Editor Joel Belz in the October 26, 1987 World magazine calls attention to one of the most significant and likely-to-be overlooked aspects of the nomination and rejection of Judge Bork for the Supreme Court. It is the deliberate campaign of lying on the part of senators by which this rejection was achieved. Editor Belz observes that “lying, of course, has always been expected of politicians,” but “the lies of the Bork bashers are of another sort. Here is a case of assassins lying in wait, cunningly calculating what kind of lies might be necessary to accomplish the evil they have in mind. What they have in mind is murder, and when they finish truth has fallen in the streets.” (He is alluding to Isaiah 59:14.) He wrote, “I seethe evening after evening as I continue to hear evildoers wickedly malign a good man.” Yet he observes that his “main point . . . is not to demonstrate the vileness of the getBork-at-any-cost crowd. They will pay, somehow and someday.” His main point is an important warning against all dishonesty as an offense against God, whether committed by Liberals or Conservatives, by others or by ourselves.

Let’s consider this occurrence a little further. Why were not only Senators Kennedy and Biden, but soon the majority of the whole Senate so determined that the Bork nomination, despite admittedly high qualifications, must be rejected, even if that necessitated a policy of deliberate slander? It was evident that the most intense opposition to Bork arose out of the fear that his presence in the Court might change the balance of that court and threaten to reverse the Court’s legalization of abortions. The relatively new “right” to murder uncounted millions of unborn children must be preserved even if our nation’s highest legislative body had to join in systematic criminal slander to do it! When we re member our Lord’s identification of the “murderer from the beginning” and the “father of lies” (John 8:44), we do not have to ask any further about what inspiration and direction currently guides our highest legislative body (and court).

In view of such government developments as these, there is nothing mystifying either about the multiplying problems that threaten the nation. Currently some of the most obvious seem to be those of the economy—the stock market crash, followed by the steadily falling dollar. Why should that surprise anyone? What are those dollars whose value continues to fall on world markets? They are simply government-authorized notes promises to pay. When the government has generally for a half century, and particularly for the last seven years, been refusing to repay what it borrows, preferring to build up astronomical debts, why should anyone be surprised that the world’s money exchangers more and more discount those paper promises? Thus, as we have been observing, God’s judgments eventually overtake liars, murderers and thieves.

But isn’t the gospel a message of God’s compassion and mercy? Indeed it is. He spared even a repentant Nineveh, much to the exasperation ofHis prophet Jonah. But His call to repentance unto salvation, sparing even repentant Nineveh, must never be misread to mean that He will spare an unrepentant Washington. We must, with Paul, believe and preach “the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.” But that gospel has to be introduced and understood in view of the fact that “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:16, 18).