A history of the Right to Life and why Life is important

Abortion. It is one of the of most, if not the most divisive issue today and for good reason. The history of abortion doesn't start in 1973 with Roe vs Wade and as a side not Roe AKA Norma McCorvey has accepted Christ as her savior and now his staunchly against abortion. Abortion in fact, goes back not hundreds but thousands of years ago.

Hippocrates (460 b.c.-377 b.c.) the Father of Medicine and who created the Hippocratic Oath, which medical students are required to recite during graduation, believed abortion was wrong and included it in the Oath.

Aristotle (384 b.c.-322 b.c.)

Aristotle along with most pagans in Greece and Rome believed in "delayed ensoulment". Aristotle taught that a fetus (which is latin for "offspring" "young one" or "little child"), originally has a vegetable soul, which evolves into an animal soul later and then finally becomes "animated" with a human soul. This last event was believed to occur at 40 days after conception for male fetuses, and 90 days after conception for female fetuses.

During the second to forth century A.D., with the exception of Judaism, Christians were among the only groups which didn't have abortions and also didn't allow parents to kill new-born babies by strangulation and child abandonment. Christians would find babies that Pagans during that time had abandoned because they believed in a sort of survival of the fittest worldview and would let them starve to death after abandonment. Yet Christians would find these outcasts and raise them as their own. After Christianity became legal in the Roman Empire, by 384 A.D., Child abandonment, infanticide and abortion had become outlawed. Tertullian, One of the earliest church fathers who was friend's with the Apostle John described abortion as "...murder--has been prohibited to us once and for all, even to destroy...the fetus in the womb. It makes no difference whether one destroys a life that has already been born or one that is in the process of birth."

Our Founding Fathers weren't perfect but they did have a exceptionally unique perspective on liberty, primarily because of their deep understanding and faith within God's Holy Scriptures. The Great Awakening that occurred in America, prior to the American Revolution was a religious revival which emphasized faith not in man's opinions or worldview but God's truth and worldview and when it came to the fundamental rights of man, virtually all of our founders believed in these essential rights which our derived from God. John Witherspoon, as one of our Founding Fathers, echoing from the Holy Scriptures and numerous Christians before him--described that in the civil society, a perfect set of rights which our granted by God and supposed to be protected through government are guaranteed and cannot be taken away by Man.

1) a right to life;
2) a right to employ his faculties and industry for his own use;
3) a right to things common and necessary, as air, water, earth;
4) a right to personal liberty;
5) a power over his own life;
6) a right to private judgment in matters of opinion;
7) a right to associate with any person or persons;
8) a right to character.

Perhaps a more thorough look would bring more clarity--these rights if described in today's language, would look more like:

- the right to existence and life;
- the right to personal freedom or to conduct one's own life as master of oneself and of one's acts, responsible before God and the law of the community;
- the right to the pursuit of the perfection of moral and rational human life;
- the right to the pursuit of eternal good;
- the right to keep one's body whole;
- the right to marry and to raise a family which will be assured of the liberties due it;
- the right of association;
- the respect for human dignity in each individual, whether or not he represents an economic value for society.

Notice how the right to life is the very first right. Our founders and prior generations used to include the constitution and even the Declaration of Independence when interpreting law as the Supreme court did or whenever law is handled. Both of these and each fundamental idea establishing the United States was based off of other Christian philosophers but primarily it all derives from the Bible. Such as:

 ¹³ For you formed my inward parts;

   you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are your works;

   my soul knows it very well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

   intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

   the days that were formed for me,

   when as yet there was none of them. - Psalm 139:13-16

So we now see, Life, is the most important Right granted by God. Because we our all made in his image and have been granted existence or life, because of him we are eternal beings--whether we want to live forever or not--we will.. And abortion is just another form of man trying to rule over God in determining when We will choose who lives and who dies. The Bible clearly states that we were created from conception by Jesus Christ. However with the birth of the Enlightenment and its atheistic followers, such as those in the French Revolution and later--came Charles Darwin's Survival of the Fittest, within a purely evolutionary framework. 

Darwin helped spawn a German man's ideas into fruition. This man was born into a wealthy Jewish family and his dad was a Rabbi who converted to Lutherenism for power and economic reasons. His name is Karl Marx. He along with many other socialists, helped bring to the world, Communism, Fascism and National Socialism. The last one is perhaps most relevant because of it's emphasis in eugenics. Eugenics is:

"the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, especially by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics)  or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics)."

