morality – Pat Answers Archives

Defining tolerance

Tolerance vs Acceptance. Living in the United States, it seems like we hear these two words almost every day. Many advocacy groups tend to use the words interchangeably, not recognizing the extensively different implications of each word. The fact is that these two words carry different connotations and implications. While we are in no way obligated to accept one another, in order to maintain our civilized society, we must be able to tolerate one another.

To tolerate something is to have a fair and objective attitude about someone whose opinions differ from their own. To accept something is to consciously approve of it. The difference is that tolerance is a virtue and a symbol of living in a civilized society. Acceptance implies that we must have uniform beliefs and perspectives in order to maintain society.

If a person feels that an action is morally wrong, then by the virtue of “acceptance”, they would be forced to ignore their conscious and believe that it is morally justified. The implication, then, is that people would be forced the let the general consensus of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable drive their own individual conscious of what is right and wrong.

By the virtue of tolerance, on the other hand, no one is obligated to believe an action is necessarily right or wrong. Rather, they are encouraged to look at issues with an objective attitude and the aim of looking for what ought to be. In the well-known words of Aristotle, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” Simply put, you cannot accept something without tolerating it, but you can tolerate something without accepting it.

No one, not even society, should be able to have control over another individual’s conscious. The free exercise of conscious is essential towards preserving one’s moral integrity. It is the innate ability to feel and give weight to the moral emotions. It is the “common sense” at the heart of common sense moral philosophy.

The fact that a general consensus towards an action can drive an individual’s conscious not only signifies a movement towards authoritarianism, but it also signifies movement towards social moral depravity. We need to stop forcing people to be accepting of one another and their actions and start encouraging people to tolerate one another. Whether or not someone is willing to accept something is up to their own conscious. America was built on the notion of freedom of thought and personal liberties. While forced acceptance is a violation of this ideal, tolerance is integral towards preserving it.

Fearmongering and loss of liberty

I see the need to a degree of shuttering businesses to slow down its progression, but stripping rights or even suspending them is a bit more nuanced as I said previously. Not everyone will win.

Many are talking about our rights being taken away during the Coronavirus pandemic. People on YouTube talking about how the government is suspending rights due to Coronavirus.

On the flip side, President Trump is barely using his authority. He seems to be scupulously following Constitutional principles.

There are several threads on FaceBook this topic, and I try to see it both ways.

Let’s be honest, people are acting like idiots with this outbreak. That goes across the board from government officials down to the everyday person.

There’s a disease. People can have it before showing symptoms, and spread it before showing symptoms. It’s about protecting people from other people who might be endangering their lives. If most people would do this naturally, this wouldn’t be handled by the government. There wouldn’t be a quarantine enforced or mandated, people would quarantine themselves to protect themselves and their community.

A virus doesn’t care that you have your rights during those days you’re coughing on people not yet knowing you’re sick. It thrives on it even.

BUT, care must indeed be taken about overreach. The way our society works just handles diseases very poorly.

It shows the flat-footedness of our society today and how people are reacting to the situation.
It shows that our general misunderstanding of the delicate balance between common good and constitutional rights is such a tiny razor’s edge.

The rights argument is obvious.

Industrious demi-tyrants will obviously take advantage of the situation to further their political agenda. There are literally thousands of examples of this over the past few weeks. The governors of Virginia and Illinois and the mayor of Chicago for example.

The “common good” argument however is also valid in many respects because when does it become too painful to protect liberties over common good?

The reality is far more nuanced that what one can figure. The education level of the founders of this nation is obviously far higher than many of the modern politicos and media talking heads.

But the stern truth is, that if the common good (and here we are talking a real and measurable threat) may, because of its mechanisms not be respond-able to our liberties in the traditional sense nor the protections traditionally used.

We have to create guards of liberty in such times and hold accountable the politicians and others who abuse them.

I see the need to a degree of shuttering businesses to slow down its progression, but stripping rights or even suspending them is a bit more nuanced as I said previously. Not everyone will win.

But a check valve and the rights of the individual to fight government overreach should be and should have been in place and institutionalized long before the current crop of singing and fiddling morons took the helm.

THAT was the purpose of the 2A. It is such times as now that we must be vigilant and keep the politicians and other idiots in check.

