2016 a year of decision that will shape our future

 
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2016

a year of decision that will shape our future

 

 

a breakfast talk and meditations in preparation

for Federal election


 

What is at stake?

Our liberty to believe,

to speak what we believe,

and to teach it to our children.

We are facing in the coming election the most critical choices

between good and evil that we have faced

since Federation.

 

 

Lachlan Dunjey, May 2016

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2016 a year of decision that will shape our future [1]

An abbreviated version of Men’s breakfast talk Sat 7 May 2016 

(2016 Choices that will shape Australia for generations to come.)

 

How do I summarise in 25’ everything I have specifically worked towards for the last 14 years – indeed 27 years since I was President of Baptist Churches in WA? I believe 2016 is the most critical year that we have faced in this period of time and indeed the West has faced since Nazi Germany and will shape our future for generations to come.

So what are these issues of great concern?

For medicine it is to lose our soul, to lose the battle for the intrinsic value of all human life in all states of dependency and disability from fertilisation to life’s natural end, to have conscience in medicine taken from us, and become mere providers of medical services at behest of government or consumer groups with no choice as to whether we have to perform abortions or euthanasia. We have already lost this in Victoria where the S8 part of the Abortion Act 2008 compels referral for abortions when requested. We will also have lost the ability to tell truth in matters of informed consent. You can read more about these things on the three medical websites – Medicine with Morality, Conscience in Medicine.

For the family it is to lose our identity as husbands and wives, as mothers and fathers, and far more significantly to lose our right to bring up our own children with values we respect and honour, particularly God-given values – with the risk that if we try we will have our children taken away from us and we will be subject to re-education classes before we can have our children back. Children in schools will be asked what they believe.

For our children it is to be subject to premature sexualisation through our schools and kindergartens, to be encouraged in alternative sexual practices and change of gender as you feel like it, to in fact be groomed for early sex and that there are at least two virginities. How do you find out? You experiment.

For the Church it is to lose our voice to preach God’s word, to uphold the Judeo-Christian values on which our nation – and indeed the West – is based; to lose our right to teach Christian values in our Church schools and if our pastors are to maintain their marriage licences then they will have to conform to state obligations to marry – we too will have lost liberty of conscience and belief.

For the Nation we will have lost our voice to declare anything that might go against – or particularly to cause hurt – the current minority beef on “unfairness”. To declare what we believe will be to discriminate against somebody or something as judged by the “thought police” of the “nanny state”. Ultimately – as with the court hearings* against the Catholic Church at the present time for including in the schools pamphlet that marriage is between male and female – we will have lost a voice in elections and therefore democratic rule. Re-education classes (“diversity training”) will be commonplace. Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act ensures these possibilities.

*Stop-Press: as of May 5 Martine Delaney has withdrawn her complaint against Julian Porteous and the Catholic Church. What could have become a precedent-setting test case is no longer.

On what do we base our belief? Of course it is the Bible and primarily enshrined in Creation.

Man created in the Image of God “let us make man in our image”

The creation of Masculinity and Femininity (“bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh”)

Marriage as a specific subset of sexuality and a Creation Mandate; “one flesh”; “for this reason shall a man cleave to his wife”

Stewards of Creation

Truth – at root is Satan’s attack on God’s Truth – did God really say?

I have spelt this out in more detail at http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/gods-creation-order-what-is-our-basis-for-this-battle-we-are-waging/

So where does the attack come from?

Primarily from the extreme homosexual lobby and the Leftists and social engineers in our society have gone along with the agenda they have promoted. Militant atheists have joined in with the destruction of anything that might honour God – even something as logical as Intelligent Design.

Were we warned? Yes, as far back as 1984 in Blatant and Proud by our own Andrew Lansdown, and more recently but very clearly by Redeeming the Rainbow by Dr Scott Lively in 2009 released on internet at no cost so that it would be widely available and read.

Seven years ago, Dr Lively warned:

Indeed, few Christians are even aware that the implicit goal of the “gay” movement is the replacement of our society’s Judeo-Christian sexual ethic (i.e. marriage and the natural family) with an anything-goes sexual morality.

As simplistic as it may sound, the culture war in America is, at its core, a battle between Christians and homosexuals.

The specific battle grounds here now are the push for homosexual marriage – so called Marriage Equality or same-sex marriage (SSM) – and the Safe Schools Coalition Australia (SSCA).

So what is so bad about something that sounds as innocuous as a Safe Schools Program?

Firstly, there are existing school programs that deal with bullying without selecting one particular area of concern and we are informed that these programs are effective if followed through.

