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The Undiscovered Country
by Don Costello The original of this piece was written on 2/27/99, with a lot of passion. It was sent to the Clermont County Community Journal on 3/8/99. They had published about eight previous articles of mine so when someone from the Journal called and confirmed the article would be printed, I thought it would, but alas it never was. I rewrote and edited the article on 2/11/05. On January 13, 1999, in between the time when the House of Representatives impeached President Clinton and the Senate acquitted him, William Safire, the nationally syndicated columnist described the loyalty of the majority of the American people to Bill Clinton as, "the likes of which this nation has never seen before." In attempting to theorize where the voting bloc exists that provides such loyalty, he writes, "But there must me something else in some undiscovered region from which no media biggie reports, to explain the incredible attachment" This "undiscovered region" is the character of the American people or lack of it to be more precise. It is exactly this that would bring the American public to the point of not only embracing this sexual predator but also excusing his felonies to cover his deeds. God's word says in 2 timothy 3:13 "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." The word "wax" is of Teutonic origin. It means "to grow gradually larger, more numerous; to increase in strength, intensity, volume." This would explain most of Bill Clinton's Houdini-like escapes from scandal. It also means we are in for more deceivers and seducers. What we are seeing is a process called apostasy. Webster's defines apostasy as, "an abandonment or falling away from what one believed in." A scripture that illustrates the how and why of this spiritual process is Romans 1:28: "Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient." This is what happened to an American culture that was once dominated by a Christian community that looked to God's word as the final authority, but slowly and surely over the past 13 or 14 decades our nation ceased to acknowledge God's word in everything we do. The result is a Divine judgment of giving our culture over to a reprobate mind. Not in the sense of being beyond redemption, but a mind void of making godly judgments. More than once during the Clinton-Lewinski scandal, comparisons were made to the Biblical David and Bathsheba scandal. A few good Christian columnists lamented that we needed a 'Nathan' to confront Bill Clinton in his sin. But the fact is we do not have a 'David' in Bill Clinton, but rather a 'Saul'. Why? Because Saul was a weak ruler who would rather obey men than God. In his bitter confrontation with the prophet Samuel that marks the end of Saul as God's choice for Israel's king, Saul confesses. "I have transgressed the commandment of the LORDbecause I feared the people and obeyed their voice. On the day the scandal broke, the President commissioned his advisor Dick Morris to take a poll. The results indicated that voters would forgive the President for adultery but not for perjury or obstruction of justice. Dick Morris told the President he should not go public with a confession or an explanation. Five days later, the President wagged his finger at us and said, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinskythese allegations are false" Bill Clinton refused to come clean before God and the nation because he feared the people. On February 5th 1998, he continued his deceptive act before the nation and particularly the Christian community when he went to the National Prayer Breakfast and asked for prayer in helping "take our country to higher ground." He then quoted 1 Kings 3:7-9. Verse nine says, "Give thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad:" Reaction to the President's speech showed he was effective in his deceit. Michael Cromartie, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington said, "Today he was contrite and meek." Billy Graham, referring to the speech said, "I know he's sincere in what he had to say". We now know what really was going on. While he was appearing sincere asking God for an understanding heart to govern America, he was using the White House, its staff and its lawyers to cover his sin. While he as appearing sincere before the Christian community, his behavior toward Kenneth Starr was that of a "slanderer", 2 Timothy 3:2, and "a dispiser of those who are good", 2 Timothy 3:3. On March 3, 1998 the New York Times reported that the White House was conducting an all out attack on Ken Starr. "One White House official was blunt about the strategy, calling the coordinated hostilities, ""part of our continuing campaign to destroy Ken Starr"". All we heard during the investigation was about an "out of control prosecutor" costing the American taxpayer millions of dollars. But the truth of the matter is Kenneth Starr could only do what the Justice Department gave him the authority and the money to do. As for the money spent, the Lewinsky investigation cost 4.4 million dollars. While the legal bills of 67 individuals forced to go before the Grand Jury because of a lying President obstructing justice probably equals or surpasses that total easily. The legal fees of just Monica Lewinsky totaled 2 million. It is also true that the "inappropriate relationship", and ""the false and misleading statements", to the Grand Jury would never have been admitted by the President if Monica Lewinsky hadn't produced the token of their fornication, the DNA stained dress. His mockery and rejection of the word of God continued in April when in the midst of a cover-up of adultery, lies and perjury, he received communion "unworthily" in a South African Church, violating 1 Corinthians 11:27-32. Senator Robert Byrd said in a television appearance the week of the impeachment vote in the Senate, "The question is, does this rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors? I say yes, no doubt about it. It undermined the system of justice when he gave false testimony under oath. He lied under oath." Yet Senator Byrd voted to acquit. In its editorial of 2/11/99 USA TODAY wrote, "acquittal is the right choice" because 73% of America believes the President committed perjury and 66% do not want him removed; "the government ultimately must follow the will of the people." That is exactly how Pilate decided the fate of Jesus even though he knew Jesus was innocent, he handed him over to his accusers, because he was "willing to content the people." The reaction of the American people to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal was the reverse of that true story. Even though they knew he was guilty, they set him free. Finally, the reaction of the American people is highlighted by scripture, Proverbs 28:4 says, "They that forsake the law, praise the wicked:" 1 Timothy 1:8-10 says that laws that forbid lying and perjury are "sound doctrine". The Biblical mile marker becomes clear when we see in 2 Timothy 4:6, "the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine." That time is here. My name is Don Costello. Ever since I received Christ in November of 1976 I have had a passion to study and know God's word.My wife Melissa and I have 5 children. My e-mail address is [email protected] I have a blog located at: www.theophilus-loverofgodsword.blogspot.com/ Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |