Choose This Day Who You Will Serve August 15, 2018
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Politics, Politiocal Philosophy, Religion.Tags: Capitalism, democratic principles, Dr. Robert Owens, Free choice, free market capitalism, Obama’s agenda, Progressive agenda, Representative republic
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In our current confrontation with Radical Islam the battle lines are portrayed as those between a secular society, us and a religious society, them. I reject this portrayal as a betrayal of the faith of our Founders and of those patriotic Americans who still hold fast to Jesus as God and Savior, we too are a religious people.
America was founded as a Christian country. Anyone who denies that has not studied enough History or has been sadly misled. Columbus accentuated his desire to spread the Christian faith to his patrons the King and Queen of Spain and in his log. The first thing the English did upon landing at Jamestown was set up a cross to dedicate their endeavor to Jesus their Savior. Were these early explorers and colonists always true to their faith? Did they always operate under principles derived from God’s Word? Sadly they did not. However, to say that the Christian faith was not an integral part of their motivation and worldview is simply not true.
In the latter part of the twentieth century Progressive leaders pushing a collectivist agenda decided to declare us a pluralistic society. They sought to detach the heavily Bible influenced Constitution into the dustbin of History by substituting what they call a living constitution for the rock-solid one the Framers bequeathed us. Mr. Obama, the quintessential Progressive in his speech to the Muslims of Egypt, Turkey, and many places spiced up his apology tours by asserting that America is not a Christian country. This statement of his belief and goal does not make it true.
All of these recent changes aside, most Americans still believe in God and the majority consider themselves Christians. As a Christian, an Historian, and a Political Scientist in response to numerous questions I would like to share my beliefs concerning government, economies, and the rights of man.
As far as a government goes the only Biblically correct one is that God is God and we are His people. He is the King and we are the sheep of His pasture. As concerning an economic system God’s economy knows no lack and is exceedingly abundantly provisioned by the owner of the cattle on a thousand hills.
This being true I do not believe that God mandates any type of human government or economic system as pre-ordained, sanctified, or holy. However, I do believe that humanity as God has created it does require certain governmental and economic conditions to develop and thrive as God intended.
God created us in His own image. He gave us the power to create and to choose. He gave us a mind open to learning and ever eager to improvise. He also gave us what I believe is the most crucial aspect of our make-up: our free will or the power to choose. We can choose to follow Him and do what He desires, or we can choose to follow the leadings not only of our thoughts but of our emotions also. In other words we can dwell within the Kingdom of God wherein He is our King and we are His people or we can choose to live in the Kingdom of man and become the subjects of either our own designs or of whoever manages to gain control of the physical world around us.
If God wanted slaves or robots He could have created slaves or robots. Instead He created us and gave us a mind to think and a will to choose because He wanted us to decide to love Him and follow Him freely without compulsion. Therefore I believe that since free thought and free choice are the foundation of man’s nature freedom is necessary if man is to live as God designed. This being the case I believe that any governmental or economic system that denies man’s freedom interferes with and attempts to supplant God’s plan, which is the definition of evil.
There are of course limits to freedom as expressed in the Ten Commandments. Beyond this we should be free to choose our own way. Will we follow God or will we follow man. Within these limits and building on the moral framework the Bible provides I believe that a republic based upon the commitment to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness using democratic principles is the governmental structure which most closely matches man’s God-given nature. I also believe that free market capitalism is the economic system which best allows man to develop and live as God intended. Conversely, when man rejects God and seeks to create his own utopia he builds some sort of centrally-planned command economy and the intrusive government needed to impose it upon others.
A free economy and the free government it requires allows the independent choices of many to produce the greatest prosperity for all as everyone seeks to do the best they can because they reap the rewards. In a socialist or any type of hybrid economy between capitalism and socialism bureaucrats make the decisions and stagnation is the inevitable result. As Gary North, a Christian economist expresses it, “The essence of democratic socialism is this re-written version of God’s commandment: ‘Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.’” Or as Winston Churchill observed, “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” And that is not life as God intended.
If we look at History it is an outworking of the initial fall of man. In the beginning God created the world including man and it was all good. Then at the dawn of our existence we choose to go our own way instead of following God. We chose to follow the siren song of “You shall be like God” and ever since we have attempted to create heaven on earth. All we have succeeded in doing is to open the gates of Hell instead. A case in point would be the age-old question, if God is good why is there evil in the world followed by the age-old answer God gave us free choice and we chose evil.
With the help and guidance of those who seek to play god themselves humanity has often been convinced to surrender their freedom for security, to bargain away their God-given nature and assume the subservient nature of slaves.
In America the purveyors of socialism cloak their designs in the language of populism. They loudly proclaim that they seek a fair deal for everyone, except of course for the people they intend to loot. They want fair elections as long as nothing is done to stop fraudulent voting. They want equality enforced by unequal treatment. In other words they seek to build the kingdom of man where they can be king.
We have a mind to think and the capacity to make a free choice. As the day of reckoning draws near all I can recommend is, think and choose. We can choose to follow the path of redistribution, class warfare, and collectivist dependency or we can choose to at least attempt a return to limited government, personal liberty, and economic freedom. Don’t be fooled by the progressive media and their obvious bias. To be free is God’s design. For us to be a slave to dependency is man’s.
