i've heard this term a lot over the years, and it makes me laugh. first of all it's not that we ever lose HIM, it's that we've chosen to ignore HIM. GOD doesn't leave us we just choose not to go down that path. people always say there must not be a GOD if HE would allow these bad things to happen. GOD never said life was going to be easy after adam and eve ate the apple, as a matter of fact it was the complete opposite.
life is easier with HIM in it i must say - it gives you a chance to redeem yourself, not only for HIM, but yourself also. when we start to fail with sin and then continue in that path i wonder if we should be asking ourselves what is going on in the background that we need to resolve. history repeats itself, not just in the world, but in our own lives. for most of us we need to figure out how to break the cycle.
i just turned 36. i like getting older, i just don't like looking older. i've begun to stop worrying about what others think of me and take more chances. my beliefs are much more grounded, and what i want from life has been determined. the downside of this is that i'm not as willing to change as much. i don't know if this is GOD, society, or that i have become more sure of myself (i could just be crankier).
it's funny the traits you realize about yourself as you do get older. i have had to take many hard looks in the mirror since choosing to go down the path with HIM, and to be honest sometimes i really don't like it. that's the beauty of it, GOD allows you to take your time with HIM to figure out what you do need to change. at least with GOD you know where you stand and with people there's too much grey.
i listen to HIM more now than i did in the beginning when i chose this path. if HE is telling me not to do it then i tend to listen more to that voice (not always). when i don't listen i get a little lost; i'm not as grounded. i have been missing my relationship with HIM over the past few weeks; our alone time. the greatest blessing is that HE is always there waiting for you to call HIM.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16
Monday, March 7, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
freedom
when accepting him we are free from sin. i wonder though if this means that we feel that there is no consequence for our actions. i'm confused by what individuals think when they accept CHRIST - do they think it is a get out of jail free card? i just read a sermon about confession and what freedom there is in confessing our sins; our wrong doings.
as i watch what is happening around the world and the riots to seek freedom i wonder if individuals know that GOD is in their dna and HE wants them to be free from tyranny. the most reassuring aspect of all of this is that GOD wins in the end. the book of revelations tell us that; that HE conquers all things evil.
i have no idea what to think about the middle east. i just read that the yemen president believes the united states and the "jews" are pushing them into war. who even knows if this is true? all of them have been at war with each other for so long. i don't believe that there will ever be peace in the middle east. i can't even imagine living in a country that is never at peace and always at war. we are becoming a country at war with words and we seem to be moving into the action part. our love of money is starting to show more and more.
from the moment GOD made the israelites, the chosen, there was never going to be peace. the only true peace is accepting JESUS CHRIST. the freedom alone to worship JESUS in peace is becoming a rare commodity. i hope and pray we don't lose it all together. as we continue to fight amongst ourselves about whom is going to pay for what, or whom is to blame for america's current state, i wonder if we should just take a look in the mirror to see what the real problem is.
i could blame the politicians, but we as a nation elected the individuals that are there now, so who do we blame? do i blame president bush for leading us into war, not really. i'm confused though now about whether we should stay, or come home. on one hand i believe we should, on the other hand i believe we need to protect and fight along side israel; GOD's chosen.
of course i am quite aware of how much money we would have back in our coffers if they came home, but with the current unrest in the world i don't know if we should take the risk of cutting our defense. the perception is that if we do cut defense then we will solve our problems, but will we really? we are a generation of spenders and the individuals that are in office are the same. we can't have it both ways. we can't make a certain amount of money and live beyond our means; the math doesn't add up.
i can understand the frustration in wisconsin. the teachers are state employees and their livelihoods are being threatened. i can also understand the private sector wanting reform, because their livelihoods are being threatened. which way do we choose? are they both greedy; no. we do however have to understand that we no longer have the money to do what we once did.
are we suffering GOD's judgement, or are we suffering from the consequence of our actions? have we forgotten that we were once a christian country that knew we had to follow GOD's rules; big time! westboro baptist stands on corners, or rallies at soldiers funerals with the idea that they are the blessed ones to pass judgement because of GOD. only GOD can do that. i bet each one of those individuals will be held harsher judgement from GOD than most.
"and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood" revelations 1:5
as i watch what is happening around the world and the riots to seek freedom i wonder if individuals know that GOD is in their dna and HE wants them to be free from tyranny. the most reassuring aspect of all of this is that GOD wins in the end. the book of revelations tell us that; that HE conquers all things evil.
i have no idea what to think about the middle east. i just read that the yemen president believes the united states and the "jews" are pushing them into war. who even knows if this is true? all of them have been at war with each other for so long. i don't believe that there will ever be peace in the middle east. i can't even imagine living in a country that is never at peace and always at war. we are becoming a country at war with words and we seem to be moving into the action part. our love of money is starting to show more and more.
from the moment GOD made the israelites, the chosen, there was never going to be peace. the only true peace is accepting JESUS CHRIST. the freedom alone to worship JESUS in peace is becoming a rare commodity. i hope and pray we don't lose it all together. as we continue to fight amongst ourselves about whom is going to pay for what, or whom is to blame for america's current state, i wonder if we should just take a look in the mirror to see what the real problem is.
i could blame the politicians, but we as a nation elected the individuals that are there now, so who do we blame? do i blame president bush for leading us into war, not really. i'm confused though now about whether we should stay, or come home. on one hand i believe we should, on the other hand i believe we need to protect and fight along side israel; GOD's chosen.
of course i am quite aware of how much money we would have back in our coffers if they came home, but with the current unrest in the world i don't know if we should take the risk of cutting our defense. the perception is that if we do cut defense then we will solve our problems, but will we really? we are a generation of spenders and the individuals that are in office are the same. we can't have it both ways. we can't make a certain amount of money and live beyond our means; the math doesn't add up.
i can understand the frustration in wisconsin. the teachers are state employees and their livelihoods are being threatened. i can also understand the private sector wanting reform, because their livelihoods are being threatened. which way do we choose? are they both greedy; no. we do however have to understand that we no longer have the money to do what we once did.
are we suffering GOD's judgement, or are we suffering from the consequence of our actions? have we forgotten that we were once a christian country that knew we had to follow GOD's rules; big time! westboro baptist stands on corners, or rallies at soldiers funerals with the idea that they are the blessed ones to pass judgement because of GOD. only GOD can do that. i bet each one of those individuals will be held harsher judgement from GOD than most.
"and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood" revelations 1:5
home improvement
we are going on 3 weeks in our house with home improvements. i started off just wanting to add some built-ins and revamp our closet to add some space to our little house. it has turned into much more. good idea? maybe not all one time, but the end result is turning out to be a beautiful home on the inside.
the only problem is once you make something new again you want to make something else new. once you figure out that you can make something better, you always end up striving for something else to become better. we've tried to make our home look like all the things we love about other homes and turn it into one. i think we are succeeding. of course with all this said it's not the physical beauty that makes a home, it's the people inside that home that make it beautiful.
i knew going into this that it would bring out the best and the worst in the whole family. i knew that my husband and i would have arguments about the way things should go. neither one of us is right, we are just different. i like things to be done quickly and he likes them to be perfection no matter how long it takes. our boys have been troopers up until recently, so it's been like a bad vacation that keeps going. can i blame them? i can understand fully, but i'm the one that wanted to do this.
the saying that you can make up your mind to be happy, sad, angry, aggravated, etc really comes into play when you've decided to subject yourself to something unnecessary. cosmetic home improvement is definitely a want, not a need. with all that said i don't regret the changes we made; we've made our home more of our personalities.
last weekend my husband and i went to new orleans. for any of you that have not been to new orleans, there are artists in jackson square that set up their work each day. i went up to one painting and instantly liked it and as i looked at the other pieces, this one kept drawing me back. my husband wasn't with me, so i went ahead to the next vendor when i looked back my husband was looking at the same piece. when we started talking he said "did you see the one with the tree" and i said "that's one of my favorites." we bought it. when it all comes down to it we always end up wanting the same thing, we just have to take our own time getting to that end result. in the end it is just about us.
GOD sees it that way. no matter how you get to him, no matter how hard the journey may be sometimes, it's that you always finish by going to HIM and living through HIM. the end result is that you get to spend eternity in heaven with HIM and all of HIS beauty.
"Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight".
1 Peter 3:4
the only problem is once you make something new again you want to make something else new. once you figure out that you can make something better, you always end up striving for something else to become better. we've tried to make our home look like all the things we love about other homes and turn it into one. i think we are succeeding. of course with all this said it's not the physical beauty that makes a home, it's the people inside that home that make it beautiful.
i knew going into this that it would bring out the best and the worst in the whole family. i knew that my husband and i would have arguments about the way things should go. neither one of us is right, we are just different. i like things to be done quickly and he likes them to be perfection no matter how long it takes. our boys have been troopers up until recently, so it's been like a bad vacation that keeps going. can i blame them? i can understand fully, but i'm the one that wanted to do this.
the saying that you can make up your mind to be happy, sad, angry, aggravated, etc really comes into play when you've decided to subject yourself to something unnecessary. cosmetic home improvement is definitely a want, not a need. with all that said i don't regret the changes we made; we've made our home more of our personalities.
last weekend my husband and i went to new orleans. for any of you that have not been to new orleans, there are artists in jackson square that set up their work each day. i went up to one painting and instantly liked it and as i looked at the other pieces, this one kept drawing me back. my husband wasn't with me, so i went ahead to the next vendor when i looked back my husband was looking at the same piece. when we started talking he said "did you see the one with the tree" and i said "that's one of my favorites." we bought it. when it all comes down to it we always end up wanting the same thing, we just have to take our own time getting to that end result. in the end it is just about us.
GOD sees it that way. no matter how you get to him, no matter how hard the journey may be sometimes, it's that you always finish by going to HIM and living through HIM. the end result is that you get to spend eternity in heaven with HIM and all of HIS beauty.
"Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight".
1 Peter 3:4
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Rabbi Daniel Lapin: The Bible enshrines the title deeds of western civilization
i found this blog posting and thought i would share it...
Faith
Rabbi Daniel Lapin:
The Bible enshrines the title deeds of western civilization
Posted on March 1, 2011 at 10:10am by Rabbi Daniel Lapin Print » Email » Few of the Jews living comfortably in Warsaw, Poland, in say 1935, had the faintest idea that life as they knew it was about to end. In less than five years normal life in luxurious mansions would be replaced by unspeakable horror in torture camps so terrible that death itself was a relief.
I do not suggest that we shall confront such severe shocks to our lives over the next few years. However, wise people recognize that nothing lasts forever. Smart observers recognize that the challenging changes that have swirled turbulently around the foundations of our world over the past ten years have consequences that will impact the quality of our lives in increasingly dramatic fashion.
One can ignore the distant sound of approaching boots and blindly await the cataclysm or one can make the effort to peer through a periscope and spot the threats. It is possible to analyze current events through the lens of ancient Jewish wisdom and emerge with, if not a prophetic sense of where things are headed, at least a good idea of what the short term future holds.
Some people condemn themselves to stumble through the dark forest at night snagged by branches and tripped by roots. Others wear night-vision goggles and cover the ground easily and safely. It is my goal in these few paragraphs, to equip you with night-vision goggles in the form of five permanent principles of the Bible. These will make sense of the treacherous landscape and help you to avoid the roots and branches awaiting the unwary.
Whether we examine the North African troubles or the bizarre pro-union farce in Wisconsin, the picture we obtain will be clearer with these tools.
Permanent Principle of the Bible # 1
People are not merely smart animals. We are an entirely different species, touched by the finger of God and possessing souls. This means that few lessons we learn from animals are applicable to people. For instance, if any animal is restricted to an adequately large area and provided with food, water and safety, it will never endeavor to go anywhere else. People, even if confined to a very large area in which they can obtain all their hearts desire, find that their souls chafe at the restrictions. We seek the infinite. While animals protect their territories, we humans feel the urge to seize the territories of others. In civilized circumstances we try to increase our holdings by purchase and trade. In less civilized circumstances we do so by war and plunder. Animals act on instinct and are incapable of evil and are incapable of choosing good over evil. People are capable of making moral choices and in many cases, will choose war and plunder. We do not need to prepare ourselves to cope with evil animals, a mere fence will keep the wolves from our sheep. But we very much need to prepare to deal with evil people or we shall not survive.
Those nations with a strong sense of their Biblical roots tend to build up their societies and allow their people to prosper in an environment of safety and security. Occasionally, straying from those roots, as Germany did when it temporarily turned to Hitler and his Nazi thugs, even western nations will pursue predatory policies but they seldom work for very long. The thousand year Reich failed to make it past the twenty year mark.
By contrast, nations based on organizational principles other than Judeo-Christian deny their people prosperity and security and tend to prey on their neighbors. Shaka, the late 18th century Zulu chief thought nothing of marching his warriors off a cliff to prove their loyalty and the eight year Iran-Iraq war in which both sides needlessly sacrificed millions of their population was no less insane by Judeo Christian standards.
Communism, the mirror image of Judeo Christian faith (See my Tower of Power-Decoding the Secrets of Babel), similarly denies its citizens the opportunity of improving their abilities to make a living while needlessly slaughtering them by the million as did Stalin in the Soviet Union, Mao Zedong in China, and Pol Pot in Cambodia.
In general, those people who reject the Judeo-Christian model of human organization usually end up embracing its opposite, which is a materialistic vision of reality. In this vision, people are not united by the content of their characters and the devotion of their souls because people are merely smart animals. Just as animals are divided by shape and skin color, so are people, claims this mistaken model. In this age-old false vision of humanity, there must be strife between men and women, between black and white and between rich and poor.
The tendency of labor unions to form gangs by means of which others can be plundered is an expression of this principle as is the tendency among those who reject the Biblical blueprint, to regard labor unions as a sacred priestly class automatically cloaked with virtue.
Permanent Principle of the Bible # 2
There are two basic obstacles to any individual’s physical survival. (1) Extracting a living from an often reluctant earth using as little of our time and effort possible. (2) Preventing other stronger individuals or groups from attacking us and seizing our property and possibly also taking our lives.
The Judeo-Christian Biblical blueprint confers success upon its followers by solving these two problems. Firstly, it affirms the worthiness of work and the idea that we were placed into this Garden of Eden precisely in order to work it and become God’s partners in creation by transforming jungle into cities and fetid swamps into fertile fields.
It then implants in us the idea that God does not allow us individuals to take the property or lives of others and how borrowing is a bad idea even from future generations. It inculcates in us respect for women and the goodness of protecting and cherishing women. Finally, it teaches the importance of specialization to produce God’s desire of interdependence upon one another. (see my Prosperity Power—Connect for Succe$$) Not surprisingly, those cultures that founded themselves by following these precepts prospered in peace and tranquility.
As time went by, however, many blessed western countries first forgot then abandoned the very blueprint that brought them to affluence. Environmentalism with its pantheistic doctrines and worship of nature is one destructive aspect of the loss of Biblical vision. We are now watching the economic consequences of that rash rejection of their founding Biblical principles.
Permanent Principle of the Bible # 3
In isolation, individuals live short and painful lives. Only by organizing ourselves into families, communities, societies, and yes, nations, do we stand a chance of solving the two basic problems of survival.
Just imagine if you were the last person alive on the planet after some catastrophe wiped out everyone else. Your first sensation might be relief at being able to retain the remote control for the TV and being able to find a parking place downtown but you’d soon be brought up short. No electricity (nobody to operate the power plants), no television or radio programing, no restaurants, and eventually no more food in the now empty markets. Pretty soon, for transport in your search for food, you’d be reduced to riding whatever horse or donkey you could find and like a subsistence peasant in the most primitive third world neighborhood, you will have to plant something and hope it will grow to harvest before you starve to death. Our wealth IS other people, provided they also subscribe to a common system of values that allows us all to communicate, cooperate, and above all, trust one another. Without trust there is no credit and no transaction and without transaction, we are each on our own.
There are four basic patterns to human organization. (i) Leave all alone and live with chaos and civic anarchy. (ii) Centralized planning by a tyrannical regime. (iii) Tribal. (iv) Judeo Christian system of ancient Israel that created western civilization in general and the United States in particular.
The first is unendurable and the plight of those trapped in this environment is tragic. As for centralized planning, one would think that the twentieth century destroyed faith in this hopeless model but it lingers with almost religious fervor among America’s elite university faculties and Europe’s secular fundamentalists. The tribal model has demonstrated an inability to build even bicycles let alone computer chips and seems incapable of even seeing the benefit of water-borne sewage systems. The fourth system, God’s plan for human interaction, speaks for itself. With all the imperfections inevitable when mere humans try to implement a perfect system, it still remains the deep desire of most human beings and what they seek either by politics or emigration.
Permanent Principle of the Bible # 4
God created separate nations in the world instead of making all humans part of one big group. (see my The Gathering Storm-Decoding the Secrets of Noah) Several chapters of Genesis are devoted to showing how God’s plan was for each nation to experiment with its own ideas of how human cooperation should be structured. Israel alone was presented with God’s Biblical Blueprint and with it, the mission to share it with the world.
However, unlike some other faiths that also believe they possess the truth, Israel was never to use the sword to force others to accept its divine blueprint for human cooperation. The sword was unnecessary because it would quickly become obvious to all observers that God’s Biblical model produced a wealthier, a more tranquil and free society than all the other experiments out there. In their own interests, God hoped, everyone would adopt it willingly and peacefully.
By way of example, when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the cars they had been making, the GAZ Pobedas, the Volgas, and the ZIL limousines were roundly rejected by western car buyers. Those mediocre mechanical monstrosities were used in the Soviet Union because that is all there was. If you bought a car then, you bought a Soviet product at the point of a sword as it were. You had no choice. Western cars were far superior because makers enjoyed competition. Nobody was forced to buy a government-made product. People picked the very best cars they could afford and today, miraculously, most people in the west can afford a vehicle that will carry four passengers for fifty-thousand miles without any major mechanical work. Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, and even Cadillac do not have to force people at the point of a gun to purchase their vehicles. In their own self-interest, those who can willing and eagerly acquire those products ignoring the poor experiments in car design that governments sometimes try to foist upon a docile public.
Similarly, God set up a system wherein different people in their own groups could experiment all they wished. Meanwhile, Israel, and those who adopted the Biblical blueprint would build so vastly superior societies that others would flock to adopt the same system of organizing principles. Let competition of ideologies flourish and let people choose the right way. This was God’s design.
We in the United States are threatened by the growing numbers of our fellow citizens who regard themselves as citizens of the world rather than as citizens of the United States of America. Our lives are endangered by leaders willing to sacrifice our welfare for the good of the world. Gasoline prices surging to $5/gallon and more present a greater threat to hard-working American families than panic-inducing warnings of climate change. Weakening our defense capabilities in order to win the approval of those who hate us is sheer recklessness calculated to make the ghost of Neville Chamberlain smile. All these and more flow from the attempt to deny Permanent Principle of the Bible number four.
For reasons that lie outside the scope of this discussion, what we think of as western civilization grew from those societies which adopted Christianity which, in itself, was an adoption of Judaism, the faith of Israel. Not surprisingly, over 90% of the scientific discoveries and medical advances of the past eleven hundred years came out of Christendom, an old word for western civilization which I like. Not surprisingly, no capital market has ever emerged indigenously from a non-Christian country.
Sure enough, God’s prediction that others would spot the success of societies following the Biblical blueprint and emulate them has been partially fulfilled.
Many societies have adopted the outward trappings of the west. Today, both banks and bathrooms in Beijing, Bombay, and Bangkok, resemble those in Boston, Birmingham, and Berlin. However, in most cases they have neglected to adopt the Biblical underpinnings of morality and law that ultimately make possible those outward trappings. This throws their durability into doubt and suggests the imprudence of the west trying to salve its conscience by throwing large sums of foreign aid to so-called developing countries. The idea that raising taxes on Americans and sending loads of money to barbaric regions of the world will convert them into exotic versions of Highland Park, New Jersey or Encino, California is laughable.
Imagine a remote island whose primitive population spends most of its time robbing and raping, mugging and murdering. What do you think will bring about more change, parachuting in bags of cash along with officials of the World Bank or sending in one hundred Christian missionaries?
Yes, the Biblical model is verified by the immigration patterns of the last sixty years. The greatest and most rapid human migration in history has been from non-Christian-founded countries to Christendom, or the West. To put it perhaps a little too bluntly, neither Saudi Arabia nor Somalia has an illegal immigration problem. People vote with their feet for what works, and what works in terms of allowing people to make a living and stay reasonably safe and secure, is the Judeo-Christian based west.
The disturbing deceit inherent in the idea of multi-culturalism and its close cousins the communist dream of internationalism along with the left’s childlike faith in the impotent United Nations are all futile manifestations of the attempt to overturn this fourth Permanent Principle of the Bible.
Permanent Principle of the Bible # 5
Few more powerful motivators exist for human beings than a deep conviction in what their god wants from them. Part of America’s inability to deal effectively with Islamic terror stems from this fatal failing: Prior to 9-11, almost nobody in the American State Department had ever met a human being willing not only to die for his faith but also quite willing to kill for it.
Islam may not have a god that did much to help its devotees build attractive and successful societies but those devotees certainly are totally committed. Total commitment, even to something wrong, often trumps lukewarm commitment to truth.
Alcoholics anonymous works so well for so many people precisely because its founder, Bill Wilson recognized the need to include God when attempting major transformation. Not surprisingly, government anti-drug programs accomplish very little because they so meticulously banish God from the program.
Using these five Permanent Principles of the Bible, we can gain better insight into what is happening as countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, and many others to follow, ignite into civic chaos.
Essentially, these cultures have enviously witnessed the wealth of the west since before the start of the twentieth century. They have lusted for the materialistic results of the Judeo-Christian system, but they have rejected the spiritual underpinnings that made it all possible.
Now, they mistakenly believe that all that stands between them and life as seen on American television are their corrupt governments and tyrannical leaders. When they discover that Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gadhafi’s successors are not able to deliver, we shall probably see even greater unrest.
The leaders that will emerge understand far better than their decadent western counterparts that people need a spiritual anchor as much as they need food on the table. They will encourage an ardent return to Islamic fundamentalism since the nature of Islam discourages dreams of democracy. They will continue constantly to deride the west and particularly America and Israel as the world’s sources for the appealing and attractive Judeo Christian Biblical model. By fostering in their populations frenzied fanatics and fierce fiends, they hope to retain power and protect their privileged lifestyles. Without American leadership that values our Judeo-Christian heritage and understands how its spiritual nourishment sustains our success, we face increasing travail.
With these permanent principles of the Bible, we can also understand the circuses in Wisconsin and elsewhere. Religious conservatives place principle above politics. This is why it was Republican legislators and officials who forced President Richard Nixon to resign and why it was Democrats who saved the presidency of Bill Clinton. If the Judeo-Christian vision fuels your life, then your politics must conform. Winning is not everything, God is. For the secular fundamentalists on the left, however, their political creed is their religion. Thus politics for them is a form of religious war—a crusade if you will. For this reason, legislators hiding away in remote corners are performing an act of brave and principled defiance. Winning is everything. That is their religious doctrine-they have no other.
The left has succeeded in dividing America into many separate groups or gangs. By annihilating our commonality and eroding love of our providential mission, it has set us all against one another. Those who do not want to throw more money at a failed educational system are child-haters. Those who want relief for American families groaning beneath the burden of confiscatory rates of taxation hate the poor. Those who want a spiritual cure for multi-generational family dysfunctionality are racists.
Today, American culture is cut by a canyon. It doesn’t separate whites from blacks; it doesn’t separate rich from poor; it doesn’t separate men from women. It divides those who regard Judeo Christian values as vital for our nation’s survival from those who consider the Biblical blueprint to be nothing more than a primitive obstruction to progress. And there are blacks and whites on both sides; there are rich and poor on both sides, and there are men and women on both sides.
There is hope for a brighter tomorrow but it utterly depends upon the twenty-percent of Americans (see my Thought Tools volume 2) who recognize how urgently we need a return to our founding principles. Only by a return to the Judeo-Christian values that have sustained Israel for three thousand years and that created the United States of America can we once again become one nation under God. We will become a nation capable of seeing the threats imperiling our survival and we will again be a nation capable of fearlessly facing our foes and defeating them. We will become a nation capable of recognizing the folly of living beyond our means and will have the fortitude to take the necessary steps to recover fiscal responsibility. In short, we will once again be the nation that successfully salvaged the world from the threat of a prolonged period of darkness and we will do so again.
