A Christian Manifesto for the Twenty-First Century

By Dr. D. Carlton O'Rork Dmin. Phd.

First Francis Shaffer and now Dennis O’Rork try to explain what is going wrong in the church today and how to fix it. Will God Himself have to return and tell us the same thing. Why not listen to them today and be ready for His return.

This book is an attempt to wake up the latest generations of citizens to the growing threat of religious breakdown.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Mar 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781973688495

Dr. D. Carlton O'Rork Dmin. Phd.

Dr. O’Rork lives in a teeming city located on the east coast. In his pre-doctorate days he was known as a genius computer repair person, fixing huge computers when others failed. Now he wants to fix splintered religions, a huge task.

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Copyright © 2020 Dr. D. Carlton O’Rork, Dmin., Phd.

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Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked (RSV) are from Revised Standard Version of the Bible,

copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the

United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982

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Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living

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Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale

House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

•Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB),

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The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

ISBN: 978-1-9736-8850-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-8849-5 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 07/30/2020

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my now deceased mentors, Francis Schaffer and Dr. Mike Johnston, who have both been the inspiration by way of motivation for this book. And to my spiritual father, Tom Farrell, without whose tireless efforts this would not have come together. And last but not least, Emily and Teresa for the editing and typing and service to the work of the Lord. God bless you all.

CONTENTS

Dedication

Introduction

PART I

Chapter 1    A World Gone Mad

Chapter 2    Truth on Trial

Chapter 3    History: Pick A Side

Chapter 4    Politics: Lions, Tigers, And Bears...Oh My

Chapter 5    A Biblical Manifesto Debunking Evolution

PART II

Chapter 6    Creeds, Confessions, And Catechisms

Chapter 7    God: To Believe Or Not To Believe

Chapter 8    The Bible: The Source of All Truth

Chapter 9    Jesus Christ: Messiah, Son, Lord

Chapter 10    The Spirit of God, The Spirit of Christ, The Holy Spirit

Chapter 11    And I Will Build My Church

Chapter 12    Conclusion

Footnotes

To the reader of this

book:

Please take your time in reading and consider the message.

Whether you agree and appreciate the message is beside the point. That you come away understanding it is vital. It will, for some, become immediately obvious by the title alone that the original inspiration for this work was Francis A. Schaeffer’s book of similar title A CHRISTIAN MANIFESTO. I decided to tackle this monumental task of following a giant of Christian Apologetics with a fresh look, nearly four decades later, since his work was published by Crossway in 1981.

Why?, you ask. Well, I wanted to sort of combine a Manifesto: a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, views, or standards of its issuer, and a Credo, which comes from the Latin Credo meaning I believe. And so it follows that a Creed is a statement of beliefs.

We have now crossed the threshold into the twenty first century. Just in the last decade alone we have seen many events play out upon the world stage that would make most folks from forty or fifty years ago gasp in disbelief if they were suddenly thrust forward in time to 2015 - 2020. Over those nearly four decades (since Dr. Schaeffer’s book) we have seen the trend of Christendom being split, splintered, shattered, and morphed to such an extreme that it is now nearly unrecognizable from one part of the globe to another. Now its my turn, Why?

This book seeks to answer that question and many, many more. I wish to set forth, by way of a manifesto, a creed for all true Christians. I say true Christians because not everyone or everything that claims the moniker is indeed true to the name. So buckle up. It may get bumpy in places but hold on tight and I believe in my heart that you will come away from the experience different than you came into it.

INTRODUCTION

The evening news should include a warning disclaimer similar to those about graphic violence;

WARNING, THIS NEWSCAST MAY CAUSE SEVERE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS FOR THOSE OF A WEAKER CONSTITUTION. THE DISCRETION OF A QUALIFIED MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL IS ADVISED!

We live in a culture which is in obvious decline. War. Pandemic disease. Mass killings. Religious and Political upheaval. Terrorism on a global scale. Would even just a couple of generations removed have ever imagined such a world as we now call our everyday? I’ve heard some say, "it’s not that bad.

We’re just in a 24 hour news cycle these days!" In this modern age Judaeo-Christian values, (upon which this country was founded), are openly mocked and even called hate speech.

