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Is it acceptable for Christians to pierce their bodies or get tattoos?

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The Bible says in Leviticus 19:28 “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD..” This passage clearly tells us that God does not want us to be marking up our bodies with different kinds of graphics or tattoos. (Some would argue that this was just an old testament law that no longer applies, but we must remember that there are many important principles that we find only in the book of Leviticus that certainly still apply, such as laws against bestiality and the selling of a child for prostitution) One major principle here is that God desires for His people to be different than the rest of the world, both on the inside and out.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” The Lord designed our body to be a temple and a dwelling place for His Spirit. In the same way that Solomon’s temple was free from graffiti, we should not defile our body since it is also God’s holy temple. If Paul instructs us to glorify God in our bodies, then their certainly must be a way to dishonor God with our body, so to say that we can do whatever we want them is not Biblical.

Throughout history and in the Bible, tattoos have been related to pagan practices and immoral living. As Christians, we are to be set apart as holy vessels for God (1 Peter 1:14-19) and to turn away from things that link us to this world which is passing away. Remember 1 Thessalonians 5:21 says “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” Can you prove having a tattoo is “Good”? Also remember 1 Thessalonians 5:22 tells us to “Abstain from all appearances of evil.” We’re not supposed to be like the rest of the pagan world and live the way everyone else does: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saieth the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you,” (1 Corinthians 6:17) “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” (Colossians 3:17) All of our actions are to represent Jesus Christ and I really cannot picture the Savior with snakes or butterflies tattooed across His forearms.

What if someone has made the mistake of getting a tattoo? Have they gone too far? Absolutely not: 1 John 1:9 assures us that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This does not mean we should go get a tattoo just because we can get forgiveness later. The key principle here seems to be that our bodies belong to God, not ourselves, and that we are to use them in ways that honor and reflect God’s glory.

Now let’s use deduction to arrive at a conclusion. Based upon these facts (the Old Testament commands against tattoos and piercings AND the New Testament principle that my body is not my own) I would reason that God would rather you leave your body free from self-inflicted marks and cuts. Our bodies are a good gift from God – complete as is. As one Jewish rabbi put it, “No matter how well considered, a tattoo is the result of a short-term decision to decorate the body forever. What hubris to imagine that any of us, as individuals, can improve artistically on the original design of the Lord.” We were made in “the image of God.” Apparently He thinks no further pictorial adornment is needed.

Conspiracies, Holidays, Politics

The Truth About MLK

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The Real Martin Luther King Jr:

Every January, the media go into a kind of almost spastic frenzy of adulation for the so-called “Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.” King has even had a national holiday declared in his honor, an honor accorded to no other American, not Washington, not Jefferson, not Lincoln. (Washington and Lincoln no longer have holidays — they share the generic-sounding “President’s Day.”) A liberal judge has sealed the FBI files on King until the year 2027. What are they hiding? Let’s take a look at this modern-day plastic god.

Born in 1929, King was the son of a Black preacher known at the time only as “Daddy King.” “Daddy King” named his son Michael. In 1935, “Daddy King” had an inspiration to name himself after the Protestant reformer Martin Luther. He declared to his congregation that henceforth they were to refer to him as “Martin Luther King” and to his son as “Martin Luther King, Jr.” None of this name changing was ever legalized in court. “Daddy” King’s son’s real name is to this day Michael King.

King’s Brazen Cheating:

We read in Michael Hoffman’s “Holiday for a Cheater “, The first public sermon that King ever gave, in 1947 at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, was plagiarized from a homily by Protestant clergyman Harry Emerson Fosdick entitled “Life is What You Make It,” according to the testimony of King’s best friend of that time, Reverend Larry H. Williams.

The first book that King wrote, “Stride Toward Freedom, – -was plagiarized from numerous sources, all unattributed, according to documentation recently assembled by sympathetic King scholars Keith D. Miller, Ira G. Zepp, Jr., and David J. Garrow and no less an authoritative source than the four senior editors of “The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.- – (an official publication of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., whose staff includes King’s widow Coretta), stated of King’s writings at both Boston University and Crozer Theological Seminary: “Judged retroactively by the standards of academic scholarship, [his writings] are tragically flawed by numerous instances of plagiarism…. Appropriated passages are particularly evident in his writings in his major field of graduate study, systematic theology.”

King’s essay, “The Place of Reason and Experience in Finding God,” written at Crozer, pirated passages from the work of theologian Edgar S. Brightman, author of “The Finding of God.”

Another of King’s theses, “Contemporary Continental Theology,” written shortly after he entered Boston University, was largely stolen from a book by Walter Marshall Horton.

King’s doctoral dissertation, “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Harry Nelson Wieman,” for which he was awarded a PhD in theology, contains more than fifty complete sentences plagiarized from the PhD dissertation of Dr. Jack Boozer, “The Place of Reason in Paul Tillich’s Concept of God.”

According to “The Martin Luther King Papers”, in King’s dissertation “only 49 per cent of sentences in the section on Tillich contain five or more words that were King’s own….”!

In “The Journal of American History”, June 1991, page 87, David J. Garrow, a leftist academic who is sympathetic to King, says that King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, who also served as his secretary, was an accomplice in his repeated cheating. (“King’s Plagiarism: Imitation, Insecurity and Transformation,” The Journal of American History, June 1991, p. 87)

Reading Garrow’s article, one is led to the inescapable conclusion that King cheated because he had chosen for himself a political role in which a PhD would be useful, and, lacking the intellectual ability to obtain the title fairly, went after it by any means necessary. Why, then, one might ask, did the professors at Crozer Theological Seminary and Boston University grant him passing grades and a PhD? Garrow states on page 89: “King’s academic compositions, especially at Boston University, were almost without exception little more than summary descriptions… and comparisons of other’s writings.

Nonetheless, the papers almost always received desirable letter grades, strongly suggesting that King’s professors did not expect more….” The editors of “The Martin Luther King Jr. Papers” state that “…the failure of King’s teachers to notice his pattern of textual appropriation is somewhat remarkable….” But researcher Michael Hoffman tells us “…actually the malfeasance of the professors is not at all remarkable. King was politically correct, he was Black, and he had ambitions. The leftist [professors were] happy to award a doctorate to such a candidate no matter how much fraud was involved. Nor is it any wonder that it has taken forty years for the truth about King’s record of nearly constant intellectual piracy to be made public.” Supposed scholars, who in reality shared King’s vision of a racially mixed and Marxist America, purposely covered up his cheating for decades. The cover-up still continues. From the “New York Times ” of October 11, 1991, page 15, we learn that on October 10th of that year, a committee of researchers at Boston University admitted that, “There is no question but that Dr. King plagiarized in the dissertation.” However, despite its finding, the committee said that “No thought should be given to the revocation of Dr. King’s doctoral degree,” an action the panel said “would serve no purpose.” No purpose, indeed! Justice demands that, in light of his willful fraud as a student, the “reverend” and the “doctor” should be removed from King’s name.

Communist Beliefs and Connections

Well friends, he is not a legitimate reverend, he is not a bona fide PhD, and his name isn’t really “Martin Luther King, Jr.” What’s left? Just a sexual degenerate, an America-hating Communist, and a criminal betrayer of even the interests of his own people.

On Labor Day, 1957, a special meeting was attended by Martin Luther King and four others at a strange institution called the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee. The Highlander Folk School was a Communist front, having been founded by Myles Horton (Communist Party organizer for Tennessee) and Don West (Communist Party organizer for North Carolina). The leaders of this meeting with King were the aforementioned Horton and West, along with Abner Berry and James Dumbrowski, all open and acknowledged members of the Communist Party, USA. The agenda of the meeting was a plan to tour the Southern states to initiate demonstrations and riots. From 1955 to 1960, Martin Luther King’s associate, advisor, and personal secretary was one Bayard Rustin. In 1936 Rustin joined the Young Communist League at New York City College.

Convicted of draft-dodging, he went to prison for two years in 1944. On January 23, 1953 the “Los Angeles Times” reported his conviction and sentencing to jail for 60 days for lewd vagrancy and homosexual perversion. Rustin attended the 16th Convention of the Communist Party, USA in February, 1957. One month later, he and King founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, or SCLC for short. The president of the SCLC was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The vice-president of the SCLC was the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, who was also the president of an identified Communist front known as the Southern Conference Educational Fund, an organization whose field director, a Mr. Carl Braden, was simultaneously a national sponsor of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, of which you may have heard. The program director of the SCLC was the Reverend Andrew Young, in more recent years Jimmy Carter’s ambassador to the UN and mayor of Atlanta. Young, by the way, was trained at the Highlander Folk School, previously mentioned.

Soon after returning from a trip to Moscow in 1958, Rustin organized the first of King’s famous marches on Washington. The official organ of the Communist Party, “The Worker,- – openly declared the march to be a Communist project. Although he left King’s employ as secretary in 1961, Rustin was called upon by King to be second in command of the much larger march on Washington which took place on August 28, 1963. Bayard Rustin’s replacement in 1961 as secretary and advisor to King was Jack O’Dell, also known as Hunter Pitts O’Dell. According to official records, in 1962 Jack O’Dell was a member of the National Committee of the Communist Party, USA. He had been listed as a Communist Party member as early as 1956. O’Dell was also given the job of acting executive director for SCLC activities for the entire Southeast, according to the St. Louis “Globe-Democrat – -of October 26, 1962. At that time, there were still some patriots in the press corps, and word of O’Dell’s party membership became known.

What did King do? Shortly after the negative news reports, King fired O’Dell with much fanfare. And he then, without the fanfare, “immediately hired him again- – as director of the New York office of the SCLC, as confirmed by the “Richmond News-Leader – -of September 27, 1963. In 1963 a Black man from Monroe, North Carolina named Robert Williams made a trip to Peking, China. Exactly 20 days before King’s 1963 march on Washington, Williams successfully urged Mao Tse-Tung to speak out on behalf of King’s movement. Mr. Williams was also around this time maintaining his primary residence in Cuba, from which he made regular broadcasts to the southern US, three times a week, from high-power AM transmitters in Havana under the title “Radio Free Dixie.” In these broadcasts, he urged violent attacks by Blacks against White Americans. During this period, Williams wrote a book entitled “Negroes With Guns.” The writer of the foreword for this book? None other than Martin Luther King, Jr. It is also interesting to note that the editors and publishers of this book were to a man all supporters of the infamous Fair Play for Cuba Committee.

According to King’s biographer and sympathizer David J. Garrow, “King privately described himself as a Marxist.” In his 1981 book, “The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr.”, Garrow quotes King as saying in SCLC staff meetings, “…we have moved into a new era, which must be an era of revolution…. The whole structure of American life must be changed…. We are engaged in the class struggle.” Jewish Communist Stanley Levison can best be described as King’s behind-the-scenes “handler.” Levison, who had for years been in charge of the secret funnelling of Soviet funds to the Communist Party, USA, was King’s mentor and was actually the brains behind many of King’s more successful ploys. It was Levison who edited King’s book, “Stride Toward Freedom.” It was Levison who arranged for a publisher. Levison even prepared King’s income tax returns! It was Levison who really controlled the fund-raising and agitation activities of the SCLC. Levison wrote many of King’s speeches. King described Levison as one of his “closest friends.

