So...What ?

 A Sunday-school teacher 40 years ago told us about the "So...what ?" principle of studying.  Read the Bible, he said, with the question "So...what ?"  Scripture's words have immediate personal applications for our lives: ask yourself what those are.

The verse of the Bible always in the forefront of my mind is John 14:6, where Jesus proclaims He IS Himself "...The Way and The Truth and The Life."  Believing He is Who He said He IS  has absolute, total, implications: that in every situation of life we must follow truth, for there is no other way of following Jesus

Truth not just propositional: Truth in its fully-"Life" context, what we'd call reality.  Or rather, since Jesus IS All of it, "Reality."  Every unreality offers us "alternative facts" (as Donald Trump's press-secretary put it) that all things in heaven and earth are other than the way God created them: and offers us, as satan offered Eve, a different way than His.

"Truth in the innermost being" (Psalms 51:6) must pour out in all our "issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23): it is the measure Jesus set for His followers.  Any who love Truth will pursue Truth, obey Truth, and live Truth in every way.

The question for the American Church today is why Truth is not every Christian's criteria in ALL things ?  How can a Christian ever follow the lies of consumerism, or the empty deceit of fame and wealth, or the propaganda of the world's myriad false ideologies and "life-styles" ?  How can any Christian ever follow politicians' lies...as so many do ?

Jesus is The Truth.  He promised the Spirit will lead us into All Truth...if we will follow Him... and The Truth will make you free indeed.

Amen.

Today's Confession

"Jesus said...“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me."

                                                                                                                            --  John 14:6

 

I believe Jesus Christ IS The Life, as He said.  So I will do no violence to others by word or deed, nor follow the ways of murderers.  Amen.

I believe Jesus Christ IS The Truth, as He said. So I will not lie, nor deceive myself, nor follow the ways of liars.  Amen.

I believe Jesus Christ IS The Way, as He said, and the only Way to the Father.  So I will follow no other way, and I renounce satan and all his ways.  Amen.

 

I believe Jesus, so I will follow Him.  What He said I will do.  This is my confession today.  Amen, and Amen.

Drawing the Line III

Thinking further on a couple 2013 posts:

Ted Williams was the last man in baseball to bat over .400 (.406 in 1941). He credited his visual acuity.  Williams claimed he could see the spin of the ball's stitches from the moment it left the pitcher's hand, letting him distinguish a fast ball from a curve, and anticipate the ball's motion and placement when it reached home-plate.

An interviewer asked Williams about his legendary batting skills. It was simple, Williams said: he made it an absolute rule to never swing at a ball unless he knew it would touch the strike-zone.

"But with your eyesight," said the interviewer, "couldn't you have hit pitches that were only a fraction of an inch outside the strike-zone.  Couldn't you have gotten even more hits that way, and increased your batting-average even more ?"

"No !" Williams said. "If I did that, where would I draw the line ?" 

Jesus drew the line.

He said He IS "...The Truth, and The Life" (John 14:6).  He said satan is "the father of lies," and a murderer (John 8:44).

For anyone with "eyes to see," the line couldn't be clearer.  It runs through EVERYTHING each man says, thinks, and does: Truth...or lies ?

America has just passed through a season when the line couldn't be clearer than it is in politics.

Many American Christians batted .000 for that season.

God, have mercy on the foolish misguided...and separate from us all those who love lies and murder !

Amen !!!

"Hard to Know Truth" ?

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

It's not the first time I've heard it.

To something I'd posted on facebook, about some idiocy the current president or his faction had
said or done, a supposed-Christian "friend" of a "friend" opined that it was hard to know for sure
what was true.

I think it was the kind of response that was intended to signal disagreement, when a supporter
of the current president can't really DENY the stupid thing he said or did.  A lame answer, but one
by which a "conservative" can keep his ideological credentials unsullied.  (For "conservatives" well
know that the rest of the pack will eat them alive the minute they deviate from the True Faith.)

I've heard it before . . . but for some reason it particularly enraged me this time.  I'm afraid I let the
gentleman have both barrels.  I responded to his comment,

"Can't agree.  Jesus said "I AM...The Truth..." (john 14:6). Jesus said satan is "...the father of lies..."
(John 8:44). I John 2:21 says "no lie is of the truth," There's NO possibility of confusing lies and Truth:
God is not a God of confusion (I Corinthians 14:33)."

In the past, I'd always thought the "hard-to-know-what's-true" folks were speaking honestly: that they
wanted to know what's true, but weren't sure how to find out.  So some years ago I'd put together a
list of a half-dozen reliable fact-checking websites where people can begin their own research, and
I'd pass it on to anyone who complained it was hard to know what's true, and any friend who'd been
deceived to post or e-mail an untruth.

With the blessed exception of one long-time friend who's a pastor, I don't think anyone I provided with
those fact-checking tools bothered.  From their subsequent and continuing facebook-posts and e-mails,
it was clear they did no fact-checking of the memes and opinions they put forward as true, and wanted
their "friends" to believe were true.  I have to conclude they had no real desire to know what's true.

I have to conclude the complaint that "it's hard to know what's true" is exactly what the facebook "friend"
intended, an excuse...for being too lazy to find out truth, or for not loving truth enough to seek it out, or for
believing a lie instead of truth.

The latter I think is rather frequent.  When Jesis says "I AM The Truth," it means He IS...if I may so put it...
the Reality in which we live (and He also says He IS "The Life.").  It's hard to miss Him.  Believing Reality
is other than He IS...a lie...can only be a deliberate choice-of-will.

God harshly judges those who "suppress the truth in unrighteousness," because "God made it evident to
them" and within them (Romans 1:18,19).  They are consequently "without excuse" (v. 20).  It's not merely
God's righteous judgement on those who worship idols, but on all who self-will to believe what is not true:
the climate-change deniers and  Holocaust-deniers of our time, and those who claim the current president
is a Christian.

Even in the simplest terms of human discourse, why should we believe the much-(self) vaunted "Evangelicals"
who claim to "know Jesus," and from the other side of their mouths excuse their believing lies because "it's
hard to know what's true."  God says they are "without excuse."

God promises His most furious and harsh judgement on those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
I quite doubt coronavirus is that: at least yet, or completely.  But whatever, and whenever, God determines,
His judgement is always righteous, and entirely right.  And none can argue that he was unable to know what
was Truth.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Civil War Redux II

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Tony Horwitz' Spying on the South also quotes Lincoln's advice to Southerners in his 1861 First Inaugural:

“Before entering on so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, would it not be wise
to ascertain precisely why we do it ?  Will you hazard so desperate a step while there is any possibility
that any portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence ?”  (p. 397)

I hope Lincoln's words would resonate deeply with Americans today . . . much deeper, hopefully, than they did
with Southerners of 1861.

Arrogant haters of authority always embrace unreality: they must always assert what our current rulers call
"alternative facts," must always avow like they do that "Truth is not truth."  In this they manifest that they
are "sons of the devil" (as Jesus called them in John 8:44).  Like satan, those who deny God's Primacy must
needs deny God's creation, and His Rule, of all that exists.

Deluded "Christian conservatives" who follow these liars should discern that rejection of reality is rejection
of the One Who created it.  Discern most of all that these liars reject the One through Whom " . . . all things
came into being . . . and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being" (John 1:3).  That
the liars reject Him Who said " . . . I AM . . . The Truth . . ." (John 14:6)

It is no accident that climate-change skeptics, holocaust-deniers, white-supremacists, and the conspiracy-
minded flock to the ranks of "conservatives," who embrace unreality . . . that is, unTruth.  It is no accident
that the Great Leader they revere is distinguished above all else by his arrogance and his lies.

Too many who call themselves "Christians" also join in lock-step with that Great Leader: join in fearing and
hating the "deep state" he claims opposes him, join in despising the "elites" (middle-class people of ability
who excell by education and hard work) who oppose him, join him in hating and fearing the "liberals" who
oppose him.  Join him, indeed, in fearing and hating everyone who opposes any of his delusions.

"Conservative Christians" have proof, of course, that the current Leader's enemies are their enemies.  Aren't
Christians, after all, the real target of the supposed "War on Christmas" ?  Haven't we seen Christians perse-
cuted by that city-council telling a baker he could not refuse to make a cake for a gay wedding ?  Isn't every
judge's decision not predicated on "conservative" ideology a threat to Christians' religious freedom ?

Lincoln's advice should still be heeded by all those so enmired in unreality that they (like their Great Leader)
wish for a "new Civil War."  Today's "conservatives," like those of 1861, should step out of their partisan mind-
set long enough to consider rationally the " . . . possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from have no
real existence ?"

