BUILDING THEIR OWN COUNTRY

There are a million reasons for keeping out illegals from coming into America. First of all, no nation in the world has such a porous and open border. "Come one and come all!" Second, there is no doubt that the open border opens the way for criminals. But the biggest problem I have is that it is just plain stupid!

When the settlers came to these shores they did not take away land from the Indians. The land was open to everyone. Though it is true, from the Bible we learn that the holding of property is a blessing. And in time, the settlers planted towns and harvested acreage.

The Indians did not have "land" in the sense of a country. The Christian Puritans were not perfect but most of the information we get about those who came here is just plain built upon lies. The Indians started the persecution and we cannot really find out why. At one of the Thanksgiving meals, after the Indians have eaten their fill, they just suddenly turned on their hosts for no apparent reason. The Indians were extremely cruel to their own kind as well. They tortured and killed almost for fun.

But my question to modern illegals is: WHY DON'T THEY STAY IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY AND BUILD IT UP FOR THEIR CHILDREN, as our Founding Fathers did here? The Europeans and Anglo-Saxons who came to these shores did not ask help from anyone. We must understand something: the work ethic of the Reformed Christian Anglo-Saxons is not the same as the Latins! If you don't believe that you do not understand history. You need a course or two in order to get your thinking straight. What I just wrote is not a prejudicial statement—it is fact! I know from whence I speak. I'm a history buff! —Dr. Mal Couch (5/11)

CRAIG PARSHALL WRITES ABOUT THE NEW BARBARIANS

They are not those who carry spears and knives but who use the pen and the tongue to destroy what is good. They wage war against biblical values. They take away freedoms and gradually and silently encroach on goodness. The strategy of the new barbarians is not a massive invasion but a persistent erosion; they manipulate by politicizing words, using loaded meanings rather than bullets.

Their targets are not walls and fortresses but rather, they are those who speak boldly and clearly on social, moral, and spiritual issues with a worldview forged in God's Scriptures. They attack God's eternal Word. And they detest the Son of God, therefore, they also hate the God of Creation.

To hate God the Father is to hate Christ, and to hate the Father is to hate the Son. Likewise, to love the Father is to love the Son, and to love Him is to love the heavenly Father. "The Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father" (John 16:27). "He who hates Me hates My Father also" (15:23).

Those foundations of truth are the most formidable walls against radical, secular liberalism. The last and only real hope for civilization is always truth, and truth springs from the transcendent values of a God who has communicated His demands for righteousness, and proclaimed the sinful frailty of man, and His plan of redemption.

Those were the moral presuppositions that informed our Founding Fathers. Those were the timbers from which they hewed our constitution form of government.

Beware the new barbarians who would tear down the bulwarks of freedom and set fire to the foundations of our republic.

[Parshall then lists the areas where we are failing in the war!]

They have attacked talk radio. They come against the American Family Association, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas. The enemy headquarters in CNN and in Harvard Law School. They fought Robert Bork's confirmation to the Supreme Court in 1987. Bork quoted James Madison who said:

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." The barbarians have come against those who promote traditional ideas. Conservatives and Bible believers are considered as official "hate" groups who must be silenced.

Finally, such barbarism is characterized of all that men have ever understood, by men who do not understand [anything at all]."

MADNESS IN THE WHITE HOUSE

On May 18 President Barack Hussein Obama said in order to create two states in the Holy Land, the Promised Land, Israel needed to move back to the borders of 1967. This is gross stupidity! I was there just three years after the war and saw the wire fences and the walls that divided the city of Jerusalem into two pieces! The Six Day War was actually the Six Hour War. Within six hours the Israelis had defeated the Arab air forces, including driving the Jordanians back to their lines and out of Jerusalem.

To tell the Israelis to divide the city again, Israel taking half and the Jordanians taking the other half, shows a lack of knowledge, common sense, history, Bible history, and prophecy. It is a denial of the Word of God! But that's what we've got in Washington. This man has got to go, and there is some evidence that we may not get rid of him this next time around.

