{"id":6618,"date":"2017-05-05T04:00:09","date_gmt":"2017-05-05T04:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/?p=6618"},"modified":"2017-05-07T02:01:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-07T02:01:00","slug":"ndop-2017-is-in-the-books-yawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/2017\/05\/ndop-2017-is-in-the-books-yawn\/","title":{"rendered":"NDOP 2017 Is In The Books (Yawn!)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/NDOP_EO.jpg?ssl=1\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6623\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6623\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/NDOP_EO.jpg?resize=474%2C248&ssl=1\" alt=\"NDOP_EO\" width=\"474\" height=\"248\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/NDOP_EO.jpg?w=482&ssl=1 482w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/NDOP_EO.jpg?resize=300%2C157&ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/a>by Standerinfamilycourt<\/p>\n<p><em>The word of God is a seamless garment, and men who deny its law deny its eschatology also, and are deprived of God’s power.\u00a0\u00a0 It is not surprising, therefore, that this is an era of impotence in the church.\u00a0\u00a0 That impotence will no more be cured by frantic and earnest prayer meetings than was the problem of Baal’s prophets by their shouts, “O Baal, hear us (1 Kings 18:26).\u00a0\u00a0 True faith mean law-obedience, and obedience spells power and blessing.\u00a0\u00a0 Deuteronomy 28 tells us precisely, and for all time, how prayers are answered and a people blessed.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 –\u00a0 Rousas John Rushdoony (2002), as quoted by Jack Shannon, author of <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/_qvgMfoZScE\" target=\"_blank\"><strong><em>Contra Mundum Swagger<\/em> <\/strong><\/a>(2017), pages 136-7.<\/p>\n<p>Shannon goes on to say, “<em>Rushdoony is absolutely justified in taking a swipe at prayer meetings.\u00a0\u00a0 He’s exactly right.\u00a0 You can pray for reformation and revival as earnestly and frantically as you want, but as long as you continue to disobey the law of Christ….and disregard all call to repent of your adulterous marriages, the Church will continue to be powerless.”<\/em><\/p>\n<p>From Malachi, chapter 2, just ahead of the far more famous passage dealing with the sanctity and indissolubility of holy matrimony is this description of unlawful marriage which causes God to reject the false worship offered in any and all\u00a0attempts to appease Him, short of <em>actually repenting<\/em>…..<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he\u00a0is the messenger of the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span> of hosts. <span id=\"en-NASB-23112\" class=\"text Mal-2-8\"><sup class=\"versenum hide\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">8\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi,\u201d says the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span> of hosts.<\/span> <span id=\"en-NASB-23113\" class=\"text Mal-2-9\"><sup class=\"versenum hide\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">9\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>\u201cSo I also have made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in the instruction<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"text Mal-2-10\"><em><sup class=\"versenum hide\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">10\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>\u201cDo we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane<\/em> the covenant of our fathers?<\/span> <span id=\"en-NASB-23115\" class=\"text Mal-2-11\"><sup class=\"versenum hide\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">11\u00a0<\/span><\/sup><em>Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span> which He loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god.<\/em><\/span><em> <span id=\"en-NASB-23116\" class=\"text Mal-2-12\"><sup class=\"versenum hide\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">12\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>As for the man who does this, may the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span> cut off from the tents of Jacob everyone who awakes and answers, or who presents an offering to the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span> of hosts.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>And while U.S. Christendom prayed Thursday, the National-Symbol-for-Violence-and-Treachery -Toward-One’s-Own-Family held a Rose Garden Ceremony, complete with persecuted nuns,\u00a0 to sign an Executive Order promising to uphold the religious freedom of those who voted for him.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Incredibly, the Chief of the Executive Branch ordered his troops <em>not<\/em> to enforce a Federal statute (which several successors of Eisenhower and LBJ had never enforced anyway, even\u00a0 Obama)\u00a0which forbids tax-exempt religious organizations from engaging in political activity.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Common conservative consensus on this one is that Trump tossed his supplicants a religious freedom bone, but one outspoken seminarian quipped that Trump-daughter Ivanka stripped every particle of meat residue off before she would allow Daddy to toss it out there.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (The ACLU concurred, announcing the same day that they wouldn’t bother to sue.)<\/p>\n<p>That morning, Christian radio stations across the land conducted their usual interviews with twangy-voiced female guests who served as the organizational spokespersons of the year to tell us all about this year’s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationaldayofprayer.net\/products\/national-day-of-prayer-2017-prayer-guide-100-pk\" target=\"_blank\">theme (“For Your Great Name’s Sake”), merchandizing, <\/a>\u00a0and where to go pray that <em>Roe<\/em> and <em>Obergefell<\/em> would be overturned (but not unilateral divorce nor <em>Amoris Laetitia<\/em>), that Obamacare would be repealed, that boys would return to being content to use the boy’s room and if they remain confused about how God made them, that coercive governments would stop interfering with truth therapy.