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| Truth Is Fallen In The Street
After I got about halfway through this piece, I suddenly realized that it easily qualifies as one of the most profound but scatter-brained things I've ever written. Maybe you shouldn't read it... it may keep you up at night, thinking in circles about paradoxes and apparent contradictions. If you were able to travel back in time and keep your parents from ever meeting each other, could you keep yourself from being born so that you wouldn't be reading this now, or that you couldn't (by virtue of never being born) stop your parents from meeting so that you'd be born no matter what you did? That's the kind of stuff I go into here... among other things. It's gonna' be a long night; I can see it now. Enjoy the reading.
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One of my favorite Bible passages is:
“... Truth is fallen in the street...” - Isaiah 59:15 KJV
The mission of this humble little ministry is to restore truth to the minds, and faith to the souls of the world's people. We will never persuade the politicians that “Honesty is the best policy”, but we can persuade God-fearing Christians to listen with a more critical ear, and watch world and domestic events with a more discerning eye.
The rest of that passage reads: “...and equity cannot enter”.
That entire chapter in the book of Isaiah reads as if the prophet wrote it yesterday as an op-ed piece for a gadfly[1] newspaper that wasn't too politically correct or afraid to print it.
On Wednesday July 20, 2005. I was walking on 14th Street by Tomkins Square Park in New York City. There was a crowd of about 300 or 400 people gathered in the hot sweltering sun, listening to a Pro-Death advocate spewing from her mouth words to the effect:
“...We must keep abortion legal... I say to the government, Mind your own business, and keep your dirty, filthy hands off of my body”.
Well, not that anyone in his right mind would want any part of her nasty body, I yelled out to her, “That's what you should have said to your sire before you got pregnant!” - I doubt that she heard me over the din of the crowd applauding her, but the people directly in front of me surely did. I wished I had had a bullhorn; I would have started preaching the Word right there.
Obviously, no one who would advocate the murder of an innocent baby would be trying to listen to a bugged-out (I have PTSD) Vietnam vet preacher, but at least I could have planted the seed. When Man seeks to transgress the law of God, inevitably he constructs his own “truth” in order to make the offense seem socially acceptable. At the same time, he unwittingly engineers his own demise. The Bible says, “... your sin will find you out”.[2] To the abortionists and Pro-Death[3] crowd, killing a baby before it is born is a “right” guaranteed by the Constitution. To other groups of people, men marrying men, and women marrying women are also culturally acceptable because (they say) they were “born gay”. Those are lies from the pit of Hell.
A baby is a human being with an immortal soul at the moment of conception, and nobody is “born” a homosexual; that behavior is learned from some life experience, and it can be un-learned.
Any preacher that preaches anything else, and any preacher who doesn't rail against those sins is not a preacher; he's a Devil in disguise. The blood of the people's souls he would help to cast into the Lake of Fire by condoning or tolerating these abominations will be on his hands on judgment day -- and that's Word! [4]
No man is perfect. I am no exception. I'm like the Apostle Paul, in more ways than one. I'm a sinner, and chief among you sinners. I also sometimes find myself doing what I don't want to do, and not doing what I should do. It is literally a Hell of a predicament. However, I know I'm saved - not by what I do or don't do, but by the blood that was shed for me on Calvary's Cross. However, that doesn't give me license to abuse God's grace, or put His tolerance of my hard-headedness to the test; and that's Word as well.
No preacher can, in good conscience, not condemn the two most vile abominations in God's eyes. No preacher can allow such things to exist among his congregation... and do or say nothing... but many do... because if they didn't, they wouldn't have much of a congregation to preach to. That's a downright crying shame, but unfortunately, many preachers and pastors find themselves literally between a rock and a hard place. They make their living preaching, and if they're not careful, before long, their god becomes their belly.
By the grace and infinite mercy of God, I don't have that particular problem. If I did, I still would do what God said to do... rail against sin - my own sins are at the top of the list.
When Jesus was called “good”, he immediately replied, “...why callest thou me good?...” If Jesus couldn't be called “good”, then you or I are nowhere in the ballpark; nowhere in the galaxy!
In a past discussion with a Hick-Farmer Sigmund Freud Wannabe; a “psychologist” in a substance abuse “group therapy” session (not that I think psychology helps anyone), in an effort to illustrate the twisted sense of morality in this country, I brought up the issue of abortion. I wanted to know how society can put a man in prison for “child abuse” when he spanks his son or daughter for misbehavior, (et al.) and a murderer in an “abortion clinic” can literally hack a baby to pieces in vivo[5] moments before the child is born, and do it for a living without conscience, and with absolute impunity.
The “therapist” replied with the same rationalization that the Nazi's used at the Nuremberg trials, saying that “Abortion is legal”, and adding, “It's MY BODY and I'll do with it as I please”. Well, excyoooozze me, Miss Pile Higher and Deeper! (Ph.D.) Why are you getting so defensive? Is it peradventure[6] that you can't confront that infanticide you committed years ago, because you know it was wrong?