FBI: King Bought Sex With SCLC Money

The Federal Bureau of Investigation had for many years been aware of Stanley Levison’s Communist activities. It was Levison’s close association with King that brought about the initial FBI interest in King. Lest you be tempted to believe the controlled media’s lie about “racists” in the FBI being out to “get” King, you should be aware that the man most responsible for the FBI’s probe of King was Assistant Director William C. Sullivan. Sullivan describes himself as a liberal, and says that initially “I was one hundred per cent for King…because I saw him as an effective and badly needed leader for the Black people in their desire for civil rights.” The probe of King not only confirmed their suspicions about King’s Communist beliefs and associations, but it also revealed King to be a despicable hypocrite, an immoral degenerate, and a worthless charlatan.

According to Assistant Director Sullivan, who had direct access to the surveillance files on King which are denied the American people, King had embezzled or misapplied substantial amounts of money contributed to the “civil rights” movement. King used SCLC funds to pay for liquor, and numerous prostitutes both Black and White, who were brought to his hotel rooms, often two at a time, for drunken sex parties which sometimes lasted for several days. These types of activities were the norm for King’s speaking and organizing tours. In fact, an outfit called The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, which is putting on display the two bedrooms from the Lorraine Motel where King stayed the night before he was shot, has declined to depict in any way the “occupants – -of those rooms. That “according to exhibit designer Gerard Eisterhold “would be “close to blasphemy.” The reason? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spent his last night on Earth having sex with two women at the motel and physically beating and abusing a third.

Sullivan also stated that King had alienated the affections of numerous married women. According to Sullivan, who in 30 years with the Bureau had seen everything there was to be seen of the seamy side of life, King was one of only seven people he had ever encountered who was such a total degenerate. Noting the violence that almost invariably attended King’s supposedly “non-violent” marches, Sullivan’s probe revealed a very different King from the carefully crafted public image. King welcomed members of many different Black groups as members of his SCLC, many of them advocates and practitioners of violence. King’s only admonition on the subject was that they should embrace “tactical nonviolence.” Sullivan also relates an incident in which King met in a financial conference with Communist Party representatives, not knowing that one of the participants was an infiltrator actually working for the FBI. J. Edgar Hoover personally saw to it that documented information on King’s Communist connections was provided to the President and to Congress. And conclusive information from FBI files was also provided to major newspapers and news wire services. But were the American people informed of King’s real nature? No, for even in the 1960s, the fix was in “the controlled media and the bought politicians were bound and determined to push their racial mixing program on America.

King was their man and nothing was going to get in their way. With a few minor exceptions, these facts have been kept from the American people. The pro-King propaganda machine grinds on, and it is even reported that a serious proposal has been made to add some of King’s writings as a new book in the Bible. Ladies and gentlemen, the purpose of this radio program is far greater than to prove to you the immorality and subversion of this man called King. I want you to start to think for yourselves. I want you to consider this: What are the forces and motivation behind the controlled media’s active promotion of King? What does it tell you about our politicians when you see them, almost without exception, falling all over themselves to honor King as a national hero? What does it tell you about our society when any public criticism of this moral leper and Communist functionary is considered grounds for dismissal?

What does it tell you about the controlled media when you see how they have successfully suppressed the truth and held out a picture of King that can only be described as a colossal lie? You need to think, my fellow Americans. You desperately need to wake up.

Sources:

1. The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.- – (an official publication of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change).

2. “King’s Plagiarism: Imitation, Insecurity and Transformation,” The Journal of American History, June 1991, p. 87) David J. Garrow

3. New York Times” of October 11, 1991, page 15.

4. “The FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr.”, David J. Garrow, (1981). 5. “And the walls came tumbling down,” Rev. Ralph Abernathy (1989)

Politics, Social Topics

Balkanization of the United States

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If you look across the American landscape in 2020, you might notice half of America hates the other half. Half of our U.S. Congress hates the other half, so much so, they’re doing nothing to further the interests of the American people. It’s called, “legislative gridlock.” And even though it’s hard to accept it’s all planned and purposed by those who have always been our enemy.

Back in the 1960’s democrats and republicans at least pretended to work together.  Americans prided themselves on working together.  Even with our ethnic and racial challenges, we enjoyed a common heritage and culture.  We worked through those challenges in a positive mostly manner. The first of many major mistakes was Teddy Kennedy’s “1965 Immigration Reform Act” that commenced the disintegration of America and the influx of those who were traditionally not “American”

Today, more than 100,000,000 million “legal” (Not counting illegal) immigrants later, we have managed to create a web of dysfunctional multiculturalism so tangled there may be no hope of correcting it short of total war, incompatible religions and violent cultures have been encouraged, even forced into our once peaceful and productive society – all by the hand of our elected leaders and those who control them.

A very similar thing happened to France and Europe in the 1970’s.  When France opened its borders to unlimited Muslim immigration in the 1970’s, Frenchman Jean Raspail, penned a prophetic novel, Camp of the Saints, describing the consequences of that senseless choice, “You don’t know my people – the squalor, superstitions, the fatalistic sloth that they’ve wallowed in for generations.  You don’t know what you’re in for if that fleet of brutes ever lands in your lap. Everything will change in this country of yours.  They will swallow you up!”

Today, another writer chronicled the result of that mistake in his book: The Strange Death of Europe—Immigration, Identity, Islam by Douglas Murray. If the United States maintains its current immigration course, much like the Titanic, someone around mid-century will likely write their magnum opus:  The Strange Death of The United States of America—By Her Own Hand.

No doubt here in 2020, we see a plethora historians and wise men warning us about the future should we continue on our current destructive course:

“Immigrants devoted to their own cultures and religions are not influenced by the secular politically correct façade that dominates academia, news-media, entertainment, education, religious and political thinking today,” said James Walsh, former Associate General Counsel of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service. “They claim the right not to assimilate, and the day is coming when the question will be how can the United States regulate the defiantly unassimilated cultures, religions and mores of foreign lands?  Such immigrants say their traditions trump the U.S. legal system.  Balkanization of the United States has begun.” – It is only us, the progeny of the founders that have not yet realized the depth of our troubles.

It can’t get much clearer than that statement by James Walsh. He can see it. I can see it. Roy Beck sees it. Dan Stein sees it. Jason Mrochek sees it. Dr. John Tanton saw it 50 years ago. Kathleene Parkers saw it. Barbara Jordan saw it. U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Steve King (R-IA) see it. All of them wrote about it. Virtually no one in the U.S. Congress heeded the messages.  If they did, they suffered name-calling such as the dreaded “R-word.”   The absurd fear of being labeled any politically incorrect term basically shuts down anyone in the political arena.

Because of our open-door policy for the past 55 years, we’re being balkanized from within and we are too lazy and scared to take the steps necessary to correct the mistakes (or intentional sabotage) of our past elected leaders.

Recently the state senator from Missouri, Maria Chappelle said, “I hope Trump is assassinated.” To make such a call constitutes “treason” but since she’s a minority and no one wants to be labeled the “R” word, she gets a pass. In Colorado, Denver Councilwoman Candi de Baca said, “If I get the coronavirus, I am going to attend as many MAGA rallies as I can.”  In other words, she would deliberately infect anyone who doesn’t hold her views.  Also a minority, she enjoys immunity.

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said, “Trump is a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe and a religious bigot.”

That statement condemns more than half of the American public, everyone that voted for Trump. It intentionally enflames the other half. When a national leader attacks SO virulently, it incites civil unrest, social anger, racial animosity and cultural chaos. We have to realize this is being orchestrated on purpose to further the agenda of global elites.

The Somalian immigrant and House member Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a democrat and a devout Muslim intent on installing Sharia Law in America, said, “I want all Muslims in America to make all Americans uncomfortable.” Indeed, they have made us uncomfortable and will continue to do so by continuing to escalate the acts of violence upon their avowed enemy – Christians, particularly European Christians.

If you whisk off to Hollywood, Debra Messing, a star in a disgusting homosexual sitcom, stated, “Trump puts all Americans in mortal danger.”

Earlier this year, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, (D-NY), and the man who gave driver’s licenses to the supposed 9/11 hijackers, told two Supreme Court justices, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, “You will pay the price” if they support any case against abortion rights, similar remarks were made to the latest Supreme court appointee, Barrett.

“Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous,” Chief Justice Roberts said in a statement. “All Members of the Court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter.” – We can only hope this statement is true.

The Council on American Islamic Relations works 24/7 to bring Sharia Law to America. The Muslim Brotherhood works to incorporate black minorities into that religion with the intent of overthrowing the U.S. Constitution. The greater their numbers the greater their power.  Black Lives Matter members intimidate, carry weapons and absolutely loathe the United States of America and everything it once stood for. Antifa literally chants “death to America” in the streets whilst being cheered on by the corrupt media.

With 15+ million illegal Mexicans in America, La Raza, “The Race”, works to recapture the four border states back into Mexico: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.  One demographer noted on the Tucker Carlson Show on FOX NEWs recently, that immigrants birthed more babies in American in 2019 than actual Americans.  As a matter of fact, in the same report, illegal pregnant women birthed 372,000 ‘anchor babies’ inside our borders in 2019.  (Source: Tucker Carlson, FOX News, www.cis.org)

Don Lemon, a minority-gay CNN news host said, “The most dangerous terrorists in America are white straight men.” As James Welsh said back in 1991, “The balkanization of America has already begun.”

If you are reading this blog regardless of your political affiliation , do you think our country will survive? Do you think we can import another projected 110 million “legal” immigrants from 196 countries by 2050 and survive the sociological, religious, linguistic and cultural chaos brought to our shores?

MORE TO COME…………….

Contributions by: Frosty Wooldridge

Politics, Religion, Social Topics

The Rulers We Deserve

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The Bible basically tells us we get the government we deserve, not the government we want. Whatever we sow, we will reap. There is cause/effect and reasons for all that has come upon America (and is yet to come), financially, militarily, socially and governmentally. As Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and it is us!”

Perhaps the clearest biblical passage on this subject can be found in the third chapter of Isaiah. The Lord starts out by telling Judah why He is going to haul them off into captivity in the most egregious manner. The people have abandoned their relationship with God and their duties to him. “For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.” – Isaiah 3:8

Rather than following God’s laws, they have given themselves to excessive buying of thing, and they live as NOT unto the lord. Therefore, a just God is going to devastate them in hopes of getting their attention that they might see their sin, and so He can redeem them from the consequences, if and when they repent.

Isa 3:1-5 For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support, the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water; 2 the mighty man and the warrior, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder, 3 the captain of fifty and the honorable man, the counselor and the expert artisan, and the skillful enchanter. 4 And I will make mere lads their princes and capricious children will rule over them. 5 And the people will be oppressed, each one by another, and each one by his neighbor. The youth will storm against the elder, and the inferior against the honorable. KJV

Gods tells them (and us?) that He is going to bring their society to ruin! He will take away their provision(Food Supply Shortages?). He will remove their skilled warriors and confound their vaunted military (Consider the current condition of our military and consider what Biden might do with it). He will take away their wise judges (Do we have any Godly judges left? Will Biden stack the supreme court?)and their insightful prophetic men and women, replacing them with people who cannot think straight or reason in a Godly manner ( just consider the stated of current mainstream Churches)

Honorable men will no longer be found in leadership, and will become scarcer and scarcer as time goes by. Expert craftsman will no longer be found in business and trade. Work ethic will be destroyed, and skill sets will be lost. Their musicians and poets will no longer be skilled at lifting their spirits, but will give themselves over to promoting darkness and iniquity. Inexperienced people (lads) will be their rulers, and “capricious children will rule over them.” Oppression, dishonor and conflict will grow rampant in their national life.

