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Friday, October 4, 2024 - 12:05 PM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

Another Look At The Curse Of Abandonment Theology
If those who preach and practice "Abandonment Theology" are correct, then "resistance to tyranny" is not "obedience to God!" What do you think?

In a previous article, we discussed some of the obvious reasons why our beloved America is slowly disintegrating into purposely induced chaos and tribalism, and I placed the blame for this descent into possible national oblivion squarely on the heads of the leaders of “people of faith”—i.e. Christian pastors/priests/ministers, and Jewish rabbis, and the congregations they claim to lead (including Christians who are part of the “home church” movement).  I’ve never suggested, nor will I, that people of faith are retreating from the battle against evil and tyranny because they don’t love America, despite all its faults and its sometimes-tarnished heritage of freedom.  Of course they—we all—say we do. But “talk is cheap”, we all know.  Unless Christian Patriots and patriots in general study  God’s Word, and read and study publications like The Times Examiner, The New American, WorldNetDaily, Breitbart News, Epoch Times News & TV, and many other pro-American and pro-Christian journals, blogs, web sites and podcasts of truth and abandonthe devious and lying “main stream media”--including ALL of the “alphabet” TV channels, most cable news channels, virtually all print newspapers and well-known “popular” magazines, and especially the anti-American, anti-free speech, culture destroying “socialmedia” like Facebook (Meta), UTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter (now called “X”), Thread, TikTok, etc.

They’ll  be totally unaware of the battle and have no knowledge of the forces that are attacking our liberties, our security, our prosperity, and indeed, our lives, because those who are supposed to be “watchmen on the wall”our pastors, ministers, priests, rabbis, bishops, deacons, and elders—prefer to hide in ignorance and refuse to become involved in “political issues”, even as our faith, our nation, our future, and the fate of generations still to come, hang in the balance.  I often ponder whether or not our Heavenly Father thinks that these are “political” issues.  But I’ll not attempt to speak for Him.

Previously I discussed the abominable doctrine called “Abandonment Theology”, as originally defined by Christian Patriot John Calfant back in 1996.  This false doctrine, pseudo-Christian in my opinion, is considered as “mainstream Christianity” by some Christians, but in actuality it produces only the bitter results of increasing destruction of the freedoms that Americans were given by our Creator.  Chalfant calls it “a faith full of compromise, watering down of God’s Word, and trivialization of God’s commands”.  Some of us believe that this has been a DELIBERATE process begun well over two centuries ago by Satan’s “gang”, among who were those who called themselves Christian pastors, well known college and university educators, famous writers and poets, seminary and college instructors, famous newspaper editors, bankers, very wealthy industrialists, well known politicians, and others. ALL of who were dedicated to the proposition that the Constitutional Republic given to us by our Founders was not to their liking, for it didn’t give the “government” sufficient power and control over the American people, or to be more to the point—it didn’t give THEM the power they desired to  exercise over all of us  (and they STILL do).  Sad to say, one of our Founders, Alexander Hamilton, shared that opinion and actually turned against our U.S. Constitution before he was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr.

What so many modern Christians and other people of faith fail to understand, and what far too many of our modern pastors and priests and rabbis fail to communicate, (or are totally ignorant of), is that Western Civilization in general, and Judeo/Christianity in particular, are engaged in a war that is both spiritual AND ideological.  Some people of faith see this “war” as spiritual only, while some conservatives perceive it as only ideological.  But in truth the war to destroy western civilization is both.  We who consider ourselves to be “Christian conservatives”, or “Christian Patriots” or other people of faith dedicated to the same principles, have known for a long time, and the rest of America needs to wake up to this fact soon, that the battles in this war are for the hearts and minds and souls of Americans, especially our younger countrymen, and that we have lost and are losing more battles than we win, especially today with a President and an administration, upheld and controlled by a “deep state” or “swamp”, that are dedicated to the total destruction of the traditional American culture of freedom as codified for us by our Founding Generation in our virtually 100% ignored U.S. Constitution.