Faith
Rabbi Daniel Lapin:
The Bible enshrines the title deeds of western civilization
Posted on March 1, 2011 at 10:10am by Rabbi Daniel Lapin Print » Email » Few of the Jews living comfortably in Warsaw, Poland, in say 1935, had the faintest idea that life as they knew it was about to end. In less than five years normal life in luxurious mansions would be replaced by unspeakable horror in torture camps so terrible that death itself was a relief.
I do not suggest that we shall confront such severe shocks to our lives over the next few years. However, wise people recognize that nothing lasts forever. Smart observers recognize that the challenging changes that have swirled turbulently around the foundations of our world over the past ten years have consequences that will impact the quality of our lives in increasingly dramatic fashion.
One can ignore the distant sound of approaching boots and blindly await the cataclysm or one can make the effort to peer through a periscope and spot the threats. It is possible to analyze current events through the lens of ancient Jewish wisdom and emerge with, if not a prophetic sense of where things are headed, at least a good idea of what the short term future holds.
Some people condemn themselves to stumble through the dark forest at night snagged by branches and tripped by roots. Others wear night-vision goggles and cover the ground easily and safely. It is my goal in these few paragraphs, to equip you with night-vision goggles in the form of five permanent principles of the Bible. These will make sense of the treacherous landscape and help you to avoid the roots and branches awaiting the unwary.
Whether we examine the North African troubles or the bizarre pro-union farce in Wisconsin, the picture we obtain will be clearer with these tools.
Permanent Principle of the Bible # 1
People are not merely smart animals. We are an entirely different species, touched by the finger of God and possessing souls. This means that few lessons we learn from animals are applicable to people. For instance, if any animal is restricted to an adequately large area and provided with food, water and safety, it will never endeavor to go anywhere else. People, even if confined to a very large area in which they can obtain all their hearts desire, find that their souls chafe at the restrictions. We seek the infinite. While animals protect their territories, we humans feel the urge to seize the territories of others. In civilized circumstances we try to increase our holdings by purchase and trade. In less civilized circumstances we do so by war and plunder. Animals act on instinct and are incapable of evil and are incapable of choosing good over evil. People are capable of making moral choices and in many cases, will choose war and plunder. We do not need to prepare ourselves to cope with evil animals, a mere fence will keep the wolves from our sheep. But we very much need to prepare to deal with evil people or we shall not survive.
Those nations with a strong sense of their Biblical roots tend to build up their societies and allow their people to prosper in an environment of safety and security. Occasionally, straying from those roots, as Germany did when it temporarily turned to Hitler and his Nazi thugs, even western nations will pursue predatory policies but they seldom work for very long. The thousand year Reich failed to make it past the twenty year mark.
By contrast, nations based on organizational principles other than Judeo-Christian deny their people prosperity and security and tend to prey on their neighbors. Shaka, the late 18th century Zulu chief thought nothing of marching his warriors off a cliff to prove their loyalty and the eight year Iran-Iraq war in which both sides needlessly sacrificed millions of their population was no less insane by Judeo Christian standards.
Communism, the mirror image of Judeo Christian faith (See my Tower of Power-Decoding the Secrets of Babel), similarly denies its citizens the opportunity of improving their abilities to make a living while needlessly slaughtering them by the million as did Stalin in the Soviet Union, Mao Zedong in China, and Pol Pot in Cambodia.
In general, those people who reject the Judeo-Christian model of human organization usually end up embracing its opposite, which is a materialistic vision of reality. In this vision, people are not united by the content of their characters and the devotion of their souls because people are merely smart animals. Just as animals are divided by shape and skin color, so are people, claims this mistaken model. In this age-old false vision of humanity, there must be strife between men and women, between black and white and between rich and poor.
The tendency of labor unions to form gangs by means of which others can be plundered is an expression of this principle as is the tendency among those who reject the Biblical blueprint, to regard labor unions as a sacred priestly class automatically cloaked with virtue.
Permanent Principle of the Bible # 2
There are two basic obstacles to any individual’s physical survival. (1) Extracting a living from an often reluctant earth using as little of our time and effort possible. (2) Preventing other stronger individuals or groups from attacking us and seizing our property and possibly also taking our lives.
The Judeo-Christian Biblical blueprint confers success upon its followers by solving these two problems. Firstly, it affirms the worthiness of work and the idea that we were placed into this Garden of Eden precisely in order to work it and become God’s partners in creation by transforming jungle into cities and fetid swamps into fertile fields.
It then implants in us the idea that God does not allow us individuals to take the property or lives of others and how borrowing is a bad idea even from future generations. It inculcates in us respect for women and the goodness of protecting and cherishing women. Finally, it teaches the importance of specialization to produce God’s desire of interdependence upon one another. (see my Prosperity Power—Connect for Succe$$) Not surprisingly, those cultures that founded themselves by following these precepts prospered in peace and tranquility.
As time went by, however, many blessed western countries first forgot then abandoned the very blueprint that brought them to affluence. Environmentalism with its pantheistic doctrines and worship of nature is one destructive aspect of the loss of Biblical vision. We are now watching the economic consequences of that rash rejection of their founding Biblical principles.
Permanent Principle of the Bible # 3
In isolation, individuals live short and painful lives. Only by organizing ourselves into families, communities, societies, and yes, nations, do we stand a chance of solving the two basic problems of survival.
Just imagine if you were the last person alive on the planet after some catastrophe wiped out everyone else. Your first sensation might be relief at being able to retain the remote control for the TV and being able to find a parking place downtown but you’d soon be brought up short. No electricity (nobody to operate the power plants), no television or radio programing, no restaurants, and eventually no more food in the now empty markets. Pretty soon, for transport in your search for food, you’d be reduced to riding whatever horse or donkey you could find and like a subsistence peasant in the most primitive third world neighborhood, you will have to plant something and hope it will grow to harvest before you starve to death. Our wealth IS other people, provided they also subscribe to a common system of values that allows us all to communicate, cooperate, and above all, trust one another. Without trust there is no credit and no transaction and without transaction, we are each on our own.
