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The Soul of a Nation – Pete Garcia - https://www.rev310.com/2020/11/the-soul-of-a-nation
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12 The Biden-Harris campaign, recently switched campaign slogans from the generically bland, “Build Back Better,” to the emotionally charged “Battle for the Soul of a Nation.” But why was that? Was it because “Build Back Better” was already a campaign slogan for the United Nation’s Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development agenda? Yes. The UN’s Build Back Better (BBB) campaign (part of Agenda 2030) is fraught with radically problematic, anti-family, anti-capitalist, anti-Christian, globally binding (if adopted), initiatives that would in a sense, attempt to make the whole world San Francisco. Therefore, in that sense of the meaning, the Biden campaign inadvertently exposed where their allegiances truly lie should he take the White House in 2020. Granted, Biden probably did not realize the association at first. These days, Biden is having difficulty recognizing which race he is running in, or whom he is running against. The “BBB” slogan was most likely drummed up by some low-level DNC operative feeding the Biden Campaign a catchy slogan they could use to combat Donald Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) during the summer months before and after the Democratic National Convention. It could have also been used to signal the Bernie Sander radicals on the left in a subtle way that they fully intend on dismantling the sovereignty of the United States. However, the Democrats realized this message would NOT resonate with the electorate at large and could be damaging if the connection between the two were ever made. This required the change to the “Battle for the Soul of a Nation.” But what is the “soul of a nation?” According to the left, it is generosity, unity, comity, and bipartisanship. On the surface, these all sound great. So why hasn’t the left been practicing this since 2016? I mean, if that is what they really believe. Realistically, the only person on the left to have accepted the Trump 2016 election victory was Hillary Clinton, when she conceded on election night. The rest of the leftist establishment, i.e., the media, academia, Hollywood, radical agitators, political progressives, and the previous administration, etc. have essentially waged a non-stop war on the President even before he officially took office on January 17, 2017. In other words, President Trump has been battling a non-stop rebellion since before he took office. Wait, what happened with generosity, unity, comity, and bipartisanship? Perhaps it is best if we break down what those words, to the radical left, really mean. Generosity: America is the most prosperous and wealthy nation on the planet, however, our wealth and power were ill-gained, thus, not really ours. We must give it back to the global community because of white supremacy (i.e., the Pilgrims, Founding Fathers, etc.). Not only that but also any documents forged in the era of those white supremacists (e.g., the US Constitution), are therefore illegitimate. Unity: America is the final roadblock to global government. Global government is the radical lefts’ solution to ending: poverty (see Generosity), man-caused climate change (ending US energy independence), and inequality (as it applies only to LGTBQI rights). Comity: Merriam Webster (since 1862) has defined comity to mean, countries bound by a courteous relationship based on mutual recognition of executive, legislative, and judicial acts. Cornell Law interprets it this way: The principle that one sovereign nation voluntarily adopts or enforces the laws of another sovereign nation out of deference, mutuality, and respect. The United States (according to progressive ideology) must abandon its inane belief that the United States is a sovereign nation, and adopt UN mandates as law. Bipartisanship: America has existed as a two-party nation since the Civil War. The Republicans were founded as an anti-slavery party. President Lincoln was the Republican’s first president. The Democrats were the party of slavery, and eventually seceded to become the Confederacy. What bipartisanship means to the left (Democrats) is that when they have power (Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary control), the right (Republicans) must acquiesce to their demands, never the other way around. Never. Assessment Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention. If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object, and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only, not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed. “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. - Abraham Lincoln, June 16, 1858 In addressing the Republican convention two years before his election, Abraham Lincoln rightfully noted, ‘if we could first know where we are, and wither we are tending (where we are heading), we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. We could and should ask the same questions in 2020. Where are we as a nation? Where is this nation heading? What could we do? How can we do it? Nationally speaking, we are a much-divided nation. Former President Obama spent his eight-years in office, browbeating the average American into accepting its guilt over the success of the United States, as well as apologizing to every tin-pot banana republic despot over said same success. By the time then-candidate Trump announced his intent to run in 2015, he did not need to redefine reality to convince the American public how terrible things had