川普弟兄白宮開始內閣查經班  重現百年敬虔風範

在十位內閣成員的支持下、白宮重新開始了每週一次的基督教查經班。每週的星期三舉行、一般是60-90分鐘、主要由副總統彭斯主持。

這是美國白宮百年歷史的首次。而國會山莊巳經持續多年了，目前已經增長到50位國會議員了。

由牧師帶領總統及部長等的禱告和查經，驅使代表美國政府的敬虔基督徒閣員、他們的良心必須真實的面對上帝。

台灣旅行法創下多重的巧合（在上帝手上沒有偶然）

1. 眾議院無異議全票通過；參議院採用眾議院版本一樣的無異議全票通過。兩院全票通過的意義是：1）本案是美國的國家利益、2）本案是台灣人天賦人權的恢復案、美國必須要補償的議案！

天恩客翻譯台灣旅行法

法案還原漢文如下：

第一章 法案名稱：台灣旅行法

第二章 已發掘事因

2-1. 台灣關係法1979年生效以來、提供西太平洋域的安全與和平巳達37年矣；

2-2. 台灣關係法巳宣誓了美國在西太平洋域針對政治、安全、及經濟利益的立場，亦是國際社會所關切的事項；

2-3. 美國認為用和平以外的方式試圖改變台灣的未來命運，包含杯葛、及禁運得視為對西太平洋域和平與安全的威脅，會使美國進入「生死之搏」的考慮；

2-4. 台灣的民主在一九八十年代末巳開始轉型、至今成為許多亞洲國家及人民「耳目一新」的烽火台及典範(暗示獨立自主的國格已成形）；

2-5. 鑒於美國的內閣及高級官員如何訪問一個國家、可視為兩國關係的廣度和深度「的表徵」；

2-6. 並基於台灣關係法中、早巳虧缺於美國自我設限雙方高官交往及互訪「的事實」；

第三章 眾議之案旨及政策要義

a) 眾議院之本案要旨 - 美國政府應鼓勵美國及台灣雙方各級官員的互訪。

b) 政策要義 - 美國國家應有以下政策：

3-1) 允許美國政府所有層級官員含內閣國安官員、領導官員、及分部執行官員訪問台灣並會見對等的台灣官員；

3-2) 允許台灣高級官員在有尊榮條件下訪問美國的官員們、含國務院、國防部、和內閣部會；

3-3) 鼓勵台北經濟文化代表處及其所設之單位、在美國開展業務。業務活動所需配合的、「含」美國國會議員、聯邦政府、地方政府、以及台灣高級官員均得參與。

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特別注意：

因37年前的臺灣關係法、美國早就已不再提出「中華民國政府」和「臺灣政府」這一名詞了、「中華民國」就已經算是永久消失了！因「中華民國」不能代表中國。

美國只提到「臺灣的官員」、所以中共無計可施！

2. 參議院又刻意選在2月28日通過、代表了以基督教立國的美國、以第三方參與了台灣人額外的救贖！

3. 川普總統刻意在3月16日、簽署了法案使其生效。聖經約翰福音3章16節正提到上帝的救恩：「神愛世人、甚至𧶽祂的獨生子⋯⋯不致滅亡反得永生！

4. 飄揚在中華民國臺灣的青天白日旗、正巧於1895年的3月16日被以基督徒為主的興中會革命志士所批准使用的！

5. 今年的復活節4月1日、基督徒仍循例使用聖經53章5節來慶祝：「上帝的聖子祂為我們受害⋯因祂的鞭傷⋯我們得醫治、因祂的刑罰⋯我們得平安」、輝映已通過的法案535號了!

6. 就在美國於4月1日也慶祝「愚人節」之時，不知「敬天愛民」的中共獨裁政權、一枚與天爭峰的「天宮」衛星、因「意外」正式「墮入」南海的「軍事強佔海域中」、上帝不也已經透過萬象定了是非了！

7. 美國新國務卿龐彼歐弟兄、由川普弟兄選在台灣烈士鄭南榕就義紀念日、也是國家言論自由日的4月7日白宮上任、更是絕無巧合。

其它詳細內容請參考英文報導！

Inside the White House Bible Study group

 

By Owen Amos BBC News, Washington DC      8 April 2018

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For the first time in at least 100 years, the US Cabinet has a bible study group. What do they learn? What does Donald Trump make of it? And why arent women allowed to teach?

