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"Standing Together, Shoulder To Shoulder, As We Fight the Good Fight of Faith"

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER is a weekly letter of encouragement Bob has written since 1997, covering many topics selected to
motivate people to be strong students of the Word and courageous witnesses of Jesus Christ.  It is a personal letter of
encouragement to you, written solely to help "lift up hands that hang down".

    "The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything." -- Albert Einstein

    “There is a common, worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many have, and think they have -- a cheap Christianity which offends nobody,
and requires no sacrifice, which costs nothing, -- and is worth nothing.” – J. C. Ryle

Shoulder To Shoulder #1312 -- 10/10/22

Title:  "Ancient Paths -- The Pathway of Integrity and Moral Behavior" A (part 20)

My Dear Friend and Fellow Kingdom Seeker:

Today I greet you for the first time using our new email subscriber service, Gaggle.email.  I am still in the process of acquainting myself with the features offered, but at the moment it appears I may be able to simply continue sending as an email rather than attaching a PDF version.  Since the maximum size allowed is 100Mb, I should be able to do that -- and without losing the format features I currently use.  Do me a favor and send me a "thumbs up" or "Got it!" email to lifeunlimited@pobox.com so I'll know if this new system will work for us.

Weather in Yuma is beginning to temper itself with the highs seldom reaching beyond the mid 90's as highs.  We still probably have another month in which we could tempt triple digits, but only for a day or two at a time.  In that Jo Ann and I have only been back in Yuma for two weeks, we are still in a flurry getting settled in.  We have successfully had the front cowling, bumper, rock panel, and grill perfectly replaced on the Grand Caravan, she has had a successful follow-up visit with her doctor, and we've made a little progress on things needing to be done around the house.

Thursday I have my initial preparatory consultation with the eye surgeon and will have my cataract surgery scheduled at that time.  Next week I have my annual wellness exam.  Chapel members are beginning to arrive for the season, and we are prepping for our November 6th start-up service.  It is a challenging but exciting time.

More than once I have been tempted to terminate this particular series on "Seeking The Ancient Paths", but there are still several paths to examine and walk, so at least for a few more weeks we'll hike on.  Today's topic seems to me to be a particularly important one as we in the U.S. approach the upcoming midterm elections on November 8th.  I don't know about your state, but ours is one many identify as a "swing" state for the Democrat and Republican parties as they vie for control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Perhaps one of the reasons I have chosen this particular "ancient path" is because I am convinced it is the one that will most significantly affect the elections in all 50 states.  If you distill all the factors involved in every election, you will find that integrity and morality are ultimately at the heart of every election.  So, when we come to the end of the process soon after all ballots have been cast and counted, you and I will have a pretty clear understanding of the general moral condition of each of the fifty states.

>From this election, we will know two things -- we will know the level of importance morality plays in each state by the size of the turnout; and we will know the fundamental moral values of those who chose to vote.  Those two things won't paint a complete picture of the morality of each state, but it will give us enough detail that we can fill in the rest with some serious confidence in our conclusions.  And, it will show us the true condition of America's soul.

So, I want to talk about that, right after you consider . . .

QUOTES FOR THE WEEK:

>  "It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare." -- Mark Twain

>  "The only sure and permanent foundation of virtue is religion. Let this important truth be engraved upon your heart... Justice, humanity and benevolence are the duties you owe to society in general. To your country the same duties are incumbent upon you with the additional obligation of sacrificing ease, pleasure, wealth and life itself for its defense and security." -- Abigail Adams (Wife to President John Adams)

>  "The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity." -- Zig Ziglar

>  "I think with you, that nothing is of more importance for the public weal, than to form and train up youth in wisdom and virtue...." -- Benjamin Franklin (letter to Dr. Samuel Johnson, the first president of King’s College [now Columbia University])

>  "Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity." -- W. Clement Stone (American businessman, positive-thinker advocate)

>  "Do the right thing because it is right." -- Immanuel Kant

>  "The time is always right to do what is right." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

>  "Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you." -- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

>   'Your iniquities have turned these away, And your sins have withheld good from you." -- God (Jer 5:25)

THREE DEFINING WORDS:

I have lived under the presidencies of fifteen men elected to serve through fifty-two election cycles including twenty-six presidential elections.  I have lived under the presidencies of eight Democrats and seven Republicans.  I have voted in every election but two midterms since I became eligible during President Eisenhower's first term.  Life in the United States during those presidencies has oscillated back and forth between peace and war, prosperity and economic stress, unity and division, and all the rest of such contrasts.

