Random Responses 2 of 2
Due to length I broke this up into two pieces, look back one to find the beginning and explanation. (question for first response in italicts) *Author's note* I just realized that when I published this is put two of my posts of my 'previous' list and into the archives. So if this is a new blog for any one reading this you can now find "wrongful...life?", my first post, in the archives list. My popular 'sick days' is found there as well. :)
C) Every day, I find a news story about someone in an education or government position, who is being arrested for child related sex crimes. I've talked to Louise about this, and you know, even though for the most part I consider myself liberal, I'm starting to think that the problem is with the media, television and movies that seem to be 'glamorizing' the sexuality of the very young. And parents seem to be losing their compass on what is 'acceptable' behavior by their children.. allowing them to wear clothing that is extremely revealing or just plain sexual (thongs for 8 yr old girls!). I have theorized that this may be a 'fallback' to how we viewed sexuality/eligibility for marriage when most of society was agricultural .. when at 14 you were as educated as you needed and started looking for a good partnership..I know a few hundred years isn't enough time to 'evolve' that type of thinking out of our culture, but I don't understand why it seems to only be a problem for such a small segment of our society..
Traditionally, in nearly all societies, women are considered adult and marriageable material when they reach sexual maturity, in other words when the period kicks in between 12-17. In nearly all society men have not been considered adult until quite a bit later, 20-30. Its perfectly natural for an older man to find a pubescent woman attractive or a possible wife. In nearly any society, however, prepubescent have always been off limits (the Asian, both Chinese and Japanese have always had a cultural thing for prepubescent girls). It is not normal, healthy, or moral to find prepubescent or younger girls or boys sexual. While the media helps sexual these children, and certainly parents are largely to blame for allowing it as well, it is quite a bit more than that. The media is just a reflection of the cutting edge wants of the people. And when I say cutting edge i mean the most vulgar, liberal (no offense meant), amoral and even anti-moral, outspoken parts of the society. For the last 2 generations or so there has been a constant push to distance sex from the concept of marriage, procreation, and love. its been drilled into our minds from every conceivable secular angle that sex is nothing more than pleasure. The point of sex is to bind two people into one flesh, when you take that away and make it only about sexual gratification you lose the moral footing to say certain forms of sexual gratification are wrong. Social conscious looses its compass and it's distilled down to 'what you want'. While it is possible to hold personal 'preference morals' without a base there is no way to restrain society when you degrade right and wrong to personal preference. While it can take only moments for personal right and wrong preferences to change it takes longer for society as a whole to do so, and it's very gradual. At one point in time fornication was scandalous, totally disgraceful, but when enough people started practicing it, and more importantly, when enough people started fully believing that sex was just about pleasure it became less important, nearly acceptable, eventually it became expected. The liberal edge of society helped push the envelope by inundating the youth with the message that it was normal and okay and by telling the adults there was no way to prevent people, regardless of age, from doing it so we might as well get used to it. They made people believe that it would be better to accept it because then they'd have a chance to make it safer, if they refused it as 'wrong' all they would do is damn those who were going to do it anyway to have no help with the consequences, no where to turn if they got in trouble. The more you accept a thing, however, the more it happens, it's a perfect plan. If you convince one group its okay, the other group that its going to happen anyway you effectively neuter any resistance and make it socially acceptable. Adultery followed closely on the heels of fornication, since everyone was doing 'it' and people might grow out of gratification with one person and want to seek it elsewhere why should people be condemned to a lifetime with only one choice? No fault divorce allowed people to make and break connections so adultery became fornication and marriage just because a good idea as far as taxes go. Next comes a feminist rush, now I'm not talking about the women that fought to get a vote and equal treatment under the law in the 20s and 30s I'm talking about today's breed that splits into two main groups, those that say women is so far superior to man that all we need men for is procreation, and those that believe that there is no difference between the sexes, that male and female are as immaterial to the person as hair color. They both help push society away from marriage but more importantly they both help usher in the next