A Pastors Perspective - Article V and The Convention of States

Guest Blog - By my friend Pastor Kevin Baird

I have been asked numerous times about my "take" concerning the Convention of the States (COS) movement catching steam and momentum across the land. Honestly, I am not as proficient in the intricacies of the discussion as others but after reading, listening, and studying some myself I find myself a supporter of the movement. The 5 reasons I will list below are probably simplistic, but they became the foundational place for my decision.

Let me be clear...I believe our American Constitution along with the Declaration of Independence are two of the most remarkable documents in human history with the exception of the Bible being in a category by itself. I lament the fact that as a nation we have ignored it and circumvented it on more occasions than can be illustrated. That, along with the foundational revelation that this nation was established with a Christian ethos and culture, is the reason we are spiraling into destruction and irrelevance.

That being said, I have watched the posts and discussions concerning the COS that it would open a "Pandora's Box" and we might be in a worse place than we are now because once you open the Constitution "anything" could happen. While I appreciate those who are making the argument because I understand that for many of them they too, are working to reverse the course of this nation, I support the COS for the following reasons:

1. The COS is clearly in the Constitution. How can we be for the Constitution and fight against its application and usage? Hasn't that been the problem? If we esteem the founder's insight, wisdom and work, then it seems like we would still defer to their judgment even if might produce personal anxiety.

2. Currently, we have a federal judiciary that is what I call the COO (Convention of the oligarchy). The Constitution is opened up for reinterpretation every time a case goes to the appellate level. We have a small minority of unaccountable and unelected people who are opening up "Pandora's Box" constantly. Why would we continue to trust them to change their current course instead of trusting the people of this land to change our current course? I am no longer convinced that the American structure of governance and the judiciary is capable of correcting itself. Our rulers and judges, by and large, have been deceived by power, money, and ego.

3. The COS abides by the Biblical precept of "rule of law". It appears to be the last, peaceful means by which a highly polarized nation can resolve it's worldview collision which is currently taking place. I am not an advocate for violence, but our current trajectory and cultural dynamics are indicating that unless an objective standard of law can be reestablished there is an eruption in our future.

4. To resist the concept of the COS is in some ways to resist the very concept of freedom. I understand that ultimately and foundationally we must trust that God is at work in our nation, however; why would we continue to trust an increasingly tyrannical, convoluted system of governing instead of trusting what God might do in a freedom loving people? I understand that if the people are not prepared for that discussion then the demise of America is almost certain. But if our current trajectory as a nation remains the same then all the question becomes is "when" not "if" our nation collapses. For me, I would rather try saving it with a different playbook than doing what we have been doing over and over again. God has not called me to continue that type of insanity.

5. We cannot be captive to our fears. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (II Timothy 1:7 NKJV) The COS is a courageous movement in my opinion. It has risks. It seems to me that to change the course of a nation would inherently demand some risk. You cannot accomplish great vision without risk. There are no guarantees whichever path is chosen. However, expecting God to move as we maintain the status quo appears to me to be the least Biblical option.

There you go...whether that helps anyone else or not, it is where I land. I encourage Pastors do your research and if you want to be connected to some people I know who are really well versed in the COS, I can get you connected.

It's time for a new playbook...

Dr. Kevin Baird

Executive Director at South Carolina Pastor’s Alliance
Sr. Pastor Legacy Church
Charleston, South Carolina

Truth and Scholarship Matters

The National Association for Gun Rights has recently undertaken a campaign to smear hundreds of thousands of great patriots around the nation that are responding to the clarion call of the founders to use the single most powerful tool given to us to save our nation. This group contemptibly refers to the lawful, orderly, and Constitutional process in Article V as “snake oil”. 

It is very important for us to understand that the Article V Convention of States process was specifically inserted into our Constitution on September 15^th 1787, just two days before the draft was completed because of a flaw discovered by the great Virginian, George Mason. Mason observed that the states might someday require recourse from an “abusive” and “oppressive” (his words) national government and successfully argued for the insertion of this self governing process. Contrary to what those that fear-monger this process tell us, the framers gave us this process intentionally to defend the Constitution when its words would become twisted and perverted from their original meaning to expand the scope and jurisdiction of the federal government. 

While this group purports to defend the 2^nd Amendment of the United States Constitution. Its smear campaign and fear-mongering of the Constitutional process designed to defend the 2^nd Amendment calls them into question. It is precisely the inaction and fear of using the “check” designed to resist growing government power that will truly be the undermining of our 2^nd Amendment liberties. The Article V Convention of States effort is precisely the tool needed to stop the staggering power drunk and ever growing leviathan federal government that will inevitably undermine not only our 2^nd Amendment liberties but all of the rest of the bill of Rights. 

In the National Association for Gun Rights most recent mailing, they hold up a statement from former Chief Justice Warren Burger speaking out against the use of an Article V Convention of States. I have to wonder if they are either ignorant of whom Chief Justice Warren Burger was or if they are intentionally trying to deceive their readers and followers. Burger is responsible for presiding over the 7 member majority Supreme Court opinion in the most abhorrent Supreme Court ruling in our nation’s history (Roe v Wade), the decision that has left us with 60 million butchered unborn children. That decision was the most radical departure from Originalism in the history of the Supreme Court. So this group to holds up Warren Burger as their anti Article V poster child, one of the most radical, left wing SCOTUS Justices in our nation’s history that twisted and perverted the Constitution in order to arrive at the most abominable decision a court could make under our Constitution. Thinking people would ask why a Judge, whose normal mode of operation was to subvert the Rule of Law and pervert the Constitution...thinking people would ask why would he NOT oppose the use of Article V by the states since it's very use would potentially strip him of his power to pervert our Rule of Law? 