However, at the very heart of every single election cycle has been a singular factor that few polls ever address.  While they reveal the outcome of that one factor, they never provide any serious credence to that one factor's significance.  They almost never address what really makes our nation tick -- what makes it have its good years and bad years -- what makes voters cast ballots for the candidates of their choice.

In three words -- NOT "two words" 😉 -- but three:  -- Integrity And Morality.

As we draw closer to midterm elections, now less than four weeks away, I cannot help but think of some of the scores of powerful statements made by our founding fathers as to the moral values and conduct necessary from any nation's leadership and constituency.  I'm sure you remember some of them as well.

    +  “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  -- John Adams (in a speech to the military in 1798) signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, second President of U.S.

+  “[T]he only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be aid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.  Without religion, I believe that learning does real mischief to the morals and principles of mankind.” -- Benjamin Rush (signer of Declaration of Independence)

+  “[T]he Christian religion, in its purity, is the basis, or rather the source of all genuine freedom in government. . . . and I am persuaded that no civil government of a republican form can exist and be durable in which the principles of that religion have not a controlling influence.” -- Noah Webster, (author of first American Speller)  

+  ”[F]or avoiding the extremes of despotism or anarchy . . . the only ground of hope must be on the morals of the people. I believe that religion is the only solid base of morals and that morals are the only possible support of free governments. [T]herefore education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man towards God.” -- Gouverneur Morris (Penman and Signer of the Constitution)

+  “[Why] should not the Bible regain the place it once held as a school book? Its morals are pure, its examples captivating and noble. The reverence for the Sacred Book that is thus early impressed lasts long; and probably if not impressed in infancy, never takes firm hold of the mind.” -- Fisher Ames (author of the final wording for the First Amendment)

+  “The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.” -- John Jay (First Chief-Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court)

+  “Human law must rest its authority ultimately upon the authority of that law which is divine. . . . Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other.” -- James Wilson (Signer of the Constitution; U. S. Supreme Court Justice in first SCOTUS)

+  “The moral principles and precepts contained in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. . . All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.” -- Noah Webster (author of the first American Speller and the first Dictionary)

+  “Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled either by a power within them or by a power without them; either by the Word of God or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible or by the bayonet.” -- Robert Winthrop (Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives)

+  “Religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society.” -- George Washington (Commanding General of the Revolutionary Army, president of the Constitutional Convention, First President of the United States of America, Father of our nation)

+  “[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” -- Benjamin Franklin (Signer of the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Ambassador to France, inventor, publisher)

“Whereas true religion and good morals are the only solid foundations of public liberty and happiness . . . it is hereby earnestly recommended to the several States to take the most effectual measures for the encouragement thereof.” -- Continental Congress, (1778)

You may wonder where our founders acquired such a direct link between good government and the Bible.  If you've read many of my past letters, you know it was because of three things  First, most of them were well grounded in religious teaching; it was part and parcel of their history and the culture of their day.  Second, the sources to which they went in trying to form our nation and create our founding documents were in themselves documents based on Judeo-Christian thought.  Finally, they -- even those with no particularly strong religious beliefs -- studied the Bible because they understood its teachings on both man's relationship to God and man's relationship to his fellow man.

The role the Bible played in the formation of our nation, the establishment of our form of government, and the laws by which our nation is governed were all dramatically impacted by it.  Countless books by qualified authors have been written over a period of two and one-half centuries pointing to the role the Bible had in America from its earliest conception.  Our founders drew specifically from two very important parts of the Bible as they sculpted our nation -- the Mosaic Law and the teachings of Christ.