Amen

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Vietnam Yet Again: Thinking Honestly

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Still thinking, thinking again, about Vietnam...thinking how much it still reveals about people, in their views of the war.

I'd asked a brother at church, who'd been in Vietnam, if he'd seen Ken Burns' documentary on the war.  He had, and said it focused too much on the Vietnamese, and on the Americans who protested the war, creating too much sympathy for them.

When people tell me things I find it hard to believe they believe, I usually listen quietly...because I'm too stunned to respond.  So I listened to him, as he continued with the claim I've heard many times: the protestors and the media made America lose the war.

I still find it incomprehensible that people believe that, or ever believed it.  That idea was put about by Richard Nixon, as his excuse to take any blame off himself for losing the war, simply because our part in the war (which he rightly saw as not a "victory") ended during his administration.  The historical record shows that Nixon had an abiding fear that he would be seen as "the first American President to lose a war:" he talked about that fear often, in public and (we know from the Watergate taps) in the privacy of the Oval Office.

Nixon shouldn't have worried.  There were many reasons the United States did not "win" the war in Vietnam: if by "win" we mean the United State stopping North Vietnam from reuniting the country under Communist rule.  None of those reasons originated with Nixon.

There were Vietnamese reasons America "lost" the war: the corruption of every South Vietnamese government the U.S. supported, for example, and Vietnamese nationalism.  There were American reasons: Robert McNamara later especially singled out the false "domino theory" thinking by which Presidents Kennedy and Johnson entered and conducted the war.

Nixon shouldn't have worried.  President Johnson and Robert McNamara, who'd had charge of conducting the war before him, had both privately come to the conclusion that the war couldn't be "won."  They were both aware that America was already "losing" the war when they turned it over to Nixon, so they could hardly have blamed him for the inevitable "defeat."

There's no honest reason to judge Richard Nixon "the first American President to lose a war," as he feared.  But the historical record shows that Nixon too, very early after he took charge of the war's conduct--if he didn't know it before--realized the war would not be "won," and could not be "won."  

So what should be our judgement, historical and moral, of a man willing that thousands of people die for no purpose but to protect his self-image ?

The claim that "the media and war-protesters caused America to lose the war" was likewise Nixon's hypocritical defense of his image.  Nixon knew, as did most of America, that the war would not and could not be "won:" but he needed a scapegoat to blame for the inevitable "defeat," lest he be seen as "the first American President who lost a war."

Nixon's reason for telling the lie is clear, and the historical evidence is clear that he knew it was a lie, when he told it.  What baffles me is why so many members of the "American public," the target of his deception, believed it.

What baffles me even more is why so many continue, long after Nixon's beyond telling them the lie, to deceive themselves to believe it ?  How do they do it ?  To believe that lie, people must convince themselves that except for "the media and anti-war protestors," the United States would have "won" the war in Vietnam: a premise that was in Nixon's time, and is even more clearly now, nothing short of delusion.

It all comes down to the same question I've wrestled with all my life: why do people believe a lie ?

The only answer I've ever been able to arrive at is "because they want to."

What seems to me the wisdom of that answer is that what a person most deeply wants shows who he most deeply is.  On Vietnam...or anything else...there are people who want to believe the truth, and people who want to believe a lie.

For anyone who takes seriously Jesus' identifying Himself as "The Truth" (John 14:6; and His identifying satan as "the father of lies" in John 8:44), what we want, truth or lie, is ultimately a spiritual question.  And it is the ultimate spiritual question.  Amen.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

John Brown

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

John Brown made it his life's work to end slavery in America.  He was obsessed with the evil of slavery.  Even the majority of abolitionists considered Brown too fanatical, someone who gave their cause a bad name.

Angered by political events which made it increasingly clear that slavery would never be eliminated by America's governmental and judicial institutions, Brown took up arms.  He moved his family to the newly-opened Kansas Territory where "Free State" and pro-slavery settlers were in open warfare.  In addition to several battles between the two sides, Brown led his sons and others in the "Pottawatomie Massacre," where five pro-slavery neighbors were hacked to death with swords.

But Brown was still unsatisfied with the efforts to end slavery, even by abolitionists.  He insultingly told their convention in 1859 that "These men are all talk; what is needed is action — action !"

A few months later he led 18 men in capturing the U.S. Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia.  He believed his raid would spark an uprising by slaves, whom he would arm with rifles from the arsenal.  Instead he and his surviving men were captured, and Brown was tried and sentenced to death.