There are four basic patterns to human organization. (i) Leave all alone and live with chaos and civic anarchy. (ii) Centralized planning by a tyrannical regime. (iii) Tribal. (iv) Judeo Christian system of ancient Israel that created western civilization in general and the United States in particular.
The first is unendurable and the plight of those trapped in this environment is tragic. As for centralized planning, one would think that the twentieth century destroyed faith in this hopeless model but it lingers with almost religious fervor among America’s elite university faculties and Europe’s secular fundamentalists. The tribal model has demonstrated an inability to build even bicycles let alone computer chips and seems incapable of even seeing the benefit of water-borne sewage systems. The fourth system, God’s plan for human interaction, speaks for itself. With all the imperfections inevitable when mere humans try to implement a perfect system, it still remains the deep desire of most human beings and what they seek either by politics or emigration.
Permanent Principle of the Bible # 4
God created separate nations in the world instead of making all humans part of one big group. (see my The Gathering Storm-Decoding the Secrets of Noah) Several chapters of Genesis are devoted to showing how God’s plan was for each nation to experiment with its own ideas of how human cooperation should be structured. Israel alone was presented with God’s Biblical Blueprint and with it, the mission to share it with the world.
However, unlike some other faiths that also believe they possess the truth, Israel was never to use the sword to force others to accept its divine blueprint for human cooperation. The sword was unnecessary because it would quickly become obvious to all observers that God’s Biblical model produced a wealthier, a more tranquil and free society than all the other experiments out there. In their own interests, God hoped, everyone would adopt it willingly and peacefully.
By way of example, when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the cars they had been making, the GAZ Pobedas, the Volgas, and the ZIL limousines were roundly rejected by western car buyers. Those mediocre mechanical monstrosities were used in the Soviet Union because that is all there was. If you bought a car then, you bought a Soviet product at the point of a sword as it were. You had no choice. Western cars were far superior because makers enjoyed competition. Nobody was forced to buy a government-made product. People picked the very best cars they could afford and today, miraculously, most people in the west can afford a vehicle that will carry four passengers for fifty-thousand miles without any major mechanical work. Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, and even Cadillac do not have to force people at the point of a gun to purchase their vehicles. In their own self-interest, those who can willing and eagerly acquire those products ignoring the poor experiments in car design that governments sometimes try to foist upon a docile public.
Similarly, God set up a system wherein different people in their own groups could experiment all they wished. Meanwhile, Israel, and those who adopted the Biblical blueprint would build so vastly superior societies that others would flock to adopt the same system of organizing principles. Let competition of ideologies flourish and let people choose the right way. This was God’s design.
We in the United States are threatened by the growing numbers of our fellow citizens who regard themselves as citizens of the world rather than as citizens of the United States of America. Our lives are endangered by leaders willing to sacrifice our welfare for the good of the world. Gasoline prices surging to $5/gallon and more present a greater threat to hard-working American families than panic-inducing warnings of climate change. Weakening our defense capabilities in order to win the approval of those who hate us is sheer recklessness calculated to make the ghost of Neville Chamberlain smile. All these and more flow from the attempt to deny Permanent Principle of the Bible number four.
For reasons that lie outside the scope of this discussion, what we think of as western civilization grew from those societies which adopted Christianity which, in itself, was an adoption of Judaism, the faith of Israel. Not surprisingly, over 90% of the scientific discoveries and medical advances of the past eleven hundred years came out of Christendom, an old word for western civilization which I like. Not surprisingly, no capital market has ever emerged indigenously from a non-Christian country.
Sure enough, God’s prediction that others would spot the success of societies following the Biblical blueprint and emulate them has been partially fulfilled.
Many societies have adopted the outward trappings of the west. Today, both banks and bathrooms in Beijing, Bombay, and Bangkok, resemble those in Boston, Birmingham, and Berlin. However, in most cases they have neglected to adopt the Biblical underpinnings of morality and law that ultimately make possible those outward trappings. This throws their durability into doubt and suggests the imprudence of the west trying to salve its conscience by throwing large sums of foreign aid to so-called developing countries. The idea that raising taxes on Americans and sending loads of money to barbaric regions of the world will convert them into exotic versions of Highland Park, New Jersey or Encino, California is laughable.
Imagine a remote island whose primitive population spends most of its time robbing and raping, mugging and murdering. What do you think will bring about more change, parachuting in bags of cash along with officials of the World Bank or sending in one hundred Christian missionaries?
Yes, the Biblical model is verified by the immigration patterns of the last sixty years. The greatest and most rapid human migration in history has been from non-Christian-founded countries to Christendom, or the West. To put it perhaps a little too bluntly, neither Saudi Arabia nor Somalia has an illegal immigration problem. People vote with their feet for what works, and what works in terms of allowing people to make a living and stay reasonably safe and secure, is the Judeo-Christian based west.
The disturbing deceit inherent in the idea of multi-culturalism and its close cousins the communist dream of internationalism along with the left’s childlike faith in the impotent United Nations are all futile manifestations of the attempt to overturn this fourth Permanent Principle of the Bible.
Permanent Principle of the Bible # 5
Few more powerful motivators exist for human beings than a deep conviction in what their god wants from them. Part of America’s inability to deal effectively with Islamic terror stems from this fatal failing: Prior to 9-11, almost nobody in the American State Department had ever met a human being willing not only to die for his faith but also quite willing to kill for it.
Islam may not have a god that did much to help its devotees build attractive and successful societies but those devotees certainly are totally committed. Total commitment, even to something wrong, often trumps lukewarm commitment to truth.
Alcoholics anonymous works so well for so many people precisely because its founder, Bill Wilson recognized the need to include God when attempting major transformation. Not surprisingly, government anti-drug programs accomplish very little because they so meticulously banish God from the program.
Using these five Permanent Principles of the Bible, we can gain better insight into what is happening as countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, and many others to follow, ignite into civic chaos.
Essentially, these cultures have enviously witnessed the wealth of the west since before the start of the twentieth century. They have lusted for the materialistic results of the Judeo-Christian system, but they have rejected the spiritual underpinnings that made it all possible.
