Death By Despair

I ran across a phrase that caught my attention "death by despair." After reading several articles on this phenomenon, I thought I would share this information since our nation is in a crisis, and no one seems to really care what is happening. 
 Women are the fastest growing demographic of alcohol and drug use in the United States, according to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD). As many as 4.5 million women over the age of 12 have a substance use disorder (SUD), 3.5 million misuse prescription drugs, and 3.1 million regularly abuse illicit drugs.
Prescription drug use is on the rise in U.S. More Americans than ever are taking prescription drugs, and they're using more of them, a new study finds. Fifty-nine percent of adults used prescription drugs in 2011-2012, up from 51 percent in 1999-2000. And 15 percent of them took five or more prescription drugs.
In 1999, for example, people in the "death by despair" group died from accidental drug and alcohol poisonings at four times the rate of Americans with a bachelor's degree or more. By 2013, they were dying at seven times the rate of their better-educated peers. In 2013, they also committed suicide at more than twice the percentage of people with more education and died from alcoholic liver disease and cirrhosis at five times the rate of those with a college degree.
Drug-related deaths were at 63,500 (two-thirds of these involved opioids). And, almost 45,000 suicides were recorded. Increases in deaths due to diseases of despair are contributing to declining life expectancy in the U.S. The Surgeon General stated that drug and alcohol abuse are costing the U.S. $442 billion annually.
Drug overdoses are the leading cause of injury deaths in the United States, exceeding the number of motor vehicle fatalities since 2009 (Paulozzi 2012). The rapid growth in drug mortality initially involved prescription opioids like OxyContin, often in combination with other drugs (Jones, Mack, and Paulozzi 2013; Paulozzi, Mack, and Hockenberry 2014). However, the 20,145 and 15,446 fatalities during the latest 12-month period with available data reported to involve involving synthetic opioids (mostly fentanyl) and heroin substantially exceeded the 14,427 deaths involving opioid analgesics (National Center for Health Statistics 2017).
There those who have linked the economic decline of the working class and increasing deaths from alcohol, drugs, and suicide.  The question is, does rising economic inequality plays a role in the increasing disparity among those who die from deaths of despair? Other countries have seen a decline in the economy and have not experienced a parallel rise in deaths among middle-aged people.
I am not trying to simplify the issue, but there is among this group of people the lack of spiritual training.  I am not a clinical psychologist or even a counselor.  I tend to conceptualize things more spiritually. I see clinical despair primarily as a psychospiritual crisis, a prolonged "dark night of the soul." Depression is a universal human experience. We have all felt despair during painful periods in our lives. We may occasionally despair about our job, marriage, love life, family, finances, world events, etc. But typically, this despair disperses in time, and life goes on. At least till the next crisis. When depression doesn't dissipate but instead deepens, crouches down, takes control and becomes chronic, diminishing quality of life, impairing functioning, and keeping us from moving toward our goals, dreams, and desires, it has become pathological or clinical despair. Clinical despair can be intellectualized as profound and existential hopelessness, helplessness, powerlessness, and pessimism about life and the future. Despair is a deep discouragement and loss of faith about one's ability to find meaning, fulfillment, and happiness to create a satisfactory future for oneself.  If I have been raised without instruction in the spiritual aspect of life, I am open to a world of hopelessness and despair.
Several years ago, I was asked to make a presentation on the decline of the Sunday School and the impact it was having on society--so here it is.
When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.  Judges 2:10 NKJV
Over the past two generations, society has slipped into a mold of complacency and self-indulgence. Prosperity, hope, and noble ideals were replaced with an "If it feels good, do it" attitude, we became worshipers of self, while our culture has gone morally bankrupt. The present youth generation is at significant emotional, social, and spiritual risk. Young people are eight times more likely to attempt suicide than the youth of twenty years ago, and today's youth account for almost one-third of all abortions. Is there a way to change?
Yes, there is and the problems of today can be traced to the choices of the previous generation. In the scripture reading, we have an account of a nation which forgot to teach it's children the ways of God. We can look in retrospect at the Hebrews. We can trace the present crisis back to the root cause of the problem. We can look at the factors which contributed to a generation that did not know God. We can see the parallels which exist between a culture that lived about 1100 B.C. and our present-day culture, and oddly enough the contributing factor to the moral and spiritual downfall of the early Hebrews is the same contributing factor to the current day decline in morals and religious values---Christian education is no longer critical. The Church was too busy seeking respect from the world that it slowly shifted from the absolutes of God's Word to the standards of the world. Now the Church's youth have absorbed the values of the more extensive youth culture of the world.
Why has all of this happened? Looking at the example given us in God's Word, an entire generation of children were not taught the teachings of the Lord God Jehovah. Parents, priest, and leaders failed to instruct their children in the ways of God. They were facing a moral decline. Their children did not know about the great deliverance from Egyptian bondage, the wanderings in the wilderness, and the victories over the kings of Canaan. They were ignorant of their spiritual heritage. Now they must survive in a culture that will soon absorb them into idolatrous pagans. How could this happen?
Before we can understand the present generation, we must look at the preceding generations. During the time of Moses, while wandering in the wilderness, the Hebrews based their moral standards on the Law of God. There were certain things which were right and wrong, and the people knew why they were right and wrong. Even with the rise of Korah and his band, the foundation of hope lied with trusting and believing God. This generation passed the message of the Law--- obedience to their children. They taught their children the precepts with the more significant principles behind them. They didn't take the time to explain the why's of the Law.
During the time of Joshua, the next generation grew up believing certain things were right and wrong because God says so--somewhere in the Law. They existed with an unbiblical morality: an ethic initially based on the Law but had long since lost its spiritual meaning.
The next generation concluded that certain things were right and wrong, but they didn't know why. They were moral people, but their morality was not founded on clear teachings, even though they may have memorized portions of the Law. They were unable to explain why they believed; they just knew it was what good people do. The opinion of their neighbors was more important than what God thought of them.
The generation following Joshua knew certain things were right and wrong, but they didn't care! They broke away from the rules of the previous generation. They abandoned their God. The lack of connection with the moral law was part of their rebellion. This led to moral degeneration. How could this happen?
First let me say, knowing where we are going is very important, but knowing where we are is just as important. As we read and study the life of the early Hebrews, we tend to be critical of their disregard for God. We must keep in mind that we can look in retrospect over several centuries of their culture. It is effortless to sit back and find fault with their actions. Yet we are in the same position that Israel found themselves after having entered the Land of Canaan.
Looking back to the nineteenth century we can find the foundation for the significant problems facing the world today: environmental pollution, materialism on a large scale, racism, political terrorism, the alienation of the individual, bureaucratic dominance, drug wars, moral decay, religious intolerance, and spiritual apathy.
