Mr. Cone says that the reason for Christ’s appearing and the sending of the Spirit is because of oppression. Now depending on your definition of oppression this statement might refer to Isaiah's prophecy…

“ The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
       Because He has anointed Me
      To preach the gospel to the poor;
      He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
      To proclaim liberty to the captives
      And recovery of sight to the blind,
      To set at liberty those who are oppressed…” [Luke 4:18; Jesus quotes Isaiah 61:1]

The question of interest is Christ’s meaning of oppression. Is He more concerned about the outward oppression of groups of people or is His primary focus on the inward oppression of individual people?

What says the Scripture?

‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you’ [Matthew 6:33].

His kingdom is made up of individuals that are concerned with righteousness above all else. The things of this world that are necessary for life are not to be our priority. God has promised to supply these things to those whose priority is pursuing the kingdom.

Now this statement comes at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. The sermon describes members of the kingdom in terms of the attitudes of their heart and the way they live. The Beatitudes describe the Christian heart. The new man has a radical change in thinking. He rejects his own wisdom and submits his thinking to the revelation of God in the Scriptures. His outward behavior is affected in praying, giving, kindness, self-denial and humility. Grace has put to death his pride. Christ addresses the individual person.

In this sermon Christ addresses the issue of persecution…

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” [Matthew 5:10-12].

This assumes that persecution will exist. The apostle echoes this teaching, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God” [Acts 14:22].

What is to be the Christians response to persecution?

“…love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you…” [Matthew 5:44].

‘Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse’ [Romans 12:14].

Now this is where the power of the gospel is demonstrated among men. Not only has the Son of God given us a perfect example of these things, but all those who walk in newness of life have power over sin and grace to do those things that are pleasing to Him.

These are the men who chose their own pastors and soon claimed to choose their governors, and the self-ruled congregation became the self-governed municipality. The base of education and self-government spread until all men could be free. [Will Durant on the Reformation from his History of Civilization]

Most of the factions today share an ideology based on the autonomous wisdom of men which is opposed to constitutional government by the people. They have no concept of personal liberty under limited government because they have no basis for self-government. Their priority is not to secure the rights of life and liberty, but to establish equality by an intrusive and expanding state.

Some of the factions among the religious right would see a return to the wisdom of colonial America that lead to a rebellion against tyranny and the advance of liberty among nations. They believe that the Bible is the source of this wisdom and that Biblical Christianity is essential for men to learn to be self-governing and self-denying without coercion.

Mr. Stein has made a movie about the tyranny of the darwinite establishment. The darwinites at TownHall have confirmed his premise. We the people are just not bright enough to comprehend the theory. We must be coerced and intimidated into submission.

Would they consider that we the people can recognize nonsense when we see it? They tell us there is no design when we live in a world full of design and full of natural law. The creation is a testimony for all men to see the glory of the Creator, so that men are without excuse, who reject the revelation of God in nature [Psalm 19; Romans 1].

Let’s correct the ignorance of Mr. Obama…

The strongest unity among men is the unity of faith based on the truth of the gospel. God is no respecter of persons meaning that no man is better than any other. Grace alone is what causes men to differ according to the measure given to each man. In Christ all the barriers between men are no more because He has removed the wall of separation between all classes of men and all races of men. This is what it means that Messiah’s kingdom is a kingdom of peace, here and now.

We the people keep our guns within reach because our religion tells us the truth about the nature of fallen men and our responsibility to preserve life given in the sixth commandment. Human depravity manifesting itself in outward acts is to be expected, and we do not presume on the Lord by not making preparations for defense.

Another TH classic… free will and predestination in the same rant accusing God of inaction in dealing with the sin and misery of men while neglecting the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

God does predestinate according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will [Ephesians 1:11]. The mystery is that men are still responsible for their own sin.

This mystery is illustrated in the life of Christ…

He was delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, and nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put to death [Acts 2:23].

Now the question that should be asked is why does God still find fault for who is able to resist His will [Romans 9:19]? This is the question that the apostle answers with a rebuke to the creature for questioning his creator [Romans 9:20-21].

Free will is the myth. No man but Adam had a free will to choose good or evil. In Adam all men are born in bondage to sin without the ability to subject themselves to the law of God [Romans 8:7].