Every Wednesday, some of the worlds most powerful people meet in a conference room in Washington DC to learn about God.

The location cant be revealed - the Secret Service wont allow it - but the members can.

Vice-President Mike Pence. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Energy Secretary Rick Perry. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The list goes on.

In total, 10 cabinet members are "sponsors" of the group. Not everyone attends every meeting - they are busy people - but they go if they can.

Meetings last between 60 and 90 minutes, and members are free to contact the teacher after-hours. So who is the man leading the United States most-influential bible study?

Step forward Ralph Drollinger, a seven-foot tall basketball pro turned pastor. Or, as the 63-year-old describes himself: "Just a jock with some bad knees."

 

Drollinger grew up in La Mesa, a suburb of San Diego, California. As a child, he rarely went to church - "Probably half a dozen times," he says - and didnt get far with the Bible.

"I always promised myself Id read it," he says. "But every time I tried, it didnt make a whole lot of sense to me."

In his last year of high school, after a basketball game, some cheerleaders invited him to bible study. He went, and his world changed.

"It was the first time I really heard the gospel," he says. "So I went home, read through the whole gospel of Matthew that night, and asked Jesus into my heart."

In 1972, Drollinger went to the University of California in Los Angeles on a basketball scholarship. He attended a bible-teaching church and, over the next four years, "fell in love with the scriptures".

After college, he could have played pro basketball - he was picked in the NBA draft three times - but, each time, turned it down.

"I sensed such a passion for ministry that everything paled in comparison," he says.

Instead, he signed for a Christian team called Athletes in Action. They played basketball around the world - 35 countries, he reckons - and preached the gospel at half-time.

"That was kind of perfect for me," he says. "Because I really didnt like basketball - but I liked to preach."

Drollinger did eventually turn pro, signing for the Dallas Mavericks in 1980, but only because he wanted to attend the seminary there. He played six games in the NBA and left after one season.

After retiring from basketball he worked in sports ministries, before turning to politics in 1996. The road to the White House started with failing Christians in California.

In 1996, Drollingers wife, Danielle, was executive director of a political action committee in California trying to unseat liberals from the state legislature and get Christians elected.

"But she was frustrated," he says. "They would send guys to Californias capitol - and she was great at getting them elected - but they would soon lose their Christian moorings."

So they took over the existing ministry in Sacramento, changed the name, and offered weekly bible studies, support, prayer, and one-on-one ministry.

It proved "wildly successful", so they expanded. Capitol Ministries is now in 43 US state capitols, and more than 20 legislatures abroad.

Each class is led by a local pastor, but none is led by a woman. Why not?

"Theres no [Biblical] prohibition of female leadership in commerce, theres no prohibition of female leadership in the state, and theres no prohibition of female leadership over children," says Drollinger.

"But there is a prohibition of female leadership in marriage, and female leadership in the church. And those are clear in scripture… it doesnt mean, in an egalitarian sense, that a woman is of lesser importance. Its just that they have different roles."

In 2010, Capitol Ministries arrived in Washington. There was already a ministry called The Fellowship, which runs the National Prayer Breakfast, but Drollinger felt it had "lost its marbles, Biblically".

It was, he says, candy floss Christianity - big, sweet, unsubstantial. By contrast, he wants to offer a "high-protein diet", teaching the bible book-by-book, one verse at a time. In Drollingers studies, it can take a year to finish one book.

"If you dont have a spiritual coach thats really driving you in the word of God - and driving you toward holiness rather than your own sinful, latent nature, and your own depravity - then youre not going to grow into Christs likeness," he says.

The Fellowship, he says, believes legislators can do bible study among themselves.

"I say no, technical foul. How will they hear without a preacher? Romans 10:15."

Capitol Ministries began a bible study for representatives in 2010, which now has almost 50 members.

When four of the group were elected to the Senate, they asked for a senators class, which began in 2015. Last March - two months after Donald Trump took office - the same process led to a group for cabinet members.

"Trump started appointing to his cabinet all the guys that were in our House and Senate bible study," says Drollinger, a trend he attributes to Vice-President Mike Pence, who "knew who those strong believers were".

"Unlike our secular media," Drollinger says, he and others saw the appointees had something in common - they "were strong in Christ".

