Dr. Robert Sumner passed away in December 2016. The Biblical Evangelist newspaper is no longer being published and the ministry of Biblical Evangelism has ceased operation.

The remaining inventory of his books and gospel tracts was transferred to The Baptist Tabernacle of Los Angeles and may be ordered here.

Off the Cuff (Part 4 of 4)
Dr. Robert L. Sumner, Editor

BORN IN SIN!

While I might be wrong, I think it was Vance Havner who referred to the man who said, “I can’t swallow all that depravity stuff,” with his friend replying, “You don’t have to swallow it; it is already in you!”

At any rate, the Word of God clearly states, “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies” (Psalm 58:3). Born in sin – depravity cannot go back any earlier than that, can it?

Some time back an email was floating around with the title, “Toddler’s 10 Rules of Sharing.” It was not only hilarious, but sadly true and it illustrates this point completely. Here are the rules:

1. If I like it, it’s mine.

2. If it’s in my hand, it’s mine.

3. If I can take it from you, it’s mine.

4. If I had it a while ago, it’s still mine.

5. If it’s mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.

6. If I’m doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.

7. If it looks like mine, it is mine.

8. If I see it first, it’s mine.

9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.

10. If it’s broken, it’s yours!

Come to think of it, a lot of adults look at it that way, too. And to Number 8 we think you could easily add: even if you saw it first it is still mine.

Y’ALL WANNA LIVE HERE?

Of all the screwball, socialistic, share-the-wealth ideas Barack Obama has introduced during his nearly two full terms of ruining the country, this may be the most bizarre. He now has, through his Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), given orders (i.e., rules) that he says will end segregation in housing across the country.

HUD is to offer cash (in the form of “grants”) for building affordable (spell that “cheaper”) housing inside luxury neighborhoods. Calling it “equal opportunity for all” (not exactly “equal” for those owning the luxury homes, is it, watching their real estate investments plummet?), it claimed it would “break down barriers to access to opportunity” in communities supported by HUD funds. 

Debby Goldberg, vice president of National Fair Housing Alliance, enthused, "We have a history of putting affordable housing in poor communities."

Indeed!

When our headquarters was in Illinois in the ‘50s and ‘60s, on our way south or west for meetings, we recall driving past some of that affordable housing. It consisted of block after block of huge apartment complexes built at government expense for the poor. They stood empty and uninhabitable – in ruins because recipients of taxpayer generosity tore out much of the fixtures to sell at second hand stores to obtain money for booze; took out the plumbing to sell; set fire to rooms; let water overflow; and otherwise trashed the place.

Congressman Paul Gosar of Arizona, who thinks the Obama rule is for the birds (loony birds) and is working to get it overturned, charged the administration with "holding hostage grant monies aimed at community improvement based on its unrealistic utopian ideas of what every community should resemble." 

Obama does seem bound and determined to make our country more like Cuba, doesn’t he?

While there will be no shanties on the White House lawn during Obama’s occupancy (even though several would like to live there who don’t have the opportunity now), when he retires to Arizona or South Florida (he won’t retire in his hometown of Chicago, he helped ruin that neighborhood, and there is no year-round golfing), I hope someone builds a low income apartment right next door to wherever he does! You know, “whatsoever a man sows, that he also reaps!”

BOY SCOUTS AND SODOMY!

Apparently leaders of the Boy Scouts of America are slow learners. After voting a year or so ago to let boy Sodomites into the BSA but not sodomy leaders, the slow learning president, Robert Gates, recently announced his plan to open the Scouts to adult leaders who are Sodomites. The BSA lost thousands the last go-round; we wonder what the toll will be this time? One thing is for sure, it is a strange action for a group founded and operating for years on high moral principles for boys. So, BSA, welcome to the gutter! Enjoy your wallow in the muck and mire.

Perhaps Gates should check with ex-Scout Clark Frederick – who was in the news about the same time as Robert was making his inane statement about opening wide the Scout Door. Fredrick, it seems, was in a Newton, New Jersey, courtroom confessing to killing his former Boy Scout leader (who was also a Sussex Sheriff Officer), Dennis Pegg.