In a prison interview with a southern reporter, Brown said, "...all you people at the South — prepare yourselves for a settlement of this question, that must come up for settlement sooner than you are prepared for it."

As he was being taken to the gallows on December 2nd 1859, he gave a note to one who accompanied him. "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land can never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed, it might be done."

A month after the election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860, South Carolina was the first of the southern states to secede from the Union, which precipitated the Civil War.  More Americans died in that war, and more of our country was devastated, than in any other war in our history.

I awoke this morning with a sobering and terrifying "John Brown" realization.  Events of the last few days have made it increasingly clear that we cannot put our trust in America's governmental and judicial institutions, or in the commonsense decency of America's people, to keep this land from deserving God's judgement.

We have been proud for over two centuries of the democratic electoral system by which "the people" rule, and proud of the system of "checks and balances" that has kept us safe from the rule of evil men.  Both have helped make America strong for two centuries.

But if God "is camped in battle-array against" the proud--and the Greek of James 4:6 and I Peter 5:5 say He is--pride is a certain guarantee of God's destruction.  If a majority of "the people" desired to follow a man of satan's lying character and raging hatred (which Jesus says is murder; Matthew 5:21-2), he would be elected to lead our country.  If such a man filled the legislature and court of our governmental system with his followers, our trusted "checks and balances" would not stop him from doing whatever evil he wished to.

In that scenario, the things in which America has most trusted and placed the most pride would be most instrumental in destroying America.  That is the scenario who have today.  I admit that I have at least partly trusted that our electoral and governmental systems would work to bring America back to sanity and righteousness.  I realized this morning that I cannot.  I, Steve Hicks, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land can never be purged away but with blood.

We are on the brink of war.  It will not be with North Korea.  It will not be between the supporters of this current president and his opponents.  It will not be between our day's societal  "conservatives" and "liberals," as America's Civil War was in its day.

We are on the brink of a spiritual war, between good and evil, as we can now see America's Civil War actually was.  John Brown saw it so in his time, even if the way he chose to fight it was mistaken. Scripture's descriptions of the end-time spiritual war clearly indicate incredible bloodshed will result on earth: and just as clearly that spiritual war is not against flesh and blood; and not waged with humankind's guns and swords (II Corinthians 10:3-4, Ephesians 6:12).

I am also certain that very many who claim to be Christians, and whom I had believed Christians, will join themselves to the enemy.  I am certain because I have seen it happen, unbelievably, suddenly, and recently.  Those who choose to follow a liar and murderer have already put themselves in definitive opposition to the One Who IS "The Truth" and "The Life" (John 14:6).  We must not be deceived on this current battlefield by those who mouth the right password, when they wear the enemy's colors.

I had one more "John Brown" moment as I mused on these things.  As he stood on the scaffold and looked over the Virginia hills, Brown said "This is a beautiful country," just before the hood was placed over his head.

This is a beautiful country.  It has been a good country, and a country God has often used as His "minister of good" to many people, and His "minister of wrath" on many evil-doers (Romans 13:3-4).

It grieves me more than I can say, and almost more than I can bear, to see that my country's people now embrace evil-doers, for nothing could more certainly guarantee God's swift and bloody judgement on this beautiful country.   But I am now quite certain that the sins of this guilty land can never be purged away but by war.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

I Hate to Say So, But . . .

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Musing on what constitutes political popularity makes me question the basic premise of democracy.  Question even more than I already do from knowing that demos +kratia, "the people rule" is a straight-on denial that God rules.  The latter is the totality of Jesus' teaching, "The Kingdom of God."

And when "the people rule," they clearly make their decisions and choices according to their human motives.  Human beings being what they are, we primarily "rule" by self-interest.  Ideally, American human beings are educated, both by secular schools and by their churches, to think beyond self-interest; to think of themselves as a corporate body, with mutual interests that they each have an individual responsibility to safeguard and promote.  Ideally, Americans are taught to make their local and national decisions according to the "common good."

My mother, not particularly a "thinker," considered such talk "kind of communistic."  Now that communism is pretty much a dead-letter, some people vehemently attack the ideal of a "common good" as "socialism." But it was the intent of the "founding fathers" that Americans and our government "promote the General Welfare" by common effort, putting aside some of our natural self-interest.  That is the essence of our centuries-old national motto, E Pluribus Unum.  I'm thankful that I was raised and educated in a time when unity and mutuality, both under fierce attack today from deeply evil politicians, were central to Americans' consciousness of being Americans...together.

