Wow! I believe they call this “antithetical.” If you have ever seen a more blatant example in real life, let us know.

Just over a decade ago, Chuck Baldwin was pastoring a church on the west side of Pensacola, Florida and was one of the most popular ministers around the metropolitan area. He was so much on the other side of the fence — at which he vigorously challenges today — that even his church ushers displayed the Star of David flag of Israel on their lapels each Sunday morning. He spoke out against the blistering, “anti-semitic” sermons of the likes of Texe Marrs and Pete Peters, whom USA Today accordingly had labeled “The Most Hateful Man in America.” It was Peters that first did a cassette tape series questioning just how much (or little?) America has prospered since 1948 with its financial blessings of Israel. Now Pastor Baldwin has awakened to the point of actually using some of the same text in this message. This is not to suggest that he is a plagiarist but rather that he is showing the courage of his convictions, for which we commend him.

The Focus Of My Labor In 2018

By Chuck Baldwin
January 4, 2018

For my first column of 2018, I want to follow up on my last column of 2017. See it here:

A Look Ahead

I ended my final column of 2017 by saying:

The only hope for the restoration of liberty in America lies in the following:

1.  Realization of the liberty principles contained in our Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, the U.S. Constitution, and Natural Law.

2.  Return to Reformation preaching as once exhibited in the pulpits of Colonial America. Instead of trying to entertain and put diapers on Christian crybabies—as seems to be the focus in most churches today—pastors should focus on putting armor on Christian soldiers.

3.  Repudiation of Scofield dispensationalism, the false futurist interpretation of Bible prophecy, and Israel-First ideology. Believe it or not, Christian support for Zionism and a gross misinterpretation of the Biblical teaching of Israel are the underlying causes of the massive deterioration of America’s Christian culture as well as the catalysts for globalism, the Warfare State, and the rise of political neoconism.

I would like to expand on each of these points just a bit.

1. Realization of the liberty principles contained in our Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, the U.S. Constitution, and Natural Law.

America’s Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights form the blueprint for liberty. Building on the liberty principles contained in the Magna Carta (1215)—never really implemented—America’s founders inculcated the principles of Natural Law into our country’s founding documents. Those documents provided the framework for which liberty could thrive.

The myriad number of circumstances that worked in concert to form the womb in which America was conceived was nothing short of miraculous. No words were ever truer than those spoken by Daniel Webster (1782 – 1852) when he said: “Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again.”

America was the result of over 200 years of the combined genius of the great minds of Natural Law philosophers such as Hugo Grotius (1583 – 1645), Algernon Sidney (1622 – 1683), John Locke (1632 – 1704), Samuel von Pufendorf (1632 – 1694), Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689 – 1755), and Emer de Vattel (1714 – 1767). These men brilliantly set forth the fundamental principles of Natural Law as it relates to nationhood, government, war, peace, justice, individual liberty, and the rights of man. Our Founding Fathers were ardent students of the writings of these men and incorporated these Natural Law principles into America’s foundational documents. One cannot read the writings of Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, George Washington, and James Madison without also getting into the minds of Grotius, Sidney,  Locke, Pufendorf, Montesquieu, and Vattel.

For example, according to University of Houston professor, researcher, and historian Don Lutz, here are the top four writers quoted most often by America’s Founding Fathers:

1. The Apostle Paul (New Testament)
2. Montesquieu (“The Spirit of Laws”)
3. Sir William Blackstone (1723 – 1780) (“Commentaries on the Laws of England”)
4. John Locke (“Two Treatises of Government”)

(Pufendorf follows at number 10; Grotius at 15; Vattel at 29; and Sidney at 33.)

The vast majority of historians today completely miss the reality of America’s inception. They ubiquitously—and even glibly—say that America was birthed by deists upon the principles of secularism.

While it is true that a handful of America’s founders were deists, they were a very small handful.

Benjamin Franklin called himself a deist, but his speeches and writings reveal the heart of a man who very much recognized the Providence of God in both the birth of America and in his own life. Remember it was Benjamin Franklin who called on the Continental Congress to begin each session in prayer to Almighty God. In that motion, he said, “I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that ‘except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel.”

That doesn’t sound like a deist—at least not by the modern definition—to me.

I explain the background and significance of Franklin’s motion in some detail—along with Franklin’s motion itself—in the great compilation of America’s historical documents called THE FREEDOM DOCUMENTS. (We are almost at the end of the Christmas printing of this gigantic compilation of America’s great documents of liberty.)