become, he simply told them to look around and see for themselves. As he has noted on numerous occasions, the only reason he ran, was because of how terrible the Obama-Biden administration had become. Response Had the United States been a nation like so many others, without checks and balances, and without a Constitution to protect the people from their government, would have resulted in absolute tyranny. Our government would have been an incestuous cancer of revolving leaders (think Putin, Medvedev, Putin, etc.) that would have cemented their power forever. Instead, the people stood up against the Obama Administration, and by 2012, they lost control of Congress. I would like to tackle each point with a bit of expansion. Most of you, like myself, lived through this so I only bring up the salient points as a reminder. · They had run the economy into the ground. · They had placed American sovereignty into numerous, foreign diplomatic entanglements · They undercut the bedrock of America’s economic success (manufacturing, research, and development), by outsourcing abroad. · They had refused to tap into America’s vast energy resources, thus, beholding us to Middle Eastern interests with little to no leverage. · They took aim at destroying the family, the church, and religious liberties. · Obama stoked the flames of racial inequalities 1. The first argument about Obama’s handling of the economy could be summed up into-“it’s not his fault, he inherited the 2008 Mortgage Crisis.” That is true; however, he willingly inherited an American economic crisis and promised to fix it. He did not fix it, because he did not know how to fix it. Foolishly, he relied on his Keynesian economic experts to try untested theories that slowed and then stalled our economic growth. Obama even sent his Treasure Secretary Timothy Geithner to China to calm the nerves of Chinese investors over the strength of the US Dollar to which, he was laughed at. Loudly. Juxtaposed to this, Donald Trump took a lackluster economy, and clobbered it with his “magic wand,” unfettering the bureaucratic tentacles and unleashed our economic power. In less than three years, America had the lowest unemployment and highest wage growth she had ever seen. Even with an artificial shutdown (COVID-19), and the prolonged lockdowns in Democratic states, America is doing better now than forecasted by almost every expert. 2. The Obama-Biden administration tied American hands with several global treaties that would have destroyed our economy, had Hillary Clinton won. First, the Paris Climate Accord would have unfairly held the American economy to reducing its ‘carbon footprint,’ (i.e., shuttering our manufacturing and energy development) ahead of the world’s worst offenders (China, India, Mexico, etc.). It would have done zero to help the so-called ‘climate crisis,’ but it would have crushed the American economy. The Iran Nuclear Treaty would have supposedly, slowed Iran’s intent to become a nuclear power, by heaping tons of cash and supposed “oversight” by UN observers. Considering how well that has worked in other places (Syria, Iraq, Rwanda, etc.), Iran would already be nuclear had Clinton won. Unofficially, the Obama Administration could single-handedly be pointed at as the prime mover for the Arab Spring with its “leading from behind” policy agenda. Obama’s first trip abroad was to Egypt, where, he coordinated through his staff, to signal to the Muslim Brotherhood that he would support their efforts. This had a ripple effect that quickly spread across North Africa, and like so many other times, a single event (self-immolation in Tunisia), became the dejure battle cry for change. This change (i.e., revolution) was aided, abetted, and funded through the Muslim Brotherhood with Obama’s tacit support. Remember, this cringe-worthy Hillary Clinton bravado regarding Qaddafi’s premature death: We came. We saw. He died. 3. Three successive presidents had done little to stop the Chinese Juggernaut from ripping out the manufacturing strength of the United States: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barak Obama. Clinton enabled it. Bush was distracted with two unnecessary wars. Obama accepted it as a fait accompli. Obama had no vision, nor desire, to see American greatness ever resurrected. He grew up believing that what made America great was largely a myth, predicated on white supremacy, and nationalistic empire building. His job, if I could summarize it, was simply to oversee, and potentially expedite, the dismantling of a nation in decline. It was in his mind, a foregone conclusion that Hillary would win, thus, she would just be an extension to his eight-years. They would, as he promised, fundamentally transform this nation. Trump did not share that view; neither did the American electorate. No one in China is laughing at the Trump Administration. 4. In the 2008 election, John McCain’s campaign promised to reduce our dependence on foreign oil (upwards of 60% then). His statement, “$700 billion a year to countries that don’t like us very much,” resonated with the American electorate, mostly due to our proximity to 9/11 and the two wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) we had been fighting. Now, fast-forward through eight-years of Obama-Biden, and the US had done little to reduce that dependency. Obama went so far as to fight against the Keystone Pipeline (Canada-US) siding with the environmentalists and their ever-shifting crisis of climate change as cause dejure. The price at the pump average: $2.97 throughout his eight-years. Since 2017, the Trump Administration has reversed our dependency on foreign oil completely. We are now the world’s largest energy producer, providing hundreds of thousands of jobs to states like Texas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Ohio, as well as the benefits of low gas prices around the nation. Now the US has also become (again) a major energy exporter. The price at the pump average: $2.50 throughout his four-years. 