One of America’s most beloved troubadours told us, “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls” and one of those secular prophets he was referring to reminded us “You’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed You’re gonna have to serve somebody, Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”
Or as my favorite book says it, “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2018 Robert R. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
Random Thoughts IV August 8, 2018
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: Dr. Robert Owens, philosophy, practical advice, random thoughts, Words of wisdom
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If you’re not ready for Christ to return today … You’re not ready.
Bill Clinton – Gave Nukes to North Korea
Barrack Obama – Gave Billions in cash to Iran
Hillary Clinton – Gave uranium to Russia
Trump – Gave tax cuts to America
How can a moral wrong be a civil right?
Your past does not preclude your future.
Why was it a crime for Nixon to wiretap Democrats at Watergate but not for Obama to wiretap Republicans at Trump Tower?
The FBI was told multiple times that a 19 year old psychopath was going to shoot up a high school and they did nothing. But they have plenty of manpower to spy on presidential campaigns and monitor private conversations.
A porn star says she had sex with our President and they raid his lawyer’s office. Does anyone else see something wrong with this picture? And what do the allegations of a porn star have to do with the Russian collusion case Mueller is supposed to be investigating?
Black Lives Matter’s Facebook page is fine but Diamond and Silk are a danger to the community?
How can a moral wrong be a civil right?
I have no problem with background checks for guns as soon as we do the same thing for immigration and voter ID.
Faith isn’t a magic formula to make everything turn out all right … it’s being all right no matter how things turn out.
If people quit believing in God it isn’t that they believe in nothing … instead they will believe in anything.
The one thing that is worse than being poor is being poor again.
I told everyone that I had a credibility problem but no one believed me.
Any generation taught to hate their country will refuse to defend it as well.
Even a little light is bright in the middle of the night.
Wake up Democrats! Your party has turned communist on you.
If we don’t know where we come from we have no idea where we are and we can’t imagine where we’re going.
If we don’t know what rights we have we will not notice when those rights are taken away.
No one gets to live in the world they grew up in.
If everyone you meet is a jerk it might be that you’re the jerk.
The awareness of my own mortality leads me to seek a life that has eternal significance. All things must pass … only those things done in Christ will last.
War breathes life to the State. It breathes death to empires.
Empires won by the strong hand of conquerors fall from the limp wrists of their descendants.
Bernie Sanders and the Socialists oppose greed and support gun control. If they ever take over the country they will raise your taxes and if you don’t pay they will send armed troops to collect.
I need an ID to buy a gun
I need an ID to board an airplane
I need an ID to buy alcohol
I need an ID to go fishing
I need an ID to get a loan
I need an ID to drive
I need an ID to get a bank account
Why don’t I need an ID to vote?
One hundred years from now it won’t matter what my job was, how much money I made, how big my house was, or what kind of a car I drove but If I can make a difference in the life of even one child it may reverberate through the corridors of time.
How can people proudly wave the flag of a foreign country but at the same time consider it a punishment to be sent back there?
Most young people act as if youth is some clever thing they invented or covered. They don’t seem to realize that though a forty year old may know what it’s like to be twenty a twenty year old cannot know what it is to be forty.
The History we are taught in secondary school is often sugar coated. It is when we start to look at alternative views that we find there has always been a great debate as to what happened, how it happened, why it happened, and what it all means.
The older we get the more of our lives become History perhaps that is why it is more interesting, we can remember so much more of it. Things are being left out of our History books, purged you might say. What isn’t remembered will be forgotten. Every society and culture has always taught what might be called a glorified History that explains why they exist and should exist as a distinct group. When a country stops teaching this to their young in a few generations it is hard for the people to justify in their own minds why they are who they are and why they should continue to be. This leads inevitably to a crisis that usually portends the end.
Since the Constitution says what the justices tell us it says with each passing majority they can re-write the document however they see fit. The debate about whether or not it is a document carved in stone or a living document has been resolved it is written in the sands of time and it can change with the rising of the tide. That isn’t a good thing but it is what it is … unless we change it. There is only one purpose for a written constitution .. to stand the test of time.
Due to differences in personality, education, intelligence, and other factors such as socioeconomic classes there is no universal experience. This is an important thing to realize across the board in Historical studies; everyone is the center of their own world and everyone experiences life from where they stand and all attempts to speak of “the” experiences of people is a fabrication that may be agreed upon by scholars but has little relationship to what any one person may experience.
The socialist economics of the USSR and the inefficiencies it caused brought about the implosion of the Soviet empire. After that fall America rushed headlong into socialism itself and it may just be a matter of time until we join the Soviets on the trash heap of History. I remember that we woke up one morning and the USSR was arguably the strongest nation on earth and unarguably the largest and by the time we went to bed it had disappeared. Since then we have worked hard to limit competition and extend benefits, “From each according to their ability to each according to their need” and while our self-satisfaction has risen everything else is in decline. Maybe what we need is some Glasnost and Perestroika.
It’s kind of hard to believe the Democrats are so enraged over someone trying to illegally influence our elections when they are against voter ID.
