An overview of conditions around the world.
by John Ross Schroeder and Jerold Aust
Nations around the world gang up on America
Late last year, Harvard historian Niall Ferguson labeled America as "the nation that fell to earth." In terms of dwindling domestic and international support, the war in Iraq has many parallels with Vietnam. In addition, what is currently occurring elsewhere on the international stage greatly augments the overall problem.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently traveled to Iran and concocted a pact with five countries bordering the Caspian Sea. This pact states that no other country should interfere militarily or politically in the affairs of this Caspian bloc of nations. Some observers understand this pact as a clear warning that the United States should not carry out any military action against Iran.
In turn, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been invited to Moscow for further talks. Only a short time ago the Iranian president was allowed to vent his anger against America from the UN headquarters in New York City. As U.S. News and World Reporteditor-in-chief Mortimer Zuckerman observed, "Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, came to America to stick his thumb in our eye and deliver a sanitized version of 'Death to America!' and 'The Holocaust Never Occurred'" (Oct. 8, 2007, emphasis added throughout).
Russian aid to Iran is nothing short of astonishing. For example, it is a massive supplier of arms to Tehran, including a $700 million air-defense system.
Naturally both Russia and Iran oppose the eastward expansion of NATO. Iran is counting on both Russia and China to oppose any future sanctions from the UN Security Council.
According to The Guardian (Oct. 12, 2007), a resurgent Sino-Russian political embrace is already well under way: "Moscow and Beijing are closer now than in the Communist period . . . They have frustrated Western hopes for sanctions or other tough action on disputes ranging from Burma and Darfur to Iran. They are blocking a solution on Kosovo." Tensions between Russia and America are clearly on the rise, alarmingly so.
Another diplomatic setback has been a cooling of the normally stable Anglo-American alliance. The new British prime minister, Gordon Brown, is no Tony Blair. Increasingly Britain is being sucked into Europe with more concessions of British sovereignty in the offing. Brown has agreed to the new EU treaty without giving the British people a referendum. Yet only an independent Britain can fully stand shoulder to shoulder with America as new and more deadly challenges to Western civilization present themselves.
In 1940 Winston Churchill warned that unless the English-speaking countries triumphed over Nazism, the world would "sink into a new dark age." How much more would this be the case if the West should fail in its war on terrorism? America and Britain eventually prevailed in two world wars in the last century. Yet our present century is not without its own civilizational showdowns. Recent trends showing America and Britain gradually being boxed into a corner should deeply concern us all.
Most do not understand the importance of the origins of the English-speaking peoples around the world. The historic and prophetic implications will yet prove to be enormous. To understand just how, request or download our free booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy. (Sources: The Guardian, The Times, Financial Times[all London],U.S. News and World Report.)
Newest Middle East peace proposal in jeopardy
According to a report from Jerusalem published in the International Herald Tribune, "Hamas has now sent hundreds of its fighters, most of them to Iran. . . Israel is watching as Hamas, in control of Gaza, is building an army there on the model of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon—constructing positions and fortifications." Some of their longer-range rockets are being held in reserve for future action against Israel.
Almost simultaneously, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (standing beside Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas) called for a Palestinian state as an integral part of the solution to the overall conflict. She continues her periodic meetings with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders. The United States will host a Middle East conference in November designed to put the peace process back on track. It was reported by The Economist that "diplomacy has yet another fleeting chance."
But the realism of U.S. News and World Report editor-in-chief Mortimer Zuckerman must be taken seriously. He wrote, "A renewed push to find an Israeli-Palestinian solution faces some profound problems as the head of Iran reminded us last week [in his UN address]." Mr. Zuckerman pointed out that the Iranian president's purpose was "to undermine the legitimacy of the state of Israel." This farseeing editor reminded us about "the refusal of the Palestinians to this day to acknowledge the right of Israel to exist."
Yet the League of Nations in 1922 and the United Nations in 1948 supported a Jewish homeland. Winston Churchill stated that "the Jews are in Palestine by right, not sufferance."
Mr. Zuckerman noted the Palestinian use of religion to achieve their political purposes. He recalled that "it was Arafat who invoked the Islamic terms of jihad and shahada . . . It was Arafat who introduced children to radical Islamic thinking so that they could become terrorists and suicide bombers." He also observed that the Palestinians "wish to rule not just in the West Bank and Gaza, but in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa" ("Denial and Hope in the Mideast," Oct. 8, 2007).
Before the biblically prophesied peace finally comes to this troubled region, the future will prove far more crisis-prone than even the troublesome past. To truly comprehend both its historic and prophetic significance, request or download our free booklet The Middle East in Bible Prophecy. (Sources: The Times [London],USA Today, U.S. News and World Report, International Herald Tribune. )
American-Turkish relations on the edge
Turkey , a longtime U.S. ally, is on the point of hindering American plans and intentions in Iraq. A large-scale Turkish incursion into northern Iraq to thwart Kurdish rebels may be imminent. Clearly it would complicate Washington's plans in that strife-torn country.
At this crucial time of policy differences between the United States and Turkey, the Democratic Party-controlled House of Representatives tried to formally condemn the World War I-era massacre of Armenians by Turks as genocide. However valid the facts may be, the timing is highly inopportune. So President Bush has asked the House to think again. These are not the easiest days for American diplomacy.
Stark implications of Israeli strike against Syrian reactor
According to The New York Times, "Israel's air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site that Israeli and American intelligence analysts judged was a partly constructed nuclear reactor, apparently modeled on one North Korea had used to create its stockpile of nuclear weapons fuel, according to American and foreign officials with access to the intelligence reports" (Oct. 14, 2007).
A somewhat similar Israeli raid on Iraq took out the Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981, putting a sudden halt to Iraqi nuclear efforts. Yet since the Syrian reactor apparently would have required some years to actually produce bomb-grade plutonium, this latest raid was seen by one senior Israeli official as intended to "re-establish the credibility of our deterrent power."
Some American officials saw it as a clear signal to Iran. Several months earlier another senior Israeli source had said, "We are the product of a Holocaust in Europe and we will do everything . . . to prevent another holocaust recurring in Israel. If the Americans do not act, then we will act" (The Sunday Times).
What is also highly disturbing is the desire for nuclear weapons in several Middle Eastern nations, a somewhat natural reaction given the current Iranian threat. The year 2006 was labeled "The year of the nuke" by Newsweekin terms of increased nuclear proliferation around the globe.
Most countries say they want to avoid a nuclear Armageddon. The late Ronald Reagan wrote in his diaries while still U.S. president that "we have to do all we can . . . to see that there is never a nuclear war" (quoted in Scientific American,October 2007). However, a few rogue countries and suicidal terrorist groups seem inclined to provoke the unthinkable. (Sources: The Sunday Times[London], The New York Times, Newsweek, Scientific American.)
Birth control pills for 11-year-olds?
Controversy and confusion surrounded the decision by King Middle School in Portland, Maine, to offer birth control pills to children as young as 11, without their parents' knowledge. Oral contraception and condoms have been available for years in Portland's high schools, but extending this policy to middle schools is seen by some as encouraging underage sexual activity.
This practice is also viewed as possibly covering up sexual and other forms of abuse in families. It also provides the potential for a pregnant 11-year-old child to be diagnosed and then to have an abortion without parental awareness or consent.
Some parents were ambivalent or even favored the school's independently operated clinic taking over this important aspect of child care. However, others are worried about the long-term health issues resulting from taking oral contraception at such an early age and the potential for future psychological difficulties when children and young teenagers become involved in sexual relationships or have abortions—all without parental knowledge or counsel.
On Oct. 19, the principal of King Middle School published a letter on the school's Web site explaining the rationale for the decision: "To prevent pregnancy the Health Center needs to have contraception as an option when a student admits being sexually active. Contraception would only be prescribed in rare cases after counseling about abstinence and postponing sexual behavior was not productive. Every effort is always made to encourage the student to join with her parents in making this decision."
This all appears to be treating the effects of a problem and not the root causes. Surrounded by a culture that no longer allows children to be children, is it possible that a child of 11 or a teenager of 14 or 15 would even recognize that she or he was being coerced into sexual activity?