5. The Obama-Biden Administration, became the single, most hostile, presidential administration ever, against Christians and traditional families. The twin rise of secularization and pro-Muslim narratives skyrocketed from 2009-2016 and has left behind a track record that is openly hostile to Christianity and the traditional (male-female) family. Obama was also responsible (albeit indirectly) by leading from behind in speaking out and protecting thousands of Christians and non-Sunni Muslims from an organization he helped enable (ISIS), by prematurely pulling out of Iraq, thus, leaving behind a vacuum for ISIS to fill. In contrast, Trump came into office, immediately working to reverse numerous Obama executive orders, as well as military action to crush ISIS. Whereas Obama requested a cross be covered up behind him when speaking at a university, Trump has openly embraced the support given to him by Evangelicals, Catholics, Muslims, and people from every faith. Trump’s first trip overseas to Saudi Arabia, followed by his trip to Israel (from Saudi Arabia) highlighted his willingness to work with both sides of the religious divide. Furthermore, Trump’s campaign promise to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal capital, and moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem was just as much a hit with Israelis as it was with Christian Evangelicals. This, followed up with the highly successful Abraham Accords (Abraham being important with both Jews and Muslims), brought the first legitimate Middle East Peace plan since 1992’s Oslo Accords. 6. The political left has been beating the racism drum against Trump since the day he announced his intention to run. However, the day before (and for years prior), Trump was hailed by Democrats, Republicans, Hollywood, New Yorkers, and pretty much everyone else, as a champion for minority causes. Trump has been friends with Jesse Jackson, Alveda King, Sean Combs (P. Diddy), Mike Tyson, Russel Simmons, Herschel Walker, Whitney Houston, and many others. If Donald Trump was really the racist the media has put him out to be, I doubt seriously that any of these would have been his personal friend for decades. But instead of me opining about that, let’s see what Ms. Alveda King had to say about the subject. As much as the left likes to point to Charlottesville’s shooting/racial riot as Trump’s advocacy of white supremacy, they refuse, no matter how many times he has publicly denounced white supremacy, to let it go. Therefore, I will just let Ms. Alveda King put the situation in her own words. Joe Biden is basing his entire candidacy on a discredited lie, trying to make President Trump seem like a racist so that Biden can present himself as some sort of “anti-racist” candidate. That’s the furthest thing from the truth. In the video announcing his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, Biden cherry-picked a partial quote from remarks the president made in the immediate aftermath of the Charlottesville riots, stripped it of context, and presented it as evidence that Trump had called neo-Nazis “fine people.” That’s a load of malarkey, and Biden knows it, because President Trump also said that “neo-Nazis and white supremacists … should be condemned totally.” The “fine people” he was referring to were the ordinary Americans, “on both sides,” who felt passionately enough about a civic issue to demonstrate — peacefully — on behalf of their views. Conclusion “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” President Ronald Reagan The battle for the soul of the nation is truly at stake. On one hand, you have a democrat bureaucrat who has spent decades in Washington D.C. The other, was a self-made (and sustained multi-billionaire) that has spent decades creating jobs and familial empire. One has used the government to enrich his own family. One came in already wealthy and has refused to take a paycheck for a job he views as a duty. One candidate is not mentally able to carry out a full four-year term, and would likely be replaced (Pelosi’s 25th Amendment pitch) by his radically progressive Vice-President. One offers a dark winter, the incumbent, a hopeful future, but either way, God is in control. Either way, God’s plan for the conclusion of this dispensation, will come to its inevitable end. As students of the Bible, and in particular, Bible prophecy, knows that the final week of years, is coming, and nothing can abate or assuage this appointment with divine destiny. Moreover, given the proximity to the 2020 election, where does America fit in this indisputable ending as laid out in Holy Scripture? And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; Acts 17:26-27 This is not to say that Christians should not vote. Absolutely, you should vote. God has, for His own reasons, allowed our nation to be governed by the will of the people in these last days. God could have arranged this final superpower, to be a monarchy or a communist regime. We could have lived under the rule of King George XXIII (or whoever), but we live in a Constitutional Republic. I am under the firm conviction that God will always get the final victory, in whatever realm He chooses to exercise His authority over and nothing would get under Satan’s skin more than to lose the jewel in his earthly