Equality for All

The recent election and the riots disrupting our cities seem to center around equality.  Equality for All.  The BLM movement is only one small part of the thinking of many people that equality is part and parcel of what is rightly theirs.  Didn’t the Founders specifically put that in the Constitution?    The Founders believed that all men should have equal opportunities….. not that all men are created equal!  We all have different talents and abilities.  There are no two of us that are alike.  We have the power within us to achieve or to see ourselves as victims in an unequal society.

The question of the day seems to be whether or not equality can be legislated.  The short answer is “yes”.  The government can legislate anything.  The great dream for thousands of people is to be given equality.  They view others as having more rights and privileges than they do.  We see the rise of hatred and greed rooted in envy which begins when whole classes of people believing  that the difference between themselves and others are a consequence of oppression.  Something outside themselves that is causing this.  They demand that their lives be improved by differential laws and quotas aimed at leveling inequalities. 

The problem being, of course, is that laws and quotas which promote policies such as “affirmative action” impose a new inequality, not based on ability but solely on race or sex.  This type of equality is discriminating…… favoring one group that has earned no rewards and against another that deserves no punishment!   However, these groups seeking equality believe that the power of law must be used to equalize all citizens. This type of mindset, therefore, demands that a strong central government is needed to control its citizens and provide equality.

We know that many of our people have little access to improving their lives.  Many children are brought up with no family values; single family homes where mostly likely the mother must work at two jobs to provide for her children; poor educators who take no interest in their students; or those who prefer selling drugs to working at hamburger joints.  Which is more profitable?

However in the Utopian world they seek ….. No one is responsible for their actions.   There is no desire to improve lives by personal development or willingness to share in the caring of their fellow countryman.  Therefore it becomes a singular effort to force equality by socialist means…….to the point that all dissenting voices must be silenced.  That seems to be rather drastic doesn’t it? 

I am taking two History magazines and one of them devoted several pages to the French Revolution.  The French citizens were brainwashed into believing the gospel of Revolutionaries such as Robespierre.  He believed that people who failed to follow the general will of the state…. “for their own good must be forced to be free.”  He wrote…..” the basis of popular government in time of revolution is both virtue and terror.  Terror without virtue is murderous, virtue without terror is powerless.  Terror is nothing else then swift, and severe justice which flows from our virtue. “  But, whose virtue?  This same incantation is found in subsequent revolutions……Lenin , Stalin Mao, Hitler, Castro et al.   Look today at many of the Latin American countries to see why thousands are escaping and coming to our borders.

I pray that all of us remember the values and dignity offered under the Constitution of our great Republic.     Yes, our Republic was founded on Christian principles regardless of the screams and shouts of those who deny it.  Our pledge states it best…..”One nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.”

                                      Want to be Wise?

As a follow up to my last blog perhaps we should look at that really dreadful tree….  “The Tree of the Knowledge and Good and Evil”.  It wasn’t the tree itself of course, but man’s willfulness in disobedience.

The infinite mind of God knows all.  He has created all that is and ever has been. While God knows all and sees all, He is quite generous with His wisdom to mankind.  Why then did He prohibit Adam and Eve from eating of that particular tree? 

Knowledge was not off limits to Adam and Eve.  This tree and its fruit represented the illegitimate acquisition of knowledge that was obtained through pride as well as lack of obedience to their Creator !  Only God knows the hidden things of the heart…….the motives, biases, fabrications, and future repercussions that would accompany their knowledge.  Humans cannot achieve knowledge through disobedience.  We can never be perfect in our knowledge…..simply because humankind isn’t perfect. Therefore the serpent was the great Deceiver.

We are introduced to our enemy….the fallen one……..or as we call him, Lucifer (aka Satan).  Now mankind must contend with him.  Because of Adam’s choice to ignore God’s instructions, the gift of the earth was forfeited to the Deceiver, along with the endowment of ruling over it. But with God’s great love and compassion for us, in His mercy and foresight, He had a plan for our redemption and restoration. 

We are created in God’s image but not in His knowledge.  We are created with the capacity to learn, ability to choose, and with an innate spiritual hunger which man seeks in order to regain that which separates us from God. 