Order THE FREEDOM DOCUMENTS here:

THE FREEDOM DOCUMENTS

Consider, too, that Ben Franklin wrote his own epitaph. Here is what he wrote:

The Body of
B. Franklin,
Printer;
Like the Cover of an old Book,
Its Contents torn out,
And stript of its Lettering and Gilding
Lies here, Food for Worms.
But the Work shall not be wholly lost:
For it will, as he believ’d, appear once more,
In a new & more perfect Edition,
Corrected and amended
By the Author

Thomas Jefferson is often called a deist by modern pundits, but Jefferson called himself a Christian. He said, “To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others . . . .”

Neither are these the words of a deist.

But both Christians and non-Christians among America’s founders were dedicated students and ardent supporters of Natural Law. And it was Natural Law that formed the basis for the government and laws of America. Commitment to Natural Law was the glue that bonded non-Christians such as Thomas Paine and devout Christians such as Samuel Adams together in the common fight for liberty and independence; for it is the principles of Natural Law that recognize the rights and liberties of ALL MEN as equal under God.

Sadly, the liberty principles of Natural Law have not been taught in America for well over a hundred years—probably since the tyrant Abraham Lincoln all but eviscerated the principles of Natural Law from the mind and heart of this country. Today, professor, pastor, and politician are equally ignorant of Natural Law, and hence Americans have lost the glue that once held us together as a free and independent nation.

If the Natural Law principles that birthed this once great nation are not reinstituted—and I mean soon—this nation (as a free and independent country) is not long for this earth.

2. Return to Reformation preaching as once exhibited in the pulpits of Colonial America. Instead of trying to entertain and put diapers on Christian crybabies—as seems to be the focus in most churches today—pastors should focus on putting armor on Christian soldiers.

Not only was America the result of over 200 years of the teaching of Natural Law, it was also the result of over 400 years of the teaching and influence of the great Protestant Reformation.

From John Wycliffe (1330 – 1384) to John Huss (1369 – 1415) to William Tyndale (1494 – 1536) to Girolamo Savonarola (1452 – 1498) to Martin Luther (1483 – 1546) to Huldrych Zwingli (1484 – 1531) and to John Calvin (1509 – 1564), the Protestant Reformation broke the back of Roman tyranny in Europe and birthed the Pilgrims, Puritans, and Patriots of the British colonies in North America.

It is no coincidence that the great Bible commentators in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries shared an appreciation for and understanding of the same Natural Law principles as embraced by America’s Founding Fathers.

For example, Albert Barnes (1798 – 1870) quoted Hugo Grotius 279 times in his commentaries on the Scriptures. Adam Clarke (1760 – 1832) quoted Grotius 54 times. John Gill (1697 – 1771) quoted Grotius 293 times. Matthew Henry (1662 – 1714) quoted Grotius 41 times. Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown (1802 – 1910) quoted Grotius 297 times. And Keil and Delitzsch (1807 – 1890) quoted Grotius 92 times.

Barnes, Clarke, Henry, and JFB quoted John Locke 89 times. Barnes and Clarke quoted Montesquieu 2 times. And Barnes and Clarke quoted Blackstone 5 times.

Until the advent of the twentieth century—and especially until the advent of the Zionist State of Israel in 1948—the great Christian scholars, pastors, and commentators had a clear understanding of Natural Law and inculcated those divine principles into their preaching and teaching. The patriot pastors of Colonial America were also the disciples and students of the great protestant reformers and eloquently and meticulously engrained these divine principles into the Christian people of their congregations.

America was equally the result of reformation preachers such as John Witherspoon, John Leland, Jonathan Mayhew, Isaac Backus, Samuel Cooper, Ebenezer Baldwin, James Caldwell, John Peter Muhlenberg, and Jonas Clark as it was of patriot statesmen such as Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Sam Adams, Joseph Warren, John Hancock, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, James Madison, and Richard Henry Lee.

3. Repudiation of Scofield dispensationalism, the false futurist interpretation of Bible prophecy, and Israel-First ideology. Believe it or not, Christian support for Zionism and a gross misinterpretation of the Biblical teaching of Israel are the underlying causes of the massive deterioration of America’s Christian culture as well as the catalysts for globalism, the Warfare State, and the rise of political neoconism.

