Letter to the Editor

I submitted the following letter to the editor to Joseph Farah of World Net Daily in response to his article entitled Another week that was.

Generally speaking I very much like Mr. Farah's editorials and believe he's making commendable efforts to positively influence others for Christ. This being said it would appear based on his article today that sometimes the method gets lost in the madness.

Below is the response I submitted to Mr. Farah:

Mr. Farah,

First let me say that I'm a long time reader of WND and I truly appreciate your usually solid and Biblical stands on the issues of the day, many of which are not picked up or reported by the MSM.

This being said, I found several of the positions you took within your article today to be uncharacteristically un-Biblical. While reading your article I found myself nodding in somber agreement with your unflattering assessment of the modern lukewarm, pathetic, Laodicean, nominal, professing Christian, yet in other paragraphs I found myself wondering if I was still reading the same author.

Now the type of Christian that you are - or more precisely the Christian worldview to which you hold - will surely affect the way you interpret what I have to say in my response to your article. Please understand that it isn't my intent to approach you during my missive with any ad hominem attacks, but rather it is my desire to respond to your editorial in the spirit of "earnestly contending for the faith" as admonished in Jude 1:3, and "In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;" as commended in 2 Timothy 2:25. Furthermore as born-again blood bought Christians we are to "...have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." (Ephesians 5:11)

Therefore it's as a brother in Christ that I write to you. Obviously I don't know you as an individual, but based upon what I've read of your writings you seem to hold to the orthodox, historic Christian faith; hence it is my hope that you will receive my message according to what I perceive to be our shared faith.

First, President Bush, for all his shortcomings - and they are legion - was inarguably granted his temporal earthly power by God Almighty, and Christians are in fact commanded to pray for our earthly rulers. You don't attempt to refute these points in your article therefore I don't intend to spend time belaboring the matter except to observe that while it seems that you may not particularly like these truths, they are truths nonetheless.

The portion of the article that actually grabbed my attention was the cavalier, flippant, and - perhaps this is hyperbole - dismissive attitude you took towards prayer. You asked a barrage of questions which culminated in "What is the proper role of a Christian in a free society? Is it merely to pray?" It’s on this subject that your Christian theistic worldview and mine apparently diverge. “Merely to pray?" "MERELY to pray?" you ask? Egads, man! Do you understand what prayer is to the Christian? Have you fallen for one of Satan's most ancient and pernicious lies? Have you read what the Bible has to say about prayer? MERELY TO PRAY?!?

Amazing!

Perplexing!

Disturbing!

Those are a few of the adjectives that come to mind if I correctly understand your low view of the power and importance of prayer. Prayer is nothing less than direct access to the throne of the Creator and Judge of the Universe! Prayer is something so precious and so powerful that the Bible describes it at "Jesus' custom"! Prayer is something so precious and so powerful that the Absolutely Holy, Just, and Righteous God of all creation will not even hear it unless it is spoken by a true born-again Christian, or unless it is a sinner's prayer for salvation uttered by one of His lost sheep in faith believing!

Sir, if I correctly understand your abysmally low view of prayer as portrayed in your own words today then I would suggest you conduct an immediate spiritual inventory and reevaluate the role of prayer in your Christian walk. Don't wait until you finish this e-mail. Stop now and come back to it later. Please. If I've misunderstood or misconstrued your position on the matter then I humbly apologize for my error and ask your forgiveness.

Secondly, what or where is the "free society" to which you're refer in your editorial? I know of none this side of heaven, but I'd deeply appreciate it if you could tell me where to find it. I’m certain that you couldn't possibly be referring to the corrupted, decadent Orwellian construct commonly known as the United States of America when you make reference to a "free society". The emperor has no clothes, Mr. Farah, and Elvis has left the building. Unless you subscribe to some type of obscure dominion theology that holds that the world must be evangelized and converted to Christ in order to usher in the Second Coming then I can't fathom your Christian motivation for "Taking America Back". Admittedly I've not read your book, and you may very succinctly exegete your theological principles therein, so in this case - and erring on the side of grace - I have no choice but to assume that you must possess some form of Christian guiding principle beyond being "salt and light" on this subject. I certainly hope this is the case.

Thirdly, with respect to the founding fathers, neither you, nor I, nor anyone else ought to enshrine these sinful men above what they were; which is sinful men. As has been often and rightly said, "The best of men are still men at best". As previously discussed, God Almighty is absolutely sovereign and He builds nations up and He casts them down; and the hearts of the kings are as rivers of waters in His hands. Therefore let us give credit where credit is due and not build high places and altars to idol gods of our own making regardless of how good, or noble, or worthy they may seem to our flesh. Rather since God Almighty saw fit in His sovereign unfolding of history to establish this country by using sinful men - just as He has with every other nation that’s ever existed - let us be thankful to Him that He chose to give us the life we live, and let us be thankful for where and when He chose that we should live it. It is enough, and He is sufficient.

Let us also be thankful to Him who perfectly chose the appointed time and place in which we live in order that we might, through His everlasting grace and mercy alone, have the opportunity to be partakers of His divine nature through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the cross and enjoy an eternal blessing beyond the power of mere human language to describe. Let also those who were born in North Korea, and China, and Russia, and Syria, and Iran, and anywhere else in the entire world and at any time in the past, present or future be likewise thankful for His gift of life and the opportunity He provides to come to know Him as Lord and Savior. For it is God alone who is the life giver and it is Him alone whom blood bought "men of every tribe, and tongue and nation" will one day worship in one accord.

With respect to the "tyranny of the Third Reich" I could but darkly chuckle thinking of how easily the ancient Romans make Hitler's SS appear as a troop of spit-shined Boy Scouts in comparison. How quickly we forget our history when is suits our personal agendas! Furthermore I fear your statement is quite the non sequitur since the type of nominal lukewarm Christian you rightly hold in such disdain would have quite probably fared very nicely in the Third Reich; in fact even handsomely I should think. As I recall their type are commonly known as the "Vichy Regime". For you see Mr. Farah, there is a clear and scriptural, distinction between the visible church of which you speak in your article and the invisible church of Jesus Christ. Whereas the visible church is made up of all those who profess Christ – regardless of whether the profession of faith is genuine or not – in contradistinction the invisible church is made up of the true Body of Christ and is hidden within the broader visible church. This is the pearl of great price to which our Lord referred in His parable in Matthew 13:46. It is also described as "a mystery" by the inspired Apostle Paul in the context of his discourse in Ephesians 5:32. So before you go to such lengths and expend such efforts bashing those cartoonish caricatures of Christianity you should know that God Almighty has already beaten you to the punch and likened them to vomit which He will someday spew forth from His mouth (Revelation 3:16). It is from among these wheat and tares, these sheep and goats, that there will someday emerge a faithful remnant who will hear those sweet and blessed words, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21); and it is likewise from among these divergent groups there will be exposed the apostate pretenders who will hear those bitter and baleful words, “I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity”. (Matthew 7:23)

In closing it isn't my intent to rebuke you personally in this "letter to the editor" but rather to expose certain thought patterns expressed in your article which seemed to be inconsistent with a high view of God Almighty and His infallible, inerrant, eternal, inspired, and authoritative Word. I hope you've received this message in the spirit it was intended and I hope you will keep fighting the good fight of faith.

. . . those who have been chosen of God . . . put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12)

In Christ,

Coram Deo

P.S. - I have posted this letter on my blog which is located at http://www.absolutedominon.blogspot.com