since Christ, and since the whole world had a chance to hear the Good News.
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And I might be totally wrong and the strictest legalism applies. I should consider that in Prayer. My intuition tells me we’re all right as we see it, but that we’re unable to perceive all the dimensions – that we’re looking at the spiritual equivalent of a 2-D projection of a cube.
December 3rd, 2009 at 2:02 PM
Saying people only get salvation through the sacrifice is not “legalism.” It is the ABOLITION of legalism. The very opposite.
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“I really don’t think Obama was targetting Charlie Brown. I think that’s reading too much into it.”
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So do I. I thought that was clear. Hence my remark about only reading every third word of the post.
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:44 PM
Greg – He can indeed do as He pleases, being God and all, but being God (holy, holy, holy and such) He wouldn’t lie to us in Scripture. So we can take His word and go with it as true.
December 4th, 2009 at 6:20 AM
I saw a bumper sticker last spring that said “Who would Jesus bomb” as a protest against the Iraq war. My immediate response was to say “Keep it it up and you’ll see!”
December 4th, 2009 at 8:10 AM
“Saying people only get salvation through the sacrifice is not “legalism.” It is the ABOLITION of legalism. The very opposite.”
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Agreed. However, further saying, “And you claim the sacrifice by this method and this method only (which is not necessarily what you say; I’m thinking more of something like a Baptist who insists you must pray the words, “Jesus come in to my heart,) simply replaces one legalism with another.
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I don’t want this discussion to separate us. I’m so awed by how your relationship with God has grown in the past few years. It really seems to be bringing you joy and fulfillment, and I praise both Him and you for that. I just find the idea interesting — the Idea that God and God alone knows exactly how His Grace falls on us all, and our earthbound tradtitions can’t begin to fully grasp that. I’ve been in lots of different churches and have only in the last few years begun to understand my role in the spreading of the Gospel.