By Guest Column Rev. Dr. Bailey——Bio and Archives--October 2, 2010
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I am a Christian.... I have a deep faith.... I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.... That there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and there's an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived.... So.... It's perhaps an unlikely theological position for someone who places his faith squarely at the feet of Jesus to take, saying essentially that all people of faith -- Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, everyone -- know the same God.... That depends... on how a particular verse from the Gospel of John, where Jesus says, 'I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me,' is heard.The following analysis of his own testimony will prove that there would not be enough evidence to convict him for being a Christian, and it will remove all doubt whether he is in the Way or not. Firstly, he states that he is a Christian. Well...OK...that looks good as a starter on the surface. At the outset, he appears to be that which he professes to be, a Christian. However, I am not willing to go so far as did Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), "We must take his word for it." No. I will not take his word for it because I know for a fact that he is not a Christian based on his own statements. As they are held up to the light of God's Word, further analysis of each strips away any evidence that he is a Christian. Secondly, the President said, "I have a deep faith." Wow! Now there's a statement that jumps right off the pages of the Bible...a deep faith. I am a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; it would require me the rest of my life to expound on those great passages in the Bible), which speak of faith, especially those having to do with deep faith. (Hundreds of references to faith can be found through the use of an exhaustive Bible Concordance such as, Strong's.) Deep faith is vital: for believing in the God of the Bible; that He is Creator, and that He exists; for believing in Jesus Christ as the only Savior; for living a righteous life; for enduring persecution; for patience; for dying; for going to be with Christ; for reunion with loved ones who have died in Christ; for victory over sin and Satan in this life; and for ultimately escaping sin, death, hades, and the lake of fire in the life to come. Surely, one cannot fault the President for having a deep faith, but the value of one's faith depends upon the object toward which it is directed. That object is nowhere to be found in the "deep faith" of which he speaks. From this point onward, one can plainly see that the faith required by the God the Bible to be a real Christian, is sadly lacking in the words of the President. Thirdly, says he, "I am rooted in Christian tradition." Now, here is where the analysis begins to reveal the soil in which the root of his profession is grounded, tradition. Tradition. What is the meaning of the word, tradition? Webster's has: 1 a: an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (as a religious practice or a social custom) b: a belief or story or a body of beliefs or stories relating to the past that are commonly accepted as historical though not verifiable 2: the handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another without written instruction 3: cultural continuity in social attitudes, customs, and institutions 4: characteristic manner, method, or style (in the best liberal tradition). The definition above is inclusive of any tradition, in this case, the Christian tradition, which is part and parcel of the teachings of the Old and New Testaments, but Christian tradition is not where one should sink his/her root of belief. However, within that tradition one can find God's Way to Himself because of its teachings (I mean true doctrines not corrupted by different sects, cults, and the like.) Membership in Christian mainline denominational churches do not make one a Christian. That I was raised in the Christian tradition is a fact. I attended a Christian church regularly and was engaged in various practices having to do with Christianity. I was taught the Bible from childhood. My father and mother were true Christians who loved the Lord with all their hearts. My father was an evangelist and literally preached out his very soul, telling men and women about the measureless love of God through Christ Jesus, His Son. I was very fortunate to have been blessed by being brought up in the Christian tradition; and for that I am eternally thankful, but that did not make me a Christian. My father's Christianity was no merit for me as an individual, other than constantly teaching me to do right. I did not need to be taught to do wrong; I was already wired to do that by virtue of the fact that I was a descendant of Adam, having been born a sinner through him (Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12-14). The Gospel, the good news of how much God loved me through His Son, Jesus Christ, who died, was buried, and rose again from among the dead, which my father preached, took root in my heart; it was instrumental in my eventual being born again by God's Spirit (John 3:1-21). I did not become a Christian until shortly following the Korean War. On July 16, 1950, at the young age of 17, I found myself in the middle of a rice paddy, pinned down under a tank by heavy machinegun fire, while at the same time, a sniper was trying his best to pick me off with single shots. There, in the center of that rice paddy, I promised God that if He would bring me home safely, I would live for Him the rest of my life. After