God's laws that He set before the Children of Israel, both in the basic framework of the Ten Commandments and the following details, is saturated with such instructions.  The Book of Deuteronomy is the most quoted book of the Bible among the public and private writings of our founders.  When Jesus gave the "Sermon on the Mount", it was likewise peppered with instruction as to how mankind is to live his life.

When God called Judah (and Israel as well) to return to the "Ancient Paths" they had long abandoned, He described the paths as "the good way".

God also promised that if Judah would return to the Lord, that He would not only bless them, but also other nations as they responded to Judah's repentance and integrity.

"If you will return, O Israel," declares the LORD, "Then you should return to Me. And if you will put away your detested things from My presence, And will not waver, 2. and you will swear, 'As the LORD lives,' In truth, in justice and in righteousness; Then the nations will bless themselves in Him, And in Him they will glory."  (Jer 4:1-2)

Jeremiah -- no wonder he's known as "the weeping prophet"! -- declared God's plea to Judah, though to no avail.  He wrote, . . .

"Thus says the LORD, "Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, Where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'  "And I set watchmen over you, saying, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!' But they said, 'We will not listen'."  (Jer 6:26-17)

As a result of their blatant refusal to return to the "Ancient Paths" God had laid out for them in the laws and statutes He had given to Moses, His rebuke was swift:

"Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing disaster on this people, The fruit of their plans, Because they have not listened to My words, And as for My law, they have rejected it also." (Jer 6:19)

It is the action of a fool to think that God will allow this nation -- built on the very principles and laws God gave Moses -- to get away with our own wickedness and rebellion against Him.  God deals with all men and all nations on the same terms -- His righteous character and His unchanging Word.  America has always had unbelievers and godless people among us from our very foundation.  Every nation has.  But, in that this nation was so distinctly shaped by those Judeo-Christian principles as articulated in the Bible, we have a far greater accountability before God for how we have responded to them.

ANOTHER CROSSROAD:

When Jeremiah confronted Judah with their sin, he wrote what God had said, and God said, "Stand by the ways and see . . ." (Jer 6:16).  The word for "ways" refers to the intersection of crossroads.  The idea that they were to "stand" indicates that God had called them to a moment of accounting over what they were doing.  It was a "pause" -- a moment to ponder where they had been, where they were at the moment, and  the direction they were heading.  It was a "past-present-future" encounter.

We also seem to be standing at a similar crossroad -- again!  We've been at such crossroads before.  Many times.  We are just like Judah and Israel three thousand years ago.  Human nature has not changed.  Like them, we have faced poverty, wars, pestilence, internal strife, and all the rest -- only the setting and modern technology are different -- the human heart is the same.

Most people don't recognize it as it happens, but we have been standing at crossroads every two years since 1789.  Think about it -- we have faced approximately 116 elections in which God gave us opportunity to assess where we had been, where we were at the time, and where we decided we wanted to go.  You may have thought it was all about politics, but it wasn't.  It was about the future of a nation.  It was about the pathway we would choose to walk the next two years.  Most importantly, though, . . .

It was all about morality and integrity -- our own personal state, and the morality and integrity of those we chose to lead our nation, our states, our counties, our communities, and our local boards.  Add to that all of the economic upheavals, natural disasters, military conflicts, and such crises, and clearly God has compassionately given us countless opportunities to draw closer to Him, obey Him for consistently, and trust Him more fully.

Sometimes we have, and sometimes we haven't.

In just under four weeks we will decide who will represent us at local, county, state, and national levels of governing.  There are major, major, major issues we are facing at all those levels -- out of control inflation, . . . a collapsed public education system, . . . family rights and stability, . . . a flood of illegal immigration, . . . unforgivable homelessness, . . . increasingly hateful antisemitism, . . . wicked perpetuated racism, . . . unthinkable political corruption, . . . heartless infanticide, . . . partisan power mongering, . . . destructive Socialism, . . . and more.

Seldom has our nation been so fragmented and divided.

And, contrary to what you may have assumed, . . . it is NOT, NOT, NOT, a political issue!  It may have political impetus and ramifications, but it goes far deeper than just "politics as usual".

It is a matter of the human heart.  (You know that, of course, already.)

