Her arms crossed in front and she took hold of her shirt by the hem with both hands. A cheeky grin revealed her pleasure. She raised the hem slowly, her narrow waist twisting side to side in deliberate seduction. One breast, covered in powder-blue lace, revealed itself, disappeared momentarily then reappeared, this time with its twin. The shirt climbed higher and higher, eventually sliding over her head and then falling on the carpet. There was no need for an exchange of words; actions and expressions spoke far more eloquently.
She leaned forward, just a little, pushing her rear out, then resumed, wiggling more provocatively as she slowly pulled her slacks and panties down together. They cleared her creamy buttocks and came to a stop at her upper thighs. She then proceeded to slowly slide the slacks and panties down her long legs until they lay on the floor at her feet.
She straightened and stepped away from the heap of clothes. Her hand went down to her pubic area, fluffing the soft thatch of hair before her fingers uncurled on their own accord and slid between her dampened petals. The pleasure took her unexpectedly; her eyelids drooped, her head rolled back, and she moaned in her pleasure.
She shook her head and squinted her nose, giggling at her folly, then grew serious once more. Combing her fingers through her thick curls, she reached back and arching, unsnapped the hook of her bra. The satin straps slid off her round shoulders and she discarded the lacy restrictor with a hearty sigh of liberation.
She stood naked, her hands falling to her sides. She is aroused. Her breasts tightened and grew heavier, her pink nipples hardening like two bullets. Heat unfurled low in her belly and her breath quickened with desire.
She is ready to be taken!
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Sensual story
She was extremely attractive. I was a lucky man. She was slim, had a cheeky smile, long dark brown hair and was slim with small perfect breasts.
She would simply lie in her favourite blue bikini made of thin silky shinning material that showed her curves so well and couldn't hide her pert hard nipples that could be easily seen pushing the material into little peaks.
I released the catch of her bikini top and raising herself to her elbows she let it fall forward and I took the straps over her shoulders. Then I pulled down her bikini bottoms and she lifted her tummy so I could slip them off.
She looked so good with the light glistening on her breasts and her neat pubic patch catching the sunlight. It was so erotic.
Then spreading a little cream on her tummy she began to massage her breasts, one in each hand in a gentle circular motion as she rubbed in the cream. She would pause now and then at her nipples, which she would spin between her fingers making them stand up like dark hard acorns on her small tits. I could tell by the ever so slight movement in her legs that she was becoming very aroused.
She rubbed herself like this for three or four minutes and then lay very still, although I could see her chest pounding as the beating of her heart betrayed her excitement. Slowly she sat up, raised herself off the sun bed and walked into the house and into my arms.
Love, Tess
She would simply lie in her favourite blue bikini made of thin silky shinning material that showed her curves so well and couldn't hide her pert hard nipples that could be easily seen pushing the material into little peaks.
I released the catch of her bikini top and raising herself to her elbows she let it fall forward and I took the straps over her shoulders. Then I pulled down her bikini bottoms and she lifted her tummy so I could slip them off.
She looked so good with the light glistening on her breasts and her neat pubic patch catching the sunlight. It was so erotic.
Then spreading a little cream on her tummy she began to massage her breasts, one in each hand in a gentle circular motion as she rubbed in the cream. She would pause now and then at her nipples, which she would spin between her fingers making them stand up like dark hard acorns on her small tits. I could tell by the ever so slight movement in her legs that she was becoming very aroused.
She rubbed herself like this for three or four minutes and then lay very still, although I could see her chest pounding as the beating of her heart betrayed her excitement. Slowly she sat up, raised herself off the sun bed and walked into the house and into my arms.
Love, Tess
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Borneo, Indonesia and Malaysia
Credit Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC
These true-color images of Indonesia were acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer in mid-May 2002. Fire season was not fully underway in the region, and skies over the large island of Borneo, with Malaysia at its northwest coast, are cloud-covered, but not hazy with air pollution. The horizontally situated island of java appears to be experiencing some haze at its western end, and a few scattered fires (red dots) were detected. These images were acquired on May 17 and 19, 2002.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Does Jesus Christ Really Understand?
Our fast-paced world is far removed from the dusty roads Jesus walked in first-century Palestine. Can He really understand our needs and sufferings? Can He empathize with our worries?
by Graemme Marshall
The Bible tells us Jesus can "sympathize with our weaknesses" and that He was tempted in every way, just as we are (Hebrews 4:15). Yet we know He was not crippled or handicapped. We know He did not live to old age. Nor was He forced into unemployment or retirement. He never had to make ends meet on a pension. He didn't go to war or face a veteran's life, nor was He a victim of modern-day pollution, road rage or disease.