The resentment that many in the Third World now feel toward western Europe and the United States also stems from the nineteenth century. It was useless to try to comprehend China, African, Latin American, and Middle Eastern attitudes without understanding the effects of the dominance western Europe and the United States had on the world in the nineteenth century. It is just as useless to try and understand the social and cultural problems of today without understanding the past.
The conquest of Canaan was not an act but a process. This process involved changed. Having spent four hundred years as slaves and forty years as shepherds in the wilderness, Israel is now rapidly evolving into a different culture. Many dangers were confronting them.
The first danger was the possibility of extermination. The tribes had deliberately come among hostile foes who now surrounded them on all sides. Between the Hebrews and the eastern desert lay the Arameans (north), the Ammonites (center), and the Moabites (south). Cutting them off from the southern land lay the Edomite (southeast), and the Amalekites (southwest). Between them and the sea lay two powerful peoples, the Philistines (south), and the Canaanites (center and north). The Hebrews were in a do or die situation. They must stake roots and grow till their neighbors are pushed off the map, or they will cease to exist.
The second danger lay in the change in an occupation that the conquest made necessary, and the consequent adjustment to new conditions of life. Before they had been nomads and shepherds; now they must become farmers, vinedressers, artisans, and trade folks. It was a question if they could stop roving if they could master the difficult art of developing the land into a viable way of life. Could they give up their tents and live huddled together in unhealthy stone villages and survive new forms of the disease. The change was a challenge to their intelligence, courage, persistence, and faith in God. Some of the tribes would not meet the test; Simeon reverted back to a nomadic life, the half-tribe of Manasseh, east of Jordan, was absorbed by Arameans, Ruben was swallowed up by the Moabites, and Asher changed the plow and ox goad for a set of oars, becoming practically Phoenician.
The third danger was political. The Hebrews were from the earliest days thoroughly democratic. All of the tribes were on the same level of rights and opportunities, with special privilege for none, For two generations they have confirmed their love for democratic life and institutions. They now came into close contact with the hostile Canaanites and Amorites whose type of government was an autocracy in which the ruling family owned all the inhabitants as mere vassals and used them to defend or extend their power. As the Hebrews watched these kings grow in strength and succeed in war, it became a powerful incentive to drop their loose tribal form of government and copy the nations around them. Later during the time of Samuel, they did just that.
The fourth danger was the greatest---the realm of religion. Coming fresh from the desert with enthusiasm still burning for the God who had delivered them from Egyptian bondage, brought them through the wilderness, given them victory at Jericho, and aided them in the conquest of the new land, they had one bond that made them different form their Canaanite neighbors---they worship Jehovah. But they had come into land over which Jehovah was believed to have no jurisdiction. They were in the area of Baal. Jehovah was the God of the shepherd to be worshiped by the firstborn of the flock; Baal was a farmer's God to be honored with the first-fruits of the soil. Being no longer shepherds and in a foreign land, many of the Hebrews felt they were no longer under any practical necessity to be loyal to Jehovah. This is the generation that knew certain things were right and wrong, but they didn't care.
Just suppose a Hebrew claims a portion of land in a hollow to the south of Bethel and begins to toil the soil. He buys his seed from a Canaanite neighbor, sow it by guess, and sits back and waits for the harvest. It never came; the seed rotted in the soil. He goes to his neighbor, who sold him the seed to find out what happened. The Canaanite asks, "Did you make a sacrifice to Baal who owns the field and lives in the big tree at the end of it?" The Hebrew confesses that since he was brought up to worship Jehovah, he did not. At which point he is told he will never have a crop until he sacrifices to Baal. Not being rich enough to survive a second loss he takes the advice of the Canaanite who shows him how to make a sacrifice to Baal and just happens to teach him the correct method of when to sow and how to take care of his field. Next year he has a bumper crop.
This episode makes real the danger of Canaan. There was not a feature of the new life that was not connected with Canaanite religion---religion in those days was not a separate function but a vital part of everyone's life. Everyone firmly believed that all calamities came to men because of some slight to one of the gods. It was wise for everybody to keep on the best terms with all possible divinities---which meant that every Hebrew must become an idolater. He must worship the local gods of whatever part of the land he occupied, as well as the more significant gods, the sun, the moon, and stars.
The danger lies in just this---there was nothing left to distinguish the Hebrew from his neighbors. His moral, influenced by the example of his neighbors and by the debasing rites with which Baals were worshiped, will become corrupt, and in three generations there will be no Hebrews who worship the Lord God Jehovah.
Now let's look at our present-day society. As a "Baby boomer" I have contact with primary historical sources. I can or have talked with individuals who lived in the nineteenth century, my grandparents; and those who live in the twentieth century, my parents; and those who live in the twenty-first century, my children and grandchildren. I can personally cover four to five generations of history. Do you understand the responsibility that I have to the future of this world? Do you know the responsibility that I have to preserve the spiritual heritage of my family? Do you understand the responsibility that I have to maintain what is right, honest, just, and righteous? Do you know the responsibility that I have to correct the mistakes of my grandfathers? Do you understand that if there is to be a spiritual recovery, it is my generation that has been given the means to accomplish the task?
Fifty years ago, Sunday school was the place to be on Sunday morning in America. There seemed to be no end in sight to the booming growth this arm of the Church had been enjoying for more than a decade.
By 1980, Sunday school attendance had dropped dramatically. Christian educators began to turn their attention from theory to the very practical question of how the educational task of the Church could be accomplished in an era when the Sunday school was in serious decline.
Today, things still appear to be going poorly for the Sunday school, and the question remains, what are we going to do about it? How did we arrive at such a sad state of affairs in our Christian educational process?
Over the past two generations, society has slipped into a mold of complacency and self-indulgence. Prosperity, hope, and noble ideals were replaced with an "If it feels good, do it" attitude, we became worshipers of self, while our culture has gone morally bankrupt. The present youth generation is at significant emotional, social, and spiritual risk. Young people are eight times more likely to attempt suicide than the youth of twenty years ago, and today's youth account for almost one-third of all abortions. Is there a way to change? Let's compare what is happening in our society with what took place in Canaan some 3,000 years ago.
You have been raised in a rural lifestyle. You have never lived in the city. You have never faced the problems of adapting to a new culture or way of life. You don't understand all the issues that seem to be everywhere except in your own neighborhood. One night, God calls you to move into the city and clean-up the neighborhoods. You struggle with the call but know this is the will of God. Selling everything you have you move into the roughest area you can find.
First, I want you to understand something. You personally will be blamed for most of the social and cultural problems of the day. This is regardless of your race, religion, or social standing. You see, we live in a society that must blame someone for their actions. They must have a reason for the way they act. This is just another characteristic of our society. We start labeling children in school and continue through their adult life. They have in these labels the foundation for the way they act and conduct themselves in society.
The conquest of this neighborhood will not be an act but a process. This process will involve change. Having spent your life in the country, you are now faced with a new way of life. Many dangers are confronting you, and you will soon find out that there will not be many people to support your efforts to bring about change.