Until the mid-nineteenth century, dispensationalism was unknown. When John Nelson Darby (1800 – 1882) began teaching his heresy, his teachings were strongly repudiated by well-known ministers such as Charles Spurgeon (1834 – 1892). Darby’s heresy would have doubtless died with him except the teachings were popularized when Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (1843 – 1921) produced the Scofield Reference Bible (financed by Zionists at Oxford University). It is no hyperbole to say that the Scofield Bible was the catalyst for the most radical reinterpretation of Biblical teaching (especially as it relates to prophecy) during the entire 2,000+ years of Church history.

Think of it: For over 1,800 years of Church history, dispensationalism (complete with its modern promulgation that the Zionist State of Israel is the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant) was completely unknown. Darbyism, Scofieldism, dispensationalism (call it what you will) is about 180 years young—and, again, is a total reversal of over 1,800 years of historic Christian teaching.

Think of this too: Dispensationalism began at about the same time that Abraham Lincoln was destroying Jeffersonian republicanism in the United States.

But dispensationalism exploded into prominence when the Rothschild banking cartel created the Zionist State of Israel on May 14, 1948. Since that time, virtually every Baptist, Pentecostal, Assemblies of God, and charismatic church and most “Bible” churches enthusiastically and ubiquitously promote dispensationalism as absolute Bible doctrine and the Zionist State of Israel as the absolute fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant.

I grew up in dispensationalism; I went to dispensationalist Bible colleges; and I taught dispensationalism for over thirty years. My very first Bible as an adult was a Scofield Reference Bible (which I still have). Some of the most well-known fundamentalist preachers of the twentieth century have their signatures in that Bible—men such as W.A. Criswell, B.R. Lakin, Tom Malone, John R. Rice, Monroe Parker, J. Vernon McGee, J. Harold Smith, Jack Hyles, Jerry Falwell, and others. My theological schooling was entirely rooted in dispensationalism.

However, after MUCH prayer and personal study, I am now convinced that dispensationalism is a huge Biblical heresy; that the modern Zionist State of Israel is NOT the fulfillment of ANY Biblical prophecy and has absolutely NOTHING to do with the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant; and that, instead, Zionism is perhaps Satan’s greatest tool to destroy America’s Christian culture and whatever vestiges remain of our constitutional system of government and the liberties enshrined in our Bill of Rights.

Dispensationalists repeatedly say that Genesis 12:3 refers to the modern Zionist State of Israel. They say that America will ONLY be “blessed” if we “bless” the Zionist State of Israel. But tell me: What has happened to America since 1948, when we began “blessing” this Zionist State of Israel by giving it trillions of dollars of foreign aid and sending America’s military troops to fight innumerable wars, suffer countless casualties, and inflict untold death and destruction on its behalf—not to mention revolving much of the U.S. political, religious, entertainment, and media institutions around it?

Has our education system been “blessed” since 1948? The public education system is awash in Zionism. What about our economic system? It’s mostly controlled by Zionists. Do we have a “blessed” economic system today? What about our political system? It’s heavily influenced by Zionists. Has it been “blessed” since 1948? What about our national news media? All of the major television news networks are owned by Zionists. Have they been a “blessing” to us since 1948? What about Hollywood and our entertainment systems? These institutions are largely controlled by Zionists. Have they been a “blessing” to America since 1948? What about America’s families? Are our families (of all races) more “blessed” today than they were in 1948? What about peace in our country—domestically and internationally? We are fighting wars all over the world, and our major cities have become war zones and battlefields in their own right. Is America “blessed” with more peace and tranquility after 70 years of “blessing” the Zionist State of Israel?

I am absolutely convinced that the acceptance of dispensationalism with the resultant worship and adulation for the Zionist State of Israel by such a large portion of America’s Christian community (Christian Zionists dominate America’s mega-churches, Christian colleges and Bible schools, Christian television and radio broadcasts, and gospel literature) has brought God’s judgment—NOT God’s blessing—on America.

I firmly believe that politics and politicians are NOT the answer—no matter who is in the White House (including the current occupant) or which party controls Congress. A return to the principles of Natural Law, a return to Reformation preaching (absent the holdover doctrines of Romanism), and a return to historic Biblicism by God’s people—and most importantly, by God’s preachers—is the ONLY remedy for a sick nation that is getting more terminally ill by the hour.

And if God lets me live and sustains my ability to work—and if people continue to financially support my work—it is my definite intention to make these three principles the focus of my labor in 2018.