Why? Because from age 8 to age 12, Pegg sexually assaulted and raped him. Not only so, but he said Pegg also raped his best friend, Jeff – who committed suicide in 1983.

Embarrassed, Clark never breathed the sin to a soul, not even his parents, not even after graduating from high school. But not just because of the humiliation, but also because of fear. He told the court, “Dennis Pegg controlled me by torturing and killing animals in front of me, saying he would do the same to me if I told anyone about our secret." Oh, he was a nice fellow all right, wasn’t he? Not!

What caused him to decide to fight back? It was watching Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse trial in which the Penn State assistant football coach was found guilty. He told the court, “The next day [after Sandusky’s conviction], June 12, my shell cracked.” He said he went out and got drunk, snorted cocaine, and then with a friend went to Pegg’s home with a hunting knife his former Scout leader had given him in the scouting days, adding, "I started stabbing Dennis … I said, 'How does it feel raping little kids now. It's not so fun raping little kids now, is it?' At the end I slit his throat." 

When the court session ended and Clark started to leave, those in the room started applauding him – something prosecutor Francis Koch admitted he had never seen before. One of those cheering him was Rose Funari, who said her brother had been one of Pegg’s rape victims. She added, "If someone was to hurt my child, I'll be honest with you, there would be no judge, no jury."

Family and friends complained that other accusations against Pegg over the years were ignored. However, in spite of the horribly savage nature of Pegg’s murder, even Koch agreed to accept the claim of “passion provocation,” meaning that when he is sentenced this month the maximum sentence will be 5-to-10 years, adding, "Passion provocation could not be disapproved beyond a reasonable doubt."

Okay, Scoutmaster Robert Gates, I hope you can live with your conscience!

Afterword: British boys in scouting are considering dropping “duty to God” from their oath. For nearly a half-century they have used different versions for false religions like Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims. Now they want to ditch God completely.

THE KIDS ON CAMPUS!

Remember back in the dark ages when the rage of all the college kids was marijuana? We warned it would lead to the stronger stuff. I’m sorry, but we were right. Vanguard, the student newspaper at Portland State University, had a two-page cover article, College heroin use on the rise. The reporter, Stephanie Tshappat, started: “During the first month of spring quarter, two severe instances of heroin use by students on campus occurred in the Joseph C. Blumel residence hall and reflect what is said to be a national trend: Use of heroin is on the rise.”

She quoted the chief of the university’s campus public safety office, Phil Zerzan, “We’re experiencing here, as in other universities across the U.S., an increase in heroin use in students, and in some instances it is finding its way into the residence halls.” Written in 2014, Zerzan said their campus had five student-related heroin incidents on campus in 2012; seven in 2013; there were two just in April of 2014. Most of the rest of the article quoted authorities saying how the heroin problem was mushrooming in colleges and universities all across the country.

Maybe you need to get out the editor’s book, The Menace of Narcotics, and read it again. Or, if you’ve never seen a copy, it is available from our Raleigh office, postpaid, $5 each; 10 for $26; 100 for $195.

THE POPE SPEAKS (BADLY)

Pope Francis recently published his 184-page climate change “papal encyclical,” Laudato Si (an opinion piece, not infallible for members), strongly coming out therein against scientific facts and agreeing with the media frenzy. Since it probably couldn’t be all bad, here is what The Patriot noted was “unlikely to make the front page of the major daily newspapers”:

“A spirituality which forgets God as all-powerful and Creator is not acceptable.”

“When media and the digital world become omnipresent, their influence can stop people from learning how to live wisely, to think deeply and to love generously.”

“Concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion … It is troubling that, when some ecological movements defend the integrity of the environment, rightly demanding that certain limits be imposed on scientific research, they sometimes fail to apply those same principles to human life.”

“Helping the poor financially must always be a provisional solution in the face of pressing needs. The broader objective should always be to allow them a dignified life through work.”

We have no objection to that part. But who did he invite to speak at his conference about climate change? It was Jeffrey Sachs, a radical pro-abortionist and promoter of socialist principles. Doesn’t the pope know that when you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas?