The Nazi's believed in Darwin and Marx and the the breeding of the perfect (evolution/survival of the fittest) man into existence. This idea of eugenics was a favorite of Margaret Sanger; founder of Planned Parenthood--and she was a huge supporter of killing babies in the womb. This and the shift away from Christian beliefs is why abortion has now become legal. Past generations and even some today have realized and it is actually statistically verified that those who are for life (against abortion) are usually the most politically conservative. So if your against Life, your probably going to have politically left viewpoints on every level.

 

So now that we have more clarity, about the history of abortion, why is it so wrong?

Is the unborn really a human being?

Pro-choice (which is really a euphemism for pro abortion) advocates once commonly stated "it's uncertain when human life begins; that's a religious question that cannot be answered by science." Most have abandoned this position, because it's contradicted by decades of scientific evidence. So the only way abortion rhetoric can thrive, is if people believe the unborn are less then human. 

Dr. Alfred M Bongioanni, professor of obstetrics at the University of Pennsylvania stated "I have learned from my earliest medical education, that human life begins at the time of conception... human life is present throughout this entire sequence from conception to adulthood." This point is echoed throughout the entire scientific community and it is known that from conception, a human being is formed with a unique DNA and is completely human from that point on. It is not only pro life people who believe this. The owner of Oregon's largest abortion clinic testified under oath "of course human life begins at conception." The award winning secular book from conception to Birth documents the child's beginning at conception and his movement toward birth. The newly fertilized egg contains a staggering amount of genetic information, sufficient to control the individuals growth and development for his entire lifetime. 

Two years before abortion was legalized in America, a pro-choice advocate instructed nurses in a prominent medical journal "through public conditioning, use of language, concepts and laws, the idea of abortion can be separated from the idea of killing." Carl Sagan ridiculed abortion opponents by asking "why isn't it murder to destroy a sperm or an egg?" The answer, as every scientist should know, is that there is a fundamental difference between sperm and unfertilized eggs on the one hand, and fertilized eggs or zygotes on the other. Like cells of one's hair or heart, neither egg nor sperm has the capacity to become other than what it is. But when egg and sperm are joined, a new, dynamic, and genetically unique human life begins. This life is neither sperm nor egg, nor a simple combination of both. It's a person, with a life of its own, on a rapid pace of self-directed development. From the instant of fertilization, that first single cell contains the entire genetic blue print  in all its complexity. This accounts for every detail of human development, including the child's sex, hair and eye color, height, and skin tone. Take that single cell of the just conceived zygote, put it next to a chimpanzee cell, and "a genetesist could easily identify the human. Its humanity is already that strikingly apparent. A 1 week old unborn child, 1 year old and 21 year old are no different, they are all human beings at different ages in their lives. 

At conception, the unborn don't appear human to us, who are used to judging humanity by appearance. Nevertheless in the scientific sense, he is every bit as human as a older child or adult. By five to nine days, the sex can be scientifically determined. By fourteen days the child produces a hormone which suppresses the menstrual period. At eighteen days after conception the heart is forming and the eyes start to develop. By twenty-one days the heart is pumping blood throughout the body. By twenty-eight days the unborn has budding arms and legs. By thirty days she has a brain and has multiplied in size ten thousand times. By thirty five days, her mouth, ears, and nose are taking shape. At forty days the preborn child's brain waves can be recorded. By forty two days the skeleton is formed and her brain is controlling the movement of muscles and organs.

Once the unborn is 45 days after conception, (before many women know they're pregnant); "through the embryo now weighs only 1/30 of an ounce, it has all the internal organs of the adult in various stages of development. It already has a little mouth with lips, an early tongue and buds for 20 milk teeth. Its sex and reproductive organs have begun to sprout." By nine weeks a child will bend fingers around an object placed in the palm. Fingernails are forming and the child is sucking his thumb. The nine-week baby has "already perfected a somersault, backflip and scissor kick." The unborn responds to stimulus and may already be capable of feeling pain. Yet abortions on children at this stage are called "early abortions". By eleven weeks he urinates, makes a wide variety of facial expressions, and even smiles. All this happens in the first trimester, the first three months of life. In the remaining six months in the womb nothing new develops or begins functioning. The fullyu intact child only grows and matures--unless the life is lost by miscarriage or taken through abortion. It's an indisputable fact that each and every surgical abortion (of which their have been over 50 million ever since Roe vs Wade) stops a beating heart and stops already measurable brain waves. What do we call it when a person no longer has a heartbeat or brain waves? Dead.