The second Adam, that is Jesus, who in His perfection replaced the imperfect first Adam, has given us a second chance to be regenerated into the likeness of the Perfect One.  The Bible tells us that when we are born anew then His spirit lives in us and we are made alive in him (Ephesians 2:5).  This is not understood by those who are worldly minded.

Gaining knowledge is a God given desire within the heart of man and provides a purpose to expand God’s kingdom until Jesus returns again.  Although, we are unable to ever know the mind of God nor His infinite knowledge and wisdom, we humans can gain knowledge through our study of Biblical wisdom. Wisdom, in turn, grants us knowledge for the benefit of others.  Faith and wisdom produce knowledge.  Therefore in doing good works and disciplining others in the Faith, we gain in knowledge.  Awesome!

Knowledge is power.  The acquisition of knowledge that produces understanding leads to wisdom.  Wisdom in turn enables us to rightly discern God’s word.  Therefore study is the highest form of worship! For it is the subjection of our human will to believe and act upon what God has said. “Therefore be diligent to present yourself approved to as a workman who does not need to be ashamed…….handling accurately the word of truth”….(2 Timothy:2:15)

           Knowledge and wisdom keep company with love and God is Love.              

Sacred Fruit

The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.(Gen 2:8-9)

The Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it.(Gen. 2:15-17)

My daughter has been taking a Bible class on the study of Genesis and we were discussing Adam and Eve and Cain killing Abel and the wickedness of man following the sin of our first parents.  However, we rarely discuss the other tree in the garden……the “Tree of Life”.  After the sin of eating the forbidden fruit from the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”, Adam and Eve were forced from the garden. 

Actually the exiling of the pair from the garden was an act of mercy. How is that?  Had they remained in the garden they might have eaten of the Tree of Life.  God did not create them immortal, yet he left immortality hanging within their grasp.  They only needed to reach out and eat of the Tree of Life which was never forbidden in the first place!!  If they had eaten of that tree in their fallen state they would have been consigned to an immortal existence in rebellion against God, not unlike the Devil, unredeemable for all eternity!  So in His abundant mercy, God, exiled them from paradise and banned them from immortality. 

God created our souls and our bodies for the Garden of Delight.  In some spiritual memory, every human being can still recall the taste of the “fruit of the garden.” All human beings have a longing wired into their hearts for the place of God, which we cannot quite understand.  We thirst for water that we have never tasted.  We long for fruit that we have never eaten.  We hunger and thirst for the presence of God.  That’s why you are reading these words.  That’s why we are always seeking to fill the empty places of our lives, and why we are prone to addictions, sensuality and self destructive behaviors.  We are actually longing for Eden. 

There is a way back to Eden, past the flaming sword and between the cherubim.  It’s called the way of the Tree of Life.  When our Master Jesus died and the Temple curtain was torn in two it cleared the way for us humans to again enter into a relationship with the Father.  He Himself is  “The Way, the Truth and the Life.” 

The early sect of Jewish believers who followed Him and believed Him called themselves, “The Way.”  He has made the way through the curtain, into the garden, to the holy of Holies and the Tree of Life. 

  Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;  (Hebrews 10:19-20)

                        Are you longing for that fruit from the Tree of Life?

Child Sacrifices………

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Again, you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘Whoever of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who gives any of his descendants to Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I will set My face against that man, and will cut him off from his people, because he has given some of his descendants to Molech, to defile My sanctuary and profane My holy name.”  Leviticus 18:21

Molech was an ancient god worshiped by the people neighboring Israel during Old Testament times. While much about Molech’s nature and origin are uncertain, the Bible mentions Molech on eight occasions, providing some context regarding the problems associated with this ancient god. Molech represents the most repulsive of acts in God’s sight, the ritual sacrifice of children to a pagan god, which was condemned in the strongest way by the Lord, including punishment by death.

No society today offers child sacrifice, do they?  Well, perhaps not by fire or on an altar. I take that back!! We do have child sacrifice, however, now it is called abortion and on an altar called a “women’s to right choose.”

There are other more sophisticated forms of child sacrifice…….it is  visual and available and offered on the altar of entertainment.  Aside from the available child pornography sites, now Netflix is exploiting for profit a situation that will undoubtedly result in increased abuse and the sexual exploitation of children. 