Without a strong moral society or, failing that, strong family values in setting a right example of abstinence before commitment (commitment within a biblical marriage), how are children to learn what is right and what is wrong where sexuality is concerned?
For information on God's purpose for marriage and families, request or download our free booklet Marriage and Family: The Missing Dimension. (Sources: Detroit Free Press, The New York Times, King Middle School Web site.)
Staph infections proving more deadly than the AIDS virus
Both The Washington Post and the Associated Press (AP) recently highlighted the emergence of a drug-resistant staph germ that is greatly increasing fatalities. ThePost stated that "a dangerous germ that has been spreading around the country causes more life-threatening infections than public health authorities had thought and is killing more people in the United States each year than the AIDS virus."
According to the AP, "more than 90,000 Americans get potentially deadly infections each year from a drug-resistant staph 'superbug,' the government reported in its first overall estimate of invasive disease caused by the germ." These infections, in both mild and invasive forms, "affect 46 out of every 1,000 U.S. hospital and nursing home patients."
Most staph cases tend to be relatively mild skin infections, but invasive infections that enter the bloodstream can easily become deadly. Apparent overuse of antibiotics has severely limited the effectiveness of countermeasures. Hospital and nursing home patients, mostly senior citizens, are the main victims, but deadly staph infections also strike the very young.
ThePost further stated: "Studies have shown that hospitals could do more to improve standard hygiene to reduce the spread of the infections." The AP report concurred, suggesting that "the results underscore the need for better prevention measures curbing the overuse of antibiotics and improving hand-washing and other hygiene procedures among hospital workers." So biblical hygienic and cleanliness ordinances set forth in the Bible are up-to-date even in our modern world.
According to Bible prophecy, the four horsemen of the apocalypse will ride in ever-increasing intensity. The pale horse signifies disease epidemics. For further understanding, request or download our free booklets The Book of Revelation Unveiled and Are We Living in the Time of the End? (Sources: Associated Press, The Washington Post.)
Thursday, December 13, 2007
What's Behind the Magnetic Pull of the Christmas Season?
Millions observe Christmas because it's a feel-good time with holiday music filling the air, brightly decorated trees, Santa Claus for the children and family togetherness. But does the Christmas season have a strong, commercially motivated magnetic pull that goes unnoticed by most?
by Jerold Aust
Justin and Dena were married shortly before Christmas. They had grown up in families that celebrated the Christmas holidays. This was a special time for them with thoughts of falling snow, a glowing fireplace, holiday songs and colorful gifts placed around the well-decorated tree. The winter holiday season was exciting and alluring, as it is to millions.
They badly wanted to invite their families for a sumptuous Christmas Day dinner and the traditional exchanging of gifts. Everything seemed to work out all right except they were short of money to pay for the obligatory gifts. So they went shopping armed with their credit cards.
As they shopped around from store to store, the atmosphere of the music, colorful gifts and inviting decorations lured them into spending much more than they could reasonably afford.
Then in late January, the bills started coming in. They had precious little money set aside to pay them. They struggled to keep enough food on the table, pay the house rent and make the car payment. They realized too late they had succumbed to all the Christmas advertising—ending up with a painful financial hangover.
Could this story also describe your circumstances?
Christmas is big business
Those Christmas bells chiming during the holiday season might be likened to cash registers ringing up millions of dollars in retail sales. Christmas is very big business and is thought to be great for the national economy. But has anyone thought to ask whether this type of wild spending is really in people's best interests, either now or, more importantly, for their long-term spiritual well-being?
Should we be buying gifts others frequently don't want or need with money we don't have? It's a logical question.
Yet people will defend observing Christmas by countering that it's a celebration honoring Jesus' birth. If that's true, why buy gifts for others and not Jesus Christ? Is Christendom behind the presumptive trappings of a pre-Christmas season or is it being promoted by secular businesses for their own gain?
Purdue University professor Richard Feinberg understands the commercial value of the Christmas shopping season. He found the retail forecast of the 2004 Christmas season to be at least 75 percent of yearly profits. He predicted that 2006 Christmas holiday shopping would total an incredible $450 billion or more in America. Barring an economic downturn, it could be even higher this year.
Ironically, Christmas is so popular that millions of atheists and people of other religions celebrate the holiday. Why don't people, those who claim to be Christians or otherwise, resist the commercial aspect of the season?
What's behind the magnetic pull of Christmas?
Clearly the Christmas season has a strong magnetic pull, but most people don't fully realize it or know how powerful it is. Every year a Christmas advertising onslaught tries to influence the public to spend, spend and spend some more.
Some sociologists and social critics research and analyze why groups unknowingly do what they do. We'll focus on two.
Noted American journalist and best-selling author Vance Packard wrote a number of thoughtful books about how business advertisers motivate and manipulate the public. His groundbreaking 1957 book The Hidden Persuaders explores the use of consumer motivational research and other psychological techniques, including what he calls depth psychology and subliminal tactics by advertisers to induce desire for products.
As Packard explains, his book is about "the large-scale efforts being made, often with impressive success, to channel . . . our thought processes by the use of insights gleaned from psychiatry and the social sciences. Typically these efforts take place beneath our level of awareness" (p. 3). Packard was ahead of his time in describing advertising methods still commonly used today.
His book continues: "The use of mass psychoanalysis to guide campaigns of persuasion has become the basis of a multimillion-dollar industry. Professional persuaders have seized upon it in their groping for more effective ways to sell us their wares—whether products, ideas, attitudes, candidates, goals, or states of mind . . .
"The sale to us of billions of dollars' worth of . . . products is being significantly affected, if not revolutionized, by this approach . . . Two thirds of America's hundred largest advertisers have geared campaigns to this depth approach by using strategies inspired by what marketers call ‘motivation analysis' . . .
"What the probers are looking for, of course, are the whys of our behavior, so that they can more effectively manipulate our habits and choices in their favor" (pp. 3-4).
Writing about a Chicago research firm that conducted psychoanalytically oriented studies for merchandisers, Packard states: "Motivation research . . . employs techniques designed to reach the unconscious or subconscious mind because preferences generally are determined by factors of which the individual is not conscious . . .
"Actually in the buying situation the consumer generally acts emotionally and compulsively, unconsciously reacting to the images and designs which in the subconscious are associated with the product" (pp. 7-8).
With far more technological advances than Packard could imagine in 1957, marketers and advertisers have a much greater capacity for influencing people to unthinkingly buy more and more during the Christmas season and at other times.
Manipulating our behavior
Dr. Robert Cialdini, a professor at Arizona State University, may be the most cited social psychologist in the world today. His book Influence: Science and Practice (1993) is a staple text in the academic world.
Cialdini writes: "It is odd that despite their current widespread use and looming future importance, most of us know very little about our automatic behavior patterns. Perhaps that is so precisely because of the mechanistic, unthinking manner in which they occur . . . They make us terribly vulnerable to anyone who does know how they work" (p. 9).
Do we imagine that today's advertising gurus don't know about human behavioral patterns?
Cialdini states: "Our automatic tapes usually develop from psychological principles or stereotypes we have learned to accept. Although they vary in their force, some of these principles possess a tremendous ability to direct human action. We have been subject to them from such an early point in our lives, and they have moved us about so pervasively then, that you and I rarely perceive their power. In the eyes of others, though, each such principle is a detectable and ready weapon, a weapon of automatic influence" (p. 10).
Observing Christmas because "everyone does it" is a trigger feature. Other triggers include the music, the lights, the decorations and the sentimental store displays, each of which can cause us to respond automatically—rendering us nearly helpless as we part with our money. But do we really honor God by uncontrolled spending during the Christmas season?
How should we honor Christ?
You can research the entire Bible and nowhere will you find Christ instructing His followers to remember His birthday. (However, He did teach them to remember His death through observing the annual Passover service—see Matthew 26:26-30 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.)
The Bible itself never mentions Christmas, nor does it instruct Christians to observe the holiday.
The reason becomes obvious when we understand the holiday's distinctly non-Christian origins. "Christmas has its origin in two ancient pagan festivals, the great Yule-feast of the Norsemen and the Roman Saturnalia. The Saturnalia involved the wildest debauchery. Naturally it came under heavy censure from the early Church and despite the fact that Jesus Christ and the saints gradually replaced pagan deities, it was long considered completely out of character with the Christian ideal.