A 24 week old unborn with spina bifida. Grasping a surgeon's finger, was reinserted into her mother's womb and born two months later, nine weeks premature.

Their are also very substantial risks to women after they have had an abortion. Fatal bleeding can occur, diseases are much more likely and depression is a lot higher. Women's heath after abortion is an encyclopedic work citing over five hundred medical journal articles, demonstrating the adverse effects of abortion on women. 

What about rape or incest?

abortions on account of Rape or incest is less then 1% of all abortions in the U.S. which is almost 2 million surgically each year. Even still, the taking of a life (murder) doesn't justify rape or incest. Evil for another evil, doesn't make things right. Just because the father of consenting adults, was a better person, doesn't justify killing a human being in cases of rape. A survey was done on those who were raped or incest and had abortions, over 90 percent would not have done so afterward and would discourage other victims from having an abortion. Abortion doesn't bring healing to a victim of rape. Imposing capital punishment on the innocent child of a sex offender does nothing bad to the rapist and nothing good to the woman. 

Personally opposed to abortion, but pro-choice?

How would you respond to someone that said "i'm not pro-rape, i'm just pro-choice about rape?"

You'd realize his position impies that rape doesn't really hurt anyone and that it's somtimes justifiable. You'd say "To be pro-choice about rape is to be pro rape." In exactly the same way, to be pro-choice about abortion is to be pro-abortion. To the baby involved, it makes no difference of if you don't personally believe in it but think it's okay for others, because other babies will simply be killed by other people. Being personally against abortion but not being opposed to others doing it is self-contradictory. It's like saying i'm personally against child abuse/slavery/wife beating but it's my neighbors choice if they want to kill an innocent human being.

"A radio talk show host told me she was offended that some people called her "pro-abortion" instead of "pro-choice." I asked her, on the air, "why don't you want to be called pro abortion?" Is there something wrong with abortion?" She responded "abortion is tough. It's not like anybody really wants one." I said, "I don't get it. What makes it tough? Why wouldn't someone want an abortion?" She said suddenly impassioned, "Well, you know, it's a tough thing to kill your baby! The second she said it, she caught herself but it was too late. Abortion can be done in a couple ways. You can put a chemical inside the womb and burn the baby until it's brain is completely fried oryou can take the baby out of the womb, pull all it's limbs apart or cut simply cut into its body until it is dead. About 80 percent of women who see an ultra sound decide not to have an abortion.

What abortion doctors use to forcibly pull babies out of the womb.

Murder is wrong whether the child is unborn or not. Jesus Christ died for everyone, including those who had committed murder, sin is upon all and through faith in Christ, people are forgiven. God forgives those who repent and have faith in his Son Jesus Christ. 

 Jeremiah1:4-5

"Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you."

 Genesis 25:23

"two nations are in thy womb" (Jacob and Esau) "and two manner of people."

 Galatians 1:15

 "But when He had set me apart before I was born...and had called me through His grace."

Genesis 9:6

"Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made He man."

Matthew 18:10

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven."

 Proverbs 3:12

for the LORD reproves him whom he loves,

   as a father the son in whom he delights.

Sources - 


Why Pro-Life?: Caring for the unborn and their mothers by Randy Alcorn


Politics According to the Bible by Wayne Grudem

The Left Behind and the Last Days

I love God's Word. I almost feel like Jesus is reading for me every time I read a page of Scripture. Reading has been a love of mine for many years and now I have the ultimate book. It is the perfect story, with fundamental truths in each verse and even things which are beyond are explanation but simply taken in faith. Yet we take many things in faith every day and with all the evidence which has propounded from hundreds of authors over just the last hundred years--tells us what takes more faith to believe in... This world's religions or beliefs or Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Yesterday I finished reading my favorite book I have yet read, besides the Bible; the Left Behind series. Now I knew it would take a long time to read, so I got the audiobook version for each book. I played the audiobook version for my parents during my trip up to visit my grandparents and fish. I was hooked on the first day and after 2 months I finished the last book (sixteenth book). These books are around 400 pages each and would have taken a lot longer for me to have completed without the audio version.