How, then, can Jesus understand the difficulties and challenges we face?
Could a 33-year-old single male with "legions of angels" at His command (Matthew 26:53) understand a woman's needs? What of the trauma of a divorcée or someone facing bankruptcy, paying child support or eking out a living while drawing social security?
What of the myriad temptations and problems we face? Jesus didn't live in a society quite like ours—with satellite television, video games, movies and smart bombs. If we are to come with confidence to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16), how can we be sure Jesus understands what we suffer? After all, He is the glorified Son of God—an immortal spirit being—while we are weak, fleshly humans. If Jesus never experienced the human frailties we experience, how can He understand our personal needs in His role of Intercessor with the Father? (Hebrews 7:25).
Paul's explanation that we are not alone in our trials can be comforting (1 Corinthians 10:13). If you attend a Christian fellowship, you find others going through similar experiences (2 Corinthians 1:3-6). This is strengthening. Yet each of us has his own pain, trial and anguish that we may think no one else can properly understand.
We may wonder whether God can feel our pain. Can God appreciate the depth of human despair? Peter wrote that Jesus suffered for us, leaving us an example (1 Peter 2:21). In what ways did Jesus lead the way? What confidence can we have that He understands the personal trauma of every one of His people? Read on to appreciate Jesus' unique trials and find comfort in them.
Weariness and limitations
Can Jesus understand the limitations of a human body? Isaiah was inspired to write that Christ's physical appearance didn't make Him especially attractive or desirable (Isaiah 53:2). He was apparently average looking, and at times His body got just plain tired. He rested at the well of Samaria because He was physically weary and thirsty (John 4:6-7).
Like any other human, He needed time to recuperate from the stress of heavy responsibility, for the weight of the world really was on His shoulders. After periods of hectic activity, He withdrew to areas of solitude to refresh Himself and recuperate (Mark 6:31).
Our unjust society
Can He understand life today? The plagues of government inefficiency and abuse, injustice and violent crime were just as much a part of His world as they are ours. His life was regulated by an oppressive system of at times foolish laws and regulations, just like ours.
Jesus knew the burden of oppressive taxation and the sting of racism. He lived in Judea under the occupation forces of the mighty Roman Empire, which treated the populace as subjugated peoples and harshly enforced its requirements. One of Rome's rules was that Jews could be commandeered anytime to carry a Roman soldier's equipment for a mile. Simon of Cyrene was grabbed out of the crowd and made to carry the wooden beam on which Jesus would be crucified. Jesus was too weakened by a scourging to carry it further Himself (Matthew 27:32).
Jesus encouraged His followers not only to comply with this rule, but to go above and beyond. By carrying a burden for two miles, they would carry the load for some other passerby and fulfill the Golden Rule of doing to others as you would have them do to you (Matthew 5:41; Luke 6:31).
Jesus also spoke of the hypocritical leadership of the religious authorities of His day: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do" (Matthew 23:2-3).
He was personally insulted: accused of being illegitimate, "born of fornication" (John 8:41).
Family conflict and people problems
Many of our problems concern relationships with members of our own family and close friends. We must try to get along with people we are near constantly—fellow workers, employees, neighbors and school officials—even though they sometimes oppose us at every turn. Jesus had to face similar difficulties. His own brothers did not believe in Him (John 7:5). He had gathered a group of novice disciples around Him who at times vexed Him with their vanity and visions of grandeur (Luke 9:46).
The established religious community criticized Him for His lack of formal education in the Scriptures (John 7:15). Because He hailed from the small town of Nazareth in Galilee, Jesus endured slurs. Even one of His future disciples, on hearing where Jesus had grown up, asked, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46).
In the hour of His greatest distress, His closest friends deserted Him. In the Garden of Gethsemane His disciples fled when they saw Jesus would be arrested, leaving Him alone to face the religious authorities and their soldiers. The next day many of His disciples were still too frightened to be publicly seen as He was beaten and executed. "But all His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things" (Luke 23:49).
What about other people relationships? Jesus wasn't married, so can He understand marriage problems? How can Jesus understand what it is like to live with an unconverted mate?
Actually, He can. He was symbolically married to the nation of Israel. She was a selfish, unfaithful spouse who caused Him a great deal of grief and unhappiness (Jeremiah 3:6-14). He is not only prepared to take her back, He will receive her once again—when she repents and wants to be a faithful bride.
Illness and pain
Can Jesus understand the physical and psychological pain of child abuse, rape, disease or physical infirmities?