"However, the festival was far too strongly entrenched in popular favour to be abolished, and the [Catholic] Church finally granted the necessary recognition, believing that if Christmas could not be suppressed it should be preserved in honour of the Christian God.
"It was only in the 4th century that 25 December was officially decreed to be the birthday of Christ, and it was another 500 years before the term Midwinter Feast was abandoned in favour of the word Christmas" (Man, Myth & Magic, 1983, Vol. 2, "Christmas," p. 480). Even secular history speaks the truth about the origins of Christmas.
God gave ancient Israel His annual Holy Days and festivals to observe (Leviticus 23). Though few realize it, they embody God's spiritual blueprints for the salvation of all humankind.
Jesus showed how people could act "righteously" without being truly righteous: "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:7-9). This clearly applies to much of modern Christianity.
Jesus Christ honors those who honor Him: "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor" (John 12:26; compare 1 Samuel 2:30).
The Father honors Christ's disciples with eternal life: "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life [eternal life], and may enter through the gates into the city [the New Jerusalem from heaven]" (Revelation 22:14).
If you still choose to observe Christmas apart from Christ and the Bible's injunctions, then know that vested commercial interests have already planned to use your deeply embedded associations with Christmas, working the trigger features already conditioned in you over many years.
Indeed there is a great magnetic pull during the Christmas season, but it has nothing to do with the real Jesus Christ. GN
by Jerold Aust
Justin and Dena were married shortly before Christmas. They had grown up in families that celebrated the Christmas holidays. This was a special time for them with thoughts of falling snow, a glowing fireplace, holiday songs and colorful gifts placed around the well-decorated tree. The winter holiday season was exciting and alluring, as it is to millions.
They badly wanted to invite their families for a sumptuous Christmas Day dinner and the traditional exchanging of gifts. Everything seemed to work out all right except they were short of money to pay for the obligatory gifts. So they went shopping armed with their credit cards.
As they shopped around from store to store, the atmosphere of the music, colorful gifts and inviting decorations lured them into spending much more than they could reasonably afford.
Then in late January, the bills started coming in. They had precious little money set aside to pay them. They struggled to keep enough food on the table, pay the house rent and make the car payment. They realized too late they had succumbed to all the Christmas advertising—ending up with a painful financial hangover.
Could this story also describe your circumstances?
Christmas is big business
Those Christmas bells chiming during the holiday season might be likened to cash registers ringing up millions of dollars in retail sales. Christmas is very big business and is thought to be great for the national economy. But has anyone thought to ask whether this type of wild spending is really in people's best interests, either now or, more importantly, for their long-term spiritual well-being?
Should we be buying gifts others frequently don't want or need with money we don't have? It's a logical question.
Yet people will defend observing Christmas by countering that it's a celebration honoring Jesus' birth. If that's true, why buy gifts for others and not Jesus Christ? Is Christendom behind the presumptive trappings of a pre-Christmas season or is it being promoted by secular businesses for their own gain?
Purdue University professor Richard Feinberg understands the commercial value of the Christmas shopping season. He found the retail forecast of the 2004 Christmas season to be at least 75 percent of yearly profits. He predicted that 2006 Christmas holiday shopping would total an incredible $450 billion or more in America. Barring an economic downturn, it could be even higher this year.
Ironically, Christmas is so popular that millions of atheists and people of other religions celebrate the holiday. Why don't people, those who claim to be Christians or otherwise, resist the commercial aspect of the season?
What's behind the magnetic pull of Christmas?
Clearly the Christmas season has a strong magnetic pull, but most people don't fully realize it or know how powerful it is. Every year a Christmas advertising onslaught tries to influence the public to spend, spend and spend some more.
Some sociologists and social critics research and analyze why groups unknowingly do what they do. We'll focus on two.
Noted American journalist and best-selling author Vance Packard wrote a number of thoughtful books about how business advertisers motivate and manipulate the public. His groundbreaking 1957 book The Hidden Persuaders explores the use of consumer motivational research and other psychological techniques, including what he calls depth psychology and subliminal tactics by advertisers to induce desire for products.
As Packard explains, his book is about "the large-scale efforts being made, often with impressive success, to channel . . . our thought processes by the use of insights gleaned from psychiatry and the social sciences. Typically these efforts take place beneath our level of awareness" (p. 3). Packard was ahead of his time in describing advertising methods still commonly used today.
His book continues: "The use of mass psychoanalysis to guide campaigns of persuasion has become the basis of a multimillion-dollar industry. Professional persuaders have seized upon it in their groping for more effective ways to sell us their wares—whether products, ideas, attitudes, candidates, goals, or states of mind . . .
"The sale to us of billions of dollars' worth of . . . products is being significantly affected, if not revolutionized, by this approach . . . Two thirds of America's hundred largest advertisers have geared campaigns to this depth approach by using strategies inspired by what marketers call ‘motivation analysis' . . .
"What the probers are looking for, of course, are the whys of our behavior, so that they can more effectively manipulate our habits and choices in their favor" (pp. 3-4).
Writing about a Chicago research firm that conducted psychoanalytically oriented studies for merchandisers, Packard states: "Motivation research . . . employs techniques designed to reach the unconscious or subconscious mind because preferences generally are determined by factors of which the individual is not conscious . . .
"Actually in the buying situation the consumer generally acts emotionally and compulsively, unconsciously reacting to the images and designs which in the subconscious are associated with the product" (pp. 7-8).
With far more technological advances than Packard could imagine in 1957, marketers and advertisers have a much greater capacity for influencing people to unthinkingly buy more and more during the Christmas season and at other times.
Manipulating our behavior
Dr. Robert Cialdini, a professor at Arizona State University, may be the most cited social psychologist in the world today. His book Influence: Science and Practice (1993) is a staple text in the academic world.
Cialdini writes: "It is odd that despite their current widespread use and looming future importance, most of us know very little about our automatic behavior patterns. Perhaps that is so precisely because of the mechanistic, unthinking manner in which they occur . . . They make us terribly vulnerable to anyone who does know how they work" (p. 9).
Do we imagine that today's advertising gurus don't know about human behavioral patterns?
Cialdini states: "Our automatic tapes usually develop from psychological principles or stereotypes we have learned to accept. Although they vary in their force, some of these principles possess a tremendous ability to direct human action. We have been subject to them from such an early point in our lives, and they have moved us about so pervasively then, that you and I rarely perceive their power. In the eyes of others, though, each such principle is a detectable and ready weapon, a weapon of automatic influence" (p. 10).
Observing Christmas because "everyone does it" is a trigger feature. Other triggers include the music, the lights, the decorations and the sentimental store displays, each of which can cause us to respond automatically—rendering us nearly helpless as we part with our money. But do we really honor God by uncontrolled spending during the Christmas season?
How should we honor Christ?
You can research the entire Bible and nowhere will you find Christ instructing His followers to remember His birthday. (However, He did teach them to remember His death through observing the annual Passover service—see Matthew 26:26-30 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.)
The Bible itself never mentions Christmas, nor does it instruct Christians to observe the holiday.
The reason becomes obvious when we understand the holiday's distinctly non-Christian origins. "Christmas has its origin in two ancient pagan festivals, the great Yule-feast of the Norsemen and the Roman Saturnalia. The Saturnalia involved the wildest debauchery. Naturally it came under heavy censure from the early Church and despite the fact that Jesus Christ and the saints gradually replaced pagan deities, it was long considered completely out of character with the Christian ideal.
"However, the festival was far too strongly entrenched in popular favour to be abolished, and the [Catholic] Church finally granted the necessary recognition, believing that if Christmas could not be suppressed it should be preserved in honour of the Christian God.
"It was only in the 4th century that 25 December was officially decreed to be the birthday of Christ, and it was another 500 years before the term Midwinter Feast was abandoned in favour of the word Christmas" (Man, Myth & Magic, 1983, Vol. 2, "Christmas," p. 480). Even secular history speaks the truth about the origins of Christmas.
God gave ancient Israel His annual Holy Days and festivals to observe (Leviticus 23). Though few realize it, they embody God's spiritual blueprints for the salvation of all humankind.
