Politics Without Penalties

Do we want a president who doesn’t believe in punishment?

Presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson has recently come out and stated that he does not believe in Hell. This was no major surprise coming from Carson, who is Seventh-Day-Adventist; we already know their doctrines on this point. I’m not here to talk about religions, denominations, or politics, I’m here to talk about people: the people of the United States of America.

Among other statements on this point, Dr. Ben Carson said this: “God wouldn’t send people to Hell”. What Dr. Carson fails to see is that God is not a human, therefore He does not suffer the weakness of compassion in the face a justice, and mercy to the resilient enemies of His existence and Love. God will never stop loving the haters of the Cross, even unto eternal death. It’s not an act of hatred, condemning people to eternal torment, it is an act of justice on an eternal and infinite level.

The big question is: If Dr. Ben Carson doesn’t believe in the ultimate punishment, from the ultimate authority, for the ultimate crime, how can we expect him to punish lesser crimes? What Dr. Carson has said that he believes is that God would not condemn a person to everlasting torment after having only done evil for 80 years or so.

Obviously, we see that this man, who is well versed in scripture is turning a blind eye to the fact that the wages of sin is death. In that passage, it does not mean a physical death, but a spiritual and everlasting death. Whereas Dr. Carson says that people who die without Christ will simply be annihilated, God says otherwise.

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

-Revelation 20:15 

Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

-Matthew 25:41

Those are great illustrations, but this next one blows Dr. Carson’s whole argument to worthless shreds.

And it came to pass, that the beggar died and was carried by angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in Hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

-Luke 16:22-29

This is one of the saddest passages in the entire Bible, in my opinion. Notice how many times the word, “torment”, is used to describe Hell. Even the word “Hell”, itself is used in this passage as a literal place. You’ve heard of “Heaven is For Real”, I would like to submit that Hell is for real also, maybe even more importantly. Christ does not save people to Heaven, He saves them from their sins and the penalty for their sins: Hell.

In the passage above, we see a rich man and a beggar. The rich man did not believe in Christ and had no love in his heart for the poor, the least of these. Inasmuch as he did not regard or care for the beggar Lazarus, he did not regard or care for Christ Himself. Both the rich and the poor die, death is no respecter of persons, and the poor man gets taken up by angels to Heaven, whereas the rich man is condemned to Hell for what he did not do in his life on earth.

The rich man is not annihilated, he is able to see, (…and seeth Abraham afar off…), he is able to speak, (…And he cried, Father Abraham, have mercy on me…), and he is able to feel, (…for I am tormented in this flame…). What are the five senses that are necessary to recognize existence? Taste, touch, smell, hear, see, right? Well, you cannot taste a place, and you cannot smell location: what is left is touch, hear, and see. It is made absolutely certain that this rich man can see, hear, and feel from Hell, proving that it does exist.

Not only that, he is conscious of his former life and the fact that he has five brothers still living. Death without Christ is not annihilation, it is eternal separation in an everlasting, living torment. If death without Christ was simply annihilation, we would see less people coming to Christ than we do already. If life without Christ equals death without Him in everlasting nothingness, why would anyone who hates Christ agree to follow Him? If it’s a choice between death into nothingness, and an afterlife with a God you didn’t like anyway, why would they choose Christ?

Bottom line, humans began perfect, then broke God’s one rule and are now condemned to everlasting Hell, regardless of what we do in life whether good or evil. However, and thank God for it, Jesus Christ died for our sins. If we accept His free gift of salvation, He saves us from the penalty of our sins: death. If a person goes to Hell, it is not God who sent them there, it is their own doing.

Hell is real, and even though Dr. Ben Carson doesn’t believe that, I don’t think it will hurt our nation should he become president. But, I do think that it is Hypocritical at best to say that you don’t believe in Hell, and that you do believe in Justice and in the truth of God’s Holy, inerrant Word.

As always, thanks for reading. I want to encourage you to think for yourselves when it comes to politics and government affairs. Compare candidates opinions with the truth of Scripture because God cannot lie. Let God be true, and every man a liar. Until next time.

Facebook: @JaredAllen

Twitter: @EJaredAllen

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–the anonymous novelist

If My People…

 Today my time with you will be short and my thought will hopefully be direct. Pay close attention, it might go by pretty fast.