\u00a0\u00a0 Later in the day, Joyce Meyer came on in their station time slots as usual, as did Ron Deal, the “blended family” guru.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There was no evangelical\u00a0\u00a0thanksgiving to be heard over the fact that God’s hand was moving, after 50 long years, behind two states who are actively \u00a0in the process of\u00a0seeking repeal of\u00a0the immoral “family”\u00a0laws that are the root cause of these existential threats to the survival of our nation.\u00a0\u00a0 Prayers went up for revival to break out across the land,\u00a0 <em>from folks who would be the last people to recognize it as such if God did so move.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>How <em>life-giving<\/em> would have been the public recognition by church leadership \u00a0that in 2017, God Most-High was giving off many signs to the pure-hearted watchful ones that indeed repentance and revival is truly what He wants for our nation, rather than the far\u00a0more probable destruction that is the alternative\u00a0?<\/p>\n<p>We heard, as usual,\u00a0about the rich history in the U.S. of national calls to prayer on the eves of other great national threats, and how God indeed heard and delivered.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We heard about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and even Ulysses S. Grant — all men who were lifelong faithful to their less-than-perfect covenant wives.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We heard about their rightful humility on behalf of the nation before the throne of the Almighty, but left unmentioned Thursday, was the very significant fact that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+5%3A23-24%3B+Mark+11%3A25&version=NASB\" target=\"_blank\">they didn’t have to leave their offering at the altar first and go be reconciled <\/a>with covenant wives and children, flesh-of-their-flesh and bone-of-their-bones – nor the fact that many of the national spokes-folk would have been far better served by doing so.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Our forefathers didn’t need a slick marketing campaign to engage people nor to substitute emotional ginning-up for actual integrity.<\/p>\n<p>We treat our constitutional freedom of religious expression as something God both gave us and actually owes us.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We call it an “inalienable right”\u00a0.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But is it, actually?\u00a0\u00a0 Are Christ-followers actually <em>owed<\/em> anything in this life by the Creator of All Heaven and Earth?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Quoting\u00a0 <strong><em>Contra Mundum Swagger<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>again, page 136:<\/p>\n<p><em>“Much of the evangelical world simply makes no connection between personal and cultural destruction, and the sin in their lives and in their churches.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <strong>They just think they are righteous like Job<\/strong>, and are experiencing similar loss, when in reality they are not blameless servants.\u00a0\u00a0 They are guilty as Ham, Achan and Ahab were.\u00a0\u00a0 When men are obedient to the law of God, blessings are manifest.\u00a0 When men are disobedient to the law, curses are. “<\/em><\/p>\n<p>We bible-toting, church-attending evangelicals cannot believe how long God is taking to deliver us from Islam and homofacism, and we’re still deeply concerned that Donald Trump might not.\u00a0\u00a0 Ham was too cowardly to confront obvious sin in his father so he left it to his brothers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Achan was greedy and covetous, proving that he loved baubles and trappings far more than he loved God.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ahab was a lifelong idolator.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0All three of them paid for misappropriating God-given privilege and blessing to their own self-indulgence with the cutting off of their generations of progeny —\u00a0just as we are collectively doing\u00a0as a nation!\u00a0 \u00a0 How many pastors, how many religious freedom champions \u00a0do we know who are all of these things and worse?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Were we not\u00a0bestowed\u00a0our\u00a0religious freedom for\u00a0a strong kingdom purpose that transcends our own personal interest?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What happens when we not only violate that purpose but institutionalize an immoral way of\u00a0life in our churches and choose leaders whose lives epitomize that immorality?<\/p>\n<p>In the natural, it appears for all the world that God answered the fervent prayers of 2017 <em>that very day<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After all, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal Obamacare that day, along with its coerced mandate for abortifacients and its financial penalties for noncompliance.\u00a0\u00a0 Will that event result in the recovery of our nation’s integrity, since the fervent and effectual prayers of the righteous avail much (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?version=NASB&search=James%205:16\" target=\"_blank\">James 5:16<\/a>)?\u00a0 What if, instead of another twangy-voiced spokeswoman who prospers\u00a0temporally from being “married” to another \u00a0woman’s God-joined covenant husband, the national spokesman for NDOP 2018 is the prophet Ezra ?