And in all his papal encyclicals of late, he has yet to mention the horrible persecution, rapes, beheadings, burnings of Christian churches, and their personal homes – plus all the other atrocities being committed by Muslims (many against those in his own Roman Catholic brotherhood). Why not? He has mentioned some of these things happening, but he has yet to say who is doing it!

UNIONS IN TROUBLE!

We have never felt the unions were formed to help – or were even helping – the working man. In fact, over a half-century ago I lost a union leader from my church because I said so (and proved it, which is worse than saying so). Unions have a bad habit of overpaying leaders; causing the workers to go on strike for higher pay for such long periods they never break even (pay losses versus pay raises); and spending the members dues to help Democrat politicians – without the workers having anything to say about the expenditures.

Be that as it may, the Teamsters recently told its retirees and workers their pension benefits may soon be a lot less than formerly because funds are “going south,” as the expression goes. The issue can affect as many as 410,000 of today’s pension recipients, plus some 10 million current working members.

It seems the Pension Reform act (MPRA) passed by Congress (during the Lame Duck session at the close of the year when the Democrats were tossed out on their collective ears by voters for doing such a terrible job) permits any multi-employer pension fund to slash workers benefits if that plan is underfunded by at least 20%.

The Teamsters have begun informing retirees and current workers that their pension benefits may soon be cut, the final ironic twist to a lobbying campaign that saw the union spend its own members’ dollars to win the right to shrink their retirement pay.

In the case of the Teamsters, according to Jeffrey Scott Shapiro in The Washington Times, the union spent the hard-earned money of its members to help get the law passed (detrimental to workers, but highly favorable to the union). In fact, last year alone the Teamster brass spent approximately $5.9 million in lobbying and political contributions, especially the MPRA. All at the time the pension fund was fighting to stay out of bankruptcy.

The notification to union members started going out early in April – after its leaders had already “donated” over a third of a million to lobbying Washington.

And the letter blamed? Why, Congress, of course, for doing what it lobbied them to do.

LINEBERGER, A VICTIM!

Suicide is always sad. I will never forget a suicide of a young Christian mother, faithful in church attendance and seemingly loving the Lord, who committed suicide when I was new in a pastorate; it was my first time to conduct a funeral for a suicide victim. In her case I wanted to believe her death was accidental because she left no note, never spoke a word about depression or despondency. And the gun was beside her on the bed where she might have just been playing with it.

However, I have always felt one is not in control of his normal mind when an individual takes his or her own life in such action. Perhaps it happens because pain is so intense, or he/she is convinced there is no way out of a present circumstance, and sometimes it is even a side effect of medication an honest physician has prescribed.

Be that as it may, Dr. Phil Lineberger, age 69 and pastor of the Sugar Land Baptist Church in Sugar Land, Texas, took his own life at the end of May. He was on a medical leave from the pastorate of the church at the time.

I really always felt this Baptist brother was straight in his theology and loved both souls and the Lord. But during the inerrancy battle in the Southern Baptist Convention – when the good guys (inerrantists) were battling the bad guys (moderates) in the good guys’ attempt to return the SBC to its roots – Lineberger made a poor choice and joined forces with the moderates. Why? You would have had to ask him.

He was rewarded with the election to the presidency of the Texas Baptist Convention, but the resulting bed in which he found himself must have been hard on him. With “his” crowd, the one he had chosen, lining up with outright liberals, same-sex marriage advocates, and women preachers had to be difficult for a true Bible believer to swallow (as with the case of Dan Vestal’s son). I have an idea his conscience may have played a major part in his depression, but that is only an educated guess on my part. At least it seems to be the kindest conclusion one can reach reading between the lines and the admitted self-murder on his part.

Speaking of Vestal and Lineberger in the same breath, during the last days of the convention battles, in 1991, when the 133^rd annual convention was being conducted in New Orleans, Lineberger – president of the Texas Baptist Convention at the time – was first in line at the presidential nomination microphones and then he tossed the hat of Dan Vestal into the mix. Vestal had been defeated at Las Vegas the year before by Jerry Vines, but had made a respectable showing in defeat. This time Vestal did much worse and his first-time inerrantist opposing candidate, Morris Chapman, received 21,471 votes against Vestal’s 15,573.

