Category: Culture

Have we become the new Egypt?

I was reading Exodus 12 when those dates in there stood out. 2020 was a year that will go down in history as a virus plagued every continent and every household with restricted freedoms. Now, I’m not a theologian, having studied the scriptures for years. Just an ordinary guy who has been redeemed and believe this bible I hold is the truth above everything else. It is our guidepost for life. So, when reading Exodus this morning, those dates rang a bell in my consciousness.  The world has just celebrated the beginning of a new year. Here in the USA, on the 21st of this month, our presidential election will be history.

Exodus 12:1-2 “And Jehovah spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying. This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.” This is the Passover’s story when Jehovah plagued the firstborn of everyone in Egypt, except the Israelites who had put the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. In verse 18: “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall eat unleavened bread until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.”

Is there a connection, a meaning there for us, the people of American, the citizens of the world to return to the ONE God in all we stand for?  The past fifty years or so our leaders have bent over backwards toward appeasement. They have okayed the killing of the unborn. They have okayed sodomy. They have downplayed the sacred rights of marriage. They have okayed taking God out of our schools. The leaders look to Technology to run our lives, to keep us safe, and to leaving the Jehovah God out of the equation. The leaders have been conditioning us to keep our religious convictions secret, as it might offend others. Sure, many of us attend church each week, but is that it?  We have been accumulating stuff while seeking pleasure over righteousness.

2020 Election.

I would like to see a survey of how Christians have voted in this election. How many voted Republican and how many voted Democrat, and why in each case?

In 1990, 85% of American adults identified themselves as Christian. That figure dropped to 70.6% in 2004. What’s the % now here in 2020?  Where will it be in ten or twenty years?

“American Christianity is undergoing a “post-Christian Reformation”— and rather than providing leadership and faithfulness in an age of moral decline, members of the majority of the nation’s major Christian groups are rapidly leaving biblical foundations behind and exchanging traditional theological beliefs for the culture’s secular values.” So says this article at:  https://www.arizonachristian.edu/blog/2020/10/06/us-christians-embrace-secularism-in-post-christian-america/

“The  American Worldview Inventory 2020 concluded that “belief in absolute moral truth rooted in God’s word is rapidly eroding among all American adults, whether churched or unchurched, within every political segment, and within every age group. Only 43% of those surveyed who identify as born-again Christians still embrace absolute truth.”  https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2020/june/new-survey-shows-most-americans-and-many-who-identify-as-christians-no-longer-believe-in-absolute-truth

Add to this decline the effects of Covid-19 instituting social distancing on our churches, so people willingly stayed home. Some churches closed, and the rest suffered from the lower attendance. Yes, it seems we have willingly fallen away from The Biblical Truth succumbing to relative truth. “If it feels good … “

Leaning Left or Right

Our country is looking like that Tower of Pisa. Looking at it from one direction it’s leaning right, and from the other direction, it’s leaning to the left. It could fall. The foundation has been disrupted. Such is the condition of the US of A. We must, we must dig in and restore our foundation as one country, under God. The first amendment informs us:

 “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

The foundations of those freedoms have come under attack. And, regardless of your view, left or right. unless we do something together for restoring these inherent freedoms the country will fall.

More of soon to be published novel

Ah, I’ve been editing, adding to and deleting some from a Novel soon to be published. And this hit me as relevant to life today.

“Continuing Sam adds, “Throughout our entire human existence mankind has had to learn to adapt to the climate of this earth or get sucked into the evilness of fire, lightning, volcanoes, tornadoes and other weather conditions. Overall, mankind has done an impressive job of it too, and you’ll go home tonight to a thermostat-controlled temperature.

Now when I hear of a tornado or hurricane terrifying thousands, I sarcastically say, Adam, you turned the world upside down.” Sam pauses and then asks, “Are these aspects of nature here to remind us just as that rainbow is a reminder?”

“You didn’t ask for it, but here’s some more.”

“We’ve come a long way in understanding how things work, but when we get into the spiritual nature of things our spiritual leaders go round and round in circles disagreeing with each other causing divisions within the church letting the secular scientists win as they agree among themselves that nothing caused everything, and if we’d get rid of our cars and trucks, we’d eliminate the warming.”

Sam pauses looking at each and, “Francinea, have I bored you?”

“Ah …No. Not at all.”