I watched with horror while viewing a preview of a film made in France but shown by Netflix in which little girls (just reaching puberty) were dancing provocatively in explicit sexual dancing, with the title of “Cuties.” In case you don’t know it, we live in a society where children are being sold and bought as commodities for the benefit of adults. 

The company released a statement defending the film while snubbing the deserved complaints of the film’s critics.  What Netflix is doing here is no better than if a major TV network were to air an X-rated film and then defend it as a morality tale with virtuous qualities!!  This is worse than creepy; it’s sick and demented.  Are we becoming a society that is becoming desensitized to offering children to “Molech” with the excuse of exercising freedom of choice? 

Did you know that California now has laws regarding the decriminalization of child prostitution?  There is also an exemption of some pedophiles from mandatory registration with the state if they engage in sexual behavior with “consenting” children!! 

 The sexualization of American children is nothing new.  I remember attending a convention back in the 60s when SECUS (Sex Education Council of United States) introduced textbooks into the public schools under the guise of teaching sex education to little children as young as 5 about intercourse, homosexuality and masturbation. I was shocked at the explicit pictures and stories.  Isn’t this the parent’s job to teach their children about the sanctity of the marriage bed in the privacy of the home? What right was given to public schools to teach about sex? This isn’t all schools of course.  There are many, if not most public schools who are fully dedicated to providing top quality curriculum to their students. 

So what can we do to make a difference? We can certainly choose to cancel our Netflix subscriptions; however, perhaps a better and more effective response would be to take a look at what is happening with our public school curricula and the propaganda that progressive teachers are feeding our children.  I wager that that the daily harm from hypersexualized, agenda-driven, sex-education curriculum is far worse than the “Cuties” film. 

American has lost its innocence and sacrificed it is own children on the altar of immoral appeasement.  Will this appalling abuse be allowed to continue?

            God issued Israel a warning…….can America be far behind?

The NFL and Socialism

Hey football lovers.  It’s just about that time again.  Pull the beer from the frig and gather the troops for a Sunday afternoon of your favorite sport!  Perhaps a little popcorn would make it even better.  Too bad you aren’t allowed in the stands, rooting for your favorite team!  Oh, well.  Perhaps it is all for the best.  Considering the men who now make millions from the very country they deem isn’t worthy of their respect or honoring the national anthem and flag.

On Sept. 10^th the NFL season kicked off with a marquee matchup.  Despite having a captive audience viewing the game in their homes, I read where the Nielsen ratings were down 16 percent.  Sunday night was even worse………28 percent.  Rightly so.

Most football fans resent the players disrespect of the national anthem and the politics that invade the sports arenas. However, there is much more here than just disrespect. The fans frustration is only the tip of the iceberg when they analyze the real ideology that lies behind this so called “taking the knee!”

Many professional athletes feel they have a responsibility to speak out about injustice, as they perceive it.  The BLM movement, which they support, is much more than just about so called police brutality.  The leadership of the Black Lives Matter uses the vague desire to make this country a better place for the black community but in reality is a cover up for the classic Marxist strategy to create a utopian one party state.  The radical socialist strategy is to polarize society.  Socialism has never worked and never will.   This along with the Green New Deal will bring our country to a standstill!!

The end of the road is dictatorship headed by a strong central government who is in control of the economy which in turn controls the lives of its citizens.  With the promise of social justice and socialized medicine, many well intentioned BLM supporters and entertainers are devouring the hand that feeds them.

Although the stadiums are empty with the threat of the COVID virus, there is more danger here than even the virus can inflict.  It is the polarizing tactics of the BLM supporters and the football players themselves, and the disregard for the very freedoms that have made our country the greatest on earth.   

NFL’s fans………..change that channel! 

                                                   Canceling Culture

I watch with horror the latest episodes of people tearing down statues, deleting libraries of books and limiting a free flow of ideas. Even the statue of John Wayne wasn’t exempt, not to mention the “villains” of the Civil War which must be eradicated from memory. 

Do you remember the movie Fahrenheit 451?  The movie was based a book by Ray Bradbury first published in 1953.  Almost instant success.  It is rather on the order of George Orwell’s classic 1984.  Both speak of the destruction of society and how people were lead into false thinking by charismatic leaders.  There is also a newer movie which came out in 2017, although I have not seen it.