Isa 3:6-9 When a man lays hold of his brother in his father’s house, saying, “You have a cloak, you shall be our ruler, and these ruins will be under your charge,” 7 On that day will he protest, saying, “I will not be your healer, for in my house there is neither bread nor cloak. You should not appoint me ruler of the people.” For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their actions are against the LORD, to rebel against His glorious presence. 9 The expression of their faces bears witness against them and they display their sin like Sodom. They do not even conceal it. Woe to them for they have brought evil on themselves.

No godly man will want to govern this people. The society has become too self-centered, reprobate and evil to manage even by the wisest of men. People have become ungovernable. God’s people, (whether it be Judah then or America today), have fallen away from Him, and no longer bother to hide their sin. The people boldly violate God’s commandments as if they are immune to the consequences.

Isa 3:10 Say to the righteous that it will go well with them (in exile), for they will eat the fruit of their actions. 11 Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him, for what he deserves will be done to him. 12 O My people! Their oppressors are children, and women rule over them. O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray, and confuse the direction of your paths. KJV

Those who follow God’s laws, keep his commandments, have a love for truth and “keeps” his neighbor will find God’s peace at some level (even in captivity), but they will suffer the same fate as the wicked. Those who have abandoned God and failed to care for their neighbor will get what they deserve, to include inexperienced leadership and female domination (a real slap in this patriarchal face of Godly men). The society (this culture revolution) is leading the people astray at a runaway pace! IS it any coincidence the Harris was just Elected as the first Female “Ruler” in this country?

Isa 3:13-15 The LORD arises to contend, and stands to judge the people. 14 The LORD enters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people, “It is you who have devoured the vineyard. The plunder of the poor is in your houses. 15 “What do you mean by crushing My people, and grinding the face of the poor?” declares the Lord GOD of hosts. KJV

God now arises like a prosecutor in court and brings the official charge against Judah. The leaders of the society have “devoured the vineyard.” Those with wealth and power have thought only of themselves. They have consumed the people’s inheritance. They were entrusted with wealth and prosperity to insure the well-being of all the people, but instead consumed it all upon themselves. They have plundered that which was given to care for the poor, and that “plunder” is to be found stored up in the rich man’s house. The rich man has excess goods while the orphans, the widows and the poor go hungry.

By their mismanagement of God’s provision( In this case the Promised Land, the United States), says God, the people of Judah are “crushing the poor, grinding their faces into the ground!” So now it will be their turn to suffer. God will haul them off as slaves into captivity where they themselves will become the orphan, the widow and the poor, Are we as a nation once again being enslaved under wicked rule as punishment for our collective actions?

Walter Brueggemann, perhaps the foremost Isaiahan scholar today and someone who greatly helped my understanding of this prophet, has said, “Western culture now faces a displacement (a discontentment) that may indeed be expressed as an exile.” We have lost our sense of well-being and are dwelling in a state of fear and foreboding about our security, our future and our course of action. Indeed, our time and place is much like Isaiah’s time and place. Isaiah’s words are, therefore, important to hear lest, as Brueggemann would say, we wind up in “Babylon” “longing for home” (or olden, better days).

Isa 3:16-17 Moreover, the LORD said, “Because the daughters of Zion are proud, and walk with heads held high and seductive eyes, and go along with mincing steps, and tinkle the bangles on their feet, 17 therefore, the Lord will afflict the scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs, and the LORD will make their foreheads bare. KJV

Rarely does God chastise the women in the Bible because they have so little power and authority. But women in every age have influence and are required by God to exercise it for the good of the society. Historically, it is the women who lead the society to care for the sick, feed the poor, educate the children and leverage the culture for decency. The Women, mothers specifically have the greatest duty to a society in that they are responsible for the rearing of each new generation, the instilling of morals, education of the young and instruction to young mothers.

But the daughters of Zion here are not influencing the society for good. They are, instead, leading the society away from righteousness by their attitudes and behaviors. They are caught up in the culture of seduction and hedonism as evidenced by their commitment to vanity. Does any of this remind you of the abhorrent thinks we see in society today such as Tattoos, immodest attire, instant gratification, abortion, social media, feminism, normalization of pre-marital sex, the list seems endless.

Isa 3:18-23 In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, headbands, crescent ornaments, 19 dangling earrings, bracelets, veils, 20 headdresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, amulets, 21 finger rings, nose rings, 22 festal robes, outer tunics, cloaks, money purses, 23 hand mirrors, undergarments, turbans, and veils.

The prophet paints a picture of conspicuous consumption; e.g., Imelda Marcos with more than just shoes. He accuses the women of consuming excessively upon themselves rather than caring for their neighbor. Then God speaks judgment and outlines the consequences.

Isa 3:24-26 Now it will come about that instead of sweet perfume there will be putrefaction; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of well-set hair, a plucked-out scalp; instead of fine clothes, a donning of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty. 25 Your men will fall by the sword, and your mighty ones in battle. 26 And her gates will lament and mourn; and deserted she will sit on the ground. KJV

This is a picture of downfall and exile, and it is ugly! The men have been slain in war. The women are all gathered up, stripped of their finery, shaven and branded, clothed in sackcloth, roped together and marched into captivity. The ones who survive the death march will live as slaves. The party spirit has been replaced by lamenting and mourning by women sitting in the dirt each night on the march.

Let’s take a look at another well-off woman who gets God’s highest marks. (Let’s also remember that these principles are equally true for men.) This woman (and her husband) were very well off, blessed by God Himself, and commended on how they handled it.

Prov 31:10-20 An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. 11 The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. 12 She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. 13 She looks for wool and flax, and works with her hands in delight. 14 She is like merchant ship. She brings her food from afar. 15 She rises also while it is still night, and gives food to her household, and portions to her maidens. 16 She considers a field and buys it. From her earnings, she plants a vineyard. 17 She girds herself with strength, and makes her arms strong. 18 She senses that her gain is good. Her lamp does not go out at night. 19 She stretches out her hands to the distaff, and her hands grasp the spindle. 20 She extends her hand to the poor; and she stretches out her hands to the needy. KJV

God is sovereign over governments. He raises up one and puts down another as it suits Him and His purposes.

Prov 8:15-16 “By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. 16 “By me princes rule, even all the nobles of the earth. KJV

Isa 41:2 Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. KJV

Ps 75:6-7 For not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert comes exaltation; 7 but God is the Judge. He puts down one, and exalts another. KJV

Ps 110:5-6 The Lord is at Thy right hand. He will shatter kings in the day of His wrath.6 He will judge among the nations. He will fill them with corpses. He will shatter the chief men over a broad country. NASB

Dan 2:20-21 “Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. 21 “And it is He who changes the times and the epochs. He removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to wise men, and knowledge to men of understanding. NASB

God gives us good government when we deserve it, and He gives us bad government when we deserve that. Ultimately, He gives us what we have earned. In many ways he gives us what we think we want, as seen in the story about Israel demanding a king in 1 Sam (see below).

The story of the Prodigal Son is another example of God giving us what we demand if it is the only way we can learn. The Prodigal Son’s father eventually gave him what he demanded even though he knew it would not go well. It was the only way the hard-headed, self-willed boy could learn.

1 Sam 8:4-9 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah; 5 and they said to him, “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them. 8 Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this day — in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods — so they are doing to you also. 9 Now then, listen to their voice; however, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them.” NASB

In about 610 BC, God told the prophet Habakkuk (Hab 1:5-17) that He was going to use the pagan, brutal kingdom of Babylon to punish His people Israel. The prophet was astonished! “How can you use Babylon to punish us,” he asked. “They are more evil than are we!” God promised to punish Babylon in the long run.

But for now, they were the rod of His discipline for the Divine purpose of addressing the accumulated prolonged sin of His people in hopes of saving a remnant who would follow Him. The point is that God will give us the government we deserve, even if it is more immoral than are we.

Therefore, we cannot hold out any false hope that since we are more righteous than are they, God will not let them win. In fact, He may cause them to win!

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2 Chron 7:12-14 Then the LORD appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, 14, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. NASB

So how do we get the government we want and the country we want? How do we “humble ourselves and pray, and seek God’s face and turn from our wicked ways?” We reverse the two mistakes that got us in this mess. We develop a right relationship with God and with our neighbor. All salvation is based on relationship, and all relationship is based on trust.

We put God first, and we put our trust in Him over all other things. We obey Him in faith (and faithful obedience) even when it seems that what He asks will not work. We love him more than our possessions and acknowledge His ownership over all of them. We embrace Jesus as our Lord and not just our Savior. We abandon the corrupted gospel of prosperity and comfort and follow Jesus down that narrow, more difficult path that leads to life (Mt 7:13-14) and life more abundantly (Jn 10:10).

We stop seeking selfish pleasure and seek rather the Lord and the things with which He wants to bless us. We ask God to show us our sin and create a clean heart within us by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Ps 51:10-13). We embrace sanctification as a process rather than gratification as an idol.

Then we begin again to care for our neighbor, particularly our kinsmen, the orphan, the widow, the homeless, the hungry, the sick and the needy. We become rightly related (righteous) with our God and his laws. How do we do that? What are the practical steps we must take in order to right the ship?

Matt 7:12-14 “Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. 13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. 14 “For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it. NASB

It helps to understand the path that was wide and easy that led to our destruction before we can embrace the path that is narrow and difficult that leads to life. A little review of history is in order.

Prior to 1950, all healthcare, all welfare, all education and feeding the hungry in this country were financed and managed entirely by Christians and, often through their churches or local communities reflective of their values. Every revival in America (and elsewhere) was accompanied by the proliferation of religious societies designed and purposed to care for their people. These included orphanages, schools for the needy, blind and deaf, temperance societies, abolition groups, groups to promote literacy and biblical knowledge, societies to promote moral reform, business reform, political reform, dietary reform, and countless others. Secular groups often populated with Christians prang up as well, such as the Lion’s Club, the BPOE, the Rotary, etc.

None of these were funded or managed by the federal government. They flowed out of people’s response to the Divine call to love their neighbor and to steward the earth. Even local governments largely reflected and supported the Judeo-Christian values of their people.

All hospitals were funded and operated in local communities by mostly religious people without any government assistance or interference. All schools were funded and operated in local communities by mostly religious people without any government assistance or interference. All welfare assistance organizations were funded and operated in local communities by mostly religious people without any government assistance or interference.

Soup kitchens, food lines, shelters were all funded and operated in local communities by mostly religious people without any government assistance or interference. Funding for these often became the self-imposed responsibility of the wealthy members of society in support of local efforts to care for the less well-off.

Then after the war, America began to prosper. Goods and services which had long been scarce began to proliferate. Many other goods and services began to be mass manufactured and, therefore, available to the common man. America began to consume goods and services at an, heretofore, unheard of pace. The American Dream became redefined in terms of having stuff instead of being somebody.

Mass marketing followed mass manufacturing, and covetousness and greed were changed from sins to virtues within the culture. Buying was in. Saving was less popular and giving became a much lower priority. If the good life was available to all, why should I be concerned about my neighbor? Go for the gusto! You only go around once! Radio and printed media were replaced by television, pegan holidays wete advertised, even elevated to the level of idolatry and we became seduced by the most intense Jedi Mind Trick ever known to man – YOU NEED THIS!

Americans abandoned their responsibilities for providing education to their own offspring, welfare and healthcare for their selves and neighbors. Soon a vacuum developed within our society (as intended by the federal government) in these three areas. Imeditaly the politicians stepped in offering to fill the void.