Jesus showed how people could act "righteously" without being truly righteous: "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:7-9). This clearly applies to much of modern Christianity.
Jesus Christ honors those who honor Him: "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor" (John 12:26; compare 1 Samuel 2:30).
The Father honors Christ's disciples with eternal life: "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life [eternal life], and may enter through the gates into the city [the New Jerusalem from heaven]" (Revelation 22:14).
If you still choose to observe Christmas apart from Christ and the Bible's injunctions, then know that vested commercial interests have already planned to use your deeply embedded associations with Christmas, working the trigger features already conditioned in you over many years.
Indeed there is a great magnetic pull during the Christmas season, but it has nothing to do with the real Jesus Christ. GN
... And Children Are From Pluto
If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, sometimes it seems children are from even farther out. What can parents do to improve interplanetary relations?
by Mike Bennett
A few years back a popular book said men and women can't communicate very well because men are from Mars and women are from Venus. It was an interesting concept that helped many people focus on the differences between men and women that affect how we relate to one another. The image of aliens from different planets was a powerful one, if too stereotypical. Still, anything we can do to help us understand each other is good.
Along the same lines, if men are from Mars and women are from Venus, sometimes it seems children are from Pluto—even harder to understand (consider the gross humor, the computerese, the strange music, etc.).
Sometimes kids seem too swayed by crass commercialism and materialism. (Marketers of products such as toys, clothing and music seem to know how to speak their language and push their buttons—but often they should be ashamed of themselves.) Other times young people seem to really see this world's problems and solutions more clearly than adults.
We can learn a lot from these creatures from Pluto. Jesus Christ took time for children, and even said we are to be like them. They are a gift, on loan from God. They really are out of this world!
But to learn from them, we must start by learning to communicate with them—learning their language.
I used to work for a company that published information about languages and technology. My shelves at work were filled with software to help people learn Spanish, Japanese, Swedish, Vietnamese—but nothing on Pluto.
The software contained audio, speech-recognition playback, full motion video, interactive sessions and games. There are many ideas about the best way to learn a language. But still the biggest factors are the desire of the student and the time spent listening and speaking. If you really want to understand these aliens from Pluto, you'll make progress.
Focused attention
Over the years, a lot has been written about rearing children. A few years back a good book was published titled How to Really Love Your Child by Dr. Ross Campbell. It stressed the importance of giving our children love through eye contact, physical contact and focused attention.
"What is focused attention?" Dr. Campbell wrote. "Focused attention is giving a child our full, undivided attention in such a way that he feels without doubt that he is completely loved. That he is valuable enough in his own right to warrant parents' undistracted watchfulness, appreciation, and uncompromising regard. In short, focused attention makes a child feel he is the most important person in the world in his parents' eyes" (1977, p. 55).
More than a century ago, the book Gentle Measures by Jacob Abbott recommended, "I think there can be no doubt that the most effectual way of securing the confidence and love of children, and of acquiring control over them, is by sympathizing with them in their childlike hopes and fears, and joys and sorrows—in their ideas, their fancies, and even in their caprices."
And more than 3,000 years ago Moses wrote: "These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up" (Deuteronomy 6:6-7, New International Version).
Quality vs. quantity
Learning a language and communicating takes time. Years ago there was a big debate about spending quality time with kids versus quantity.
The debate seems to have died down, partly, I'm afraid, because parents are too busy and burned out to feel they can do either. But sometimes we have to make changes to allow both kinds of time.
Quality time is still important. When my children were younger, most nights I didn't get home from work till after 7 p.m., and they needed to be in bed by 9. The time was pretty packed with getting supper on the table, eating, cleaning up, sometimes playing a short game, getting ready for bed, brushing and flossing teeth, brushing hair, reading a story and a Bible story and praying.
It went by fast, and there wasn't always a lot of time for talking. But if I sat in front of the TV instead of reading to the girls, I think it would have widened the rift between the planets. As it was, some nights after the glass of water and tucking in came the deepest discussion of the day (much to my wife's chagrin as she knew they needed their sleep!).
Quantity time is important too. I know I need it. A couple of minutes on the phone doesn't cut it when I'm on a trip. One of the hardest times of my life was when I took a job five or six weeks before the rest of the family could join me. Maybe people from Venus and Pluto can survive that, but this Martian was at wits' end.
Planetary-alignment time
There's a lot more to rearing Plutonians than spending time, talking and listening. But it's a start.
Every year 50,000 people in Spokane, Washington, put on jogging shoes and run about 7.5 miles in a race called Bloomsday. I'll never forget the year my 8-year-old daughter Heather and I "ran" it together. Over the previous couple of months we had the chance to train together a few times (not nearly as many as we wanted because of sickness, business trips and a busy life).
I'll always treasure those times. We may not have done a lot of running, but walking and talking about the things on her mind gave me a much greater grasp of what things are like on Pluto.
We didn't set any speed records in the Bloomsday "race" itself—though Heather did take off like a bullet when she saw the finish line! But far more rewarding than finishing the race itself was spending the time together beforehand. As a parent I've learned to look for and appreciate such opportunities to do a little cosmic engineering—moving Mars and Pluto just a little closer to each other. GN
by Mike Bennett
A few years back a popular book said men and women can't communicate very well because men are from Mars and women are from Venus. It was an interesting concept that helped many people focus on the differences between men and women that affect how we relate to one another. The image of aliens from different planets was a powerful one, if too stereotypical. Still, anything we can do to help us understand each other is good.
Along the same lines, if men are from Mars and women are from Venus, sometimes it seems children are from Pluto—even harder to understand (consider the gross humor, the computerese, the strange music, etc.).
Sometimes kids seem too swayed by crass commercialism and materialism. (Marketers of products such as toys, clothing and music seem to know how to speak their language and push their buttons—but often they should be ashamed of themselves.) Other times young people seem to really see this world's problems and solutions more clearly than adults.
We can learn a lot from these creatures from Pluto. Jesus Christ took time for children, and even said we are to be like them. They are a gift, on loan from God. They really are out of this world!
But to learn from them, we must start by learning to communicate with them—learning their language.
I used to work for a company that published information about languages and technology. My shelves at work were filled with software to help people learn Spanish, Japanese, Swedish, Vietnamese—but nothing on Pluto.
The software contained audio, speech-recognition playback, full motion video, interactive sessions and games. There are many ideas about the best way to learn a language. But still the biggest factors are the desire of the student and the time spent listening and speaking. If you really want to understand these aliens from Pluto, you'll make progress.
Focused attention
Over the years, a lot has been written about rearing children. A few years back a good book was published titled How to Really Love Your Child by Dr. Ross Campbell. It stressed the importance of giving our children love through eye contact, physical contact and focused attention.
"What is focused attention?" Dr. Campbell wrote. "Focused attention is giving a child our full, undivided attention in such a way that he feels without doubt that he is completely loved. That he is valuable enough in his own right to warrant parents' undistracted watchfulness, appreciation, and uncompromising regard. In short, focused attention makes a child feel he is the most important person in the world in his parents' eyes" (1977, p. 55).
More than a century ago, the book Gentle Measures by Jacob Abbott recommended, "I think there can be no doubt that the most effectual way of securing the confidence and love of children, and of acquiring control over them, is by sympathizing with them in their childlike hopes and fears, and joys and sorrows—in their ideas, their fancies, and even in their caprices."
And more than 3,000 years ago Moses wrote: "These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up" (Deuteronomy 6:6-7, New International Version).
Quality vs. quantity
Learning a language and communicating takes time. Years ago there was a big debate about spending quality time with kids versus quantity.
The debate seems to have died down, partly, I'm afraid, because parents are too busy and burned out to feel they can do either. But sometimes we have to make changes to allow both kinds of time.
Quality time is still important. When my children were younger, most nights I didn't get home from work till after 7 p.m., and they needed to be in bed by 9. The time was pretty packed with getting supper on the table, eating, cleaning up, sometimes playing a short game, getting ready for bed, brushing and flossing teeth, brushing hair, reading a story and a Bible story and praying.