The movie is rather apocalyptic in that it foretells what could possibly happen to a culture/society which wants to destroy the past.  Fahrenheit 451 tells the story of a fireman whose job is to burn books in this dystopian world that suppresses creative expression, and destroying all remnants of a past culture, which are found in books, statues, museums. The protagonist, Montag, explores the mysterious power of books while evading the clutches of an authoritarian government.   I find it to be both literal and spiritual.  

It is a story about WHY the books are burned and WHAT the books represent.  It should open our eyes and minds to what we are witnessing today in our society.  However, it is so much more than just about books. There is so much in-fighting in society today because everyone claims that something they read or see offends them!! This also means that certain forces in the government are attempting to erase history.  Sound familiar? So to make everyone happy, the offensive materials are to be destroyed.

The year this was written (1953) Ray Bradbury could have not envisioned the internet or social media. If he had, it would have been heavily censored also. In 1953 ideas and knowledge were shared through print as they had been for hundreds of years.

For me the novel rings true.   It seems true today ….many people are offended by another person’s ideas, thoughts, actions, and beliefs.  So is all contrary thinking to be condemned and destroyed?  Isn’t history a part of our culture, despite the wrongs or rights of a previous society? Aren’t we are to learn from the past?  However, we should not want history rewritten, only depending on the views of current historians.  We need open discussions with all opinions welcomed.

Our hero is led into a secret place where he meets a renegade group of people called The Book People.  Each one is a walking book!  They have each memorized a whole book or novel which they are continually rehearsing in their minds.  It’s an amazing story. 

 The burden of society that continually condemns old heroes /old history takes us deeper into the age of suppression of the individual’s desire for serious and critical thinking.   Our response to literary suppression is one that will continue to significantly limit intellectual thought in the pursuit of a society free of offense at the cost of our beloved history; a society where ignorance is strength!!                         
                                                  Will our Bibles be far behind? 

Traditions: Why They Matter

The famous musical “Fiddler on the Roof” is still remembered and loved even today.  It is set in a Jewish village in czarist Russia.   The main character is a poor milkman name Tevye.  He compared the precarious position of the Jews in the village to a fiddler on a roof and asks the question, “And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word….Tradition.”  

The traditions of Tevye’s age are long gone.  Arranged marriages, sons following in the father’s footsteps, women raised to be wives and mothers.  Although each culture has retained their own traditions, in our Western culture, these have long passed. 

Does Tevye have a point? Do traditions help us keep our balance?  Remember the “blue laws”? No work or trading on Sunday.  Families were expected to have a traditional day of rest from the activities of the week.  Stores were closed and only certain essential items could be sold from select stores only. This is a direct tradition from the Jewish observance of the Sabbath now moved to Sunday for Christians.

Soon the idea of restricted “buying and selling and needing” got in the way of the Sunday restrictions.  With women working out of the home, Sunday might be the best day to do the family shopping. Also, the internet never rests…….always something to buy 24/7.

However, not all traditions have died.  Most families observe Thanksgiving where friends and family gather together….although rarely are the origins of the feast discussed.  Then there is Christmas.  Although to many, it is no longer a religious occasion but a chance to exchange gifts and perhaps, just perhaps, take in a worship service at the closest church to home. 

The main line churches each have their own traditions.  The congregants feel comfortable knowing that everything is in a certain order and this is way it has always been.   I think most of us would feel rather uneasy if we were allowed to go back in time to the original worship services where both Christians and Jews worshiped together while living  in a pagan culture such as Rome.  

Our traditions large and small help us keep our balance.  They draw us together as families, as communities and as Americans.  We may misunderstand the origins of these customs, or ignore them even while practicing their rites, but we nonetheless observe them. Traditions are the glue holding our families and culture together. They somehow bond us to our past, provide pleasure in the present, and act as a ballast as we sail into an uncertain future. 

A famous theologian and writer, G. K. Chesterton once wrote; “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors.  It is the democracy of the dead.  Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about!” I could put a smiley face here!   

When we honor our traditions we do give votes to our ancestors and keep our balance on the rooftops of life.  Tevye had it right. 

                                                   Seeking Superman

Oh, Superman, where are you now?   Many things seem to be happening and going wrong all at once.  With the COVID19 pandemic, lockdowns, economic devastations and political polarization; civil unrest, violence in the streets….anxiety levels rise as these crises collide and combine to make the perfect storm of social distress. 