main step in the 'sexual revolution' that degrades sex to just amoral pleasure. Since sex has been distanced from procreation the first group has no reason to keep men in their lives to fulfill their pleasure since sexual gratification doesn't have anything to do with the need to procreate. The second group doesn't see any difference between the sexes, coupled with the distances of procreation from sex, so it doesn't matter to them where you get the pleasure. The male backlash from the first agreed that females were so incredibly different than man that it was pointless to try to force the issue, although obviously disagreeing with the female superiority thing. The second side is as appealing to men as to women. Taken together it is a huge social push towards accepting homosexuality. The same thing happened, the revolution leaders convinced one group that it was okay and convinced the other group that it was inevitable. They downgraded same sex attraction from a deviant predilection to a completely normal preference, threw in a few false statistics and hinted that it might not even be their choice and then shouted for all they were worth. It took about the same amount of time to make homosexuality 'okay' and acceptable as it took to make fornication and adultery. The next planned push it to make bisexuality and polygamy legal in the same push, since they overlap for legal reasons. Since we've bought the first two bluffs, and now believe that sex is nothing more than a pleasurable encounter there is no socially acceptable reason to continue to 'withhold' the 'right' to a person's preferred form of pleasure. While you didn't want to believe me the other day when I said eventually pedophilia will be legalized what you see if the start of that movement, waiting in the wings until its time for its showing. Already it's started to creep forward, just like other areas of the 'sexual revolution' crept forward long before they started shouting for attention. The bisexual legal groups have agreed to wait until the homosexual legal issues have been resolved so as not to push too much on the public at once. These are written agreements between large groups, not just supposition, understand that this is a worldwide push not just in the US so you have to look outside of the US to see the whole picture. Meanwhile, the legal ramifications for pedophilia are being chipped away at, mostly in CA within the US but in Canada, Europe, and Asia as well. Laws requiring doctors to report underage sex and molestation are being revoked, instead of getting years for child molestation or child rape people get a few months, or even less sometimes. The legal and medical societies push to get it defined as an 'illness' or an 'inborn preference' the same steps it took towards homosexuality and bisexuality and 'polysexuality' before classifying it as a 'alternate lifestyle'. Children are sexualized in the media and literature and adult/child relationships are featured in a good light in literature and 'successful' adult/child relationships are celebrated, they get movie and book deals and are flaunted by the media. Exactly the same steps taken for making deviant behavior acceptable that has been used before. If you tell people that sex is just pleasure enough times they'll eventually believe it. Once they do they have no reason to deny that to a 'certain minority' of the population. You might not believe me but history backs me up. The Greco-Roman empire did the exact same things, in more or less the exact same way, and with the same results. The UNICEF, one of the foremost 'child rights' advocates in the world is dedicated to 'the reproductive and sexual rights of all children' and include in their list of rights the right 'to abortion and the choice of their sexual partners' in other words the 'leading' world wide child advocates approves of childhood sex. Meanwhile children who would otherwise have nothing to do with sexuality are being pushed into it by the media telling them that everyone's doing it, its okay and normal, and giving them positive examples of it. Children as young as kindergarten have been caught mimicking sex and its now considered a status symbol to a lot of middle schooler and even elementary kids to have 'made it' with a high schooler. In most places proms, which used to be upper classmen only, are now open not only to 'lower classmen' but also to dates from the local middle school. Elementary schools are staring to have dances. Probably within your lifetime, and likely within mine, it will become 'biased' to say that pedophilia is wrong. And already its considered old fashioned to prosecute for statutory rape and even grade schoolers can be given birth control and condoms without their parents knowledge or permission. Once a society starts down the proverbial 'slippery slope' it will keep going all the way to the bottom. Eventually all conceivable forms of 'sex' will be legally allowable and a 'protected right'. You note that its "such a small segment of our society" but there is about the same percent of acknowleged pedophiles that there are homosexuals, not only that but its an extremely overlapping group. the vocal minority is perfectly capable of changing the silent majorities mind, or failing that, overriding them.