Immorality in high places is, not just overlooked, but in many cases is even rewarded in the voting booth. When a Christian takes a stand to halt the rapid decline into chaos we are maligned as intolerant and bigoted. Not every opinion, belief, or way of thinking is right or even true. All views are not valid. Everyone cannot be right. It stands to question then: Who is telling the truth? What is {the} truth?

The Oxford’s English Dictionary pronounced the word of the year for 2016 as Post-truth. The definition: relating to or denoting circumstances in which the objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. So, if I’m understanding the definition, it seems to me that facts just get in the way for some folks. Emotion and personal belief are hoisted high as a standard and rule of the day. Every viewpoint is valid. Every emotion warranted and truth is just a pesky thing that matters little in the public arena. This is what is called Postmodernism (a mutation of liberalism). It’s definition is; A way of thinking where there is no objective, universal truth; there is only the perspective of the group as follows;

1~(Liberals, Conservatives, Zionists, Nationalists, etc.) whoever has sway at the time. With the suicide rate at record levels, especially among the young; with mass shootings occurring on a weekly basis; and with natural disasters of epic proportions, it is easy to see why people are on edge about the state our world is in and it’s future. One question we see over and over on the news and mumbled through heart wrenching tears is ... Why, why did this have to happen? The problems in this 21st century are inescapable. It all comes down to one’s worldview. There are poignant questions which shape this personally for every person: Why are we here? What has gone wrong with this world? (creation/fall) What can we do to fix the mess? (redemption). A worldview is simply the sum total of our beliefs about the world, the ‘Big Picture,’ that directs our daily decisions and actions.

2~ For example, take the United States, clearly founded on Godly principles and on a book called the Bible; Is she a Christian Nation as she claims? No! Not by a long shot. There is an old saying that goes, history is always written by the winner." There is a plethora of versions (viewpoints) of History, Philosophy, Science, Politics, and let’s not forget, truth.

When I grew up I practically lived in the library. It was not until my last year of High School that I loosened up to where I would indulge in regular works of fiction. My favorite subjects (in order) were Science and History. Looking back, I was very naive and took facts at face value, especially if they came from someone smarter than me. As I entered my late teens that trend began to change. My own estranged mother disowned me when I began to attend a Roman Catholic Church at 14 along with my Step-mom. I took CCD classes for a year and after Baptism & First Communion I became a Roman Catholic. As I began to seriously read my Bible, I noticed some things were not lining up. A resounding question kept nagging at me, why does the Bible (The word of Almighty God) say one thing and the Pope (Church) say something completely different? I went to my Parrish’s Senior Priest armed with my Bible and some pointed questions. With each question he answered, I countered with just the right scripture to refute it. He threw me out of his office (this was only the first of two times; the other being six years later in the U. S. Navy). This was a major blow to me, and this on top of my mother’s silence towards me.

Around age fifteen I realized I was smarter than the average bear. I set out on a quest for truth. I resolved that God, the creator said He does NOT lie. As I remember, my mother did always seem to trust that premise. Science, as taught by men, had let me down. Even as the School textbooks tried to proffer Evolution as fact, I knew it was a sham full of holes! With so many versions of History, Religion, Science, etc., out there, who do you trust? The quest I mentioned earlier actually began at eight years old in a small country church. Even so young, I knew something was missing and this preacher, on this fine Spring morning, said he had the answer . . . Jesus! I walked that long aisle to investigate; to go get this Jesus in my heart! This was the answer, but it did not come to fruition until thirty nine years later. It (faith) finally clicked for me. This Jesus is the one who claimed HE was, the way, the truth, and the life . . .(John 14:6 NKJV). I had always been taught that Science had all the answers, right? This planet, positioned just at the perfect distance from our Sun which itself is the perfect size and temperature and age, all to support life, a vast and very precise universe. . .Wow! You mean to tell me all of this just went BANG, and came into being? And what about the amazingly complex lifeforms with man at the pinnacle, clearly separate and apart from any other animal? You mean to tell me this all happened by chance? did I hear someone say Evolution was fact; what? How is a theory a fact?

So, who is right? Who has the truth? Pontius Pilate, the man who sent Jesus Christ to the cross, asked a similar question, What is truth? (John 18:38 KJV) He was standing right there with the essence of truth - Truth personified. Jesus once said