The barbarians at the gate

Serious moral conservatives can no longer live business-as-usual lives in America. We must develop creative solutions to help us hold onto our faith and our values in a world growing ever more hostile to them.

Western civilization has lost its moorings.

The time has come when men and women of virtue understand that full participation in mainstream society is no longer possible for those who want to live a life of traditional virtue.

The culture war that began with the sexual revolution of the 1960s has now produced a perhaps a mortal defeat for moral conservatives. The cultural left-which is to say, increasingly the American mainstream-has no intention of living in peace with conservatives. It is pressing forward with a harsh, relentless suppression of traditional morality. One that is aided by the cluelessness of mainstream churches who don’t seem to understand what’s happening.

It is time to wake up and to encourage our families friends and like-minded associates to strengthen themselves, while there is still time.

If we want to survive, we have to return to the roots of our faith and morality, both in thought and in practice. We must relearn habits of the heart forgotten by our society in a relentless quest for what is new, modern and inclusive.

It will not be easy.

There is no easier, softer way. We are going to have to change our lives, our expectations and our approach to life in radical ways.

In short, we must rededicate our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor to the rebirth of the principles upon which our nation was founded, without compromise, no matter what the cost.

History repeats-Modern elites and and Roman emporers

…a dark, reclusive man, but liked to have sex with anyone, male or female, old or young, even abusing newborn babies.

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus, simply called Tiberius, was the Roman emperor during Jesus’ teenage years, and for several more years after His crucifixion (14-37 A.D.). He was not the biological son of the previous emperor Augustus (Octavian). He was the son of Augustus’ wife Livia, by her first husband, Tiberius Claudius Nero. Livia divorced Nero and married Octavian. Pliny the Elder called Tiberius “the gloomiest of men” and despite military victories as a young general, he seemed reluctant to rule.

He eventually did become Caesar (Augustus had no choice when both of his true sons died) and what we know of his 23-year rule comes primarily from a man named Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. According to his historical work, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Tiberius was a dark, reclusive man, but liked to have sex with anyone, male or female, old or young, even abusing newborn babies. He swam naked with children who were trained to nibble at him like minnows, and after tiring of them, would have them thrown over a cliff.

According to Josephus, he “made death the penalty for the slightest offenses” and people would be killed for even speaking ill of him. One story from Suetonius relays a particularly cruel torture preventing urination:

“…he would trick men into loading themselves with copious droughts of wine, and then on a sudden tying up their private parts, would torment them at the same time by the torture of the cords and of the stoppage of their water.” Tiberius was a dark, reclusive man, but liked to have sex with anyone, male or female, old or young, even abusing newborn babies.

In was at Capri that the term “old goat” was coined because of his sexual deviance.

On retiring to Capri he devised a pleasure palace for his secret orgies: teams of wantons of both sexes, selected as experts in deviant intercourse and dubbed analists, copulated before him in triple unions to excite his flagging passions. Its bedrooms were furnished with the most salacious paintings and sculptures, as well as with an erotic library, in case a performer should need an illustration of what was required. Then in Capri’s woods and groves he arranged a number of nooks of lust where boys and girls got up as Pans and nymphs solicited outside bowers and grottoes: people openly called this “the old goat’s garden,” punning on the island’s name.

“But”, you might say, “that was in ancient Rome and not in our 21st. Century world.

Consider Jeffrey Epstein and the elite visitors to St James Island and Zorro ranch.

Noah’s Ark-preparing for the worst

what nation in the history of humanity has been so blessed, has been so presumptuous, and has so provoked God to wrath?

Before I begin this article, I should clarify that I believe that Noah’s flood is a historical fact, not an allegorical myth. It actually happened; a flood that covered the whole earth and destroyed all humanity and all animals on the earth, with the exception of one man, his family, and those animals with him. As I see it, if one can’t believe the Bible about the flood, one can’t believe it about the resurrection either. Noah is included in the ‘cloud of witnesses’ in Hebrews 11:7. These witnesses are to encourage us to ‘lay aside every encumberance and the sin which so easily entangles us, etc.’ (Hebrews 12:1). Hardly the place for a fictional character and story. And I also note that Christ Himself spoke of the flood as an actual historical event (Matthew 24:38-39). So if you share with me the belief that flood did indeed happen, then please read on.