D) In the beginning was God. He created everything in 6 real days and then rested on the 7th, setting up the 7 day week we still hold to today. He put the moon and stars in place to mark the seasons and the sun to mark the day. He created the physical universe with life on Earth. He created a host of heavenly beings, Angels. Adam was created perfect without sin and in a perfect relationship with God. He, and all humans after him, were created for the specific purpose to have a love relationship with God, a meaningful, willing relation of praise and love and companionship. Adam turned from God and fell into sin staining every human to come from him with both the knowlegde of good and evil and a sin nature. Because God is perfect, which means just, His law had to be fulfilled. Man is incapable of fullfilling it because we all fall short of the mark of perfection. The very word 'sin' is an archery term meaning to not hit the bullseye. "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Because of this we are eternally separated from God and spiritually dead in our sin nature. Meanwhile, sometime before Adam turned from God, Lucifer, one of God's highest angels, rebelled from God, saying that he 'would be like the Most High'. 1/3 of the angels followed him in his rebellion and God cast them down from heaven and from His grace. We call them demons or fallen angels. Because Adam, who had dominion over the physical creation and creatures there of, fell and entered into a sin nature the whole creation was affected and death, decay, pain, and a general winding down entered into the universe at that time as well. Death is not natural. The reason our very being cries out against it is because it is the enemy, we were not created to die and our hearts of heart cries out against the intrustion upon life, mourns for the lost it knows is unnatural. But God is as merciful as He is just. He wishes that no one die. Hell was made for the angels that rebelled against Him, it was not meant for man. So God created a way for the payment for our sin to be paid by another, by Him as Jesus. While US justice system does not allow for another to take the punishment in lue of the offender most systems do. God redeems us by paying the price, the punishment, for our sin for us. He came to earth, lived with temptation but never sinned, and yet died, sacrifying Himself in our place. All we need do is accept His sacrifice. If we refuse God will not force Himself upon us while we are on Earth and we will remain in a damned state and we will have to pay for our own sins with both a physical death and eternal spiritual death, separation from God. If we accept His sacrifice in our place we are redeemed, which means a debt to be paid in full, and enter freely into His presence for eternity and have a relationship with Him while still on Earth. While the eternity waiting for those redeemed, or Christ-followers or Christians, is far better than this current life we are called to live for Christ to represent His light to a fallen world, to follow the Great Commission 'go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit'. Ultimately there is nothing better on this Earth than to see another come to Christ. It says the Angels in heaven rejoice for those that are saved, that they marvel at the Redemption, and the newly alive Christian certianly does. As one of my favorite songs says 'for His favorite song of all, is the song of the redeemed, when lost sinners now made clean, lift their voices loud in song. When those purchased by His blood, lift to Him a song of love..'. Meanwhile to really state fully answers to our mini-debate:God is perfect, that means perfectly good, just, righteous. And His law is perfect. Anything outside His law is not-good, bad, evil. Humans are intrisically evil because we brake God's law. There is ultimate right and wrong because there is an ultimate Law Giver. And He has carefully explained His law to us both in nature, for nature not only screams a creator but the Creator, and in His Word, a love letter and warning letter to all humanity in which the fullness of the Godhead is explained as well as is possible before Heaven 'for now I see in a mirror dimly, but then, face to face'. The Bible is simple, God's law is fair, simple, and easy to understand, and written in the hearts of ALL men so that no one is without blame. Absolutes exist. Demons are evil because they broke/brake God's law. Angels, both fallen and not, can manifest physically and effect the physical. Since angels are only used for very precise purposes, and never contracdict God anything not human which makes an apparence for other than those purposes or contradicts God is a demon. Whether it takes the form of a faerie, an alien, a ghost, or just a dark presence it just demons mascerading as something more believable to the person its appearing to. Demons aren't afraid to lie after all.'ghosts' as we think of them, as in departed spirits of the dead who come back to converse with the living, do not exist. Necomancy, or any attempt to contact the dead, is stictly forbidden by the Bible. In one instance God allowed contact with a deceased only for the purpose of rebuking the person who was trying to contact him. (I think its in II Kings) 'it is given once for a man to live and after that the judgement' spirits of the dead are not able to wander about. They are either in Heaven or in sheol (which is also hell just not the ultimate hell that will last forever after Lucifer has been judged) waiting for hell. Any aparition of a 'ghost' is nothing more than a demon who is pretending to be the dead for purposes of lying to the living. I am unafraid of anything you may call a ghost for 'greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world' demons can not touch a Christian and must flee before the name of Jesus.Ultimately 'every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord' But meeting God wrapped in His grace and His righteousness is far better than meeting Him in only your own sin.I 'believe' in the Christian God because it has been proven to me irrevocable and unequivically spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, and physically. I first believed out of a leap of faith that it was simply what I had to do given the knowledge of my own sin nature. When you are confronted by your own sin and by the absolute righteousness of God you either abase yourself and accept His Lordship or you turn forever away from Him. But since no one can ever know when that choice has been truly made (its called blasphem against the Spirit and is the 'unforgivable sin' because it is the complete and willing rejection of salvation) there is always an overwhelming push, a drive, to try to introduce all those you love to the Creator of the universe as a personal Savior