They also invoke the names of men like James Madison and Benjamin Franklin, and they refer to the date of the Philadelphia Convention as being 1789 when in fact the Philadelphia Convention was held in 1787. Now some might excuse that as a simply typographical error, but we would submit that in a discussion of a serious matter like this that involves matters of grave national importance, scholarship matters. The invocation of Madison’s name to somehow imply that men like James Madison would oppose this effort is nothing short of preposterous if not disingenuous. It was James Madison himself in a letter to Edward Everett in August of 1830 that told us “Should the provisions of the Constitution as here reviewed be found not to secure the Government and rights of the States against usurpations and abuses on the part of the United States the final resort within the purview of the Constitution lies in an amendment of the Constitution according to a process applicable by the States.”. Madison knew that the Article V COS process was the rightful remedy for an out of control federal government. 

Missouri COS State Director Keith Carmichael really said it best when he recently wrote that scholarship matters in an Article V discussion. 

"Scholarship is important. We tell our kids that it is important. We tell them to do their homework, study hard and pay attention on things that matter. Responsible and informed parents who want to foster success actually go a step further when they demand that their children apply themselves because learning is important – Knowing the difference between the truth and fiction is important. 

Those that wrote and signed the Constitution believed that it was essential for this document to be able to be amended peacefully by the states in order to maintain federalism or a balance of power. On September 15, 1787, they voted unanimously to give the states’ equal power in the process along with Congress. They saw this then as a ‘life or death’ issue for the republic. That has not changed – it still is one today. 

In a discussion about our Constitution – specifically Article V which is the part which allows the document itself to be amended, we can’t afford to not do our homework. We must resist the temptation to trust some of the inaccurate, incomplete, and agenda-driven scholarship that has been regurgitated for so long on this topic. Those unwilling to make an honest, complete investigation into the most recent, more reliable, serious scholarship on this issue place their own credibility at risk”. 

The Supreme Court decision in Heller was a razor thin 5-4 majority upholding the original intent of the 2^nd Amendment as being an individual right. This decision could have easily gone the other way and eviscerated the 2^nd Amendment in one fell swoop. It is time to rein in the federal government using the wisdom and courage of the founders. By opposing the states rightful use of Article V, the National Association of Gun Rights opposes the Constitution and the most powerful “Check” given to the states by the founders. This group and others like them stand resolutely for the progressive and growing tyranny of the status quo. 

For a more in-depth and scholarly look at this issue that explains most if not all of the common misrepresentations of Article V and the Convention of States please read this article that I wrote a few months ago. 

http://towardsarenewedmind.blogspot.com/2014/09/madisons-final-resort-for-states.html

You will not find anyone more “2^nd Amendment” than myself and it was a bill that I singlehandedly wrote in 2013 that restored much needed liberty in South Carolina’s CWP statute. This bill (S 308) was strongly supported by the NRA who dubbed it the “restaurant carry” bill.

Squanto and The Providential Hand of God

The Man Named Squanto

A fascinating thing that we see from the historical account provided by William Bradford, about the people we refer to today as the "Pilgrims", is God's hand of provision for their dwindling numbers in the early part of year following their arrival at what they called "New Plymouth".  Their first encounters with native American Indians are interesting and nothing short of miraculous. Keep in mind that the "frontier" of North America would have been literally at the beach line on the east coast. This group of Pilgrims was desperately in need of help in how to survive this new land with its unknown wildlife and other unforeseen dangers and hardships. With that in mind, let’s look at this account from Bradford's journal in the first months after landing at the northern tip of Cape Cod in November of 1620:

"All this while the Indians carne skulking [sneaking] about them, and would sometimes show themselves aloof [remote, unapproachable] off, but when any approached near them, they would run away. And once they stole away their [the Pilgrims’] tools where they had been at work, and were gone to dinner. But about the sixteenth of March a certain Indian came boldly amongst them, and spoke to them in broken English, which they could well understand, but marveled at it. At length they understood by discourse with him, that he was not of these parts, but belonged to the eastern parts, where some English-ships came to fish, with whom he was acquainted, and could name sundry of them by their names, amongst whom he had got his language. He became profitable to them in acquainting them with many things concerning the state of the country in the east-parts where he lived, which was afterwards profitable unto them; as also of the people here, of their names, number, and strength; of their situation and distance from this place, and who was chief amongst them."

"His name was Samoset; he told them also of another Indian whose name was Squanto, a native of this place, who had been in England and could speak better English than himself. Being, after some time of entertainment and gifts, dismissed, a while after he carne again, and five more with him, and they brought again all the tools that were stolen away before, and made way for the coming of their great Sachem [chief, tribal leader], called Massasoit; who, about four or five days after, carne with the chief of his friends and other attendance, with the aforesaid Squanto."

Interestingly enough, what followed is not talked about much today, the next part of Bradford's journal records an agreement that was reached between these two groups. The journal records that "they made a peace with him [Massasoit]" (which continued for 24 years). This is important to note due to revisionist historians today that try to paint a distorted picture of the relationship between these early settlers and Native American Indians.  Just like depravity resides in all men today, it resided in all men at that time too. Just like there are "peaceful" people today, there were "peaceful" Indians back then.  Just as there are "wicked" people today, there were "wicked" people back then (both European and Native American Indian).  One cannot lump all of history into one sock so to speak. When we look at history from a Biblical Worldview, we ought to look at all of it; the good, the bad, and the ugly!  However, what we see in Bradford's account is God's hand at work bringing a group [tribe] of peaceful native Indians to the rescue of this group of English Separatists looking for the early vestiges of religious freedom in a new land. Take note of the items agreed to in Bradford's journal:

"1. That neither he nor any of his, should injure or do hurt to any of their people.