"So Jeff Sessions, [former health secretary] Tom Price, others, said lets start a ministry, a Cabinet bible study."

Capitol Ministries believes it is the first Cabinet-level bible study for "at least 100 years". There was a group during George W Bushs presidency, but it was for lower-ranking staff members.

President Trump is not a member of Drollingers group - but he is a Christian, and does get Drollingers eight-page print-outs most weeks.

"He writes me back notes on my bible studies," says Drollinger.

"Hes got this leaky Sharpie felt-tip pen that he writes all capital letters with. Way to go Ralph, really like this study, keep it up. Stuff like that."

 

Drollingers weekly bible studies are not private, or secret. Anyone can read them online.

 

On same-sex marriage, he writes: "Homosexuality and same-sex ceremonies are illegitimate in Gods eyes. His word is repetitive, perspicuous [clearly expressed], and staid on the subject."

 

On capitalism, he writes: "The right to personal property, also known as free enterprise or capitalism, is the governmental economic system supported by scripture. Scripture does not support communism."

 

And on debt, he writes: "It is bad stewardship and downright foolishness for an individual, family, or country to borrow in order to cover expenses that far, far exceed income!"

 

So if politicians should learn from the Bible, should - for example - gay people be put to death? No, says Drollinger - some civil laws from the Old Testament should not apply.

"I think that was for [ancient] Israel, but its not for the church," he says, adding he doesnt import "the whole kit and caboodle of Old Testament law" like "the clumsy theonomist would".

Drollinger likens himself to a waiter in a restaurant. These lessons arent his - he is merely serving the word of God, as revealed in the Bible, to self-professed Christians.

"If God is the chef, then Im just the servant, and I hope the guys like the meal," he says. "But on the way out of the kitchen, Im not going to alter whats on the plate. So my job is just to be a servant."

And if people dont like the message - or, to put it his way, the meal?

"You have to go talk to the chef [God]. Unless Ive altered whats on the plate - which, hopefully in my discipline, I dont."

Drollinger believes the Bible teaches the separation of church and state.

"We have to differentiate," he says. "And unfortunately, a lot of our evangelical religious right advocates have not made this differentiation."

In January, when a New York Times opinion piece described Drollinger and others as "Christian nationalists", he wrote a 1400-word letter to complain. What was his objection?

"It has the idea of tyranny when you take it to its extreme," he says.

"It means that Im meeting with the Cabinet members clandestinely in order to overthrow the government - in the form that we presently have - for a theocracy. I mean, at the end of the day, thats the accusation, and I have to be strong on that."

But is a bible study for Cabinet members, with political themes, not a merging of church and state?

"I believe in institutional separation, but not influential separation," he says

"No matter what the institution is - the family, commerce, education - it needs the bulwark precepts of the word of God in order to function correctly…

"But the minute I start to amalgamate the church and the state institutionally, then Im into theocracy."

Drollinger never tells his members how to vote, or which policies to pursue. But he hopes it becomes obvious by teaching them the Bible.

"I will put the blueprint on the engineers seat on the train," he says. "And it will show you the right tracks to the station.

"But Im not going to tell you what tracks to take. But youve got to be pretty stupid not to follow the blueprint, because its there."

Do his students ever disappoint him?

"Oh yeah, I get disappointed a lot when I see immaturity," he says. "I was just talking to one member... his wife hates him. Hes been overspending his capital in his marriage by working 14 hours a day on politics.

"Thats disappointed me, because if he is divorced, then what kind of credibility does he really have long-term in the House [of Representatives] to make moral judgments?"

And what about their policies?

"When a person obviously knows the Biblical thing to do and votes against what he or she knows whats Biblical."

One Democrat, struggling with her partys support for same-sex marriage, contacted Drollinger for advice. He explained the Bibles teaching, as he saw it.

"The next bible study, she said that was really good. Now she cant necessarily stand publicly on what I just taught her, but its going on in her heart."

He says he wont tell her how to vote on the issue - voicing opposition to marriage might cost her an election.

"But at the same time, shes going to have to think, whats different between that and a prostitute? A prostitute sells her soul to maintain a salary. Are you as a Christian legislator, growing in Christ, selling your convictions in order to stay making a salary, or have influence?

"Ill never say it that graphically to a member. But you get my idea."