The first danger is the possibility of extermination. You have deliberately come among hostile foes who now surround you on all sides. You have across the street a crack-house, on the corner the local drug dealers hang-out that sells their death, every night hookers are walking the street, and down the street in an abandoned house is the local neighborhood gang---this is your new home. You are in a do or die situation. You must stake roots and grow till the wicked neighbors are converted or pushed out of the neighborhood, if you don't accomplish this, you will cease to exist.
The second danger lies in the change of occupation and the adjustment to new conditions of life. For several years you have worked for someone else. Now you are self-employed so you can give time to your unique mission in life. It is now a question if you can master the difficult art of living in the city and establishing a business that you can turn into a viable way of life. Can you give up the quite unhurried life to live huddled together in an unhealthy, unsafe environment and survive the dangers of the street? The change will be a challenge to your intelligence, courage, persistence, and faith in God. Some people have already failed the test; some have moved back to the country, others have been absorbed by the streets, while some have vanished altogether.
The third danger is political. The Christians from earliest days have been thoroughly democratic. All believers were on the same level of rights and opportunities with special privilege for none. For generations, Christians have confirmed their love for democratic life. You are now in close and hostile contact with the crack-dealer, the gangs, and perverts all whose way of government is dictatorial in which the ruling gangs own all the streets, and the inhabitants are mere slaves to be used to defend or extend their power. As you watch these gangs via for power and money, you are tempted to resort to violence to remove them. You are frightened because you are beginning to feel that these people must be removed from society if there are to be any remains of a free and moral society left. Keep in mind; your task is not to destroy these individuals, but rather bring about a spiritual change in their lives.
It is easy to get caught up in the political rhetoric of the day. The "left" telling us we need to be more nurturing and loving. The "Right" telling us to remove these people which cause the problems---make them pay. But we must look at both sides of the issue. But what side will you be taking?
There are those who voice their disgust over the inability of today's youth to pull their lives together. The breakdown of the family; deterioration of civility in everyday life; rampant greed at a time when one in five children is poor; an omnipresent sexual culture that fills our television and movie screens with sleaze, beckoning the young toward sexual activity at ever earlier ages; the enormous betrayal of children through physical and sexual abuse; the increase in legal abortions all have changed the culture in which we live. The 1992 report of the National Research Council says the United States is the most violent of all industrialized nations. Yet, it is the children of this generation that contributes to the problems of our society.
These are the children who are growing up not knowing God. Children whose parents are divorced; who are thinking about suicide at a young age, who are sexual activity before they are teenagers; who carry guns and knives to school; who are enrolled in drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs before they are out of school; who are physically and sexually abused. The National Research Council's report states; the homicide rate for 15-24-year-old males is seven times higher than Canada's and forty times higher than Japan's. The United States has one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates, the highest teen abortion rate, and the highest level of drug use among young people in the developed world. Youth suicide has tripled in the past 25 years. Who are these children? They are the children of this generation. They are mine and your children and grandchildren.
The fourth danger is the greatest---the realm of religion. Coming fresh from the rural and urban areas with enthusiasm still burning for the God who had delivered them from the perils of sin and the life without hope, who had given them victory, and aided them in the conquest of each new day, you have a bond that makes you different from your neighbors---you worship Jesus Christ. But you have come into land over which Christ is believed to have no jurisdiction. You are in the land of Satan. Jesus Christ is the God of the old folks. His name is an expression to be used when swearing. You are no longer among Christians. You are in a foreign culture where many Christians before you felt that they were no longer under any practical necessity to be loyal to their Christians teachings and beliefs. So they stopped going to Sunday School and Church. They might send their children on special occasions, but God was no longer part of their everyday life.
Remember Israel, an entire generation of children were not taught the teachings of the Lord God Jehovah. Parents, priest, and leaders failed to instruct their children in the ways of God. We are traveling down the same road only at a faster and more dangerous rate.
David Barton, (1990) in What happened in education? Found in his research that the significant event corresponding to the downturn in academic scores, school violence, dishonesty, disrespect for authority, peer cruelty, sexual activity, and self-destructive behavior was the separation of religious principles from the public school system. Using data from the College Entrance Exam Board, Department of Education, Digest of Education Statistics, The Psychological Corporation, Statistical Abstracts of the United States, and test results from the National Merit Program reach a conclusion that the event which started the decline of the public education system was the Supreme Court decisions of Engel v Vitale (1992) and Abington v Schempp (1993). Barton shows that before 1963, remarkable stability in academic achievement, violence, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, and etc. never moved more than two consecutive years in the same direction. In 1963, however, there were eighteen consecutive uninterrupted years of decline.
Barton concludes that a solution must center on an event originating in 1962-1963 which subsequently generated an on-going policy which had a lasting impact over the next two decade. The study included eleven reviews of Supreme Court decisions concerning the role of religious principles in public school. The findings were that nothing concerning God or His laws is officially welcome in our public school system.
There is today a generation that does not know about the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Golden Rule, respect for others, respect for authority, honesty, kindness, and a host of other moral values which were once taught in the public school. They are ignorant of their spiritual heritage. Now they must survive in a culture that will soon absorb them into materialistic, self-indulging, reprobates.
Some would have us to believe that teaching these moral values is not the responsibility of the school. I would ask then whose responsibility is it? The home? The Church? If it is, where do parents learn to train their children in these values? The Church? Then why doesn't the Church seriously engage in a responsible training of these moral values and principles? Why is it that spiritual education is left to telling Bible stories, sing choruses, and playing games? Why doesn't the Church feel the importance of making a difference in our society? Why isn't Sunday School the principal arm of training, equipping and evangelism?
Are we so different from the early Hebrews? Are we so blind to the present that we will not see the inevitable fate that awaits us? In the early 1800s, there was a Biblical morality. Certain things were right and wrong, and they knew why. By the late 1950s, we see a non-biblical morality, certain things were right and wrong, but they weren't sure as to why. In the late 1970s, our society had become immoral, certain things were right and wrong, but they just didn't care. Today, we live in an amoral culture. There's no such thing as right and wrong. Every man does what is right in his own eyes.
We have arrived at the place that the early Hebrews found themselves, a generation that does not know God. It has taken us less time than the Hebrews to raise a generation that is ignorant of God.
We need to cry out to the Lord in humility seeking his forgiveness and setting the present generation on the correct course by teaching them the ways of God as directed by the Holy Scriptures.

