Our Deadliest Fault Blossoms, Unrecognized and Unchecked, Around The World

Is there a problem with pride, or "self-esteem", as fashionable people call it today? 

Pride in ourselves is actually idolatry, the worship of false gods. It's essentially the same as primitive cultures' worship of the sun, a golden calf, or a statue of Zeus. All these things keep us separate from our Creator and the Heaven that awaits us:

Is This Not a Tragedy, Unclaimed Multi-Million-Dollar Lottery Prizes?

Merry Christmas everyone! Happy New Year, too!

Perhaps you've seen news reports like this one: "A winning $396,900,000 lottery ticket was sold at a store in Bonita Springs, Florida, on January 29th, but nobody has come forth to claim the prize. The winner has six months, and if it's not claimed, the lottery will keep the money."

There are sadder things in life, but this ranks fairly high. How could it happen? 

Loss of faith could be a reason, as when someone takes the ticket home and carelessly loses it because they're thinking, "I never win anything. The odds are astronomical. I shouldn't have wasted a dollar on it...." 

This is a good parable for our lives, because there is a vastly more valuable, priceless treasure out there waiting to be claimed by a lot of people. It's their inheritance, but they're fast asleep to it, and caught in a dream. If they never awaken to the truth that something wonderful is out there, they'll never look. 

In addition, there are powerful, dark forces that actively devise ways to keep us asleep, and enthralled with them. Distraction is one way. Fear of appearing foolish is another. 

How can we help to awaken these sleepers? First, we need to check and make sure we ourselves aren't tragic dreamers. We need to use a little skepticism when looking at the condition of the world now. How sane is it, really, the politics; and particularly the media? Is it meaningful and good? It's possible that we got very far off track a long time ago, and are headed for a reckoning.

If we connect again with our Creator, our lives will be improved beyond all measure. We will not die as others do, but will have a transformed body and live in eternal joy, power, riches, and unimaginable beauty. Many millions have passed over to the other side and claimed their inheritance. But God's laws prevent them from communicating the news to us, or even their beloved relatives; except in rare instances, like a "white light" event. Many thousands of these cases have been studied and validated.

This teenager had no heartbeat for twenty minutes and awakened without suffering brain damage, which is medically impossible; a miracle in itself:

 

                    

Our world is a training and testing ground that determines our character. Many pains and losses have to be endured, and the way we behave through the years reveals everything within us, good and bad. If we knew early on without doubt that Paradise awaits - especially when great misfortune hits us - we wouldn't fully learn and understand what's at stake. Fear and doubt must be conquered by our will, in the face of pain and death, to be the transformative event that delivers us into God's hands. 

All that's required is that we obey the Ten Commandments. How hard is that? Modern society has a million laws, and some are so lame and destructive that they're painful. God has no interest in those. In fact, He's warned us about these snares since Christ walked the earth. Man's laws will get you crucified if you overstep the wrong one. The LORD is vastly more forgiving. 

Here's a real-life story of a real-life hero, the kind who immediately goes to Heaven with honors:

                                                      Tate Myer

You Want a Better World? Don't Be a Pacifist

Don't we all want a better world? It depends on our occupation, and if we're happy with our lives and fortunes now. The better our life is, the less motivated we are to change things. A large number of people are getting very wealthy and powerful within the brutal and criminal system they've contrived. They like things just as they are. Entire nations are nothing but shams and criminal rackets designed to enrich the top five-percent and fleece the ninety-five percent. It's been like this throughout history. 

How secure are you? Can anybody turn your world upside down? The honest answer is yes, there are events and people who could do it. We must take steps toward security, and pay more for it if we see weaknesses. 

If you live in a big city chances are you've seen a lot of lawlessness, and a serious uptick in violence of all kinds. Why? Because a certain percentage of people enjoy crime and violence. It makes them feel good, and they sense there are no longer consequences for their crimes, so they will commit more of them. 

Only a competent and rigorous police force is capable of providing an environment for civilization to flourish, and for the greatest numbers of people to feel some security. 

New York City before 1991 was a dangerous place to live. The crime rate was huge, and everyone sensed it was out of control. Then Rudy Giuliani was elected mayor, and the city turned around dramatically. All crimes, from felonies on down the scale, decreased, even as the city grew. Tourism returned, the city was cleaner, and it became safe again; quite a spectacular place to live. 

One of the mayor's first acts was to instruct the police to be pro-active, especially in the worst neighborhoods. They were encouraged to stop and question anyone who acted suspiciously. The police would show up before trouble started and engage with all kinds of people, showing real interest and concern. It worked like a magic charm. 

There goes the pacifist argument; that being nice, friendly, and generous will bring nice, friendly, and generous people to us. As a famous radical - Leon Trotsky - once said, "You may not be interested in war, but war is very interested in you." 

"Why?", you may ask. Because you have property which others want; money, cars, a house, your children, and maybe your life. If you look vulnerable and  weak, certain people will take it from you and won't give it back. Nations go to war mostly to seize property from others and raise their status. They disguise their acts with fake political fig leaves. It's global criminality, and much worse than we think. Very few nations and peoples acknowledge the LORD in an meaningful degree, and they try to elevate their leaders as gods. 

This is an attack on God and all His creation.

How can we protect ourselves? At this point the next question is a moral one, because some of the most admired people on earth were, and are, pacifists and  martyrs. But martyrdom is a calling, and not for everyone. Curiously, Jesus said to His disciples, "Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword... to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother... A man's enemies will be the members of his own household... " (Luke 12: 42-53). 