Now, they mistakenly believe that all that stands between them and life as seen on American television are their corrupt governments and tyrannical leaders. When they discover that Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gadhafi’s successors are not able to deliver, we shall probably see even greater unrest.
The leaders that will emerge understand far better than their decadent western counterparts that people need a spiritual anchor as much as they need food on the table. They will encourage an ardent return to Islamic fundamentalism since the nature of Islam discourages dreams of democracy. They will continue constantly to deride the west and particularly America and Israel as the world’s sources for the appealing and attractive Judeo Christian Biblical model. By fostering in their populations frenzied fanatics and fierce fiends, they hope to retain power and protect their privileged lifestyles. Without American leadership that values our Judeo-Christian heritage and understands how its spiritual nourishment sustains our success, we face increasing travail.
With these permanent principles of the Bible, we can also understand the circuses in Wisconsin and elsewhere. Religious conservatives place principle above politics. This is why it was Republican legislators and officials who forced President Richard Nixon to resign and why it was Democrats who saved the presidency of Bill Clinton. If the Judeo-Christian vision fuels your life, then your politics must conform. Winning is not everything, God is. For the secular fundamentalists on the left, however, their political creed is their religion. Thus politics for them is a form of religious war—a crusade if you will. For this reason, legislators hiding away in remote corners are performing an act of brave and principled defiance. Winning is everything. That is their religious doctrine-they have no other.
The left has succeeded in dividing America into many separate groups or gangs. By annihilating our commonality and eroding love of our providential mission, it has set us all against one another. Those who do not want to throw more money at a failed educational system are child-haters. Those who want relief for American families groaning beneath the burden of confiscatory rates of taxation hate the poor. Those who want a spiritual cure for multi-generational family dysfunctionality are racists.
Today, American culture is cut by a canyon. It doesn’t separate whites from blacks; it doesn’t separate rich from poor; it doesn’t separate men from women. It divides those who regard Judeo Christian values as vital for our nation’s survival from those who consider the Biblical blueprint to be nothing more than a primitive obstruction to progress. And there are blacks and whites on both sides; there are rich and poor on both sides, and there are men and women on both sides.
There is hope for a brighter tomorrow but it utterly depends upon the twenty-percent of Americans (see my Thought Tools volume 2) who recognize how urgently we need a return to our founding principles. Only by a return to the Judeo-Christian values that have sustained Israel for three thousand years and that created the United States of America can we once again become one nation under God. We will become a nation capable of seeing the threats imperiling our survival and we will again be a nation capable of fearlessly facing our foes and defeating them. We will become a nation capable of recognizing the folly of living beyond our means and will have the fortitude to take the necessary steps to recover fiscal responsibility. In short, we will once again be the nation that successfully salvaged the world from the threat of a prolonged period of darkness and we will do so again.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
our marriage
9 years ago today i was blessed to marry the other half of my heart. what a day that was. i can remember every detail of our wedding day. i also remember the great joy that john and i shared on that day; knowing that we would spend our life together. it feels has though he has never not been apart of me; that we were meant to be.
the last 9 years have been a roller coaster. on our wedding i was the only one that knew for certain that i had ms. i had spoken with the doctors a week before and they had confirmed it. everyone else thought it was just a possibility. it was by far the most joyous and heart-wrenching week of my life. i had no idea how we were going to be able to fight this disease.
john was looking for a job at that time after being layed off soon after 9/11. i still don't really know how he it made through knowing that he couldn't provide an income for us, and that his soon to be wife was sick. what an incredible man GOD has made. he pushed through and fought to come back from these trials.
it would be a lie to say that we haven't had our problems, or that we don't have issues that never seem to get resolved, but the idea though that we could be separated from each other would be terrifying and heartbreaking for us both. we have created a beautiful life together filled with our belief that GOD comes before all things and is the protector of our family.
our love has grown deeper over the years. we have prospered. we have two beautiful boys that make our life so worth achieving every goal and every desire that we have. they are our little miracles. they are our gifts from the LORD.
he is the man i would give my life for; the only man. he is apart of me. i love his patience (he needs a lot of it) and he loves my passion. i love his heart and he loves mine. we are one.
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[c] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." ephesians 5:22-33
the last 9 years have been a roller coaster. on our wedding i was the only one that knew for certain that i had ms. i had spoken with the doctors a week before and they had confirmed it. everyone else thought it was just a possibility. it was by far the most joyous and heart-wrenching week of my life. i had no idea how we were going to be able to fight this disease.
john was looking for a job at that time after being layed off soon after 9/11. i still don't really know how he it made through knowing that he couldn't provide an income for us, and that his soon to be wife was sick. what an incredible man GOD has made. he pushed through and fought to come back from these trials.
it would be a lie to say that we haven't had our problems, or that we don't have issues that never seem to get resolved, but the idea though that we could be separated from each other would be terrifying and heartbreaking for us both. we have created a beautiful life together filled with our belief that GOD comes before all things and is the protector of our family.
our love has grown deeper over the years. we have prospered. we have two beautiful boys that make our life so worth achieving every goal and every desire that we have. they are our little miracles. they are our gifts from the LORD.
he is the man i would give my life for; the only man. he is apart of me. i love his patience (he needs a lot of it) and he loves my passion. i love his heart and he loves mine. we are one.
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[c] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." ephesians 5:22-33
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
never say never
there is a verse in proverbs that i always think of when i catch myself saying never; "in his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps" proverbs 16:9. GOD's decision for our future is already planned. HE has already given you the will to choose between right and wrong on how you lead your life. there is truth to the saying with age comes wisdom. not that every decision is correct or wrong, but the ability to realize that you could learn something from that decision.
before i had my first child i remember saying what i wouldn't do - that never happened. i found out that children change everything whether you want them to or not. you live completely for your child. this can be very trying, but so worth it because you have a little miracle. plus, you're dealing with a little human being that is going to have as many passions as you.
GOD challenges us to become the person HE wants us to be; a reflection of HIMSELF. one of my favorite quotes is "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" by albert einstein. my temper is this way. i think that by losing my temper that i am getting my point across; this only makes the other person defensive. what do i gain from it; nothing. i can't say that i will never lose my temper again, but i can learn to take a breather or walk away when i know that it is about to erupt.