The books follow specific characters and events leading up to and through the Rapture, Great Tribulation and the very last words of the Book of Revelation. They are intermixed with fictional characters and events as well as real biblical events which shall take place.

There is a great movie trilogy called the Left Behind series, which is based off of the first two books that were written. If nothing else, it enlightens you greatly about Christianity through the books and focuses mostly on the most disturbing 7 years of all human history; the Great tribulation and those who are left behind after the Rapture. Before I go any further, I just want to state that eschatology or End-Times theology (the study of the last things and the second coming of Christ), is the most disputed part in the entire Bible and that there are many interpretations about what it will be like. The Left Behind Series is purely a Futurism interpretation. Which is that all the events which relate or may relate to the second coming of Christ are going to be fulfilled, i.e. they have not happened yet in history and will happen. I personally don't know, nor is it that big of a concern... what interpretation is likely to actually occur but i tend to lean more towards futurism. Nevertheless, we as follows of Christ are told to occupy the time until all things are fulfilled and not to worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

I could tell virtually the whole story but I’ll try to condense it. The story begins with Rayford Steele as a child and a woman named Marilena Carpathia. Rayford grows up with parents who go to a "cool" church, that is, a church which talks a lot about spiritual matters and gives you a nice story but doesn't actually "Save you". They don't open the Bible and they don't talk about anything which might make people uncomfortable. Marilena Carpathia is an older woman who suddenly is overcome with a huge urge to have a baby. Her husband and her are extremely intellectual atheist's and their relationship is more about gaining more knowledge or insight though--so she tries to seek out distraction from a group of people who meet and do spiritual things and it turns out that the leader of the group is a Luciferian (she is a follower of Lucifer/Satan). Needless to say, Marilena knowingly becomes a Luciferian herself and gives birth through genetic engineering to Nicolae Carpathia--the Anti-Christ. Nicolae Carpathia becomes a successful businessman and later becomes president of his country Romania.

Rayford Steele becomes an airline pilot and is married to Irene Steele. When his wife gets "saved" and then later his son, only his daughter and he remain without Christ. His wife tries to tell him about Christ but he doesn't want to believe. After Israel is invaded by Russia--Gog is the former name of modern day Moscow (the army takes the form of a seemingly endless barrage of planes), God destroys all the army with fire from the sky and they land everywhere but do not hit anyone around Israeli citizens as they fall to the ground.

"You will advance, coming on like a storm. You will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your hordes, and many peoples with you. Thus says the Lord God: On that day, thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme...  In the latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes...  declares the Lord God, my wrath will be roused in my anger... on that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel... the mountains shall be thrown down... I will summon a sword against Gog... I will rain upon him and his hordes... torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur... You shall fall on the mountains of Israel... I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beast of the field to be devoured." Ezekiel 38--39.

In the Left Behind series, 1 year after the Russian invasion is destroyed, the rapture takes place and all those who are dead shall be raised to life to life and those who are still live are caught up in a cloud--so Irene and her son are with Jesus and all those who did not trust in him, are left behind and many people after the Rapture do not know what happened to those who disappeared in an instant.

"But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only" Matthew 24:36   *No one knows when these things will come to pass, only God.

"For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

"Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed." 1 Corinthians 15:51-52

Nicolae quickly becomes the leader of the entire world, after he signs the peace treaty with Israel for 7 years. The Great Tribulation then begins at the signing of the peace treaty. The wrath of God is sent upon the earth with great judgments--so that those who are still alive may repent and seek Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The first round of judgments are the seven seal judgments, the second round is the trumpet judgments and the last judgments, are the bowl judgments.

"Now I watched when the lamb opened the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder Come!  And I looked, and behold a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer" Revelations 6:1-2

The four horses represent: the Anti-Christ coming to deceive the nations and take them over through peaceful means, the second one represents a global war, the third is to bring famine and the last to bring death. Those are the first four seal judgments of God. There is much other judgment, each becoming getting worse, and during the half way point of the tribulation, Anti-Christ is then indwelt by Satan and the mark of the beast is given to those who agree to take it. Those who take the mark of the beast shall be tormented with fire and sulfur by God, in the presence of Jesus and his angels

"and the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name." Revelations 14:11

At the battle of Armageddon, after the 7 years has passed, Jesus then came and destroyed the great armies of Satan and the Anti-Christ in three battles. He then threw the Anti-Christ and false prophet into the lake of fire and bound Satan for 1000 years in the bottomless pit. Satan was unleashed briefly to deceive the nations after 1000 years and gathered his armies from around the world around Israel again but his armies were burned with fire from heaven and the devil was thrown into the lake of fire.

"Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." Revelations 20:14-15

After this, the final book in the Left Behind series ended with Rayford and all the believers, who saw a new heaven and a new earth coming and dwelt with Jesus forever.

"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying "Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." Revelations 21:3-4

"The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen." Revelations 22:21

The meaning of history resides in its glorious maker

History is not meaningless. There is purpose and design in all things.

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal... a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace." Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

The cynicism of the 1960’s hasn't changed much the dynamic of education and people's thinking. The 60's destructive philosophy has harmed much and it is still being felt. When absolutes are thrown out the window, what left is there to believe in? For then everything is permitted and nothing considered too evil or too good. Because then their is no such thing as good and evill; only what each individual ascribes as good or evil.

If God is not omnipotent (higher than any other), if he is not omnipresent (everywhere), if he is not omniscient (know all things), if he is not a perfect being who judges us, then he is not really God and what hope do we really have? But God is not willing that any should perish (sent to hell) but all have eternal life with him in heaven.

When you look at the evidence for the truth claims which God's Word (the bible) proclaims, it is all encompassing. The whole counsel of everything is laid out in perfect harmony in the Word. The Bible is inerrant, it has no faults. It is perfect and true. The truth of God and his Word is made manifest in revealed scripture (Bible) and nature itself. The evidence for God's attributes is everywhere. The universe is shaped in beautiful majesty and ordered into laws of nature. The cell is complex and science has already proven that it is impossible to have a complex cell be formed into the way it does without first having something else create that process. It is especially evident in DNA. DNA is so complex that it boggles the mind. Yet this is all after the fact--ideas. For what can create existence if it doesn't exist? It is a contradiction. Something cannot not exist and then start to exist. Something has to "create" it and yet that something must also be created. Unless of course, that something was, is and still is, i.e. it has always been. It is not a contradiction for something to always have existed. Still, let us assume that the universe has always existed and nothing created it; that still does not account for how complex cells are formed. There is no way that a basic cell can become a complex cell. It isn't possible, because there would need to be something guiding it to become exactly complex. A part of the cell would have had to be added to whole of the parts instantly and not through a gradual process.  There is a plethora of evidence, which is just as rational, logical--it simply makes sense. Though I think probably the greatest evidence is the historical record itself.

First off, one significant find is that many historical accounts around the world tell of a "great flood" including the famous "the epic story of Gilgamesh". We know that archeology has used the bible as a reference guide for many finds, including a possible finding of chariot wheels which resemble the one which Pharaoh--such as Moses and the exodus story. The greatest discovery would be the Dead Sea scrolls which were found in 1947 and are dated back to 200 B.C. to 200 A.D. It includes the Old Testament books which also relate the prophecies concerning the Messiah. Jesus Christ is the messiah. There are over 100 prophecies which detail what the Messiah will be like, to where he will be born and how he will die. There is only one person, in all of history which could have fulfilled all of them perfectly. It is impossible that Jesus could have fulfilled all of these and yet he did. It is very likely that these oldest accounts of the Old Testament which are likely to have been written in 150 B.C. Therefor these could very well be written before Jesus and foretells everything which came to pass in him and those events surrounding him. 

The greatest evidence for the Truth is of Christ's resurrection. Many prominent Jews, Romans, Christians and the Apostle Paul himself had witnessed the risen Jesus Christ. There were over 500 people who saw and have testified in seeing the risen Christ. The apostle Paul (also called Saul) had been one of the most passionate persecutors of Christians but then while Saul was on his way to Damascus a light from heaven which was brighter than the sun, flashed around him...

"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting." Acts 9:4-5

In an instant, Saul becomes the greatest Christian missionary in all history. He along with many went on to gruesome deaths by the hands of the Roman Emperor Nero among many others. They were sent to sadistically barbaric deaths on crosses, torn apart in the Roman arena. There are countless followers who died never renouncing their faith in Christ, even to the point of a tortuous death. No sane person, dies for something they know isn't true. These Christians were persecuted for over 300 years and never died out but kept growing. In 313 A.D. The Roman Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, legalizing Christian worship. 

