Laigle’s Forum

THE WHOLE ARMOR. Part 3
Resources for Debugging the Soul

If you think there is a dearth of resources available to combat the assaults outlined above, as well as a host of others, look around you.
 
There is an impressive array of DVDs, video tapes, web sites and books suitable for neutralizing these assaults from all sides. A surprising number of these have been produced by Dr. D. James Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Ministries. The list I present below is just a smattering of what is available:

The argument that the biblical story of Christ is not historical
If you have no cogent defense against this assertion, you may try reading D. James Kennedy’s Why I Believe. Dr. Kennedy rattles off the names of over 20 secular historians and writers of antiquity, including the prolific Roman historian Tacitus, who have mentioned Christ, 5 of these actually having written whole books on Christianity. One of them, Josephus, was a Jewish writer who, while denouncing Christ, admits that the latter performed miracles (which Josephus ascribes to black magic).

The notion that Darwin renders the Bible obsolete
No one has ever had a more devastating effect on the Judeo-Christian heritage than Charles Darwin. His book makes an apparently credible case for the postulate that chance, not God, brought about the species. This idea was later extrapolated to explain the origin of the universe itself and theories, like the Big Bang, sprang up like mushrooms. Many members of the academic community hold steadfastly to the notion that if you believe in creation, you are softheaded, hopelessly antiquated and have no place among them. There have been numerous cases of brilliant scholars and researchers ostracized from academe simply because they did not pay obeisance to Darwin and/or expressed interest in intelligent design instead.

One sure-fire antidote to Darwinistic fundamentalism is the book Thousands not Billions by Dr. Don DeYoung, who, as part of a team of scientists, engaged in an 8 year research project entitled Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth (RATE).

Though less of a scientific refutation of the theory, the book Evolution’s Fatal Fruit, by former atheist Tom DeRosa, nonetheless paints a stark portrait of the devastating effects, from Ausschwitz to the American eugenics movement, that Darwinism has had on humanity. So does the masterful video/DVD Darwin’s Deadly Legacy, produced by Coral Ridge Ministries.

The myth that Christians are supposed to be neutral and unengaged (especially with regard to politics)
Nothing is more infuriating to me than an unengaged Christian who when you mention, for example, the latest assault on school children by a homosexual agenda poised to cram a deadly lifestyle down the kids’ throats, simply smile and say: “Well, we’re in the last days. This is to be expected.” Would these people let someone kick them in the shins and not flinch?

I don’t want to see a smile at that point. I want to see anger and a fierce resolve to resist, in an effort to keep America’s kids safe from further spiritual pollution. Christians are uniquely positioned and endowed to care for and restore a nation in which young people and children can feel safe. Yet they are botching the job scandalously.

Frankly, the tenacity with which some of these folks cling to, even stoutly defend, their inaction is almost more than I can bear. If only they expended a fraction of the energy defending the faith that they expend in defense of their indefensible torpor. It reminds me of a snail stuck to a wall, hard to peel off, but really, not going anywhere either. So why fight so hard for the right to be violated and maligned?

For those who would like to understand this phenomenon of the tenacious Christian do-nothing, and for an antidote to this disagreeable sluggard that too many of us are, I recommend the book Myths, Lies & Half Truths by Gary DeMar.

The myth that current views on extra-marital sexual gratification, gay marriage, abortion and divorce are the result of natural cultural evolution
A single powerful resource, the book The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian, shows that, far from being free and uninhibited, those who follow the trend toward the moral lowlands are in fact pawns of the Left in Hollywood, Madison Avenue, academe and the media, who have cynically engineered our national moral deterioration to achieve selfish ends.

The myth, highly popular in Europe, that religion (but primarily Christianity, so the story goes) causes wars and hence kills people
Here my first recommendation is a book that is not only not written by Christians, it is in fact the product of a team of leftist French researchers, namely, The Black Book of Communism (Le livre noir du communisme), by Stephane Courtois et al.

The most powerful argument these authors present is that communism caused the deaths of almost 100 million people worldwide, not in wars but in campaigns by communist leaders against their own countrymen. From Stalin to Pol Pot to Kim Jong Il, far more people have died as a result of Leftism than as a result of religious wars, proving that it is in fact the lack of faith in God that leads to death.

The myth that Israel and the Islamic world are moral equivalents and that if the Jews and Christians understand and come to respect Islam, we can negotiate peace between the two
One of the best resources on the Middle East and its recent history is the DVD Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in the Middle East (Balfour Books), which shows how the Palestinians reneged on every one of the terms of the Oslo Accord, while the Israelis were in compliance with every one of these terms, and in some cases, had been in compliance before the accord was signed in 1993. Terrorism in fact doubled the year of the signing.

The myth that the founders of our nation were deists and that their model was the godless French Revolution
Read One Nation Under God by Dr. David C. Gibbs or view the video by that name available through Coral Ridge Ministries. (Research has shown that almost all of the Founders were Christians).