Many people suffer from illness or accidents. Christ understands the depths of their suffering. The Gospels reveal that in His last hours as a human being He was falsely accused, mocked, reviled, sworn at, spat upon and slapped in the face. He suffered a brutal beating before His crucifixion, which in itself was an extremely painful and humiliating way to die.
Isaiah tells us of Jesus: ". . . There were many who were appalled at him—his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness" (Isaiah 52:14, New International Version). Apparently Jesus was barely recognizable as a human after the awful beating He suffered. As God in the flesh, did He want to live physically any less than we do? No. He didn't want to feel the agony of crucifixion and death. But, faithful to the plan of God, He obeyed because of the necessity of His dying on our behalf (Matthew 26:39, 42).
Grief and anguish
Have you ever been stolen from by your acquaintances, convicted without a hearing, suffered racial slurs, betrayed by a friend or had your money embezzled by a close associate? Jesus had all those things happen to Him.
But someone might say: "Well, Jesus never suffered the things I do." Perhaps the best response would be that what Jesus went through in 33 years of human existence the overwhelming majority of people have never duplicated. He experienced numerous attempts on His life, had a crown of thorns thrust down to gash into His scalp, was scourged and crucified and willingly gave His life to pay for the sins of others.
A few people have endured indignities on a similar level. Many were crucified in those years. None, though, lived without ever sinning. In this Jesus stands head and shoulders above everyone else: a real, flesh-and-blood, 33-year-old thoroughly masculine male who never sinned, not even once.
As Creator of all things, including humanity, God has through eons of time experienced depths of emotion about what humans do to other humans. This was even before Jesus became God in the flesh. In the same way, He was "grieved in His heart" before the flood (Genesis 6:6), so we can know that Jesus grieves about the state of our world.
If you can sympathize with some of these examples, then rest assured that you can know with certainty that you have a faithful High Priest who walked this physical life ahead of you. He knows what it means to suffer. He is fully qualified on your behalf to express the depth of your personal, private suffering to the Father.
Christ meant it when He told us in His Word: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
Approach God boldly and confidently, knowing with every pain you suffer that Jesus is the High Priest who hears, knows and understands how you feel. GN
by Graemme Marshall
The Bible tells us Jesus can "sympathize with our weaknesses" and that He was tempted in every way, just as we are (Hebrews 4:15). Yet we know He was not crippled or handicapped. We know He did not live to old age. Nor was He forced into unemployment or retirement. He never had to make ends meet on a pension. He didn't go to war or face a veteran's life, nor was He a victim of modern-day pollution, road rage or disease.
How, then, can Jesus understand the difficulties and challenges we face?
Could a 33-year-old single male with "legions of angels" at His command (Matthew 26:53) understand a woman's needs? What of the trauma of a divorcée or someone facing bankruptcy, paying child support or eking out a living while drawing social security?
What of the myriad temptations and problems we face? Jesus didn't live in a society quite like ours—with satellite television, video games, movies and smart bombs. If we are to come with confidence to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16), how can we be sure Jesus understands what we suffer? After all, He is the glorified Son of God—an immortal spirit being—while we are weak, fleshly humans. If Jesus never experienced the human frailties we experience, how can He understand our personal needs in His role of Intercessor with the Father? (Hebrews 7:25).
Paul's explanation that we are not alone in our trials can be comforting (1 Corinthians 10:13). If you attend a Christian fellowship, you find others going through similar experiences (2 Corinthians 1:3-6). This is strengthening. Yet each of us has his own pain, trial and anguish that we may think no one else can properly understand.
We may wonder whether God can feel our pain. Can God appreciate the depth of human despair? Peter wrote that Jesus suffered for us, leaving us an example (1 Peter 2:21). In what ways did Jesus lead the way? What confidence can we have that He understands the personal trauma of every one of His people? Read on to appreciate Jesus' unique trials and find comfort in them.
Weariness and limitations
Can Jesus understand the limitations of a human body? Isaiah was inspired to write that Christ's physical appearance didn't make Him especially attractive or desirable (Isaiah 53:2). He was apparently average looking, and at times His body got just plain tired. He rested at the well of Samaria because He was physically weary and thirsty (John 4:6-7).
Like any other human, He needed time to recuperate from the stress of heavy responsibility, for the weight of the world really was on His shoulders. After periods of hectic activity, He withdrew to areas of solitude to refresh Himself and recuperate (Mark 6:31).
Our unjust society
Can He understand life today? The plagues of government inefficiency and abuse, injustice and violent crime were just as much a part of His world as they are ours. His life was regulated by an oppressive system of at times foolish laws and regulations, just like ours.