“I’ve been discussing goodness and evil. Just as this earth and atmosphere have mostly good beneficial features for us, there’s the evil side too. We’re the same with mostly good features guiding us, but then there’s that other side erupting throwing insults and balls of fire at others. We don’t hear that inner voice instructing us, as we’re so busy listening to all the other voices.”

Sam is talking to the Boy Scouts.

“You pledge that you will … do your duty to God. What duty do you have to God? Duty is a word that means you are expected or required to do something as an obligation. You are obligated to someone for something, perhaps because something was done to or for you and you owe that one something in return. Now, it’s expected of you. You are required to do something.  No second-guessing. No questions asked. You’ve been informed as to what is required, so you do it as a duty.

“But what did God do for you that you owe the Almighty something in return?  You’re living, you’ve got life inside your body. God gave you the ability to choose, to reason, to imagine. You have a body to navigate around this world. God has done it all for You. He created this marvelous universe and put you here in this particular spot where you can breathe and learn to live abundantly enjoying the benefits of a sun rising every day, with animals to enjoy and feed on, water to drink. And in these waters fish to catch and eat. You have others to talk and fellowship with, and on and on.

“God has done this for you, so what do you have to give as a . . . duty . . . in return for this life you’ve been given? God has also sacrificed His only Son for you. So how do you repay Him for that?  You choose to live the way God wants you to live; no lying, no stealing, no cheating, none of that wanting what your neighbor has. And, yes, there’s usually an and. And, you want to tell others about this gift.

“On your honor, you will do that, right? It is your duty to God to live that way.

Our Race dialog is wrong.

“There is only one human race, not dozens, all of us descendants of Adam through Noah. But because of our gravitation to disobedience, we’ve been dispersed into various shades of that one beginning. Shouldn’t our physical differences be a sign to us, a reminder of that first disobedience? No, we don’t think about it like that, do we?  No, our thinking dominates toward the present circumstances. We don’t call dark-skinned horses blacks; no, they’re horses. They are one and all the same. It’s that invisible enemy with continual suggestions dividing us.”

Copied from the soon to be published novel “Log cabin Life.”

E pluribus unum.

Ah this Latin phrase has been a popular motto here in the US of A. “Out of many, One.” Yes, the country grew great as immigrants from all over the world sailed to their new home in the west easily accepting the diverse multitudes. My grandparents immigrated here from Sweden. Growing up in Chicago, I’ve visiting China town, had dinner in German restaurants, visited a Swedish fellowship where only Swedish was talked, drove through a Jewish and an African neighborhood. The high school was biracial. As a whole everyone was accepted. We were peacefully tolerating our different paths.

Accepting, not really, as our history tells a very different story at times. Just a few examples. We’ve slaved those from Africa to the cotton fields. We’ve pushed the native Americas aside. We fought against the Spaniards inhabiting the south. During the great second war, we rounded up the Japanese into interment camps as their home rulers attacked us first. And here we are now facing all of this head on that’s dividing us away from e pluribus unum.

E unum pluribus is the solution by reversing the original motto to “Out of One Many.” Jesus, the One, the original son of God begetting many other sons of God, us, natural humans of every continent believing and practicing the commandment to “Love one another.”

Boy Scout Oath.

Samuel is talking to the scout troop.

“You pledge that you will … do your duty to God. What duty do you have to God? Duty is a word that means you are expected or required to do something as an obligation. You are obligated to someone for something, perhaps because something was done to or for you and you owe that one something in return. Now, it’s expected of you. You are required to do something.  No second-guessing. No questions asked. You’ve been informed as to what is required, so you do it as a duty.

“But what did God do for you that you owe the Almighty something in return?  You’re living, you’ve got life inside your body. God gave you the ability to choose, to reason, to imagine. You have a body to navigate around this world. God has done it all for You. He created this marvelous universe and put you here in this particular spot where you can breathe and learn to live abundantly enjoying the benefits of a sun rising every day, with animals to enjoy and feed on, water to drink. And in these waters fish to catch and eat. You have others to talk and fellowship with, and on and on.

“God has done this for you, so what do you have to give as a . . . duty . . . in return for this life you’ve been given? God has also sacrificed His only Son for you. So how do you repay Him for that?  You choose to live the way God wants you to live; no lying, no stealing, no cheating, none of that wanting what your neighbor has. And, yes, there’s usually an and. You want to tell others about this gift.