The Department of Health, Education and Welfare was founded in 1953 in the Eisenhower Administration. The Hill-Burton Act to build public hospitals was passed in 1946, but government funded hospitals were not common until the 1950’s. Minimal Social Security for a few was proposed in 1935, but national Social Security for all was not instituted until circa 1950. Medicare was added in 1965.

Some in the federal government were motivated to care for the poor and needy. (We were still a relatively God-fearing society at large.) But many in the federal government saw it as the golden opportunity to gain control over the states, the local communities and the masses. Within two decades after the end of the war, the federal government had captured control of all three areas and was redefining all three as entitlements. This allowed them to confiscate more and more of our personal funds to pay for them. What we had once done voluntarily as a nation we were now coerced to fund but not allowed to manage or control.

Church-based schools would never have taught Darwinism nor would they have promoted so many other secular values and practices as are promoted in schools today. While we pursued the god of Consumerism, others took over our culture by taking over the God ordained responsibilities we had abandoned. Having lost control, we are now finding it nearly impossible to get it back. Once they had the levers of power, they moved the entire culture in a direction we had never intended or imagined. We are only now waking up to see just how much this is true.

If you give some in the government credit for good motives, the problem still remains that the government was never graced by God to do the tasks that it has co-opted and that we have abandoned. Lacking both calling and spiritual empowerment, the government administrates these areas badly (to put it mildly). It CANNOT do it well. It is neither called nor graced by God to do it. Charles Simpson used to say, “If we gave the government authority over the Sahara Desert, in ten-years there would be worldwide shortage of sand.

So even when the government tries to manage healthcare, welfare and education, it fails. It is not their responsibility. Never was. It is ours, and we need to take it back, or our land will never be healed.

But how, you say? How do we take such a huge responsibility back from such a monolithic power as the government and the growing number of people who see the government as their Uncle Sugar? Many are calling for a large, organized, expensive political battle to recover the culture and the land. But that is the way of the Zealots of Jesus day and not the way that Jesus taught us.

Besides, it is too late for that. We are already outnumbered in our representative democracy. Now we have only one response, one hope. We must return unto the Lord and do the things He told us to do. It will not be easy. We lost it a little at a time and we will have to take it back that way also. It may seem impossible, but we have a big God with Whom all things are possible.

Matt 19:25-27 And when the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” 26 And looking upon them Jesus said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” NASB

Mark 9:22-23 But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” 23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If You can!’ All things are possible to him who believes.” NASB

Phil 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. NASB

Matt 17:20-21 And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you. NASB

The longest journey begins with the smallest step. Once we begin a journey with God, He adds His supernatural power to it to make it become more successful and fulfilling than we could have imagined on our own. If we commit ourselves to the right course, He will predestine it to success (Rom 8:28-30). God just needs to see the right commitments in our minds and hearts.

We need to commit ourselves to take up our responsibilities in those areas that we have previously abandoned. We need to make it our business that children are properly educated at home and taught in the lord, that people learn to properly care for treir health and that people receive the support they need for basic things like food, clothing and shelter starting with your own family. Did I mention that it will take faith?

Practical application is required at this point. We cannot swallow the whole elephant at once (Ray Stevens), so we must take one bite at a time. When God sees us committed to the right direction, He will move to address the big picture. For instance, He may give us a government that can think straight, probably one congressman at a time

Why are we collectively sitting around waiting on God to give us a righteous leader (President) that we neither have earned not deserve? For the sin of abortion alone we deserve nothing less than total destruction!

Some might say that this is too big of a task to be successful. When the exiles were released from Babylon and returned to Israel in 538 BC, they found the temple and the wall around Jerusalem both in total ruins. They could not survive as a people unless they rebuilt both of them, but it seemed like an enormous task. And then there were daily distractions and powerful enemies focused on causing them to fail. Initially it seemed impossible. Their first efforts to rebuild the wall were thwarted by their political enemies.

Then God sent Nehemiah to get the work done. Nehemiah taught the people three principles from God that enabled them to rebuild the wall completely in just a few short months. They were: (1) half the people must pray while the other half work, (2) each man must wear his sword while he builds, and (3) each family must build the wall in front of their own house.

The lesson for us is clear. The battle involves both prayer and the willingness to stand firmly, with your swordif necessary. We must be spiritually armed by praying and following Gods laws. And we each start with our own households and family because without that we will perish as a people.

In summary, we do not like where our country is headed, morally and or financially. We believe our present government (no matter which party) is only going to make it worse, not better. We desperately want God to intervene and rescue us. Prayerful Bible study has shown us that we are getting what we deserve because we have consistently and willfully as a people violated Gods Commandments. We have dishonored God and continue to do so with a vengeance.

God is no longer first in our hearts. Then we see that we have not loved our neighbor nor heard the cry of the needy. We have consumed our prosperity largely on ourselves. If we will humble ourselves in obedience to God, He will hear from Heaven and heal our land. That means that if we want to rescue our nation, our culture and our children’s future, we must put God first and because lovers of the truth.

Let the government build roads, hold elections and provide for our national defense. Let’s get them out of health, education and welfare. Because the government has become the source of all benevolence, it has become “God” to many people and its values are reshaping our culture and beliefs. When the people of God reflect God as the source of all benevolence, the people will see God as our Source and Provider, and we can reshape the values of the culture.

It is not mathematically possible to tax our way out of debt. We have gone too far into debt for that remedy to work. We must cut spending and that means all foreign aid, most military expenditures, all entitlements and a massive reduction of federal government. This is the only hope we have to ever resolve the national debt.

Polygamy, Religion

Duties of a Christian Wife

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In Titus 2:3-5, women are given some instructions regarding their husbands, children and homes. “The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children…that the word of God be not blasphemed.” One thing we notice about these verses is that the older women are instructed to teach the younger women how to love their husbands. In our society we have the idea that when we fall in love with a man, this love (emotion) will keep the marriage together. This is far from the truth. Of course, emotional love is part of marriage, but the kind of love that the Scripture is referring to here in these verses has to be taught and learned. It is God’s love as spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13. We might also call it character in our modern society. The first step in learning how to love a husband, or anyone else for that matter, is to receive Christ into our hearts and let Him become our teacher. As we love Him and He loves us, that love spills over to those around us. We learn how to love others through reading, studying and applying God’s Word to our hearts and our lives. Those who are older and more experienced can share with the younger ladies in order that they may be spared many heartaches by heeding their godly advice. Let us not think that we have all the answers but truly be open to the advice of those who are older and wiser than yourselves, however you need a submissive spirit to be able to learn from others. A necessary ingredient for a compatible union, in spite of the abuses that occur when men are wrongly taught about their headship, is that women submit to their husbands.

What does God expect of women in this area? First of all, we must understand that submission is an attitude and not just an action. Submission begins in the heart. There is a story about a little boy that was instructed by his teacher to sit down and be quiet. Because of his rebellious nature he did not want to do this, but was forced to by his teacher. Later, the children in the class were chiding him by saying, “Boy, you really sat down and shut up when the teacher approached you with the paddle.” The rebellious boy replied,”I may have been sitting down on the outside, but I was still standing up on the inside.” Many times women who claim to be submissive are only outwardly going through the motions of submission while inwardly they are still resenting their position in life. A prayer of submission would be in order: “Father, help me to be content in the role you created me for and give me a submissive spirit, not only toward my mate, but also toward each member in the body of Christ. Let me serve and not expect to be served. Create within me a lamb-like spirit even as Christ our Lord had. Amen.” Of course, as we have mentioned, there are limits to submission as it should always be “as unto the Lord.” We must first submit to God and then the problems involving submission to others will be resolved by Him. Some results that can occur when women are not in a right relationship with men are divorce, rebellious children and emotional problems. One of the main causes for these problems is an evil spiritual force of female domination. In I Corinthians 11:3, Ephesians 5:22-25, and Ephesians 6:1-3, the divine order for families is stated. The husband is the head, then the wife is second in command, with the children in obedience to them. When the woman seeks to usurp this authority and rule the home, havoc results and the home is left wide open for Satanic attack. “As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths” (Isaiah 3:12). In our land today, children are rebellious, causing strife in the homes, and women have become bossy and demanding. It is no wonder homes are falling apart. This type of spirit in a woman is a “Jezebel spirit.” Just as Jezebel ruled her husband, King Ahab, in the Bible (I Kings 21:25), many women today are guilty of the same sin. The Lord would have our homes be examples of love, and the authority should be exercised in love. When someone has a “Jezebel spirit,” it subtly manipulates the lives of everyone around them. Should we be guilty of this domineering spirit, let us ask the Lord to deliver us and create within us a sweet submissive spirit that is pleasing to the Lord. We will then be willing to listen to our husbands, knowing that the logic God gave man is for the protection of the woman. A woman must begin by seeing the kind of woman she is. The woman in Proverbs 31:28, “Her children arise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her,” or the one in Proverbs 21:19, “It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman.”your desire should be to fit into the category of the first type, for you certainly do not want to be referred to as angry and contentious.

But I wonder, if you honestly examined your hearts and motives and let the Lord turn His searchlight on you, if you might not see some areas where anger and contention do exist in your lives. Perhaps you do not openly voice our anger, but inside hold it toward your husbands or children; and have feelings of resentment toward them. One of the things that begin to erode a marriage away is when the woman begins to speak critically to the husband. The things you say to and about your husband can either be uplifting and encouraging or they can bring disharmony and hurt. Little critical words will lead to a dissatisfaction with you and can escalate to bring about a divorce. No woman should threaten to divorce her husband just to get her way, or manipulate her husband to do something they really don’t want to do. When a woman threatens divorce this is like speaking words of murder to your marriage. Words can accumulate in the spirit and cause one to react lovingly or hateful by what is spoken. The above verses warn the wife not to return “railing for railing” but “blessing for a railing.” As kind words are returned this stops the cycle of “railing for railing.” Proverbs 15:1 says, “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.”

In closing i would like to address wives speaking and even teaching in the church. 1 Timothy 2:11-15 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing. 1 Corinthians 14:34-36 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.

Holidays, Religion

Is Christmas Christian?

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Should Christians Celebrate Christmas?

While most people recognize the Christmas season as the time of year for parties and celebrations, many are unaware it is also the time of year with the highest suicide rate.

In recent decades, many have sought to “secularize” (Actually re-secularize) Christmas by removing from it all references to Jesus Christ and His birth. Here in the United States, legal battles have successfully removed manger scenes from courthouse squares, and have created liabilities that prevent most school choirs from singing Christmas carols with “religious themes”. All while promoting Santa Clause as something to be worshipped as a God.

Millions of evangelicals have been deeply troubled by these trends. Feeling that they are in a battle with hostile secular forces that seek to eliminate everything that points to Christ and the Bible, they want to “reclaim” Christmas from the secularists. while not realizing that it rightly belongs to the pagans and secularists in the first place.

Millions more are simply turned off or offended by the crass commercialism associated with the Christmas season. Christmas has become a sales gimmick in the modern westernized world. Christmas-related sales are the key component of yearly profit margins for most retail sales operations. That is why, by the beginning of November, familiar Christmas music blares from the public address systems of malls across North America. Retailers are trying to get the public “in the mood” to begin Christmas shopping (Spending) early.

Decrying the commercial exploitation of the holiday season—and deeply bothered by efforts to remove all reference to God and the Bible from public life—many well-meaning Christians are demanding that Christ be put back into Christmas. The secularists, they claim, have hijacked a sacred Christian holiday for their own ends.