Secondly, the program encourages premature sexualisation of children. We can be thankful that it will now only be implemented in high schools and no longer in primary schools but already such “education” is to be introduced to pre-schoolers. The Start Early Initiative for kindergartens introducing gender, sexuality, cross-dressing and tours of the opposite sex toilets promoted by Early Childhood Australia was introduced last month and is set to be rolled out across the country. It is said that it is to prevent domestic violence by countering “rigid views on gender”.

Thirdly, the program introduces – and encourages experimentation in – matters of sexuality and sexual experience that would horrify most people: two virginities; breast binding; penis tucking; and links to sites that promote group sex, sex toys and sadomasochism. At a time when we are looking at ways of combatting the scourge of pornography some of these sites are overtly pornographic.

Indeed, normally accepted sexual intercourse as between a male and a female is derided as “heteronormativity” and is not to be tolerated.

Lesson two of the program involves sex role playing: students imagine they are 16 and going out with somebody, one half of the class with someone of the same sex and the other half with the opposite sex. Class discussions are recommended to combat “the malaise of heteronormativity”. Students are urged to avoid reinforcing this mindset with questions such as whether a new baby is a boy or a girl. Did you get that? The ideology is that “reducing heteronormativity in schools can have good outcomes for everyone”

This sexualisation and overt “grooming” for early sex has been considered by some as child abuse.

Is the program “just”? Is it good or evil? And what does that imply for the politicians and educators that promote these things?

Is it “just” to encourage experimentation in losing virginity and that there are ways of losing it other than penis-in-vagina sexual intercourse – and to know your own sexual identity you should find out? Is it “just” to even imply by linking to the site that sadomasochistic sexual expression is OK and that it is OK to hurt or be hurt?

And so, in the face of all the evidence, and even when it has been signalled by government that the program will be modified and links to some websites taken off, how do the Labor Party Leaders of Australia react? They have reacted with hostility – “you’re homophobic” – and determination to go ahead with the program as it is. In the face of a rational and righteous voice, Labor has hardened its stand – the polarisation worsens. This is so much more than social engineering – it is evil.

We must be so clear on these matters and in this we need to heed the warning of that great moral teacher, the greatest of them all, Jesus Christ himself, no less than the Son of God, when He issued the strongest condemnation of all His condemnations, that anyone who leads children into sin would be better off to be cast into the sea with a millstone around the neck.

Could it be worse? Fortunately the real intent the program is being exposed.

A prominent homosexual columnist has blown away the smokescreen obscuring the real intent behind anti-bullying and “anti-homophobic” programs in schools. Daniel Villarreal in Queerty writes: “Let’s face it, we want to indoctrinate children.”  https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/gay-journalist-lets-face-it-we-want-to-indoctrinate-children

And, the SSCA founder, Roz Ward, has bluntly admitted that the Safe Schools Coalition program is “not about stopping bullying” but is “about sexual diversity and gender diversity”. http://www.crossmap.com/news/watch-aussie-safe-schools-leader-admits-program-is-about-gay-activism-not-bullying-26252

So, back to our Scriptures – what is our rationale for any action we might take, our faith in action?

Love your neighbour.

Loving our neighbour, among many other duties, also means crossing the road to help our neighbour in trouble as did the good Samaritan and warning and protecting our neighbour and our neighbour’s children in danger if there is a flood coming – and if we can see ahead to protect the next generation as well.

Loving our neighbour means we fight for their protection. If we can see the danger and fail to warn – and fail to act if there is the remotest possibility of averting that danger with action then we are guilty – the blood is upon our own head.

Thomas Aquinas:

To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin.

Dr Robert McDonald, a retired psychotherapist and medical doctor:

Any action which sexualises a child before he or she is ready is sexual abuse.

A columnist by the name of Matt Walsh:

…when dealing with the mind-numbing lunacies of “transgender” propaganda, I think every opponent should be adopting a hard-line stance. This is wrong. It’s demented. It’s evil. It’s dangerous. It’s abusive.

Martin Luther:

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.

These matters transcend government “failure” in our responsibilities to the poor and hungry and the third world. To deliberately legislate to permit evil and then compel citizens – including doctors and nurses to facilitate that evil and teachers to teach it – is at another level.

What can we do?