June 25, 1962- Prayer expelled from public schools

In the year 1962 a revolt against Christianity put prayer on trial in the Supreme Court. The verdict was cast that prayer in school was the equivalent of establishing a national religion and violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. 

I’m sorry government but freedom of religion doesn’t mean that we cannot have a set religion. Christianity is the rock upon which this nation was founded. According to the First Amendment, all other religions have the right to exist unmolested beside Christianity.

1973- Legalized abortion

Murder has been legal in the United States of America for the past 42 years. In the trail between Roe and Wade, abortion, the power of life and death was officially decided by mankind. God was removed from choice, from conscience, and from human life. At least in our minds, God was no longer in charge.

1980- All religious displays banned from public schools

No more crosses, no more Bibles, no more tracks, no more talking about God. Public schools seem destined to become a playground for all evil. Isolating children from all moral obligation and knowledge of right or wrong is setting them on the path to what we now have today: kids that act like animals. But it doesn’t stop there.

2005- Ten Commandments taken out of courtrooms

Technically not all of the Commandments were barred, only the first four or five. Anything to do with God and His laws is now gone from our judging halls. When we disregard God in our laws, we become lawless and Godless. Now we come to present day .

2015- God taken out of marraige

When God is removed from marraige, we die. America, as a nation cannot stand without some moral framework. We have removed God from our schools, our judicial system, our government, and the institution of marriage. Every major faction of the United States has been polluted by moral degradation.

Notice the trend, every decision in each of these instances was made by the Supreme Court. And, I might add that Constitutionally, they had no right to redefine the institution of marriage. The court to which all power and authority is given in this country, has single handedly expelled God from anything and everything that they have touched.

We have lost sight of where this nation began, why it has lasted through the years, and why it is great. Without a solid foundation, the building, or in this case the nation, crumbles and falls. If we keep treating God as if He doesn’t exist, we will keep living like animals. Right and wrong are not a game, they are not fantasies, and they will always be as they always have been. God did not change through the years, we did. If we have a prayer of survival, it is His mercy when we repent and turn once again to Him.

I know this verse is overused, but it still rings true.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

-2 Chronicles 7:14 

There’s your solution, there is the answer to our nation’s problems. Pray, seek His face, turn back to God again in America and we will once again be the greatest nation on earth.

As always, thanks for reading and Happy Monday!

—the anonymous novelist

Political Corruptness

Now, calm down. Some of you were freaking out because in a recent post I said that I’m done talking politics, and yet the title of this post is everything about politics. Now, just hold on, I’m not a hypocrite. Well, I am, just not in this instance. I don’t want to talk about world politics, I want to talk about story politics. Back to writing, back to my reason for starting a blog in the first place; I needed to be forced to write on a continual basis and blogging seemed to provide that. I haven’t had a wealth of time for my own stories, but I haven’t really had very many ideas either. 

Government Corruptness seems a staple of nations throughout history. It is also one of the most overused plot points in fiction writing. Again, this is assuming that my concept of writing is flawless whether my performance of it be the same or no. Corrupt government is the cop out of actual conflict. To have an inside man is simply too easy and cliché to hold a reader’s interest without some manner of hook or twist. The evil insider in government is a way to side step espionage and grand scale attempts of assassination, theft, and terror. It also minimizes the use of fantasy elements. It’s simply too easy for the writer to have an antagonist or emissary in the heirarchy of the civilization. 

Although the act of implanting a corrupt government is overplayed and has well run its course, there are elements that you can employ to liven up a dull premise. Reveals of main and well beloved characters as the traitor, magic enchantments bewitching men to play traitorous rolls, and many other methods of twists can add to the intruige of this standard theme.

However, I would much rather do away with this template altogether. If you actually take the time to set up a working government, you may be able to survive a story without political corruptness. This opens wide the door for great feats of infiltration and escape, espionage and spies. I find the story is much more interesting if the writer does not make it easy on his or herself to devise the plots. Make a perfect, seemingly unscathable world and then the magic happens when you can pull off a political heist against the odds. The excitement is more present when the writer goes deep and takes time to create these worlds and these scenarios.

Our world may be in a state of political corruptness, making the next move or our nation’s adversaries somewhat easy to predict. And, by adversaries I don’t technically mean any outside nations. We have enough enemies writing legislature and passing laws, we don’t need any more outside of our own government.

Hope this advice on government helps you in your writing and analysis of the same. 