2. That if any of his did any hurt to any of theirs, he should send the offender, that they might punish him.

3. That if anything were taken away from any of theirs [the Pilgrims’], he [Massasoit] should cause it to be restored; and they should do the like to his.

4. If any did unjustly war against him [Massasoit], they [the Pilgrims] would aide him; if any did war against them, he [Massasoit] should aid them [the Pilgrims].

5. He should send to his neighbor’s confederates, to certify them of this, that they might not wrong them, but might be likewise comprised in the conditions of peace. [That is, different tribes should share members to prevent warfare or serve as hostages in case of war.]

6. That when their [the Indians’] men came to them [the Pilgrims], they [the Indians] should leave their bows and arrows behind them."

"After these things he [Massasoit] returned to his place called Sowams, some 40 miles from this place, but Squanto continued with them, and was their interpreter, and was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation. He directed them how to set their corn, where to take fish, and to procure other commodities, and was also their pilot to bring them to unknown places for their profit, and never left them till he died. He was a native of this place, and scarce any left alive beside himself."

Don't miss the significance of this, nothing short of miraculous is the fact that this group of English Separatists were originally bound and chartered for a settlement in Virginia but were blown off course and landed in a desolate location unknown to them.  A harsh winter is awaiting them, and they desperately need help from someone knowledgeable of the local area. Into this God sends an Indian that speaks broken English [Samoset], but who knows another Indian that speaks fluent English [Squanto].  Ask yourself what the chances are that this group of Pilgrims accidentally landing in a location with one of the few if not only friendly English speaking Indians in North America? Coincidence or the providential hand of God?  Today we have all kinds of revisionists historians that have tried to rewrite our nation’s history and rewrite the hand of God out of it...look closely at this and decide for yourself.  Recall Bradford's words that I quoted above, Bradford referred to Squanto as "a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation".Bradford records that in late September of 1621, a group from New Plymouth set out to help another group that had settled in a nearby area, that in Bradford's terms had "made havoc of their provisions" and realized that "want [or need] would press them" in the coming winter months. In other word's this group had made unwise choices for their provisions and needed help. So they set out with this group to help them. Bradford records the following:
 

"All things being provided, Captain Standish was appointed to go with them, and Squanto for a guide and interpreter, about the latter end of September; but the winds put them in again, and putting out the second time, he [Captain Standish] fell sick of a fever, so the Governor went himself. But they could not get about the shoals of Cape Cod for flats and breakers, neither could Squanto direct them better, nor the master durst venture any further, so they put into Manamoyick Bay and got what they could there. In this place Squanto fell sick of an Indian fever, bleeding much at the nose (which the Indians take for a symptom of death), and within a few days died there; desiring the Governor to pray for him, that he might go to the Englishmen’s God in heaven, and bequeathed sundry of his things to sundry of his English friends, as remembrances of his love; of whom they had a great loss."
 

God had used this incredible man, Squanto. God through His marvelous works had ordained for Squanto to be taken to England years before by an earlier north Atlantic fishing expedition. This Indian had learned fluent English, and miraculously had been returned to his native land a few years later. Think about that...think about the time we are talking about...do you realize how utterly incredible those events are?  Then this group of Separatists from the Church of England set out to cross the Atlantic bound for a colony in Virginia...the end up in a place far from their intended destination.  They end up in a place where maybe the only fluent English speaking Native American Indian resides! God uses this man to train and help these early settlers and seekers of religious liberty.

The words of the Mayflower Compact tell us why these Pilgrims crossed the foreboding and dangerous north Atlantic ocean: "Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith".  These words tell us that they came to engage God's creation in a new world, they came to take God principles to the rest of His creation.  Let me be sure about one thing as I bring this to a close; these men were not perfect men, they were flawed men. But God was using them to take baby steps towards the liberty that we see written into the Bible. Lastly, don't miss what happened to Squanto! By all indications God used these Pilgrims to draw Squanto unto Himself, Bradford tells us that Squanto's last dying wish was to know this great God of these Englishmen and I am sure they were more than happy to share the good news of salvation with their Indian friend!

My hope is that you will read this story to your families as you observe our great national tradition and gather for a Thanksgiving meal. Pass on these great historical events that point to the great guiding hand of Almighty God. Give thanks for all our Great God has done for us in this incredible nation, founded for HIS PURPOSES and for HIS GLORY!

America's DNA

The following is a guest article written by my good friend Det Bowers.

Since history is linear rather than cyclical, one of the responsibilities of every era is to embrace the wisdom of previous generations (Job 8:8). Ignoring the wisdom of the ages assures meaningless lives. When a society is only interested in the present, it refuses to appreciate the advantages of recognizing that the one hundred and two Mayflower passengers of 1620 birthed the founding fathers of 1776 and the virtuous patriots of 2014.

Writ large upon the birthright, heritage, legacy and future of America is the DNA of a small courageous folk whose handprints are our own. How did they come to plant such a vibrant spirit in a godless land? The briefest of answers is that they were persecuted for their pursuit of the biblical Christ.