Please pray and be ready to vote, if for no other reason, than for the sake of Israel. An infant, a child, would know better than what he stated on May 18, a day of infamy! —Dr. Mal Couch (5/11)

HONORING DR. JOHN F. WALVOORD

Dr. Walvoord was born over one hundred years ago, on May 1, 1910. Before he passed away in commissioned Dr. Mal Couch to write his official biography. This hard-back volume is a classic. He gives the background of his life and of his theological walk as author and president of Dallas Seminary. As one can imagine, Dr. Couch had an adventure interviewing him in producing the book before he left this world on December 20, 2002.

ONLY IN CALIFORNIA

Supposedly, this happened just recently. Two Jewish women were talking to each other in Yiddish. Another woman walked up and yelled: "You're in America! Speak in Spanish!"

IS SALVATION A GIFT OF GOD?

"For by grace you [all of you] are existing, having been saved, by means of faith, and this is not of yourselves, from God [comes] the gift!"

Many translate the passage simply as "By grace you have been saved." This is called a periphrastic construction where the "you are existing" goes silent. But I believe this is wrong. I believe the way I have translated the verse is the way it would have been quoted or read out loud to an audience. We have here a simple verb: "you are existing" (Present tense) and a Perfect Passive Participle "you have been saved." "By means of faith … that is [it is] a gift of God." is the way it should be read. And many scholars see it this way, as I did, before I knew that some had a difference of approach as to how the verse should be read.

In other words, the gift of God includes the salvation and the faith.

A. Leckie in the Ritchie Commentary series agrees: "This faith was not of themselves: it was of God. Whatever may precede the exercise of faith, this faith is the gift of God."

Albert Barnes adds: "It is certainly true that faith is the gift of God. It exists in the mind only when the Holy Spirit produces it there."

Lenski writes: "We never produce faith ourselves. … The source and origin is not in you; it is wholly and only in God. … The salvation He has given to you. This is a 'gift' pure and simple. Gratuitously, freely bestowed by abounding grace and mercy."

Hendriksen says: "Faith is entirely dependent on God, and so is our complete salvation. … Faith is included in the gift. … I will immediately add that even this faith (or: even this exercise of faith) is not of yourselves but is God's gift. … Faith, as well as everything else in salvation, is God's gift."

The old great Baptist theologian, John Gill, writes: "This faith is not the produce of man's free-will and power, but it is the free gift of God; and therefore salvation through it is of grace. … Faith is elsewhere represented as the gift of God (John 6:65; Phil. 1:29), and it is called the special gift of faith."

2 Thessalonians 2:13 also tells us faith is a gift of God. "Salvation [is by means of] sanctification by the Spirit and by means of faith in the truth." Here, in 2 Thessalonians the Greek word "sozo" (to save) is used six times. God's choosing is the cause of salvation, but the means comes about by the sanctifying work of the Spirit and the verbal proclamation of faith in the truth. … Faith in itself is not self-generated. All humans are said to be dead in sin and children of wrath by nature (Eph. 2:1, 3) and cannot come to salvation without faith that in itself is a gift of God (2:8). … Not only does salvation come by means (en) of the sanctifying work of the Spirit and by means (en) of faith in the truth but through the agency (dia) of the gospel (v. 14)."

Philippians 1:29 says "For to you it has been given (granted) for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake." Again, belief is something given externally to us from God. Acts 3:16 goes on: "Faith which comes through Him."

2 Peter 1:1 speaks of "Those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ."

Without God's sovereign work we would be both helpless and hopeless!

—Dr. Mal Couch (5/11)

WHEATON DOWN THE DRAIN

A sad day has arrived at Wheaton College. An alumni support group called OneWheaton has hundreds of alumni signing a petition that says homosexuality is not wrong. As a 1968 honors graduate in the Graduate School, I feel betrayed that these grads are so ignorant of the Word of God that they would agree to such an evil slap at what the Lord has said.

In many ways I could see this coming because, as the school departed from the Scriptures, this would be the logical conclusion for many graduates to come to. The school long ago turned its back on the Bible. We knew what would happen in the long run!