I must also note that much of what we ‘know’ as a culture about Noah’s ark comes from children’s books and songs (“The Loooord, told Noah, to build him an arky-arky”). Noah is usually portrayed as an elderly man with white hair and beard (rather chubby) in a bathrobe, happily enjoying a sail with a bunch of happy animals on deck. The story of Noah always seems to find it’s way into children’s Bible books, while stories about Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19) or the Levite’s concubine (Judges 19) are avoided for being too ‘dark’ for a children’s book. This puzzles me. Apart from the fall and the crucifixion, there has not been a darker day in human history than the day the flood began.

This was not a rainstorm, or even a hurricane. The ‘fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened’ (Genesis 7:11). Enough water was released to cover the tallest mountains on earth. Cataclysm. All of humanity was destroyed. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that just a few people were lost because the earth was so young and people hadn’t multiplied. There were nine generations between Adam and Noah. And if a typical married woman today, living say 75 years, would be pregnant 10-20 times (without birth control), how many children could a woman living 900 years bear? By my reckoning, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives were lost. And Noah did NOT resemble a chubby Santa Claus. Given that he lived 900 years and was 600 years old when the flood came (we don’t what age he began building the ark), in appearance he would resemble a modern day 50 year old the day he entered the ark. And if he built, by hand, a ship the size of the ark, Noah was NOT chubby. Think: chiseled, scarred, and hard as nails.

As It Was in the Days of Noah

But why write an article about Noah’s flood? First, because Noah’s time is so like our own. Noah’s story really begins in Genesis 6:1 (though most sermons skip to verse 5): “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose . . . the Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them.” Demons having children with women. The presence of the demonic was visible on the earth. How does this relate to our day? Have you not wondered why there are so many mass murders lately, perpetrated by men with no real explicable motive? Demonic. Why the increasing pressure and influence of drug cartels no longer motivated solely by profit but by a desire for rape, murder, and enslavement? Demonic. Still not convinced? According to the CDC, more than 45,000,000 babies have been murdered in their own mother’s wombs from 1970-2015 in the USA alone. Demonic.

Note also Genesis 6:5: “then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Watch the first episode of the Game of Thrones and imagine playing this show for a theater audience in, say, the 1930s. Imagine the audience’s response. Hysterical screaming, vomiting, and a rush from the theater (followed, no doubt, by a torch-bearing march on the studio). And yet the average American watches five hours of shows like these a day.

And then there is the epidemic of pornography. There is an article in Forbes titled ‘Pornhub 2017 Year in Review Insights Report Reveals Statistical Proof We Love Porn’ that you can Google if you want some insight into American’s use of porn. Fair warning: I couldn’t make it halfway through the article. Just take my word for it: it’s bad, and it’s everywhere. Surely, the thoughts of our hearts are increasingly only evil continually (Genesis 6:5) as they were in Noah’s time.

Finally, though ‘the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence’ (Genesis 6:11), Jesus notes that ‘in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away’ (Matthew 24: 38-39). The culture around Noah saw neither the corruption, nor the impending judgment. Neither does ours.

Noah: The Ultimate Prepper

Second, Noah was the ultimate prepper. Want to save your family from TEOTWAWKI? Noah saved his family from TEOTW (forget the AWKI). Want to provide for your people in tough times? Noah provided for his family and for all land animals on earth for over a year! Want to partner in rebuilding society when the storm passes? Noah did that too.

Let’s take a closer look at lessons from Noah’s story.