The myth that the ACLU was founded by sincere people with a genuine interest in preserving our Constitutional rights and that their activities are all directed at fulfilling this purpose
After founding the ACLU, roger Baldwin wrote:

For further details, read the book Indefensible: 10 Ways the ACLU is Destroying America, by Sam Kastensmidt and/or view the videos The ACLU Exposed and The War on Religious Liberty, available from Coral Ridge Ministries.

The myth that Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code is based on solid science
Read either of the books The Da Vinci Myth vs. Gospel Truth by D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe and The Da Vinci Deception  by Erwin Lutzer,  or view The Da Vinci Delusion, all available from Coral Ridge Ministries.

The notion that the proper role of good Christians is to wait for Jesus, pray and not to resist the authorities
In his book Myths, Lies and Half-Truths, Gary DeMar shows examples of godly resistance in both the Old and New Testaments.
 
The myth that Christian politicians are to serve as a guide for their constituents, not the other way around
I have not found much on this topic, but an online article entitled My Speech in Boise, Idaho, by Pastor Chuck Baldwin is a good first step. I believe that books will later be written on how Christians compromised freedom by giving carte blanche to President Bush in his actions aimed at keeping the borders open, imprisoning border guards and arresting and court-martialing marines for following orders, and in massively transferring constitutional rights from the states to the federal government, for example, in No Child Left Behind.

I believe that resisting and combating this dangerous “set-em-and-forget-em” approach to elected Christian politicians will be the next challenge for Christians.

Protestantism was born of the notion that the individual Christian must obey God and not man, in keeping with the scriptures (Acts 5:20).

The last 8 years have seen a severe erosion of this doctrine. The result has been an erosion of our constitutional rights. Any erosion of constitutional rights opens the door for further abuses by the Left, such as hate crimes legislation aimed at criminalizing Biblical speech, for example, where it touches on homosexuality, but eventually, any speech that “offends” any group.

I believe that how Christians learn from this hands-off experience with government will determine America’s future and the future of religious freedom.

Updates for Continuous Debugging
There are numerous ways to update the antivirus system for your soul by subscribing to some of the newsletters available on the internet.

To keep abreast of political events that affect our culture and to fight back on line by means of mass mailing campaigns to offenders in government, media, corporations and others, you can subscribe, for example, to the following newsletters:

Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum
Phyllis does not compromise with politicians on either side of the aisle, including the mainstream Religious Right, to water down her message. She lets the chips fall where they may.

With AFA Update you will be able to participate in important campaigns that impact our culture.

The Family Research Council’s update keeps voters and activists abreast of culturally relevant political happenings.

NumbersUSA is a site that is not aimed specifically at any religious or other group. However, it is the best source of information on illegal immigration you will find anywhere. It also enables the subscriber to participate, free of charge, in fax campaigns to help mitigate the effects of illegal immigration and open-borders policies.
Immigrants do not leave their cultural baggage at the border. Ironically, they tend to support, in their new homeland, the kind of corrupt government they are attempting to escape, that is, the notion that government is their benefactor, not the original American idea of a plain vanilla framework within which creative, hard-working individuals supply the content. Continued illegal immigration will therefore eventually doom the American dream sought by these immigrants—and politicians—seeking short-term gains.

The Traditional Values Coalition provides updates on government efforts that affect the culture.

What You Can Do to Help
You can read up on the issues using many of the resources listed above and others, acquire as many of the above-listed DVDs as possible and invite your family and friends and acquaintances from church, work or around the neighborhood to come and view them with you. Afterwards, you can discuss the content. Don’t be surprised if many of them dispute the content. Sit quietly and get their input. If they disagree, just quietly ask why, and when they respond, listen graciously and offer some of your own experiences or input as appropriate, in the most non-confrontational way possible. Don’t worry if they seem to have rejected the message. New ideas and information take some time to sink in.

Finally…
Some readers will no doubt be disappointed that I omitted your favorite sites and other resources in this brief survey article. I therefore invite you to send additional resource information by responding to this article and/or writing the author directly.
 
Contact the author: don@zoilandonsplace.com

Donald Hank is a translator and translation agent residing in Wrightsville, PA with his wife and daughter. In addition to studies in US colleges, he has studied at the Philippsuniversität in Marburg, West Germany, the Alliance Française in Paris, the University of Leningrad in the USSR and the Mandarin Training Center in Taipei, Taiwan. He served in the Peace Corps in El Salvador in the late 60s. He has a Bachelor’s degree in French and German and a Master’s in Russian language and literature. Reared in a Christian home, he spent 40 years in self-imposed exile from all that he was taught as a youngster, enslaved by powerful leftist myths that emerged in the 60s and have taken root since then. In due time, God came for him, freed him from darkness and gave him the commission to go and free others.

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