multiple wounds received and many months of hospitalization, and not until I reached the age of 22 did I receive Christ into my heart. I sank the deep root of faith in Him. He is the object of my faith. Having been rooted in Christ, by faith, makes me a Christian, not Christian tradition (Colossians 2: 6-10). Now, as to what the President terms "the Christian tradition." He prides himself in the fact that, beginning with his mother's teaching and 20 years of his life in Jeremiah Wright's church, his faith is rooted in the Christian tradition. In his book, Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, he states that his "... mother was a Christian...a lonely witness for secular humanism.... My mother's confidence in needlepoint virtues depended on a faith I didn't possess, a faith that she would refuse to describe as religious; that, in fact, her experience told her was sacrilegious: a faith that rational, thoughtful people could shape their own destiny." His mother, even though he says was a Christian, could not have been, according to sound Biblical teaching. Jeremiah Wright is not, either. Wright's roots are in Liberation Theology, and so are the President's. Liberation Theology is based on Marxism, not on Christ. Liberation Theology came to North America in the 1980s and was embraced by liberal blacks, thus becoming Black Liberation Theology. Jeremiah Wright preaches it with great fervor. The core of Black Liberation teaching is that man can be saved through the process of collective salvation. It is not based on main line Christian tradition. Those who embrace it, as does the President, see all religions as many paths to man's salvation. Any form of salvation must be accomplished through collective society whereby everyone becomes equal. The sins of human society are overturned and all are saved. Apart from collectivism, there is no salvation for the individual. Individual salvation is out of the question. Salvation, as Obama sees it, is as different from the salvation God offers through His Son, as the blackest darkness is from the lightest light. The President sat under Wright's teaching for 20 years and stated that Wright led him to Christ. Based on the teaching of Black Liberation Theology, he can hardly say that the Christ to whom Wright led him was the Christ of the Scriptures. Wright preaches another gospel, one other than the gospel of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:6-9). He has so corrupted the Gospel of Christ that one can hardly recognize the Christ of the Bible. The President knows about the Christ of the Bible, but he does not know Him as Savior, as will be seen through further analysis. Fourthly, the most telling and indisputable proof that the President is not a genuine Christian is based on the fact that he holds Jehovah, the God of the Bible and Judge of the earth, and His Way of coming to Him in utter contempt. He expresses exactly what he thinks of Jehovah and the Way. An aside: The term, the "Way," was adopted by true Christians during the infancy of the Church (Acts 9:2), which originated with Jesus' words to the disciples, "I am the way..." (John 14: 6). They were called Christians later, (Acts 11: 26). The President himself removes all doubt as to whether or not he is a Christian according to the Bible. This last item of evidence will show that the President is his own worst witness. The whole of the following last part is divided into a number of components; each is italicized in his words:
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. 24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' 29 "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man [Jesus Christ, brackets mine] he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead (Acts 17:22-31That all men are connected to God through creation is indeed, true. In that sense, and that sense only, is humanity connected to Him, but that is as far as it goes. When the plug was pulled through Adam's sin, so to speak, man became disconnected from the Creator, the power was cut off and humanity died, spiritually. The light went out in the souls of men. " For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles [animism, brackets mine].... They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen. " (Romans 1:21-23). Human beings, for the most part, have chosen not to retain God in their knowledge. The farther humanity has descended down the slide of time, from Adam to the present, the more blatantly they dishonor the Creator. Case in point: On September 17, the President spoke to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute 33rd Annual Award Gala. Quoting from the Declaration of Independence, one of the great political documents of America's history, here is what he read: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, endowed with certain unalienable rights, life and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He deliberately left out the words "by their Creator." Obviously it was intentional, given the fact that he was looking directly at a teleprompter. His intent was, no doubt, to discredit the Creator for having freely given those blessings. Mr. President "Thou conclud'st like the sanctimonious pirate, that went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scrap'd one [Thou shalt not steal] out of the table" (Shakespeare).
...Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." " Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit." "The poison of vipers is on their lips." "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know." "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
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