Noah received direction from God. It wasn’t his plan, it was His plan. This lesson can’t be overstated. Take Jim’s advice and pray before you prepare. And don’t think that God’s message to Noah was a ‘bolt from the blue.’ It flowed from his intimacy with God: ‘Noah walked with God’ (Genesis 6:9). Dear reader, I implore you to walk with God and receive His plan for you.
Noah lived a holy life. ‘Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time’ (Genesis 6:9). Let us follow his example and ‘lay aside every encumberance and the sin which so easily entangles us’ (Hebrews 12:1). Search for sin in your life for sin and ask the Lord to set you free from it. Or, better yet, ask the Lord to ‘search [you] … and see if there be any hurtful way in [you]’ (Psalm 139: 23-24).
Noah did what he was told. From his introduction in the text to the point where God’s rainbow appears in the sky, Noah doesn’t say a thing. But ‘thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.’ Obedience is what God rewards.
Noah had a heart of worship. What is the first thing he does once he gets out of the ark? He builds an altar before the Lord (Genesis 8:20). In response, the Lord promises to never again destroy the earth with a flood. He also promised to preserve ‘seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night.’ All that, in response to one man’s worship. I believe that worship is overlooked in our lives and that it brings peace, joy, thankfulness, alignment with God, and a powerful response from the Lord.
Noah gave up all his earthly existence to follow God. I’m sure that Noah took tools (as many as he could afford!), tents, extra clothes, etc. with him. I’m also sure that his godly life and long hours building the ark left him few (if any) friends. But he lost his farm, his extended family, his neighbors and community (including all the skills they had and he didn’t). Think on this for a moment. Imagine that tomorrow you wake up and all the world has been washed away. All of it. No house, no cars, no buildings, no power, no grocery store, no pharmacy, no hospital, no doctors, no dentists, no Costco, no Walmart, no restaurants, no hardware store, no Starbucks (!), no internet, no phone, no computers, no tablets. Gone. Far worse than an EMP. Just you, your family, and whatever you have in your suitcases. Noah lost his whole existence, with the exception of his nuclear family and his God. But he preserved his life and the lives of his family through a time of God’s judgment. Let me repeat that: all that Noah got was his life, his family’s lives, and the chance to start over. And believe me, God’s judgment is coming again. Do you hope to preserve your family? Then remember the words of Christ: “He who wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, he is the one who will keep it’ (Luke 9:24). Do not cling to anything that God calls you to give up. Or it may cost you your life, and the lives of those you love. When He says ‘let go,’ let go.

Noah’s Accomplishments

What did Noah accomplish with this foundation? “Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did” (Genesis 6:22). What, exactly, did Noah do? First, he had to design the ark. My best guess, based on Genesis 9:20, is that Noah was a farmer by profession, not a ship builder. He certainly had no experience building a ship of this size. And while the Lord gives Noah the basic dimensions, the number of decks required, the number of doors and windows, and the types of building materials to use, the rest of the design appears to have been up to Noah. He would have had to determine the latitudinal and longitudinal curvature of the ship and the exact curvature of each board in the hull. Each board would have to be carefully catalogued based on its exact position in the ship.

He had to pick (and procure?) a build site close enough to the forest of trees needed for the raw materials. Some system would have had to be designed to move the heavier materials. Can you imagine the size of the beams needed for the girders of a ship this big? Tools would need to be procured en masse. How many pens (and of what type) would be needed to hold every type of animal on earth (mammals, lizards, birds)? For that matter, how many types are there? How much food would be needed for humans and animals? And of what type? And the Lord didn’t tell him how long he would be in the ark. What should he take with him to restart society with only the skills he and his immediate family had? What would you take? What skills would Noah and his family have been scrambling to learn so that those skills would not be lost? Think on this for a moment.

Then it was time to gather raw materials. According to Genesis 6:15, the ark was 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. Estimating a cubit at 18” (roughly the length of a man’s forearm and fist), that’s 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. I realize that the ark was probably not rectangular in shape, but for easy figures, that’s a surface area of 114,750 square feet. Adding in the first, second, and third decks (Genesis 6:16), that’s 216,000 square feet. That’s about 81,000 2x4s. With, at best, bronze really era hand tools, Noah had to cut down and mill 81,000 2x4s. Just for fun, try cutting down one tree and producing 1 good 2×4 using only an axe and a hand plane. Noah then had to manufacture or procure enough fasteners for those 81,000 2x4s. He also had to produce enough pitch to cover the surface of the hull (114,750 square feet) inside and out. How many buckets of roofing tar would it take to cover 2×114,750 = 229,500 square feet?

And then the work really began. Noah built the ark. We don’t know what sort of divine assistance Noah received, or how long the construction took, but the Lord did not build the ark for him. Noah did according all that the Lord had commanded him. Beasts of burden might have been used to move the bulk materials or to lower especially heavy materials into position, but for the most part, the ark was built by hand. 81,000 2x4s people. Fastened together. By hand. Followed by covering the surface with nasty, foul smelling, and very dangerous pitch.

