CalvinDude.com

I told some people I was going to write this, and now I am :-)

Around the 2000 election cycle, I became an official member of the Republican Party.  Since then, I’ve grown more and more disguisted with it.  Now, as our elections wind up today, six years later, I’m announcing that I’m no longer in the Republican Party.

From now on, I am simply a Conservative.

I find it funny reading liberals and Democrats who complain about how the “right wing” portion of the Republican Party has hijacked it.  Would if it were only true!  Instead, the Republicans treat conservatives much the same way that Democrats treat blacks: they toss us a few scraps and otherwise ignore us, because they assume we’ll vote for them anyway.  So we get tax cuts.  But then spending goes up more than when Democrats controlled the government.  Where’s the improvement?

So I didn’t take Rush Limbaugh’s advice today.  I did not vote.  Part of it was because I can’t vote right now since I didn’t register when I moved recently; but mostly it’s because I simply cannot, in good faith, perpetuate the myth that the Republican Party stands for my views.

Sure, they’re closer than the Democrat Party is.  But when your choices are being shot in the leg or being shot in the head, I’d rather choose neither.

Unfortunately, the third party options are rather bleak at the moment.  I have no delusions that I will not be forced to vote Republican in the next election.  But make no bones about it either: I’m going to be actively working as much as I can to spread the Conservative message.  There are enough of us out here that we can get a viable Party of our own.

So I’ll conclude by saying this: I hope the Republicans lose the house.  I hope we get two years of gridlock.  Because with the Republicrats out of control, the Conservative Party will no longer have to kowtow to them.  Instead, we Conservatives can separate and show the Republicrats where their true power came from anyway.  Hint: it’s not the faux-Moderates.

UPDATE: I just read this over at the Powerline blog: “Conservatives still have winning issues–racial equality, immigration enforcement, limited government–but the Republican Party has largely stopped running on them.”  Indeed, which goes to the heart of the above as to why I’m no longer a Republican.

Got this quote sent to me from Rush Limbaugh speaking on polls, which were tightening before the elections today:

Now, if the polls indeed show this tightening, and my — again, I want to go on record, I don’t think the margin has ever been as wide in reality as what the polls have indicated. If they have been, what good are polls two months ago? What good are polls a month ago? What good are polls three weeks ago? If they’re now tightening, then the stuff that was happening out there, accurate or not, was irrelevant.

Excellent point.  This is why I consider polls to be worthless.  Only one poll counts, and that’s today’s.  Why, then, do we worry about polls in the first place?  When are they ever accurate?

With all the flak surrounding the Haggard mess (see also my previous post re: Daniel Morgan, who isn’t the only one posting on this but he’s the one I’ve interacted with–and yes, I apologize for not linking earlier as I was in a hurry to post: his post is found here), perhaps one thing that would be beneficial would be to take a step back and answer a more central question: just what makes a person a Christian anyway?

This question can be answered two different ways.  The first way is nontheologically.  This is the method most often used by people who conduct polls, by non-believers, and by the “general” public.  It basically boils down to this: You’re a Christian if you say you are one.

I remember when I was in high school, one of my atheist friends (and as a weird side note, most of my friends in the “real world” and not on-line have tended to be atheists) argued for that definition.  I merely pointed out that if I stood on a football field with my arms raised and said, “I’m a fieldgoal post” that wouldn’t make me one.  His response: “You could function as one.”  I gave him a look (since that’s all that was needed to respond to that argument in person) which said, “You know better than that”; after all, I wouldn’t fit the definition of a goal post.

And that brings us to the second point: the theological issue.  What is the theological definition of a Christian?  It is not simply claiming that you are one.  Indeed, there is some aspect to Christianity that includes the public affirmation that you are a Christian, but the public affirmation alone is not sufficient to warrant you being a Christian theologically.

Now I’m not going to focus on the first part of how salvation works (that is, God’s eternal decree, His election, regeneration, and man’s subsequent faith which results in God’s justification of the sinner).  Instead, I’m looking only at how we who are not omniscient can see if that has occured in someone or not.

Interestingly, Daniel did quote one of the key passages in Luke 18 (and if this was all that his post was trying to say I wouldn’t have objected to it).  There we read:

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

(Luke 18:9-14)

Here we see that those who “trusted in themselves” were not justified, but those who were able to say “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” were justified.  Thus, the first aspect in seeing if someone is justified is simple: do they acknowledge that they are sinners?

In short, the person who does not see himself as a sinner is not a Christian.  As such, I would issue a strong warning to those who believe they have become sinlessly perfect (as is found in many charismatic, Weslyan, or similar movements); these I wouldn’t put automatically in the category of unsaved since they generally state they they used to be sinners–however, they are dancing on a dangerous line.

The idea that we must acknowledge we are sinners is repeated by John: “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:10).

Thus, the first key to recognizing if someone is a Christian is if they recognize their own sinfulness.  Note that I am not saying that if you believe you are a sinner you are a Christian; I am merely saying that you cannot be a Christian if you do not believe you are a sinner.  Without our acceptance that we are sinners, we have no need for Christ’s substitutionary atonement.  This is why Christ said:

And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

(Matthew 9:10-13)

Those who see themselves as well do not realize they need a doctor.  Only those who know they are sick will come to the doctor.

So what of those who acknowledge they are sinners?  How do we know if they are truly Christians after that?  Again, Christ gives us the way to tell:

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

(Matthew 7:15-20)

We recognize people by their fruits.  After all, a healthy tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a diseased tree cannot bear good fruit.  As such, when false prophets (or false teachers) come up, we recognize they are false because they will not have good fruit.  (Of course, to determine whether spiritual fruit is good or not, one must understand the Bible’s definition of good too–but that is something beyond the scope of this post.)

Christ’s words carry a caution, for in the next statement, he says:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

(Matthew 7:21-23)

Here we see specifically what I stated above: simply saying you are a Christian will not make you saved.  Indeed, even doing certain things in the name of Christ will not be evidence that you are saved.  Instead, it is “the one who does the will of my Father” that is saved.

Again, to know what the will of the Father is, one must know what Scripture teaches.

Thus, our second conclusion comes about: we know who is a Christian because the Christian obeys Scripture.  Now, these two things alone ought to be sufficient to rule out many false claims in today’s culture if we just apply it.  The vast majority of people in America who claim to be Christian A) don’t think they’re really all that bad people in the first place and B) have no clue what the Bible teaches on anything.  These two facts alone require me to doubt their profession of faith.

The true Christian, on the other hand, is the one who acknowledges he is a sinner, who casts himself before God’s mercy alone, who understands that God is working in him and thus who is spurred on to good works in His name.  The true Christian will yearn to know more about who God is; he will be immursed in the Scriptures, seeking to live his life by them.  This is not to say he will be perfect.  Indeed, his sin nature remains a part of him and he will stumble.  But again, as John wrote, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous’ (1 John 2:1).

And with that in mind, let me just conclude with the words of John:

Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

(1 John 2:4-6)