How America Is Being Destroyed From WIthin

Back in the 1960s and even into the early 1970's I attended several anti-Communist rallies.  By the 1980's one of the lasting legacies for President Ronald Reagan during his time in the White House was his victories against communism. Reagan helped orchestrate the eventual downfall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.  I was ready to believe that we won the war with communism.  Was I ever wrong!

Have you asked yourself the question of how did America get in the mess we are in with the political polarization between the right and the left?  If you don't see this nation crumbling before your very eyes, you are blind. 

To use another expression rather than communism, I will use Cultural Marxism.  When the whole world heard "Tear down this wall!" that day on June 22, 1987, it was the beginning of the end of communism—or was it?  Since 1961 Germany was divided East and West by a wall constructed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.  American could now drop our guard the threat of communism was going to be just a note in the back of a world history book.  America had won the Cold War.

One thing I have learned about the American people we are all for instant gratification.  We like our victory celebrations.  Remember when George W. Bush declares mission accomplished from aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003, standing directly under a "Mission Accomplished" banner, President George W. Bush said, "In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." WOW! 

Here it is 2019, and The State Department ordered a partial evacuation of the United States Embassy in Baghdad recently, responding to what the Trump administration said was a threat linked to Iran, one that has led to an accelerated movement of American ships and bombers into the Persian Gulf.  I thought the war was over.

Our government has this tendency to jump the victory gun.  We did it in the 1980s, we did it in 2003, we did it in Syria.  American leaders are not long haulers.  They would be in for the short "proclaimed victory" even if we failed in our mission.  While other nations have learned the importance of delayed gratification and look down the road for victory America has not learned that lesson.   America was convinced that communism was defeated and there was no fear of what they could do.  However, the Cultural Marxist had exploited the education system of American with our liberal ideology which allowed the Cultural Marxist to access our institutions of learning where they eventually submerged our education system in the politics of communism.

Our schools of higher learning have filled our youth with the doctrine of critical theory.  We now have a generation of progressive socialist who has no idea that they were manipulated to accept the agenda to destroy one of the greatest civilizations that have ever existed on earth. 

Here is what the Marxist were able to do while we were busy looking the other way:

•    They gave us feminism, which was based on the lie of white male oppression.  It has destroyed the family unit.

Here is the Catechism of the feminist taken from Katherine Murray Millett, who was an American feminist writer, educator, artist, and activist. She attended Oxford University and was the first American woman to be awarded a degree with first-class honors after studying at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She has been described as "a seminal influence on second-wave feminism," and is best known for her book Sexual Politics, which was based on her doctoral dissertation at Columbia University.

Q. "Why are we here today?"

A. "To make revolution,"

Q. "What kind of revolution?"

A. "The Cultural Revolution,"

Q. "And how do we make Cultural Revolution?"

A. "By destroying the American family!"

Q. "How do we destroy the family?"

A. "By destroying the American Patriarch,

Q. "And how do we destroy the American Patriarch?"

A. "By taking away his power!"

Q. "How do we do that?"

A. "By destroying monogamy!"

Q. "How can we destroy monogamy?"

A. "By promoting promiscuity, eroticism, prostitution, and homosexuality!"

•    They gave us class warfare, which is based on the lie of who is the oppressor.

According to the Marxists in the Democratic Party, working-class people have been downtrodden and oppressed by the greedy 1%, and their corporations for far too long. It is time to rise up and take what is yours. Well, most are to busy playing video games, or texting on their cell phones to do much "rising up" so the benevolent bureaucrats in Washington DC (Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, AOC, and friends) plan on doing it for you.  They may find it hard to convince the downtrodden and oppressed with an unemployment rate of just over 3% because people don't like the government taking away their hard-earned money, but they will try.

The problem is that many of the younger generations have already bought the lie of who is the oppressor because they were educated to accept the Marxists teachings.

•    They gave us global warming, which is based on the distribution of wealth.

Many international environmental agreements include references to American greed and unfairness, and usually, contain mechanisms for large wealth transfers from rich to poor countries to rectify claimed injustices. In the Copenhagen agreement, the term "climate reparations" was used widely. Even Obama's advisers suggested using climate change agreements to effect "distributive justice." Some said that Kyoto would have rebalanced global power, and virtually mandated the de-industrialization of the West, as well as capped military consumption of fossil fuels, which might have reduced American influence overseas.

President Obama once told reporters his policies would bankrupt the coal sector, which provides 50% of U.S. energy. Why would he do this?  The reason the political left in America has adopted the climate scare with such enthusiasm is that some of the largest funders of their political opponents on the right are the coal and oil corporations (not the miners or oil workman).  Since oil is necessary for automobile gasoline, the oil corporations have largely escaped the wrath of the left, but the coal corporations are now under sustained assault and are already being compelled to reduce their financial contributions to the left's opponents.