E)(Forgive some anthropomorphizing) A potter makes a beautiful clay box, the pride of his collection. He made it for a very specific purpose, to hold his most valuable possession. He loves this beautiful box so much he makes a special place just so it can live safely and in comfort for all its days. But once he has placed it in its place and laid his prized possession inside of it, the box rebels and refuses to hold the possession. Repeatedly the box refuses to hold the possession.“I have created you solely for this purpose,” Says the potter. “Since you have refused your purpose I could destroy you. But I love you, you are my most beautiful creation, the pride of my collection. I will keep you, and give you an opportunity to accept your purpose until you are destroyed naturally. But you may no longer inhabit this perfect place I made for you.” And the potter took the box down and put it on a shelf, and used it to hold whatever may need a place. Every day the potter would attempt to place his most prized possession back into the box, admonishing it that if it would but accept it then it could return to its honored place. But the box continued to refuse. Eventually the box crumbled from old age, not only could it not fulfill its created purpose it was no longer able even to hold the simplest of things. The potter was very heartbroken that his favorite piece had been destroyed without returning to its place of honor, but there was nothing more he could do. The potter swept up the broken pieces sadly and placed it in the rubbish heap with the rest of the broken pottery.God is the potter, and we are the pot. It is not that you, or anyone, lives a life without purpose, it is that you live a life without the purpose you were created for. God created humanity, you, me, everyone, to be a receptacle of His love. We were meant to live in a close, personal relationship with Him, both treasured and treasuring. We were meant to walk with God in perfection, to talk with Him, to learn and converse with Him without pain, without death, without evil. He created us with the knowledge required to choose to love and accept Him, for if we did not have a choice it would not be love. The angels worship Him, but only humanity was created with the unique ability to have a loving relationship with Him. Such a thing cannot be forced, it must be accepted. Like the box in the parable we have rejected the purpose we were created for. We have turned away from our creator and followed after our own hearts “There are none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; there is none who seek God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable, there is none who does good, no, not one.” In this fallen state it is impossible to live the life our Creator intended for us. But God loves us, He loves His creation and contends for our love “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” But His law has been broken, and to appease His perfect justice God created a way for us. “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” And “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” If we but accept His free gift to settle His justice our sin is wiped out, not just forgiven, but forgotten. God says He puts our sins away from us ‘as far as the east is from the west’. We are washed utterly clean and allowed to reenter the life our Creator made us for, the sweet purpose better than anything else we could possibly want for ourselves. God does not ask us to do something we cannot; we do have to be perfect, nor even good to accept His gift. “But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinner, Christ, died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” In response to this wonderful gift we are called to His service, knowing full well that He knows us better and has a better plan for our life than we could ever do ourselves. For “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether… For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well… Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” You do not give up your free will when you give yourself to God, instead you understand that His will is far superior to your own and it would be foolishness to reject it. You still have every choice to turn and follow their own path but, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Reasonable service, its nothing above and beyond what He has right and reason to ask us. He seeks only in love to draw us away from the fallen and return us to grace. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”It is utterly good to submit your will to God. It will not obliterate your free will, but rather release all the goodness that God wills for you. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy ad where thieves break in and steal; But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” And “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Only He can truly fulfill us, for only He created us. “But those who wait for God will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary. They will walk and not faint.” There is nothing worthwhile outside of God’s will in comparison to what is within God’s will! He will give you His Spirit, which will guide us through this life. Instead of: “the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissention, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like:” we are given: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” What a far greater way to live!