So, I using that same rationale, could, if I chose to, smoke crack or shoot heroin, because It's MY BODY and I'll do with it as I damn well please. So long as I'm not driving a car, what BUSINESS is it of yours? She on the other hand, is not only affecting her body, but the unborn baby's body. Like the song goes: “...girls just wanna' have fun... that's all they reaaly want... have fun...” To Hell with the consequences! See my point? Well, you see my point, but she didn't - In one ear and out the other... and she has a degree! (Gee, I'm impressed, can you tell?).
In her tirade against my perfectly rational train of thought, she went on to make an utter fool of herself in front of a dozen “clients” that she was supposed to be counseling for drug abuse, and a litany of other criminal offenses and allegations of criminal offenses not mentionable to a mixed audience.
She said, “That BABY is dependent on ME...” (Implying dependency during the pendency[7] of the pregnancy). I responded, “'That baby' - as you called it - giving yourself away as a hypocrite - is STILL dependant on you AFTER he or she is born, is it not? Can that baby go out, get a job, and fend for itself? Can that baby feed himself, or even wash his own ass?... No. What I think you should do is wait until that child can understand enough and be able to choose whether or not to be aborted of his own free will if he or she is unwanted”.
In this manner, and following that logic to its natural conclusion, we could just as easily rationalize and justify the murder of a 12 year-old child as retroactive abortion, as we are now rationalizing murder of a baby in vivo as retroactive birth control. Truth cannot be rationalized or justified away. Truth, in the right hands, spoken boldly - even in the face of demons - will always prevail in the end. Even the ex-criminals in the room understood and agreed.
The pro death advocate had nothing further to say to me on the topic, and segued[8] onto another subject. No doubt, the Word fell on deaf ears that morning, but I cannot be faulted for not putting it out there.
The Bible says, “…to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”. – James 4:17 KJV
I could choose to blow my own horn here, and to tell you the truth, I'm sorely tempted. However, it is NOT ME that spoke those words in the face of a Merchant of Chaos, but it was the Holy Spirit speaking through me, using me as a vessel and as instrument of the Lord's truth. It felt good... No, it felt wonderful. It was the best high I've ever had... and I used to smoke Thai stick “back in the days”. Enough said.[9]
I am by no means a perfect person. Job said, “...if I say that I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse”. You don't have to be perfect and sinless to rail against evil when you recognize it...especially the sins that you, yourself fall into. Better it would be if you recognize it and rail against it because you've had the experience of traveling down that dark road to the edge of the bottomless pit - it puts more fire in your words, and gives unimpeachable credibility to your testimony when you find your own sins repulsive! It gets more attention from the congregation when you can say with the verity and conviction that only the speaking of the truth can give you; that you were snatched from the gaping pit of Hell by the very hand of the living God Himself... the God who promised in His Word, that no weapon formed against you will prosper; that none shall be able to snatch you out of His hand; that ALL things - not just the good things - but ALL things work together for good for those who love God; the same God who, even if someone plots evil against you, it is all in God's plan, in order to “save much people alive” (Genesis 50:20 - paraphrased)
The problem in America today, is that people are too busy with inconsequential things and vainglorious[10] pursuits, that they've lost the power to discern the truth, or the time to do anything about it. The insight required to see things as they really are, comes from the pages of the Bible.
Biblical prophesy is the history of the future, and for numerous reasons too lengthy to fully expound upon here, I believe that the Bible is a living book, and some of the prophesies contained within it, change depending upon the decisions we make. You may wonder what I mean here, and I ventured onto the topic, so I might as well explain briefly:
Predestination[11] in the true sense, and free will[12] in the true sense, existing simultaneously, is a non-sequitur[13]; it is a paradox[14] and a contradiction; One must necessarily exclude the other. Logic dictates that there is no point in a struggle (good vs. evil) if the outcome is known in advance. Bible prophecy is 100% on the money. You'd have a boat with three propellers [15] if your stockbroker could be half as on-the money.
Traditionally in Christian churches, this paradox was explained by some pretty far-out circular reasoning. For what it's worth, here is how WebPastor Dave sees it:
The Bible, God's living Word, is NOT a piece of static literature. In other words, the prophecies contained within it, change with Man's destiny as Man determines it via his own choices. I believe that because God is outside the constraints of linear time, the Bible is re-written every day, to reflect Man's destiny as Man himself determines it to become. Because the changes to the prophesies are made in (our) past, we perceive that the words in the book never change, and have always been as they are (because when they change in the past, we in the present, have always known them to be what they have “always been”) - but I believe that they do change, otherwise, there would be no point in the protracted[16] agony of the human struggle, the outcome of which is known from the beginning. In Scientific terminology, there would be a thing called “pan-determinism”;[17] sort-of like God is playing solitaire... and whatever “side” wins, God is still the victor. I know it sounds a bit weird, but think about it for a minute.