It went by fast, and there wasn't always a lot of time for talking. But if I sat in front of the TV instead of reading to the girls, I think it would have widened the rift between the planets. As it was, some nights after the glass of water and tucking in came the deepest discussion of the day (much to my wife's chagrin as she knew they needed their sleep!).
Quantity time is important too. I know I need it. A couple of minutes on the phone doesn't cut it when I'm on a trip. One of the hardest times of my life was when I took a job five or six weeks before the rest of the family could join me. Maybe people from Venus and Pluto can survive that, but this Martian was at wits' end.
Planetary-alignment time
There's a lot more to rearing Plutonians than spending time, talking and listening. But it's a start.
Every year 50,000 people in Spokane, Washington, put on jogging shoes and run about 7.5 miles in a race called Bloomsday. I'll never forget the year my 8-year-old daughter Heather and I "ran" it together. Over the previous couple of months we had the chance to train together a few times (not nearly as many as we wanted because of sickness, business trips and a busy life).
I'll always treasure those times. We may not have done a lot of running, but walking and talking about the things on her mind gave me a much greater grasp of what things are like on Pluto.
We didn't set any speed records in the Bloomsday "race" itself—though Heather did take off like a bullet when she saw the finish line! But far more rewarding than finishing the race itself was spending the time together beforehand. As a parent I've learned to look for and appreciate such opportunities to do a little cosmic engineering—moving Mars and Pluto just a little closer to each other. GN
Are We Living in a '9/10' Economy?
Global financial markets were rocked recently following rising defaults affecting mortgage-backed securities. What does this mean for the world’s money supply and confidence in Western financial institutions? Are we on the verge of a major upheaval in the world economy?
by Beyond Today host Darris McNeely
On Sept. 11, 2001, Islamic terrorists attacked America, and overnight everything changed. The signs and warnings of such an attack were there the day before (9/10), but were ignored, misunderstood and glossed over by those charged with protecting the security of the nation. Had they been properly analyzed and acted on, the tragedy could have been averted.
But it wasn't, and much has changed for America and the West since that fateful day. Now come signs of a looming financial crisis that could completely change the global economy and have a dramatic impact on America's role as the world's dominant economic power.
Subprime lending crisis
The world's financial markets experienced a crisis caused by falling confidence in what is called the "subprime lending market." Banks, brokerage houses and mortgage lenders in America and Europe were stung by the rising defaults on risky loans made to home buyers of limited means on reckless terms.
Many buyers took out loans on the gamble that housing prices would continue to rise. Lenders extended credit to them on a gamble that the buyers would not default on the loans. These adjustable loans, often with low initial interest rates that can rise sharply, were made to many people who weren't really able to afford owning a home at the inflated prices in many areas.
These mortgages were then resold to other financial institutions that offered the potential for high returns to investors willing to take a high risk.
That risk was spread among many to the point that no one could really identify where the risk was. The result was fear in the markets, and the money that banks needed to do daily business began to dry up.
Many people who took these loans and were unable to pay have suffered the loss of housing, money and their credit rating. Many thousands who worked in mortgage lending have lost their jobs as companies shut down or reorganized this part of their business. The Federal Reserve quickly took steps to lower interest rates and to loosen the money supply. At the time of this writing, the dive has leveled off and markets seem to be returning to normal.
A worldwide system
Even if you neither had a subprime mortgage nor work in the industry, could this crisis affect you?
The Western world's financial markets have created a major problem that threatens the bedrock of global finance. The system is so precarious that it threatens the financial security of all citizens, regardless of their exposure to financial markets. You may be completely free of debt and still be impacted by this latest trouble.
Foreign investors have taken on hundreds of billions of dollars of American debt. In essence, they are the ones who have borne the risks; they have financed the unrealistic housing boom and irresponsible consumer spending of recent years.
China is one of the major creditors that hold this debt. This can work as long as America is the major market for goods made in China. But one report says that soon the European Union will become China's largest export market.
Now we have seen significant default in a major segment of the American economy. The confidence other nations have in the American economy has been shaken. And confidence is a key ingredient of financial markets. When confidence is lost in a currency, all the "good money" flees to other currencies thought to be more secure. No one backs a loser in the high-stakes game of global finance.
For this and other reasons, the Western economies have a real problem that could lead to some major corrections, thus impacting jobs, income and growth in America and Great Britain. America has fewer dollar reserves than other emerging nations such as India, and the United States has the largest trade deficit in the world. Britain has the world's third-largest trade deficit.
There exists the potential for an unprecedented financial meltdown. Many experts see this problem and predict a major shift in investment toward other nations that seem to be healthier and a better investment.
An approaching fiscal hurricane
America faces a number of financial challenges beyond this most recent subprime issue. The coming retirement of the baby boomer generation will swamp the Medicare and Social Security system in the coming decades. The money promised to fund these programs is not there, and the cost of these entitlements will overwhelm the federal budget.
In 2008 the leading edge of the boomer generation will begin retirement. Those covered by Social Security are expected to grow to 69 million by 2020. By 2030 Social Security spending as a share of the budget will rise to 40 percent. These obligations will have to be borne by fewer workers.
America's health care is facing its own crisis. Medicare's prescription drug coverage, which took effect in 2006, is expected to cost more than $700 billion over 10 years. By 2050, expanding at current rates and adjusted for inflation, the whole Medicare program is expected to cost $2.6 trillion. That is the size of the entire federal budget today.
Budget deficits another problem
Add continuing budget deficits to this. The American government spends hundreds of billions of dollars more than it brings in. In recent years increased tax revenues have helped keep the national debt from growing as fast as it did in 2003 and 2004.
Some economists argue that deficits don't matter, especially since they are a small percentage (less than 3 percent) of the entire national economy. Given the enormous size of the economy, this can be managed. Funds have been easily borrowed from foreign investors, such as China, to postpone a day of reckoning. But what happens if the day comes when other nations do not want to lend or invest on the same terms as in the past?
China holds more than $1 trillion. What would happen if China chose to dump those dollars on the world market? This would cause a devaluation of the dollar and loss of confidence in the U.S. economy.
Of course, it is in China's short-term interest not to see the dollar devalued. They would lose their investment, and the resultant slump in the American economy would harm the Chinese economy. But it would be a mistake to think this could not change—indeed, China has already threatened similar actions.
What if OPEC decided it would no longer price its oil in dollars but instead switched to the euro? Such a move would lead to higher fuel prices in the United States. Some oil-producing countries want to see this change. If confidence in the American economy took a serious hit, the movement toward such action could accelerate.
No matter how one looks at America's national economy, the fact is it has generated an enormous amount of debt—more than this generation, or future ones, can ever hope to comfortably repay.
For now the country prints more paper strips with colored ink, calls them dollars and puts them out to creditors with the hope they will continue to have confidence in the American government and its economic policies. The day that changes will see Americans and many other nations paying a lot more for the basics of life we have come to take for granted.
Living beyond its means
The United States has written checks that cannot be cashed. It is shielded temporarily from the consequences by political leadership that appears unwilling to face the moral and fiscal consequences of greed, indifference and self-indulgence.
And the fault does not lie just with leadership. Every citizen must come to see his or her role in creating a society that cannot pay its bills and chases after the gods of consumerism and mammon while others finance our extravagance.
Both the nation and many of its citizens have been living beyond their means for too long. Other countries see this and are beginning to take steps to try to protect themselves from market volatility caused by this behavior.
Last December the European Central Bank raised its key interest rate in the wake of a declining dollar. This made the euro more attractive to international investors. The decline in the value of the dollar was seen as a threat to the European economy.
In the wake of the recent crisis in credit markets, interest rates could rise again to keep liquidity strong and confidence high. Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, keeps a close eye on potential risks and "concerns regarding possible uncontrolled developments triggered by global economic imbalances" ("How Dangerous Is the Dollar Drop?," Der Spiegel, Dec. 12, 2006).
Isaiah the prophet said of ancient Israel, in a message that resonates into our modern world: "Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity . . . They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel . . . The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness it" (Isaiah 1:4-6).
Unless the United States as a whole understands and accepts the root causes of its current dilemma and its people come to deep, heartfelt repentance, Americans will stumble blindly forward till a day of accounting is required for the great sin of forgetting where our blessings originated.