How long did this take? And let’s not forget that Noah still needed to provide for the daily needs of his family during construction. And in a world filled with violence (Genesis 6:11), security would have been a constant concern. Imagine the physical and emotional exhaustion. Imagine the constant fight against discouragement and despair. Will this thing ever get built? Is there really a flood coming? “Doesn’t look like rain to me.” Why are we doing this Dad/Honey? And then there was the spiritual struggle. Do you think Satan wanted that ark built?

Does all of this seem exhausting? It was. But let us take heart. What the Lord calls for, He provides for. Noah did it. And we can do what He asks too.

I stated previously that the Lord’s judgment is coming. Why do I believe this? Because the Lord said so: “the Lord preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.” (Psalm 145:20). The Lord gave the founders of our nation the knowledge of His Son when much of the world was still in darkness. He gave them a virgin country with vast resources and endless opportunity. He gave us a democratically-elected republican form of government and a new birth of freedom and success over our enemies. And what did we do with it? We greedily devoured the resources, took the credit for our success and our victories, turned our back on God, and now seek hastily after every form of wickedness. President Obama was right: we are no longer a Christian nation. Tell me: what nation in the history of humanity has been so blessed, has been so presumptuous, and has so provoked God to wrath?

A new storm is coming, my brothers and sisters. Build quickly.

Are you a Baal worshiper?

“The moral test of a society is how that society treats those who are in the dawn of life.”

Though the prophet Jeremiah is specifically addressing societal conditions of ancient Israel who had turned away from fully following The Lord, the main issues still apply to any society, ancient or modern, that forsakes biblical spiritual values for secular and materialistic ones.

Down through the ages humans are still driven by the same fleshly passions. Although the theater, costumes and actors may have changed, it is still the same play. Human nature has never changed! When a society fails to learn the lessons of history, it will repeat the same mistakes of the past again and again.

What has happened before will happen again, because human nature remains the same. We can learn many valuable lessons from mistakes of those who have preceded us. If we don’t, we will make the same mistakes and suffer the same consequences/judgments as our forefathers.

The Lord is ever-loving and gracious and He constantly warned His people in biblical times to repent of their sins and turn back to Him. He is doing the same thing in our day if we will admit our stubborn pride, humble ourselves, and turn back to obeying his ways that bring healing, peace and eternal life.

In the past, the ancients worshiped concrete images that represented the depraved and dark side of man where physical idols represented the ideas behind Baal worship. Today’s Baal worshipers are more sophisticated. They don’t need the physical idols. They have simply bypassed the idols representing the ideas, and worship the ideas themselves. Just because the concrete images, (or literal idols), may have gone by the wayside doesn’t mean the concepts don’t still exist.

What is the appeal of Baal worship? Simply this, it takes a lot of energy to move upward, against the force of gravity. Conversely, it takes no effort to slide downward, since gravity naturally pulls us downward. Baal is like a spiritual gravity that pulls us downward effortlessly. Baal is like descending into the dark and dingy basement of a high-rise apartment building, while the penthouse in the same building is like following the path of God, which leads men upwards. It takes more effort to ascend upward than to descend. In fact, descending requires no effort. One doesn’t have to do anything to descend into the darker abysses of man’s baser nature. It takes a lot of energy, however, to move upward to a place of light and hope. In the Bible, The Lord is leading men upward against his base nature. The worship of Baal is everything that leads men downward against his better nature to fulfill his bodily appetites.

I don’t know a single person who hears about the horrors of Moloch and doesn’t cringe at the gruesomeness. Brutally murdering babies in the name of Moloch for future benefits is evil in the truest sense of the word.

Yet, at the same time, a large number of people today believe this ancient practice would be fine, so long as the baby was still in the womb. Recently, New York legislators passed a law that allows for abortions up until birth. After the vote, a video circulated the internet showing hundreds of people cheering loudly in favor of this decision. What kind of sick and twisted mind does one have to have to applaud the killing of unborn babies? These are babies after all.