The OneWheaton group says that it does not plan to challenge the administration on their viewpoint, but we know that this will happen at some point in the future. This is why a judgment will be coming on America. We have thrown away our blessings and rebelled against the God of Scripture!

I hate to say it but more than likely this pro-sodomy viewpoint is more acceptable than we can imagine. What is interesting is that the pro-sodomy people are so brazen in their attitudes. They do not mind defying the Scriptures, in fact, they are actually proud of this rebellion.

The apostle Paul says homosexuals "have abandoned ("dismissed") the natural function of the woman with the men … and received in their own persons the due penalty of their error" (Rom. 1:27). Thus, they no longer acknowledge God any longer; He has given them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper (v. 28). The judgment against them is certain (vv. 29-32).

What schools will follow in the footsteps of Wheaton alumni? The apostasy is accelerating!

A sad day.
—Dr. Mal Couch (5/11)

DON'T BE FOOLED!

President Barack Hussein Obama had very little to do with the killing of Bin Laden. You may have noticed that in the room full of military experts, when the mission was being carried out, the man just sat way in the back, kind of crouched down and looking a little sheepish. The plan was conceived and implemented by our prior President, George Bush.

Barack Hussein Obama kept knocking America down when he first came into office, but he changed his tune when he realized the American people were not with him with his cutting remarks. He acted like getting Bin Laden was his idea, when in fact, he would have canceled the plan if he could have! He changes with the tide. He doesn't know what he believes nor does he know what he's doing.

Pray that we can replace this man!
—Dr. Mal Couch (5/11)

UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES

There are many Christians working in various departments of our government. They tell me what I've been saying for years now. It's all over! There is no turning back. No matter what they say to their bosses there is no recovery. The problems are too big and the "reach" goes too far to make any course correction. We are all now just identifying the problems but have no workable solutions. We know that the problems all begin as spiritual. Our nation, our families and husbands have departed from the Lord, and thus, there is no positive leadership.

I personally believe that the heart of the problem is weak men, and this comes from the fact of the forces of feminism. Women who want to be men, or at the least, want to be with the men. Women who want to play being pilots, lawyers, etc., anything but being mothers who infuse their spiritual lives into their children and support their husbands. Women do not realize the power they have as women. Men want partners who compliment themselves. Men are so appreciative of a clean house, the encouragement of their wives in the home.

Anyway, I want to use this heading to write what we all need to read, that will change our lives for the sake of the Lord. Look for such contributions in the future. —Dr. Mal Couch (5/11)

COMPROMISE – COMPROMISE

The last place you would expect compromise would be on the mission field. But it's happening with some missions who are reaching Muslims for Christ. A new translation for Muslims is coming out that leaves out the expression "The Son of God" in reference to Christ. On Mark 1:11 where it speaks of Jesus being "the Son of God," it's changed to "the Messiah." God the Father says, in the new translation, "You are My beloved Messiah, with You I am well pleased."

This is aberrant and heretical theology. "The Son of God" is not the same as "The Messiah" that means "The Anointed One." Christ is the Anointed One as King over Israel; He is the Son of God by His nature and relationship with the heavenly Father. Two different issues. By cutting out Son of God, and using the term Messiah, this is supposed to be less offensive to Muslims who think Son of God means that God had sex with Mary to create Jesus. But of course this is not what this issue is about.

Three terms are used separate in Psalm 2. "The Anointed One" (v. 2), "The King" (v. 6), and "My Son" (v. 7). Each has its meaning and you cannot substitute one with the other.

There is a difference in making an expression clear to improve understanding, and, cutting something out or re-defining it in order to escape a true meaning. Son of God does not mean Messiah. This was done in order to escape the truth!

If you are involved with a mission reaching out to Muslims, you need to find out if that group is part of the folks who are doing the compromising. If so, remove your support.

—Dr. Mal Couch (5/11)

WHO TO VOTE FOR

I hope every Christian is preparing to vote in the next election. It is our opportunity to have a voice in our nation's direction, as no generation in the past was so privileged. This opportunity is a gift from God! Many believers are voting Republican because it has already been proven that there is, in the big picture, more morality and more Christians in that party. Also, they stand for more righteousness than any other group.