How is it that they are willingly ignorant? They deny the Genesis Flood by inventing the theory of macro-evolution to explain the fossil record. Do the fossils show a continuum of intermediates from one life form to another? The doctrine of Punctuated Equilibrium is an admission that the fossil record does not contain the expected transitional fossils. A handful of disputed fossils will not do when the theory predicts a seamless transition by gradual mutation over millions of years. Therefore, the fossil record has nothing to do with macro-evolution.

Macro-evolution theory makes a mockery of the scientific method. When a theory makes a validating prediction that does not hold true, the scientist would begin to question his theory. But when the data requires a modification to the theory that actually invalidates the theory, then we can know that it is no longer about science.

Now the reason for this mocking is evident…they will not submit to the authority of God’s Anointed, even to the point of embracing nonsense. The issue is spiritual rather than scientific. They would rather perish in their sin than have this man rule over them…

‘But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.’ [2 Peter 3:7]

The warning against the vain philosophies of men is predicated on being established in the faith. Apostasy statistics are full of young folks that profess faith and have their names on the church roll, but they are not grounded in the faith.

From the Parable of the Sower they are like the stony ground hearer with no depth of soil or the thorny ground hearer which chokes out the word. In each of these cases the word produces no fruit. [Matthew 13]

Baptismal regeneration nor decisional regeneration nor church membership will do. The apostles teach the same doctrine of Christ that we must be born of the Spirit in order to see and enter into the Kingdom of God…

‘In Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new…Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever [Galatians 6:15; 2 Corinthians 5:17; I Peter 1:22-23].

Christ is the ‘head of all principality and power. In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge’. Recognition of Christ’s authority and wisdom is the first things of faith. We are complete in Him so that the wisdom of men is dismissed as the fruit of a deceitful heart.

Unity among Christians must be based on truth. In Ephesians 4 the apostle introduces the subject of unity with the word ‘therefore’ to refer back to the doctrinal truth given in the first 3 chapters of his letter to the church.

Is there some other basis for unity in the New Testament?

“It is being said that the chief need of the Church today is to repent because of its ‘lack of unity’… we would suggest that before she repents of her disunity, she must repent of her apostasy. She must repent of her perversion of, and substitutes for, ‘the faith once delivered to the saints.’ She must repent of setting up her own thinking and methods over against the divine revelation in Holy Scripture. Here lies the reason for her lack of spiritual power and inability to deliver a living message in the power of the Holy Ghost to a world ready to perish.” [Martin Lloyd Jones, given at the annual meeting of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship in 1954]

These words were addressed to the Protestant churches. Now 5 decades later the advocates of ecumenicalism are gaining a foot-hold. Lloyd Jones declared the truth as a man who fears God rather than men.

What would the Reformers have to say about ecumenicalism? What did the apostle say to the Galatian church when she would return to Phariseeism?

One says that millenniums of death and suffering are the natural order and necessary for the evolution of man; the other says that death is the result of man’s sin and is a temporary state awaiting the full application of Christ’s accomplished redemption.

One says that life is without design and the product of the random and impersonal; the other says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by the Infinite and Personal Creator.

One says that men are nothing more than advanced apes and that truth and purpose cannot be known; the other says that we are image bearers of God who has revealed Himself to man so that we might know the truth.

Now these differences cannot be resolved nor accommodated because they involve matters of sin and redemption that speak directly to the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The resistance to Darwinism does not come from Islam. In many ways they have adopted the philosophy of Darwinism. That is, the strong will prevail over the weak. It is Biblical Theology that resists the idea of common descent and macro-evolution and all the associated godlessness of this vain philosophy.

At the time of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon the prophet Daniel predicted that the Kingdom of Messiah would come during the time of the Roman empire [Daniel 2].

 “…the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed…and it shall stand forever” [Daniel 2:44].

The Roman persecutors are long ago passed from the scene. The Kingdom of God is still advancing to all generations and into every nation just as prophesized by Christ at the coming of the New Covenant…

“…I will build My church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it’ [Matthew 16:18].

Will the philosophy of Darwinism prevent the advance of the Kingdom of Heaven? Picture the darwinite fish as floating on its back with its feet in the air. Darwinism is already dead, but many darwinites haven’t got the message.