"Watch, I'm sending you out into the world as sheep before wolves. So be as cunning as serpents and as gentle as doves." (Matt. 10:16). 

He also said of the time to come, "The Son of Man will send out His angels... and they will weed out all who cause sin and practice lawlessness... and they will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth..." (Matt 13:41-42).

Christ's message of ultimate love and generosity was pure, as He was pure. Jesus was, "...The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world...." (John 1:29). 

His mission in life besides healing and teaching was to be a blood sacrifice. Very few of us can say it's our mission to do likewise. There are many other paths to God from this life.  

Try saying this stanza from the Lord's Prayer, "Our father who art in Heaven... Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our robberies and murders, as we forgive those who rob and murder us...." Wait. What?! I didn't rob or murder anybody. It's pretty clear there are limits to our forgiveness, as there are limits to everything in this world. Pacifism cloaks itself in Judeo-Christian Scripture, but fails miserably. 

The seriousness of crime defines and demands active law enforcement. Pacifism in the face of high crimes destroys civilization, and is destroying us now. Jesus also praised the faithful Roman centurion who asked him to heal his servant (Matthew 8:5-13). Soldiers, police, judges and jailers can be faithful Christians. They must be for it all to work. 

Here is wisdom:

"To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under Heaven...  a time to be born and a time to die... a time for love and a time for hate... a time for war and a time for peace." (Ecclesiastes 3)

Wisdom is not a friend to the modern world, which never ceases calling foolishness a virtue. Who ignores the wisdom of the ages will walk over a cliff and believe they're flying like a bird.

UPDATE, 11/19: A concerned 17 year-old American citizen who decided not to be a pacifist and instead used his Constitutional right to bear arms has just won a huge battle in a Wisconsin state criminal court. The consequences of his courageous actions mark a hopeful turning point in U.S. history. 

If he had lost his case, the future of the United States would be much darker than it is now. He's shown himself to be a model and an inspiration for many men and women in the future. 

Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all charges - including murder - for his acts on the night of August 25, 2021, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse, an Emergency Medical Tech, was attacked by about a dozen men and defended himself legally with a rifle, killing two and wounding another; men with long criminal records. 

On the night of the 25th, Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and other anarchist groups rioted, burned cars and property, occupied houses illegally, and assaulted citizens and observers. Many were hospitalized. The property damages on this night, and the following days, was over $2,000,000.

Wisconsin state authorities, and others, declined to prosecute Rittenhouse because video tape and audio recordings from many angles revealed that his was a clear case of self-defense. He's a Caucasian, and so were all his supposed victims. 

But the Kenosha DA, against the advice of legal experts, charged Rittenhouse with a stack of felonies that would put him in jail for life. He faced seven counts altogether, two for murder, one for attempted murder, and four others for reckless endangerment and illegal possession of a firearm.

The jury, the public at large, and lifelong criminal law experts from academia and the judiciary watched for months as the case against Rittenhouse collapsed into a contrary and confused mush. 

Kyle Rittenhouse now has a personal injury lawsuit of epic proportions against the American media, politicians, and even the U.S. president, who used him as a straw man and punching bag in the 2020 election primaries. Kyle will likely receive hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for being maliciously libeled, slandered, and defamed, globally, for more than a year. 

Fools For Christ

We generally dread looking foolish to others, and sometimes to the point of violence. In ages past when dueling was legal many a man lost his life for making an adversary look foolish. Short of dueling, malicious gossip and lies can wreak havoc and destroy our lives and families. It's one of the many ways we can be crucified socially. Being shunned, ostracized, and ridiculed can be deadly for us if our health is poor, or our heart is less than robust. 

The great French music composer/prodigy Georges Bizet (1838-1875) had enormous success early in life, won prizes, and was seen as a rising star. But he died suddenly of a heart attack at age 36, and few could agree on the cause. Those who knew him best said his heart was broken by the fury of critics who hated his recent works, like the opera Carmen and his incidental music for the play L'Arlesienne. Bizet was forced to move out of Paris, into the country, and he couldn't make a living as a composer. Once he was dead, however, the public and critics praised him and wanted to hear his works often. Four-thousand people showed up for his funeral in Paris. His rejected music is now adored and heard weekly all over the globe.

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) was lonely and rejected by society in the south of France, and his paintings were considered hopelessly foolish until he died at age 37. Then, suddenly, his art dealer brother couldn't keep up with the demand for Vincent's canvases. Today some sell for over $100 million each. Incidentally, he almost certainly didn't commit suicide. His paintings at the time were not gloomy, but full of sunlight; a pistol bullet entered his abdomen at an oblique angle; there were no powder burns around the hole where the bullet entered; he then walked over a mile to the inn where he was staying and died the next day. Several deathbed confessions of people who were there - and one was a doctor - were specific; some local kids who had been jeering Van Gogh for months had acquired a pistol and were recklessly playing cowboys and Indians. They didn't want to kill him, but the pistol was defective. Vincent made it clear to all that he didn't want any of the kids to be prosecuted (Link).    

Almost all of us want to be seen as wise, which brings status and wealth in many cases. But how do we define wisdom? Or foolishness? There's the rub. What's seen as wise by some is pure foolishness to others. In the Mafia, a "wiseguy" is someone who's a full member in good standing, having proved themselves capable of cold blooded murder; the required cost for joining the mob. 

