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fought against secular atheistic
humanistic propaganda being
forced
on believers in the public
school system-were to try to
enforce Sunday keeping under
the guise of blue laws, which for–
bid work or shopping on Sunday.
Thus far, Sunday keeping is not
one of the causes of the Christian
Right. We hope it will stay that
way.
Blbllcal lgnorance
lt
doesn't take any special spiri–
tual understanding to realize
t hat fami ly life and morality
have been seriously eroded by
the secular humanistic spi rit that
has dominated the major U .S.
media and many left-leaning pol–
iticians over the past years. The
Bible is so plain on these basic
issues that no one who professes
to take it seriously can possibly
doubt that the Bible is a pro–
family book.
Jerry Falwell and other lead–
ers of .the Christian Right pro–
fess, of course, to follow the
Bible. It is a shame, then, that,
outside matters of basic moral i–
ty, many of their doctrines are
nowhere to be found in Scrip–
ture. Mr. Falwell should know,
for example, that
reverend
is a
t itle appropriate to the Eternal
God (Psalm
JI 1:9),
and there–
fore not something that he
should attach to bis own name.
Likewise, nowhere to be found
are beliefs that you go to heaven
when you die, that you should
worship on the fi rst day of the
week, that you should observe
Christmas and Easter instead of
God's revealed Holy Days, that
God is a Trinity-or that it is a
sin
not
to vote, as Mr. Falwell
claims.
And most assuredly, Mr. Fal–
well is not "born again" (when
you are born again, you are com–
posed of spirit- read John 3:5-
7).
And it is a special irony-in
light of their support for the mod–
ern state of Israel- that Mr. Fal–
well and the Moral Majority do
not profess the basic key to Bible
prophecy: the knowledge that
modero Britain and America-as
we/1 as
the lsrael is- nationally
February 1981
make up the descendants of the
biblical 12 tribes of Israel of
old .
A Modern Joslah?
The candidate of the Moral
Majority-Ronald Reagan-won
the election. The Senate changed
hands- something not expected
in this generation. The House of
Representatives became more
conservative.
Does this mean the course of
the count ry will change? The
ERA now looks dead. But chang–
ing the laws regarding pornogra–
phy and abortion wiJl require a
change at the Supreme Court–
the Moral Majority st ill doesn't
have the clout to pass a constitu–
tional amendment. The drive for
the affirmative rights of homo–
sexuals to force others to rent to
or to hire them may slow- but
homosexual ity will probably re–
main acceptable in the eyes of the
liberal media.
The realistic odds are that the
Christian Right will fail to stem
the decline of the family.
It
is, for
example, afraid itself to do much
about laws that do more than any–
th ing else to promote family
breakup-the no-fault divorce
laws that sanction divorce for
even the most frivolous of rea–
sons.
Nevertheless, it is possible that
at least a temporary change of
direction-or slowing of the
decline-is in the offing. Such
would parallel events of about
2,500 years ago. Just befare the
ancient nation of Judah fell, it
had one last king who stemmed
the tide-Josiah.
Mr. Reagan has made the
app ropriate pro-family state–
ments. He seems as if be will be
against the subtle anti religious
and antifami ly bias that pervades
federally funded programs in sex
and moral education in the pub–
tic schools, as well as many
other activities of the govern–
ment.
" When 1 hear the First
Amendment used as a reason to
keep t rad itional moral values
away from policymaking, 1 am
shocked," Mr. Reagan has said.
"The First Amendment was
written not to protect the people
a nd their laws from religious
values but to protect those
values from government tyran–
ny."
When Josiah carne to office,
Judah was already in a state of
advanced decay. National char–
acter does not change easily-or
quickly. Can anyo ne really
expect a reversa) of the trend
toward sexual and moral permis–
siveness at this late hour? From
a hardheaded point of view, and
from Bible prophecy, we know
that such is extremely unlike–
ly.
o
IN BRIEF
(Continued from page 19)
was willing to risk his political
future for the sake of the Egyp–
tian- Israeli peace pact. He was
will ing to expose himself to cruel
heckling on the ftoor of the Knes–
set, even in front of visiting heads
of state, in order to see that the
pact got ratified.
Mr. Begin is renowned for bis
old world charm and good man–
ners-a fact that Mr. Armstrong
and
l
know firsthand from our
recent visit. In order to meet Mr.
Armstrong, M r. Begin left a
meeting in Tel Aviv and made a
special one-hour drive to Jerusa–
lem.
1 cont inue to believe, as 1 have
written befare, that Mr. Begin's
reputat ion as an Israelí " hawk"
pu,ts him in a special position to
negotiate a final Middle East
peace accord. M
r.
Begin may be a
"tough" bargainer, but the Arabs
can know that any agreement
they work out with him will be
unassailable.
Both Mr. Sadat and Mr. Begin
have demonstrated clear vision
and sense of purpose in their
efforts to achieve a Middle East
peace. Both are men of goodwill.
Each has been willing, as Mr.
Armstrong has remarked , to
practice the way of "give" in
order to break the previous Mid–
d le East stalemate. Their exam–
ples clearly show that our genera–
tion is not without its own
Churchills and de Gaulles. o
29