We fight. We educate re the plebiscite re SSM.  Get a parent group to go see your school principal; write your local MP state and federal; login to Family Voice and Australian Christian Lobby and sign the petition at http://kidsrights.org.au/ launched by Australian Family Association

You might say that prayer is the most important thing – yes and we must make sure we and all our people do it. Yes, but you and I still have a decision to make on election day – and to influence others. Whatever else we are involved in we still must make a choice between good and evil when we cast that vote – our decision – into the ballot box.

And when it comes to voting remember there is a third choice – a Christian party that can be salt and light in the upper house and influence policy decisions in the lower house simply by preferencing.

And remember, by putting your Christian party as [1] and your major party of choice as [2] the vote goes on at full value unless, of course, we win J.

We are at war. We have been in Pearl Harbour and we have been asleep, Darwin has been bombed, and now we are in the Battle of the Coral Sea. This battle will shape – as it did – the future of Australia. Australia is at risk in a way it has never been before. These issues we have talked about transcend all other issues. Today we have choices – choices at the ballot box and a choice with the marriage plebiscite – and they are choices that each of us must make before God. I trust and pray that as we inevitably face increasing persecution for our children and their children that you will not look back with regret on 2016 with a sense of failure that you were not awake, that you did not do enough and that you made wrong choices.

Lachlan Dunjey. 13 May 2016

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2016 a year of decision that will shape our future [2] and Psalm 75.

For Christian eyes.

What is at stake? Our liberty to believe, to speak what we believe, and to teach it to our children.

We are facing in the coming election the most critical choices between good and evil that we have faced since Federation.

The consequence of failure? State sanctioned indoctrination, punishment for our believing the truth, and “diversity re-education” to correct what we believe to be moral absolutes – the truth.

Will we, as Christians, put our faith in false gods or will we get on our knees and above all else make informed choices this year that honour the Most High God – to love Him with all our hearts and souls and minds and strength, and our neighbour – and his children and his children’s children.

You don’t know what I’m talking about? Please, take just 5 minutes of your time to read 2016 a year of decision that will shape our future [1] – attached and at http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/2016-a-year-of-decision-that-will-shape-our-future-1/  (paste in your browser if link doesn’t work).

Psalm 75 speaks for itself. A warning, a promise of (eventual) justice, but as for me I will honour God.

Choose ye this day. As with the Israelites the choices we make today – this election year – may shape our future for decades to come. Apart from a decision to surrender to God for salvation, the choices we – as the body of Christ, as the Bride of Christ – make now are the most serious we have ever faced. I trust and pray that we will Choose Life Australia.

The separation of church and state should not, must not, mean we leave our faith at home when we make the journey to the polling booth.

For decades to come, even a new dark age? For Christians, years of exile? Let us anticipate and pray for the return of Jesus as conqueror.

Psalm 75 For the choir director: A psalm of Asaph. A song to be sung to the tune “Do Not Destroy!”

We thank you, O God!
We give thanks because you are near.
People everywhere tell of your wonderful deeds.

God says, “At the time I have planned,
I will bring justice against the wicked.
When the earth quakes and its people live in turmoil,
I am the one who keeps its foundations firm. Interlude

“I warned the proud, ‘Stop your boasting!’
I told the wicked, ‘Don’t raise your fists!
Don’t raise your fists in defiance at the heavens
or speak with such arrogance.’”
For no one on earth—from east or west,
or even from the wilderness—
should raise a defiant fist.[a]
It is God alone who judges;
he decides who will rise and who will fall.
For the Lord holds a cup in his hand
that is full of foaming wine mixed with spices.
He pours out the wine in judgment,
and all the wicked must drink it,
draining it to the dregs.

But as for me, I will always proclaim what God has done;
I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
10 For God says, “I will break the strength of the wicked,
but I will increase the power of the godly.” NLT

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2016 a year of decision that will shape our future [3] so let us pray as never before

For Christian eyes.

What is at stake? Our liberty to believe, to speak what we believe, and to teach it to our children.

We are facing in the coming election the most critical choices between good and evil that we have faced since Federation.

So your response to this challenge is that the most important thing to do against countering the enemy is to pray – far more important than how we fight at this level?

Amen! Absolutely, Amen.

Read Ephesians 6 again re the necessity to stand. And put on the Armour of God.

And so let us do exactly that – as never before. With great humility and an attitude of repentance (whether or not we think we have need of which to repent) let us pray individually, as families, in the groups with which we connect, in our Sunday services and in special times of corporate prayer and even fasting.

Yes, let’s come together for worship and prayer as never before.

Jesus + nothing? Yes, I agree that salvation is through Jesus alone – no good works or self-righteousness.  But, Jesus upheld the second commandment and the responsibility for us to rescue and warn.