There are 267 Bible verses that warn us about being foolish, and 264 of them are in the Old Testament. But a funny thing happens in the New Testament where Jesus says, "But I tell you, anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment... and anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire in Hell." (Matthew 5:22).  And the Apostle Paul writes, "We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor..." (Corinthians 4:10). Clearly, Paul was being sarcastic. Worthiness in God's eyes has nothing to do with popular opinion, and it's often the polar opposite. Jesus tells us to, "Turn the other cheek... Give to all who ask of you... He who is greatest among you is the servant of all... He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life shall find it... The last shall be first; and the first last." Talk about foolish. Right? 

Particularly now, in our age of science and technology worship, people of faith - and especially Christians - are often thought to be inexcusably naïve and ignorant. Science tells us that fixed laws govern all of nature, and only a fool could believe people can be healed by faith in God. Resurrection of the dead is the height of absurdity. But, in fact, we can't be Christians if we don't believe this can happen. And it has more than once: Jesus appeared to over 500 disciples, (1st Corinthians, 15:6-7). 

Science has a terrible record of living up to expectations. Technology hasn't improved our lives to the degree it's damaged them. We're paying a terrible price for "progress". Marxism and socialism have always claimed to be "scientific", but they have in fact ruined many nations and the lives of countless millions. So-called "rational" thinking, science, and technology have brought unprecedented lawlessness; and relativism, which preaches there is no immutable Truth. This means children never learn honesty, and criminality is easily accepted. Not just society, but all the fine arts have been ruined by "progress" and the fear of being seen as foolish. 

We've lost track of the degree of destruction that brought us into World War I.  An entire school of painting, known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, was wiped out by modernism; and many great artists went from prosperity to bankruptcy in a very brief time. One of the best, John Godward (1861-1922), was disowned by his wealthy, priggish, and rigid family. Paintings of his that were purchased for fortunes in 1900 were being sold for just the value of their frames by 1915. Ruined and alone, he committed suicide. Here are some samples of his paintings accompanied by the music of Vivaldi (1678-1741), who also was wealthy until the art patrons of Venice, Florence, and Rome turned their back on him. He died in Vienna, poor and alone. But his spirit, in music, is heard and celebrated every day all over the world now:

If you haven't heard of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, you're not alone. They've been deliberately buried, historically, by the French Impressionist art market of the late 19th and early 20th Century. Such immense and quick fortunes could be made by manipulating artistic taste that the temptation was irresistible. The Pre-Raphaelites were British, they often spent a whole day doing one square inch of a painting, and the two countries have been rivals for centuries. The French Impressionists could knock off an entire painting in a few days. Here's a very engaging and entertaining rundown:

The lives of artists and religious people have always been precarious. "The course of true art never did run smooth", to paraphrase Shakespeare. People are fickle, particularly the wealthy and powerful. Fashion and economics change, and the masses who follow them are vulnerable to suggestion and sudden reversals of taste. We should never expect the world to be different until Kingdom Come. But why is modern art so bad? Here's a truthful explanation. It's the Devil's candy:                            

The wise admonition, "What does it profit one to gain the whole world and lose their soul?" is now proving to be true. We've gained - even stolen - the world with our powerful technologies and brazen lawlessness. But the price has been our humanity, integrity, and understanding of beauty, love, and joyful creation; our soul. In the end we will lose it all and die. 

But if we love God and keep His commandments we will defeat death. He will resurrect us to a new and infinitely better eternal life. Our time on earth is filled with stresses, challenges, and pain. We have some pleasures, but the shadows of death, disease, and decay will fall on us. The life to come is 100 times better; filled with joy and riches beyond measure for all eternity. The lowest soul in heaven is happier than any earthly king or queen who ever lived, and more beautiful than she is:

No matter when you die, if you keep the Lord's commandments and believe in Christ, you're name is in the Book of Life and you will be resurrected into the "new Heaven and New Earth" - (Revelation 21:1 and Isaiah 65:17). All the blessed of  various races of the world will be saved on the Last Day:

 

                                            

  

Is The Bible a True Record of God's Word?

 All the evidence points in the affirmative. By far the most telling sign of authenticity is that, from the start, the earliest Scriptures record the terrible blunders, mistakes, and murders of the Hebrew people. From Adam and Eve's shameful fall to Cain and Abel to Judas and Peter's betrayal of Jesus Christ, it's often very ugly.      

Brutal honesty is rare in most literature, and especially in the histories of powerful men and women. If you're an historian and your subject doesn't enjoy what you wrote, your life is at stake. This never applied in the Old Testament. Monstrous Jewish leaders, male and female, committed heinous crimes of all kinds, even sacrificial child burning at times. King Ahab and his wife Jezebel (871 B.C.) rejected God and worshipped Baal, a demon of evil. It's all written down, the good and bad. 

The Bible's authors are all unknown, and they must have wanted it that way so they and their families would survive. And survive they did. At one time there were many dozens of ancient Middle Eastern tribes; the Canaanites, Hittites, Amalekites, Jebusites, and more. Only the Israelites survive, as God promised Abraham in Genesis, the first book of the Bible; which means, "the book of books". 