(Lest someone object that "In God We Trust" was made America's official national motto in the 1950s...I know that.  I also know that the Democratic Congressman who wrote that legislation during the Cold War promoted it as showing America's undying opposition to "godless" communism.  That "official national motto" was intended as political self-congratulation: not really a statement of religious devotion.

Pretending America's "official national motto" shows America is a "Christian nation" is entirely political spin, since that was not its intent.  More to the spiritual point, boasting of one's godliness when one's operative reality is the opposite is simply hypocrisy.)

Thankfully, many Americans still have some of that "corporate" consciousness governing their self-interest.  Many are still aware that choices which strengthen and benefit the nation are the right choices for America.  Greater than that temporal national interest, some Christians still realize that their primary personal responsibility, and loyalty, is to always do right regards The Kingdom of God: which is itself the very definition of right-eousness.

It is hard to believe...and shows the great flaw of the human governing principle of demos kratia...that America's current president is a man whose own governing principle is naked self-interest.  "Naked," because he really doesn't try to hide it...only "spin" it.  He doesn't have to hide it, as long as his followers continue to believe his "spin."

Some of his followers are completely satisfied to accept his self-interest as the "higher purpose" by which they make their choices for America.  I don't know what to call their operative mindset except "dangerous lack of commonsense."  These are the irredeemably deluded, who perfectly fulfill the idolatrous requirement of "citizens" under the Nazis' Fuhrerprinzip: that the person, word, and will of the Leader (Fuhrer) are supreme.  That is obviously the current president's own belief, and his most devoted followers pride themselves on thinking exactly as he does.

His "Evangelical" base professes to follow him for a higher "Christian" purpose, seeing him as a "godly man," who wishes to serve God's purposes.  Obviously a great deal of self-delusion is also operative for those followers.  In the few years since he began to strut upon the scene, the current president's continual lies, arrogance, hatred, corruption, and immorality have still not shaken some "Evangelicals' " self-willed belief that he is yet a "godly man," pursuing God's (and not his own very sordid) purposes.

Since my own viewpoint on things is Christian, I particularly fault "Evangelicals" for their willful self-delusion.  Fault them most of all for ignoring the basic spiritual understanding that, since Jesus identified Himself as "The Truth" (John 14:6), following a liar is emphatically not following Jesus.

But perhaps the largest component of the current president's "base" are the folks at whom he directed his trademark slogan, "Make America Great Again."  The self-professed patriots: folks whose "higher purpose" is America, and who want America to be the greatest nation in the world.

By and large, those folks' patriotism is probably honest.  "Patriotism" is quite often just empty lip-service by politicians, or a marketing ploy of retailers, or a tool for social demagogues to short-circuit their victims' ability to think.  The current president and his slogan use it all of those ways.  But I believe that most ordinary fellow citizens...probably even many who are deceived to follow the current president...actually, in some sense, honestly love our country.  By the definition of "love," these are folks who want the best for America.

Where those "patriot" followers of the current president are deceived, however, is first that America's "greatness" is a faulty "higher purpose."  It's certainly higher than any one person's self-glorification...the foolish mistake of his Fuhrerprinzip followers.  But the national self-interest of any earthly nation is, and always will be, infinitely inferior to the Kingdom of God.

The patriots also go astray in their concept of "greatness," and how it is attained.  Almost always, by "a great nation" they mean one which possesses dominant power, and the highest "standard of living," in the world.  Looked at rightly (that is, from the Kingdom-of-God view), that kind of greatness only comes by God's gift...never by man's political machinations.

The patriots' ultimate self-deception is in believing the current president is making America "great" in any sense, even in their own wrong understanding of what "greatness" is.  A nation has power among other nations only when they respect its word and trust its intentions.  Having great military power...even nuclear weapons...only makes a nation feared, as we've seen with North Korea.

Making his own reckless inconsistency, lies, and selfishness the face of America to the world, the current president has pretty completely destroyed all the credibility and respect all previous presidents worked to give America.  Our former friends despise America: treating friends as enemies has that result.  At the same time, our president fawns over nations who wish America harm: and who undoubtedly rejoice to see the harm he does to America's world-reputation and internal stability.

No patriot could believe the current president's actions "make America great again," except with ample doses of self-delusion.