And He condemned the hypocrisy of the religious rulers

And He condemned those who would lead little ones into sin – and by extension – for supporting those leading little ones into sin.

James: faith without works is dead.

One of the key messages given to the Angels of the churches at Pergamum and Thyatira was the failure to condemn tolerance of evil. By contrast, the Church at Ephesus – even though it had lost its first love – was commended for not tolerating evil. Will we support and tolerate evil by being silent in such a time as this, and by our support of evil in the way we vote this election?

And let’s not lose our first love either. So must we pray.

Lachlan Dunjey. 16 May 2016.

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2016 a year of decision that will shape our future [4] “but I didn’t know”

For Christian eyes.

What is at stake? Our liberty to believe, to speak what we believe, and to teach it to our children.

We are facing in the coming election the most critical choices between good and evil that we have faced since Federation.

But I didn’t know…

But I didn’t know how bad it was. I didn’t know that there was such differences in good and evil in our political parties.

I had no idea that legalising homosexual marriage could have such a dramatic effect on personal liberties and freedom of speech.

And liberty to teach our children what we believe.

And result in compulsory diversity re-education or large fines.

And I didn’t know really understand how bad the Safe Schools Coalition is and that it will impact my neighbour and his children and grandchildren as well as my own.

And I now realise I have wasted my vote in the last 4 or 5 elections by not fully understanding the privilege we have in Australia with our democratic preferential voting system.

But we had no teaching in our churches on Christian responsibility in action regarding how we vote.

Yes! Can we put this right in this most critical year?

This really is a most critical factor. Many Christian votes are wasted because they do not realise the extent of the evil proposed, and fear drives them to put their major party ahead of the Christian party.

I believe the church leader has a God-given responsibility to ensure that people are informed and given clear instruction for Christian behaviour honouring to God.

We know the average Christian does not understand that if they put their Christian party as [1] and their major party as [2] their vote goes on at full value if the Christian vote is not sufficient. After 14 years of educating on this people are still too fearful to change.

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/the-chronicle-of-shame-understanding-the-times-and-knowing-what-to-do/

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/a-new-dark-age/

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/will-you-vote-for-good-or-evil/

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/a-compelling-evil-part-two/

Lachlan Dunjey 17 May 2016.

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2016 a year of decision that will shape our future [5] Telling the Story.

For Christian eyes.

What is at stake? Our liberty to believe, to speak what we believe, and to teach it to our children.

We are facing in the coming election the most critical choices between good and evil that we have faced since Federation.

The freedom to tell the story – the Greatest Story Ever Told – is what is at risk. We must tell it now while we can.

Teaching our children God-honouring values is a wonderful responsibility and privilege and in this to praise God for all He has done through history.

This is magnificently illustrated in Psalm78 and The Shema in Deuteronomy.

Psalm 78 A psalm of Asaph. V1-6

O my people, listen to my instructions.
Open your ears to what I am saying,
    for I will speak to you in a parable.
I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—
    stories we have heard and known,
stories our ancestors handed down to us.
We will not hide these truths from our children;
we will tell the next generation
about the glorious deeds of the Lord,
about his power and his mighty wonders.
For he issued his laws to Jacob;
he gave his instructions to Israel.
He commanded our ancestors
to teach them to their children,
so the next generation might know them—
even the children not yet born—
and they in turn will teach their own children. NLT.

The passage of scripture in Deuteronomy 6 known as The Shema, is often the first passage that a Jewish child learns v4-9, 20-21 (NIV):

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

In the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the Lord our God has commanded you?” tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt..

Each time The Story is told the recurring truths become more real, both to young and old: the essential and eternal reality of God – ‘there is a God; He loves me; He wants me to come to Him.’  And we only have to accept the fact that the Son of God died for our sin for us to be restored to God and know Him as Father.

And it is in the telling of all the little stories that make up the big story, that the Word of God becomes real and is a light to our path.

Don’t stop. Learn and recite scripture. Let us teach our children as we walk along the road, as they go to bed and as they get up; teach our grandchildren. What they learn now will stand them in good stead as they face these battles in the times to come.

This freedom to tell the story – the Greatest Story Ever Told – is what is at risk.

We must tell it now while we can.

And if we lose this battle against a temporary triumph of evil at this small moment of eternity, we must continue to tell The Story into the future whatever comes our way.

The Story – know it, learn it, recite it, teach it – today.