Other religions are loaded with flattering and flashy stories of human royalty and their successful military victories; gods and goddesses cavorting among themselves and frequently using and abusing people for entertainment; and numerous, confusing creation tales that can't be true or proven. The Code of Hammurabi (1752 B.C.) predates Moses and the Ten Commandments, and is a laudable exception. But it's secular, not based on moral principles or anything like the Word of God. It's a very long and useful set of laws that reflect King Hammurabi's will. The God of the Israelites speaks with a singular will that his human creation must treat Him and each other with respect and love because, "I am the Lord thy God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."  In other words, He wants us to be free; He's the singular source of all morality; He knows each of us, and we should never worship anyone or anything else.  This is the first ethical monotheism in human history. 

All our modern human frailties, weaknesses, temptations, foibles, and embarrassing failures are displayed accurately in the Bible's 5,788 year-old record. So too are the enormous deeds of goodness, courage, skill, valor, and love. Courageous women particularly stand out. Miriam and her servants saved the infant Moses from execution. There's also Ruth, Judith, and Queen Esther who saved the whole Jewish nation from extermination. It's a powerful message, that our human nature has barely changed in the whole span of history. No other Scriptures come close to the Bible in completeness. There are vastly more sinners than saints. All the world's great authors drew from it, and  still do. 

The complete Hebrew Bible is called the Tanach, and it includes the Torah; from Genesis all the way through Malachi. From there the New Testament records the lives and deaths of those who came to be called Christians. Initially it was an insult hurled at Jesus' disciples and His later apostles. 

Genesis describes God's act of creation, which more and more is being shown to be in accordance with material science. The so-called Big Bang, for example, is miraculous beyond all reason. The hierarchies of matter, light, water, earth, and early primitive life - the "days" of God - coincide with modern research. At the same time, Charles Darwin's evolution theory and all the analysis of fossil discoveries since have turned out to be unsupportable. One of the greatest geneticist/mathematicians in the world proves this:

But, you may ask, how do we know the Bible is even authentic? Maybe it's just a recent invention?  The first evidence of Hebrew letters date back to ca. 1500 B.C. and were found in the Sinai Peninsula. They were carved in stone during the time of the Exodus, and are known as the Serabit el-Khadim Inscriptions (Link)

The earliest Old Testament writings we have are sheets of silver foil inscribed with the Priestly Benediction from the Book of Numbers, Chapter 6:24-26 ("May the Lord Bless you and keep you. May the Lord let His face shine upon you...") dating from the 7th Century B.C., known as the Ketef Hinnom Scrolls, found in a burial cave.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are the second-most ancient writings from the Old Testament. There are 230 manuscripts dating from 250 B.C. onward. Letter for letter they agree with other complete testaments from 1000 years ago. From the most ancient times, Jewish scribes demanded that every hand written copy (the first printing press wasn't invented until 1440) must be letter-for-letter perfect. A major problem for writers in ancient times was that papyrus (the earliest kind of paper) is a plant fiber that can't last very long. Only stone, sheet metals, and fired clay can last for thousands of years, and these were used also to establish the truth of ancient Israel. Fortunately, there are archaeological discoveries being made every year in the Middle East and the Holy Land that reaffirm many of the Bible's descriptions of people, places, and events:

Of course, there are many doubters in the academic and social realms, but their credibility can be judged by asking them one question, "Do you believe in God?" If they don't, then no amount of evidence will have any effect on them. Next, ask them, "Do you believe in the Judeo-Christian God?" If they answer no, we can ignore their opinion. Their minds are closed to Truth. 

Aside from the truthfulness of the Bible, the second most common complaint is it's seemingly male-oriented view. The Lord is referred to as "He", and many women feel threatened by the "patriarchy", which supposedly is the source of most evil. But this complaint is actually groundless, and here's why:

Have you ever wondered how the Bible could be correct when modern scientists claim they've accurately dated the age of the earth at 4.5 billion years? God created the earth about 6,000 years ago, according to Biblical reckoning. 

You may be shocked to discover that there's a huge body of evidence proving that modern radiometric dating (the accepted scientific method of determining the age of rocks) is wildly inaccurate. Rocks from recent lava flows at Mount St. Helens, Washington; and New Zealand's North Island have been taken to multiple laboratories for radiometric dating (which measures radioisotope decay) and the tests claimed the 40 to 60 year-old rocks were several billion years old. Modern science is based on many faulty assumptions:

Four Scientific Proofs That God Created the Universe and All Life

Number 1: The so-called Big Bang is recognized by 95% of astrophysicists as an inarguable fact. In a single moment - probably 13.7 billion years ago - all of space, time, and matter came into being out of nothingness. Our minds can't conceive of this. It's a miracle of all miracles. 

Number 2: The physical universe we see at night, or through the Hubble Space Telescope, is inconceivably huge. The light that comes here from the farthest edge of the cosmos shows galaxies in their earliest stage of creation; blurry orange embryos of star groups organizing themselves. But the most incredible thing is the light shows a "red shift", which means they're accelerating away from us at nearly the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second. What is the force pushing them outward? It's a total mystery that astrophysicists call "dark matter". It's something that can't be detected, but incredibly, 

makes up 80% of the universe:

                                           

Number 3:  The DNA codes in the cells of every living thing are literally blueprints for the thing it will become. It's so unbelievably complex that until powerful supercomputers came along in the 1990s, science had no hope of understanding the DNA codes. The breakthrough came when geneticists succeeded in isolating the codes of the most basic life form that could be worked with, the tiny nematode worm. It took years, but the scientists finally detected 3,000,000 DNA "bases"; just 3% of the one-hundred-million DNA bases of the simplest worm on the planet (Link)

We humans are, needless to say, vastly more complicated. Our organs work with unbelievable efficiency and harmony - most of the time. 