Ask a farmer about the weather and it’s always too hot, too cold, too wet, or too dry. But one thing is for sure .. wherever you go the weather is there. And everywhere you go people say, “If you don’t like the weather wait five minutes it’ll change.”
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2018 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
Dr. Owens’ Next Book Signing Event August 3, 2018
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Uncategorized.Tags: book signing, books, Dr. Robert Owens
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When:
Friday August 3 4 PM – 9 PM
Saturday August 4 9 AM – 5 PM
Sunday August 5 9 AM – 3 PM
Where:
Warren County Fairgrounds
1400 W 2nd Ave
Indianola, IA 50125
Bring in a book to be signed or purchase one new. All ten of Dr. Owens’ titles will be available. His books include: Two novels –America’s Trojan War, and a sequel America’s Odyssey: You Can’t Go Home Again. Three books on Political Science: The Constitution Failed, Constitutional Philosophy in Action, and Then Came Trump. Four History Books: America Vol. One: Colonial History, The Azusa Street Revival, The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same (describes how the elites in America use presidential assassinations to create and sustain a secular political religion), and America Won the Vietnam War! And a book on Leadership: COGIC History: The Dark Years. All of these books are available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
Here’s a Free Gift July 25, 2018
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: born again, Dr. Robert Owens, how to get born again, plan of salvation, Salvation
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As a retired pastor I am still amazed at the number of people who came forward week after week repenting of sins and seeking salvation. It was often the same people week after week. No matter how much I preached it, no matter how much I taught it, so many never seemed grasp the idea that the cleansing of sins, salvation, and righteousness are free gifts given to us by our Father.
People would cry, “I’ve been seeking after God for years. I’ve laid at the altar and pleaded over and over for God to guide me, to save me, to help me, and nothing happened. I leave the altar the same poor sinner as when I went up there.”
My heart breaks for any and all who labor under such beggarly results.
My mind would scream as my voice would say, “Salvation is a gift. It isn’t necessary for you to go anywhere to get it. You can find it anywhere. It isn’t what you do, it’s what Jesus has done. All there is to getting saved and to becoming a child of God is to receive something for free. You can’t earn it by doing anything.”
Most of us have been taught and have accepted that it was all about giving up, surrendering, and confessing sins. It isn’t. It is receiving Jesus Christ as our Savior and confessing Him as our Lord.
I have had people say, “It can’t be that simple.”
It is that simple. It’s free and it’s available to everyone, everywhere, at all times.
Some have asked, “But don’t we have to do something about our sins?”
No, He has done everything that ever could be done. And this isn’t some new teaching or revelation. Our Father God told us about it through His prophet Isaiah long ago, “We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him.”
This is speaking about all of us. We have all gone our own way, done what we wanted without any reference to what God wanted us to do. We were stubborn and willful yet the Father laid the penalty for all that on Jesus. Notice there was nothing we had to do to save or help ourselves.
So how do we get from knowing this in our heads to having this become life in our hearts? John tells us, “as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”
Once again we do nothing except receive a free gift.
John also tells us “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” This is the Father giving His Son Jesus as our substitute, as our Savior and all He asks is that we accept Him for what He said He is. There is nothing for us to do except believe that He paid the debt owed for our sin and that He rose from the Dead to bring us life. Or as Paul put it, “who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”
God delivered Jesus to pay the punishment for our sins and He was raised from the dead when He had paid the full measure, and all we have to do is accept that. We don’t have to do anything to earn what He has already paid for.
Paul sums it all up well in the next verse when he says, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Now besides salvation we have peace. There is nothing standing between us and God we are at peace and still there is nothing for us to do is there?
Paul tells us as clearly as can be how this all comes about and what the result is when he says, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
Look at that a little closer: when we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord that should be the end of us going our own way and doing our own thing. If you’re anything like I was before I did this that shouldn’t be too hard considering where our own choices and our own things have brought us. In other words if I relinquish being the Lord of my life and give that place to Jesus I will no longer be separated from God and I will become His child, a member of His family with all the rights and responsibilities that means.
If we do this what does the Word say? It says that we will be saved. When does it say we will be saved? It happens as soon as we believe. This isn’t pie-in-the-sky. This is here and now reality. What does the Word say we are when we believe? It says we are now children of God. Does that mean now or someday way over there in the future when we get to heaven? No it says we have it now even if we don’t know fully what that means. Or, as John put it, “now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
How do we know all this is true? How do we know that as soon as we confess and believe we are born again into a new life right here right now? John tells us, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Having learned this do you believe in the Name of Jesus?
If you do then you have eternal life. Eternal life is the nature of God. That means you now have the nature of God. You are no longer a fallen sinner who needs to beg forgiveness you are filled with the very nature of God. Peter put it very clearly when he said, “by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” That corruption is spiritual death and we have escaped it by receiving the divine nature: eternal life.
So don’t fall into the trap of thinking you have to get good enough to get saved, or to see your life change. None of us could ever be that good. It isn’t about what we do. It’s about what He has done. It isn’t about who we are. It’s all about who He is. He paid the price. He purchased the freedom of all humans from the grip of Satan, and he extends that freely to all who believe He is who He said He is, that He rose from the dead and that He is the Savior of all who believe in Him.