crown, just before the Rapture. One party has intentionally decided to run on the Anti-Christ, Anti-Life, and Anti-Israel agenda; the other has not. Since the Democrats have voted God off the Democrat Platform, I am genuinely curious as to what “soul” they are attempting to battle for? We, as Christians living in these final moments of human history, have been given the opportunity to exercise our Romans 13 duty to indeed, battle for the soul of a nation. We do that by electing good leaders while we can so that righteousness might flicker a little longer in these darkening times. Fighting for an abortion-free America is something worth fighting for, even if, the Tribulation is still ahead. As I have always believed, we keep looking up as if the Rapture were tomorrow, but we must occupy until He comes. America is as divided today, as it was in 1860. However, the divides are not between North and South, but between capitalism, and socialism. It is between nationalism and globalism. It is between freedom and tyranny. America is long overdue for another civil war, or worse, complete collapse. However, while we can, let us let those things come after the Rapture, and not before. Benjamin Franklin, at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, when queried as he left Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation—in the notes of Dr. James McHenry, one of Maryland’s delegates to the Convention. “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?” “A Republic, if you can keep it.” If Trump wins, it will be the greatest political miracle in U.S. history - by Michael Snyder - http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/if-trump-wins-it-will-be-the-greatest-political-miracle-in-u-s-history Four years ago, I went on national television just prior to the election and declared that if Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton it would be the greatest political miracle in the history of the United States, and that is precisely what we got. Trump miraculously won the states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin by a combined total of less than 100,000 votes, and he won the presidency even though Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by a margin of nearly 3 million. Well, now here we are again. Joe Biden’s lead in the national polls is even greater than the lead that Hillary Clinton had in 2016, and if Trump ends up winning it will be an even greater political miracle than we witnessed four years ago. Could it happen? Yes, there is a very real possibility that Trump could win, and I explained exactly how it could unfold in an article that I posted yesterday. But it won’t be easy. Let’s take a look at how Trump is faring in the most critical swing states compared to where he stood just before the last election. -In 2016, the final RealClearPolitics average of Florida polls had Trump up by 0.2 points, but in 2020 the current RCP average of Florida polls has him trailing Biden by 1.8 points. -In 2016, the final RealClearPolitics average of North Carolina polls had Trump up by 1.0 points, but in 2020 the current RCP average of North Carolina polls has him up by just 0.2 points. -In 2016, the final RealClearPolitics average of Arizona polls had Trump up by 4.0 points, but in 2020 the current RCP average of Arizona polls has him trailing Biden by 0.9 points. -In 2016, the final RealClearPolitics average of Wisconsin polls had Trump down by 6.5 points, but in 2020 the current RCP average of Wisconsin polls has him trailing Biden by 6.7 points. -In 2016, the final RealClearPolitics average of Michigan polls had Trump down by 3.4 points, but in 2020 the current RCP average of Michigan polls has him trailing Biden by 5.1 points. -In 2016, the final RealClearPolitics average of Pennsylvania polls had Trump losing by 1.9 points, but in 2020 the current RCP average of Pennsylvania polls has him trailing Biden by 2.6 points. So Trump is theoretically doing worse in each of those key swing states that he was in 2016. Like I said, it is going to take a bigger miracle than we witnessed four years ago for Trump to pull this off, but it could definitely happen. On election night itself, the most important state to focus on will be Florida. As I discussed in a previous article, Florida is one of the states that allows mail-in ballots to be counted in advance, and we should have a really good idea of what the results are going to look like in the state by the end of the night. If Biden is declared the winner in Florida on election night, that is going to be a really, really bad sign for Trump. There really isn’t a path to 270 electoral votes for Trump without Florida. If Trump wins Florida, or if the vote is too close to call, then Pennsylvania becomes crucially important. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania is one of the states that does not allow mail-in ballots to be counted in advance, and they are going to have millions of them to count. At this point, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf is openly admitting that “it may take longer than usual to count every vote”… ‘These are unprecedented times. Because of the coronavirus, there were millions of votes cast by mail so it may take longer than usual to count every vote,’ he says in a new ad for the nonpartisan group, The Voter Project. ‘The folks in our election offices – your neighbors, family and friends are working hard ensuring every single vote is counted,’ he says. Pennsylvania is supposed to have every vote counted by Friday, but I am deeply skeptical that will actually happen. In fact, it is now being reported that there are