It is a trait of the descendants of Jacob to forget the source of their wealth and abundance. God foretold this when He brought the tribes of Israel into the land of promise. "So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build . . . then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage" (Deuteronomy 6:10-12).
That is why I ask whether we are living in a 9/10 economy. The signs of economic change have been in front of us for many years, but we go blindly on as if nothing will change.
This current crisis will likely stabilize. But because the fundamental problems remain, unless there is significant change a worse crisis will follow. Obviously, greed is an underlying factor in all facets of the subprime crisis. God is ever merciful, but there will be a day of judgment if America does not repent.
Don't let complacency lull you to sleep when it comes to world events. The Good News will continue to keep you informed. GN
by Beyond Today host Darris McNeely
On Sept. 11, 2001, Islamic terrorists attacked America, and overnight everything changed. The signs and warnings of such an attack were there the day before (9/10), but were ignored, misunderstood and glossed over by those charged with protecting the security of the nation. Had they been properly analyzed and acted on, the tragedy could have been averted.
But it wasn't, and much has changed for America and the West since that fateful day. Now come signs of a looming financial crisis that could completely change the global economy and have a dramatic impact on America's role as the world's dominant economic power.
Subprime lending crisis
The world's financial markets experienced a crisis caused by falling confidence in what is called the "subprime lending market." Banks, brokerage houses and mortgage lenders in America and Europe were stung by the rising defaults on risky loans made to home buyers of limited means on reckless terms.
Many buyers took out loans on the gamble that housing prices would continue to rise. Lenders extended credit to them on a gamble that the buyers would not default on the loans. These adjustable loans, often with low initial interest rates that can rise sharply, were made to many people who weren't really able to afford owning a home at the inflated prices in many areas.
These mortgages were then resold to other financial institutions that offered the potential for high returns to investors willing to take a high risk.
That risk was spread among many to the point that no one could really identify where the risk was. The result was fear in the markets, and the money that banks needed to do daily business began to dry up.
Many people who took these loans and were unable to pay have suffered the loss of housing, money and their credit rating. Many thousands who worked in mortgage lending have lost their jobs as companies shut down or reorganized this part of their business. The Federal Reserve quickly took steps to lower interest rates and to loosen the money supply. At the time of this writing, the dive has leveled off and markets seem to be returning to normal.
A worldwide system
Even if you neither had a subprime mortgage nor work in the industry, could this crisis affect you?
The Western world's financial markets have created a major problem that threatens the bedrock of global finance. The system is so precarious that it threatens the financial security of all citizens, regardless of their exposure to financial markets. You may be completely free of debt and still be impacted by this latest trouble.
Foreign investors have taken on hundreds of billions of dollars of American debt. In essence, they are the ones who have borne the risks; they have financed the unrealistic housing boom and irresponsible consumer spending of recent years.
China is one of the major creditors that hold this debt. This can work as long as America is the major market for goods made in China. But one report says that soon the European Union will become China's largest export market.
Now we have seen significant default in a major segment of the American economy. The confidence other nations have in the American economy has been shaken. And confidence is a key ingredient of financial markets. When confidence is lost in a currency, all the "good money" flees to other currencies thought to be more secure. No one backs a loser in the high-stakes game of global finance.
For this and other reasons, the Western economies have a real problem that could lead to some major corrections, thus impacting jobs, income and growth in America and Great Britain. America has fewer dollar reserves than other emerging nations such as India, and the United States has the largest trade deficit in the world. Britain has the world's third-largest trade deficit.
There exists the potential for an unprecedented financial meltdown. Many experts see this problem and predict a major shift in investment toward other nations that seem to be healthier and a better investment.
An approaching fiscal hurricane
America faces a number of financial challenges beyond this most recent subprime issue. The coming retirement of the baby boomer generation will swamp the Medicare and Social Security system in the coming decades. The money promised to fund these programs is not there, and the cost of these entitlements will overwhelm the federal budget.
In 2008 the leading edge of the boomer generation will begin retirement. Those covered by Social Security are expected to grow to 69 million by 2020. By 2030 Social Security spending as a share of the budget will rise to 40 percent. These obligations will have to be borne by fewer workers.
America's health care is facing its own crisis. Medicare's prescription drug coverage, which took effect in 2006, is expected to cost more than $700 billion over 10 years. By 2050, expanding at current rates and adjusted for inflation, the whole Medicare program is expected to cost $2.6 trillion. That is the size of the entire federal budget today.
Budget deficits another problem
Add continuing budget deficits to this. The American government spends hundreds of billions of dollars more than it brings in. In recent years increased tax revenues have helped keep the national debt from growing as fast as it did in 2003 and 2004.
Some economists argue that deficits don't matter, especially since they are a small percentage (less than 3 percent) of the entire national economy. Given the enormous size of the economy, this can be managed. Funds have been easily borrowed from foreign investors, such as China, to postpone a day of reckoning. But what happens if the day comes when other nations do not want to lend or invest on the same terms as in the past?
China holds more than $1 trillion. What would happen if China chose to dump those dollars on the world market? This would cause a devaluation of the dollar and loss of confidence in the U.S. economy.
Of course, it is in China's short-term interest not to see the dollar devalued. They would lose their investment, and the resultant slump in the American economy would harm the Chinese economy. But it would be a mistake to think this could not change—indeed, China has already threatened similar actions.
What if OPEC decided it would no longer price its oil in dollars but instead switched to the euro? Such a move would lead to higher fuel prices in the United States. Some oil-producing countries want to see this change. If confidence in the American economy took a serious hit, the movement toward such action could accelerate.
No matter how one looks at America's national economy, the fact is it has generated an enormous amount of debt—more than this generation, or future ones, can ever hope to comfortably repay.
For now the country prints more paper strips with colored ink, calls them dollars and puts them out to creditors with the hope they will continue to have confidence in the American government and its economic policies. The day that changes will see Americans and many other nations paying a lot more for the basics of life we have come to take for granted.
Living beyond its means
The United States has written checks that cannot be cashed. It is shielded temporarily from the consequences by political leadership that appears unwilling to face the moral and fiscal consequences of greed, indifference and self-indulgence.
And the fault does not lie just with leadership. Every citizen must come to see his or her role in creating a society that cannot pay its bills and chases after the gods of consumerism and mammon while others finance our extravagance.
Both the nation and many of its citizens have been living beyond their means for too long. Other countries see this and are beginning to take steps to try to protect themselves from market volatility caused by this behavior.
Last December the European Central Bank raised its key interest rate in the wake of a declining dollar. This made the euro more attractive to international investors. The decline in the value of the dollar was seen as a threat to the European economy.
In the wake of the recent crisis in credit markets, interest rates could rise again to keep liquidity strong and confidence high. Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, keeps a close eye on potential risks and "concerns regarding possible uncontrolled developments triggered by global economic imbalances" ("How Dangerous Is the Dollar Drop?," Der Spiegel, Dec. 12, 2006).
Isaiah the prophet said of ancient Israel, in a message that resonates into our modern world: "Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity . . . They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel . . . The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness it" (Isaiah 1:4-6).
Unless the United States as a whole understands and accepts the root causes of its current dilemma and its people come to deep, heartfelt repentance, Americans will stumble blindly forward till a day of accounting is required for the great sin of forgetting where our blessings originated.
It is a trait of the descendants of Jacob to forget the source of their wealth and abundance. God foretold this when He brought the tribes of Israel into the land of promise. "So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build . . . then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage" (Deuteronomy 6:10-12).
That is why I ask whether we are living in a 9/10 economy. The signs of economic change have been in front of us for many years, but we go blindly on as if nothing will change.
This current crisis will likely stabilize. But because the fundamental problems remain, unless there is significant change a worse crisis will follow. Obviously, greed is an underlying factor in all facets of the subprime crisis. God is ever merciful, but there will be a day of judgment if America does not repent.
Don't let complacency lull you to sleep when it comes to world events. The Good News will continue to keep you informed. GN
400 Years After Jamestown: Where Did the Bible Go?
In recent decades the British and American peoples have increasingly turned away from the Bible. Few can even remember when the Word of God was revered in our nations, but only a century ago it was considered the source of the “ennobling ideals” that united both nations.
by Melvin Rhodes
The Bible was missing.