While these current protesters throughout the U.S. and globally--riot, burn bibles, incite for violence and Marxist/Socialist/Communist/Islamic revolution, they like those among the 1960's are cynical of all wisdom which has been handed down to us through history and what we already know. They or at least most of them are simply useful idiots and will be eliminated if their revolution does actually occur. Their leaders were those famous individuals who tried to recreate our Christian heritage into a "man centered" heritage. They only know that they want to implement a communist system, destroy our current system, destroy private property, destroy Christianity, and destroy everything. They only know how to destroy and they, like the "lawless one" may lie to themselves but we know better. They may think they are in control and they will be for a "short time" but they will ultimately be defeated. Their ultimate judgment has already been written and we already know who wins. We are simply waiting for the one on the white horse, who is called:

"Faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his month comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords." Revelations 19:11-16

Even if they should succeed in their destruction of the freedoms granted in the constitution and our Western way of life, their darkness shall not survive. For Christ shall come again and reign, defeat those who are against him and establish "a new heaven and a new earth". 

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." C.S. Lewis

Holy, Holy Holy, is the one who heals our wounds

It’s been awhile but basically just been busy and enjoying life. I have learned quite a bit since I last blogged. Through much prayer and reading the scriptures, I can more clearly see the truth in this verse

"And Jesus said to him, "why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone."" Mark 10:18

When we truly stop comparing ourselves with other people and learn about God's goodness, we shall see the truth. The truth is, we can only theoretically state, that which is perfect, just and merciful--in the attributes of a God, because in ourselves we do not find the ability to have a love which is perfect in every way. It matters not what we feel about our own faults, we cannot rationally deny that we feel bad for what we have done without having the feeling that what we have done is wrong. It is as if we were implanted with the moral capacity to understand that there is a right and a wrong. For the Glory of God was implanted in our hearts. It is shown through life itself and is clearly perceived through our own capacity to make moral choices. Therefor we who do not follow God are without excuse and deserve to perish along with that evil serpent. Nevertheless God showed his amazingly merciful love to us, even though we had committed cosmic treason against our own maker. Yet thanks are to God for giving us a chance to repent and receive the saving grace which Jesus Christ our redeemer gives. So as you can tell, I’ve thought a lot about the depravity of man lately and come to understand God is Holy to the third degree.

"And one called to another and said: "Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" Isaiah 6:3

It is a rare to see three of the same words in repetition. It is the strongest form of superlative. Nothing is as holy as God. There are consequences when you commit a crime, just like there is when you rebel against God. We were innocent in the beginning and then we made self-inflicted wounds into ourselves and were cast away from God's presence--because we had sinned against a Holy, Just and perfect being. Justice demands the law to be upheld and for those who committed a crime, to face judgment but God gave us a way out of our sentence and his name is Jesus Christ. While the first Adam brought destruction, the second Adam (which is represented in Christ) brought life.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

Since we know that sin is real and how God's righteousness loathes sin, we also know what it is to perish without God. It is a place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for eternity. We can see how Hell is not so much the absence of God, as the consequence of his wrath and displeasure. Obviously this is a place which is horrible beyond imagination. Yet Thanks be to God forever for giving his only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ that we may not have to suffer that unquenchable fire. For in Heaven, there will be no tears, sorrow, or death. For we were all made "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." For we know that this corruption that we possess will be undone and we shall be made imperishable and everlasting in our Lord's presence.

Anyway, I haven't done a lot lately, still learning to be that man God wants me to be and just taking it day by day. I have actually been reading a fantastic series of books called the Left Behind series. It is about the Rapture and the end times but follows the biblical accounts through a series of fictional characters. I never thought I would think of a book as more highly then Harry Potter but I have to admit, these just might take the cake. I also have been trying to learn about car mechanics, plumbing, electricity--among many other things. I don't like making predictions myself but after learning so much, it really begs the question of if it really will come to pass? I am speaking about the likelihood that there will be some very dark times ahead and it would not surprise me if we are close to the End. Yet whatever happens, I do not take the current gloomy reality lightly. We our facing complete global economic collapse, radical Islamic and/or Marxist takeover, global war, global riots and enough tension to likely make something happen. I only pray that we may be able to turn away from our sins and follow Him. It is only through our faith in God, which we can be saved. Lead us and may we follow your will, Father. In Jesus name. Amen.