In 1608, a gathering of about one hundred and twenty-five people left the small English village of Scrooby in Nottinghamshire for Holland. Why did they leave? They recognized that the difference between their government’s view of religious freedom and their own perspective could not be reconciled. They were called Puritans by their detractors because they so wanted purity in their worship of God that they willingly sacrificed living with their families in their homeland.

These plain country folk set ashore in Amsterdam but soon moved to Leiden where they stayed for eleven years and became about five hundred in number. The problem they encountered was though they had freedom of worship, they could not maintain their English culture – their children were becoming like the Dutch in their language, customs and worldview. Their options were few, so they returned to England where they regrouped and set sail for the Land of Liberty.

These English Puritans, who would become known as Pilgrims, “thought of liberty as the freedom to do what is right, not to decide what is right.”[i] The diminutive Mayflower vessel anchored near Cape Cod with forty-one adult males who signed the 153-word Mayflower Compact intended this Constitution to serve future generations as one of the people’s founding documents.

 

 

Provincetown, Cape Cod, MA today looking seaward to where the Mayflower would have been anchored on November 11, 1620.

 

 

Plaque marking first landing of the "Pilgrim" Puritans from the Mayflower. Modern day Provincetown, Cape Cod, MA.

 

The Mayflower families were overall a knowledgeable and Christian people – they were separated from the Laodicean religion of England. On November 11^th, A. D. 1620, America’s first Constitution was written beginning with the words: “In the name of God, Amen.” That inaugural Constitutional Convention went on to state the purpose of their coming to this continent: “Having undertaken for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony…” These early Puritan pilgrimaging Christians did not come to this land for mere economic opportunity, but to settle and build a new nation in accordance with God’s law in Christ.

They Mayflower congregation perceived themselves as pilgrims in the sense that this world was not their home. William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony settlement, left his three-year-old son in England because he was going to secure a better country for his heirs. As our national ancestors, these English Puritan-Leiden Pilgrims established a standard for all future generations inhabiting this sacred soil – and they paid dearly!

The first recorded thanksgiving celebration of 1623 was enjoyed by fifty of those still living who survived the maiden voyage and the first year (in addition to a child who was born aboard the Mayflower after they reached Cape Cod). Only three of the fifty-one were older than forty and there were only four married couples who remained due to the harshness of the winter.

Nonetheless, nature was not their adversary (Eph. 1:11). God was working His purpose in all the matters surrounding His brave pilgrim band.  Though it is difficult for us westerners, we rarely know life’s “whys.” What we do know is that God moves heaven and earth to accomplish His will in the lives of individuals and nations. The sweep of history beggars our vision, imagination and minds (Ps. 73:3; Isa. 55:8; Mt. 5:45; Ro. 11:33).

Because they knew that their God was not a God far from them, they were patient and thankful in difficulty, judicious and thankful in prosperity (Jer. 23:23). Though we never comprehensively know God’s perfect will or the implications of His divine providence, we are reminded of Governor William Bradford’s insight that though he did not know whether God’s will was for the Leiden congregation to settle in America, he did know it was “lawful” and “honourable.”[ii]

America’s foundational history battles today’s individualistic narcissism, egotism and self-centeredness. Our storied past reveals where God was when the Mayflower set sail – He was right where He is today. America’s former days allow devoted Americans to place our lives in the grander story of statecraft and nationhood. The Puritan-Pilgrims were chosen by God “to become His temple in America,” His “citadel of light,” and were “being led in a path that had been walked by another Chosen People.”[iii]

We name the same Name they named and we do so in the very same part of God’s world. We are part of them because they were a congregation of God’s saints. They were committed to something so much larger than themselves. They were in covenant with God and with one another – and with the generations preceding as well as following them. They faced much difficulty, but their difficulties proved the value of a national character birthed by their Bibles.

Just as your theology will determine your address to vexatious developments, your forefathers were looking for the HEBREWS 11:16 country and city. Though they were dogged by unruly elements and hardships of every sort, they did not love the world as much as they loved God’s character and glory (I Jn. 2:15ff.).

The Pilgrims were not grander, larger or more gifted than you. Nevertheless, they may have been more trusting of the God of Scripture. Affix your mind upon the looking glass of Thanksgiving and describe the face you see. From where you stand, how are you treating your ancestors and heirs? Has your affluence and pursuit of life enriched or damaged the covenant God has for you with those around you, with those who have gone before, and with those following you?

Just outside Plymouth there is a cemetery known as Burial Hill. It overlooks the harbor where the Pilgrims built their first church and fort. At the foot of Burial Hill stands First Parish Church. The present congregation of First Parish Church directly denies much of your Bible including the Trinity. They have chosen to sever their covenantal bond with the Pilgrim saints and the godly ones throughout the ages. Why? How has this happened so quickly?

By 1644, Governor William Bradford reported that he no longer saw many of the original colonists because they pursued larger farms. He said of the Plymouth church that she was “an ancient mother grown old and forsaken of her children.”[iv] 

Modern Americans must become a people who will not allow their focus diverted from the Celestial City, the Heaven of God. C. S. Lewis wrote, “Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in.’ Aim at earth and you will get neither.”[v] The Pilgrims were a people who had no home in this world because “this world is passing away” (I Cor. 7:31).

Alexis de Tocqueville pronounced the proven truth that “a false but clear and precise idea always has more power in the world than one which is true but complex.”[vi] Scores of historical revisionists attempt to re-write and falsify America’s history – they shall not succeed. There is nothing historically confusing or complex about where we came from and who we should be.