As for the suicide, son-in-law Brian Seay described it as “losing the battle with depression.” Christians, like other people, can experience severe depression, but, thankfully, not all lose the battle.

Strangely, Lineberger had spoken at a fellow pastor’s funeral four years previously who had also committed suicide. The state paper, Baptist Press, quoted him then as saying, “Depression speaks a language of its own ... A persistent and anxious emptiness. A feeling of hopelessness and pessimism. A sense of guilt and worthlessness and helplessness."

Many pastors are absorbed with depression in our day since they seem to be on the front row as targets by unhappy church members seeking to vent frustrations. These men certainly need the intercessory prayers of the faithful.

We do not report this death with joy, but we did want to emphasize again that decisions have consequences, and bad decisions have bad consequences!

THIS & THAT . . .

A Supreme Court that could find abortion in the United States Constitution (under the guise of “privacy”) had no trouble finding “sodomy rights” in the same document…

Tom Brady has been honored with his New England Patriots Super Bowl teammates at the White House three different times: 2002, 2004 and 2005. Having won his fourth Super Bowl and being named Most Valuable Player after throwing four touchdown spirals in the 28-24 victory, he passed on the honor this trip. George Bush was president the other three times. We salute him for his discernment this time around…

Profound truth in a single sentence: “Hillary would be indicted already if the press used the same standard of circumstantial evidence against her it is using against Tom Brady”…

Guess who Obama didn't mention anywhere in his 4th of July speech: God! Nary a word, even in closing where ALL presidents have mentioned Him. Not a special surprise. The surprise is that he didn't mention Allah!...

VOICE FROM THE PAST: “It is not the ship in the water but the water in the ship that sinks it. So it is not the Christian in the world but the world in the Christian that constitutes the danger. Anything that dims my vision of Christ, or takes away my taste for Bible study, or cramps my prayer life, or makes Christian work difficult, is wrong for me, and I must, as  Christian, turn away from it.” – J. Wilbur Chapman, noted pastor/evangelist...

Good advice: “Never stumble over something behind you!”…

Did you hear about the ISIS fighter who loved and truly enjoyed killing Christians but had a dream where a man in white appeared to him, saying, “You are killing my people” (shades of Saul of Tarsus) and turned to Christ as a result? I was told this is a common occurrence among Muslims. Some Christian workers say they think these converts are sincere. I hope so, but what happens if they have another dream and Muhammad appears to tell them they were mistaken? Genuine conversions to Christ are based on the Word of God, not dreams…

Did you know that there are 25 uses of “verily, verily” in 25 verses in the Gospel of John, based on the Hebrew aman – which means “truth,” “worthy of faith”?...

Harold Pollack, in an article to the Washington Post, asked the question, “Which intoxicating substance is associated with the most lethal violence?” Good question. What was the answer? Pollack went on, “The correct answer, by far, is alcohol. It’s involved in more homicides than pretty much every other substance, combined … Surveys of people incarcerated for violent crimes indicate that about 40% had been drinking at the time they committed those offenses”…

Hillary Clinton, who wants to take over Obama’s reins and continue his policies, says we need a law automatically registering every citizen to vote (apparently non-citizens living here, too). What a huge mass of unknowledgeable voters we would have with ballots being cast for the candidate offering the most freebies. The result would be catastrophic, if not anarchy!...

By the way, Molly Ball, writing in The Atlantic, said of Hillary, “I think she is running so aggressively on policy because she can’t really run on character.” Alas…

Seasoned political observer Jonah Goldberg noted that Obama’s deceptions amount to “the biggest lies about domestic policy ever uttered by a U.S. president.” While I concur with that assessment, Obama and his Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, Hillary Clinton, are in a dead heat for “biggest lies about foreign policy.” – Mark Alexander in The Patriot…

Columnist Walter E. Williams gives this excellent word: “[L]et me offer you my definition of social justice; I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn belongs to you – and why?”…

Congresswoman Lois Capps, a Democrat representing the land of fruits and nuts, has introduced a bill to strike the words “husband” and “wife” from all federal laws. How about substituting “pervert” and “pervert,” in same-sex marriage cases?…

There are several things a 15-year-old cannot legally do in Oregon: He/she cannot drive a car; he/she cannot smoke a pipe, cigar or cigarette; he/she cannot obtain a tattoo; he/she cannot even go lie on a tanning bed without parental permission. One thing he/she can do: get a sex-change operation without his/her parents even knowing about it, say nothing of getting permission. And he/she could possibly get it absolutely free of charge if he/she qualifies under Medicaid conditions via the Oregon Health Plan.