Western society is increasingly described as “post-Christian,” and secular elites have been dubbed “the new pagans.” In such an environment, should Christians join together to somehow reclaim Christmas? In a society that is more and more disconnected from God, can this disconnect be healed by encouraging more references to Jesus Christ during the Christmas season?

What approach does God want His people to take regarding Christmas? Is Jesus Christ, in fact, “the reason for the season?” You may be shocked to learn that Christmas is actually not Christian in its origins! For centuries before Jesus Christ’s birth in Bethlehem, December 25 was associated with decorating evergreen trees, exchanging gifts and carousing at parties and celebrations.

How did Christmas become the primary “Christian” holiday? Is it—and can it ever be—Christian at all? You can search the New Testament from start to finish, and you will never find a reference to any sort of Christmas celebration. Moreover, you will never read of a religious service held to commemorate the birth of Jesus.

But if the first Christians did not celebrate Christmas, then why did they not do so? When and how did this celebration achieve such prominence on the calendar of professing-Christian churches?

What Is The Origin Of Christmas?

Did you know that there were Christmas celebrations in Rome long before there were any in Jerusalem? How could a holiday that most associate with Jesus Christ of Nazareth have its origins in Babylon and Egypt many centuries before His birth? And how could such a holiday come to be so widely accepted as Christian?

To help us understand, we can look at the word “Christmas” itself. It means “mass of Christ,” and has its origins in the practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Yet even Catholic sources acknowledge that Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church, and that it does not have apostolic origins. Notice: “Christmas (i.e. the Mass of Christ), in the Christian Church, the festival of the nativity of Jesus Christ… As late as 245 Origen, in his eighth homily on Leviticus, repudiates as sinful the very idea of keeping the birthday of Christ ‘as if he were a king Pharaoh.’ The first certain mention of Dec. 25 is in a Latin chronographer of A.D. 354, first published entire by Mommsen.… [December 25 was] a Mithraic feast and is by the chronographer above referred to, but in another part of his compilation, termed natalis invicti solis, or birthday of the unconquered Sun” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., article: “Christmas”).

The New Testament makes certain key dates plain; for example, it tells us that Jesus Christ died on the day of the Passover. Yet Scripture does not mention the date of Jesus’ birth, and does not recount any Christians celebrating His birthday. In fact, the Bible associates the celebration of birthdays with the practices of heathen kings, and never mentions such celebrations in a positive light. This is why Origen—one of the early “Fathers” of the Roman Church, writing in the third century—was shocked at the very idea of celebrating the Savior’s birthday.

When the early Roman Church established a festival to celebrate the Messiah’s birth, it timed that festival to coincide with an existing pagan festival celebrating the birthday of the sun god. By co-opting existing pagan rituals and customs, the church sought to win the pagan masses to its idea of Christianity, allowing converts to continue to practice familiar customs—just calling them by different names.

The “mother and child” motif in religion was well known in the ancient pagan world. The ancient Babylonians and Egyptians worshipped a “Madonna” whom they revered as the “Queen of Heaven”—a title that the Roman Church would apply centuries later to Mary, the mother of Jesus. In Egypt, Isis was the mother and Horus was the child. In Mesopotamia it was Ishtar and Tammuz.

These stories trace back to Semiramis and Nimrod, in the early years after Noah’s flood. Nimrod was a mighty hunter (see Genesis 10–11), and led mankind’s rebellion against God at the Tower of Babel. Nimrod was one of the chief architects of the human civilization that began at Babylon, and that spread around the world as people migrated to repopulate the earth after the great flood.

The real origin of Christmas goes back to these ancient times, before it was carried forward by an apostate “Christian” church. The winter solstice—the day with the shortest daylight in the northern hemisphere—was anciently associated with the birth of the sun god. It was a time of festivity. Called Saturnalia by the Romans, this holiday was a time very reminiscent of our modern Christmas, when gifts were given, hostilities ceased, civic functions were suspended and parties were held. “It was usual for friends to make presents to one another; all animosity ceased, no criminals were executed, schools were shut, war was never declared, but all was mirth, riot, and debauchery” (Lempriere’s Classical Dictionary, article: “Saturnalia”).

Jesus Was Not Born In Winter!

“Christmas” festivities are not just “pre-Christian”—dating to pagan worship of the sun god—they in fact have no connection to the date of birth of the true Messiah, Jesus Christ. How do we know this? While the Bible does not explicitly tell us the exact day of Jesus’ birth, it gives us clear evidence of the approximate time. From Scripture, it becomes obvious that winter is the one season in which Jesus could not have been born.

Luke tells us that on the night of Jesus’ birth, the shepherds were still keeping watch over their flocks in the field (Luke 2:8). In ancient Israel, the rainy season began after the Feast of Tabernacles (which generally occurs in early October). By November, when the weather was turning cool and wet, the shepherds had already brought their flocks in from pasture and were keeping them in winter quarters. Shepherds were no longer spending the nights in the fields with the sheep, as they had done from the beginning of spring through the early fall season.

Another vital piece of evidence is overlooked by most. From Luke 1:35–36 we learn that John the Baptist, born to Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, was approximately six months older than Jesus. We are told that John’s father, Zacharias, was an elderly priest officiating in the temple, burning incense on the altar when an angel appeared to tell him that he and his wife would have a son who would prepare the way for the Messiah (vv. 8–17). We know approximately when the angel made this announcement, because we are told that Zacharias was “of the course of Abijah” (v. 5, KJV).

What was the “course of Abijah”? Centuries earlier, in the days of King David, there had been many priests. King David divided them into 24 “courses” (or groups) that served by rotation in the temple (1 Chronicles 24:1–19). The course of Abijah was the eighth of the 24 courses, and would normally have done its first week of service around the end of May. As Pentecost, the second of the three great pilgrim festivals, came the week after the eighth course served—and all 24 courses served during each of the three festival seasons—Zacharias could not have begun his return home until after the first week of June, or thereabouts. If John the Baptist was conceived shortly after his return home, near the middle of June, his birth would have been nine months later—around mid-March. Jesus, who was six months younger, would thus have been born soon after mid-September. This, of course, would have been while the shepherds were still staying with the fields at night with their flocks (Luke 2:8).

Consider also the traditional image of the three wise men who, together with the shepherds, are commonly represented standing in the stable to celebrate the newly born Messiah.

The Bible nowhere says that there were three wise men, and it makes clear that they did not come until at least a few weeks after His birth—by which time Jesus and His parents were living in a house (Matthew 2:11). We are told that these Magi came from the east. In first century parlance, this usually meant that they came from beyond the Euphrates River (which was then the eastern border of the Roman Empire). East of the Euphrates was the Parthian Empire, home to many remnants of the ten tribes of Israel who had gone into Assyrian captivity more than seven centuries earlier.

The Magi arrived at the king’s palace in Jerusalem several weeks after Jesus’ birth, looking for the Messiah. They had seen a mysterious “star” in the east, which had prompted them to make their journey to Judea. Upon hearing from the Magi about the timing of the star’s appearance, and what it portended, Herod ordered the slaughter of all boys in Bethlehem aged two years and younger (Matthew 2:16).

We know from Luke 2:22 that Jesus’ parents presented Him in the temple when He was 40 days old (cf. Leviticus 12:2–4), so they were still in the Jerusalem area when He was nearly six weeks old. Yet the family fled to Egypt, spurred by a warning Joseph received in a dream, immediately after the Magi visited them (Matthew 2:13–14). Clearly, the Magi did not arrive until well after Christ’s birth.

The Christmas Tree:

Clearly, the bible does not agree with this practice and nor should any real Christian, unless you are as upright as a palm tree or a heathen who enjoys vain customs.

jeremiah 10: 1-5:

1.Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: 2. Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. 3. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. 4. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. 5. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

In the ancient Egyptian tradition, many celebrations occurred around the time of the Winter Solstice, which is the shortest day and the longest night of the year. The Egyptians believed that this was when the sun god, Ra returned in strength. The solstice symbolized a time of renewal and hope. To celebrate, the people filled their homes with evergreen boughs. They chose the evergreen trees because they maintained their color throughout the harsh winter months. Other people groups, including Roman and Celtic cultures, hung evergreens during the Winter Solstice in celebration, and to keep away evil spirits and illness.

Until the mid-nineteenth century, the Christmas tree was seen as a pagan tradition in the United States. The early Puritan settlers did not accept the tradition because of its cultic roots. In 1659, a law was established in Massachusetts outlawing the celebration of Christmas in the new colonies, with the exception of church attendance. Hanging decorations of any kind was outlawed, especially Christmas trees. As America ventured further from our true Christian roots the tradition became more accepted.

In 1848, the London News published an image of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert with their family celebrating around their decorated tree. This photo and its reprints in America began the modern popularization of the Christmas tree, with its glistening lights, shiny bobbles, and awaiting presents.

The Pagan Origins Of Holly:

In Roman mythology, holly was the sacred plant of the god Saturn, and to honor him at the Saturnalia festival, the Romans gave each other gifts of holly wreaths.

When Christians began to celebrate the birth of Jesus, they risked being persecuted for their new religion, and to avoid detection, they would place holly wreaths in their houses. As far as passers-by were concerned they were celebrating Saturnalia, not Christmas.

The Druid Origins Of Mistletoe:

Mistletoe was revered as a sacred plant by the Celts, the Norse, and the North American Native Americans.

Druids believed that mistletoe could protect against thunder and lightning. Priests would use a golden sickle to cut a piece of mistletoe from an oak tree, catching the branches before they reached the ground. The mistletoe would then be cut into small pieces and distributed amongst the people.

Mistletoe was also recognized as a druidic symbol of joy and peace. If enemies met each other underneath the woodland mistletoe, they were obliged to put down their weapons and form a truce until the following day.

This is where the custom of hanging sprig ball of mistletoe from the ceiling and kissing under it originates from.

Romans Made Laurel Popular:

Laurel or bay leaves were popular with the pagan Romans because the leaves were sacred to Apollo, the sun god.

The ancient Romans used decorative wreaths, made from laurel wreaths as a sign of victory, and it is believed that this is where the seasonal hanging of wreaths on doors came from. They actually celebrated the Murder “Victory over” of Christ Seasonally with the display of wreaths.

In northern Europe, laurel leaves were not commonplace, and instead, evergreen branches were gathered and used to decorate houses at Christmas, either as swags or shaped into wreaths.

Because of the pagan connections surrounding ivy and laurel, early Christians did not use these to decorate the inside of their churches.

Odin The Pegan God:

Despite the fact that our modern-day image of Father Christmas has largely been shaped by a 1930s Coca-Cola advertising campaign, he most definitely has Pagan roots.

Children all over the world are told that Father Christmas developed from St. Nicholas, but those people that follow Paganism know there is more to the story than that. There was a Pagan god named Odin, often depicted as a chubby old man with a white beard who wore a long flowing cloak.

It is, therefore, a combination of these two characters, and a liberal sprinkling of Coca Cola advertising that has resulted in who we now call Father Christmas or Santa Claus.

Red And Green Christmas Colors:

The traditional Christmas colors of red and green are complementary colors that represent fertility for the pagan religion.

Pagan derived decorations that are still seen at Christmas time include the green leaves and red berries of holly, mistletoe, ivy and wreaths.

Red and green are the traditional colors for Christmas tree baubles, but in recent years many more colors have become available, often changing yearly with the latest fashions. In recent years turquoise, pink, purple, and orange have been seen on the best-dressed trees to represent the ever changing representation of Pegan fertility IE, sodalities and transgenders.

