THE DISEMBODIED VOICE THAT CHANGED HISTORY

President George Washington had said, "No." President Thomas Jefferson had said, "No." Every American President elected to a second term had said, "No way" to a third term. Every President that is, until 1940, when Franklin Roosevelt broke the hallowed tradition and said, "Yes." But there is, as is always the case, a back story to history.

FDR wanted to run for another four years, however, it must appear that it wasn't his idea, but a demand of the American people to go against the hallowed precedent set by George Washington. To go against the examples of Washington, Jefferson, and all the other two-term presidents would smack of presumption. As the July 15-18 Democratic Convention drew near, the time when the delegates would nominate their standard bearer, there was much speculation about Roosevelt as to whether he would break the tradition. All the while, Roosevelt and his team were working away, concocting a plan to do just that.

THE SET UP

The first part of the plan consisted of a statement that Senator Alben Barkley was to read to the delegates. FDR got on the phone, prior to the convention, and dictated to Barkley the letter he was to read, the conclusion of which would be:

"The President has never had, and has not today, any desire or purpose to continue in the office of President, to be a candidate for that office, or to be nominated by the convention for that office. He wishes in earnestness and sincerity to make it clear that all of the delegates in this convention are free to vote for any candidate."

There were many candidates for the nomination that summer: James Farley and John Nance Garner (the VP at the time) were two who had a shot at the Oval Office, if nominated. The statement Barkley read dripped with insincerity with its use of the words, "The President has never had, and has not today, any desire or purpose to continue in the office of President to be a candidate for that office, or to be nominated by the convention for that office."

THE SET UP COMPLETE

The delegates have now been set up. When Barkley finishes reading, the delegates sit silently for a few seconds until a mysterious, disembodied voice rings out over the loudspeakers saying, "We want Roosevelt! We want Roosevelt!" Within a few seconds, hundreds of chanting delegates join in, pouring into the aisles, carrying state delegation standards in impromptu demonstrations. Whenever the chant begins to die down, state chairmen, who also have microphones connected to the loudspeakers, chant: "New Jersey wants Roosevelt! Arizona wants Roosevelt! Iowa wants Roosevelt!"

The delegates have spoken in a spontaneous outpouring of support for a third term for "that man in the White House" the Republicans had called him, so bitter and angry were they that they couldn't even say his name.

Or had the delegates spoken? Spontaneous? No way. It was all rigged. The disembodied voice wasn't in the hall at all, but  was the voice of Thomas D. Garry, Superintendent of Chicago's Department of Sanitation (think, sewers), a trusted friend of Chicago Mayor Ed Kelly. Garry was stationed in a basement room with a microphone, waiting for that moment. Those who immediately picked up the chant weren't spontaneous either; Mayor Kelly had seen to that. He'd stationed hundreds of Chicago city workers and precinct captains around the hall; other Democratic bosses had brought followers from their home territories. All of them joined Garry's chant. It was as spontaneous as a NASA shuttle launch.

ONE MORE THING

The convention storms on and nominates FDR for a third term on the first ballot by an 86% majority the next day. Then Roosevelt puts the name of Henry Wallace up for Vice President. The delegates bolt. FDR says he won't accept the nomination if they don't choose Wallace. Stalemate? Ah, but the masterful manipulation was not yet ended.

Enter Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the President. She flies to the convention to give a speech advocating her husband's desire for Wallace as his running mate. As she rises to speak, the first woman ever to address a national presidential convention, the giant auditorium falls silent; such was the reverence and love they have for Mrs. Roosevelt. Such blind love and unrestrained respect are the fodder for more manipulation.

Her speech turns the tide. The delegates choose Wallace. After she speaks, she says to a friend, "They were just like lambs."

They first manipulated the lambs by that disembodied voice emanating from the basement to nominate FDR for a third term. Then, when the lambs assembled to hear the Mrs., the lambs voted for Wallace, just as she asked. The disembodied voice, the men stationed in the auditorium to amplify the chant coming from the basement over the loudspeakers, the First Lady, all were there to convince the sheep to do what they didn't want to do. It was easy.