C) Every day, I find a news story about someone in an education or government position, who is being arrested for child related sex crimes. I've talked to Louise about this, and you know, even though for the most part I consider myself liberal, I'm starting to think that the problem is with the media, television and movies that seem to be 'glamorizing' the sexuality of the very young. And parents seem to be losing their compass on what is 'acceptable' behavior by their children.. allowing them to wear clothing that is extremely revealing or just plain sexual (thongs for 8 yr old girls!). I have theorized that this may be a 'fallback' to how we viewed sexuality/eligibility for marriage when most of society was agricultural .. when at 14 you were as educated as you needed and started looking for a good partnership..I know a few hundred years isn't enough time to 'evolve' that type of thinking out of our culture, but I don't understand why it seems to only be a problem for such a small segment of our society..
Traditionally, in nearly all societies, women are considered adult and marriageable material when they reach sexual maturity, in other words when the period kicks in between 12-17. In nearly all society men have not been considered adult until quite a bit later, 20-30. Its perfectly natural for an older man to find a pubescent woman attractive or a possible wife. In nearly any society, however, prepubescent have always been off limits (the Asian, both Chinese and Japanese have always had a cultural thing for prepubescent girls). It is not normal, healthy, or moral to find prepubescent or younger girls or boys sexual. While the media helps sexual these children, and certainly parents are largely to blame for allowing it as well, it is quite a bit more than that. The media is just a reflection of the cutting edge wants of the people. And when I say cutting edge i mean the most vulgar, liberal (no offense meant), amoral and even anti-moral, outspoken parts of the society. For the last 2 generations or so there has been a constant push to distance sex from the concept of marriage, procreation, and love. its been drilled into our minds from every conceivable secular angle that sex is nothing more than pleasure. The point of sex is to bind two people into one flesh, when you take that away and make it only about sexual gratification you lose the moral footing to say certain forms of sexual gratification are wrong. Social conscious looses its compass and it's distilled down to 'what you want'. While it is possible to hold personal 'preference morals' without a base there is no way to restrain society when you degrade right and wrong to personal preference. While it can take only moments for personal right and wrong preferences to change it takes longer for society as a whole to do so, and it's very gradual. At one point in time fornication was scandalous, totally disgraceful, but when enough people started practicing it, and more importantly, when enough people started fully believing that sex was just about pleasure it became less important, nearly acceptable, eventually it became expected. The liberal edge of society helped push the envelope by inundating the youth with the message that it was normal and okay and by telling the adults there was no way to prevent people, regardless of age, from doing it so we might as well get used to it. They made people believe that it would be better to accept it because then they'd have a chance to make it safer, if they refused it as 'wrong' all they would do is damn those who were going to do it anyway to have no help with the consequences, no where to turn if they got in trouble. The more you accept a thing, however, the more it happens, it's a perfect plan. If you convince one group its okay, the other group that its going to happen anyway you effectively neuter any resistance and make it socially acceptable. Adultery followed closely on the heels of fornication, since everyone was doing 'it' and people might grow out of gratification with one person and want to seek it elsewhere why should people be condemned to a lifetime with only one choice? No fault divorce allowed people to make and break connections so adultery became fornication and marriage just because a good idea as far as taxes go. Next comes a feminist rush, now I'm not talking about the women that fought to get a vote and equal treatment under the law in the 20s and 30s I'm talking about today's breed that splits into two main groups, those that say women is so far superior to man that all we need men for is procreation, and those that believe that there is no difference between the sexes, that male and female are as immaterial to the person as hair color. They both help push society away from marriage but more importantly they both help usher in the next main step in the 'sexual revolution' that degrades sex to just amoral pleasure. Since sex has been distanced from procreation the first group has no reason to keep men in their lives to fulfill their pleasure since sexual gratification