Now this does not mean that the Republicans are perfect, nor that they are a "Christian" party. It simply means that we have a greater opportunity to have sound and good men representing us in office when the chips are down.

Do you vote expecting perfection? You should not. No one is perfect and we do not expect the Republicans to be doctrinally absolute in their decisions. We are selecting one over another. We are selecting the best among several options of imperfection.

What we do not want:

One in office who comes from a culture that has flaws. We want a European, Reformation cultural background in our leaders. This is how America was founded. We do not want one who does not have in his cultural background a family tree that cannot be trusted. One who is not a Christian (but this will be tough to always find).

We want one in office:

Who is not afraid to express his trust in the Lord. We want a man with experience; one who has been in the military. A man who shows strong male leadership; who can lead men when the "combat" (political or otherwise) gets tough! In the last century, most of our Presidents have been in the military. We want male strength and aggression when it is needed! We want strong men who can lead men!

What I have just written is proven by history. Some who are younger may disagree because they are not aware of history! And they have not seen in experience the rightness of what I have written. We want to base our decisions on fact, historical experience, not on emotional Political Correctness! As a historian I will stand on what I have written!

You get the idea!
—Dr. Mal Couch (5/11)

A Letter of Thanks

Dr. Couch, the first time I ever heard anyone teaching verse by verse was the first time we visited at Tyndale Bible Church in Ft. Worth from you. You taught Psalm 139 verse by verse. I got more out of that one hour than I had gotten through the years of preaching at other churches. Wish I still had a recording of it but I gave away my cassette of that long ago, always wanting to have it back, but it's gone! DR


Thank you for your kind thoughts. That is the way pastors should be explaining or exegeting the Word of God. But most pastors are lazy and ill trained. They should be well-trained in the Scriptures, having taken the biblical languages and giving the Word back to people.

The church is dying, exegesis is disappearing, and we're rapidly moving into the apostasy. The Bible is no longer being given in all its glory and clarity.

Thanks for reminding me. —Dr. Mal Couch (5/11)

DR. COUCH AND THE JEWS

Why am I supportive of God's people—the Jews? Well, first of all, because they are "loved" by the Lord, even in their unsaved state. Paul writes: "From the standpoint of the gospel [the Jews] are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's election they are loved [by Him] for the sake of the [ancient] fathers" (Rom. 11:28). This is motivation enough for us to also care for the Jews, but there is more.

God uses means in order to reach His ends. He places things and people before us for His purposes. Having gone to Israel twenty-three times, and having made about ten documentary films on prophecy and the Holy Land, I have a great concern for Israel and what the Lord is doing with His folks.

Now to my point.

When I was in Junior High School, and High School, my best Pal was Jerry Cohn, a Jew. We did everything together. He and my other close buddy, Jerry Wisely, did things together. I just recently ran into Wisely again, and it is great to go back to the good old days and have good memories. I've tried to find Jerry Cohn, but just can't seem to.

I did not fully realize his role in my life, nor did I completely grasp his Jewishness, and the fact that he was part of the chosen people! But I have a feeling that God used our friendship to draw me closer to the people of God. No, I failed to witness to him as I should have, but I would love to start over again and do just that!

Anyway, my point: God plants stepping stones in our lives along the way. He knows what He is doing, and He does all things for a purpose. I am sure our friendship plays a role in my teaching about the Jewish people, and, my love of biblical prophecy. —Dr. Mal Couch

DOCTRINAL CHURCHES

I just read an article that said "doctrinal churches," those that teach doctrine, are not very popular. People want feel-good churches and "active" churches that feed the younger crowd with entertainment, etc. But of course this does not make them right. The truth of the Word of God will never be popular. People want their ears tickled, and, they want light stuff, they don't want to think.

The leaders of a church have a choice. They can cave in to the things the people want or they can be spiritual physicians. Give them what may sting a bit but what is needed. Pastors are not to be popular, they are to be faithful to do what Paul did — teach the full council of God! Or, the complete will of God! God never measures by numbers. Note the case of Gideon's three-hundred. —Dr. Mal Couch (5/11)