GEORGE ORWELL WARNED US

In Orwell's "Animal Farm," Napoleon is the pig who emerges as the leader after the rebellion against the farmer. (Orwell modeled him after Joseph Stalin, the ruthless Russian.) Napoleon notices that the sheep are dumb followers who go along with the crowd. He learns that chanting makes everything easy for the leaders. A chant is simple for the sheep; it's repeatable by the sheep; it can be manipulated. Orwell is saying, "Beware simplistic slogans." Whatever side you're on: if you can chant it, it's not a well-thought out philosophy. Instead of thinking for themselves, the sheep only repeat slogans over and over.

THE NEW MAN

But enter the man with the Bible. You can't manipulate him; chants and slogans don't work with him. He sees through them to the bottom of their shallow pool. Slogans are out, biblical thinking is in.

For example, he hears the slogan, "Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is never alone," and he sees right through its logical fallacy--how can faith (or anything else) be "alone" and at the same time, "never alone."

When someone warns, "Don't miss heaven by 18 inches," he rejects its flawed premise, that of making a false distinction between a "head and a heart belief." Someone tells him, "God wants a tenth of your money and a seventh of your time," and he scoffs at that bromide because he knows II Cor. 3, Heb. 7, and Acts 15 which tell him that the Mosaic Law is gone with the wind.

Music (loud or soft) doesn't manipulate him; he's immune. He's not some teenager going berserk at a punk rock concert or a mindless mass of Nazis worshiping Hitler in a stadium in Berlin, Nazis prepped by the pulsating prelude of martial music.

The Bible has inoculated him against emotionalism as a tactic to use him, to enslave his time, and to take his money. The oft-used tactic of tears, that is, tears for dramatic effect to get one's way over the Bible's way, disgusts him.

FDR wasn't the first to manipulate the people, Marc Antony, would be emperor of Rome, comes to mind along with the first master manipulator, Satan in Eden. But the person no one has been able to manipulate yet is the biblicist, the man with an open Bible.

____________________________________________________________________________

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak, available on Amazon.com. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.

Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM at the above address. You'll be glad you did.

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org

Also:

Biblical Ministries, Inc.
C/O Dr. Richard Grubbs
P. O. Box 64582
Lubbock, TX 79464-4582

There is hardly a more common error than that of taking the man who has one talent, for a genius.
Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/h/helps_arthur.html#mpzMv1GyXYdlOVbq.99"There is

There is hardly a more common error than that of taking the man who has one talent, for a genius.
Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/h/helps_arthur.html#mpzMv1GyXYdlOVbq.99

There is hardly a more common error than that of taking the man who has one talent, for a genius.
Read more at http://www.notable-quotes.com/h/helps_arthur.html#mpzMv1GyXYdlOVbq.99

 

 

 

DOUBLETHINK

There are at least two books you ought to have read, and if you haven't, shame on you. But your oversight can be easily corrected by getting "Animal Farm" and "1984," both by George Orwell. "Animal Farm" is a fable that's stinging rebuke of socialism and contains the famous line, "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." "1984" is a tale of a dictator state and how it controls its citizens. One way it does this is by what Orwell calls, "Doublethink."

Doublethink is the word in "1984" for the power to hold two completely contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accept both of them. Examples of doublethink in the book are the slogans, "War is peace." "Freedom is slavery." 

DOUBLETHINK IN D. C.

What's the official name of Obamacare, the name the powers that be want us to call the newly enacted national healthcare plan? That's easy, it's "The Affordable Health Care Act." But I would submit that's an example of doublethink. Historian and classicist Victor Davis Hanson asks, 
 
"Does anyone remember that the Affordable Care Act was sold on the premise that it would            guarantee retention of existing health plans and doctors, create 4 million new jobs and save families $2,500 a year in premiums, all while extending expanded coverage to more people at a lower cost?
Only in Orwell's world of doublespeak [to say one thing while you mean another, a companion of doublethink] could raising taxes, while the costs of millions of health plans soars, be called 'affordable.' "

DOUBLETHINK IN THE CHURCH

Let's go to a typical Sunday morning service in many churches. We sit and listen as the pastor says, [from hereon, I'll be quoting directly from an actual sermon] "Let it be clear--salvation comes by the grace of God alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. No amount of gold, no amount of good works, no amount of anything can earn your way to heaven. We are justified by faith alone, and it is only by the righteousness of Jesus Christ that we gain access to the Father in heaven. . . . . God transferred our sins to the innocent Lamb of God and God crushed His own Son under His wrath. Jesus Christ atoned for our sin through His shed blood on the cross, and God showed the world He accepted this as payment in full by raising Him from the dead three days later. There is nothing more we can contribute. It is finished. He has already paid the price for you. It is free"

A round of applause, please, for such a clear and concise statement that salvation is apart from works. You're sitting there thinking, "At last, I've found a church with a consistent grace message. I think I'll join up."