doesn't have anything to do with the need to procreate. The second group doesn't see any difference between the sexes, coupled with the distances of procreation from sex, so it doesn't matter to them where you get the pleasure. The male backlash from the first agreed that females were so incredibly different than man that it was pointless to try to force the issue, although obviously disagreeing with the female superiority thing. The second side is as appealing to men as to women. Taken together it is a huge social push towards accepting homosexuality. The same thing happened, the revolution leaders convinced one group that it was okay and convinced the other group that it was inevitable. They downgraded same sex attraction from a deviant predilection to a completely normal preference, threw in a few false statistics and hinted that it might not even be their choice and then shouted for all they were worth. It took about the same amount of time to make homosexuality 'okay' and acceptable as it took to make fornication and adultery. The next planned push it to make bisexuality and polygamy legal in the same push, since they overlap for legal reasons. Since we've bought the first two bluffs, and now believe that sex is nothing more than a pleasurable encounter there is no socially acceptable reason to continue to 'withhold' the 'right' to a person's preferred form of pleasure. While you didn't want to believe me the other day when I said eventually pedophilia will be legalized what you see if the start of that movement, waiting in the wings until its time for its showing. Already it's started to creep forward, just like other areas of the 'sexual revolution' crept forward long before they started shouting for attention. The bisexual legal groups have agreed to wait until the homosexual legal issues have been resolved so as not to push too much on the public at once. These are written agreements between large groups, not just supposition, understand that this is a worldwide push not just in the US so you have to look outside of the US to see the whole picture. Meanwhile, the legal ramifications for pedophilia are being chipped away at, mostly in CA within the US but in Canada, Europe, and Asia as well. Laws requiring doctors to report underage sex and molestation are being revoked, instead of getting years for child molestation or child rape people get a few months, or even less sometimes. The legal and medical societies push to get it defined as an 'illness' or an 'inborn preference' the same steps it took towards homosexuality and bisexuality and 'polysexuality' before classifying it as a 'alternate lifestyle'. Children are sexualized in the media and literature and adult/child relationships are featured in a good light in literature and 'successful' adult/child relationships are celebrated, they get movie and book deals and are flaunted by the media. Exactly the same steps taken for making deviant behavior acceptable that has been used before. If you tell people that sex is just pleasure enough times they'll eventually believe it. Once they do they have no reason to deny that to a 'certain minority' of the population. You might not believe me but history backs me up. The Greco-Roman empire did the exact same things, in more or less the exact same way, and with the same results. The UNICEF, one of the foremost 'child rights' advocates in the world is dedicated to 'the reproductive and sexual rights of all children' and include in their list of rights the right 'to abortion and the choice of their sexual partners' in other words the 'leading' world wide child advocates approves of childhood sex. Meanwhile children who would otherwise have nothing to do with sexuality are being pushed into it by the media telling them that everyone's doing it, its okay and normal, and giving them positive examples of it. Children as young as kindergarten have been caught mimicking sex and its now considered a status symbol to a lot of middle schooler and even elementary kids to have 'made it' with a high schooler. In most places proms, which used to be upper classmen only, are now open not only to 'lower classmen' but also to dates from the local middle school. Elementary schools are staring to have dances. Probably within your lifetime, and likely within mine, it will become 'biased' to say that pedophilia is wrong. And already its considered old fashioned to prosecute for statutory rape and even grade schoolers can be given birth control and condoms without their parents knowledge or permission. Once a society starts down the proverbial 'slippery slope' it will keep going all the way to the bottom. Eventually all conceivable forms of 'sex' will be legally allowable and a 'protected right'. You note that its "such a small segment of our society" but there is about the same percent of acknowleged pedophiles that there are homosexuals, not only that but its an extremely overlapping group. the vocal minority is perfectly capable of changing the silent majorities mind, or failing that, overriding them.