As a side, note-Trump made his appeal to the miners with the promise to make coal great again and got their support based on his promise.  The miners broke with the traditional Democratic and voted for Trump.  Will they vote in the next election that will be based on what happens with the change in health insurance.

•    They gave us multi-culturalism and diversity to replace the white oppressors (Christian oppressors in particular). 

Never has there been a time in the history of our country where white people are ashamed of being white.  We have white women who have identified with being African American, and Native American Indian because they believe whites to be oppressors.

White privilege, or whiteness studies, is now an entrenched part of far too many -ology and humanities classes.  This notion of white skin privilege has become an "article of faith among progressives," who assert that "whites, by definition and DNA, would remain racists, even if unwittingly, until the end of time."  Listen to the Democratic Presidential Candidates who are white by race yet are anti-white in their speech, condemning the white race. They want you to vote for them but they are saying they do not have the right color of skin and would not do a good job-stupid.

The so-called whiteness studies bore no resemblance whatsoever to other identity-based curricula like Black Studies, Chicano Studies, and Women's Studies. These fields celebrated their respective groups, but Whiteness Studies consistently depicts whites as "malevolent oppressors of people with darker complexions."

•    They gave us environmentalism, which is more resistance to capitalist oppression.

There is an assumption among environmentalists that Marxism, holds a "productivist" ideology, and is not concerned, for the fate of the environment.  The idea that Marx and Engels were obsessed only with the conditions of workers is generally accepted by both the left and right.  However, Marx claims that thanks to the suppression of capitalism, modern societies could return to a higher form of an "archaic" type of collective ownership and production. Marx believed that in pre-capitalist societies there existed a kind of unity between the producers and the land, and he saw as one of the critical tasks of socialism to re-establish the original agreement between humans and nature, destroyed by capitalism.  The environmental issues of today are all aimed at resistance to capitalism.

•    They gave us Social Justice to destroy Christianity.

Social Justice is an ideology birthed out of Critical Theory and Liberation Theology, the product of a wedding between Italian fascists and South American Jesuits, in which Marxist thought is combined with Theism to bring about political change.

Our seminaries and Bible schools are pumping out Social Justice drones who are not able to preach expository sermons and explain the Scriptures. They are intent on 'reforming' their churches by turning them into mercy ships in the name of justice and reconciliation.

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) has an "Office of Kingdom Diversity" — a program that hosts events such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X read-ins. It exists to promote liberal ideology such as "white privilege," "white guilt," and general indignation toward a predominantly white society and its culture. In other words, it exists to teach seminarians that to be white is shameful and "whiteness" must be eradicated.

Both Marxism and social justice are based on the distribution of wealth. Communism gives the same amount of income to each person independent of competency or uselessness. Social justice advocates push for the same on issues like the wage gap and diversity.  The phrase “living wage” is tossed around like it is the solution to the poverty of mankind.  Yet, no one has been able to determine what is a “living wage.” 

Social Justice has been crammed down the throats of local churches not by pastors, but by parachurch organizations that have infiltrated churches through media outreach. Social Justice is not a move of God, or it would have originated in the Scriptures.. Instead, Social Justice originated in academic and political think-tanks in Washington and in centers of political influence.

What is sad is that so many ministers have bought into the social justice ideology without looking at where it came from and who are its supporters. It's not local churches filling the minds of young and impressionable readers with Liberation Theology it is coming from workshops and seminars held by those claiming to be Christian.  It is time to return to the teachings of the Bible and forget the politics of liberal socialist and preach the message of salvation.

In conclusion, each of these issues is critical of our established society, and the mission is to be extremely critical of the American nation, to build numbers, to level and make waste of our society and replace it with the Marxist Utopia. A Utopia free of the oppressors who are making life so 'unbearable' today.

I repeat the people pushing these issues are mostly victims. Stupid, uneducated left- wing robots like the fools congratulating North Korea on building a hydrogen bomb. Unbelievably ignorant, this is an example what our Cultural Marxist controlled schools and universities are pumping into our youth today.

The knowing or unknowing spreaders of Critical Theory have infiltrated most of our cultural institutions and now control them. Not only our schools and universities but our media and our entertainment sector. Our newspapers, our television/ radio news broadcasts, our movies, and TV series, they are there, and they're everywhere.  In short, they are members of the Synagogue of Satan and are out to destroy everything the LORD holds dear.

Here is my concern, I cannot have much influence on a generation that has been raised on the progressive socialist ideology of Marxist, but I can warn people of the importance of looking out for the education of their children and to raise them in the knowledge of the LORD.  If you value your children, you will not expose them to the teachings of the Cultural Marxist.  What we are seeing today is just a small glimpse of the impending destruction that is coming on America.  We are one election away from changing America to a failed socialist/Marxist nation.

Christians need to wake up and see the shortness of the time left to us.  If you cannot do anything more than save your family from the coming judgment you have done well. It is heartbreaking to see your children and grandchildren entrapped in an ideology that was conceived in the depths of hell to destroy mankind and separate him from his Creator.  Knowledge is power, what will you do with this knowledge?

The Seven Steps of Leaving Egypt. (part one)

1.    Worship God but stay in Egypt-   Exodus 8:24 
 Religion does not turn a lot of people on.  Doesn't this seem strange?  Even though many accept that there is a God of creation, they are not convinced that there is a hell; that people who do not make a commitment to Jesus Christ are destined to suffer some punishment as the worst of sinners; that God expects and demands loyalty; that good works accompany true faith. 

 Most people in this country take the pursuit of happiness very seriously.  It is an inalienable right.  Most of us spend a lifetime pursuing happiness.  Unfortunately, many people fail in their quest because they do not know and understand God.  They have never left Egypt. 

 Apathy monopolizes Christians as well as the non-Christian dimensions of our society.  Why is it so difficult to interest people in spiritual matters?  First, they are caught up in a condemned association.  Many people have experienced painful failures trying to find fulfillment and security in material possessions and physical pleasures.  Spiritual concepts and words do not easily capture the attention of these souls.  They have never experienced the joy of really knowing God.  They are still in Egypt. 