seven Pennsylvania counties that will not even begin counting mail-in ballots until Wednesday… Seven out of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties will wait to count mail-in ballots until the day after the election, according to local officials, potentially delaying when media organizations will be able to project a winner in the state. Pennsylvania allows for counties to begin processing mail-in ballots the morning of Election Day, but officials in Beaver, Cumberland, Franklin, Greene, Juniata, Mercer and Montour — all counties which voted for Donald Trump in 2016 — said that concerns over staffing and resources led them to delay when they will count mail ballots. Adding to the mess is the fact that any mail-in ballot without a “secrecy envelope” in Pennsylvania must automatically be rejected. This is something that I discussed yesterday, and FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver is acknowledging that this could become a big issue… “Among the votes that were sent in by mail, there are some provisions about a naked ballot, a security envelope. That could make things more complicated. You could have the courts involved. You have some protests, looting in Philadelphia. There’s lots of stuff going on.” If Biden loses Florida and then he loses the count in Pennsylvania, at that point it becomes more likely than not that Trump will emerge victorious. All along, the Biden campaign has been anticipating that Trump will have a lead on election night but that the mail-in ballots will eventually swing the contest their way. But what they didn’t anticipate was that the flood of ballots coming through the mail would absolutely overwhelm the U.S. Postal Service… For the third day in a row, the US Postal Service moved fewer ballots on-time in critical battleground states than it did in the previous day, according to new court filings Sunday. With Election Day only two days away, these continued drops in performance mean ballots are now at significant risk of not arriving to election offices in time to get counted. In a majority of states, mail ballots postmarked before or on Election Day don’t count if they arrive after the polls close. The deadlines are different in every state, but in each case any ballots that do not get delivered by the deadline will not be counted. Americans are famous for putting things off, and it appears that millions upon millions of people are trying to get their ballots in at the last minute. Yesterday I warned that there could potentially be millions of late ballots that do not get counted, and I continue to stand by that assessment. And since Biden voters are more than twice as likely to vote by mail as Trump voters are, the vast majority of the late ballots that do not get counted will be from Biden supporters. In the end, that could be enough to deliver a victory for President Trump. It may not look like the miracle that Trump supporters were expecting, but it would be a miracle nonetheless. As I have stated in so many other articles, I am not predicting the outcome of the election one way or the other. But what I am saying is that it is going to take the biggest political miracle in U.S. history for Trump to win, and the U.S. Postal Service may end up being the delivery vehicle for that miracle. Nearing Midnight: Packing The Supreme Court – A Zipline to Dictatorship – Todd Strandberg - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/ The confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court has given the highest court in America a 6-3 conservative majority. The Left is hopping mad over what this prospect means for their political priorities. They’re also angered by the GOP’s unwillingness to hold off on filling late liberal stalwart Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat during an election year. Several top congressional Democrats have openly called for “packing the court.” They want to rewrite the rules to expand the number of justices on the Supreme Court so they can add more like-minded judges and tip its balance to the left. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is one of the most idiotic members of Congress. She said in response to the Barrett vote, “Today will go down as one of the darkest days in American history. God have mercy on our country. We must move full steam ahead to expand the courts and protect the will and the rights of the people.” She later added, “Expand the court.” Ilhan Omar is a member of the Islamic faith, and she wishes to impose the same political thinking that dominated the Muslim world. She said, “Remember that Republicans have lost 6 of the last 7 popular votes, but have appointed 6 of the last 9 justices. By expanding the court, we fix this broken system and have the court better represent the values of the American people.” Rashida Tlaib is also a Muslim, and she shares the same mindset. She said, “We are going to take back the White House & Senate next week with a resounding mandate from the people to fight back against Trump’s illegitimately stacked judiciary. We must expand the Court if we’re serious about the transformational change the people are crying out for.” Unfortunately, the number of justices on the Supreme Court is not set in the Constitution itself. So, Congress could pass a law expanding the number of judges on the court, and a president could sign it into law without technically violating the Constitution. This would then give that same president and Congress, presumably of the same party, the opportunity to add judges they know agree with them and will uphold their agenda. While doing so would technically be within the