Celtic Yule Log Mythology:

The Yule log played a major role in the Yule festivities, with a piece of the previous year’s log being saved to start the fire the following year.

Traditionally, it was considered unlucky to buy a log and instead it was harvested from the householder’s land or received as a gift.

Once brought into the house and placed ceremoniously in the fireplace it was decorated with greenery, smothered with alcohol, and dusted with flour before being set on fire. The log would then burn all night, before smoldering for twelve days.

Celtic mythology told the stories of the Oak King and Holly King, with the Oak representing the time from the Winter Solstice to Summer Solstice, and the Holly representing the time from the Summer Solstice to Winter Solstice.

Christmas Caroling:

But where does this tradition come from? You might be surprised to learn that it has its roots in an ancient pagan ritual called “wassailing”. 

There are two traditions of wassailing. The house-visiting wassail is where groups of people go from house to house, wishing their neighbors health and good fortune for the new year. The orchard-visiting wassail is a ritual for waking up the apple tree spirits for the coming spring and to ensure a good harvest in Autumn. 

In the house-visiting wassail, people would prepare some sort of beverage, like cider or “wassail”, a hot drink made of mulled ale, curdled cream, roasted apples, eggs, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and sugar. It sometimes had a frothy top that earned it the name “Lamb’s Wool”.

The wassail was carried in a large vessel, either shaped like a giant, stout goblet, or like a large bowl with handles on the sides.

Going from house to house, the group of people would sing songs in the hopes of receiving a little food or a few coins. Sometimes, they would challenge the homeowner to riddles or use a combination of wit and persuasion to try to gain entry to the house. If successful, the homeowner rewarded them with food or money.

In thanks for his kindness, the wassailers would offer the homeowner a drink from the bowl or they’d drink to the health of him and his family. Wealthy farmers or lords of manor were often targeted and if they refused to donate or were thought to be stingy, they risked getting their property vandalized

What Difference Does It Make?

Almost every year, newspapers and magazines will publish articles pointing out that Christmas customs originate not from the Bible, but from pagan antiquity. Most readers, when faced with these facts, simply say: “I don’t see what difference it makes,” and continue with their Christmas preparations. Millions of professing Christians insist that, regardless of what pagan practices might lie behind the origin of Christmas, they celebrate the holiday to honor Christ.

Does this make Christmas acceptable to God?

Several centuries ago, Scripture became widely available in English as Protestant believers threw off the shackles of the medieval Roman Catholic monopoly on the Bible. Eager Bible students found themselves wrestling with many issues as they looked into God’s word. One issue was the celebration of Christmas. What conclusion did they reach? According to the eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica: “In 1644 the English puritans forbade any merriment or religious services [on Christmas] by act of Parliament, on the ground that it was a heathen festival” (article: “Christmas”). When King Charles II restored the monarchy, this ban was lifted, but the ban remained in many of North America’s early colonial settlements. Not until the 1840s was Christmas accepted as an acceptable holiday in Massachusetts.

Ask yourself a simple question. Should those who claim to be Christian take the Bible seriously? In Jeremiah 10:2, God declared to His people through the pen of the prophet: “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles.” He went on to state that “the customs of the peoples are futile,” that is, they are utterly empty and useless. God wants His people to follow His instructions, not to look at pagan practices and seek to copy them. What kind of empty, pagan customs was Jeremiah talking about in Jeremiah 10? The specific example in that chapter involved going out into the woods, cutting a tree and bringing it home to set it upright and decorate it (vv. 3–4). Does this sound amazingly like putting up a Christmas tree? It should.

Jesus declared: “And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7). Those who wish to use Christmas to worship Christ are faced with a dilemma: do they follow the pattern of worship prescribed in Scripture, or do they cling to cherished customs, regardless of when and how those customs originated? Jesus censured many of the religious leaders of His day because they rejected the commandments of God in order to keep their own traditions (v. 9).

Would Jesus say those same words to you, based upon your actions and your choices?

When the ancient Israelites were ready to enter the Promised Land, they were warned against adopting religious customs from the surrounding nations (Deuteronomy 12:30–31). God told them instead to observe all the things that He instructed them, neither adding nor taking away from what He had taught (v. 32).

So, instead of seeking to put Christ back into Christmas, we must acknowledge that He was never there in the first place! Christmas never was Christian! True Christians will give it back to the pagans, to whom it has belonged all along! Instead of borrowing from the world around us, we ought to take our religious customs and practices directly from the Bible. Then we will be worshiping our Creator in spirit and truth, just as He teaches us to do (John 4:24).

Politics, Polygamy, Religion

Christian Polygamy

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Christian Polygamy:

Most Christians today claim that Polygamy is un-biblical, I do not agree with this teaching. The Bible clearly teaches that Polygamy is an acceptable and holy lifestyle.  The reason I hear most often is that the Bible says a man is to only have ONE wife, Again this is just not true – In fact MANY godly people in the bible have multiple wives. Today I am going to deal with the most common barrier to polygamy.

The “One Wife” Argument:

The “Argument”: there are three “One Wife” Bible Verses 1- “A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one [3391] wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; ” (1_Timothy 3:2.) 2-“Let the deacons be the husbands of one [3391] wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. ” (1_Timothy 3:12.) 3-“If any [who would be an ELDER] be blameless, the husband of one [3391] wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.” (Titus 1:6.) These three “one wife” verses, of course, are only instructions to bishops, deacons, and elders and to no others in the Churches. Still, though, these three “one wife” verses are often the only “barrier” to help fellow Christians be able to see the Spirituality of Christian Polygamy.

A closer study of the Greek texts provides some deeper insight, that the translation to the word “ONE” is not necessarily an absolutely accurate translation for those “one wife” verses In the original texts of the Scriptures, the Greek word being translated to “one” in those three “one wife” verses is MIA. This may be quickly discovered by way of the “Strong’s number” for the translation of “one” in those verses. According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, that “Strong’s number”, in those verses, is [3391], which is, MIA. That Greek word, MIA, was, IN FACT, also translated as FIRST in a number of other passages throughout the Scriptures. The Bible simply teaches and establishes a  “first wife” principle of how bishops, deacons, and elders should not be divorced, that they still be married to their “FIRST wife”, namely the “wife of their youth” (Malachi 2:14,16), all in still naturally following the requirements of Exodus 21:10 and the doctrine of not putting away a wife as per Deuteronomy 24:1-4. (The principle of how the Scriptural reference, “wife of thy youth”, refers to a man’s “first wife” Indeed, while many see the “first wife” understanding, others take the view that the verses mean ” A wife”, while others still insist the passages mean ” ONE wife”.

It would seem that, even among those who already know that Christian Polygamy is Scriptural, there have also become varied denominational views as to the actual meaning of the “one wife” verses — a sort of new set of denominational divisions even among fellow believers in Christian Polygamy. Some suggest that if Paul had wanted to communicate “first wife” in those passages, he would have used “protos” instead. Could be. Perhaps. But that’s not a definitive. For indeed, there’s no definitive basis to say that it HAD to be “protos”. Why so? Because it could indeed just as easily be that he could use “MIA” for first. This is because other verses (e.g., Acts 20:7 and others) were also translated as “first” –and rightly so.

Matthew 28:1,

Mark 16:2,

Luke 24:1,

John 20:1,

John 20:19

Acts 20:7,

1_Corinthians 16:2,

Titus 3:10

Except for the last one there, all of those are about the “FIRST day of the week”, translating “MIA” as “FIRST”. In Titus 3:10, it is truly clear and correct that “MIA” had been translated as “first”: Example: “A man [444] that is an heretick [141] after [3326] the first [3391] and [2532] second [1208] admonition [3559] reject [3868] (5737);” (Titus 3:10.) So now while I fully understand language and use of feminine and all that, the fact remains that “MIA” CAN be translated as “first”. And likewise, one cannot insist that the Greek word, “protos” (as it is indeed translated as “first” several times in other verses), is the only word which would have been used if to convey the meaning of “first”. That is, one cannot exclude “MIA” from being translated as “first” by insisting that ONLY “protos” is the word which would have been used if the meaning of “first” was that which was being conveyed.   After all, if that were true, then what of those eight verses where “first” is NOT translated from “protos”, but rather from “MIA”? So what we have here is a pair of “COULD-BE’s”, with no definitive resolution. It CAN NOT be definitively declared that “MIA wife” in 1_Timothy 3:2,12 and Titus 1:6 COULD NOT have meant “first wife”.

LOTS MORE TO COME ON THIS SUBJECT!!!!

Health, Religion

What Does The Bible Say We Should Eat?

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What Should We Eat?

The dietary laws about “clean” and “unclean” meats are among the clearest instructions found in the Bible. For thousands of years these laws have been a striking mark of identity separating God’s people from the world (Leviticus 20:25–26). Consequently, for centuries, these same instructions have been a source of controversy and confusion among various religious groups who all claim to get their beliefs from the same book—the Bible. Some have felt that “these laws express God’s will” and as such are wise, reasonable, and beneficial dietary regulations revealing God’s care for the health of His people. This public health focus of those dietary laws was espoused by Maimonides, the great Jewish philosopher of the Middle Ages in Spain and many other notable scholars However, other theologians have openly referred to the Leviticus dietary guidelines as meaningless, repulsive, arbitrary and irrational ideas that originated in primitive superstitions and not in the mind of God. These theologians have confidently asserted: there are no logical explanations for many of the guidelines—that health was definitely not their purpose; that it is a waste of time for Christians to study this section of Scripture. They have asked, What has all this to do with religion? Some have even stated, “The Scriptures do not claim that health is a factor in the dietary laws, though possibly hygiene was a by-product. Yet God said His laws were for our good, prolonging our lives (Deuteronomy 5:29, 33; 10:13). His dietary ordinances were not arbitrary. Their purpose was to benefit us. That being so, why would God later inspire a New Testament that supposedly shows “Christ repealed all the Leviticus regulations on unclean meats and practices” ? Why would an all-wise Creator function in such a contradictory manner? If you have ever pondered such questions, perhaps it’s time you really looked into the subject to determine for yourself what the real truth of the matter is.

Prove All Things:

The God of the Bible challenges each of us to “prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21 KJV). The answers could change your life and immensely impact your health! The Scriptures reveal several important reasons for the dietary laws. In Exodus we learn that God chose the nation of Israel for a special purpose (Exodus 19:5–6). Interestingly, the dietary laws were designed to make the Israelites distinct from other nations. Why? God told Moses, “I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples. You shall therefore distinguish between clean beasts and unclean…. And you shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine” (Leviticus 20:24–26). God chose Israel for the purpose of becoming a model nation—a light and example to the world. “Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?” (Deuteronomy 4:6–8). God separated Israel from other nations so the results of His laws could be clearly seen by the other peoples and to show the wonderful benefits provided by His righteous ways. The dietary laws were also designed to promote wise management and efficient utilization of the environmental resources that God entrusted to mankind. The instructions about “clean” and “unclean” foods are important in fulfilling the commission given in Genesis 1:28 and 2:15 to “tend and keep” the earth. To rightfully understand the dietary laws, they must be seen in the context of God’s purpose.