Come on. It’s free and it’s yours for the taking. Why wait another moment. You can have it right here right now. Confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead and it’s yours.
Got it? Done it? Now tell someone. Shout it from the rooftops you are a child of God living an eternal life in fellowship with our Father. Welcome to the family.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2018 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
It Takes Faith to Be an Atheist July 18, 2018
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: big bang, creation, Dr. Robert Owens, Faith, faith in Christ, faith is a gift, the Big Bang, the gift of faith
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I once had enough faith in myself to believe there was no God. I had enough of that self-centered faith to believe the entire universe sprang from a Big Bang. I could believe that Big Bang came from an unbelievably dense unbelievably small point that for some unexplained reason suddenly exploded. I could believe that after the explosion this unbelievably dense unbelievably small point expanded into everything that is. I could believe that everything that is now expanding would eventually stop expanding and then contract back into that unbelievably dense unbelievably small point that would then eventually explode again and the entire process would happen again over and over from eternity to eternity. Yes, I had enough self-centered faith to believe all that.
I blindly accepted what scientist told me was verifiable evidence that all this was physically true. I never once asked myself any of these obvious questions: How could anyone possibly know that this had ever happened before? How could anyone possibly know that it would happen again? How could anyone possibly know where the unbelievably dense unbelievably small point came from? Or better yet, what made this self-existing unbelievably dense unbelievably small point explode?
Without asking any of these important questions I could believe all that without ever contemplating the fact that chaos breeds chaos it does not breed the complex organization that we observe in reality from atom to Adam. Or, as the Second Law of Thermodynamics puts it the entropy of any isolated system always increases.
In other words, the odds of a tornado hitting a junk yard and leaving a fully assembled 747 in its wake are less than zero. And to have order come from chaos on a universal scale would mean that that would have to happen billions upon billions of times. Which flies in the face of something I learned back during the Hippie commune days, no matter how many times you multiply zero it is still zero.
But I had faith! Without blinking an eye I was proud to strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Everything came from one itsy bitsy piece of who knows what that existed from eternity to eternity exploding into everything and the shrinking back to an itsy bitsy piece of who knows what over and over. Sure that made sense but a loving God who created everything that was too far out to believe.
Jesus tells us that we have to come to the end of ourselves if we want to walk with Him. We have to realize that anyone who intends to come with Him has to let Him lead. We’re not in the driver’s seat; He is. We shouldn’t run from suffering we should embrace it. Follow Him and He’ll show us how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, His way, to finding ourselves, our true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything we want but lose ourselves? What could we ever trade our soul for? He said those who seek to hold on to everything will lose everything and those who let go of everything will gain everything.
When I first started trying to live this kind of life I thought of it as learning to walk backwards because it was the opposite of everything I had ever been taught on how to succeed.
When some people see another walking in faith following Christ sacrificing themselves for others they say, “Wow! They have such great faith.”
To be sure to follow Jesus takes faith but even that faith is a gift from God. God gives each of us a measure of faith and we should think seriously about that and follow that faith into the good works He’s given us to do.
So while it takes God given faith to follow Jesus it takes faith in ourselves to be an atheist. I praise God that in my life the faith gift of God overwhelmed my own faith in me. When I look at all the dead ends my choices led me to and compare that to the fulfilling and joyful life I have found following Him and I can see that He has a better way.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2018 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
The Meaning of The Book of Revelation July 11, 2018
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: Christian prophecy, Dr. Robert Owens, Meaning of life, Prophecy, The Book of Revelation, the end of the world
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A twisted mess of conflicting desires. We want what we want until we get it than we wonder why we wanted it to begin with. So often the wanting is much more fulfilling than the getting because the having is always transitory and the losing is inevitable.
Does that about sum up your experience in the world? It does mine until I met Jesus and committed my life to Him. The answer never quite fit the question. Or was it that the question never quite fit the answer. Either way I always ended up half way home half of the time standing on a cold corner waiting to die alone.
I was always asking, “What’s it all about?” Everything seemed so senseless. You work hard all your life and then you die with no U-Haul behind the hearse and no pockets in the shroud. As they used to say in the old neighborhood, “Life’s a bitch and then you die.”
Once I gave my life to Jesus things changed. Hope was birthed in my life and joy filled my heart. Along the way I found two things that didn’t fit the mold of the having not fulfilling the expectation of the wanting. Giving my life to Jesus has proven to be much more than I ever could have expected. And the gift of my wife and the life we have together in Christ grows deeper each day and is better than I ever dreamed possible.
But as to the “What’s it all about?” question God did not leave us without an answer. Many seek it in the Book of Revelation. I have found it there and I want to share it with all who can receive it.
In the Sci-Fi classic “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” the mice ask the ultimate question, “What is the meaning to life, the universe, and everything?” Although an enormous supercomputer named Deep Thought over a period of 7.5 million years eventually comes up with the answer, “42” it somehow leaves everyone a bit unsatisfied.
In real life there is an answer to this ultimate question. His name is Jesus.
