Posted on 06/24/2011 7:55:44 PM PDT by kindred
For several years now, I have listened to Dr. Michael Savage’s radio show, The Savage Nation. He is a great thinker in the ways of politics, and his insight, his wit and his general knowledge are a treasure. His talent with words is great, and I love his fiery, truthful eruptions, and I also bust out laughing at his quick humor. I love his voice, and I can see that Dr. Savage has a tender heart.
"However, as a Christian, there are many times I listen, and I cringe when Dr. Savage gets on a theological discussion"
However, as a Christian, there are many times I listen, and I cringe when Dr. Savage gets on a theological discussion, as he did on Tuesday, and it is those times that I wish I could speak to Dr. Savage, even for just a few moments, although I know from his harsh reaction and out-of-hand dismissal of some of the noble attempts by his past Christian callers, that he probably does not want to hear what I would say (Isa. 1:3, 45:23, John 3:19-21, Rom. 1:22, 2 Tim. 3:7).
On Tuesday, he was talking about New York Congressman Anthony Weiner and the stupidly self-imposed bind the adulterous Weiner finds himself in. The discussion turned to character and morality, then to theology. So, Dr. Savage spent quite a bit of time with two callers in particular, both of whom proudly claimed to be atheists. Of course, when I hear people like those guys speak, the Word of God in Psalm 14 always flashes in my mind,
“The fool has said in his heart, there is no God…”
The callers put out the usual talking points of the godless, anti-Christian left. They stated that since there is evil in the world, then that simply must mean that there cannot be an omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient God (Rom. 3). Dr. Savage likes to try to walk a line between belief and unbelief, but in reality, that line does not exist. Either you take God at His Word, or you don’t. The Lord is not offering a buffet that you can pick and choose which parts of His Word that you accept and which parts you reject. God wrote the Book, and God makes the rules, not us (Psalm 19:7, 119:160, 138:2, John 17:17, 2 Peter 3:16).
God is indeed all-knowing, all-powerful and all-present, and the evil in the world does not disprove these facts. In the beginning, when God created all including man — which He did in six days (Gen. 1), just as He said (why would He mince words, as if He, who made all we see, were not able to do it in six days?)—he designed man with free will, not as an automaton who had no choice but to love Him (Deut. 30:19, Josh. 24:15, John 1:12, 3:16-17).
Since He is all-knowing and not bound by time, God knew from before the dawn of time that man would reject Him. His plan for our salvation through His Son Jesus was in place long before the serpent beguiled Eve, and Adam knowingly disobeyed God (Gen. 22:7-8, Rev. 13:8).
"The whole of creation will continue to suffer until the Lord comes back to set things right when the fullness of his plan is accomplished"
What happened when Adam sinned was that the curse of sin and death was introduced into the world (Rom. 5:12-21). Before Adam sinned, he was not designed to die, or be sick, or be stuck by thorns, or to eat his animal friends. All that changed in a gut-wrenching, heartbreaking instant. Since that terrible moment, all of creation has suffered horribly under the curse of sin and death with all manner of sickness and disease and evil of every kind (Rom. 8:20-23). The whole of creation will continue to suffer until the Lord comes back to set things right when the fullness of his plan is accomplished (Isa. 11:1-12, 65:25, Dan. 7:9-14, 26-28, Micah 4:1-4, Hab. 2:14, Mal. 3-4).
Now, the tricky part of any discussion about God is the fact that He is a supernatural Being, and even though we most certainly can know Him, our very limited human minds cannot fully grasp the awesome aspect of Him, at this time. In fact, the Bible plainly tells us that without the Spirit of God touching our hearts and minds, we will not even be able to understand the meaning of the Word of God (John 3:3-17, 16:8-14). It is a mystery, but it is the truth, and people who have great pride and faith in their own intellect have a very hard time with the concept of a God Who is too big to fully get their mind around (Gen. 11:1-6, Psalm 14: 1-3, Rom. 1:16-32, 2 Tim. 3:7, Heb. 4:2).