letter of the Constitution, the number of justices has remained at nine since 1869. Changing this would be a shredding of norms and rewriting of the rules for political gain. It would have grave consequences for our basic liberties. This isn’t the first time that someone suggested an expansion of the Supreme Court. President Franklin Roosevelt floated the idea in order to get around the justices that were blocking his New Deal projects. Roosevelt had to drop the idea when the public had a massive negative reaction to the plan. Court-packing undermines the checks and balances that have helped keep us free from government oppression and violations of our rights. As James Madison famously warned us, “Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.” The greatest check against Congress abusing its power is that the president can veto legislation that goes too far. Conversely, Congress can impeach a president who abuses his power. Meanwhile, both are kept in check by the judicial branch, which ensures laws are properly followed. The judiciary is, in turn, checked by Congress’s ability to impeach judges who abuse their power, and define judicial jurisdictions. “If the Democrats pack the court, the GOP will respond in kind as soon as they get the chance,” George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin has written. “The predictable result will not only be a loss of ‘credibility’ for the Supreme Court, but also the elimination of judicial review as an effective check on the other branches of government.” “If the president can pack the court any time his or her party controls both houses of Congress, they can prevent the court from making decisions that curb unconstitutional policies they may wish to enact,” Somin continued. “It is no accident that court-packing is a standard tool of authoritarian populists seeking to undermine liberal democracy, recently used in such countries as Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela.” The Founding Fathers purposefully enshrined the separation of powers into our system of governance. They knew that if one branch or official wields too much power, nothing prevents the slide into dictatorship. In reaching this conclusion, the founders were heavily influenced by the work of French philosopher Charles-Louis de Secondat. “There can be no liberty where the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person,” Montesquieu theorized. “Were the power of judging joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary power, for the judge would then be the legislator. Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with all the violence of an oppressor.” The election is a couple of days away from the posting of this article. I hope the Democrats don’t win full control of Congress and the White House. Because we’ve lost three generations to the leftist agenda, it’s only a matter of time before all political power is consolidated under a tyrannical ruler. “Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire— they all conspire together” (Micah 7:3, NIV). The Real Enemy of Islam - by Khaled Abu Toameh - https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16724/the-real-enemy-of-islam Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not authorized to speak on behalf of the Muslims, especially regarding the current controversy surrounding France's attitude toward Islam and Muslim terrorist attacks. That is what many Muslims are saying these days in the aftermath of Erdogan's attempt to present himself as the grand defender of Islam in a conflict that recently erupted between Muslims and France. According to several Muslim political analysts and writers, Erdogan is trying to take advantage of the anti-France campaign in the Muslim world for his own political gain. The message the Muslims are sending to France and the rest of the world is that Erdogan is a hypocrite and opportunist, who is acting from personal interest and not out of concern for Muslims or Islam. Last week, France condemned Erdogan for comments he made about French President Emmanuel Macron's mental health and treatment of Muslims. Erdogan had suggested that the French president needed "some kind of mental treatment" because of Macron's attitude toward Muslims in France. "What else is there to say about a head of state who doesn't believe in the freedom of religion and behaves this way against the millions of people of different faiths living in his own country?" Erdogan said in a speech at a meeting of his Justice and Development Party. He also called on Muslims to boycott French goods. Erdogan's remarks came in response to Macron's pledge to crack down on radical Islamism in France after a Muslim terrorist beheaded history teacher Samuel Paty on October 16. Paty had taught a class on freedom of expression during which he used cartoons of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed from the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Even before Paty was murdered, Macron defended the right to caricature the Prophet Mohammed. In September, he described Islam as a religion "in crisis" and announced that he would present a bill to strengthen a law that separates church and state in France. Some Muslims see Erdogan's attacks on France as an attempt to divert attention from the growing criticism in the Arab world toward Turkey's meddling in the internal affairs of a number of Arab countries. Saudi Arabian activists have called for a boycott of Turkish products to protest Erdogan's repeated attacks on Arab leaders and countries. Other Muslims see Erdogan's attempt to position himself as the defender of Islam in the context