It is only through my hope in Him that I can walk through this hopeless world. It is only through my joy in Him that I can face the sorrow of knowing that everything in this world that isn’t in Him is meaningless. Life in this world is a race around a circle looking for a point. You’re young forever until you’re old. Almost everyone says, “If I would have known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself” but few ever do even after they know this truth. The young disregard the old and the old disrespect the young. One hand washes another yet neither hand is ever clean.
The religions of this world seek to make us gods. The religion of God seeks to make us Gods’. We cannot possess that which we do not have and that which does not have us seeks to possess us. We enter this world lost and God wants us to find Him so that we can find ourselves in Him. What is the sound of one hand clapping? It is the sound of fingers slapping the heel of our hand. What is the answer to the unanswerable question? It’s found in my exegesis of the entire book of Revelation in one sentence.
Jesus is God, God wins in the end, and no matter how bad it gets we should pray, “Even so come Lord Jesus.”
There you go. That’s it. In other words, “Know Jesus and know peace or, no Jesus and no peace. Every one of us gets to choose for ourselves and in the perfect economy of God through His perfect justice each of us gets what we choose.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2018 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
Why is More Important Than How June 27, 2018
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: born again, Dr. Robert Owens, God’s plan, Salvation, the plan of salvation, the problem of sin
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Does the immensity of creation ever overwhelm you? Does the fact that when you lay your hand on the cold hard surface of a table there is actually more space than matter in the table numb your mind? When you’re sitting on a beach letting the sand run through your fingers have you ever reflected on the thought that there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on the earth? Has the image of reality extending as deep through a microscope as it does through a telescope make you grasp for understanding when all you can possibly understand is that you can’t understand this immensity at all?
Science tries to explain it all.
Back in the 1890s Albert Abraham Michelson an American physicist known for his work on measuring the speed of light who received the Nobel Prize in Physics, becoming the first American to win the Nobel Prize in a science put it this way, “While it is never safe to affirm that the future of Physical Science has no marvels in store even more astonishing than those of the past, it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established and that further advances are to be sought chiefly in the rigorous application of these principles to all the phenomena which come under our notice. It is here that the science of measurement shows its importance — where quantitative work is more to be desired than qualitative work. An eminent physicist remarked that the future truths of physical sciences are to be looked for in the sixth place of decimals.”
In other words the deepest thinkers came to the conclusion there was nothing new to be discovered in physics. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.
Since then the theories of Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics have shown us that we know a lot less than we thought we did. I guess it took a genius like Einstein to discover that we aren’t as smart as we think we are. And yet most of us who figured that out by about eighth grade continue to listen to these geniuses when they tell us they can figure out everything else.
And while science is pretty good at explaining the “how” of things they always leave out the “Why.”
They can tell us there was a BIG BANG (the “Let there be” experience for believers) they even try to tell us how there was BIG BANG, but they never even attempt to tell us why there was BIG BANG.
And to my mind and my heart the why is more important than the how.
Science is great at identifying things. They are passable at explaining things. Yet, when it comes to this ultimate question of why, science never utters a sound.
Look at life. Scientists can identify it. They can quantify it. They have attempted to tell us how it became so diversified. They now even say they can create it. But they never tell us why there is life.
Have you ever wondered why?
Life is the essence of the universe. Life is the ultimate goal and it’s the meaning of everything.
The Bible is the why book. It is the operating manual for life. It not only tells us how … God created everything. It tells us why … as a dwelling place for the crown of His creation … humanity.
Why?
In the Old Testament God is specifically called the Father of the nation of Israel (Deut 32:6 ; Isa 63:16 ; 64:8 ; Jeremiah 3:4 Jeremiah 3:19 ; 31:9 ; Mal 1:6 ; 2:10) or the Father of certain individuals (2 Sam 7:14 ; 1 Chron 17:13 ; 22:10 ; 28:6 ; Psalm 68:5 ; 89:26) fifteen times. At times the father imagery is present although the term “Father” is not used (Exod 4:22-23 ; Deut 1:31 ; 8:5 ; 14:1 ; Psalm 103:13 ; Jer 3:22 ; 31:20 ; Hosea 11:1-4 ; Mal 3:17).
In the intertestamental literature the term is also used. In the Apocrypha (Wis 2:16; 14:3; Tob 13:4; Sir 23:1, 4; 51:10); and in the Pseudepigrapha (Jub 1:24; 19:29; 3 Macc 5:7; 6:8).
The teaching of the Fatherhood of God takes a decided turn with Jesus, for “Father” was His favorite term for addressing God. It appears on His lips some sixty-five times in the Synoptic Gospels and over one hundred times in John.
Because of Jesus’ use of this metaphor, it is not surprising that the rest of the New Testament also emphasizes the Fatherhood of God. In the Pauline letters God is described as “Father” over forty times. It occurs in blessings (Rom 1:7 ; 1 Cor 1:3), doxologies (Rom 15:6), thanksgivings ( 2 Cor 1:3 ; 1 Thess 1:2-3), prayers (Col 1:12), exhortations (Eph 5:20), and creeds (1 Cor 8:6 ; Eph 4:6). For Paul this fatherhood is based not so much on God’s role in creation but rather on the redemption and reconciliation he has made available in Jesus Christ. This is why Paul refers to “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 15:6 ; 2 Cor 1:3 ; 11:31). It is through the work of Christ that God invites us to call him “Abba, Father.” It is through Christ that grace and peace have resulted and we have become God’s children (Rom 8:12-16 ; 1 Peter 1:3-4 ; 1 John 3:1).