We believe in God by faith, because although we have not seen the Lord physically, we know He is, and we trust Him for our ultimate salvation and all that we have here on Earth. The Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (in Romans 10:17). What does that mean? In a nutshell, it means that when we truly seek Him, God opens our hearts to receive His Spirit and our minds to hear His instruction. When He does that, then we’re able to understand His revealed Word—the Bible—and our faith in Him is born (John 1:12, 3:3-7, 1 Peter 1:23).
"The Bible says that, " faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God"
Now, back to Dr. Savage and the atheists’ discussions. Dr. Savage has certain standard arguments against God’s omnipotence. He sometimes uses the argument that if God were all-powerful, then He would not allow a busload of children from a Christian church to go off a cliff and be killed and maimed.
First of all, we must remember that because of our sin, we have invited all sorts of badness into this world, and Satan is ever at work looking for ways to steal, kill and destroy mankind and God’s creation (2 Cor. 2:11, Eph 2:1-2, 1 Peter 5:8). Although God is all-powerful, He does not always stop bad things from happening, but that does not mean God killed a bunch of children or that He was powerless to stop it—by no means (Luke 13:1-5)!
At this time, we do not have the answers to why God sometimes allows bad things to happen to “nice” people, but one day we will understand it all. On the other hand, we have no way of knowing how many bad things God did put a stop to that never happened to us. One day we will know that, too. Ultimately the answers to those questions have to do with God’s purposes (Rev. 4:11).
Another refrain Dr. Savage and atheists like to latch onto is that the belief in God and belief in science are mutually exclusive. That could not be further from the truth. Think about it. God is the Author of the entire universe and everything in it. In itself, that is a concept which is much, much larger than what we can get our minds around (Psalm 19:1-7, Rom. 1:18-25, Rev. 4:11).
"The fact is that without God, there is no science"
The fact is that without God, there is no science. Now, I’m not talking about science of the politically motivated kind—you know—the kind that is funded and propelled by the diabolical communists in our world and meant to enslave us, as in the false science that attempts to “prove” the lie of anthropogenic global warming (Gen. 2:4, Psalm 104:24, Prov. 3:19, John 1:1-3, Heb 1:1-3).
No. I’m talking about true science—the study of God’s creation for the betterment of mankind and all of nature, the fruits of which studies have given us great things, such as we see in the field of medicine, and these “discoveries” are gifts of God. I have often said that of all the people in the world who should plainly “see” God, it is the scientist who studies God’s creation. The awesome detail and intricacy of all that is in the world and the heavens above are boundless, and God’s hand is evident throughout it all. God is like a master artist, and if you know anything about art, you know that you can often recognize an artist’s work by the common traits in the pieces he creates. The same is true of God’s handiwork (Psalm 19:1-7, 97:6).
Another myth of unbelievers is to claim that belief in God equates to ignorance (1 Cor. 1:18-31). That is a lie from the pit of hell. Throughout God’s Word, He tells us to gain knowledge, to be wise, to be ready to give an answer for why we believe what we believe. God is all about knowledge—His pure and true knowledge, which is not the false “wisdom” of the world—and He warns us that lack of His knowledge is a deadly thing (Prov. 21:30, 1 Cor. 1:20, 3:19, James 3:15).
But you see, the reason for that myth goes to the heart of the true, eternal struggle. The real enemies of mankind are spiritual enemies (Job 1-2, 1 Chron. 21:1, 2 Cor. 4:3-4, Eph. 2:1-2, 6:12, Rev. 16:13-14, 20:1-3). There are only two forces at work in the world: the forces of God and the forces of Satan. Satan is the eternally damned enemy of God and all of God’s creation. Satan is currently “the god of this world,” and although he has no authority over God’s hand, he is still a very powerful being.