Jesus knew the burden of oppressive taxation and the sting of racism. He lived in Judea under the occupation forces of the mighty Roman Empire, which treated the populace as subjugated peoples and harshly enforced its requirements. One of Rome's rules was that Jews could be commandeered anytime to carry a Roman soldier's equipment for a mile. Simon of Cyrene was grabbed out of the crowd and made to carry the wooden beam on which Jesus would be crucified. Jesus was too weakened by a scourging to carry it further Himself (Matthew 27:32).
Jesus encouraged His followers not only to comply with this rule, but to go above and beyond. By carrying a burden for two miles, they would carry the load for some other passerby and fulfill the Golden Rule of doing to others as you would have them do to you (Matthew 5:41; Luke 6:31).
Jesus also spoke of the hypocritical leadership of the religious authorities of His day: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do" (Matthew 23:2-3).
He was personally insulted: accused of being illegitimate, "born of fornication" (John 8:41).
Family conflict and people problems
Many of our problems concern relationships with members of our own family and close friends. We must try to get along with people we are near constantly—fellow workers, employees, neighbors and school officials—even though they sometimes oppose us at every turn. Jesus had to face similar difficulties. His own brothers did not believe in Him (John 7:5). He had gathered a group of novice disciples around Him who at times vexed Him with their vanity and visions of grandeur (Luke 9:46).
The established religious community criticized Him for His lack of formal education in the Scriptures (John 7:15). Because He hailed from the small town of Nazareth in Galilee, Jesus endured slurs. Even one of His future disciples, on hearing where Jesus had grown up, asked, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46).
In the hour of His greatest distress, His closest friends deserted Him. In the Garden of Gethsemane His disciples fled when they saw Jesus would be arrested, leaving Him alone to face the religious authorities and their soldiers. The next day many of His disciples were still too frightened to be publicly seen as He was beaten and executed. "But all His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things" (Luke 23:49).
What about other people relationships? Jesus wasn't married, so can He understand marriage problems? How can Jesus understand what it is like to live with an unconverted mate?
Actually, He can. He was symbolically married to the nation of Israel. She was a selfish, unfaithful spouse who caused Him a great deal of grief and unhappiness (Jeremiah 3:6-14). He is not only prepared to take her back, He will receive her once again—when she repents and wants to be a faithful bride.
Illness and pain
Can Jesus understand the physical and psychological pain of child abuse, rape, disease or physical infirmities?
Many people suffer from illness or accidents. Christ understands the depths of their suffering. The Gospels reveal that in His last hours as a human being He was falsely accused, mocked, reviled, sworn at, spat upon and slapped in the face. He suffered a brutal beating before His crucifixion, which in itself was an extremely painful and humiliating way to die.
Isaiah tells us of Jesus: ". . . There were many who were appalled at him—his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness" (Isaiah 52:14, New International Version). Apparently Jesus was barely recognizable as a human after the awful beating He suffered. As God in the flesh, did He want to live physically any less than we do? No. He didn't want to feel the agony of crucifixion and death. But, faithful to the plan of God, He obeyed because of the necessity of His dying on our behalf (Matthew 26:39, 42).
Grief and anguish
Have you ever been stolen from by your acquaintances, convicted without a hearing, suffered racial slurs, betrayed by a friend or had your money embezzled by a close associate? Jesus had all those things happen to Him.
But someone might say: "Well, Jesus never suffered the things I do." Perhaps the best response would be that what Jesus went through in 33 years of human existence the overwhelming majority of people have never duplicated. He experienced numerous attempts on His life, had a crown of thorns thrust down to gash into His scalp, was scourged and crucified and willingly gave His life to pay for the sins of others.
A few people have endured indignities on a similar level. Many were crucified in those years. None, though, lived without ever sinning. In this Jesus stands head and shoulders above everyone else: a real, flesh-and-blood, 33-year-old thoroughly masculine male who never sinned, not even once.
As Creator of all things, including humanity, God has through eons of time experienced depths of emotion about what humans do to other humans. This was even before Jesus became God in the flesh. In the same way, He was "grieved in His heart" before the flood (Genesis 6:6), so we can know that Jesus grieves about the state of our world.
If you can sympathize with some of these examples, then rest assured that you can know with certainty that you have a faithful High Priest who walked this physical life ahead of you. He knows what it means to suffer. He is fully qualified on your behalf to express the depth of your personal, private suffering to the Father.
Christ meant it when He told us in His Word: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).
Approach God boldly and confidently, knowing with every pain you suffer that Jesus is the High Priest who hears, knows and understands how you feel. GN
Thursday, December 13, 2007
World News and Trends
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.)
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.)
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)