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Headlines are heralding Apple’s, Steve Jobs as someone who impacted and changed our lives. At the same time demonstrations and riots in Chile, South Korea and America make it apparent that the change had nothing to do with the development of character or the ability to discern the nature of economics, politics and honesty. In Chile youth are battling with police in protests for completely free education for everyone. In South Korea the method of demonstration is as corny as it get and includes, pants dropping, flag eating, throwing excrement and some gruesome shows of animal abuse. On Wall Street the mood is far different. A clear direction or purpose seems to be lacking and there are as many reasons given for the demonstration as there are disgruntled whiners. It is hard not to see the Wall Streeter’s as Saturday Night Lives’ Doug and Wendy Whiner remade with a cast of thousands. One complaint among the whiners that is almost universal is; that the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor. (Relative terms here in the U.S.) The Robin Hood mentality of the Obama administration seems to have taken root in the psyche of most demonstrators. Not only has the Obama thrust of wealth redistribution failed but reality shows must have tanked as well because, the Occupy Wall St. crowd is far removed from any known reality. The demonstrations come on the heels of a recent Barna poll that indicate that today’s youth see Barack Obama as the smartest and the most honest over top Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. Our young are in agreement with Fox’s O’Reilly on at least one talking point which by itself may count for a miracle. O’Reilly has labeled Mr. Obama a “smart man” so many times it would seem he has made a trademark of his exclamatory. Confusion follows O’Reilly’s claims when, throughout the rest of the Fox News and Factor purview Obama’s utter failure at leadership, producing jobs and economic incompetence takes up most of the conversations and interviews from dusk till dawn. Millions of Americans have to be asking the same question; how is it possible to wreck a nation that was always strong, solvent and a great example to the rest of the world, and then translate that into something called ‘smart?’ Do Fox correspondents, Bill O’Reilly and news staffers have their own book of political, scientific, theological and academic definitions that the rest of us have never seen? Will someone please tell the players that whether it’s the Huff-Po digging dilettante Dem’s dealing, or the Republican right racing to rout the roosting incumbent, the “Obama’s a smart man” card has been played. Having spent the last half of my life calling for Americans to reign in the immorality, concupiscence, the irresponsible slaughter of the unborn, collusion with the gay agenda and the mindless hot pursuit of everything secular, it is no secret where I get my definitions. The demonstrations this week around the globe are giving greater clarity to what I have been proclaiming since I started. A generation long push by secular academics, a President who declares that parts of the Bible are obscure and a scientific community that is indoctrinating rather than inducing our youth to think on their feet has only verified the definitions. One sad example is the Bible’s use of the word, reprobation. Apostle Paul begins using the word reprobate only after describing a time when men and women would give up the natural desire for the opposite sex and begin lusting for those of their own sex. Paul says, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.” (Ro 1: 28) It is what follows this declaration that seems more like a telescopic view into the future, which arrives exactly at this very moment in time. “Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful.” (Ro 1: 29-31) Being found as a reprobate is not simply a condition of utter immorality, it is far worse. It is a state in which any discernment or recognition of the truth becomes impossible. Theologically it is not a condition that precedes judgment, it is the judgment itself. We love to talk about the possibilities of natural and manmade disasters that could break our world apart. For some it is clear that it is the judgment of God. The physical judgments are just the final disposition of the judged. Anyone who is reprobate has little chance of escaping the outcome of their condition. Rarely is reprobation seen as the judgment. It is like saying that those who cannot see will never see until they have plunged over the cliff to the place of no return. It isn’t the easiest theological treatise to understand, but it is immutable nevertheless. It is blindness bought and paid for, loved and coddled that only reveals its real nature at the very last moment. It may not take faith in what Obama has decided is an obscure passage of the Bible to admonish the demonstrators. It might only be that they pull a bit of wisdom out of the past from those like Edison, Alger, Ford, and yes, even Steve Jobs. What bit of wisdom has evaded the whiners? In all its glaring simplicity, ‘this world owes us nothing.’ This is still the kind of world that recognizes hard work, dedication, perseverance and independence, and lest we forget, honesty. The nebulous almost undefined melee of stated purposes for demonstrations on Wall Street is a bit easier to comprehend of late because now we know that unions such as SEIU are involved in the Occupy movement. What is harder to understand is just why young people think a constricting influence like the SEIU, or any union, could improve a nation that is losing jobs and the creation of new businesses faster than they can organize workers to man them. But these are the same people who recently said that they thought Mr. Obama was both the smartest and the most honest leader in the field of candidates. Stunning may be the only word to explain the incongruity coming from the Barna report. Here lies the perfect example of reprobation forming in our collective, although not fully cognitive, national conscience. Is it possible that youth does not want to recognize that their hope in their pop culture hero president is misplaced? Are the rest of us afraid? Is our respect for the office of the president what keeps us from allowing it to be tarnished; even if we have to look the other way until an incumbent finishes up his term with at least a bare modicum of grace? This week alone Mr. Obama lied about meeting a teacher he never spoke to in his life but that is nothing. Entire websites are based on uncovering Obama lies and the list of lies grows on a day to day basis. Entire websites are dedicated to listing Mr. Obama’s lies, embellishments and half truths and now there are so many lies that it is hard to keep up. This week a video was released that shows Obama speaking about everything from taxes and the economy to promises of greater days in America than we’ve ever seen before. The split screen video shows Mr. Obama speaking on one side and the actual facts and reports listed on the other complete with sources and attributions. It shows that almost nothing the President says is founded in truth or reality. Knowing that all the aforementioned information is as available to those who were polled by Barna as it is to everyone else in the nation leaves a strain on the credulity of the humblest minds. Here is the definition of ‘reprobate’ in action; it is America’s animated object lesson in high definition. Could it be that our failing school system has robbed the best of our youth the benefit of a panoramic view of history that could guide them in their future lives and decision? In a scathing but powerful newly released video called the “180 Movie - Changing the Heart of a Nation” Evangelist Ray Comfort is speaking about just such a thing. The documentarians take the microphone down on the street where they ask young adults one simple question; who is Adolph Hitler? The answers range from blank stares to some pitiful guesswork. Some say ‘He’s the guy with the moustache.’ If they haven’t got him mixed up with Groucho Marx, yet others say, he was a German, maybe, or an actor, but mostly the answer is the basic, ‘I don’t know.’ Could it be that not knowing the truth is because we have rejected the God of truth? Is this the truth that both our youth and our politicians have set aside and now for many, the distance between here and a complete state of reprobation is closing faster than the speed of reckless prevarication? I don’t ask politicians for theological interpretations and they don’t generally ask me for political advice, yet, I believe we both agree that truth is under fire in the U.S. If the truth is not subjective then what exactly is it? This is the key that Christ offered as the answer to the nature of truth. Truth, according to Christ, has been incarnated into a single man who came to save men of their lies and every other sin. It is the truth that today we are trying so hard to keep out of our classrooms, the halls of Congress and pretty much every aspect of our private and public lives. What is that truth? “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14: 6) http://www.americanprophet.org has since 2005 featured the articles of columnist Rev Michael Bresciani along with news and reviews that have earned this site the title of The Website for Insight. Millions have read his timely reports and articles in online journals and print publications across the nation and the globe.
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Steve Jobs, Wall St. demonstrators, Chile demonstrations, South Korea demonstrations, reprobate, animal abuse, Ray Comfort, 180 Movie, Mitt Romney, Rick Perr,
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