Christian Americans follow in the path of their forefathers by being willing to risk all as they challenge the fallen gods of this world. They (you!) refuse the approach of those claiming so many rights yet share so little responsibility for preserving America’s foundational historical rights. A twisted governmental culture and foolish society is fostering a fabricated past that allows a people to escape the humble history of their grand nation.

On this Thanksgiving, we are thankful for God’s America. We are not apologetic for how greatly our majestic God has blessed His America. Our covenant commitment must be to turn our families to Christ and return God’s America to God. May it be so in our day!

---

[i] Robert Tracy McKenzie, The First Thanksgiving (Downers Grove, Ill.: IVP, 2013), p. 108.

[ii] William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647, intro. Francis Murphy (NY: Modern Library, 1981), pp. 364.

[iii] Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Light and the Glory (Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1977), pp. 110, 111, 359.

[iv] Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, p. 370.

[v] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (NY: Macmillan, 1943), p. 118.

[vi] Alexis de Tocqueville, On Democracy in America, ed. J. P. Mayer (1834; repr., NY: Harper-Collins, 1969), p. 164.

The 2014 Elections. Now What?

I was going to wait until after today’s vote to say this but I’m going to get it off my chest right now. First let me say that no one holds the process and importance of exercising our blood bought right to vote with any higher regard than I do. However, I have to be honest. I want the Republicans to take the Senate and hold or increase their hold in the House if only to thwart the far left aspirations for what Mark Levin calls the coming Benito Mussolini (the President) in his last two years in office.

But all the hype of our elections even with a Republican takeover of the Senate will in the end not do what painfully needs to be done; namely the tough hard work of rolling back the unconstitutional size and jurisdiction of the leviathan federal government. Certainly we have some very good United States Senators and members of the United States House of Representatives, a handful if you will. But even if we had more, the cold hard truth is that the Federal Government is systemically broken. The United States Supreme Court is operating today from what amounts to a 2^nd United States Constitution. The one that has been stretched, pulled, twisted, contorted, and perverted for about one hundred years. Because of the perversion of our document from decades of court precedent upon court precedent, the SCOTUS enables the Article I and Article II branches of our government to exercise authority that it does not have and was never intended to have.

The very nature of the original text on the Constitutional parchment was designed to create a limited federal government, a child of the states. Today, that relationship has been reversed and most people see the federal government as the parent in the relationship rather than the child it was mean to be, with very limited powers.

The cold hard facts of the matter are that all three branches of government today are in collusion with one another. Mark Levin posits that there is a fourth branch of government today. The federal bureaucracy that consists in the behemoth executive branch agencies that churn out regulations (laws) in direct violation of Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution. These agencies torment businesses and individuals alike and have no real oversight. Indeed Congress holds “oversight” hearings on some of the more egregious actions of these agencies. But tell me, when was the last time you saw anyone at the IRS or the State Department actually punished for their actions? Congress holds hearings, and we feel really good when they rant on You Tube about the lawlessness….but nothing happens. No one pays a price….and the beat goes on. But the worse thing about the fourth branch of government is they are for the most part unelected and un-appointed individuals, so no matter which party is in power in congress or holding the Presidency, they never leave! So whether we have Democrats in control of congress or Republicans in control, we do see some difference….but the tough hard work of rolling back the federal leviathan is virtually impossible.

So, although I too have poured my time and resources into working to elect Constitutional conservatives to federal office, and taught and encouraged people to get out and vote, I have turned my energies in another direction all the while keeping an eye in the direction of this election. Now that the election of 2014 is over, my focus will be fully on the Convention of States (COS) Project. I am pouring my life (time), fortune (money), and my sacred honor (my reputation) into this effort because it is truly the only real way left to deal with what Washington simply cannot deal with.

The founders specifically predicted a time like this might come…when the federal government would grow so large due to the insatiable appetite for power in "fallen" men and the neglect of the citizenry, and they inserted the most powerful “check” or pushback into the hands of the states in Article V of the United States Constitution. The States have a power under the federal constitution to call for a Convention of States, an amending convention to propose amendments to reign in an “abusive and oppressive”, runaway federal government. “Abusive and oppressive” were the words of George Mason when he stood up on Sept 15^th of 1787 and insisted the states be given a final recourse when the congress would not take action to correct the abuses.

The Article V Convention of States is the lawful and orderly process that is left to the states to “check” a rogue, runaway federal government. The legislatures of the states must take this on in order to save the Republic. The good news is that many of them are doing this. There is a move afoot outside and inside the state General Assemblies to call for a Convention of States. Those of us that are working in the national grassroots effort known as the Convention of States Project realize this really is our last shot to correct course. The COS Project has a stated purpose and subject matter call for a Convention of States for the purpose of “proposing amendments to the United States Constitution that will impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, and impose term limits on its officials and members of congress.”

So although I’m very thankful for the great privilege of voting and the ability to exercise my vote today, I am not holding my breath for much to change in our congress. Even the “good ones” cannot bring themselves to do the tough things that are required of them which in some cases would be tantamount to cutting their own throat.

I am however extremely optimistic at the exponential explosion of support that is building in South Carolina and nationwide to convene a Convention of States for a limited purpose of resetting language in the Constitution and forcing all three branches back inside the chains of the Constitutions original intent. In South Carolina alone, our facebook page has grown from just over 300 “Likes” to over 5000 in just two short months! People are coming to understand everything that I wrote above…and they are ready to take their place in history as the states literally do an end run of the Washington D.C. machine and reign in the federal leviathan.

A Reformation Day Look at Revival

The following is a guest article written by my good friend Det Bowers.

“O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy” (HABAKKUK 3:2).