Proverbs 14v26

The Fear-of-God builds up confidence, and makes a world safe for your children. MSG

Whoever fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge. NIV

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2016 a year of decision that will shape our future [6]. Why didn’t you vote for me?

(Not me specifically but for any Christian candidate in a Christian party.)

  1. I did. I put you as [2]
  2. You don’t have a strong economic policy
  3. The bad things you talk about won’t ever happen
  4. This election is critical between the two major parties – I’m not going to risk my vote
  5. You Christian parties should unite together
  6. When you do get elected sometimes you support Labor in their policies
  7. You gave your number two preference for this lower house seat to a Labor candidate
  8. You supported Liberal in turning back the boats
  9. You criticised Family First
  10. I believe in separation of church and state
  11. The Church should not get into politics
  12. I don’t believe in a Theocracy
  13. You should join the Liberal party and be a candidate for them
  14. When I finally got you to answer the question I realised you have reservations about Islamic immigration and prefer “Christian” refugees over Muslim

Finally, when I find someone who is happy with answers to 2-14 above (for such answers see below) they still won’t vote for me

  1. I was scared the “other” major party would get in so I put you as [2].

Oh dear, we do face an uphill battle. Is it worth it? Yes we can continue to support Liberal and get candidates in there as well and thereby influence their policies directly instead of indirectly but we will automatically lose some voters if we do because they are long-time Labor supporters (e.g. Catholics) who vote that way because their fathers did and because of the Christian origins of the Labor and Union movements for oppressed workers.

We need to be here for the long term.  For when the choice is so obviously between good and evil that Christians and others (Muslims too) will want to have Christian party candidates in to influence the major parties and hold the balance of power. We must not grow weary.

We can change the direction of our country in just one election if Christians would vote for us – particularly instead of Greens.

Now, an attempt to answer these objections.

  1. I did. I put you as [2]. A wasted vote for us. Let me remind you – and you MUST get your head around this – that if you put us as [1] then your vote transfers to the next party of your choice in FULL value. The only way you “lose” your vote is if we win. When will you understand this and also teach other people? You are wasting a fundamental opportunity that we may not always have to get Christians into parliament.
  1. You don’t have a strong economic policy. You’re right. We are not economists (or war strategisers) and whatever policies we may adopt in this area except from “motherhood” statements are going to further fragment our vote. We must stay strong on the issues that differentiate us from other parties.
  1. The bad things you talk about won’t ever happen. But they are and they have. Take the 2008 abortion law in Victoria. 24 amendments were rejected (e.g. banning partial-birth abortion) and doctors are compelled to participate in the referral process and this was also in defiance of their own rights charter.
  1. This election is critical between the two major parties – I’m not going to risk my vote. See 1 above.
  1. You Christian parties should unite together. I agree. But AC policy is firmly grounded in Biblical principles and the lack of this kind of policy has resulted in some bad choices by other parties just to get votes. We cannot compromise in such. But we are learning to cooperate better. Also see 9 answer.
  1. When you do get elected sometimes you support Labor. There are certain matters that come up in parliament where the choice is so clearly between right and wrong – more than just the “mechanism” of “how can we best implement this” that we may have to side against the government of the day to ensure that which is honouring to God and in line with Christian belief.
  1. You gave your number two preference for this lower house seat to a Labor candidate. I lost a lot of votes when I ran for Moore and we recommended preferencing a Catholic Labor lady who was very strong on all the life issues that I am so passionate about whereas the Liberal candidate was in favour of destructive embryo research and cloning.. I received so much criticism from Christians at the polling booth and they refused to vote for me.
  1. You supported Liberal in turning back the boats. Because of the divisive opinions about the best way of solving the boat refugee problem we did not have specific policies over and above that we absolutely genuinely want to help genuine refugees – but not to sabotage our specific voluntary intake of refugees (we want to increase that) and not to have more fatalities at sea and to stop the moneymaking racket by those facilitating this traffic. I’m sure we are united to “love our neighbour” but we may vary in the best way of doing this. This also applies to helping the poor in other places e.g. equip him to fish.
  1. You criticised Family First. For one of their candidates in WA supporting abortion and a few other matters that are best left behind us. We are united in the God issues.
  1. I believe in separation of church and state. Really? That the church must have no voice when the nation is heading down the path of not only permitting evil but making it compulsory?  What an abrogation of responsibility! Wilberforce, Bonhoeffer and MLK Jr would be horrified. And to vote for candidates – and thereby support them and their actions – who legislate for evil against our children? Concerning whom Jesus said it would be better for them to be cast into the sea with a millstone around the neck? The original intention of the church and state issue was that the state must not interfere with individual freedom of religion.
  1. The Church should not get into politics. But every Christian of voting age has to make a decision every election. Just as should exercise Christian responsibility in our behaviour, where we go, who we partner with etc so we face choices – sometimes between florid evil and good and we must make a choice.
  1. I don’t believe in a Theocracy. If you mean when Christians are the major ruling party the neither do I – except under Jesus as ruler. But there is no risk of a Christian party being the governing party. That is a pretty poor excuse for not voting for me to be a voice for righteousness.
  1. You should join the Liberal party and be a candidate for them. It’s not so easy to get preselected over a long-serving Liberal supporter and you usually have to be a person of prominence to attract a vote and it requires absolute dedication to the task to the exclusion of other Christian tasks. It needs to be a “call”.
  1. When I finally got you to answer the question I realised you have reservations about Islamic immigration and prefer “Christian” refugees over Muslim. Yes, our primary focus must be to bring them to Jesus but I do have reservations about bringing in those are fundamentally opposed to democratic rule and thus destroy our foundational freedom by introduction of Sharia Law and destroy our country. People who want to come here should be prepared to support freedom and democracy and say so.