I’ve always admired the late British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.  While he was controversial and had many quirks and flaws and drank too much, he was said to have been a “devout Christian who believed the Bible to be the inspired Word of God”.  In his famous book, The Gathering Storm, Churchill discussed why WW11 had been possible in the first place.  The extremely disturbing answer he gave should give all of us pause, as we reflect upon the increasingly swift disintegration of our nation.  Churchill said: “The malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous”.  Read his somewhat terrifying and totally condemnatory words again and absorb them into your consciousness.  If ever we could describe such a time as Churchill mentioned—a time when the ‘malice’ of evil people is made possible by the ‘weakness’ (and lack of knowledge) of good people, that time is now in 2023 America. 

But why have “virtuous people” become so weak in their faith—in their refusal to use God’s power to “confront the evil of the world”, or at least portions of it that we can affect?  Why, over the past several decades, have what Chalfant calls “Abandonment Clergy” failed to stand and fight for the “faith that was once given to the Saints”?    Could it have been their fear, their lack of trust in God’s Word, that caused them to come up with their “END TIMES” capitulation to the Evil One?  Could it have been that they were doing what they had set out to do early in their ministries?  Have some who call themselves “God’s servants” and who serve as pastors and priests and rabbis, been willingly complicit in this slow but sure degradation of God’s Word, as they began to subtly proclaim the false doctrine that resistance to tyranny and evil is NOT obedience to God, since “resistance” should be considered to be “worldly”?  Have our modern day seminaries faithfully taught the newer generations of pastors, priests, rabbis, etc. to be faithful to God’s Word, or have they been subtly programming their students about the “glories” of Christian “collectivism” (i.e. socialism, communism, fascism, globalism, political correctness, “woke-ism”, etc.)? 

In my opinion, based upon the wisdom contained in Chalfant’s book, Abandonment Theology—The Clergy and the Decline of American Christianity”, what has happened over recent decades is an extreme fixation on “the last days”.  As cultural and social conditions continued to deteriorate over the last century, and with our Western Heritage begging to be rescued from the cultural assassins that are running wild and loose among us, most of our “mainstream” Christian leaders, and far too many of our evangelical and fundamentalist leaders of “The Church”, seem to have decided that our country is headed for destruction, the battle is already lost, and we’re going the way of ancient Rome.  There is validity in the concern over our deteriorating culture and increasing loss of our historic faiths, for certain.  But these same church “leaders” have told millions of unsuspecting Christians that since we are living in “the end times”, and that since “the Rapture of the Church” is so near, why fight at all?  Why stand against evil and for righteousness, when all who are “saved” are  going to be whisked off to be “with the Lord” at any time?  Some of these false teachers have even come up with “approximate dates” for “the end”—the Day of the Lord.  I know not what course you may take, but when I hear this nonsense, I run from it.

How often have we heard these words from our own good pastors, let alone from the “Abandonment Clergy” that:  “We’re in the world, but we’re not of the world, so Christians need not care about ‘the world’ or our country.”  Or what about this:  “Compared to eternity, we’re here only briefly, so let’s lead as many as we can to salvation and let our corrupted country continue on its death spiral”. These “Abandonment Clergy” also insist that since we are in “the last days”, any efforts that Christian Patriots make to restore righteousness and preserve constitutional government—to battle the evil always among us—will be futile!  How little faith they really have! How easily cowardice has overcome them!  How willingly they have retreated before the attacks of Satan and his minions!  How cravenly they have denied God’s Power!

This confused doctrine is a part of the overworked and often misunderstood (and debated over) branch of theology called “eschatology”, and has been used successfully by the Abandonment Clergy to sells lots of books and movie tickets over recent decades, frightening the less-informed of our brethren that they are about to be “left behind”.  In ‘abandonment eschatology’, different “signs” of the prophesied “end times” are used to claim that the “last days” are near, thus creating even more feelings of futility and despair among Christian Patriots.  “Why bother”, they claim, “since it’s almost overAmerica is under God’s judgment and will inevitably fall like pagan Rome”.  “Why be concerned with earthly matters”, we’re told, since “the Rapture and the return of our Savior may happen at any moment”.  Oh, really?