As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist

Soapbox

Once every four years I talk about politics. Now, I’m not a fan of politics by any stretch of the mind, I do not enjoy keeping up with debates and polls and things of that nature. It is not that I do not care who wins, as a citizen and voter of the United States People’s Government, I have the right and obligation to ensure by my one vote that the right person gets into office. So, I care a great deal about the fate of this country and who will lead it, I’m just not overly thrilled with the discussion, back-bitting, and slander it takes to get there.

There has been one candidate who has been pretty standup throughout the duration of the race thus far, and that is Dr. Ben Carson. Though the man has had no political experience, he has handled every question brilliantly and has found solutions to many of the problems facing our country. However, I’m not going to continue this post with Dr. Carson, because I can think of no evil to speak against him. What is a soapbox for if you can’t bash someone or something?

In contrast to Carson we have other GOP candidates who are very backhanded, under the table kind of guys. Donald Trump, (sorry Trump fans), is one of those guys. He has succeeded in making himself look like the biggest jerk currently in the election, and I say that with respect for the man himself, but a growing dislike to political side of him. Trump acts like a viper, whether it be picking a fight with news casters, Hillary Clinton, or real candidates, he sets himself up as a news target and has made it clear he will do anything get attention; bar nothing, even his hair seems like an obvious ploy to get noticed and be remembered. Think about it, what is the first thing to jump into your mind when I say: Donald Trump? Besides billions of dollars that is.

Though I believe Trump would be a very strong, very economical leader, I simply do not like his politics. But, I’m not sure which is worse, Trump’s hair, or Hillary Clinton’s computer password; as if the Clinton’s didn’t have enough problems already.

Hillary Clinton… Where to begin. She has blown the entire election for herself. Her reputation and that of her husband was already 1 strike against her, the only thing she had majorly going for her was the “woman” vote. Though they won’t admit it, people will vote for a woman on no merit whatsoever other than her gender. However, with Carly Fiorina in the race, and this email scandal, I think Hillary has even lost the “woman” vote, or at least a large portion of it.

Whether they deserve it or not, none of the other candidates are polling anywhere close to the top 3 or 4. Though I can not speak for anyone else, I pray God will put the right leader into office to take us out of this murky quagmire into which we have slid.

You can learn a lot about a person by what they say when running for office. What beliefs will they compromise, what corners will they cut, is their word sacred to them or do the spend it idly and let it fall back on itself? There have been many claims, many promises, some for good, most for evil, and many simply to win a vote or 2. George Washington was one of the only presidents to fulfill all of his campaign promises. Mainly because he made none, he was elected by unanimous vote without delivering a single speech or uttering one promise. 

I can tell you one thing, no matter what the, so called, “Supreme Court” says, they have no authority to redefine marriage, or life, or anything else. Constitutionally they have no right to make the choices they are making for our country. This is still our country. Not the Government’s, not the Supreme Court’s, it belongs to us. We need to speak out against these injustices, these transgressions of our authority. It is our duty to call out the factions and institutions that we have established, when they are out of line. So, why don’t we? 

I’ll just leave you with this, if the judicial system can remove our rights in the way that they are, and suppose that they have the authority to redefine God’s laws set into existance before the foundations of the earth was laid, then what is to prevent the highest authority in our country from doing the same or worse? I want to caution you to not so much listen to what these candidates say, but to pay close attention to who they are and how they behave. Because who they are in the race is who they will be in office. Their words may sound nice, but do they kick other candidates when they are down? Do they look for fault and exploit it? Do they defame other people in public and embarrass them to bring attention to themselves? These are not the qualities we want in a leader. 

A leader should be a gentleman. Yes I did specify gentleman because God has ordained that man lead. In history, the only times that women have taken lead of a people is when men are afraid to. Let us not fall to the place where we will bring shame upon our nation by electing a woman, someone that men are sworn to protect, become the most targeted indivual in the nation. Well, my soapbox is getting slippery, and I’m really not fond of it anyway. So, this concludes my tyraid. Be looking for another post akin to this one sometime in the next 4 years.

As always, thanks for reading. I encourage you to pray about this election, who does God want in office?

–the anonymous novelist 

The Death Of God

In the world today, we are striving to bring an end to freedom, truth, and justice. We shout, “liberty! Equality! Freedom of Religion!”. But, the same freedom that gives us the power to worship as we please, has given others the power to stifle our freedoms with shouts of intolerance. 