Most states would lock people up for providing such services to 15-year-olds; Oregon residents keep reelecting them! Lori Porter of Parents’ Rights in Education called it “mind-boggling.” It is more than that; it is wicked foolishness running wild! But what would you expect from a state that has more marijuana dispensaries than McDonald’s fast-food places (for eating) or Starbucks (for drinking)?

That’s right; there are 205 Macs, 248 Bucks, and 269 marijuana joints (forgive the pun)....

 Speaking of Oregon, its Bureau of Labor and Industries demanded payment of the $135,000 fine the owners received for refusing to bake a cake for perverts by “Friday the 13^th” in July (which came on Monday that month) or lose their home from “Sweet Cakes” (owned/operated by Aaron & Melissa Klein; now forced out of business by the perverts and the bureaucrats). As Aaron noted, the bureaucrats don’t mind putting their five children out in the cold to get even with someone who has honest religious convictions…

Oh, the trials of being a bootlegger! Uttar Pradesh is in north India. Some bootlegger there made a bad batch of hooch and at least 38 drinkers met their Maker and another 160 were hospitalized. Poor people in India can’t afford buying stuff with a government stamp on it (that’s an American luxury), so they buy the illegal stuff. Hey, an alcoholic has got to have his drink even if it kills him/her. Right?...

Ah, those were the days! Do you remember when banks would pay you 7% or more if you would please deposit your dough in a CD with them? Bob Hope would have to say today, “Thanks for the memory!” All that is left of that is the memory. Starting May 1, JPMorgan Chase banks started charging depositors 1% just for the privilege of putting their cash in their banks! Apparently this penalty is not for everyone, just the larger depositors. Believe it or not, this mega merger bank wants to cut back on deposits and this seemed like a good way to do it. I guess I’ll never understand high finance, which is why I don’t mess with it…

Dr. Ivar Giaever won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1973. When Obama ran in 2009 he signed a statement with other scientists favoring him for president. He has apparently changed his mind. He declared man-made global warming fears to be a farce, calling it “a non-problem.” So said he in a July speech, “Global Warming Revisited,” at the 65th Nobel Laureate Conference in Lindau, Germany…

Michelle Obama, who has spent millions and millions and millions of taxpayer dollars over the past six or seven years for exotic vacations for herself and her daughters, giving a commencement address at Alabama’s Tuskegee University (where she would never have been invited apart from her American royalty status), complained about the “emotional toll” of being America’s first Black First Lady. Don’t you feel sorry for the poor dear?...

Senator James Inhofe, responding to Gina McCarthy’s inane claims of 69,000 premature deaths in a single year from failure to control climate change, responded, “If we want to talk about pre-mature deaths, how about the 57 million innocent unborn children whose lives have been stolen since Roe v. Wade?” Amen, senator!...

AUGUST QUOTE OF THE MONTH: “Barring a miracle, the family that has existed since antiquity will likely crumble, presaging the fall of Western civilization itself. This is a time for concerted prayer, divine wisdom, and greater courage than we have ever been called upon to exercise.”

– Dr. James Dobson

SEPTEMBER QUOTE OF THE MONTH: “A ‘liberal paradise’ would be a place where everybody has guaranteed employment, free comprehensive health care, free education, free food, free housing, free clothing, free utilities and only law enforcement personnel have guns. And, believe it or not, such a liberal utopia does indeed exist. It’s called prison!”

– Sheriff Joe Arpaio,

Maricopa County, Arizona

OCTOBER QUOTE OF THE MONTH: “The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.”

– Justice William O. Douglas

   (1898-1980)