I searched through the sanctuary. It must be somewhere. After all, it was a church.
I finally gave up and asked a female volunteer if she knew where the Bible was. She explained that it had been moved to an anteroom and that I could find it there. She added that she did not approve of it being moved.
I finally did locate it in a glass case that was hardly noticeable. That Bible, so much a part of the history of the church, had been relegated to a side room, signifying its reduced importance in the fabric of the church and of the nation as a whole.
The Bible in question was presented in 1907 to the president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, by Britain's King Edward VII on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the founding of the colony of Virginia. The Bible and the lectern on which it had rested, now devoid of any copy of the Scriptures, had been presented to Bruton Parish Church in Colonial Williamsburg by the president himself.
Times have changed
The dedicatory message from the king read: "This Bible is presented by His Majesty King Edward the Seventh, King of Great Britain and Ireland & Emperor of India to the church of Bruton, Virginia, a shrine rich in venerable tradition of worship, in solemn memories of patriots and statesmen and in historic witness to the oneness of our peoples.
"The King will ever hope and pray that the ties of kinship and of language and the common heritage of ordered worship and of ennobling ideals may through the saving faith in our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ revealed in these sacred pages, continue to unite Great Britain & America in a beneficent fellowship for setting forward peace & goodwill among men. MCMVII [1907]."
How times have changed in just a century! The public reverence for the Bible shown by both the king and the president 100 years ago is sadly lacking in our nations today!
Before visiting Colonial Williamsburg, my wife and I had toured Jamestown, site of the first permanent English settlement in the New World. While there we had visited a replica of the original settlement, which included a church building.
In the church our guide asked us if we had heard of the King James translation of the Bible. As soon as the question was raised, people in our group started wandering off looking at other things. The musketry display was of particular interest. The significance of the King James translation of the Bible in the history of early America seemed of no interest to most of those touring Jamestown that day.
The most significant book in history and an inspiration for the settlers of Virginia and the later colonies of New England is now of little interest to the general populace. Yet without this book the United States would not have come into existence.
Historic importance of the Bible
It's no coincidence that the settlement in Jamestown and the publication of the King James Bible coincided. Those first settlers already had Bibles in their possession, translations that went back as far as John Wycliffe in the 14th century, the first man to translate the Scriptures into English.
But in the year the settlers sailed to Jamestown, the greatest English scholars were engaged in translating the Bible from ancient Hebrew and Greek texts into a new "Authorized Version," which was to become the most influential book ever published. Named after the king who authorized the translation work and who himself understood the ancient languages from which the Scriptures were to be translated, the Bible is known to Americans as the King James Version.
In a recent historical account of how we got the English Bible, the American historian Benson Bobrick wrote:"Only in England was the Bible in any sense a national possession . . . Englishmen carried their Bible with them—as the rock and foundation of their lives—overseas . . . Beyond the shores of Albion [Britain] it fortified the spirit of the pioneers of New England, helped to shape the American psyche, and through its impact on thought and culture eventually spread the world over, 'as wide as the waters be'" (Wide as the Waters, 2001, p. 12).
The book's title is taken from a poem about John Wycliffe (1330-1384), the father of the English Bible. Wycliffe was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church as a heretic. By order of Pope Martin V, his bones were to be exhumed and removed from consecrated ground. His remains were disinterred and burned, and his ashes cast into a river.
Bobrick relates how Wycliffe's favorite verse was Philippians 2:12, which admonishes each person to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." This was a revolutionary concept in Europe where for centuries people had been taught that salvation was only possible through the Catholic Church and its priests. Wycliffe is credited with laying a foundation for religious freedom and for the Anglo-American democratic systems that also emphasize individual responsibility.
Historic importance of the Bible
King Henry VIII legalized the publication and distribution of the Bible in 1537.
"By royal injunction, the Lord's Prayer and the 10 Commandments in English were to be taught sentence by sentence on Sundays and holy days throughout the year; at least one sermon on the Gospel was to be preached every quarter . . . ; and every parish church in England was to 'set up in some convenient place' a copy of the English Bible accessible to all as 'the very lively Word of God'" (Bobrick, p. 151).
Throughout the kingdom, copies for public use and edification were soon chained to lecterns in the vestibules of church buildings—six of them in St. Paul's Church alone.
The publication of the Bible was received with great enthusiasm. "It was wonderful to see with what joy the book of God was received," wrote an early biographer of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, ". . . not only among the learneder sort . . . but generally all England over among all the vulgar and common people; with what greediness God's Word was read, and what resort to places where the reading of it was.
"Everybody that could bought the book and busily read it; or got others to read it to them, if they could not themselves; and divers[e people] among the elderly learned to read on purpose. And even little boys flocked among the rest to hear portions of the Holy Scriptures read" (quoted by Bobrick, pp. 151-152).
In their enthusiasm for the Word of God, "crowds sometimes assembled in the church vestibules during Sunday service and eventually the king found it necessary to issue a proclamation (in April 1539) forbidding the reading of the Bible aloud at such times" (p. 152). "In his famous last speech to Parliament the king complained, with tears in his eyes, that the Bible was being 'disputed, rhymed, sung and jangled in every ale-house and tavern'" (p. 160).
It's striking to note in stark contrast the total lack of enthusiasm for the Bible today. The enthusiasm described here for God's Word was displayed recently upon publication of the latest Harry Potter book. Even many Christians showed a marked preference for the latter over the former!
A president's words of warning
When did all this enthusiasm for God's Word change? "It did not cease for 350 years: 1900 was the first year in which religious works (at least in England) did not outnumber all other publications" (Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence, 2000, p. 10).
The title of the book cited here is insightful. The enthusiasm for the Bible led to the rise of the English-speaking peoples, the "dawn" of our civilization, while the rejection of the Bible in more recent times has led to the present period of "decadence," defined as the rejection of all the values on which our civilization was built. Such decadence can only precede an inevitable fall.
As noted earlier, "Englishmen carried their Bible with them" everywhere. That sentence reminds me of the title of author James Morris' first volume of his history of the British Empire: By Heaven's Command. People believed they were given a divine responsibility to take Christian civilization, the Bible, the rule of law, parliamentary democracy and free trade to the rest of the world. This fulfilled ancient prophecies about Abraham's descendants through the tribe of Joseph being a blessing to the world (Genesis 12:3; Micah 5:7).
The Bible was to continue to be an inspiration for the English-speaking peoples. In 1789 George Washington took his oath of office and kissed a Bible opened to Genesis 49-50, "passages that include Joseph's dying reminder that God had promised the Israelites a new land" (Paul Gutjahr, An American Bible: A History of the Good Book in the United States, 1777-1880, 1999, p. 41).
Then "at the end of the oath he added the words 'So help me God' . . . Every president since Washington has repeated this same appeal to God" (Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell, America's Providential History, 1989, p. 174).
In his inaugural address, the first ever in the history of the United States, Washington clearly had the Bible's promises in mind when he said: "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency . . .
"We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained" (ibid., p. 175).
Today it's fashionable to deny the role the Bible played in the foundation of the United States. Although America's founders were of many different denominations, this was the one book that influenced them all. They were clearly all familiar with the Bible's promises or Washington would not have referred to them in his inaugural address. They knew the promise of blessings made to ancient Israel if they obeyed God and the inevitable curses that would come on the nation if it turned away from God.
Will we listen?
People can deny the importance of the Bible. Churches can even remove the Scriptures from their sanctuaries. But the fact remains that God's Word is just as relevant today as it was when George Washington became the first president of the United States more than 200 years ago.
The Bible being opened to verses about Israel's future was prescient—revealing blessings for the modern descendants of ancient Israel (the American and British-descended peoples, the nations of northwestern Europe and the Jewish state of Israel). Washington was also well aware of the Bible's warnings to Israel—applicable to the same nations. If they want to continue to receive God's physical blessings, they need to return to God and His laws.
The increasing problems that challenge the English-speaking nations are the direct result of turning away from the laws of God. Do we have the wisdom to listen to the words of George Washington, who foresaw the inevitability of failure for his new country if it chose to reject the laws of God and hide the Scriptures in a corner? GN
by Melvin Rhodes
The Bible was missing.