Christians pray for revival – times of refreshing when the Holy Spirit takes large matters upon Himself and awakens the rebellious to their rebellion, to God’s wrath and to Christ’s sacrifice.  Revival is social.  It is an event of restoration between a holy God and a sinful people. 

Revival occurs when God visits His people by pouring out His Spirit upon them so that their consciences are quickened to the eternal cause of Christ (Jer. 29:10-14; Zech. 2:10f.; Acts 2:17ff.).  Seasons of revival are marked by an awareness of being always in God’s sight and spiritual matters take on a reality as never before.  Converts are identified; Christians become fearless and tireless; a community experiences overflowing joy; loving generosity abounds (Acts 4:32). 

In 1858-9 revivals occurred in the United States and Great Britain.  The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the darkened waters and there was a new light in the life of men.  The multitudes sensed the reality of Christianity and began to drink of holy streams that make glad the city of God.  The heavenly dew of the Holy Spirit fell in fullness and people were awakened out of their self-centered stupor (Rev. 3:2f.).  They began to desire eternal garments of loveliness rather than the distracting comforts distancing them from their God.

Many churchmen have been very long in the service of sin because though they have light in their heads, God has not graced their hearts.  They have been withholding themselves from the Lord and His eternal cause.  They have been in the church but lacked seriousness about eternal matters, they lacked sobriety about their position with God and solemnity regarding the wellbeing of their society.

But how is man’s cloud of confusion removed so that he might experience the great rain of holiness falling upon him and be baptized by the Spirit of revival?  God says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul” (Ps. 19:7).  Man will not experience the year of jubilee, the acceptable year of the Lord, until the doctrines of grace are brought to bear upon his heart. You should not expect to encounter revival as long as preachers smooth the cutting edge of the sword of God’s word.  Revivals come at the invitation/expense of unashamedly preaching rightly divided scriptural truth.

Rev. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “We want again Luthers, Calvins, Bunyans, Whitefields, men fit to mark eras, whose names breathe terror in our foemen’s ears.  We have dire need of such.  Whence will they come to us?  They are the gifts of Jesus Christ to the Church, and will come in due time.  He has power to give us back again a golden age of preachers, a time as fertile of great divines and mighty ministers as was the Puritan age, and when the good old truth is once more preached by men whose lips are touched as with a live coal from off the altar, this shall be the instrument in the hand of the Spirit for bringing about a great and thorough revival of religion in the land.”

The gentle zephyr filling the Church and the hearts of churchmen shall not be experienced until sermons pour forth from the sacred desks arousing churchmen to purity in their Christianity.  The Church of Christ cannot expect revival when they preach and teach for the purpose of entertaining or amusing.  The Lord’s work must be prosecuted with fresh energy.  The awakened consecrated Church is God’s principal earthly instrument in issuing the invitation to the Holy Spirit to capture a people for Himself.  The Bible must be preached, taught and lived with a pulsating earnestness that is enthusiastically uncompromising. 

Revival occurs when the word of God cuts to the marrow of men’s souls.  You can identify revival by the prayers accompanying conversions.  The people begin to pray as though live coals have been placed upon the altar of their consciences.  They pray as a people looking through new eyes to a new world.  They pray with an earnest urgency for the outpourings of the Holy Spirit to rend the heavens and come down Himself so that every valley would be lifted up and every mountain brought low (Isa. 40:4).  They crave the great Sovereign of the Church who alone can give the increase. 

You yearn for your generation to pine for the glory of the Lord so that they might be placed in the cleft of the rock as He passes by (Ex. 33:22).  Your heart is for the melting power of His gracious influence upon your city.  You want to be among the brethren as the heavenly fire descends with the influence of the Divine Spirit.

Pray for the Lord’s Spirit to starve all the gods of the earth and to ride upon His chariots of salvation so that the bones of man might tremble at the preaching of His word (Zeph. 2:11).  Your desire is to see the daughter of Jairus, the son of the widow of Nain and Lazarus resurrected from their graves.  You crave to arrive at the vestibule of heaven where you can fully experience divine gales at your face, the fire of revival in your eyes and the irresistible influence of the Holy Spirit in your heart. 

Could your adulterous and sinful generation become tokens of God’s favor so that they might be plucked as brands from the burning as by Divine mercy?  Could the Almighty God pour out streams of blessings upon such an undeserving crooked and perverted people?  When a people enter into an absolute surrender of themselves to the shower of Divine influences they will discover they have been arrested by the power of the word, drawn to the teaching of the word and committed to applying the holy word to their unholy lives.  Then and only then shall gracious visitations and great awakenings stem the tide of evil in its insidious advance. 

You will know that a revival has occurred in your church when a hush captures the assembled congregation, when people speak via tears, when a strengthening current of inward emotions are expressed in sober terms, when hearts long for fresh visitations, when every day is lived as the Sabbath, when there is a living for the next Lord’s Day, when infamous sinners flock to the church, when the homes of the members of your church become mini-seminaries wherein every father is the high priest of the Lord. 

You will know that the celestial awakening is upon you when community conversations center upon the Jesus of the Bible, when there is a movement afoot to take of the water of eternal life freely and without cost (Rev. 22:17), when men of renown are overpowered by the influence of the Spirit and become childlike in their petitions, when ladies of eminence lose their powers of resistance, your sons and daughters prophesy, your old men dream dreams, your young men see visions (Joel. 2:28), when legions of the beloved come with weeping asking the way to holy Zion, when men are no longer content with mere outward professions of Christianity, when lives take on an everlasting gravitas and when the Church of Christ becomes transparent in its stewardship.