When did Freedom of Religion mean, as long as that religion compromises for everyone? When did Freedom of speech mean, as long as no one feels offended by what you have to say? Even Freedom of the Press comes with the threat of slander, blackmail, and verbal persecution.

One might ask, “how can you kill God?”. But, deep inside we already know the answer. We can feel the deterioration of the standards this country was founded upon. The destabilization of our moral government has brought us into emotional and spiritual lockdown. We are afraid of the formal government of this country and hide away our convictions as more and more stories appear on the news of Christians persecuted by our judicial system for, “intolerance”. 

God is spirit. God is truth. He is an idea and a lifestyle; that lifestyle is slowly dying out. Christians are no longer acting like Christians. The light has been hid under a bushel, the salt hath lost its savor. We have become like the Laodicean church of old, water that is neither hot, nor cold. We are lukewarm and have been spat from the mouth of God. 

The idea of God-living is being replaced by other ideas and concepts. God is triune, He built mirrors of Himself into all of creation. The church is a pastor, deacons, (elders), and a congregation. Without one of these three the church would no longer function. The family is a father, (male), a mother, (female), and children. Without one of these three it is no longer a family. The human consists of body, (physical), soul, (emotional or metaphysical), and spirit, (spiritual, immortal essence of the human). Without one of these three, humans would not operate as humans and therefore would no longer be humans, but animals or robots.

Every time we try to redefine what God has already declared, “very good”, we push the knife deeper into the heart of God. Slowly killing every memory of Him, every thought of consciousness of His existence until He is dead to the world. We are killing God, and the day He dies, all morality flees the world and life itself will be no more.

In the beginning, God created everything, and it was very good. Then sin entered the world: lust, pride, selfishness, homosexuality, abortion, theft, hate, prostitution, corruption, murder, and lies. There may be no reversing the crash-course we have set for ourselves, but if there is hope for the world, it is in Jesus Christ alone.

As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist

A Recipe For Civilization

Well, after a brief pause from world building, we return with the second phase of progression: civilization. After you have established the geography of the world, it’s time to develop the history.

Every story is only as good as its history. The best stories are ones that have deep, well developed backgrounds that extend centuries into the past. Your backdrop is vital to the shape of current events and establishes a connection between the world and the reader. The more descriptive you are in the details of the land, the kingdoms, and the culture, the more interesting your story will become. 

When you create a world, it’s not enough to only create a surface for your story, you need a depth to it. A story is not a circle, it is a sphere, a multi-dimensional orb that is the culmination of every necessary element. The progression of your characters, the knowledge of your reader, and the impact of your story all find their effect in the depth into which you go to create it.

What are the ingredients of a good civilization?

At the formation of any kingdom is government, a legislative organization to create codes and rules to protect the populous. A solid governmental hierarchy is tantamount to any great civilization. The question to follow is: what form of government?

Democracy? Aristocracy? Anarchism? Republic? Monarchy? Dictatorship? Communism?

Well, democracy is the obvious choice for the intermediate world builder; simple to set up, has a good track record, and is the most well know of the presbytery type, communal government. Democracy is a peoples’ governments, not a autocracy run by one man, and gives you leeway to be intuitive.

For the beginner however, monarchy is the choice of the lot. It’s the standby government for fantasy and medieval stories and is practical set up for you. Your standard everyday kingdom is run by a king, which is… clue: monarchy.

Communism is not even a legitimate form of government as there is no practical example of it working. In most cases someone always ends up on top of the community and it converts into a dictatorship. 

Anarchism is also inconsistent. Though fun to toy with, it’s difficult to work a no laws, every man for himself kind of government. 

For the expert, aristocracy is immensely entertaining to work with as it is composed of many aristocrats whose position in legislature has been passed down by their fathers. This tribunal of governors is unique.

My personal favorite is Rebuplic, a kind of conglomerative, cooperative organizational government, with stages and levels of legislature and law enforcement to keep a clean, balanced government.

However you figure it, the government is the groundwork for the civilization. What form of government you choose determines the direction of your civilization. The best kinds of government are implanted with checks and balances to prevent any one person from taking absolute power. 

The government provides your stability, no matter how corrupt it may or may not be. Government is square one, from there, everything else is decided by legislature created by that government. Your independent factions and institutions all line up afterward. If you start right, you’ll finish right.

As always, thanks for reading.

–the anonymous novelist