Daniel 3:8-30
Daniel 3:8-12
Daniel 3:12
Daniel 3:14-15
Daniel 3:16-18
Daniel 3:24-25
Hebrews 13:5
Erwin Lutzer in his book “We Will Not Be Silent”; sub-titled:
“Responding Courageously to Our Culture’s Assault on Christianity”, writes:
“In one of George Orwell’s essays we are given a graphic image of human lostness. He describes a wasp that was “sucking jam on my plate, and I cut him in half. He paid no attention, merely went on with his meal, while a tiny stream of jam trickled out of his severed esophagus. Only when he tried to fly away did he grasp the dreadful thing that had happened to him. It is the same with modern man.”
“Everything might seem normal among us. We have our homes, our vocations, and our salaries. Like the wasp, we are content because we still have elections, we still have courts. We still have a congress and a president. We are still able to preach the gospel in our churches. But recently we have faced a health pandemic, an economic crisis, and heightened racial conflict amid political wrangling and increased polarization. The underbelly of our nation is being eaten away and, like Orwell’s wasp, we might not recognize our true condition until we wake up and realize our wings have been severed. The America we thought we knew is no more. And our churches have accepted these changes with little more than a whimper.”
We are in a firestorm for the future of America. But more importantly, we are in a firestorm within our churches, some of which have already substituted culture in the place of the gospel. I want to inspire us to have the courage to walk toward the fire and not run away from the flames. God has brought us to this cultural moment, and our future cannot be taken for granted.
As has been said, “In a time of universal deception, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
In 2010, Erwin Lutzer published the book “When a Nation Forgets God”
“Martin Niemoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer gathered opposition to Hitler’s intrusion into the affairs of the church. When Hitler heard that there might be a church split because some pastors objected to his agenda, he summoned the leaders of the churches to a personal conference on January 25, 1934.
Niemoller and other members of the clergy walked past the SS guard to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin and soon were ushered into Hitler’s study:
Hitler began by reproaching his guests, treating them to a tirade about how he was misunderstood. “Peace” he said, is all that he wanted. “Peace between Church and state.” He blamed them for obstructing him, sabotaging his efforts to achieve it. Niemoller was waiting for a chance to speak, and when he had the opportunity, explained that his only object was the welfare of the church, the state, and the German people. Hitler listened in silence and then said, “You confine yourself to the Church. I’ll take care of the German people.”
The conversation then drifted to other themes. When it was over, Hitler shook hands with the clergy and Niemoller realized this would be his last opportunity to speak his mind. Carefully choosing his words, he said: “You said that ‘I will take care of the German people.’ But we too, as Christians and churchmen, have a responsibility toward the German people. That responsibility was entrusted to us by God, and neither you nor anyone in this world has the power to take it from us.” Hitler turned away without a word.
That same evening, eight Gestapo men ransacked Niemoller’s rectory for incriminating material. A few days later a homemade bomb exploded in the hall.”
“These threats were easier for Niemoller to bear than some of the criticism he received from his colleagues for his strong words to Hitler. Clearly the majority of the clergy had adopted an attitude OF SAFETY FIRST. More than two thousand pastors who had stood with Niemoller and Bonhoeffer withdrew their support. They believed that appeasement was the best strategy; they thought that if they remained silent, they could live with Hitler’s intrusion into church affairs and his political policies.”
One of Bonhoeffer ‘s famous quote is:
“The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.”
IT’S FOR THE COMMON GOOD, IT’S A MATTER OF RIGHTS, IT’S A MATTER OF JUSTICE.
George Orwell in his novel ‘1984’ the world is ruled by three superstates.
Oceania covers the entire continents of America and the British Isles. They are the main locations of the novel. George Orwell describes a chilling totalitarian state where the so-called MINISTRY OF TRUTH uses sinister language called NEWSPEAK, to brainwash the people. The slogan of Oceania is “WAR IS PEACE; FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.”
In other words, the elimination of individual freedom was sold to the population as a plus. Slavery to the state was presented as the gateway to freedom and prosperity. Conquest was sold as liberation. And everything done was always for “the good of the people”.
His name is Edward Bernays. He is the one who pioneered the scientific technique of what he called “engineering of consent”. During World War I, he was an integral part – along with Walter Lippman – of the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI), a powerful propaganda machine that advertised and sold the war to the American people as one that would “MAKE THE WORLD SAFER FOR DEMOCRACY”. The marketing strategies for all future wars would be based on the CPI model.
In this book Edward Bernays writers: “we are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of…..It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.”
You have heard it say that THE ONE WHO CONTROLS THE LANGUAGE WILL CONTROL THE DEBATE.
It’s another way of propaganda. The Bible calls it deception. Let’s just take one issue: Abortion!!!
• Those who oppose abortion are described as being “at war with women”.
• Pro-abortion advocates are “protecting women’s health”
• Pro-abortion advocates sponsor the “REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH ACT”
These are all propaganda slogans.
REALTY IS WE ARE KILLING PREBORN INFANTS.
Let me tell you, Hitler would have put it more delicately: “We will just put the baby on a low-calorie diet.”