You will know that you have entered the regenerating matrix of the Holy Spirit when young people who have been reared in the church begin to behave themselves even as the Christ conducted Himself at the age of twelve (Lk. 2:42ff.), when the children of believers recognize themselves as the prodigals they indeed are, when God’s elect cease supporting public houses that finance drunkenness, licentiousness, bawdiness and disrespect of self and others, when the electronic and print media begin gasping for breath because the Christians are no longer funding their society’s hatred of unvarnished biblical truth.

Societal revivals have occurred when awakened consciences no longer protect facets of their lives from the influence of God’s Scripture.  The revived ones love Christ more than any one or any thing and they hate their sin more than they hate the consequences of their sin.  Those awakened to the cause of Christ know their guilt, perceive the dangers of hell, recognize their inadequacies, lament their lack of self control and pray for the salvation of their loved ones.

A culture in the midst of revival bears witness to laborers serving their employers as never before and employers honoring laborers even as Boaz graced his servants (Ru. 2:4).  Revival connotes a coming to spiritual life so that the revived seek life in the death, resurrection, ascension and intercession of Christ.  Their days on earth increase in their resemblance to the days of heaven.  A missionary spirit overtakes the Church with lives so solemnized that they are committed to taking the gospel to all the nations regardless of the cost.

Awakened Christians walk in the likeness of Simeon and Anna “looking for the consolation of Israel… for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Lk. 2:25, 38, respectively).  They expect a day of divine visitation whereby the in name only Christians will be removed from the rolls of the Church and the true believers shall be brought to the fore.  They know that the effusion of the Holy Spirit upon their land will bring consistency in their courage, godliness, orthodoxy, patience and wisdom.  Revived Christians know that revival assures them a season of supernatural fertility whereby God’s Church so proclaims His word that what has previously affected but a few shall now become authoritative to thousands and thousands. 

You have the very same Spirit today who brought the First Great Awakening to America in the 1740s, the Second Great Awakening from 1800-25, as well as the Third Great Awakening in 1857.  He brought the 1807 revival to Mowcop, England, and the 1904-5 revival to Wales.  He is the same God, the same Jesus and the same Holy Spirit. 

Today’s times and people are no more difficult than earlier times.  You flatter yourself to think otherwise.  The Church of Christ needs to awake and garment herself with the only effective means of salvation – Christ and Him crucified as set forth in the inspired, inerrant and infallible word of God.

Your heart yearns for a time when the gospel is in the ascendancy throughout your land.  You want a shocking and awesome communication of God’s Spirit.  You are eager to live in the days when people so ravenously await to hear the word of life that the biblical churches cannot contain them. The passing matters of this life no longer consume Christians when they live as though the King is coming (II Cor. 4:16-18).  Evangelical deserts become holy oases – their religion becomes biblical rather than formal. 

You need to hear anointed voices thunder so that those slumbering into Gomorrah will become awakened.  You covet another Pentecost.  You anticipate Nineveh’s experience during the season of Jonah’s preaching (Jonah 3).  Your longing is for the Church to emerge from its present state of biblical ignorance and capture the dews and damps of God’s generous righteousness.

An awakened Church discovers its members athirst for God’s glory.  The people become as the burning bush – constantly burning yet never consumed.  In their fiery revival they rid their nations of harlotous idolatry and disinterest in eternal matters.  They bring a taste of the New Jerusalem to the shores of the perishing so that those in agony over their sins shall be alerted to the wounds of the Kinsman. 

Do you want revival?  Revival comes at immense cost because diverting comforts must be addressed and purged.  You cease grasping for this world in the hopes of mingling worldliness with the Holy Spirit.  You pursue the dawning of true Christianity with the burning of the Seraphim by petitioning your God to cease hiding His face and to effectuate the outpouring of His Spirit (Eze. 39:29). 

Effusions of the Holy Spirit most often accompany contrite prayers for God to bring forth His spiritual children.  Pray the Psalms: “It is time for the Lord to act, for they have broken Your law.  Therefore I love Your commandments above gold, yes, above fine gold” (Ps. 119:126f.).  Let God know of your seraphic desire to see Him glorified.  Leave no question in anyone’s mind that you intend for your life to become the theater for His glory. 

Your preacher will alert you to the commitment your church has in the matters of revival.  He cannot be slothful in his studies or in his duties.  His hobbies cannot capture his days and he redeems his time for eternal engagements.  His speech cannot be careless and he guards against pleasing men.  Therefore, your preacher has three stirring responsibilities.  He is to persuade those under the dominion of sin that they are indeed under the dominion of sin.  He is to persuade those who are not under the dominion of sin that they are not under the dominion of sin.  He is to live as a man who counts “all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:8).

You cannot expect revival unless the whole counsel of God is preached and lived.  You hold fast to the doctrines of grace embodied in the rich and deep theology of your Bible.  You worship with a people who believe in the truth of God’s word, the necessity of the new birth, the reality of the miracles reported in the Scriptures, the existence and activity of Satan, the significance of the bodily resurrection and the implication of Jesus coming again in judgment. 

Self-conversions and man-manipulated emotions may bring an immediate happiness, but they assure long-term spiritual barrenness.  When theology and evangelism are separated the best revival will be but short-lived and evidence few truly saved.  The cause of revival is not found in men or in humanly orchestrated favorable conditions, but in the lavish influences of the Holy Sprit who alone makes the Church the Church. 