D) In the beginning was God. He created everything in 6 real days and then rested on the 7th, setting up the 7 day week we still hold to today. He put the moon and stars in place to mark the seasons and the sun to mark the day. He created the physical universe with life on Earth. He created a host of heavenly beings, Angels. Adam was created perfect without sin and in a perfect relationship with God. He, and all humans after him, were created for the specific purpose to have a love relationship with God, a meaningful, willing relation of praise and love and companionship. Adam turned from God and fell into sin staining every human to come from him with both the knowlegde of good and evil and a sin nature. Because God is perfect, which means just, His law had to be fulfilled. Man is incapable of fullfilling it because we all fall short of the mark of perfection. The very word 'sin' is an archery term meaning to not hit the bullseye. "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Because of this we are eternally separated from God and spiritually dead in our sin nature. Meanwhile, sometime before Adam turned from God, Lucifer, one of God's highest angels, rebelled from God, saying that he 'would be like the Most High'. 1/3 of the angels followed him in his rebellion and God cast them down from heaven and from His grace. We call them demons or fallen angels. Because Adam, who had dominion over the physical creation and creatures there of, fell and entered into a sin nature the whole creation was affected and death, decay, pain, and a general winding down entered into the universe at that time as well. Death is not natural. The reason our very being cries out against it is because it is the enemy, we were not created to die and our hearts of heart cries out against the intrustion upon life, mourns for the lost it knows is unnatural. But God is as merciful as He is just. He wishes that no one die. Hell was made for the angels that rebelled against Him, it was not meant for man. So God created a way for the payment for our sin to be paid by another, by Him as Jesus. While US justice system does not allow for another to take the punishment in lue of the offender most systems do. God redeems us by paying the price, the punishment, for our sin for us. He came to earth, lived with temptation but never sinned, and yet died, sacrifying Himself in our place. All we need do is accept His sacrifice. If we refuse God will not force Himself upon us while we are on Earth and we will remain in a damned state and we will have to pay for our own sins with both a physical death and eternal spiritual death, separation from God. If we accept His sacrifice in our place we are redeemed, which means a debt to be paid in full, and enter freely into His presence for eternity and have a relationship with Him while still on Earth. While the eternity waiting for those redeemed, or Christ-followers or Christians, is far better than this current life we are called to live for Christ to represent His light to a fallen world, to follow the Great Commission 'go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit'. Ultimately there is nothing better on this Earth than to see another come to Christ. It says the Angels in heaven rejoice for those that are saved, that they marvel at the Redemption, and the newly alive Christian certianly does. As one of my favorite songs says 'for His favorite song of all, is the song of the redeemed, when lost sinners now made clean, lift their voices loud in song. When those purchased by His blood, lift to Him a song of love..'. Meanwhile to really state fully answers to our mini-debate:God is perfect, that means perfectly good, just, righteous. And His law is perfect. Anything outside His law is not-good, bad, evil. Humans are intrisically evil because we brake God's law. There is ultimate right and wrong because there is an ultimate Law Giver. And He has carefully explained His law to us both in nature, for nature not only screams a creator but the Creator, and in His Word, a love letter and warning letter to all humanity in which the fullness of the Godhead is explained as well as is possible before Heaven 'for now I see in a mirror dimly, but then, face to face'. The Bible is simple, God's law is fair, simple, and easy to understand, and written in the hearts of ALL men so that no one is without blame. Absolutes exist. Demons are evil because they broke/brake God's law. Angels, both fallen and not, can manifest physically and effect the physical. Since angels are only used for very precise purposes, and never contracdict God anything not human which makes an apparence for other than those purposes or contradicts God is a demon. Whether it takes the form of a faerie, an alien, a ghost, or just a dark presence it just demons mascerading as something more believable to the person its appearing to. Demons aren't afraid to lie after all.'ghosts' as we think of them, as in departed spirits of the dead who come back to converse with the living, do not exist. Necomancy, or any attempt to contact the dead, is stictly forbidden by the Bible. In one instance God allowed contact with a deceased only for the purpose of rebuking the person who was trying to contact him. (I think its in II Kings) 'it is given once for a man to live and after that the judgement' spirits of the dead are not able to wander about. They are either in Heaven or in sheol (which is also hell just not the ultimate hell that will last forever after Lucifer has been judged) waiting for hell. Any aparition of a 'ghost' is nothing more than a demon who is pretending to be the dead for purposes of lying to the living. I am unafraid of anything you may call a ghost for 'greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world' demons can not touch a Christian and must flee before the name of Jesus.Ultimately 'every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord' But meeting God wrapped in His grace and His righteousness is far better than meeting Him in only your own sin.I 'believe' in the Christian God because it has been proven to me irrevocable and unequivically spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, and physically. I first believed out of a leap of faith that it was simply what I had to do given the knowledge of my own sin nature. When you are confronted by your own sin and by the absolute righteousness of God you either abase yourself and accept His Lordship or you turn forever away from Him. But since no one can ever know when that choice has been truly made (its called blasphem against the Spirit and is the 'unforgivable sin' because it is the complete and willing rejection of salvation) there is always an overwhelming push, a drive, to try to introduce all those you love to the Creator of the universe as a personal Savior