The decoding of human DNA was recently accomplished, and now we know there are extremely specific molecular instructions within us that can't possibly have been accidental. Exactly like computer software it can't write itself, and the slightest error will crash the system. Mutations mean destruction in almost every case. Darwin's evolution model falls apart completely. There's no way he or any other scientists before the age of computers could have known what we're beginning to understand:

Number 4:  Thanks to supercomputers and the mathematics they can so easily work with, we've discovered an extraordinary pattern to all of nature. It's being referred to as "the thumbprint of God" and is extremely entertaining as well as intellectually challenging. If you don't enjoy math, skip ahead to the 12:00 mark:

                                                          

 

Even if we have no religious training or faith, these evidences should remove every shadow of doubt. If you think these truths are purely accidental, then you must also believe that King Louis XIV could have stumbled upon the Palace of Versailles and just moved in:

                                             

                                              

This video by one of the world's finest geneticists will explain why, thanks to modern computers, Darwin's theory is deeply flawed and can't be supported:

"It is all so dire; so terribly, unfairly, and inexcusably dire", my old and wise friend said...

 ...and he sounded like Shakespeare's character, the Prince of Denmark, in Hamlet. So many things have gone wrong in our time, and any one of them could ruin the world as we've known it. And they are today. 

One more thing we desperately need now is a poet-playwright of epic talent to  give us insight and comfort in these epic times. Words can be excellent armor and weapons for sustaining us in this spiritual war. When Hamlet says, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy" he could be talking to us about our present age.    

Hamlet goes on, "Though this be madness, yet there is method in it... Our wills and fates do so contrary run...  Above all to thine own self be true... When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions... So full of artless jealousy is guilt; it spills itself in fearing to be spilt... To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten-thousand..."   

Though the centuries pass and the costumes and scenery change, the same agonies, struggles, problems, successes and passions play out. If it were not so, the words of Charles Dickens, Henry James, Poe, Fielding, Voltaire, Moliere, Shakespeare, Cervantes, St. Paul, Jesus, Virgil, Isaiah, and Homer would have no meaning for us. Nor would the Bible, which is still the best-selling book in the world. More than five billion copies have been printed and distributed, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. What we call "progress" has little changed our sick hearts in 5,800 years. But each of us - as individuals - can find salvation and eternal life if we stand up to the mobs. Violence is often not required. But a close relationship with the Lord of All Creation is. Honesty is vital; lies are poison. 

The only essential difference between the revolution of Exodus (Moses vs. Pharaoh Ramses, c. 1446 B.C.) and modern Israel vs. the Arab world, is the sophistication of the weapons. Ordinary and healthy people yearn for freedom and liberty so they can build a life of their own that has meaning for them. Freedom of religion is vital. Slavery is anathema. But the Ruling Classes of today believe they're gods, or like gods, and they're jealous of the True God. They don't care about anything except their own power, status, and wealth. From time immemorial it has been thus:

          

Here is Al Pacino as Shylock, in The Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare:

Mel Gibson as Hamlet:

Hamlet meets his father's ghost and receives terrifying news. A fateful promise is made: 

Could our ancestors who fought for freedom be pleading with us to awaken and continue the war against the Anti-Christ? You know the answer if you have a good heart. Ask God for a new, healthy heart. 

How Large Is God? Much Larger Than His Universe, Certainly

We humans have always had a tough time imagining God's size and power, largely because we're diminished when we contemplate Him, and it hurts our pride. We would much rather deceive and aggrandize ourselves into thinking we are gods with total control over our lives. 

Ancient people felt the same sense of inferiority even though they never could have dreamed how vast our universe really is; and the truth arrived all at once, in the 1750s. Thomas Wright and Emmanuel Kant shocked the world by proving that our own Milky Way galaxy was a rotating, flattened disc made up of millions of stars; just one of several galaxies nearby which they called "island universes". This was almost as troubling as Copernicus' proof that the earth wasn't the center of the solar system. 

In the 1920s, using a vastly more powerful telescope than anyone had before, Edwin Hubble proved that our galaxy contained over 100 million stars, and there were millions more galaxies in the universe. Also, for some mysterious reason they were expanding and accelerating away from us at fantastic speeds - almost 186,000 miles per second; or 670 million miles per hour; which is the speed of light in a vacuum.                                                                                    Hubble actually was confirming the observations and proofs that Georges Lamaitre - a Belgian Catholic priest, mathematician, and astronomer - had discovered two years before Hubble. 

Now we know that our Milky Way galaxy is well over 100,000 light years in size, and contains over 200 billion stars.  Not only that, there are a trillion galaxies in the observable universe, which likely contain 100 billion stars each, and they're being pushed outward by some mysterious force, labeled Dark Energy.             Our observable universe is 13.8 billion light years in size, and began with the Big Bang, a titanic blast emanating from an atom-fragment-sized oneness.(Link)  These facts are now known as the Hubble-Lamaitre law.

This discovery was nearly unimaginable, even for Albert Einstein who stumbled onto these truths years ahead of Lamaitre and Hubble. But Einstein thought they must be wrong, and that he might be ridiculed, so he fudged his calculations and pretended it wasn't true. When faced with Lamaitre's calculations, Einstein replied, "Your calculations are correct, but your physics is abominable."  Before long, though, he told Lamaitre his proofs were "...the most beautiful... explanation of creation to which I have ever listened." To the end of his days Einstein regretted his timidity. 