I searched through the sanctuary. It must be somewhere. After all, it was a church.
I finally gave up and asked a female volunteer if she knew where the Bible was. She explained that it had been moved to an anteroom and that I could find it there. She added that she did not approve of it being moved.
I finally did locate it in a glass case that was hardly noticeable. That Bible, so much a part of the history of the church, had been relegated to a side room, signifying its reduced importance in the fabric of the church and of the nation as a whole.
The Bible in question was presented in 1907 to the president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, by Britain's King Edward VII on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the founding of the colony of Virginia. The Bible and the lectern on which it had rested, now devoid of any copy of the Scriptures, had been presented to Bruton Parish Church in Colonial Williamsburg by the president himself.
Times have changed
The dedicatory message from the king read: "This Bible is presented by His Majesty King Edward the Seventh, King of Great Britain and Ireland & Emperor of India to the church of Bruton, Virginia, a shrine rich in venerable tradition of worship, in solemn memories of patriots and statesmen and in historic witness to the oneness of our peoples.
"The King will ever hope and pray that the ties of kinship and of language and the common heritage of ordered worship and of ennobling ideals may through the saving faith in our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ revealed in these sacred pages, continue to unite Great Britain & America in a beneficent fellowship for setting forward peace & goodwill among men. MCMVII [1907]."
How times have changed in just a century! The public reverence for the Bible shown by both the king and the president 100 years ago is sadly lacking in our nations today!
Before visiting Colonial Williamsburg, my wife and I had toured Jamestown, site of the first permanent English settlement in the New World. While there we had visited a replica of the original settlement, which included a church building.
In the church our guide asked us if we had heard of the King James translation of the Bible. As soon as the question was raised, people in our group started wandering off looking at other things. The musketry display was of particular interest. The significance of the King James translation of the Bible in the history of early America seemed of no interest to most of those touring Jamestown that day.
The most significant book in history and an inspiration for the settlers of Virginia and the later colonies of New England is now of little interest to the general populace. Yet without this book the United States would not have come into existence.
Historic importance of the Bible
It's no coincidence that the settlement in Jamestown and the publication of the King James Bible coincided. Those first settlers already had Bibles in their possession, translations that went back as far as John Wycliffe in the 14th century, the first man to translate the Scriptures into English.
But in the year the settlers sailed to Jamestown, the greatest English scholars were engaged in translating the Bible from ancient Hebrew and Greek texts into a new "Authorized Version," which was to become the most influential book ever published. Named after the king who authorized the translation work and who himself understood the ancient languages from which the Scriptures were to be translated, the Bible is known to Americans as the King James Version.
In a recent historical account of how we got the English Bible, the American historian Benson Bobrick wrote:"Only in England was the Bible in any sense a national possession . . . Englishmen carried their Bible with them—as the rock and foundation of their lives—overseas . . . Beyond the shores of Albion [Britain] it fortified the spirit of the pioneers of New England, helped to shape the American psyche, and through its impact on thought and culture eventually spread the world over, 'as wide as the waters be'" (Wide as the Waters, 2001, p. 12).
The book's title is taken from a poem about John Wycliffe (1330-1384), the father of the English Bible. Wycliffe was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church as a heretic. By order of Pope Martin V, his bones were to be exhumed and removed from consecrated ground. His remains were disinterred and burned, and his ashes cast into a river.
Bobrick relates how Wycliffe's favorite verse was Philippians 2:12, which admonishes each person to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." This was a revolutionary concept in Europe where for centuries people had been taught that salvation was only possible through the Catholic Church and its priests. Wycliffe is credited with laying a foundation for religious freedom and for the Anglo-American democratic systems that also emphasize individual responsibility.
Historic importance of the Bible
King Henry VIII legalized the publication and distribution of the Bible in 1537.
"By royal injunction, the Lord's Prayer and the 10 Commandments in English were to be taught sentence by sentence on Sundays and holy days throughout the year; at least one sermon on the Gospel was to be preached every quarter . . . ; and every parish church in England was to 'set up in some convenient place' a copy of the English Bible accessible to all as 'the very lively Word of God'" (Bobrick, p. 151).
Throughout the kingdom, copies for public use and edification were soon chained to lecterns in the vestibules of church buildings—six of them in St. Paul's Church alone.
The publication of the Bible was received with great enthusiasm. "It was wonderful to see with what joy the book of God was received," wrote an early biographer of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, ". . . not only among the learneder sort . . . but generally all England over among all the vulgar and common people; with what greediness God's Word was read, and what resort to places where the reading of it was.
"Everybody that could bought the book and busily read it; or got others to read it to them, if they could not themselves; and divers[e people] among the elderly learned to read on purpose. And even little boys flocked among the rest to hear portions of the Holy Scriptures read" (quoted by Bobrick, pp. 151-152).
In their enthusiasm for the Word of God, "crowds sometimes assembled in the church vestibules during Sunday service and eventually the king found it necessary to issue a proclamation (in April 1539) forbidding the reading of the Bible aloud at such times" (p. 152). "In his famous last speech to Parliament the king complained, with tears in his eyes, that the Bible was being 'disputed, rhymed, sung and jangled in every ale-house and tavern'" (p. 160).
It's striking to note in stark contrast the total lack of enthusiasm for the Bible today. The enthusiasm described here for God's Word was displayed recently upon publication of the latest Harry Potter book. Even many Christians showed a marked preference for the latter over the former!
A president's words of warning
When did all this enthusiasm for God's Word change? "It did not cease for 350 years: 1900 was the first year in which religious works (at least in England) did not outnumber all other publications" (Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence, 2000, p. 10).
The title of the book cited here is insightful. The enthusiasm for the Bible led to the rise of the English-speaking peoples, the "dawn" of our civilization, while the rejection of the Bible in more recent times has led to the present period of "decadence," defined as the rejection of all the values on which our civilization was built. Such decadence can only precede an inevitable fall.
As noted earlier, "Englishmen carried their Bible with them" everywhere. That sentence reminds me of the title of author James Morris' first volume of his history of the British Empire: By Heaven's Command. People believed they were given a divine responsibility to take Christian civilization, the Bible, the rule of law, parliamentary democracy and free trade to the rest of the world. This fulfilled ancient prophecies about Abraham's descendants through the tribe of Joseph being a blessing to the world (Genesis 12:3; Micah 5:7).
The Bible was to continue to be an inspiration for the English-speaking peoples. In 1789 George Washington took his oath of office and kissed a Bible opened to Genesis 49-50, "passages that include Joseph's dying reminder that God had promised the Israelites a new land" (Paul Gutjahr, An American Bible: A History of the Good Book in the United States, 1777-1880, 1999, p. 41).
Then "at the end of the oath he added the words 'So help me God' . . . Every president since Washington has repeated this same appeal to God" (Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell, America's Providential History, 1989, p. 174).
In his inaugural address, the first ever in the history of the United States, Washington clearly had the Bible's promises in mind when he said: "No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency . . .
"We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained" (ibid., p. 175).
Today it's fashionable to deny the role the Bible played in the foundation of the United States. Although America's founders were of many different denominations, this was the one book that influenced them all. They were clearly all familiar with the Bible's promises or Washington would not have referred to them in his inaugural address. They knew the promise of blessings made to ancient Israel if they obeyed God and the inevitable curses that would come on the nation if it turned away from God.
Will we listen?
People can deny the importance of the Bible. Churches can even remove the Scriptures from their sanctuaries. But the fact remains that God's Word is just as relevant today as it was when George Washington became the first president of the United States more than 200 years ago.
The Bible being opened to verses about Israel's future was prescient—revealing blessings for the modern descendants of ancient Israel (the American and British-descended peoples, the nations of northwestern Europe and the Jewish state of Israel). Washington was also well aware of the Bible's warnings to Israel—applicable to the same nations. If they want to continue to receive God's physical blessings, they need to return to God and His laws.
The increasing problems that challenge the English-speaking nations are the direct result of turning away from the laws of God. Do we have the wisdom to listen to the words of George Washington, who foresaw the inevitability of failure for his new country if it chose to reject the laws of God and hide the Scriptures in a corner? GN
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)