But I invite you, as you sit in the pew of this church, to listen to the rest of this sermon. Don't let your mind wander because, the speaker, immediately after saying, "It is finished. He has already paid the price for you. It is free," says, "But it will cost you everything." (Wait. It's free, but it will cost you everything? How can something "free" to me have a "cost" for me? Does "free" no longer mean "free?")

He goes on to list what this free salvation will cost you:

"Only few are willing to forsake everything for Christ. Only few are willing to submit to the rightful rule of the Lord over their lives. Only few desire to pursue God, to be conformed to His image, to be transformed, to obey Him, and to become holy as He is holy. And Jesus knew how easy it was to just be a part of the crowd, so much so that He raised the bar by demanding total commitment. He did not manipulate decisions or induce the crowd. He did not sugar coat His message or soften the requirement.

"Only a few are willing to forsake everything for Christ. Only a few are willing to submit to the rightful rule of the Lord over their lives. Only a few desire to pursue God, to be conformed to His image, to be transformed, to obey Him, and to become holy as He is holy. And Jesus knew how easy it was to just be a part of the crowd, so much so that He raised the bar by demanding total commitment. He did not manipulate decisions or induce the crowd. He did not sugar coat His message or soften the requirement. He asked for nothing less than complete surrender.

"These terms of salvation are nonnegotiable, absolute, fixed and set, and unalterable, and they are the same for all of us. He calls for radical submission and surrender or we cannot be His disciple. Christ must be worth more to us than anything else. We must consider Him more valuable than everything else as we see in Matthew 13:44-45. We must surrender our will, and we will continue to surrender our will for the rest of our lives. He is asking for supreme devotion. We cannot serve Christ and ourselves. He calls for absolute allegiance to Himself, even though we will never hit that mark perfectly nor might we understand the full implications of this surrender on the day of salvation.
surrender."

In  this confusing use of doublethink, the speaker, pointing out that that what Jesus demands is total, radical, absolute, fixed, set, and unalterable, then he says, "We will never hit that mark perfectly." He's right, there's never been a day when I've "hit that mark perfectly." I can't even finish breakfast, and I've already not "hit that mark perfectly." All these demands for salvation, these things we must do, yet he says, "We will never hit that mark perfectly." He earlier said, "[We must] become holy as He is holy."

There are more payments for this free salvation: "It will cost you popularity and maybe even promotion. It will cost you an easy life and you will have to discipline yourself. You will have to say no to temptation, no to the world, and break from the crowd – even if no one else follows. You will have to be willing to suffer persecution, and it may even cost your life.

"You must transfer ownership of all that you are and all that you have to all that He is…your life is no longer your life, it is His life. Your time is no longer your time, it is now His time. Your possessions are no longer your possessions, they are His possessions. Your future is no longer your future, it is His future. Your treasure is no longer your treasure, it is His treasure. And you have transferred all that you are and all that you have to all that He is. That’s what it means to meet His terms of peace."

Did you pick up on that last sentence? This free salvation has "terms?" He's piling these payments one on top of the other. Can you imagine going out to witness to the unbeliever, telling him salvation is free, and then going into all these payments, terms, and conditions? Did Paul answer the jailer's question, "What must I do to be saved" with a list of all these payments and then say, "But I know you'll never hit the mark perfectly?" Does John enumerate these payments in John 3:16?

IT IS WHAT IT IS

Such will be the typical sermon in many conservative, Bible-believing churches this coming Sunday. If you find yourself sitting in one, vacate the premises immediately, stand in the parking lot, and shake the dust off your feet, get in your car, and break the speed limit going home.