This is not to say that God is male. He is spirit and as such is neither male nor female. It is not to denigrate motherhood. For who among us would desire to live in a world without a mother’s love. When God is referred as a father, this is simply the use of a metaphor in which he is likened to a kind and loving father. And if we were to tip our hat to the political correctness of the day by avoiding the metaphor of father as a description and designation for God we would lose sight of the fact that Jesus chose this as His metaphor to address God and that He taught this as the metaphor by which His disciples should address God.
It also loses sight of the continuity established by the use of this metaphor with those who have called God “Father” over the centuries. These include the disciples; the earliest congregations (Rom 8:15 ; Gal 4:6); the earliest church councils (“I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth “); and Christian churches all over the globe who over the centuries have prayed together “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.”
Because of God’s Fatherhood the heart of the Eternal Father longed for children. This is why He created Adam and Eve and gave them the power to go forth and multiply. Unfortunately they sinned and fell short of the glory of God. There was no way back. They had surrendered their place as God’s companion, the gardener of Eden to Satan and were cast out.
But God in His infinite mercy and love made a way back.
He sent Jesus to live a sinless life and then die as the sacrifice, the payment for all our sins so that all who have faith in Him can be counted as righteous and thus re-united with God.
It’s all summed up in this; if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
We are born lost and rejected, children of sin and children of the devil. If we turn away from the world and accept Jesus as our Savior we are born again and we become children of God in Christ.
This is the why. All of creation is for one reason and that is to bring children to God and fulfill the Father’s love that is His heart.
So science may try to tell us how but you see the why is more important than the how.
A short story to highlight the what, the where, and the how:
A scientist says to God, “You’re not so much we have figured out how to make life in our laboratories.”
God says, “Oh, you have.”
The scientist, swelling with pride then says, “Come on let’s have a contest and see who can make life the quickest and the best.”
God smiles and says, “All right.”
God reaches down and picks up a hand full of dirt and starts molding it gently.
The scientist adds some chemicals to a couple of test tubes and starts mixing them back and forth.
God looks over at the scientist and says, “Hey! Get your own dirt.”
From atom to Adam God has done it all. So if you find yourself hung up in the how just remember the why is more important than the how. And if you find yourself questioning God just remember, “He’s the Father that’s why.”
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2018 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
If God is So Good Why is There Evil? June 20, 2018
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: Adam’s sin, Dr. Robert Owens, god of this world, Original sin
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This question has confounded philosophers for ages and led countless millions to blame God for all the evil in the world. We must have faith if we’re going to question whether God is the author of evil since the Bible says of God, “You are good, and the source of good.”
We need faith to doubt God and instead ask the question, “If God is good why is there evil?”
Why do I say that we need faith to question God?
To even consider this question we must first accept the fact that God is and that He created the world. If those two things are not the foundation of our faith, the basis of our world view, the question which forms the center of this essay is a meaningless exercise, an enigma wrapped in a riddle that makes no sense.
Most of us believe in fairness. So how can we even think of blaming God for evil if He isn’t the source of it? That wouldn’t be very fair would it? So we’ve established that if we ask this question, “If God is so good why is there evil?” Or, if we blame God for all the evil we see in the world we must therefore believe in God and believe He is the creator of all things.
Having established that this question will only make sense in the context of faith let’s move forward with our reasoning.
First, we must determine is life as we know it normal? Is this world filled with hatred, violence, death, disease, and war what God intended? Was it His plan to have us suffer through this vale of tears?
There is only one place we have a chance to get God’s side of this question. He only wrote one book. Therefore if we reject the Bible as God’s word we have nowhere to get the answer to this question except our own finite mind. Does seeking the answer to an eternal question in a finite source make any sense? If as established above we have a foundational faith in the existence of God and that He is the creator of the world eternal facts which we can only learn from the Bible why would we then reject the Bible as a source of other eternal knowledge?
Moving forward in reasoning based on the eternal knowledge revealed in the Bible:
We know God placed Adam and Eve in Eden. Are we to believe that God intended for his children to run around naked in a poison ivy patch filled with thorns and thistles? No, at the end of the fifth day of creation after God had made the whole universe and all that is in it except man he looked over everything He had made and it was good. If everything was good and then after He brings man into the equation all of a sudden there is all this not good going on all over the place what happened?
Humanity was not an afterthought. God didn’t create the world and then decide, “I need a gardener” and then make humans to fit the bill. You see long before He laid down earth’s foundations, He had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love. Long, long ago He decided to adopt us into His family through Jesus Christ. Humanity was marked out as God’s children before He said, “Let there be light,” or as the science guys call it, the big bang. Before the foundations of creation were laid God purposed a family, and humanity is the answer to that purpose.
But what kind of a being did God create?