This new law allows women to abort their babies right before they go into labor, a woman can literally kill her baby one day and have people cheer for her, but if she kills her baby less than twenty-four hours later when it’s made it outside her womb, she’ll go to prison.

God had strict warnings against accidentally killing unborn babies. He must despise the fact that we kill them intentionally and then celebrate it to boot. So, when the mayor of New York lit up the World Trade Center in pink to celebrate more murder, we can imagine that God doesn’t take it kindly. If that’s not a symbolic middle finger to God, I don’t know what is.

Hubert Humphrey once said; “The moral test of a society is how that society treats those who are in the dawn of life.” Currently we are failing that test.

Truth is, we aren’t any better than the ancient Canaanites. Instead of sacrificing our children to the god Moloch in exchange for future prosperity, we sacrifice our children in exchange for better career paths, financial security, and convenience.

While abortion apologists try to sanitize abortion by using terms like “tissue” instead of “baby” or “end the pregnancy” instead of “killing,” there’s no denying what’s going on when we inject poison into babies’ heads. We’re brutally murdering them. And we’ve done it millions of times. Lord, have mercy on us.

Do Not Pass Your Children Through The Fire

There’s a Baal for every depravity of man.

Evidence concerning Moloch worship in ancient Israel is found in the legal, as well as in the historical and prophetic literature of the Bible. In the Pentateuch, the laws of the Holiness Code speak about giving or passing children to Moloch (Lev. 18:21, 20:2–4) and the law in Deuteronomy speaks of “passing [one’s] son or daughter through fire” (18:10). Although Moloch is not named in the Deuteronomy passage, it is likely that his cult was the object of the prohibition.

The author of the Book of Kings speaks about “passing [one’s] son and daughter through fire” (II Kings 16:3 [son], 17:17, 21:6 [son]). II Kings 23:10 speaks about “passing [one’s] son or daughter through fire to Moloch.” Some scholars interpret the phrase lә-haʿavir ba-esh, as a reference to a divinatory or protective rite in which children were passed through a fire but not physically harmed. However, the same phrase lә-haʿavir ba-esh is found in an unmistakable context of burning in Numbers 31:23.

Other biblical texts refer to the sacrifice of children. Psalms 106:37–38 speaks of child sacrifice to the unnamed idols of Canaan. In prophetic sources, Jeremiah 7:31 and Ezekiel 20:25–6 speak disapprovingly of sacrificing children to Yahweh (for the “bad statutes” referred to by Ezekiel, see Ex. 22:28–29; but see Friebel); Jeremiah 19:5 speaks of sacrificing children to Baal; Ezekiel 16:21, 20:31, 23:37, 39 of sacrificing children to unnamed divinities; as does Isaiah 57:5. In none of these is there a mention of Moloch. Only in Jeremiah 32:35 is Moloch mentioned by name and there he is associated with Baal.

Archaeological discoveries at Carthage attest to some 20,000 burials of infant bones along with animal bones in what are evidently not instances of natural death. the legal and historical sources speak about passing children to Moloch in fire. The legal and historical sources speak about passing children to Moloch in fire.

A note on on Leviticus 18:21, says: “…It could refer to either human sacrifice or a devotion of children to some sort of service of Moloch, perhaps of a sexual sort (cf. Lev 20:2-5; 2 Kgs 23:10, etc.). The inclusion of this prohibition against Moloch worship here may be due to some sexual connection of this kind, or perhaps simply to the lexical link between זֶרַע (zera’) meaning “seed, semen” in v. 20 but “offspring” in v. 21.”

Baal Peor, or the Baal of Peor, was a local deity worshiped by the Moabites. In Numbers 25, we find that the women of Midian began to seduce the men of Israel to sexual sin and to sacrifice to their gods. Since the gods of the pagans were often fertility gods, the “worship” often involved sexual acts. The incident is recorded in Numbers 25:1–3: “While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Midianite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods. So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.” As a judgment against the Israelites’ sin, God sent a plague among the people (verse 9). As a result of their sin, the men of Israel were judged by God.

Baal worship simply represents the dark and depraved side of human nature. For example, Baal Peor was the god of sexual license, and represented the sexually depraved inclinations of man’s nature. Molech was the Baal of child sacrifice. There’s a Baal for every depravity of man. In America, the sexualization of everything, including the premature sexualization of children, which leads to the act of child sacrifice called abortion is an aspect of Baal Peor, which is perhaps the grossest aspect of society’s bent toward the dark side and depraved side of human nature.