of the Turkish president's effort to market himself as a new Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and leader of the Muslim world. "In an attempt to divert attention from the Arab boycott of Turkish products, Erdogan tried to employ the campaign against France to the benefit of his political calculations," Arab experts told the Gulf newspaper Al-Ain. "Erdogan's statements and his defense of Islam do not bear in their essence any religious dimensions, but rather an attempt to win the friendship of the angry street and also to save his country's economy, which is suffering badly after the success of the Arab boycott of Turkish goods." Noting that Arab business executives and others have called for a boycott of Turkish products to protest the "hostile policies of the Erdogan regime," the newspaper quoted Egyptian political analyst Tareq Fahmi as saying: "Erdogan's talk about adopting the defense of Islam has become unacceptable after everyone realized that the matter is purely political and has nothing to do with the religious dimension. The issue is also related to addressing Arab and Islamic public opinion so that Erdogan appears in the image of the great Arab and Islamic leader. Erdogan aims to ride the current wave and try to employ and invest it politically in his battles against Europe and France." Lebanese journalist Joseph Abu Fadel scoffed at Erdogan's call for the protection of Muslims in France: "Erdogan calls for the protection of Muslims in France! We ask the Ottoman dreamer Erdogan about the Muslims who were slaughtered by his Muslim Brotherhood group and the jihadists in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Turkey." Egyptian political analyst Walid Abbas questioned Erdogan's motives in defending Islam and leading the attacks on France. "It does not seem that the motives of the Turkish president to launch his campaign against France and its president, Emmanuel Macron, is to defend Islam or Muslims," Abbas remarked. "A simple example of this emerged about four years ago, when Erdogan stopped defending the Uighur Muslims in China and even arrested one of the movement's leaders, who was a refugee In Turkey. He also deported hundreds of Uighur refugees in his country to China in 2019." Abbas pointed out that Erdogan was also motivated by his concern over the decline of his popularity in Turkey: "The Turkish president, since the emergence of his internal difficulties and their impact on his popularity, changed his political strategy and turned to igniting battles on the international scene, in an attempt to assert his regional influence. Paris has been the main party that has consistently opposed these attempts and has always stood against it." Erdogan's main goal, he added, "is to inflame an internal national and religious conflict that allows him to force the Turkish people to rally behind the leader who wages fierce battles with the world under the slogan of defending Islam." Tunisian writer Al-Habib al-Aswad, reacting to the crisis between France and Turkey, said "political Islam seeks by all available means to drag Islam into its wars and conflicts, the latest of which is its war on France." Al-Aswad added that Erdogan was simply trying to demonstrate his power and influence in the Islamic and Arab countries. "The beheading of the French history teacher proves that political Islam has become a real threat to world peace in light of its expansionist tendency, which is currently embodied by Erdogan's project, which not only targets the societies of Muslim countries, but also other societies that incubate important Islamic communities... When the Turkish president incited against France and President Macron, his primary concern was not religion or the Prophet Mohammed, but rather his geopolitical struggle with the French in the eastern Mediterranean, Libya, and generally North Africa and the Sahara region. Erdogan is convinced that Macron is a declared ally of countries that Ankara considers its enemies." Egyptian media personality Mustafa Bakri said that Erdogan was taking advantage of various crises and cannot be sincere in his defense of Islam. Erdogan, he added, "is not an honest man." "He took advantage of the situation against France and claimed to be defending Islam. He wants to represent himself as a defender of Islam. Which Islam does he speak for? Erdogan has committed crimes in Libya, Syria and all Arab countries. He is the one who is offending Islam." Emirati writer Mohammed Khalfan al-Sawafi said he agreed with many Arabs and Muslims who consider Erdogan an opportunist exploiting Islam to serve his own political agenda: "Some populist politicians think only about achieving their personal victories by using powerful and extremist rhetoric... What Erdogan came out with cannot be considered an endeavor to defend the interests of Muslims and the Prophet Mohammed, and he knows more than others what the consequences could be for the Muslim communities living in Western societies." Al-Sawafi is apparently worried that Muslims in France and other European countries may face various restrictions, including the closure of Islamic charities and a ban on political activities in response to Erdogan's remarks. Syrian journalist Baha al-Awwam said that Erdogan was trying to lead a "renaissance" or "revolution" in Islam as part of his effort to control the Arabs and Muslims. "The Arab region does not need an Islamic 'renaissance ' or 'revolution,'" al-Awwam argued. Erdogan, he said, is currently seeking to control Libya, Qatar, Syria and Iraq. "The Sultan [Erdogan] attracts supporters by supporting the peoples persecuted by their rulers... But