When God was saying let there be this and let there be that and He came to the creation of humanity He said, “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature.” That’s right. He made humanity in His own image. He goes on to tell us, “God created human beings; He created them godlike, reflecting God’s nature.” That’s what it says. When God first created humans they were in His class. Not the monkey class…the God class.
And He even tells us why, “So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.” Then He gave them the power to reproduce so they could give Him a wonderfully large family to manage His creation, “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”
That was His plan. He created a perfect earth and then created beings that were like Him to run it as His assistants, His superintendents. Humanity was given complete charge over the earth from the fish in the sea to the birds in the air. It was all ours to command because God gave it over to us.
If God is anything He is fair. If He makes a deal He sticks to it. God is not a contact breaker.
Just think of this: if I gave my child a new car signing the title over to him doesn’t he then have a legal right to do anything he wants with that car?
I may have wanted him to use it for his business, maybe taking the kids to school, and even for his own pleasure. That was my vision when I gave him the car.
But he had other ideas. He decided to give the car to someone else. He signs the title over to her. Who does the car belong to?
Would I have any legal right to take it back from the one he gave it to and say, “Hey, that isn’t your car! I bought it for my child.” I don’t think that would stand up in court. That wouldn’t be legal.
You see God gave humanity dominion over the earth. We have no idea how long that dominion lasted. Adam and Eve could have been in the garden for millions of years. We have no way of knowing. But then along comes Satan, the father of sin, whose original sin was saying that he would set his throne above the Most High and that he would make himself god.
And what does he do? He invents the first pyramid scheme.
He entices Eve with the idea that she could be like God. Eve was conned. She bought the dream … eat the forbidden fruit … then lay on the beach collecting residuals as the new god. Hook, line, and sinker she swallowed it all. She never understood the part about kicking it all back up the line to her new boss, Satan.
Then Adam comes home and Eve tells him of the fabulous deal Satan is offering. Adam isn’t fooled. He sees through the whole thing but he wants to be with his wife so he signs on the dotted line and by doing that he transferred his dominion over to Satan. He gave Satan the title to the new car.
Now God being a loving Father wanted his children to have the new car but they gave it away, so being a just God He can’t just take it back. Therefore, because of the treason of Adam creation now groans under the lordship of Satan.
That’s it in a nut shell. God created humanity to be His supervisor here on a perfect earth. He gave us the title deed to the planet. Then through Adam’s willful disobedience we gave it to Satan and that’s how he became the god of this world. Ever since, Satan’s nature, evil, has ridden rough shod over us and sin and death have plagued us from that day to this.
This isn’t what God planned. This is the result of our choice, the choice to serve Satan instead of God. And remember Satan’s original sin was that he wanted to play God, so every time we blame God for what Satan has done we give him exactly what he wanted all along … to be recognized as God.
What a mess we made. God gave us a good deal and we traded it in for a swindle.
All I can do is echo another poor sinner saved by grace who once said, “Oh wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
More on that later. …
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2018 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
A Childless Father Who Has a Son June 12, 2018
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion, Uncategorized.Tags: abortion, Dr. Robert Owens, fathers of aborted babies, right to choose, right to life
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I am blessed. My wife gave me a son. He was hers before he was mine. Then he became ours. In my heart he is always mine and I feel as if I am his Dad. But it often feels like a homerun record with an asterisk, an almost. You see, I’m a step-father. That’s as close as I will ever come to experiencing the life of a father and for that I am forever thankful to God for I am a childless father who has a son.
I know the pride of watching my son play little league. Together we experienced the joy of victory and the agony of defeat. I encouraged him to play music. I helped with homework. I watched him march in band. I raced against the stop lights time after time to make it to events and meetings with teachers, doctor’s appointments, and birthdays. I watched him graduate grade school after driving him from one town to another so he could remain in the same school with his friends after we moved. I blessed God when he graduated high school and earned scholarships to college. I was happy when he chose the girl my wife and I prayed for long before we ever met her, enjoyed being the father of the groom, and I love my grandchildren with all my heart. I am truly blessed. My wife gave me a son.
But there are four other children I have never known. Four other children blood of my blood and bone of my bone that I never had the chance to know.
These are my aborted children.
They were aborted without my consent, told by the women involved and the courts that it was none of my business, murdered within the law, slaughtered beyond the pale. They are still alive within my heart.
Let me say in defense of the women who aborted my children, before I gave my life to Christ I was a snake. As a matter of fact I’ve always said that before I was saved snakes would cross the street when they saw me coming. I was a drug addicted; drunken scheming dreamer convinced I should be something I wasn’t and equally convince I wasn’t what I was.
Any young woman who learned they were pregnant and that I was the father could not be blamed for deciding I was a waste of space, a self-indulgent loser, and a disaster as a potential father. And although none of the three young women involved ever told me why they aborted my children, that’s what I have always thought was my addition to the equation.
Once I gave my life to Christ. Once I sobered up, straightened out, and stood in the light of His love I knew he forgave me for any part I played in the deaths of these innocent children. I know He forgives everyone who lays their sins at the foot of the cross.
Over the years He has ministered to my heart, my spirit, and my soul as I have cried tears for who could have been. I am healed for when He said, “It is finished,” sin was defeated. When He rose from the grave life conquered death, and since He ascended into heaven where He took His place at the right hand of the Father together we all live in Him. I am healed.