"He has created legions of lying doctrines, false religions, and countless deceptions, all aimed at stealing the souls of mankind from salvation by God" . If you are an enemy of the truth, which is God’s Word, how do you combat that truth? With a multitude of lies, of course. Satan is the chief of liars. He has created legions of lying doctrines, false religions, and countless deceptions, all aimed at stealing the souls of mankind from salvation by God (Lev. 17:7, 1 Tim. 4:1). Because Satan has flooded the world with lies, people claim that truth does not exist—that no one can know or claim to know absolute truth—another hellish lie (John 3:19-21, 8:44, 16:7-13, 2 Cor. 4:3-4, Eph. 2:1-2, 1 John 5:19).
One of the biggest and most deadly lies of hell is that there are many ways to God, many ways to salvation (Isa. 43:11, 45:21, Hos. 13;4, Matt. 7:13-29). That is another thing Dr. Savage has said, and he soundly rejects the work of Christ. Dr. Savage has his “wheel theory,” which places God as the hub and the spokes of the wheel, as the world’s religions, all leading to the hub. Here is a critical and a tough place, because the refrain of the fallen world is to screech and wail at anyone who claims there is only one way to God (Gen. 11, 1 Sam. 8:5-8, John 19;15, Rev. 9:20-21, 17:12-14).
"That is another thing Dr. Savage has said, and he soundly rejects the work of Christ"
But, if you really think about it, and you look at all the world’s religions, how can they all be true? If nothing else, it is mathematically impossible. With the many conflicting doctrines among the world’s religions, there comes a point where we must realize that truth does exist, and it’s actually a rare thing to see truth in this world. It may be tough for some people to accept, but most of the world religions are false. That’s just the way it is—again—I didn’t write the book; I didn’t make the rules—God did.
There is one truly despised belief system and two truly despised groups of people in the world: Christianity and Christians and Jews. When you think about God’s eternal enemy, Satan, you must know that Satan despises the things of God, especially God’s truth and God’s chosen people, of whom Christians are an adopted part.
"Do you ever notice how the world does not bother much at all with maligning anyone but Christians and Jews?"
Do you ever notice how the world does not bother much at all with maligning anyone but Christians and Jews? It is because Satan abhors God’s truth and God’s people, and that hellish, worldly hatred for God’s true chosen ones is a supernatural hatred born in the heart of Satan and passed like a virus into the hearts of people under Satan’s sway—the haters of God’s truth.
What is the bottom line here? The bottom line is that the truth can be known, and in the end the truth will stand, whether we accept it or not. The fact is that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, and Jesus and God are one (Psalm 2:7, 110:1, Isa. 9:6-7, John 1;1-3, 10:30, Rev. 21:22). Jesus came to save the world, to provide a bridge of the impossible divide between God and man, although the Bible clearly says that most people in the world will not choose the narrow path of salvation through Christ, but instead will choose the broad and easy way to destruction and eternal separation from God (Isa. 43:11, Hos. 13:4, Matt. 7:13-14, John 3:16-17).
As I wrote last year in my column, “Meet Your Maker,”
“The Gospel–the Good News–is really quite simple, and at the same time, its depths are infinite. Contained in the Bible is God’s message to mankind, the path to salvation through his only begotten Son, Jesus. There is no other way to reach God, except through belief in Jesus as our savior. As Jesus said in John 14:6:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me”
Pretty exclusive? You better believe it is!”
Dr. Savage is far from alone in his rejection of the exclusive path to God—the only path—through Jesus, as most of the world thinks the same way. My prayer for Dr. Savage has always been for his salvation, that God would open his eyes and his mind to be able to see God and begin to understand the fathomless depths of God’s living Word and His amazing love for us and the astounding peace that this world cannot give, but that God gives freely to those who love Him (Psalm 1, Isa. 9:6, 48:18, John 8:32,36, Eph. 2:12-22, 2 John 1:3).
The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!
The "Book of Mormon" is the world's greatest commentary on the Bible. It truly is astonishing. I am 60 years old and have been reading both for over 45 years and I am still gaining profound truths. You should give it a try!
