The Rod Martin Report: October 3, 2015
You can read about the world anywhere. You read The Rod Martin Report to understand it.
by Rod D. Martin
October 3, 2015
Dear Friend,
I hope you've been paying attention to RodMartin.org, where we've put out a lot of great stuff lately. One example: the latest in my "Success Series" for Inc. Magazine got retweeted like crazy this week. Entitled "One of the Most Critical Keys to Success May Surprise You", people really seemed to love it. I don't know why they'd like it more than some of the others in the series, but if you have't read it yet, check it out and give me some feedback. I'd appreciate it.
On the political side, I just published an interesting piece on the truth about Carly Fiorina's record at HP, which is clearly something a lot of people are wondering about (especially after Donald Trump's attacks on it and her), and my friend Bob Barr on why Newt Gingrich should be the next Speaker of the House (yes, that's legal). We also published an essay by Eagle Forum's Ed Martin on Scott Walker's departure from the Presidential race that is worth reading.
I help organize or am asked to sign a decent number of Open Letters from leaders of the conservative movement on important issues. Over the past week we did two of these which you might want to read and act upon.
1. Conservative Leaders Oppose Any Bill Funding Planned Parenthood
2. Open Letter Opposing Confirmation of Judicial Nominee Dale Drozd
I hope you'll take a minute to call your Senator on Monday about the second one. Drozd is truly awful.
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Not sure if you heard, but NASA found flowing water on Mars this week. This is one of the bigger events in human history, a reversal (in part) of the so-called debunking of poor Percival Lowell by Mariner 4. What does it mean? Hard to say right now. But it definitely points toward our having an easier time than we expected exploring and someday colonizing the Red Planet. It also couldn't have been better timing for Matt Damon's The Martian, which is having a deservedly great opening weekend (definitely go see it).
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Today is my birthday. And tomorrow is Sunday. So I hope you'll indulge me a bit. Normally, The Rod Martin Report is a little longer on commentary, but for today, I'd like to something a little different. They don't call me a "philosopher capitalist" for nothing, and I think it's important we allocate a certain amount of time to deeper things.
In this case, that means taking a look at one of the most frequently misquoted passaged in all of the Bible, "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
Answer: they can do a whole heck of a lot. And the Bible teaches it that way, not the way you've probably heard it your whole life.
My apologies to my non-Christian (and non-Jewish) friends. But bare with me: you may learn something. And the rest of you, it's time we get serious about this, in every area of life.
If the Foundations Be Destroyed, What Can the Righteous Do?
by Rod D. Martin
March 7, 2015
Should we be optimistic not merely in the face of great adversity, but in the shaking of the very foundations of our way of life? By this I do not ask whether we should trust in the Lord’s ultimate deliverance, but whether optimism and perseverance can be justified in this life, right now, in the face of generalized decay or even disaster.
As long as I can remember, I have heard well-meaning souls quote Psalm 11, lamenting the state of one thing or another -- usually America's fate -- with the Psalmist's words, "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" They rightly call us to repent, seeking action before "the foundations are destroyed," after which the only hope they can see is in Heaven.
But they’ve misread the text, and with it David's point.
In Psalm 11, David quotes some unnamed person who, similar to Job’s counselors, has given him the following advice (vv. 1-3): "Flee like a bird to your mountain, for behold the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart; if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
David utterly rejected this. In verse 1 he began, "In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to my soul..." and then quotes their words above. "How can you say to me" David asks them with indignation, as though an exclamation point should follow.
In the eighth volume of his Commentaries, Calvin tells us that the events of Psalm 11 take place while David was on the run from Saul. Hard pressed on every side, abandoned even by his own countrymen and pursued by the King he has faithfully served, he and his men have no place to go, no chance for rest, dangers at every turn. His wife has been abducted, his income stripped away, his life turned upside down. How could he not despair?
But he doesn't.
In verse 1, he asks in effect "How can you even suggest such a thing?" He expounds on this throughout the never-quoted remainder of the Psalm:
4 The LORD is in his holy temple;
the LORD's throne is in Heaven;
His eyes see, His eyelids test the
children of man.
5 The LORD tests the righteous,
but His soul hates the wicked and
the one who loves violence.
6 Let Him rain coals on the wicked;
fire and sulfur and a scorching wind
shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the LORD is righteous;
He loves righteous deeds;
the upright shall behold His face.
Some take this to suggest just what David's (and our) well-meaning counselors said: that beyond a certain, all too near-term point, our only hope is in Heaven. Since in an ultimate sense that is true, it would easy to stop right there. But David certainly didn’t, and neither should we.
His and our well-meaning prophets of Earthly doom look at the current circumstances, see the decay, rot and active persecution of sinners, and call the end of the game. But God does not permit this. Rather, we are required to “occupy until He comes.” He expects us to fight on, despite the odds, in full hope of His mighty deliverance and, yes, even victory. He Who makes all things new can never be defeated by the conspiracies of men.
Indeed, victory was exactly what David received. From this dire state, he persevered in faith, rejecting the arguments to quit just as Job had done before him. Half the nation was overrun by Philistines before things improved: Israel was subjugated, the army scattered, the king and his son slaughtered. But God raised David up as the nation's deliverer, first as king of Judah, then of a united Israel, and ultimately as master of all the nations from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates, the entire western half of the Fertile Crescent. David's ascension ushered in Israel's Golden Age, his became one of the great empires of its time, his son's perhaps the very greatest. And his Seed reigns even now at the Father's right hand.
Or to look at that another way, there were perhaps two million Israelites then, occupied and oppressed by foreign pagans seeking to wipe out both their nation and their religion. There are over two billion Christians today, in every nation on this Earth.
God did sweep away much of the old order, the foundations He allowed to be destroyed. But He created something far better in its place. David's faithfulness made him that new order's executor and heir, the only man whom God ever called "a man after mine own heart."
Western civilization – what we have historically known as Christendom – faces a great trial. Much of the inheritance of millennia is being cast off. It is a troubling, dangerous time, and faithful people are right to be greatly concerned. America bears a precious inheritance, constitutionally, spiritually and culturally, one we should struggle mightily to preserve and fortify and pass down to our children's children.
But if the foundations are indeed shaken, or even ultimately destroyed, what can the righteous do?
To quote Spurgeon, "What can they not do?" Indeed, our aim is not to lament the loss of things gone before but to press on to even better. One can imagine the heartbreak of the Founding Fathers as they lamented their lost rights and place as Englishmen. But they did not give up: rather, through hardship and even war they gave us the better nation and ideas we hope to preserve today.
Should we find ourselves in their position, personally or nationally, we must in faith follow their -- and David's -- example. Rest is for Heaven. We are but given so much life. We are required to use it, with all our might, walking by faith and not by sight.
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Until next time, thank you (many, many of you) for the birthday wishes, and keep fighting for the America that ought to be. By God's grace, our world is truly what we make of it. We must make it better. And we will.
You can read about the world anywhere. You read The Rod Martin Report to understand it. Do your friends a favor and pass it along; and remember, there’s a lot more we publish each week that doesn’t make the newsletter.
For Freedom,
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