Chew The Cud

Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 are the primary passages in the Bible that discuss this subject. These chapters give very specific information summarized in simple, easy-to-understand principles. Today, however, the discoveries of modern science are revealing just how practical and important these laws really are. Beginning in Leviticus 11:1–3, we read that “the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying… ‘These are the animals which you may eat among all the beasts’ that are on the earth… whatever divides the hoof having cloven hooves and chewing the cud.’” This describes plant-eating mammals (herbivores) classified as ruminants. A ruminant is “the name given to a grazing animal that has a highly specialized digestive system and splits the hoof’” (World Book Encyclopedia, 1995). These animals have four-chambered stomachs that convert grasses that are inedible to humans and other animals into nutritious, high quality protein products (meat and milk specifically) that humans can then use for sustenance. Examples of such clean animals would be all cattle, sheep, goats, deer, bison, moose, antelope, gazelles, caribou and giraffes. They are all herbivores that obtain their food by grazing or browsing on grasses and other plants. From the standpoint of wise environmental management, these guidelines make a lot of sense. Vast areas of the globe are covered by grasslands (savannas, veldts, pampas), which are often called marginal lands because they do not have enough rainfall to support the production of food crops like corn or wheat. “The only way billions of acres of grassland can be used for human benefit is via ruminants” (Dairy Council Digest, Jan.–Feb. 1973). Grass-fed animals also produce meat that has a lower fat content than grain-fed animals—which we now realize is a health benefit. The clean animals that God permitted His model nation to eat—designated simply by split hooves and cud-chewing—were designed to produce nutritious food in an economical and ecologically sound manner. These guidelines were given long before the sciences of ecology, economics and nutrition. This was one of the benefits that God wanted the world to see through the example of the nation of Israel.

Hold the Hog:

The dietary laws regarding cud-chewing beasts also prohibit the consumption of all carnivorous animals and omnivorous animals for very logical reasons. God created clean animals to provide food and by-products for human use. He created animals unsuitable for human consumption for other purposes. Carnivores, as beasts of prey play an important role in controlling the populations of other animals and rodents. As an example, wolves and mountain lions, which feed on herds of deer, control not only numbers, but also help maintain the health of the herd by culling out older, sick or infirm animals. That’s one reason we shouldn’t eat carnivores. They eat sick and dead animals and transmit diseases to humans. The pig or swine is specifically mentioned as being unclean and not permitted as human food (Leviticus 11:7–8; Deuteronomy 14:8). While some theologians have stated, “We do not know why the swine was forbidden” (Interpreter’s Bible), thousands of other writers and scientist have found numerous logical reasons related to ecology, economics, nutrition and public health. In the wild, swine are often nocturnal animals that root for food. Their nighttime feeding habits should have kept their contact with humans at a minimum. Domesticated pigs, however, have been used for centuries as scavengers around human settlements. Having an omnivorous animal around that could put on weight rapidly by eating anything from garbage to dead animals and human wastes—and that could later be slaughtered and used for food—has seemed like a pretty good arrangement to many peoples. But is it? Today, domesticated hogs are fed a diet composed mainly of corn and grain. However, as non-ruminants with digestive tracts similar to that of humans, pigs are unable to survive on grasses and thus have been ecological competitors with humans for the same types of food grains (such as wheat, corn and barley). In America about 28% of the corn harvested is fed to hogs. Basically, pigs enjoy eating the same types of food that people eat. This is not a wise use of resources. He foresaw that great herds of hogs would take life-sustaining grain out of the mouths of his people. Jesus Christ Himself did not feel it inappropriate to allow an incident that caused the destruction of a herd of pigs! “Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. And they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them. And He permitted them. Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned” (Luke 8:32–33). Would Jesus have allowed the destruction of someone’s valuable property, without cause, through carelessness or accident?

Let Us Not Eat Bugs!

One of the major diseases transmitted by swine and other unclean animals is trichinosis. It is caused by a small parasitic roundworm that gets into the muscle tissue of animals and humans. The disease has a global distribution and affects about 4% of the world’s population—nearly 240 million people. This is not surprising considering that “people throughout the world eat more pork than any other kind of meat. Americans consume about 80 pounds per person each year. It should be noted, however, that many carnivorous and omnivorous animals are infected with the parasite Trichinella spiralis. Bear meat, walrus and wild pigs have been significant sources of infections in humans for thousands of years. The list could also include squirrels, rats, cats, dogs, rabbits, foxes, horse meat and marine mammals. It is hardly an accident or coincidence that God prohibited the consumption of these animals by His divinely given dietary laws. Tapeworms, which afflict about 3% of the world’s population (about 180 million), are another serious health problem encountered ONLY when pork is eaten. While beef and fish can also contain other tapeworms that can colonize the human digestive tract and cause discomfort, the pork tapeworm is much more dangerous, the larva of the pork parasite, once inside the human intestine, can migrate through the tissues to the heart, eyes and brain—and can eventually cause death. With reference to pork tapeworm disease, the highest rates of infection are seen in countries where pork is a major part of the diet, such as Mexico, Latin America, United States, Spain, Portugal, Africa, India, southeast Asia, and China. Although the general advice for avoiding parasitic infections from pork and other unclean animals is to adequately cook the meat, the most effective way to avoid these diseases is to avoid eating unclean animals that do not have cloven hooves and do not chew the cud—as God instructed Moses and the Israelites 3,500 years ago. If only this portion of the biblical dietary code were applied today, the global burden of parasitic disease could be reduced by 800% within 1 generation!

Don’t Eat The Garbage Man:

Why did God prohibit eating certain foods? Was the Creator being capricious? Why should He be concerned? Is there a rational, logical basis for the Scriptures dealing with which foods are fit for human consumption? After dealing with edible land animals, the second major set of divine dietary instructions concerned aquatic creatures. In Leviticus we are instructed: ‘These you may eat of all that are in the water: whatever in the water has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers—that you may eat…. Whatever in the water does not have fins or scales—that shall be an abomination to you” (11:9, 12). Numerous and sometimes fanciful reasons have been proposed for these guidelines. While some Bible scholars recognize that the consumption of unclean organisms can be harmful others suggest that organisms without fins and scales resembled snakes and thus are abhorrent to eat (Interpreter’s Bible, 1953). One source stated that scripturally “unclean,” bottom-dwelling organisms were symbolic of living in sin and pollution, and that fins were symbolic of prayers that could lift us out of such situations (The Bible Commentary, Scribner, 1871). The discoveries of science, however, reveal in greater detail the wisdom and benefits of God’s plain instructions about appropriate food. Biblically “clean fish” are generally free swimming in bodies of water. Most “unclean” fish are either bottom dwellers or predatory scavengers. The prohibition against eating scaleless fish protects against the consumption of fish that produce poisonous substances in their bodies. A U.S. Navy survival manual comments, “All the important fish with poisonous flesh… lack ordinary scales…. Instead, these poisonous fish are covered with bristles or spiny scales, strong sharp thorns, or spines, or are encased in a bony box-like covering. Some have naked skin, that is, no spines or scales”. Many sea creatures listed as venomous (four sharks, 58 stingrays, 47 catfish, 57 scorpion fish, 15 toadfish, etc.) do not have true scales. Eels—nocturnal predatory scavengers that eat “almost any kind of food, dead or alive”—would also be considered unclean. Eel blood contains a toxic substance “which can be dangerous if it comes into contact with eyes or another mucous membrane. The biblical guidelines were designed to point people to the safest kinds of fish to eat.

A Different Purpose:

Shellfish, lacking both fins and scales, are clearly excluded by the biblical dietary laws. But why would lobsters, crabs, crayfish and shrimp, which are considered delicacies in many parts of the world, be prohibited? The answer lies in understanding the role they were designed to play in nature. Lobsters are “nocturnal” foragers. They are bottom walkers and predatory scavengers that scavenge for dead animals and other bottom-dwelling organisms and debris. They are usually caught in lobster pots “baited with dead fish. Lobsters have long antennae and tiny hair-like sensors all over their bodies “that can detect specific chemical molecules in the environment (released by decaying organisms), which can help the lobster identify and locate food, even in the dark. Lobsters have been observed to bury a dead fish and then dig it up later, at intervals, to eat a bit more of it. Crabs are referred to as “professional garbage hunters” and as “scavengers” that eat almost anything. The crab prefers dead fish, but will eat any carrion [dead], “putrefying flesh” (International Wildlife Encyclopedia). Common shrimp, a small, delicate relative of crabs and lobsters, live by day in the mud or sandy bottoms of bays and estuaries all over the world. However, they become active at night as predatory scavengers and are “bottom dwelling detritus feeders “eating dead and decaying matter” (International Wildlife Encyclopedia). These organisms were all created for a very important ecological purpose. They are, in essence, the “garbage collectors” or the “cleanup crew” for the bottoms of lakes, rivers, beaches, bays and oceans. They were not intended to be food for human beings. That is also why the consumption of raw, pickled or undercooked crabs, crayfish, snails and shrimp carries a significant risk of parasitic infections like liver flukes, which infect up to 80 percent of some rural populations in Southeast Asia and Africa.

Danger On the Half Shell:

There are also important and logical reasons why God created and then clearly labeled clams, oysters, mussels and scallops as unclean and inappropriate for human consumption. These creatures are found in lakes, streams and coastal areas around the world where they perform specialized roles. As stationary filter-feeding mollusks, they pump large amounts of water over their mucus-covered gills, trapping tiny pieces of food (silt, plant debris, bacteria, viruses) which they then eat. As a result, mussels and other animals feeding on microscopic particles are the ultimate scavengers of the sea. Filter-feeding organisms are the “vacuum cleaners” for aquatic environments. Their role is to purify the water. Once you understand the purpose for which God created shellfish, the reason they are unclean should become obvious. Just as you would be reluctant to make a meal out of the contents of your vacuum cleaner bag, A/C filter or in your septic tank, the decision to eat shellfish should also be considered carefully! Because their method of feeding is “ideal for concentrating bacteria in sewage,” in addition to collecting and concentrating pathogenic viruses, heavy metals and nerve toxins produced by plankton, these shellfish present a serious health hazard to consumers (International Wildlife Encyclopedia). How serious is the threat of disease? The American Food and Drug Administration has stated that “raw oysters, clams, mussels and pork, so savored by gourmets account for 85 percent of all food born illnesses” (FDA Consumer, June 1991). Outbreaks of cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A, Norwalk virus, salmonella and paralytic shellfish poisoning are just some of the health problems frequently linked to the consumption of these mollusks, In addition ALL hepatitis comes from “Unclean” food! Notices have been published that pregnant women, the elderly and “individuals with immune systems weakened by certain diseases (cancer, diabetes and AIDS) should… avoid eating or handling uncooked shellfish”. These dangerous and potentially life-threatening situations can be avoided by understanding and following the biblical dietary laws that prohibit eating marine organisms that lack fins and scales.

Birds to Bugs:

The final groups of organisms covered by the biblical code are birds, insects and reptiles. Essentially all the excluded fowl are either birds of prey or scavengers like vultures and seagulls. Carnivorous birds are important in controlling populations of other animals. Their dietary habits of eating the flesh and blood of their prey make these birds potential agents for transmitting disease. Predatory fish-eating birds tend to accumulate high levels of toxic chemicals in their bodies. Most of these birds are not important food sources for humans. Reptiles are also among the animals listed as unclean for human food (Leviticus 11:29–30; 42–43). Regarding Insects, only those from the locust/grasshopper family are permissible as food. These creatures are distinguished by having “strong hind legs for springing” and have been used, historically, as a food source in the Middle East.

Dietary Laws Abolished?