As children of the Reformers we know that God works all things after the counsel of His own will, and according to His will persecution and the blood of martyrs provides fertile ground for extending His kingdom. So well did our forefathers in the faith learn the lesson of religious tolerance that they embodied their belief as law in the first amendment.

Now we know the origin of religious tolerance has to do with recognizing that God alone has authority and power in the realm of conscience. So it follows that intolerance springs from the view that men have power over the conscience of other men. This wickedness is what leads to persecution. Crimes against the conscience are more grievous than crimes against the body.

   “God does not will that people should be oppressed…

First how do we know God’s will except from divine revelation? Where in the Bible does it say that God does not will that people should be oppressed?

If God’s will is that people should not be oppressed, then how is it that oppression exists? Does Mr. Cone believe that God is unable to accomplish His will?

Is this view of God consistent with how God reveals Himself in the Scriptures and in Jesus Christ? In the interview from which this quote is taken he makes no appeal to Biblical revelation to support his view. Mr. Cone’s authority is something other than Scripture.

In fact the children of Israel were oppressed in Egypt and again in the Babylonian Captivity.

In Babylon the captivity was a consequence of their disobedience to God’s Law…

      Her adversaries have become the master,
      Her enemies prosper;
      For the LORD has afflicted her
      Because of the multitude of her transgressions.
      Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy. [Lamentations 1:5]

So the statement that God does not will that people should be oppressed is not supported in the Old Testament. Israel’s fall into disobedience and captivity provided the context for the New Covenant promises to be fulfilled in Messiah and His Church…

“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. [Jeremiah 31:3]

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. [Ezekiel 36:26-27]

The New Covenant prophecies speak of an end of sins and bringing in everlasting righteousness. A new heart is promised along with a new life in the Spirit. These are internal changes in individual people.

In Egypt the people of God became the slaves of Pharaoh so that God could demonstrate His power and that His name might be declared in all the earth [Romans 9:17]. The apostle uses Pharaoh as part of his argument for the doctrine of the sovereignty of God even over the sins of men to accomplish His will.

God demonstrates this conclusively in the life of Joseph. Sold into slavery, he became an example for our instruction of one who learned obedience in his suffering. The Christian knows that suffering is the best teacher of grace…

Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. [Hebrews 12:11]

Our pride must be crushed before God can raise us up. We must face our unrighteousness before we can experience the imputed righteousness of Christ…

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” [Mark 2:17]

I suspect that Mr. Cone’s doctrine of the Fall is unorthodox. He does not see man as ruined in sin and dependent on God’s grace for redemption. It follows then that he will deny the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ and the doctrine of imputed righteousness.

The Bible really doesn’t mean that we are dead in sin and must be born again to see the kingdom because the kingdom is not really spiritual; it can be realized in the state through the social gospel. Let’s busy ourselves with helping the poor while working our way to heaven. Regeneration through the word and Spirit of truth is unheard of.

Our culture has its own version of gospel. This is the gospel of easy believism. It is non-judgmental because truth is relative. Don’t worry about Biblical Theology because doctrine is divisive and unhelpful. Don’t mention the bloody cross because substitutionary atonement is doctrine. Why do we need a cross or an empty tomb?

Don’t worry about self denial and repentance. This stuff is not important. Do you feel accepted is the question? Forget about the guilt of your sin. In the new gospel there is no guilt because there is no sin. You are accepted just the way you are.

Is this an indictment against modern sex education; or an indictment against the vain philosophy behind today’s sex education? By modern I mean sexuality void of morality, and by vain philosophy I mean naturalism.

We might say that naturalism is being used to teach young people a lawless and immoral behavior. Its fruits are not only sexual immorality and perversion at earlier ages but increased violence and hopelessness as pointed out by Mr. Rohrbough, father of slain Columbine student Daniel Rohrbough…

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/02/freespeech/main2057062.shtml

America’s public school youth as well as their parents have been robbed of the truth of who they are as image bearers of the Infinite and Personal I AM revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

In past generations this knowledge provided a real remedy for the destructive behaviors associated with all the flavors of what has become known as self identity crisis. Without this knowledge the generations are left exposed and vulnerable to the destruction of vain philosophies.