<\/p>\n<p>…<em>But at the evening offering I arose from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn, and I fell on my knees and stretched out my hands to the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span> my God; <\/em><span id=\"en-NASB-12244\" class=\"text Ezra-9-6\"><em>and I said,<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u201cO my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, for our iniquities have risen above our heads and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>\u00a0 <span id=\"en-NASB-12245\" class=\"text Ezra-9-7\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><sup>\u00a0<\/sup><\/span>Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt, and on account of our iniquities we, our kings and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity and to plunder and to open shame, as it is this day.<\/span>\u00a0 <span id=\"en-NASB-12246\" class=\"text Ezra-9-8\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><sup>\u00a0<\/sup><\/span>But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from the <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span> our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage.<\/span> <span id=\"en-NASB-12247\" class=\"text Ezra-9-9\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><sup class=\"versenum hide\">9\u00a0<\/sup><\/span>For we are slaves; yet in our bondage our God has not forsaken us, but has extended lovingkindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us reviving to raise up the house of our God, to restore its ruins and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em><span id=\"en-NASB-12248\" class=\"text Ezra-9-10\">\u201cNow, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken Your commandments,<\/span>\u00a0 <\/em><span id=\"en-NASB-12249\" class=\"text Ezra-9-11\"><em>which You have commanded by Your servants the prophets, saying, \u2018The land which you are entering to possess is an unclean land with the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, with their abominations which have filled it from end to end and with their impurity.<\/em><\/span><\/strong><em><strong>\u00a0\u00a0 <span id=\"en-NASB-12250\" class=\"text Ezra-9-12\">So now do not give your daughters to their sons nor take their daughters to your sons, and never seek their peace or their prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good things of the land and leave it as an inheritance to your sons forever.\u2019<\/span> <\/strong><span id=\"en-NASB-12251\" class=\"text Ezra-9-13\"><strong>After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and our great guilt, since You our God have requited us less<\/strong> <strong>than our iniquities deserve, and have given us an escaped remnant as this,<\/strong><\/span><strong>\u00a0 <span id=\"en-NASB-12252\" class=\"text Ezra-9-14\">shall we again break Your commandments and intermarry with the peoples who commit these abominations? Would You not be angry with us to the point of destruction, until there is no remnant nor any who escape?<\/span>\u00a0 <span id=\"en-NASB-12253\" class=\"text Ezra-9-15\"><sup class=\"versenum hide\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/sup>O <span class=\"small-caps\">Lord<\/span> God of Israel, You are righteous, for we have been left an escaped remnant, as it is this day; behold, we are before You in our guilt, for no one can stand before You because of this.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/strong><\/em><span id=\"en-NASB-12253\" class=\"text Ezra-9-15\">—\u00a0 Ezra, Chapter 9<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Instead,<em>\u00a0<\/em>when it comes to restoring our 1st Amendment privileges, we may\u00a0wind up with the “prophet” <em>Hanson<\/em> in how we sound to the One to Whom we are appealing:<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=N53-LxbIizA\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6663\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-6663 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/HansonNDOP.jpg?resize=474%2C315&ssl=1\" alt=\"HansonNDOP\" width=\"474\" height=\"315\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/HansonNDOP.jpg?w=485&ssl=1 485w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/HansonNDOP.jpg?resize=300%2C199&ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" \/><\/a>\u00a0 (MMMBop by\u00a0 pop group, Hanson, 1997)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>www.standerinfamilycourt.com<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>7 Times Around the Jericho Wall\u00a0 |\u00a0 Let’s Repeal Unilateral Divorce!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Standerinfamilycourt The word of God is a seamless garment, and men who deny its law deny its eschatology also, and are deprived of God’s power.\u00a0\u00a0 It is not surprising, therefore, that this is an era of impotence in the church.\u00a0\u00a0 That impotence will no more be cured by frantic and earnest prayer meetings than … <a href=\"https:\/\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/2017\/05\/ndop-2017-is-in-the-books-yawn\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">NDOP 2017 Is In The Books (Yawn!)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,16,26,36,13,24,15,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-discipline","category-citizenship","category-discipleship-religious-freedom-2","category-lost-culture","category-morality","category-prayer","category-religious-freedom-2","category-spiritual-warfare"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p57mep-1IK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6618"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6672,"href":"https:\/\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6618\/revisions\/6672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.standerinfamilycourt.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}