We can understand why Einstein doubted himself, and must admit that these truths are impossible to fully grasp. But there's more. Much more.

Nuclear physicists have now proven that the distance between our humdrum, everyday world and the very smallest unit in its subatomic, or quantum, world is almost as vast. The fact is, we're not solid at all. We're mostly space; like steam. This is why x-rays, radio, and television waves pass easily through us. In other words, each of us is an inconceivably huge universe to the particles we're made of. The tiniest measure of all is called the Planck Particle*, an unimaginable nothing, compared to which a single proton - a tiny piece of a single atom - is as big as a galaxy. This video will explain it: 

 

See what the Big Bang really was:

 

Can there be a mind behind this network of laws and orders? Can there be a creator? Obviously there must be. Natural Laws expressed through mathematics and astrophysical observations prove to be universal throughout all creation. Curiously, though, many scientists think these truths argue against the idea of God. "How could a mind be so inconceivably huge?", they ask. "Why couldn't it be?", this author replies. 

Just as everything we do requires thought, planning, effort, and knowledge, so must the cosmos. Knowing this, are there any limits to the Lord of Creation? He is the designer of limits. Limitlessness is clearly a feature of the mind behind all we see and know. 

How powerful is God? It's absurd to imagine there are any limits to His power. Everything is His; time, space, matter, energy, dimensions of time and space and riches we can't conceive of. The revelations of Scripture have been given to us for over three-thousand years, and they've been doubted by many the whole time; today more than ever. But it's massively ironic that many sciences have now proven what Scripture has always said, like God's Creation springing forth out of nothing, and all at once; the Big Bang. Yet more people than ever reject the religious view. Why? Because wars have been fought over religion? Mankind is very good at inventing pretexts for the grand theft of others' nations. The bloodiest century of all by far, the 20th, saw atheistic wars; very few religious wars. 

"The riddles of God are more satisfying than the answers of man."  

G.K. Chesterton

Consider the miracle we're living through right now, being able to search out the universe in each and every detail with ingenious tools we built for ourselves over the last thousand years. No other species on earth has a fraction of our power to do almost everything we can imagine, and gain knowledge nobody ever had before.

*The Planck Particle is named after Max Planck, the Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist who discovered the quanta, or subatomic world of particles; the building blocks of all things in the material universe. 

                        Part  2:  The Purely Material View of the Universe

The 20th Century was the first in human history to largely jettison the spiritual world; that is, the non-material world of God the Creator. The successes of the Industrial Revolution and its genius inventors (Watt, with his steam engine; Edison's lightbulb and phonograph; The Wright's airplane) gradually persuaded people generally to turn away from religion and the spiritual life. Science and Reason effectively replaced and became a sort of god that offered material answers and solutions to genuine needs; and eventually, everything else we might want. 

However the "God is dead... and we have killed him" crowd turned to Communism, Fascism, and Nazism as a replacement. The "superman... scientific man" was seen as the evolution away from religion. Known as the "Left wing" of politics, they flourished. The Fascists and Nazis called themselves anti-communists, but both embraced socialism - Left wing central government control - as the solution to all our problems. Religion was suppressed or even crushed, because our true Creator threatens the legitimacy of any and all dictators and plutocracies. We've had over 120 years to see where these philosophies lead and to assess their outcomes. The evidence is abundant and hideous. Our world is now truly on the brink of annihilation from nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons that are now in the hands of the haters of God. 

Remember when (in the 1970s) "ecology" was the buzzword of the smart people?  The Left loved to pose and pretend that they, as certified "environmentalists", had an enlightened understanding of the earth's ecology. The Sierra Club and Greenpeace weren't yet organized crime cartels masquerading as "sensible reform" groups. But, as Eric Hoffer once observed, "Every cause becomes a movement, then a business, and degenerates into a racket."  (Link)

From that seed the whole "global warming... climate change" scam gradually grew, starting with the "population bomb" (over population) and the coming "ice age'' (Link) that splashed all over Time Magazine and the media in 1977; then the coming "global famine". 

But then the exact opposite happened as countries learned how to use fertilizers and western techniques to create abundant crops of grain. Food production technology was a great success in the third world (India, China, Malaysia, etc.) except where the communists rule. Everything they touch turns to rubbish. 

Eventually their predictions, like "peak oil" (the supposed maximum amount of fossil fuel reserves in the earth) all fizzled. Then "sustainability" was all the rage along with global climate change. Good intentions trumped everything, and focusing on results became "racist!" The results have been ruinous to our prosperity, particularly in poor countries. 

Now we see that the ultimate end for the Left is "unsustainability" and the bankruptcy they preached against. They always go for the expedient and lazy answer, casting wisdom aside and becoming total fools. They know their scam has aged way past its shelf life, and that's why every panic-inducing scheme is being used to create endless crises. "Never let a good crisis go to waste", said Rahm Emmanuel (U.S. White House Chief of Staff, 2009 to 2010). 

We're looking at a 21st Century Bolshevik revolution. It will burn itself out and take a lot of casualties with it. Do we see anywhere a charismatic Lenin, Stalin, or Hitler? No, just geriatric and dumb pretenders. 

Their age of Clintonian Camelot and Obama Super-Narcissism is old hat. Isn't it telling that of all American presidents, Barack is the only one utterly without a protégé? He was such an empty suit that nobody could or would be allowed to sit and learn "at his knee" so-to-speak. There was no substance to learn, just falsehood, smoke, and mirrors. 