The revival you seek is not a single event but a relationship marked by a continuum of events.  Though it may be inaugurated in a worship service, revival is witnessed when the sacred fire of the word is taken into the bosoms of the hearers and then into their homes.  They leave worship centers with holy impulses.  Revived people are anxious inquirers for the way to holy Zion.

Are you not thirsty for an era of mercy?  Do you want to witness those you love subdued by sovereign grace?  Would you be delighted to know that your child had been smitten with an arrow from the quiver of the Almighty?  How pleased would you be to have your ship of state afloat in streams of everlasting salvation?

In January of 1859, Rev. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “We must confess that, just now, we have not the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we could wish….  Oh, if the Spirit of God should come upon those assembled tonight, and upon all the assemblies of the saints, what an effect would be produced.  We seek not for extraordinary excitements, those spurious attendants of genuine revivals, but we do seek for the pouring out of the Spirit of God….  The Spirit is blowing upon our churches now with his genial breath, but it is as soft as an evening gale.  Oh, that there would come a rushing mighty wind that should carry everything before it.  This is the lack of the times, the great want of our country.  May this come as a blessing from the Most High.” 

What is your responsibility? God’s people must pray to become drenched in the bath of divine influences.  They yearn for their lips to be touched with a live coal from the altar of God.  Awakened people know the richness of an innumerable ingathering, a sweeping of the harvest into eternity.  They understand that in the time of revival the Lord Christ does walk again among the living in all His holy glory and power; blessing and refreshing His beloved.

Perhaps the time has come for you to call a counsel of war and deliberate upon your faithfulness.  Read Zechariah 4:6 to become familiar with the hindrances to revival and the means to revival.  The spiritual drought in your nation must come to an end.  Your God ushers in revival not by an increase in activity, but by turning the hearts of the fathers to the word and then to the application of that word to their children (Mal. 4:6).

Beloved, the almighty and imperceptible wind of the Holy Spirit can do more in one evening of true worship than legions of preachers can accomplish in countless thousands of millennia.  He can bring to the fore pillars of cloud by day and of fire by night to guide the unregenerate to Him.  No one but the Spirit can flood your congregation with His mercy – drops of mercy falling upon the hearts of His children even as their eyes bedew their Bibles afresh.

SOLI  DEO  GLORIA!

Other titles accessed in this document and that may assist in your study of revival include:

Iain H. Murray, The Old Evangelicalism (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2005).

Iain H. Murray, Revival and Revivalism, The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2002).

Iain H. Murray, The Puritan Hope, Revival and the Interpretation of Prophecy (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1971).

Ebenezer Porter, Letters on Revival (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1858).

Samuel I. Prime, The Power of Prayer, The New York Revival of 1858 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1859).

 

"Play the Man Master Ridley"

The Martyrs' Memorial stands partway down St. Giles street in the city of Oxford, England. It was built in the mid-19th century to commemorate the lives of Oxford Bishops Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley. I walked right past this memorial one Saturday morning while exploring this historic and incredible city about 13 years ago with my good friend Jim Dewitt.

I have to admit, I had not heard of these three men prior to that morning. These three men, sometimes referred to as “Prelates of the Church” were bishops in the Anglican Church of England. All three men were involved in the Protestant Reformation. Latimer began to preach publicly on the need for the translation of the Bible into English. This was a dangerous move because the first translation of the New Testament by William Tyndale, had recently been banned. When the Church of England moved from Anglicanism back toward the Roman Catholic Church under Queen Mary in 1553, these three men came under intense persecution.

Eventually these three men were burned at the stake right near the spot of this memorial. Ridley and Latimer first in October of 1555 and then Cranmer in March of 1556. It is interesting to note that Cranmer was executed a little over five months later because the Queen ordered these men to “recant” or take back their statements and renounce their beliefs. Ridley and Latimer refused…Cranmer on the other hand, recanted, but could not live with himself afterwards…and then recanted his recant. While preparations were being made to burn Cranmer at the stake, he asked if his right hand could be untied so that he could put that hand first into the fire. That was the hand that he had used to sign his original recant that spared him the fate of his friends five months earlier at the very same spot in Oxford.

Ok, so why the church history lesson Bob? Well, it occurs to me that we take an awful lot for granted today in the times in which we live. How many of us believers have multiple copies of the Bible around our homes? How many of you now have the Bible on an App, either for your Iphone, your Ipad, or your laptop? We have incredible access to the Word of God that these men and many others like them gave their lives for us to have. They gave their very lives for us to be able have the Bible in our own language. These men believed that God’s word was meant for you and I to have in order that we might come directly to God. They believed that, because they understood that the Bible contained the powerful, living, Word of God! Do we really understand what we have on those pages? If we do, we will make it part of our everyday lives, both in the practice of reading and in the practice of telling others what it says.

I think about the mindset of men like this…and I ask myself if I can measure up to them. We are called to take Christ to a world around us that is entirely hostile to the Christ of the Bible…I say the “Christ of the Bible” because many today are offering a “christ” that is foreign to the Christ of the Bible. But make no mistake about it; the world around us is hostile towards Him. Even so, we are reminded that in this world, God is always at work…He is about the work of drawing His people to Himself all the time. Our job is to be faithful to point others to Him, not knowing upon who’s hearts He is working. In a time of increasing hostility towards Christ, we must not shrink back from proclaiming the truth.

Hugh Latimer is quoted as having said to Nicholas Ridley as the fires were being lit: “Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.” Take the time to read about men like this…let God use these fallen but great men from history to put “steel” in our spine to engage the world around us with the truths of the scriptures.