The Warrior Code

In a world of chaos, gender confusion, divisiveness and stress where the prevailing motto seems to be “Mea Est” (where’s mine?) would that it became possible to return to a time of morality and honor.

Honor is a concept that has, somehow, fallen out of favor in our society. There was a time, not that long ago when part of the definition of being “a man” had much to do with the ascribing to and striving for moral excellence. Our republic was founded by men who lived by the code handed down, in some respects, from the Spartan warriors.

Warrior Ethos

I will always place the mission first

I will never accept defeat

I will never quit

I will never leave a fallen comrade

Honor is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a code of conduct, and has various elements such as valor, chivalry, honesty, and compassion. It is an abstract concept entailing a perceived quality of worthiness and respectability that affects both the social standing and the self-evaluation of an individual or institution such as a family, school, regiment or nation. Accordingly, individuals (or institutions) are assigned worth and stature based on the harmony of their actions with a specific code of honor, and the moral code of the society at large.

There are still some institutions that follow this code of morality and honor. One of them is the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri, (an institution well worth researching). Another is the Citadel, (known as the West Point of the South), located in Charleston, South Carolina in 1842.

The cadets at the Citadel follow “The Honor Code” cadets do not lie, cheat, steal, nor tolerate those that do. The code is based on Core Values:

Honor

First and foremost honor includes adherence to the Honor Code of The Citadel. A cadet “will not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate those who do.” The commitment to honor extends beyond the gates of The Citadel and is a life-long obligation to moral and ethical behavior. In addition, honor includes integrity; “doing the right thing when no one is watching.” Finally, honorable behavior includes exercising the moral courage to “do the right thing when everyone is watching.” The Honor Code is the foundation of our academic enterprise.

Duty

First and foremost duty means to accept and accomplish the responsibilities assigned to me. At The Citadel, my primary duty is to perform academically and then to perform as a member of the Corps of Cadets and the campus community. I accept the consequences associated with my performance and actions. Once I have held myself accountable for my actions, then I will hold others accountable for their actions. Finally, duty means that others can depend on me to complete my assignments and to assist them with their assignments. Duty is also a call to serve others before self.

Respect

First and foremost respect means to treat other people with dignity and worth – the way you want others to treat you. Respect for others eliminates any form of prejudice, discrimination, or harassment (including but not limited to rank, position, age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, physical attributes, etc.). In addition, respect for others means to respect the positions of those in authority which include faculty, staff, administrators, active duty personnel and the leadership of the Corps of Cadets. Finally, respect includes a healthy respect for one’s self.

The College of the Ozarks has a similar code.

In a world of chaos, gender confusion, divisiveness and stress where the prevailing motto seems to be “Mea Est” (where’s mine?) would that it became possible to return to a time of morality and honor.

Transgender policy in America

The goal of the LGBTQ ideology is not to help a child or adult who is going through confusion regarding gender. It is to do away with the understanding of the factual existence of Males and Females.

Jack Martin

A very serious deception challenges the very moral culture of our nation. The 60’s ushered in the if it feels good do it mentality. Colleges began to indoctrinate, rather than educate back then. And we are now reaping the fruit of that in every aspect of our culture.

Through out history Homosexuality was considered abnormal sexual relationships, until the 60’s illegal in almost every state in our nation. Sodomy defined as sin as stated in the Bible. But with the sexual revolution that began to change, combined with the total destruction of the Biblical family of Father Mother, husband wife roles.

With time the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual movement has expanded to the place where most of America can repeat LGBTQ. But as dangerous as the first three letters in that are, its the fourth, Transgender that perhaps poses the most danger. For years we heard Christians don’t believe in Science.

Issues like global warming, abortion, etc was echoed through liberal gatherings.

But time and scientific discovery have debunked both the extreme global warming views, and the point in which a life begins in the womb. 4D ultrasounds clearly show a viable living child, not a tissue blob. Evidence shows the point where pain is felt. But when it comes to gender dysphoria, that defies all logic.