The best citizens on earth crave genuine freedom, as outlined in the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the United Nations Charter. Freedom to worship our Lord and Creator is the cornerstone of all cornerstones. 

Death Is An Aberration; God Wants Us and All His Creations To Live Forever

It's marvelous to see the great temples of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Byzantium. Without mathematics like ours, and using only the most simple tools and lifting equipment, massive and hard stones were intricately cut and lifted into high places. Similarly, the dazzling cathedrals from the 11th and 12th Centuries in Europe couldn't be built as well now.

The hand-built churches and palaces of Renaissance Italy, Germany, France, and Spain are often over four hundred years old. They're beautiful and in good repair because people have always spent fortunes to travel from all over the globe to appreciate their beauty and the cultures that built them. Great craftsmen of genius designed and built for a future they would never see and couldn't have imagined. For them it would be unthinkable to build something great and not plan for it to endure through many centuries, until Christ returned to our world:

The more beautiful, delicate, and wondrous something is, the more its creator will want it to endure forever. God is the ultimate craftsman, and eternal life is the natural state for everything He makes. We men and women are God's highest achievement; for the last act of His creation - after the universe and earth - were Adam and Eve

Death is an aberration to the Lord. Would anyone want their creations to fall apart and die? There is an answer to the riddle of our decay and death. God placed in us a love for adventure and discovery that will lead us to Him if we have a working moral compass that points to the moral True North:

All people alive today have a chance to gain entry to an eternal Paradise of joy, freedom, and pleasure. Will you ask the Creator for guidance?

Two Great Forces Move Us the Most; Fear and Love

 

Love makes us feel that our lives have meaning, are good, and that others are our friends and allies. There's no better feeling in the world than being in love. We will go to great lengths for people we love, sometimes even sacrificing our lives for them. Fear is the opposite. Fear tells us that we're doomed to lose everything we love, even our very  existence. For the religious among us, fear tells us our eternal lives will be torment. 

Tyrants and other criminals know that fear is an easy tool to acquire and wield against others, and love is much more difficult if not impossible; especially if you're inclined to crime and your intentions are evil. Making others love us is possible, but requires great skill. True love, though, has a life of its own and can't be easily manipulated. So fear is the common, foolproof option if you want others to bend to your will. 

The stakes are immense in our modern world. Power, money, status, and sex are the earthly reward. Any expert at pretending to love - and willing to ruthlessly use fear to manipulate people - can rise quickly in politics. History is bursting with the names of infamous leaders who rose to the highest heights. A few hung onto absolute power until death, even after murdering a hundred million of their own citizens. Mao Tse Tung and Josef Stalin head that list. But most of the evil geniuses who attained that power destroyed themselves, their people, their nations, and everyone else who effectively got in their way. 

Our globe today is gripped by a fear so deep that it's ruining our lives and civilization. Billions are convinced that invisible threats are killing off all life on earth. The only people who disagree are faithful believers in the God of all Creation. This good and all-powerful Lord owns the universe and has a plan for everyone who honors Him. Not only will His people have life, but they will have eternal riches, power, beauty, joy, and a goodness we can barely imagine. Worldly riches are cruel fakes and counterfeits compared to God's gifts. 

This great and good Creator has an enemy, the Anti-Christ; Satan; who is bent on destroying the greatest of all His creations: faithful men and women. This enemy is a master of lies and fear, and he's using science to do it; or rather, our weak  understanding of science. Science isn't a Bible, it's an ongoing process of study, testing, theorizing, proving, and disproving. Often, scientific certainties like gravity are proven real; but then new discoveries show that there are many more dimensions to it than we knew. There's no such thing as "settled science", especially in very complex arenas like the weather, climate, virology, nuclear physics, biology, and so on. We need to think of the "scientific process" as a staircase leading ever upward. There's no Science Heaven we can ever attain on earth where everything is finally known, categorized, and finished. Only religion offers eternal and immutable Truth. God alone can grant us eternal knowledge in Paradise:

 

Several things mark the Satanic view of science. First, it's atheistic, and often anti-theistic; God-hating. Proponents have a fatal pride and assurance that everything they say cannot be questioned. Second, the greatest fears these people have are from invisible forces like gases (CO2, hydrocarbons, radon); viruses and bacteria; radiation (nuclear, solar, electromagnetic); and genetic variations formed in labs to enhance plant fertility and nutrition (GMO foods). Ordinary people can't see these threats, and with so much money available, it's easy to bribe those who would tell the truth about the scam. 

Leftist politics has spawned a trillion-dollar industry of fear-mongering - through media manipulation - which funnels government, industry, and private monies into rackets that are acquiring totalitarian power over the whole world. "Every great cause becomes a movement, becomes a business, and degenerates into a racket." - Eric Hoffer.  

Literal panic is seizing huge mobs of unthinking citizens in every country who are then manipulated into voting for and electing the minions of the Anti-Christ. Trillions of dollars are being stolen or thrown away on "climate change technologies", "infrastructure enhancements", and "anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-bigotry, and anti-transphobic" reparations; i.e., payoffs. It's the greatest criminal movement in history. 

Here's the testimony of one of the original founders of Greenpeace, one of the earliest of these panic-generating rackets:

  Facts on "Manmade climate change": 

Forgiveness Is A Two-Way Street

What if you were the child of a loving, wealthy, kind, and powerful family, but had become separated from them at birth by some catastrophe? Let's say you were born in a country - like Russia - which had revolted against the one where your mother, father, and family lived - like the United States. And now these two nations are in a hot war. 