The biblical dietary laws are simple, rational, practical and profound. Long before human beings knew the details of disease-causing microorganisms, life cycles of parasites or global ecology, God revealed powerful principles that would protect the environment, provide safe, healthful food and prevent the spread of disease for anyone who would be willing to follow these instructions. The intent and benefits of these biblical guidelines have been acknowledged periodically in history. One scholar observed recently that “most of the laws can be clearly seen to tend toward public health. But if these laws are so logical and beneficial to mankind, where did the idea come from that they have been abolished? Why do Bible-believing Christians seem to be in the forefront of promoting this notion? The answer is found in interpretations that are read into scriptures found in Mark 7 and Acts 10. Studying the “evidence” is all the is needed to gain a clear understanding. In Mark 7, Jesus addressed a question about why His disciples ate without washing their hands according to ceremonial traditions followed by the Pharisees. Some Bible translations add words to Jesus’ answer in verse 19, suggesting that He did away with the dietary laws. However, these added words are not found in the original texts. Christ’s point was that orally ingested dirt does not spiritually defile a person since it does not enter the heart to influence attitudes. The dirt passes through the digestive tract and is eliminated. The subject of clean and unclean meats and the dietary laws are not being discussed in this chapter or in Matthew 15:10–20, which discusses the same event. In Acts 10, Peter is given a vision to help him understand God’s future plans for the Church. He was shown a group of unclean animals and told three times to eat. Each time he adamantly declined because he believed it was wrong. Now remember, this was the Peter who supposedly heard Jesus abolish the dietary laws earlier in Mark 7 and who was trained by Christ for 3 1/2 years and yet he was still under the clear impression that eating unclean meats was wrong! He was puzzled over the meaning of the vision (Acts 10:17) until three men came knocking at his door with a request to hear the Gospel explained, Normally Peter would not have associated with these men who were outside of the covenant community, because the Jews considered the Gentiles to be “unclean.” When Peter put the pieces together he concluded: “God has shown me that I should not call any “Gentile” common or unclean”. Peter does not conclude in this chapter, or anywhere else in the New Testament, that the dietary laws were to be abolished. The so-called evidence is simply not there! Neither Jesus Christ nor Peter abolished these God-given guidelines.

Politics, Religion, Social Topics

Is God a Globalist or a Nationalist?

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Is God a Globalist or a Nationalist? I’m sure most modern Churches and Christians would contend that he is a Globalist, that he does not see race/creed/nation/culture etc. If so then why did he create these defining characteristics?

If you have children, family or even close relatives that live with you, it’s fair to assume you love them more than you love relatives other non-related families.

That doesn’t mean you hate other families, does it? You can have “empathy, compassion, and understanding” for your friends, neighbors and even total strangers without having them live in your house.

That’s because it’s your house. You may let people come in from time to time, as guests, or maybe even for an extended stay if they are suffering in some way, you may even allow them to join your family on a long term basis provided certain terms are set and boundaries established. But it is still your house, not theirs.

It’s the same with nations. Nations are people, not governments, just as a family is the people of the household, not the household rules. A Nation is your “Extended” family.  The word Nation is literally in reference to the nationality of it’s people.

A nation like America can have “empathy, compassion, and understanding” for other nations, particularly if those nations are suffering in some way, but the “house” still belongs to the Americans. “Nationalism” requires no hatred for other nations. It just clarifies who owns the house. The Indians own India, the Japanese own Japan, the Africans own Africa and the Americans own America.

But God is certainly no globalist. Surely He loves all the people of the globe, for He created them all. He loves the genuine diversity that exists in the variety of cultures, languages, and skin colors that He created to be different on purpose. But in terms of how those many diverse nations relate to each other, God is in fact a nationalist.

That does not mean we can sign God up for our political parties or pet projects. Far from it. It merely means from beginning to end, His Word speaks of the nations as nations, calls them to serve Him as nations, sets their borders, provides for the protection of those borders, and for the ultimate healing of those nations.

He clearly acts to disrupt globalist projects like the Tower of Babel, where the nations tried to live together in a globalist/multicultural empire. Against this globalist attempt, God scattered them into distinct nations with their own distinct cultures and languages.

Do we think ourselves wiser than God? He says explicitly in the Bible that He created diversity out of unity (the nations from the blood of one man), and that He sets the boundaries or borders where they are to live. Why? So that they will be better able to seek after Him and find Him:

“God…has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us….” (Acts 17:26–27)

Globalism/multiculturalism is clearly not God’s plan, insisting that all these different people live together in the same house (nation), thus destroying the beauty of all their individual nations, cultures and amazing diversity. The result is the opposite of what God said would happen when we respect national borders: the nations find it much harder to seek and find God.

So this begs the question, what nationality is America? we are ethnically, linguistically, historically, culturally, and religiously European. For the purposes of this writing Jesus was from Israel, to be sure, which is not in Europe. He is not a European (nor is He African). He is what most would call Middle Eastern. He is an Israelite, a son of David and Abraham. We are also a Christian Nation. the New Testament has a surprisingly European foundation. It’s written, not in Hebrew, but in a European language (Greek). The Son of God appeared in the midst of a European empire, and the Gospel was carried on European roads and in European ships. Paul was redirected from further eastward missionary activity by a vision of a European man. And the one man who wrote more of the New Testament than any other was Luke, a European.


These facts give us no cause to boast, but rather to be humble and thankful. Historically, so far, “the faith is Europe, and Europe is the faith,” as Hilaire Belloc put it. We should harbor no animosity toward people who look, live, or speak differently than us. We should pray for peace among all the nations, and for the love and truth of Christ to bring healing to every people on the face of the earth. We should treasure the unique cultures of every people and want them to be protected and preserved as God created them.

But again, our primary focus should be our own people and our own nation, as that is our duty to our families, children, neighbors and to God.

Therefore, Globalism/Multiculturalism, among other things, hinders the work of the Great Commission and proves that God is in fact a Nationalist!

Holidays, Religion, Social Topics

As Followers Of Christ Should We Be Celebrating Halloween?

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Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?

Halloween is celebrated by millions of people as a fun time for kids, putting on costumes, and going door-to-door to get candy. But it is also known as a time of witches, ghouls, goblins, and ghosts. On one hand, some see Halloween as a harmless time of fun and on the other, a ghastly and demonically inspired night to be avoided. I think we should look to the origin of the holiday and more importantly the Bible for the answer. As Christians, there is a lot of debate on whether or not we should participate in Halloween. Is it alright to go trick-or-treating? Can we dress our kids up in costumes on that day? If we do any of this, are we celebrating an evil holiday? Halloween, no matter how commercialized, has completely pagan origins. As innocent as it may seem to some, it is not something to be taken lightly. Christians tend to have various ways to celebrate Halloween. For some, it means having an “alternative” Harvest Party such as “Trunk or Treat” For others, it is staying away from the ghosts, witches, goblins, etc., and wearing innocuous costumes, e.g., little princesses, clowns, cowboys, super-heroes, etc.  

The Origin of Halloween:

The idea of observing October 31st as a holiday originated with the ancient Celtic priests, called “Druids”, around 300 B.C. The Druids lived in the area between Great Britain and Germany. Their new year began on November 1st, so October 31st was set aside to worship their god, Samhain, the god of the dead. So October 31st was the Celtic New Year’s Eve, the time for their Festival of Death. The Druids believed that Samhain gathered all the souls of the past year’s dead on this night. These souls had been confined to the bodies of various animals to atone for their sins. Animal sacrifices and even human sacrifices were carried out , usually in forests. This practice was observed until around 61 A.D. when it was outlawed by the Romans. However, some animal sacrifices were still practiced as late as 400 A.D. Halloween is filled with all sorts of pagan characters and customs that Christians should completely avoid. The black cat, for example, was believed by the Druids to be evil spirit friends of witches, and even witches themselves. These cats were often kept in wicker cages and burned in animal sacrifices. Witches are worshipers of Satan, and they are an abomination to God (Exo. 22:18; Deu. 18:10-11). Why would a God-fearing Christian want to dress-up their child like something that God hates? Scary masks were worn by the Celts to scare away evil spirits. The jack-o-lantern was used for the same purpose, although a turnip was originally used. What most people think of as “ghosts” are not the spirits of dead people, but rather EVIL spirits which we are warned about in the Bible (Lev. 19:31; 20:27; II Kgs. 23:24; Mat. 10:1; Mar. 3:11; Acts 8:7; Rev. 16:13). Why would a Christian want to decorate their home with such wickedness? Do you really think God want you to dress your child up like an evil spirit? Even the orange and black colors of Halloween have a wicked origin. At the Druid Festival of Death for Samhain huge bon fires were used for offering human and animal sacrifices. So the colors of the night were orange flames glowing in the dark. Trick-or-treating finds it’s origin in the custom of peasants going house to house begging for money to purchase necessities for a feast for Muck Olla, the Druid sun god. A blessing was promised to generous givers, while threats were often made to those who were stingy. Even more disturbing is apple bobbing this comes from the Roman festival of Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. This festival was merged with the festival of Samhain after Rome conquered Britain. In honor of Samhain, subjects were forced to bob for apples in boiling hot water. Those who lived through this ordeal were set free. In most witchcraft covens, the closing ritual includes eating an apple or engaging in fertility rites. In witchcraft, eating an apple is symbolic of bringing life. The practice of bobbing for apples brings together two pagan traditions: divination and the fertility ritual. The Druids taught that the spirit world was closer to the earth on this night than at any other time, and that “the gods” would even appear on this night to play tricks on people. Pope Bonoface III, in the seventh century, set aside May 13th as “All Saints Day” or “All Hallows Day” as a time for Roman Catholics to honor all known dead saints. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III moved the date to November 1st which conveniently merged “All Hallows Day” and “All Hallows Eve” with the Celtic New Year and the Festival of Samhain. This custom wasn’t much observed in America until the 1840’s when large numbers of immigrants came over from Ireland and Scotland.  

What Does The Bible Say About Halloween and Pagan Celebrations?

First off the Bible tells us to “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good “ (1 Thessalonians 5:21) so do you think we can “Prove” Halloween is “Good” in the sight of God? If Jesus were here today do you think he would take all the disciples out Trick-or-treating?  

Scripture does not refer directly to Halloween, but it does give us some principles on which we can make a decision. In Old Testament , witchcraft was a crime punishable by death (Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 19:31; 20:6, 27). The New Testament teaching about the occult is clear. Acts 8:9-24, the story of Simon, shows that occultism and Christianity don’t mix. The account of Elymas the sorcerer in Acts 13:6-11 reveals that sorcery is violently opposed to Christianity. Paul called Elymas a child of the devil, an enemy of righteousness and a perverter of the ways of God. In Acts 16, at Philippi, a fortune-telling girl lost her demon powers when the evil spirit was cast out by Paul. The interesting matter here is that Paul refused to allow even good statements to come from a demon-influenced person. Acts 19 shows new converts who have abruptly broken with their former occultism by confessing, showing their evil deeds, bringing their magic paraphernalia, and burning it before everyone (Acts 19:19).  

Spread to North America:

North American almanacs of the late 18th and early 19th century give no indication that Halloween was celebrated here. The Puritans of New England, for example, maintained strong opposition to Halloween and it was not until the mass Irish and Scottish immigration during the 19th century that it was brought to North America in earnest. Confined to the immigrant communities during the mid-19th century, it was gradually assimilated into mainstream society and by the first decade of the 20th century it was unfortunately being celebrated coast to coast by people of all social, racial and religious backgrounds.

More to come on this subject!!!

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