History is clear that ancient pagan Rome, as admirable as it was in the realms of law, architecture, and literature, was always PAGAN!  Our country, the U.S.A. was, at least in its beginning, created with Christian underpinnings and was rooted in God’s Word, no matter what the American Civil Liberties Union, the liars of the EXTREME leftwing Southern Poverty Law Center,  and other cultural barbarians claim.  America was never pagan, but was imperfect from its beginning, since imperfect and sinful humans formed it.  God’s Word tells us, in Galatians 5:1 to “STAND FAST in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free”, and NOT to stand around wringing our hands and moaning that “the end is near”.  We need to understand that Christians are commanded to LEAD, to STAND, and to ENGAGE!  What else does God’s Word exhort?  “The righteous are BOLD as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1).  “Who will STAND UP for me against the workers of iniquity?” (Psalm 94:16).  “Be STRONG in the Lord, and in the power of his might”. (Ephesians 6:10). 

The theology of these Abandonment Clergy, with their “futility, hopelessness, surrender by default, surrender by false interpretation of “the last days”, has no place in the spirit or conduct of the people of God”, according to Chalfant.  That’s true, because this type of abject surrender can serve only one master—Satan, the evil one—and will always lead a free people toward only one destiny:  The destruction of freedom and the rise of tyranny.

  I lived through all of WW11 and remember a lot of it from 1943 on.  That terrible war was, in a sense, like the war for freedom’s soul and survival we are living through today.  WW11 was a conflict between Christ and anti-Christ, between freedom and enslavement.  Churchill, in his book previously mentioned, laid it all on the line, as he led the hard-pressed British people during those very dark days of 1940-41.  He reminded his countrymen, and ALL of mankind, including those who live today:

“Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization…. You ask, ‘What is our policy?’  To wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalog of human crimes…, for without victory there is NO survival…. If we fail, then the whole world, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age….Do we not owe it to ourselves?  To our children?  To tormented mankind?  To make sure that these catastrophes do not engulf us?” 

Yes, we do—a thousand times YES, we do owe it to mankind’s future to RESIST all forms of “monstrous tyranny” that are now afflicting, and have always afflicted mankind in general, and God’s people in particular, beginning with Satan’s servant, the evil and debauched Roman Emperor, Nero!  Resist with our money, with our time, with our minds and words, with our skills, with our votes, and if necessary, with our lives!  Our resistance may not culminate in our victory.  That will be as our Creator wills.  But at least it will be RESISTANCE.  At least the enemies of God and Country will know that they were in a war to the bitter end.  They will learn that, for people of faith and patriotism—resistance was NOT futile!

These “Abandonment Clergy” who have been preaching the doctrines of non-involvement in our nation’s survival are proclaiming DISOBEDIENCE to God’s commands and the abdication of our duty as Christians.  Ecclesiastes 12:13 tells us to: “Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the WHOLE duty of man.”  If we surrender our Godly heritage and our freedom with a whimper and not a fight, as these confused Abandonment Clergy seem to teach, then be prepared to enter a time of darkness that will make the original Dark Ages seem benign by comparison.  I suggest, my Christian brothers and sisters, and my Jewish patriot brethren, that you put away your “end of the world” fears and phobias, put on THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD, and join other Christians and people of faith and Patriots who are already engaged in this battle to educate our fellow citizens.  Oh, and polish your “shield” and sharpen your “sword”.  You’ll need them!

 

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A native of Cleveland, Ohio W. H. (Bill) Lamb was graduated from Cleveland State University (Ohio) in 1960, and relocated to South Carolina in 1964.  For many years he was an Industrial Engineer, Chief Industrial Engineer, and plant manager in the steel, electronics, and apparel industries in Ohio, South Carolina, and Alabama. 

An avid and long time writer concentrating on political and cultural issues of concern to America’s Christian Patriot community, he was published in the Lancaster, S.C. “News” during the mid-to-late 1960’s and in Greenville’s “The Times Examiner” since 1999.   The late Christian Patriot, Col. Bobby Dill, was his first editor for The Times Examiner, the publication he always refers to as “a great journal of truth”.

Married to Barbara for 65 years, he has two adult kids, five grandkids, and six great grandkids, plus a “feisty and opinionated” 80 lb. Pit Lab named Hayley, who runs the entire house.

A long time member, with Barbara, of the patriotic John Birch Society, he believes that it is the duty of ALL Christians to first, share the love of his Savior, Jesus, with others, and then to be dedicated patriots and do everything possible to both resist the evil of collectivism that is smothering Western Civilization and educate and motivate his fellow Americans in the preservation of our unique Constitutional Republic.