INALIENABLE RIGHTS
Pastor Eric J. Hanson
November 26th 2006
A message like this one can stand alone, but I strongly suggest that each one listening to Inalienable Rights also get a CD or tape of my message from two weeks prior to this one. Clash of Civilizations bring out some stark facts about the life and death struggle between two major Worldviews which is being acted out on a global scale in our time.
Two Groups Who Wish to Rule the World
There are many aspects to this clash of civilizations. Two of the major Worldviews of our time, which are both aggressive, are Secular Humanism, and Islam. The main proponents of each of these World Views, intend to dominate the World.
Secular Humanists
Secular Humanists seek to gain power through peaceable means such as packing the Supreme and district courts of the Earth with secular humanist judges and justices. They seek, at an even more basic level, to control education, from the University level on down. In almost every nation of the Western World, they have largely succeeded in this. From Harvard to Cambridge, to the University of Paris, to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, their grip is like iron.
They have also targeted the newsrooms of America’s and Europe’s media, from the largest Newspapers, such as the New York Times, to the major TV networks of the Western World, such as the BBC. From sitcoms, to the nightly news, to the editorial page, to Major Movies, the signers of Humanist Manifesto II, and their millions of followers have gained control of most of our culture’s outlets.
In our Nation, the United States of America, about 10% of the total population of our land is now out and out Secular Humanists, fully steeped in and saturated by that Worldview and its goals of socialism, population control, total sexual freedom and eradication of marriage, eventual Worldwide Government, children raised by the state or certain selected elites, government by the elite, and so on.
Secular Humanism, which claims that there is no God, and turns man’s reasoning power into a substitute god, states that rights are given or withheld in accordance with the conclusions reached by the finest minds and best thinkers among each generation of humankind. Common people, and those who are practitioners of all serious religions (which Secularists call superstitions), in a truly Secular Humanist are a commodity to be managed by the educated elite, who know what is best for the rest of us, how to ration health care, who lives or dies, how to best censor and re-write history, etc.
Islam
Islam, on the other hand, as it has since its inception, seeks to force the whole World to worship its God, Allah, and follow the teachings of its prophet Mohammed. If people, or groups of people won’t be converted, they must submit, becoming Dhimmi (resident non-citizens of any Islamic land, who have no rights), or be exiled or killed. There is no place for pluralism within any nation which comes under Islam. The religion and the state become one, with the government totally under the control and authority of the Muslim mullahs. The job of government becomes the carrying out of Shariah, or Islamic law. Today, under the sword of Mohammed, unimaginably cruel and brutal things are being done to people who simply wish to live in peace according to their own belief systems. In many nations today, from Indonesia to Sudan, to Iraq, people are being burned alive, beheaded, hacked to pieces, starved to death, and suffering other atrocities in the name of Islam. Under Islam, people have no intrinsic worth. Worth only comes from submitting to Islam.
By the way, Allah is not the God of the Bible by simply another name. Our Father in Heaven, who created and sustains the Heavens and the Earth, is utterly different from Allah.
Conclusions Concerning Secular Humanism and Islam
These two ways of looking at the nature of reality, of life, death, and eternity, have very little in common with each other. One big, very important thing they do have in common is a basic disregard for the God given rights of people.
This message, Inalienable Rights, speaks to the assumptions regarding the nature of God and of mankind that the whole Western World View has been built upon. The clearest and finest expression of this underlying set of assumptions is found in our nation’s Declaration of Independence. Here are a couple of relevant, famous, but often ignored or misunderstood passages from it.
Declaration of Independence Passages
When in the course of Human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the Earth, that separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind, requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, and they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. (break, ship ahead)
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
(expound briefly)
Key Scriptures
“In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.” (Genesis 1:1)
“Then God said, let us make man in our image, according to our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the Earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the Earth. And God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the Earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the Earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)
“You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:17-18)
“You shall rise up before the gray headed, and honor the aged, and you shall revere your God: I am the Lord. When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall do him no wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself.” (Leviticus 19: 32-34a)
“You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy” but I say to you. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in Heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:43-45)
“Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets”. (Matthew 7:12)
Turn to I Samuel 8:4-9… People foolishly demand a king. God who is King! The mind of man is not king! Regional fallen angel powers such as Allah are not king!
Turn to Romans 2: 9-16 Show that all will stand before God at the Judgment…
Bring out the Romans Road and give invitation.