If only Superman could save the day! 

Of course, as a fictional character, Superman can’t physically save us but perhaps he might be able to provide us desperately needed inspiration, as he done many times before. 

Back in 1938 the Man of Steel made his sensational debut, nearly a decade into the Great Depression, inspiring millions of kids as they and their parents struggled through the last of these grueling years.  During WWll, Superman’s popularity soared even higher.  He was immensely popular among young troops, lifting the spirits of thousands as they faced the perils of war. 

Fast forward to 1978, when Superman’s blockbuster movies inspired yet another generation of Americans  as they emerged from the doldrums of the past decade. 

However, our hero has been replaced with other Super Heroes.   Spiderman, Batman and Iron Man.    Why has Superman, once so admired and imitated, become a relic of the past?  His conduct was clearly and overtly American.  He had the perfect moral character. 

Wasn’t his motto, ”Truth, Justice and the American Way?”  What IS truth, justice and the American way?  Now we are questioning those words.  There seems to be no standard of excellence in our society. Accordingly, to a common worldview, many forms of “being super” are often considered as not admirable, but suspect—not worthy of emulation, but of resentment –not a source of inspiration but of envy.   People with values like industry and frugality who dare to encourage others to work and save are denounced for “poverty shaming.”

Superman, as traditionally conceived, was the ideal of human excellence; of health, vitality, self-discipline and heroism.   Superman was too powerful; too moral, and so movie moguls have tried to remedy that and give the “modern” Superman feet of clay.  They have powered him down and made him vulnerable to getting knocked around, even beaten up.  Moreover, they have weakened him morally. 

But there is hope.  Our Superhero must be relevant to the human heart.  He must be virtuous, resolute in the face of danger……… perhaps even willing to give His life for saving others.

In fact we have him already!!!………our very own Superman!!  His name is Jeshua or Jesus.  He is our perfect Super Hero!  He shows us true virtue, truth and justice.  He is above and beyond any human super hero.  He is every lasting and His qualities of greatness inspire us. So look no further…….”Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever.”  (Heb. 13:8)

Our forever Superman!

                                                       Perilous Times

Watch out! Dangers lurk everywhere——these are surely perilous times.  One of the great themes of scripture is to always be on guard.  The epistle of Jude forewarns us about scoffers who distort and resist God’s truth as we believers desire to seek it.  Twisting truths have become the norm.

If you are like me, we earnestly seek the Lord’s return.  He called on us as believers to be godly “salt and light” while on this earth. (Matt. 5:13).  While the promise of the Lord’s Second Coming is assured, we deal with the world as we live it now. 

We are assured though that God’s truth never changes…….no matter how humanity may warp and twist it.  Rejection of God’s word has been with us since the days of Noah, Abraham and Paul.  So rebellion against God in this once-Christian nation should come as no surprise.  Rather than anxiously hiding and waiting for the storm to pass, we are called to stay active and to use whatever abilities and opportunities we have to sow, water, and reap in fruitful service to Him.

However, we must ever be watchful of Satan using mankind for his own destructive ends.  He is able to manipulate man through an organized system of corrupted government, education, entertainment and even religious institutions.  In turn this is blinding people’s minds through lies and confusion. This fosters and enslaves people through the pleasures of sex, killing the innocent and intimidating believers through sanctioned harassment and persecution.  The Bible describes the “world” not merely as a concept but an entity used by Satan to manipulate people into submission to the same thinking as the masses. 

The world system is particularly intolerant of independent thinking, nonconforming opinions or any oppositional ideas.    Thus the world (Satan) is triumphant when someone surrenders and willingly conforms to the world’s pressure for sameness. Have we become like little robots in our thinking…preset and without questioning what the majority wants to tell us?  Resetting the minds and hearts of people is a tool used by Evil to bring about world crisis and confusion.   

The apostle Paul cautions Christians not to be deluded, ”tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. “ (Eph. 4:14)

There is an old Puritan prayer which reads: “Oh God, may thy dear Son preserve me from this present evil world, so that its smiles never allure, not its frowns terrify nor its vices defile, nor its errors delude me. “     
                                                            Amen to that