"I'M GETTING ARRESTED TONIGHT"

America is football hungry. During the season, television treats us to Sunday games, Monday night games, a Thursday game, and then we finish the week with Saturday games. Television delivers hours and hours of pre-game prognostications and hours and hours of highlights, lowlights, then we get the post postmortems of games played, strategies employed or ignored. When mid-February rolls around we listen to experts discussing what players will be playing for what teams, what players got traded and what players signed up or quit. Football is a year-round billion dollar beast.

HECTOR AND ACHILLES

Then, there's that football related elevator video which shows a player, in the off-season, throwing a left hook which sent his finance crashing to the floor unconscious, so coma-like that he dragged her by the hair from the elevator in a tawdry imitation of Achilles' mockery of the defeated (and dead) Trojan hero, Hector.

Television made sure we all saw it. Over and over again.

After the knock-out blow, the football player dialed a number, roused somebody from bed, and said, "I'm getting arrested tonight." Police arrived in 10 to 15 minutes and the player proved himself to be a prophet.

This was no 15 round, heavy weight fight between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney; the fisticuffs lasted all of 30 seconds. It was no contest; in that pugilistic encounter, the "winner" was a forgone conclusion. (If pastors could bet, I'd bet on any football player over any female any time.) Prior to the left hook seen round the world, the two engaged in a spitting contest, which was a draw with no declared winner. There was a prelude to all this.

Half a minute is a short time, but those 30 seconds have wreaked wreckage of biblical proportions in private and corporate lives. The aftermath is an on-going hell for the two, for the image of the NFL, and for a commissioner who may have to resign a $40,000,000 a year job. That's no fun. All because of those 30 seconds in an elevator. Or is it all because of a thirty second elevator ride?

THE UNMENTIONABLE

In all of the TV reportage, in all of the commentators who have commented with comments on and on, have you heard one, just one, say that all this wreckage could have been avoided by reading and heeding the Bible? I haven't. But what we have here is an avoidable 30 second soap opera preformed in an elevator from which we all can learn. That elevator wasn't a boxing ring; it was a stage, a stage for a graphic morality play.

PRELUDE: LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Where is this elevator? It's in an Atlantic City casino, hardly a place of wholesome morality or righteousness. They chose to put themselves in a place which isn't conducive to "walking by means of the Spirit," to "setting one's affections in the heavenlies," and to thinking about those things which are "true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and of good repute." If someone wants to quit smoking, the enclosed designated area for smokers at an airport isn't the wisest place for him to sit.

PRELUDE: ALCOHOL, ALCOHOL, ALCOHOL

According to the winner of the fight, we learn that, before they entered the elevator, they'd been "drinking heavily," and he emphasized "heavily." Solomon talked to his readers about alcohol: "Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler. And whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise."

Now we have a compounding problem--being in a casino in which the "strong drink" is flowing. This is like nitro and glycerine combining and waiting to explode, which it did in the elevator.

LOCATION + ALCOHOL + ANGER = ?

Add the choice of location and the choice of what to drink to anger, and the morality play begins. Without those elements, there would have been no explosion. Are these two basically angry people? I don't know, but Solomon has a warning for us about those who are and we need to read and heed:

"An angry man stirs up strife,
And a hot-tempered man abounds in transgression."

Oh, man, is that ever true! Ever been around a hot-head, a basically angry person? They make your life miserable, don't they, as they stir up one needless argument and altercation after another, and heaven help you if they get on the board of your church. They cause one explosion after another for others to clean up. Yet, in spite of that fact, we ignore what Solomon tells:

"Do not associate with a man given to anger;
Or go with a hot-tempered man,"

If you're in single bliss, you need to heed this bit of godly wisdom--do not, I repeat, do not, marry a man or a woman "given to anger." To do so is to ask for a marriage of walking on egg shells, innumerable arguments, daily or weekly screaming matches, the risk of blows to the head and shoulders, and maybe even homicide and you're the victim. To disregard Solomon is to bring on disaster.

THE END OF THE MATTER

To date, those short 30 seconds have cost the couple at least $4,000,000, the right to ply his trade, public shame, and videoed humiliation. Who knows what else will come? But, in retrospect, it all started long before they entered the elevator. It began when they decided to ignore the Bible, and when they or you or I do that, the price is always more than we want to pay.