GOD gives us the rules in the bible, right there in black and white. the problem i have is when we distort those rules to be tolerant, or "fake" with another individual. i hate saying this, but i think christians can be the biggest culprits in this. we tend to forget our own demons and think that we are "perfect" in our journeys. i like christians that are honest about their failures and have humility in what they are struggling with; because it makes them human. i like the fact that they know this about themselves and they continually pray to GOD for HIM to guide them on how to solve it.
paul is my favorite of GOD's chosen. he was a murderer, a liar, and a tyrant. he became a true man of GOD on the road to damascus. i'm sure those that were being taught, or being rebuked by him pointed out those sins. i'm also sure that he was never a hypocrite about what he had done; he showed humility in his mistakes. thousands of years later we are still learning from paul and the truths that GOD gave him; what a blessing!
we all have issues and to say that we never have them is a lie. to say that we can never change is a lie. look at paul and what GOD did for him. to say that there isn't a GOD and a devil; well, i don't know if we should take that risk. never say never.
"no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what GOD has prepared for those who love HIM." 1 corinthians 2:9
before i had my first child i remember saying what i wouldn't do - that never happened. i found out that children change everything whether you want them to or not. you live completely for your child. this can be very trying, but so worth it because you have a little miracle. plus, you're dealing with a little human being that is going to have as many passions as you.
GOD challenges us to become the person HE wants us to be; a reflection of HIMSELF. one of my favorite quotes is "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results" by albert einstein. my temper is this way. i think that by losing my temper that i am getting my point across; this only makes the other person defensive. what do i gain from it; nothing. i can't say that i will never lose my temper again, but i can learn to take a breather or walk away when i know that it is about to erupt.
GOD gives us the rules in the bible, right there in black and white. the problem i have is when we distort those rules to be tolerant, or "fake" with another individual. i hate saying this, but i think christians can be the biggest culprits in this. we tend to forget our own demons and think that we are "perfect" in our journeys. i like christians that are honest about their failures and have humility in what they are struggling with; because it makes them human. i like the fact that they know this about themselves and they continually pray to GOD for HIM to guide them on how to solve it.
paul is my favorite of GOD's chosen. he was a murderer, a liar, and a tyrant. he became a true man of GOD on the road to damascus. i'm sure those that were being taught, or being rebuked by him pointed out those sins. i'm also sure that he was never a hypocrite about what he had done; he showed humility in his mistakes. thousands of years later we are still learning from paul and the truths that GOD gave him; what a blessing!
we all have issues and to say that we never have them is a lie. to say that we can never change is a lie. look at paul and what GOD did for him. to say that there isn't a GOD and a devil; well, i don't know if we should take that risk. never say never.
"no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what GOD has prepared for those who love HIM." 1 corinthians 2:9
Thursday, February 17, 2011
biblical prophecy - true or false?
as many of you know i love history, but i am starting to study biblical prophecy just as much. with the current unrest in the middle east i have been watching and reading more about the israel response. i tend to watch them more now, because i want to see how it is going to unfold. with that said as christians do we believe the prophecies to be true, or just stories to guide us on how to live?
for some individuals they believe that the stories in the bible are just stories, myths. some believe that they are myths like atlantis, or the lost city of gold. the book of daniel is a complete prophecy for his time, as well as for the future. of course there is debate on whether or not revelations is a prelude as to what is to become of the world before CHRIST comes again. there are some that believe that both books and their prophecies had to do with the fall of babylon and the roman empire.
what is true is that throughout history the persecution of israel and jews keeps repeating itself. there is always someone, or a group of individuals that want to erase the jewish population; GOD's chosen. i think as most americans we see nothing in the bible that includes us in this, but our comparison to rome is something to consider. what we should watch is the relationship between the united states and israel. we were at one time a very close ally, but current events are unfolding that may show that is not true any longer. (in genesis GOD condemns those that are not friends of HIS chosen)
do i believe the bible to be the true word of GOD; yes. do i believe the prophecies of daniel and revelations; yes. there is a site that i have just found that regards biblical prophecy and what is currently happening in the world. it refers to prophecies that have been fulfilled, for example the birth of CHRIST, as well as the death. if i had read this 2 or 3 months ago i would have been frightened by it, but my relationship with CHRIST has grown.
this is probably by far the most radical (and weirdest) blog posting i have done. i am still trying to figure how i should even digest all of this. i did a study on daniel and revelations, but i'm still confused by these books. the idea of accepting a spiritual world that we have never seen is too far out there for most of us - me included. i don't quite understand though how some can believe in psychics, or other paranormal events, but not GOD and satan.
scripture references - daniel and revelations - just take a chance and read them.
for some individuals they believe that the stories in the bible are just stories, myths. some believe that they are myths like atlantis, or the lost city of gold. the book of daniel is a complete prophecy for his time, as well as for the future. of course there is debate on whether or not revelations is a prelude as to what is to become of the world before CHRIST comes again. there are some that believe that both books and their prophecies had to do with the fall of babylon and the roman empire.
what is true is that throughout history the persecution of israel and jews keeps repeating itself. there is always someone, or a group of individuals that want to erase the jewish population; GOD's chosen. i think as most americans we see nothing in the bible that includes us in this, but our comparison to rome is something to consider. what we should watch is the relationship between the united states and israel. we were at one time a very close ally, but current events are unfolding that may show that is not true any longer. (in genesis GOD condemns those that are not friends of HIS chosen)
do i believe the bible to be the true word of GOD; yes. do i believe the prophecies of daniel and revelations; yes. there is a site that i have just found that regards biblical prophecy and what is currently happening in the world. it refers to prophecies that have been fulfilled, for example the birth of CHRIST, as well as the death. if i had read this 2 or 3 months ago i would have been frightened by it, but my relationship with CHRIST has grown.
this is probably by far the most radical (and weirdest) blog posting i have done. i am still trying to figure how i should even digest all of this. i did a study on daniel and revelations, but i'm still confused by these books. the idea of accepting a spiritual world that we have never seen is too far out there for most of us - me included. i don't quite understand though how some can believe in psychics, or other paranormal events, but not GOD and satan.
scripture references - daniel and revelations - just take a chance and read them.
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