CHOOSING THE CORRECT PATH:

Now, . . . how do you think all these issues (inflation, public education, family health, immigration, homelessness, antisemitism, racism, corruption, abortion, partisanship, Socialism) if we could bring ourselves to do three very simple things? ----

1.  Pray, pray, pray!

2.  Live morally with integrity.

3.  Elect representatives to lead us who will do the same.

The path America has been walking is precariously close to the edge of the cliff, and it is strewn with virtually everything possible to cause us to trip and plummet as a nation to our death as a free country.

In four weeks we will stand at another crossroad and make a decision.  It will be the first occasion that will require many more to come before we veer away from the precipice.

What if, this time, we vote according to issues rather than party?  What if, this time, we vote according to divine direction rather than tradition?  What if, this time, we vote on the basis of integrity rather than on political platform?  What if, this time, we vote on the basis of morality rather than on convenience?

What if, THIS TIME, we vote according to God's moral law rather than on cultural practice?

Isn't this what our founders had in mind when they formed our government?  Remember what some of them said?

    +  “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  -- John Adams (in a speech to the military in 1798) signer of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, second President of U.S.

   +  “[T]he Christian religion, in its purity, is the basis, or rather the source of all genuine freedom in government. . . . and I am persuaded that no civil government of a republican form can exist and be durable in which the principles of that religion have not a controlling influence.” -- Noah Webster, (author of first American Speller)

    +  ”[F]or avoiding the extremes of despotism or anarchy . . . the only ground of hope must be on the morals of the people.” -- Gouverneur Morris (Penman and Signer of the Constitution)

   +  “The moral principles and precepts contained in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. . . All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.” -- Noah Webster (author of the first American Speller and the first Dictionary)

   +  “[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” -- Benjamin Franklin (Signer of the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Ambassador to France, inventor, publisher)

“Whereas true religion and good morals are the only solid foundations of public liberty and happiness . . . it is hereby earnestly recommended to the several States to take the most effectual measures for the encouragement thereof.” -- Continental Congress, (1778)

FINALLY:

There is much more to be discussed, as we will in the next two or three letters in addressing some of the specific issues before us.  In the meantime, please do three things before the elections:

1.  Pray daily for our nation.  We are in deep trouble in many ways, but particularly morally and spiritually.

2.  Chose to make any necessary moral and ethical course corrections in your life and become a brighter light shining in dark places.  Become an influencer, and not just one of the influenced.

3.  Investigate extensively and expansively the candidates you have before you.  Not a single one is perfect, and not a single one is ideal.  But in each category of your particular election, there will be one who comes closest to God's moral law for a civilized society.
1)  Which one is most aware of biblical financial principles?
2)  Which one believes most strongly in the biblical model of education -- parents, church, schools?
3)  Which one most closely adheres to traditional models of family life?
4)  Which one understands the significance of treating the "strangers" of immigration>
5)  Which one has the most compassionate and yet just way to treat the homeless?
6)  Which one adamantly rejects antisemitism?
7)  Which one outright rejects racism of all kinds and treats everyone equally?
8)  Which one will fight fiercely against corruption of every kind and at every level?
9)  Which one has the deepest commitment to the lives of the unborn?
10)  Which one will work together with the other party to find common ground and pass just laws?
11)  Which one will fight tirelessly to eradicate every particle of Socialism to be found in our institutions and government?
12)  Which one will openly portray and promote moral living and integrity?

Clearly you will not find a single person who can satisfy all twelve of those criteria.  But it is still your obligation as a Christian to do your best -- and vote for those who come closest.

Party or popularity voting this time will not solve a single problem we are facing.

So, . . . .

In His Bond, By His Grace, and for His Kingdom,

Bob Tolliver -- Romans 1:11

"Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness,
    examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so." -- Dr. Luke (Acts 17:11)

"A fire kept burning on the hearthstone of my heart, and I took up the burden of the day with fresh courage and hope." -- Charles F. McKoy

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Copyright October, 2022

"If Jesus had preached the same message that many ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified." -- Leonard Ravenhill

"The time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep,  the Church will have clowns entertaining the goats." -- Charles H. Spurgeon

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