 One of the primary reasons given by the disillusioned and "turned off to religion" folks is that people who claim to be spirit-filled, born again, Bible-believing people, are just as unfulfilled as they are, and they are right. 

 Many folks are bound by guilt and going to church is just a walk through the performance, they never experience the new joyful relationship God intended for His children. The root of apathy among Christians stems from their initial relationship with God.  Did this relationship come about by some spiritual evolution?  Did it come from being born a Christian?  Or did it come from conviction of sin, confession of sin, and a full commitment to God? 

The Bible from Genesis to Revelation teaches a substitutional and vicarious atonement for the sin of man.  This is the only sane, logical, and scriptural doctrine of all those that are taught to man to help him in his fallen state.  The atonement of Jesus Christ should be understood as both legal and practical.   The reason and necessity for the atonement are evident when we know the love of God, His relationship to the human race, the fall of man, and his need for redemption.  The atonement is a necessity because of these truths.  We should understand the atonement as being not only necessary if a man is to be restored to original fellowship with the Creator, but that it was not an afterthought on the part of God because man fell.  It is the most wonderful pre-planned, necessary, just, authoritative, and legal work of God in all history.  The entire subject is a judicial one, and all the terms used in Scripture to express it are legalistic, such as an advocate, an intercessor, a mediator, a judge, a judgment, condemnation, pardon, justification, redemption, adoption, intercession, restitution, conciliation, law, sin, penalty, justice, and etc. 

In the fall of man, Satan appears as more than a kidnapper or slave-master holding his slaves for ransom or redemption, but he has assumed pseudo-sovereignty over a man on the principle of the consent of a responsible agent.  He governs men only by the consent of man.  His government is only by consent of the governed.  This kind of government is the only kind that God Himself recognizes or could reasonably establish with laws of rewards and penalties.  This is the only kind that could possibly be carried on with a free moral agent.  Satan became the usurper of man's dominion and assumed the position of "Prince of this world" and "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, Jn. 12:31; 1Jn. 3:8-9; Matt 13:38  The natural fallen man is bound to sin, and Satan by consent of the will is clear from the fact that when a man becomes old enough to be accountable for their personal acts they can continue in sin or freely choose to renounce sin and Satan and turn to God.  Jn 3:15; Rom 6:16-23; 2Cor 4:2-6.   They are willing subjects of sin and Satan and are free to become subjects of God and can willfully abandon the devil at any time.  But they do not because these individuals have never been freed from the power of Egypt and Pharaoh. 

If men could once and for all learn that they can of their own consent be made free from sin, and the works of the devil, that they can by their own consent refuse to be subjects of Satan and his governed; that they can turn from sin and become righteous through Christ; that they can reject and refuse defeat in their lives in any endeavor, they would reject all demon powers and doctrines; they would accept God and the truth and be made free and kept free by the power of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 

 All sinners can be transformed by faith in the atonement.  The divine life with all its love, nature, and ideals give them victory over, and freedom from the old sinful traits that are contrary to the will of God.  This is not salvation by self-effort or personal works, birth, or education.  It is a new divine life imparted by the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and faith in Jesus Christ and His atoning work.  It is a spiritual life imparted to the inner man by the Spirit.  Mere natural cultured virtues are never Christian graces and powers, for that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Jn 3:1-8; Rom 8:1-16; Gal 5:16-26.  No human development, education, or human effort will ever transform human life from life after the flesh to live after the Spirit.  Conversion is never evolutionary but the making of a new creature by the divine supernatural act.   

 If all Christians could come to see this simple and biblical truth, it would solve many problems and answer many questions concerning God's dealing with the saved and unsaved.  It would settle many differences between those who accept Scriptural authority and those who fail to see its importance. 

 From Salvation, an individual knows the joys and fulfillment of life.  The Christian's pursuit of happiness is finding and doing the will of God.  The Christian is not caught up in being a prisoner of hope, with lost dreams, an unfulfilled life, defeated, depressed, and discouraged.  But instead there is a victory in knowing that our sins have been forgiven, we have been washed in the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus Christ God's only son.  We know in whom we have believed and are persuaded that he can keep that which we have committed unto Him against that day.  We know and understand that God loves us and that He gave His only Son for our salvation. 

2.    You can go, you don't have to stay--just don't go too far.  8:28 

 Maintaining positive beliefs is essential to your effectiveness as a Christian.  That's why it's crucial to hold on to these beliefs in the face of challenges.  And make no mistake about:  Your beliefs will be challenged.  Yet while we are trying to interpret our Christian faith into the language of today, we need to remember that there is one thing worse than failure to practice what we profess, and that is to water down our professions to match our practice.  This watering down comes only when we perceive that what God has asked us to live cannot be lived because we are looking only at our human abilities and not as what God has promised to do for us.  We feel if we maintain certain respectability, then we are doing our best.  We know that we can leave Egypt, but we can also stay.  It is our choice. 

If we are to take our rightful place in God's more excellent work, then we must realize that there is more required of us than just respectability.  The foundation of Christianity is laid deeper than just maintaining an absolute minimum morality.  The old law of "thou shalt not" is superseded by the command of Jesus to "be ye perfect."

 No one who endeavors to live this life in sincerity, integrity, and purity will find it easy.  But you will find it morally stable.  Your personal loyalty to Christ will always be stronger when you are anchored to Him.  It is through this allegiance that power for life is received. This power for life enables us to make the right choices.  The ordinary individual does not understand the meaning of moral stability.  The average individual is far more likely to think of greatness and power, and the ability to control the lives of others more important than the power of a stable moral life.

 These individuals are discontent with life because they see no chance to realize this dream of power and wealth.   On a global scale when these individuals are seeking wealth and power, what do they get?  They get war, followed by economic failure.  I would think that a quick review of history would explain this cycle.  But on a personal scale, the same takes place there are small personality wars followed by failure of friendships.  The belief of how things should be, and the belief of how things are, creates frustration in our lives 

Whenever you believe what should be conflicts with what is, you're going to end up feeling frustrated.  That's what frustration is a gap between expectation and reality.