Biology teaches 2 sexes, and I will call them 2 genders. Even in our languages, we refer to Masculine gender, Feminine gender, and Neuter gender. The latter referring clearly to inanimate items, not people. XY was always a male, XX was always a female. But now we say gender is different, its what you feel like. Forgive my honesty but that is insane.

Research shows that 98 percent of boys and 88 percent of girls who go through a period of dysphoria in their puberty years come back to full agreement with their biological sex by or near their 18 birthday. With the frontal lobe of the brain, not being fully developed until some time near age 25.

We don’t find it strange that a child during those years will one day be a firefighter, and the next a doctor or lawyer, and yet when a child has confusion caused by any number of natural or event induced feelings we want to rush to change their so called gender pronouns, clothing, and begin medications to begin a change in their development. When they are legally qualified we rush to have gender re assignment surgery. And then when they continue to be confused and depressed and commit suicide, we blame it on those who tried to warn them.

In many states it is illegal to counsel a person back to a Biblical or or heterosexual mindset. Even has a growing number of transitioned individuals are de-transitioning back to their biological sex.

The goal of the LGBTQ ideology is not to help a child or adult who is going through confusion regarding gender. It is to do away with the understanding of the factual existence of Males and Females. It is a direct assault on Gods declaration that He created mankind male and female with the intent that they marry for a lifetime and procreate. Replenishing the earth.

When quality research shows gender dysphoria for what it is, a state of confusion for a multitude of possible reasons, the LGBTQ supporters simply resort to names like homophobe, hater, or they falsely show bogus research that they claim discredit true evidence.

Teachers are forced in schools ( Pasco County Florida presently ) to use false pronouns, and false names to identify students. They are threatened if they wont oversee such things as girls in boys locker rooms. ( See ProtectPascoChildren.org ) and in regards to sports, girls are wrongly positioned to lose sports scholarships, championship honors, or even suffer horrible injuries at the hands of boys who are confused over their gender.

This battle will shape the future of our nation, and our Supreme Court will ultimately decide. Pray for them to love mercy, do justly and walk humbly before the Lord.

Shekhinah

“Whenever ten are gathered for prayer, there the Shekhinah rests.”

The Shekhinah (Biblical Hebrew: שכינה‎ šekīnah; also Romanized Shekina(h), Schechina(h), Shechina(h)) is the English transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning “dwelling” or “settling” and denotes the dwelling or settling of the divine presence of God. This term does not occur in the Bible, and is from rabbinic literature.

In classic Jewish thought, the shekhinah refers to a dwelling or settling in a special sense, a dwelling or settling of divine presence, to the effect that, while in proximity to the shekhinah, the connection to God is more readily perceivable.

The shekhinah represents the feminine attributes of the presence of God,shekhinah being a feminine word in Hebrew, based especially on readings of the Talmud.

The prophets made numerous references to visions of the presence of God, particularly in the context of the Tabernacle or Temple, with figures such as thrones or robes filling the Sanctuary. These visions have traditionally been attributed to the presence of the shekhinah.

The shekhinah is referred to as manifest in the Tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem throughout rabbinic literature.

It is also reported as being present in other contexts:

While a person (or people) study Torah, the Shekhinah is among them.
“Whenever ten are gathered for prayer, there the Shekhinah rests.”
“When three sit as judges, the Shekhinah is with them.”
Cases of personal need: “The Shekhinah dwells over the headside of the sick man’s bed”, “Wheresoever they were exiled, the Shekhinah went with them.”
“A man and woman – if they merit, the Shekhinah is between them. If not, fire consumes them.” According to one interpretation of this source, the Shekhinah is the highest of six types of holy fire. When a married couple is worthy of this manifestation, all other types of fire are consumed by it.

The Talmud states that “the Shekhinah rests on man neither through gloom, nor through sloth, nor through frivolity, nor through levity, nor through talk, nor through idle chatter, but only through a matter of joy in connection with a mitzvah.*

* Hebrew mitzvah, as with English “commandment”, refers to a moral deed performed within a religious duty. As such, the term mitzvah has also come to express an individual act of human kindness in keeping with the law. The expression includes a sense of heartfelt sentiment beyond mere legal duty, as “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). The tertiary meaning of mitzvah also refers to the fulfillment of a mitzvah