But there is not a day I don’t miss those children. There is not a day I don’t think of what might have been. There is not a day that I don’t imagine seeing them in Him.
I struggle sometimes knowing that two of the women who aborted my children later had other children. They’ve had an experience they took from me. I don’t begrudge them the joy of parenting. I have forgiven them. But sometimes I’m jealous of what they have and of what I shall never have and for this I repent. I also struggle sometimes watching other women I know have had abortions and later had children. I know God has forgiven them. I don’t have anything against them but at times I struggle with my own emotions.
All of this is the burden of this forgotten father. I was forgotten in the decision to abort my children. I have been forgotten in all the years since.
I may be forgotten but I cannot forget.
My children died. Four lost lives in the American holocaust of millions. They are four souls whose blood cries out to God, four cracks in my broken heart, four children of God I long to know, four tears I shall cry till the day we meet.
A step-father is like a used shoe. It may look good, it may wear well, and at time it may even feel good. But it’s still a used shoe.
However my step-son may feel about me I know how I feel about him. He is my son. I may have lost four but I have gained one. I am blessed. My wife gave me a son.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2018 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
A Soap Opera That Never Ends Will Finally End Then What? June 6, 2018
Posted by Dr. Robert Owens in Religion.Tags: Dr. Robert Owens, Faith alone, Salvation
1 comment so far
All my life I’ve been in love with History. I learned at an early age that if you love reading you can live a thousand lifetimes and if you’re wise you have the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others. I’ve certainly experienced the former while unfortunately not doing much of the latter.
My love of History metastasized into a love of Political Science. These two intellectual “Loves of my Life” have given me countless hours of joy lost in reading, mired in thinking, and entertained by speculation.
Now as I enter what are called the golden years, though I believe they might be made of brass, having spent several decades teaching both subjects I feel a need to share some insights not on particulars but instead on something that is usually disparaged and often dismissed, generalities.
Though most have never heard of him many can misquote the writer and philosopher George Santayana who is reported to have said, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” What he actually said was, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” There is a subtle difference there for learning and remembering are two different things. This sounds so wise. It even appears self-evident. And it apparently, at least to my observation, it’s an oxymoron. After a daily study of History for sixty years the only lesson I’ve learned is that humanity never learns the lessons of History.
In my classes I tell my students that History is nothing more than the stories of people just like us who lived at different times in what were essentially different worlds. They had the same bodies and minds that we do. They felt the same emotions. They lived, they died, and now it is our turn. I also tell them that if we don’t learn anything from History that helps us in our everyday life we might as well read fiction.
I know that most people study History because they have to. I know most people find it boring. As an exercise in memorizing dates, names, and facts to be later regurgitated on a test and forgotten I can well understand the boring part. There are so few who can see through to the stories making History so exciting. So few can lose themselves in the narrative, imagine themselves on the deck of that ship, in the palace with the king, or in the hut with that peasant. They only see dates, and names, and facts. BORING!
And Political Science who cares about that? I tell my students who don’t care about it at all that it’s the science of who gets what and if they don’t care about it someone else will and then they get to make the decisions. So what do you want? You decide.
Now after decades spent following politics through the lens of History attempting to share with others the insights gained I must tell you all that it’s essentially the equivalent of an ant studying a castle made of sand. He spends his life telling other ants how wondrous the castle is, how imposing its turrets are, how deep its moat, and how formidable its defenses then the waves come in the castle is gone and the ants have disappeared.
I recently taught a class on American History from 1877 until the present to a class full of millennials. We used a textbook that was more than a thousand pages long. It wasn’t until the last few pages that we reached anything the students could remember as having happened since they became aware of the world around them. That last twenty minutes of the semester really had an impact.
To most people History begins the day they’re born. For all of us it ends the day we die. And Political Science ends up being the science of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
In the 4.5 billion years of this planets existence, in the fifteen billion years since the Big Bang the history of humanity doesn’t even take up the last few pages. It would fill perhaps part of a sentence, a few words such as……………. All things will pass only those things done in Christ will last.
That’s it. The sum total of all I have learned, all I have discovered, and all I will ever know. No Christ no peace. Know Crist know peace. For those who seek to gain their life will lose it and those who lose their life for Christ will find it. He is the truth, the light, and the life and without Him there is no truth, or light, or life.
Stop fighting a war that’s already been won. Stop spinning your wheels running in a race that goes in a circle. Step out of the darkness and into the light and let this be the first day of the rest of your life.
The stories of those who have gone before teach us nothing if they don’t lead us to Christ. The politics of this world are an endless loop, a tempest in a teacup, a soap opera that never ends. It may be engaging to watch like a slow motion train wreck. It may be exciting, exhilarating, even entertaining but for most of us in a hundred years no one will even know we were here. In a thousand years no one will remember the compelling arguments of today, the all-important bitter debates about whether we place the deck chair here or there. Yet in an eternity from now heaven will know whether or not we acknowledged Christ as our Savior, for if we confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead we shall be saved.
Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com © 2018 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens or visit Dr. Owens Amazon Page / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens
