Do You Have a Foundation or Just an Opinion? This has been our tagline since the mid-1990s. Although, back then we called it a slogan or motto.
Besides running a construction company, I was busy running a political think-tank called the Heritage Caucus and helping the late Justice William C. Goodloe run his Judicial Forum as time allowed. After a couple years, Justice Goodloe handed Judicial Forum off to me. I had been his chief writer and assistant for several years and he thought it was time to bow out. He passed away about six months later (18 January 1997).
The tag line seems simple enough – Do You Have a Foundation or Just an Opinion? It is supposed to be convicting. However, most people pass right over it – it gives them no pause – probably because they have the utmost confidence in their opinions. There are a lot of opinions out there today and, as our nation becomes more divided, peoples’ two-cents-worth are getting louder and louder. Most people develop their opinions from their gut or emotions but they don’t have a foundation. Without a foundation, it is impossible to maintain consistent opinions. Have you noticed, when expressing their point of view, most people talk about how they feel rather than how they think? The Bible tells us the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer 17:9).
In the Heritage Caucus and Judicial Forum days, this was our message – or question – to political leaders and judges: “Do You Have a Foundation or Just an Opinion?” Judges render opinions and, depending upon the court, sometimes these opinions are in writing. If a political leader or a judge do not have a foundation, their opinions can be all over the map – and we spent a lot of time revealing this problem by publishing case reviews of written judicial opinions at Judicial Forum.
An example of a good foundation is the Bible. By understanding law comes from God and man is accountable to his Creator, this will cause a man’s opinion to form in compliance to what God has written. On the political side, this will inspire laws to be written in conformance to the laws of God. On the judicial side, there will be a respect for law and judges won’t be violating their oaths by setting policy.
Another good foundation is the Constitution of the United States. This is the foundation that sets the limits to our federal government, thus protecting the freedoms of the citizens. When we see judicial and political opinion in defiance of this document, we also witness the erosion of liberty. But we did not get here overnight; the first step was to set aside God’s law. Once we established mans’ authority over the Divine, it was an easy step to restructure or redefine the laws of man; because mans’ laws are no longer accountable to God – they are accountable to man.
A nation’s laws always reflect their view of God. As goes their religion, so goes their politics. This is why the whole premise of separation of church and state is not a practical reality. And, by the way, separation of church and state is no where stated in our Constitution. It has been stated in prior communist constitutions and it was termed by Thomas Jefferson only in the respect the state has no right to run the church. The separation of church and state slogan is useful for those who defy God’s authority and want to keep His Law out of mans’ laws.
In medieval times, the Roman Catholic Church had a strong and direct influence on kings and governments and, in some respects, it still does. Other religions, such as Islam, are in control of governments and mandate the state religion upon the masses – often at the threat of death. The Founding Fathers of the United States understood the importance of religion and they based our laws upon the laws of the Bible. They did this without setting up a theocracy or mandating religious compliance. The laws of the Bible give freedom (see Romans 14 and James 2) and this explains the civil welfare, low crime and general prosperity our nation experienced for over 200 years and is now eroding away, along with our freedoms.
Our nation’s freedoms have eroded in direct proportion to the disintegration of the professing Christian church. Many professing Christians I talk to lament the erosion of doctrine in the churches today but they fail to see they lack a Biblical foundation themselves. The Apostle Paul warned:
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. [2Ti 4:3 ESV].
At this, they all agree. They see the false doctrines abound everywhere – everywhere except at their church and amongst their circle of Christian friends. This would be a good time to ask them, “Do You Have a Foundation or Just an Opinion?” For if you believe your doctrine is sound but you are not in the Word, you have fallen for an easy gospel and listen to what your itching ears want to hear. Many professing Christian people I talk to believe their pastor preaches the Word because he uses Scripture – but he preaches psychology, positive motivation and what they want to hear – and, because they don’t spend much time studying the Bible, they have no idea he is not preaching the Gospel.
The substitution of so-called “practical” preaching for the doctrinal exposition which it has supplanted is the root cause of many of the evil maladies which now afflict the church of God. The reason why there is so little depth, so little intelligence, so little grasp of the fundamental verities of Christianity, is because so few believers have been established in the faith, through hearing expounded and through their own personal study of the doctrines of grace. [Arthur Pink, “The Sovereignty of God”].
If you ask these professing Christians if they believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, they will affirm. Yet, they will twist the Scripture to mean what they want it to mean regardless the plain wording, when confronting passages hard for them to accept. If you ask them if they believe in the sovereignty of God, they will affirm. Yet they will deny God’s sovereignty when it interferes with their own sovereignty. Man likes to be in control and is not willing to surrender to anyone else – even if it is God Himself who requires it.
If more professing Christians truly believed in the Scriptures and the sovereignty of God, you would not see Christians living like the world and Christian families torn apart by divorce. The problem is the foundation has been eroding and it is almost destroyed. Rather than live in repentance, the church has turned conversion into a profession of faith – an event; just say the sinner’s pray and declare Jesus is Lord. Making a decision for Christ, they call it. Most who say “Lord” have no understanding when they acknowledge this title upon Christ, it means they will live in obedience to Him.
Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.’ [Mat 7:21-23 ESV].
Many professing Christians understand our nation is falling and they cling to the promise if God’s people humble themselves and pray, God will heal the land (2Ch 7:14). They pray and they look for signs of our nation repenting but they don’t understand it is they who must repent and follow the Lord they claim. The problem is they desire healing in our nation so they can enjoy their life but their desire is not to follow Christ – even though they profess to love Him. Christ told us to pick up our cross and follow Him (Mat 16:24) and James warned us if we are friends with the world, we are enemies of God (Jam 4:4; see also 1Jo 2:15). Rather than proclaim Christ, the church is seeking cultural relevance because it loves the respect of the world more than it loves Christ. For those who seek the glory and respect of the world, Jesus asked the question: “How can you be saved?” [Joh 5:44]. The church has lost its compass and it is heading in the wrong direction. As the church goes, so goes the nation.
If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? [Psalm 11:3 ESV].
The Apostle Paul admonished us to test ourselves in the faith. This doesn’t mean to confirm in our minds whether we received Christ or not. This means to look at our lives and our walk with Christ according to the Scriptures. You say people are looking to satisfy their itching ears. Do you pursue sound theology? or are you satisfied that your preacher quotes a little Scripture to make his point? You say people don’t have a Biblical worldview. Are you in the Word? Do you have a cursory knowledge of the Bible or do you eat and drink the Scriptures?
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! [2Co 13:5 ESV].
So we are going to work on this here. We have removed the hundreds of articles from 14 years (2003-2017) and are rebuilding the site with this singular focus in mind: This blog will be working to strengthening the foundation – both in the lives of individuals and the nation. We will focus on working out the false doctrines in our lives, though you may have to endure some political thought from time-to-time. We will also be posting studies from the Gospel of John and the Epistle to the Romans. Some of the old articles will be posted as time goes by so feel free to use the search box. Keep the Faith.
God save our nation.
BTW: The meaning of “cominus”: it is latin for close combat; it can also mean immediate or direct dissemination of the facts.
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