 When you are in line at the supermarket, in a hurry to get home, there always seems to be someone who must argue about coupons or some other silly thing, and you feel frustrated.  

Any time you believe that things must be different for you to reach your goals, you are going to feel frustrated, trapped, disempowered. The truth is, all your "shoulds' probably are 100 percent correct.  The reality is that many aspects of the church aren't the way they should be.  No one can fault you for feeling frustrated.  The question is what you are going to do about it.  Remain frustrated and accept dissatisfaction?  Or choose to be different?  Are you going to make a choice to stay in Egypt or are you getting out? 

 The choices we make about the challenges we face shape our spiritual lives.  You may stay with the shoulds and remain frustrated.  Or you may look at things the way they really are and seek solutions that move you toward fulfillment of your spiritual growth.  You can look at your spiritual life and see the hopelessness you are in and remain in the confines of Egypt and die.  Or you can choose to pack your bags and get out.  You must take responsibility for your spiritual life. 

Think of responsibility as a response-ability.  You can choose your response to the challenges.  If you take a position that you should not have to deal with the issues hindering your spiritual growth, you become a victim.  You choose to make yourself a victim.  You end up frustrated, bitter, burned out.  You give up.  You decide to remain in Egypt. But if you choose to respond realistically to the challenges you can find a way to have victory over them and preserve your spiritual life and keep you focused on the mission of helping get other out of Egypt this is winning souls for Christ. 

When you believe that the church is here to help meet the needs of this community, you will want to find ways to rise above the challenges.  The hardest problem you will face is in recognizing that you do indeed have a choice.  It is your choice.  It is your challenge.  It is your spiritual life that you must deal with. 

If you choose to change the direction this church has been going in for several years of never resolving issues; you can revitalize your spiritual life as well as help our church become the spiritual center that it should be.     You have made a conscious choice, which is a start in making a difference.  Don't allow your life to be made up of shoulds.  Don't have the regrets of having not ever left Egypt. 

3.    You can leave, but your families must stay.     10:10 

There is nothing sadder than seeing a family divided in their spiritual life.  Too many people have listened to Pharaoh and left their families behind.  First, this is not scriptural.  God did not plan to separate the family.  In the Book of Acts, we find that when salvation came to an individual, it came to the entire family.   

Satan knows that if he has the family back in Egypt, there will never be a strong commitment to God.  The spirit and emotions are divided between God and family.  It is all a matter of who you belong to. There are many people today who would say, "It is important to find out what belongs to you and make sure as you can that there's plenty of it."  Wiser souls would say, "It is more important to find out what you belong to.  What claims you, commands you, fulfills you and masters you." 

One of the most devastating diseases is loneliness.  It is basically a problem of belonging.  There is a significant difference between being alone and lonely.  An individual can be in a crowd and be lonely.  It has to do with being unrelated.  There is no meaningful connection with other people or with God.  Here stands an individual who is as lonely as a graveyard. 

 Paul states, "Brothers you are called to belong to Jesus Christ..."  Belonging to Jesus Christ is an aspect of relatedness, belonging to God's highest and the world's best---Jesus Christ.   What does it mean to belong to Jesus Christ?  In the sixth chapter of Romans Paul writes about our spiritual freedom in Jesus Christ.  This is not a freedom to do as I please it is a freedom from the control of sin. "But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.  Being made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness."    I become a servant of God through Jesus Christ.  "But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruits unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."   No individual is without a master.  "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servant ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness."

 The question is who my master is?  If it is not Jesus, then it is Satan.  Satan enslaves us to the bondage of sin while Christ emancipates us.  "Who the Son sets free is free indeed."  I have noticed that the farther a man get from Christ, the less of a man he becomes.  Sin entangles us.  It is a powerful entity that does not stop until we are dead physically.  Yet, the closer a man gets to Christ the more of a man he becomes.  His convictions are based on the fundamental principles of God's Word.  His character is molded in fashion after Jesus Christ.  His life is dedicated to completing the will of God.  There is a spiritual oneness and not a self-awareness-- he becomes a whole man. 

The life of Jesus exemplifies mastery and liberty.  He was the Master of the storm.  When flattered that the people want him to become king, he remained humble.  When his popularity was high and his followers many, he did not forget his purpose in coming, he continued loyal to his Father.  When his life could have been filled with bitterness, he extended forgiveness. 

The life of Jesus shows Him as the Master of circumstances.  He did not despise material values and physical comforts; he did not allow them to become his master.  Regardless of the circumstances whether it was paying taxes, fishing all night, feeding the multitude, healing the sick, raising the dead, or finding a place to sleep, Jesus was the Master of the circumstance.  Most men will struggle to make themselves independent with wealth.  Jesus Christ made himself independent of wealth. 

Was the life of Christ without challenge and difficulty?  Listen as he says, " Father if it is possible to let this cup pass..." This took courage and confidence to face "...nevertheless not my will, but thine be done."  He says to us in the world you will have tribulation be of good cheer I have overcome the world.  James Stewart, the Scottish preacher, said: "Why do you linger amid the shadows of the prison-house when Christ has opened wide the door?" 

To belong to Jesus Christ, we must be more than believers in the forgiveness of sin we must accept it as a gift from God.  When I receive the gift, I become part of a community in whose membership we find true fellowship.  We now are in the company of saints.  Saints are not people who have been dead for a long time, they are not old and feeble, quiet and unbothersome people.  Saints are people who belong to God. 

We must be part of a community bound together in a fellowship that allows for our: spiritual gifts to develop, for spiritual growth, for spiritual fulfilling, for a sense of accomplishment.  Being apart from people is, but the achievement needed to remain whole. 

 All too often though, we want to start where we should be ending.  The Wright Brother's did not begin at Kitty Hawk.  They started by studying seagulls.  Einstein didn't start with the theory of relativity.  He started with multiplication tables.  Henry Ford didn't start with the Model T.  He began by repairing bicycles.  And Wendell Phillips. . . Who is Wendell Phillips?  He was called the Prophet of Liberty.  Twenty-five years before the Emancipation Proclamation this Boston aristocrat broke with tradition and friends to oppose slavery.  He became known as the golden trumpet.  Did he start when challenged by a speech of Lincoln?  No.  He began by speaking up for one Boston mulatto who was about to be hanged for saying, Slavery was an insult to God and human dignity."  In 1884 Phillips died not hated but honored. 