So you had been cut off from them your whole impoverished life. The entire time you thought you were an orphan. You did what you had to do to survive, sometimes committing violent crimes. Everyone in your country had done the same. Only recently did you discover the truth of your birth, when a messenger delivered documents and proofs that you were a blood relative of this great family. Now they desperately want you back, even with full knowledge of the guilt you bear, but you're angry. Why did they wait so long to find you? Would they really want you if they knew everything you had done? How could you ever fit in? 

There are a lot of secret reports from the battlefront, and the carnage is terrible. Millions of soldiers on both sides are involved, but your country is doomed, sooner or later. Many of the dead soldiers you knew, and some you grew up with. When,  and if, your compatriots find out you're actually a blood-member of the U.S. side, they will accuse you of spying and hang you. 

The messenger prevailed and returned a message to the family that your sense of hurt and anger was the only reason for delay. 

A few days later another stealthy messenger came through the lines and handed you one last note from the Pater Familias; the head of the family. It reads, "I know your hurt and pain, which are very familiar to me, but forgiveness is a two way street. I have forgiven every transgression of yours. Can you not forgive the pain I allowed to be given you? Just know that I have reasons you'll never understand in this life, only in your eternal life to come, why your suffering was necessary and accrues to your entire benefit, one-hundred fold."  

This, good readers, is exactly the situation you and I and all faithful people are in. A huge war is raging, and will soon be over. Can we not forgive the Creator of all life, and trust that He knows what He's doing? Trust in Scripture, particularly the Apostle Paul, in 2 Thessalonians 2:

The Man of Lawlessness [Satan]

"Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God..... and he will work [dark] miracles..."

Read the whole thing here.

There are benefits for believing in God that you may not have thought about:

                                                   

We only have a limited time to act and save our souls and spirits. Don't procrastinate. Consider how timely this song was in 1969 when it first hit the charts:

Watch For The Lux Aeterna, The Eternal Light

Time is short for us. We know something isn't right. Nobody feels entirely safe in the world now, regardless of nationality, income, power, or social status. There are threats of every kind and from every direction, by design. Some are real, but most are contrived lies that you can't verify. We're living in a black hurricane of lies and condemnation. But there is a lighthouse out there, sending its beams cutting through the storm. Go to it. There you will find sanctuary and nourishment. "As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you", Isaiah 66:13. 

The Prince of This World, Lucifer, wants you to be fearful and panicked because you can then be persuaded to do things you would never agree ordinarily to do.  You can be controlled much more easily if your self-confidence is damaged or destroyed. And even more so if you're shamed into believing you're a racist, a hater, a homophobe, or a capitalist. 

Satan is "The father of lies, a murderer." Jesus, John 8:44.  He's an accuser who won't shut up or admit that he lies. 

Until recently in the western world we were entitled to the assumption of innocence, and an accuser had to present verifiable evidence in a court that you were guilty of something. But not anymore. The weapon of shame is being wielded by sociopathic individuals and authorities that command you to prove yourself innocent, or be condemned. 

This is evil, because in our modern social network world, your life can be instantly destroyed by others using false accusations, and evidence that exonerates you can't wipe away the stain of a lie. It's hard to believe, but true, that our images, all our writings, and many of our documents are stored in the internet forever. They will never go away, by God's design. 

Our present age was prophesied a very long time ago by the Lord Himself; not just the disasters, but the great opportunities we have for joy in Heaven.  

Pray to Him now, as if your eternal life, and the lives of those you love, depend on it. They do, and yours does also. 

Understand this. Our Creator's universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it's stranger than we can imagine.

When you pray with your eyes closed, look for God's Eternal Light, His Lux Aeterna. This tells you He is near. Some see it as golden light, and others white, or lime green; but it's a cool light, not a glare. Light that hurts is not from the Lord. Ask God for His True Light. 

The masses of people are marching into darkness, or a glare they think is safe for them, but it's definitely not. It's The Pit of Inferno. 

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Jesus, John 8:12

This will give you the feeling of the Lux Aeterna:

                    VOCES8. Lux Aeterna - by Edward Elgar

Latin words:  Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine, cum sanctis tuis in aeternum, quia pius es.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Translation: May light eternal shine upon them, O Lord, with Your saints forever, for You are kind. Eternal rest give to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.

(Note: It's important to know that if we love, we are vulnerable

and What are we to make of the claims of Jesus? )

We live in two worlds, simultaneously. The world we see outside ourselves, the one we were born into, is real enough to make us think it's the only one we inhabit. But that is a grave error. If a good God exists, there must be an afterlife where judgment is rendered and recompense takes place.

Our inner world; our thoughts, daydreams, sleeping dreams, and imaginations have potential reality. When our bodies of flesh die, what is left? It's then that we inhabit the other, invisible world. Which is why now, today, is the time when we must move toward God, Truth, and Wisdom.

This is why Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world", "The kingdom of God is within you", and, "You must be born again [into this inner world]".

This author has often felt the sting of pain and persecution, even to the breaking point, and has appealed to God for answers. He answered my prayers, saying, "I have forgiven much in you. Will you not forgive me? I have important reasons for allowing your suffering that you can't understand while you're on earth. But the time will come when you'll see how it worked for you and all my people's benefit. Be patient, and you will see it."