You can look at it this way, too: God records the outcome of our actions in the past, so when we read about it in the present, it is not only a 100% accurate historical account, but it is an accurate guide of the future trend, predicting where those actions will lead, if we continue on our present course. The prophecy is not self-fulfilling; the events themselves caused the prophesy to be written.
God said in His Word:
“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live”. - Deuteronomy 30:19 KJV
And so it is written that we have a choice; and pan-determinism on God's part - which would make the human struggle pointless - notwithstanding, there has to be, as Dr. Stan Monteith of Radio Liberty says, “A spiritual battle for the hearts and souls of men” being waged in the unseen realm.
This theory - and I have to be honest and say this is one of the strangest things I've ever written - came to me one night while looking at the anomalous events of the last few years of my life, thanking God for keeping me out of the South Tower on 9-11[18] and pondering Romans 8:28, and Genesis 50:20.
“And we know that all things work together for good to them who love God; to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
“Ye thought evil against me; but the Lord meant it unto good; to bring to pass as it is this day, and to save much people alive”.
God says in His Word, “I alone am God; I alone know the end from the beginning”. And so again, I must ask the question, What's the point, Lord? Take me home NOW! I believe part of the answer lies in the statement:
“There is beingness, but Man believes there is only becomingness”.[19]
The entity that is our “beingness” is NOT our physical body; it is (something) intangible, indestructible, and immortal. The existence of a human soul has been proven mathematically; it is not a matter of debate, and for me, it is not even a matter of faith (belief).[20]
All of us - good or bad, have eternal life.... We choose where we “end-up”, by our actions, and we choose to love God (admit), hate God (deny He exists), or (refuse to answer) attempt to avoid a decision.
One thing that has always bothered me theologically and doctrinally, is that God would create a soul, and that soul, because it is imperfect[21] from the moment it is conceived - “free will” or not - is destined to burn in eternal torment for one reason or another.
God is God, and who am I that I should demand an explanation? Somehow, I feel that something is missing... If just one soul burns in Hell, then God has won an imperfect victory; the Bible even seems to imply that most of us (humans) are going to Hell with the passage:
“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it”. - Matthew 7:13, 14 KJV
There is another passage in the Old Testament which reads:
“I [God] have sworn by myself,[22] the Word gone out of my mouth in righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory”. - Isaiah 45:23 - 25 KJV
Still another passage states: “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God”. - Romans 14:11 KJV
Do you see that a contradiction notwithstanding, there is something missing here? If every knee will bow, and every tongue confesses, then I must ask the question that's begging, Who is it that's going to Hell with Satan, and how do I avoid that fate if I, through no fault of my own, never even heard the name of Jesus Christ? To play Devil's Advocate - it seems like a fair question to me. Because our eternal destiny rests on the understanding of these scriptures, we would do well to be certain that what we “understand” is not something that we are “dubbing in” to the Word, just because we feel comfortable believing it, or are somehow, by dome circuitous twisted logic, able to make sense of it.
If what most preachers teach from their pulpits is true, then the great majority of us are going straight to Hell; no doubt about it. I have to confess that I, personally, have a problem with that theology; it compels me to believe in a God of less than half a victory. If Satan gets one soul, then it would seem God has lost that soul. I don't believe that God gave His son for just some of us, and is willing to let the majority of His children suffer eternally through no fault of their own... but I can't resolve the dichotomy with clear scriptures. The Bible also says to Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. The paucity of some of the passages drives me nuts, and I find myself praying, “Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief” - Mark 9:24 KJV
That passage, clarified, should read, “Lord, I accept the facts; help thou my trust”. That would make a lot more sense. I know what the facts are, but so do the Devil and his demons. Obviously, knowledge of the facts plus or minus something else, buys one a ticket to the bottomless pit.
If the price of salvation for all of us has been paid by the blood of our precious Savior, then what difference would it make if the person whose account was settled, believes it is settled, or doesn't believe it? If I were to pay off the mortgage on your house, the fact of the matter is that the mortgage is paid; it matters a hill of beans if you know the mortgage is paid, if you care whether the mortgage is paid, if you know who paid it, or if you are grateful that the mortgage is paid; it's paid. You own that mansion free and clear, and that's the end of it. I'll leave you to be like the Bereans, and receive the Word with all readiness, but search the scriptures to determine whether it is true.[23]
۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩۩
[2] Numbers 32:23KJV [3] “Choice” has nothing to do with it [4] Ezekiel 33:4 – 6; Also see: 2 Chronicles 13:12; Jeremiah 6:17 - 19 [5] In Vivo – (Latin) “In a living body”. [6] Peradventure - King's English for “perhaps”; “maybe” [7] Pendency - while it is in progress. [8] Segued - pronounced “segg-way” - to move or divert smoothly and/or seamlessly. [9] Please read my literature “Please Don't Do This”, “Psychiatry, Mind Control, Genocide, and Infanticide”, and “The Lie Detection Manual” for a better insight on these issues. |