All the current president's followers indulge in massive self-delusion.  And for many, their self-delusion has proved immune to correction by reality.  It is the terminal stage of self-delusion, when one's own imaginary world becomes one's only reality.

I hate to say so, but I'll be interested to see if all those self-deceptions will remain immune to reality in the near future.  The current president has put America in trade-wars with the other nations of this continent, with the European Union, and with China.  Despite his trademark lying foolishness that "...trade wars are good, and easy to win," there are bound to be repercussions from his actions, and it's doubtful those repercussions will be "good."  They may be very bad, in very many ways, for all of America's people.

If so, we will get a glimpse of some of his supporter's true "higher purpose."  Those who follow the current president contrary to commonsense, contrary to Christ's teachings, or contrary to patriotism, may face a crisis of their delusional faith when the all-knowing, all-wise, and omnicompetent being they've worshipped does something that harms their finances.

I hate to say so: it sounds cynical, but I think it's true of many human beings: that you only see what a person really believes when their money is threatened.  Under stress, many people quickly revert to basic self-interest and self-preservation: and for many people, financial danger is the ultimate stress.  The reaction of the current president's followers to financial danger will very clearly show where their faith, and their hope of salvation, is vested.


                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Calvin on Evil Rulers

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

I very definitely have no dog in doctrinal disputes about Calvin's teachings.  I'm not even sure what anti-Calvinists are called, beyond "anti-Calvinists."  It's never really seemed a necessary part of my life in Christ to research and decide and declare if I'm a Calvinist or an anti-.

The formal theology associated with Calvin's name is doubtless flawed: that's only what we should expect of anyone's theology, including our own.  Believing any human mind can substantially encompass the reality of God is a first step toward idolatry...taken in pride.  None of us can, and none of us do.  So I'm also pretty sure the theology of Calvinism's opponents is just as flawed.

It seems a mistake to follow either to the extent we identify by one "side's" name, or by the other's.  Taking "sides" in theology is the same as taking "sides" in politics, football, nationalism, or any of the other human constructs to which men give their allegiance: that is to say, idols.

"Taking sides," or "factions," is not a fruit of Christ's Spirit any more than idolatry is.  Galatians 5:20 says "dividings" or "factions" grow from our flesh.  The Greek word there for "dividings" is haireseis, from which we get our English word "heresy."

The rhetorical question in I Corinthians 1:13 affirms that Christ is not divided.  Since Jesus identified Himself as "the Truth" (John 14:6), Christians, above all other people, must believe that "the Truth" is not divided.  There are no "sides" in Truth, no "your Truth" and "my Truth:" and the only "anti-" connected with it is denial of Truth.  The latter is what Jesus said is the distinguishing character of "the father of lies" (john 8:44).

Quoting Calvin here has nothing to do with identifying as a Calvinist or an anti-Calvinist.  I cite Calvin because I consider he speaks scriptural truth.

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"We are not only subject to the authority of princes who perform their office toward us uprightly and faithfully as they ought, but also to the authority of all who, by whatever means, have got control of affairs...that whoever they may be, they have their authority solely from him....they who rule unjustly and incompetently have been raised up by him to punish the wickedness of the people; that all equally have been endowed with that holy majesty with which he has invested lawful power....a wicked king is the Lord’s wrath upon the earth...thus nothing more would be said of a [wicked] king than of a robber who seizes your possessions, of an adulterer who pollutes your marriage bed, or of a murderer who seeks to kill you. For Scripture reckons all such calamities among God’s curses. But...In a very wicked man utterly unworthy of all honor, provided he has the public power in his hands, that noble and divine power resides which the Lord has by his Word given to the ministers of his justice and judgment. Accordingly, he should be held in the same reverence and esteem by his subjects, in so far as public obedience is concerned, in which they would hold the best of kings if he were given to them.”

                                   --  John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 20, Section 25

 
"He now commends to us obedience to princes...that the Lord has designed in this way to provide for the tranquillity of the good, and to restrain the waywardness of the wicked...for except the fury of the wicked be resisted, and the innocent be protected from their violence, all things would come to an entire confusion...

For since a wicked prince is the Lord’s scourge to punish the sins of the people, let us remember, that it happens through our fault that this excellent blessing of God is turned into a curse.”
 

                                  --  John Calvin, Commentary on Romans  (Chapter 13, vv. 3-4)