Another area where the Christian vote will split and people will not support us relates to the conflicting priorities of free trade, tariffs to preserve our primary industries, and all who work therein and the Micah Challenge. It was at a meeting that I realised this was another area of potential fragmentation of support and wrote the below.

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ULTIMATE CRISIS

A Meditation in the Gum Leaf Chapel, Vision Valley NSW, CDP Convention August 2005.

What is the greatest crisis that humanity has ever faced?

No, it’s not free trade – or other important issue for which there is no really satisfactory answer and on which we cannot always agree.

No, it’s not the homosexual agenda or the erosion of family and marriage for which there are answers and on which we can agree and which are vitally important.

It’s not multiculturalism or terrorism or nuclear war.

It’s not even embryo destruction or abortion or euthanasia although these come close.

It is our rebellion against God, including our rebellion against the pinnacle of His Creation and that is who He created us to be – our selves – in whom He planted His Image.

It is ourselves trying to tear out His Image and to deny it was ever there.

It is to credit ourselves as the great designers, as the great controllers, to separate spirit from body, to tear out our chests as CSLewis wrote in his epic lectures on The Abolition of Man where he talks about men without chests.

It is mankind’s rejection of what it means to be human and to be created in The Image of God.  It is to reject the intrinsic value and dignity of every human being at every stage of life and in every state of disability and dependency.

It is what we do with our God that really matters.  The descent into anarchy to be destroyed by the barbarians or disease or nuclear war may be what God does to us as a result of our rebellion.

What then is our task?  It is to proclaim and uphold the intrinsic value and dignity of every human being at every stage of life and in every state of disability and dependency, from fertilisation to life’s natural end.  This is more fundamental than the introductory articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:  All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights…

We have a choice – to choose life or to choose death.

Now as it happens this gives authority for everything else we believe in fighting for – from life issues to countering the radical agendas to looking after the poor and people in distress – as per this excerpt from a previous paper:

So much flows from the position that all human life is of value once we establish it.  To value people is to respect them, to aid their freedom, to deliver them from bondage and to care for them at times of vulnerability.  So we include not just embryo destruction, abortion, cloning and euthanasia, but also how we look after the less privileged in our world.  We include people caught in compulsive gambling, heroin addiction, and prostitution.  We include pregnancy and motherhood, the ideal basis for which is the security of stable and nurturing marriage.  Likewise we affirm that children are best protected and nurtured in a stable family.  We value personal freedom, but not at the expense of others.  We hold that to love our neighbour as our self is the basis for a cooperative and just society.

It encompasses all.  In our relationship with the non-Christian public we need to promote the practical outworking of this underlying foundation but in our working with each other and with the Christian community we need to highlight this fundamental truth and the terrifying consequences of failure to defend it.

Lachlan Dunjey 21 August 2005.

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2016 a year of decision that will shape our future [7]. Dear Pastor/Leader

For Christian eyes. For pastors and leaders especially.

What is at stake? Our liberty to believe, to speak what we believe, and to teach it to our children.

We are facing in the coming election the most critical choices between good and evil that we have faced since Federation.

I have a vision – and have had for more than a decade – that Australia might be a beacon of righteousness for the Western world. We have, I think, lost the battle in other parts of the West so much that it is no longer recoverable, but it still is in this country – this year – and it hinges on the coming election.