you do not know that the extremists and blood merchants are the greatest beneficiaries of Erdogan's support. Not to mention that the 'Sultan' persecutes the Turks themselves whenever he is able to do so, and the evidence for this is his imprisonment of tens of thousands of his opponents. Opportunism is the name of the game that Erdogan is playing. He wishes to start a world war against the backdrop of the crisis of the French teacher. Wars represent his only salvation from facing his accumulated failures. Unfortunately for him, this will not happen, and Erdogan will fail in his endeavors." The reactions of many Arabs and Muslims show that they view Erdogan as a more serious threat to Islam than Macron or others in the West. The voices of Erdogan's critics, however, rarely find their way to the mainstream media. Ironically, Erdogan, who is currently calling for a boycott of French products, is himself being boycotted by a growing number of Arabs and Muslims. It is Erdogan, bemoaning the "insults" to Islam made by Westerners, who is himself being accused by Muslims of killing Muslims and occupying their lands. Daily Jot: Daily Jot Election Day Report – Bill Wilson – www.dailyjot.com I’m sitting here in my office sipping on a warm cup of coffee after spending two hours in the cold waiting to vote. Call us traditionalists, but my wife and I believe voting should be done on election day, and votes should be counted the same day—not weeks later. Reflecting on this election, I recall similar emotions from 2016. I cannot think of a time during my life where Americans have had yet another candidate embroiled in corrupt influence peddling. I thought that the last election, with the Clinton corruption, would cause people to pause. But once again, we have a candidate in this election that is nothing short of a crook. Is this what our nation has come to? And sadly, the answer is “yes” no matter the outcome. No Matter The Outcome. Irrespective of what happens today, the entire election season is yet another warning to all Americans, especially those of us who call ourselves Christians. We Christians are responsible. Regardless of who wins, we as the grafted in people of God, have a lot of work to do. You know, the sun will come up on Wednesday morning. People will go about their business as it has been for centuries. We will survive the decision of the majority. I have seen, even lived in, places where there are dictatorships and repressive governments. People still survive. They have families. They find a way to make it. And they can smile and laugh some of the time. But we have work to do. Churches need to hold the line on accountability. Those of us who are Christians need to lead by example. We need to lead. And it can’t be some wacked out emotional, extra-biblical, self-indulgent type of leadership. We need to get back to the basics of the Bible and learn what God wants and expects from us. We Christians have presented so many types of Christ to the public that the public thinks we’re nuts. And while everyone has their opinion, probably we all need to just get back to the scriptures and figure out who we are—not based on what some preacher is saying from what he learned from some other guy—but what the word actually says about the doctrines we are being taught. And if they don’t align with the scriptures, we need to cleanse the pulpit from these nice, but wrong-minded people. You see, one candidate is going to slow down the communist takeover of this nation. The other is going to speed it up. One of the foundational principles of communism is replacing God with government. That could never be done if the “Church” was healthy and strong. So it starts with us, no matter what happens in the election. 1 Peter 4:17 says, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” Either outcome, we will survive, but this election will hit us hard. We have to become focused on the Lord, what He wants, and how He wants us to do it. We need to show sensible leadership. It starts with us. Daily Devotion: Pray, Proclaim, and Vote - by Greg Laurie – www.harevst.org You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. —Matthew 5:14 https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/pray-proclaim-and-vote/ - Listen An estimated 80 million Americans are evangelicals. And only 26 percent of them voted in the 2018 mid-term elections. Yes, the church needs to pray. Yes, the church needs to proclaim the gospel. But the church also needs to vote. Some might say, “I just feel we are not of this world.” Well, we are living in this world. And as long as we’re living in this world, we’re to be light in this world. We’re to be salt in this world. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. . . . Let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father” (Matthew 5:13, 16 NLT). As I look at our country and the course we’re on right now, it’s clear that we need to turn back to God again. We need to pray for the United States of America, and specifically, we need to pray for a spiritual revival. Of course, we’re realists as Christians. We understand that no particular person—no senator, congressman, governor, or even president—can change our nation. But we also know they can make a big difference for good . . . or for bad. So we need to vote in every election. The Bible says, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when a wicked man rules, the people groan” (Proverbs 29:2 NKJV). Romans 13:11 says, “This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (NLT). Christians, it’s time for us to wake up. 
FROM THE HEART
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