Strong accusations. Character killing. Savage is very successful. He lives in San Francisco among aged homeless hippies. Alias, who cares? He takes pride in his heritage with a cutting wit. An excellent Islamophobe!! England denies him visas.. A strident Homophobe!! He speaks their language. My hope Christ finds Michael and finds a welcome.
Weiner is as Weiner does, sir.
I can’t stand that guy. If some of y’all want to love him, that’s yer choice. Listening to him makes me want to gargle with battery acid.
HUH?
I have No Idea what you are talking about.
The OP said that Men like Mike Savage wouldn't/couldn't be Humble enough.
That is a Judgment of the Heart and Not one for us to make.
Judgment of things Spiritual and Judgment of things Worldly are clearly two different things.
(Separation of powers would apply here .. LOL)
agreed
Wow...I wasn’t thinking, was I??? Ha!!! You have to forgive me, I have been awfully busy today and forgot that Savage was Jewish! Been too busy posting and thinking about the insanity in the homosexual marriage legislation in NY...so sick!!!
Well said Kindred !
Don’t be so cryptic. Tell us how you really feel! LOL. You hit Savage right on the nail. Savage is all about Savage, and he’s not above helping liberals win election as evidenced by his supporting Jerry Brown for AG, and probably for Gov too. He has intentionally ranted on his show in a purposeful intent to paint conservatives as mentally unbalanced, knowing full well that conservatives would be tied to his on-air behavior. Savage is a schmuck.
I stopped listening to Savage after he made a huge contribution to the campaign of Jerry Brown in 2006. At the time, Brown was running against a conservative Republican for Attorney General in California.
Yes, and Dennis Prager is another who thinks his anger is healthy and promotes it on radio.
If you listen to Savage for any period of time you will see the monumental phony that he really is. On personal level he is incredibly toxic. His MO is to pick a fight with someone above his status and goad them into responding. He then leverages this into a fabricated acknowledgment of a peer status.
I've seen him do this with Jim Eason, his predecessor at KSFO in the Bay Area and other stepping stones along the way. Now he sets his sights on Rush Limbaugh (Hush Bimbo), the Leprechaun (O'Reilly) and a few others who continue to ignore him.
The Savage personna is a character he plays on the radio which he morphs as he thinks necessary to gain market share. Behind it is a shameless egotist.
I have thought on this more times than the questions of why bad things happen to good people. It seems to me many of the delays in life...from getting caught in traffic to mistakes over oversleeping etc. all play into His hand in ways we cannot know this side of heaven.
I do think He takes those instances and happenings in life and weaves them into His perfect will for us despite ourselves or those happenings in our life...He brings good out of life.
It was once said to me by an individual that life is for the most part "hard" and full of "misfortunes and happenings"......but along the way God meets us with some of the better moments of life from time to time, so that we might continue the journey before us and enjoy those moments along the way with appreciation for what He has done on our behalf.
I also think if man were entirely left to himself, without God's blessings, He would surely destroy himself and everything and one around him. We underestimate greatly the depravity of man.
Thanks
I don’t take Savage too seriously on all matters he speaks of.... but I do enjoy his program. He is entertaining which I think to a great extent is the purpose of his program... He can be very funny with his rants and he is not so far off the mark as some can get. Additionally he does offer some good points now and then well worth consideration.
Of course it’s programming with the idea of gaining his share of the listening audiance. As with all programs and anymore news sitcoms....one needs to discern the truth from what is intended as entertainment. When these are mixed it is wise to consider that what they say is an opinion...right or left of our own opinions.
IMO He is worth enjoying and I do...love it when he gets on the “vermin” role!
Yea I like Dennis, good man for the most part, you know that he and Roy used to talk on radio when Roy was based in L.A.?
In the late 1990’s Savage was decent. Not too long after Bush became President, he morphed into a schizophrenic self-absorbed narcissist. He’s not entertaining in the least. In fact, he is extremely toxic to conservatives, and I believe this is intentional on his part.
So man has free will and that is the source of evil? How does your free will cause tornadoes that kill hundreds of people or genetic defects causing retardation or technial defects in planes that cause crashes???
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