In short, if Labor wins this election there is no turning things around. We will enter a time of persecution against the Bride of Christ that, just a year ago, we would have thought not possible.

And maybe that’s how it’s going to be before Jesus returns as Conqueror. And maybe that is what is needed. The consequences we will face are listed in paper [1] of this series of small papers.

But with a double dissolution it is also a year of unparalleled opportunity for Christians to be elected to parliament and be salt and light in that arena, possibly even to have the balance of power – not that such power should be wielded except in extreme circumstances but to hold God’s law high in our land and be a constant beacon for righteousness in government.

Even if you only partly agree with me (and the many much more fluent voices across our world) what needs to be done?

  • We need to share this burden – personally and for the body of Christ to share it with us. We need to weep (Ezekiel 9:4).
  • To do that we need to be informed. How? Through you as leaders. Through this series of papers.
  • We need to pray. As never before. Together, in special gatherings, for this purpose, for our nation. For God to be honoured in this nation.
  • We need to discern what is truly evil and what is a deliberate shaking of our fist against God. And this needs to be taught – by you as leaders.
  • We need to be taught that voting in an election – when there is the opportunity of making a difference – is a matter of Christian responsibility and not to be done in ignorance.
  • And, I’m sorry, back on my hobby-horse of 14 years, we need to be taught how to not waste our vote and to put the Christian party as [1], not [2]. Who is going to teach the people of God? You, as leader. Even Christians who understand the issues fail on this latter point. (And as you probably know I would have been in upper house of WA parliament in 2005 if just 91 Liberal voting Christians in an electorate of 90,000 had put me [1] instead of [2].)
  • And we need to pray. As never before.

May God bless and lead you as you consider these things.

“…taking on not just our own sufferings but those of God in the world, watching with Christ in Gethsemane.” Bonhoeffer

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/reflections-and-a-call-to-shepherds/

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/where-was-the-christian-vote-in-the-federal-election/

 

Lachlan Dunjey 21 May 2016

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2016 a year of decision that will shape our future [8] finally, just vote as below!

For Christian eyes.

What is at stake? Our liberty to believe, to speak what we believe, and to teach it to our children.

We are facing in the coming election the most critical choices between good and evil that we have faced since Federation.

If you have found all this to be too much to take in then I plead with you, please just trust me (!) and other Christian leaders and vote as below

Put your Christian parties or independent Christian candidates first

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

Liberal/National next e.g.             [5]

Labor next e.g.                                [6]

Greens last                                       [7]

Please do not waste your vote by putting your major party first.

Watch for the Christian Values Check List coming out soon http://www.christianvalues.org.au/index.php/checklists

Lachlan Dunjey 22 May 2016

PS why would you trust me? 25+ years a leader of sorts; founder of 3 medical groups defending values in medicine and liberty of conscience; a watchman; by the grace of God a community voice and most importantly a sinner saved by grace.

http://medicinewithmorality.org.au/

http://conscienceinmedicine.net.au/

http://www.doctors4family.com.au/

http://chooselifeaustralia.org.au/

http://thebeltoftruth.org.au/

http://thepeoplescharter.com/

Sometimes you just gently teach

Sometimes you preach with invitation

Sometimes you confront and challenge

Sometimes you have to condemn

Sometimes you have to drive the money-changers out of the temple

Sometimes you have to walk with Christ to Calvary.

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2016 a year of decision – dear Pastor/Leader POSTSCRIPT [9].

And it may be that, in the spirit of the charges to the seven churches in Asia, this voice is heard:

“I have this against you, that you should have recognised this evil for what it is, that you have supported by your absence in the conversation those determined to deceive and lead astray, and that this neglect has led to generations of evil upon your children and grandchildren.”

What needs to be done? See http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/2016-a-year-of-decision-that-will-shape-our-future-7-dear-pastorleader/

  • We need to share this burden – personally and for the body of Christ to share it with us. We need to weep (Ezekiel 9:4).
  • To do that we need to be informed. How? Through you as leaders. Through this series of papers.
  • We need to pray. As never before. Together, in special gatherings, for this purpose, for our nation. For God to be honoured in this nation.
  • We need to discern what is truly evil and what is a deliberate shaking of our fist against God. And this needs to be taught – by you as leaders.
  • We need to be taught that voting in an election – when there is the opportunity of making a difference – is a matter of Christian responsibility and not to be done in ignorance.
  • And, I’m sorry, back on my hobby-horse of 14 years, we need to be taught how to not waste our vote and to put the Christian party as [1], not [2]. Who is going to teach the people of God? You, as leader. Even Christians who understand the issues fail on this latter point. (And as you probably know I would have been in upper house of WA parliament in 2005 if just 91 Liberal voting Christians in an electorate of 90,000 had put me [1] instead of [2].)
  • And we need to pray. As never before.