E)(Forgive some anthropomorphizing) A potter makes a beautiful clay box, the pride of his collection. He made it for a very specific purpose, to hold his most valuable possession. He loves this beautiful box so much he makes a special place just so it can live safely and in comfort for all its days. But once he has placed it in its place and laid his prized possession inside of it, the box rebels and refuses to hold the possession. Repeatedly the box refuses to hold the possession.“I have created you solely for this purpose,” Says the potter. “Since you have refused your purpose I could destroy you. But I love you, you are my most beautiful creation, the pride of my collection. I will keep you, and give you an opportunity to accept your purpose until you are destroyed naturally. But you may no longer inhabit this perfect place I made for you.” And the potter took the box down and put it on a shelf, and used it to hold whatever may need a place. Every day the potter would attempt to place his most prized possession back into the box, admonishing it that if it would but accept it then it could return to its honored place. But the box continued to refuse. Eventually the box crumbled from old age, not only could it not fulfill its created purpose it was no longer able even to hold the simplest of things. The potter was very heartbroken that his favorite piece had been destroyed without returning to its place of honor, but there was nothing more he could do. The potter swept up the broken pieces sadly and placed it in the rubbish heap with the rest of the broken pottery.God is the potter, and we are the pot. It is not that you, or anyone, lives a life without purpose, it is that you live a life without the purpose you were created for. God created humanity, you, me, everyone, to be a receptacle of His love. We were meant to live in a close, personal relationship with Him, both treasured and treasuring. We were meant to walk with God in perfection, to talk with Him, to learn and converse with Him without pain, without death, without evil. He created us with the knowledge required to choose to love and accept Him, for if we did not have a choice it would not be love. The angels worship Him, but only humanity was created with the unique ability to have a loving relationship with Him. Such a thing cannot be forced, it must be accepted. Like the box in the parable we have rejected the purpose we were created for. We have turned away from our creator and followed after our own hearts “There are none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; there is none who seek God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable, there is none who does good, no, not one.” In this fallen state it is impossible to live the life our Creator intended for us. But God loves us, He loves His creation and contends for our love “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” But His law has been broken, and to appease His perfect justice God created a way for us. “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” And “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” If we but accept His free gift to settle His justice our sin is wiped out, not just forgiven, but forgotten. God says He puts our sins away from us ‘as far as the east is from the west’. We are washed utterly clean and allowed to reenter the life our Creator made us for, the sweet purpose better than anything else we could possibly want for ourselves. God does not ask us to do something we cannot; we do have to be perfect, nor even good to accept His gift. “But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinner, Christ, died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” In response to this wonderful gift we are called to His service, knowing full well that He knows us better and has a better plan for our life than we could ever do ourselves. For “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether… For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well… Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” You do not give up your free will when you give yourself to God, instead you understand that His will is far superior to your own and it would be foolishness to reject it. You still have every choice to turn and follow their own path but, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Reasonable service, its nothing above and beyond what He has right and reason to ask us. He seeks only in love to draw us away from the fallen and return us to grace. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”It is utterly good to submit your will to God. It will not obliterate your free will, but rather release all the goodness that God wills for you. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy ad where thieves break in and steal; But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” And “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Only He can truly fulfill us, for only He created us. “But those who wait for God will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary. They will walk and not faint.” There is nothing worthwhile outside of God’s will in comparison to what is within God’s will! He will give you His Spirit, which will guide us through this life. Instead of: “the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissention, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like:” we are given: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” What a far greater way to live!
posted by Jespren at 12:19 AM
2 Comments:
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