And if you choose not to be informed, and choose not to inform, and you did not call special times of prayer against this great evil, and our children are led into sin, then you have failed as a leader and a watchman. You have failed not only your own generation but also generations to come.

AWTozer The Price of Neglect:

Plato has somewhere said that in a democratic society the price wise men pay for neglecting politics is to be ruled by unwise men… The price good and sober Christians pay for doing nothing is to be led by those highly vocal minorities whose only qualification for leadership are an overweening ambition and a loud voice. And there have been and always will be such persons in the congregation of the saints…

Abraham Kuyper

When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day,

then battle is your calling, and peace has become sin.

You must, at the price of dearest peace,

lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy

with all the fire of your faith. 

Martin Luther

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God

except precisely that little point which the world

and the devil are at that moment attacking,

I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.

We have a prime example unfortunately in Nigeria at this time of the fruit of neglect.

Excerpt from RLPB 361. Nigeria: Legislation will further Islamise Nigeria

“Most shocking of all is how this bill, which has been shrouded in secrecy, has been quietly and willingly waved through by weak-willed, apathetic and corrupted Christian lawmakers. The job of protesting has been left to students., Nigerian journalist and commentator Nnamdi Okosieme warns, ‘Woe to those who are at ease in Zion …’ (Amos 6:1 ESV). ‘Christians,’ he said, ‘must speak up, they must shout and they must go down on their knees and pray away the looming danger.’

Remember, Jesus said (Luke 17:2): It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin.

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/reflections-and-a-call-to-shepherds/

http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/where-was-the-christian-vote-in-the-federal-election/

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Good news, bad news, sinister news… [10]

Quote of the week (maybe the decade?)

“Now we just need to get rid of the racist Australian flag on top of state parliament and get a red one up there and my work is done.”

I suppose the good news is that the Marxist state indoctrination of our children philosophy that is behind the Safe Schools Coalition “anti-bullying” campaign is now more transparent. And yes, its creator has resigned from a new appointment to the Victorian government and has also been suspended from her position at La Trobe University.

The position of the Premier of Victoria is also more transparent with the “rainbow flag” hoisted over Parliament House.

And when the homosexual community put pressure on the Occidental Hotel not to host a meeting at which Cory Bernardi was to be the speaker, the hotel caved in to the demands. But there was still a rowdy demonstration to drive the point home to the hotel and any others that might dare to host any meetings promoting freedom of belief and speech http://www.corybernardi.com/a_new_age_of_intolerance

Intimidation on the one hand and Marxism on the other.

What is at stake? Our liberty to believe, to speak what we believe, and to teach it to our children. Ultimately it is democracy that is at risk. Re-education for our kids and compulsory re-education (diversity training) for dissenting adults.

So, as before, in this coming election we are facing the most critical choices between good and evil that we have faced since Federation. It is 2016 that will shape our future. If we get it wrong it will be for decades. Yes, policies relating to the poor, the homeless, refugees, overseas aid, health, superannuation etc are all important, but policies that explicitly result in internal destruction of our own society are transcendent this year more than ever before – and it is a double dissolution year.

Most importantly, we need to pray.

IMPORTANT NOTICE RE MEETING SUNDAY 5 JUNE.

The visual presentation I am (still) using and speaking to is now on the net. I’m pleased. http://churchinperth.com/soundingboard/?p=4400

Yes, there will be more – short presentations from David Shearer and David Lowe plus discussion time and prayer time. (Should we just abandon the presentations and pray instead??) I will share with you a dream I had on 23 February this year about a self-destructing juggernaut.

Anyway, the point is that now you know what it is I will be using you may decide you have even more critical related issues that you have to deal with and therefore not come – and that is OK. Maybe you’ll just pray instead for 2 hours – and I for one would be very grateful for your intercession.

If you missed the detail:

http://billmuehlenberg.com/2016/05/28/yes-war-yes-can-win-battles/

https://billmuehlenberg.com/2016/06/02/good-news-safe-schools/

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2016 a year of decision that will shape our future [?11]. Once in a Lifetime

Maybe twice…

There comes an opportunity – and a responsibility – of awesome proportions to change the direction of our country to uphold righteousness for generations to come…  (unfinished)

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