Why such a change?  Phillips heard Lyman Beecher preach on the Lordship of Christ.  He was so moved that he went home and prayed.  O God, I belong to Thee; take what Thine own is, I ask this that whatever a thing be wrong it may have no power or temptation over me.  Whenever an item is right, it may take no courage to do it.  O God I belong to thee. 

We are not called to be happy.  We are called to belong---happiness follows.  We are not called to service.  We are called to belong---service will follow.  We are not called to be.  We are called to belong--- following.  Belonging to Christ, we belong to His people.  We belong to the family.  We can open our hearts, let our hair down, share our problems, feed our faith, and encourage one another.  We now belong to a cause whose mission gives fulfillment in life. 

Young people, our tempted to be excited, energetic, enthusiastic about fads, superficial interest, and small loyalties.  I challenge you today to be passionate, energetic, and earnest in the most significant cause in the universe and show your willingness to start by belonging to Jesus Christ.  Do you belong if not you can?  Keep your family together. 

 Dad, have you let your wife walk a lonely road because you would rather stay in Egypt where is take no courage to live.  Are you afraid to head towards the Wilderness where you will find a new life, an exciting journey, and challenges?  Are you content to take your family to church while you stay at home?  Keep your family together.

The Synagogue of Satan’s War on Your Soul

ISIS claimed responsibility for the Easter Sunday bombings at St. Anthony’s and other Christian churches and hotels in Sri Lanka which claimed 321 lives with over 500 injured. While the mainstream media is telling us  that this is retaliation for the March attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand which left 49 dead, the truth is that the same Satanic group is responsible for both atrocities.

The Luciferian Synagogue of Satan who lords over the world’s people and resources as the god of this world now own all major political factions and continue to concentrate their hold over all the world.

The New Zealand mosque attacks were followed by a mysterious fire at the 850-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris last week. While the mainstream media focused on events in Paris, at the same time a fire broke out at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. If you believe this was coincidental, I have some overpriced ocean front property in Indiana that may interest you.

To those who believe I am just a conspiracy nut and see Muslims out to destroy Christians and Jew here are a few things, you need to ponder.

On February 19th, ISIS attacked a Russian Orthodox church in Dagestan, killing five women. . This coincided with the Synagogue of Satan ratcheting up their anti-Russian propaganda, which has as much to do with the upsurge of the Russian Orthodox Church as it does with Putin’s Syria line in the sand. While Westerners are being told to hate religion, Russians have become more religious.

On March 30, 2019, a California man arrested in Tulsa, OK is accused of mailing more than 40 threatening letters across the country to a list of recipients that includes a Baptist pastor in Dallas.  Darnell Ray Owens, 32, of Sacramento, faces a seven-count indictment that was handed down by a federal grand jury.  Owens wrote, “I will assassinate your pastor in the name of Allah. “I will burn down Christian churches … this is a threat,” he wrote in a letter to the 13,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas, according to federal authorities. Dr. Robert Jeffress leads the congregation.

On April 18th, New Jersey a man was caught carrying arson materials into New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

There is a war that is taking place right now between the Islamic World and the political Zionist.  This war will not end until both Islam, and the Zionist are destroyed.  Twenty years ago, this was just a threat from the Muslim leadership to destroy Israel.  Today, with the war in Syria, the push to invade Iran and Israel moving into the Golan Heights has opened the door to a major war.

The prophet Isaiah says Damascus will disappear, become a heap of ruins, and see its power and influence end forever (Isaiah 17:1-3).  Nearly two million people currently live in Damascus. It paints a bleak picture. Damascus will be a heap of ruins. Few, if any, buildings will remain. The once great city will be devoid of all human life and will become home to all manner of wildlife in the absence of humans to chase them away. Worst of all, Isaiah describes a more significant regional conflict and a coalition of nations aligned against Israel.

Isaiah 17 describes more than the destruction of Damascus. It also says the cities of Aroer (located on the northern bank of the Arnon River just east of the Dead Sea) will be deserted (Isaiah 17:2). It doesn't say they'll be destroyed like Damascus. Instead, it says they'll be deserted. Perhaps these cities will be destroyed, but maybe they're deserted because the people flee out of fear.

Besides, many of the fortified cities in northern Israel will be destroyed (Isaiah 17:3). Aram, a region of Syria just southeast of Damascus, will share the same fate of these northern Israeli cities - destruction (Isaiah 17:3).   And to make matters worse, the nation of Israel will face an imminent invasion.

Because at this moment, Israel's enemies will see an opportunity to invade (Isaiah 17:12-14). Their goal? The same goal they've preached for years now - the annihilation of Israel. Isaiah says Israel will live in terror as enemy invaders approach. But by morning, all the invaders are dead (Isaiah 17:14).

This invasion described in Isaiah 17 closely resembles the war outlined in Psalm 83. In this conflict, Israel's enemies plot to wipe her out as a nation (Psalm 83:4). The following nations and their modern geographical equivalents are the same ones named in Psalm 83:
1.    Edomites = Jordan / Parts of the West Bank
2.    Ishmaelites = The Arab people
3.    Moabites = Jordan / Parts of the West Bank
4.    Hagrites = Jordan / The Arab people
5.    Gebalites = Lebanon
6.    Ammonites = Jordan
7.    Amalekites = Southern Israel / Gaza
8.    Philistia = Gaza
9.    Tyre = Lebanon
10.    Assyria = Syria / Parts of Turkey and Iraq
11.    The Descendants of Lot = Jordan
These invaders join forces to destroy the very memory of Israel's existence. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise to learn that both Isaiah 17 and Psalm 83 describe invaders who seek to "plunder and destroy" Israel (Isaiah 17 and Psalm 83:3-5, 12).

The conflict that is coming will create such a social calamity that people will rise up to defend themselves against the terrorist and will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, will turn on Christians who they will blame for the conflict.
The Synagogue of Satan hates God despises humanity and seeks only to establish the kingdom of Lucifer.  So where is the United States in all this?

  I personally believe that the reason the U.S. is not mentioned in end time prophecy is that we will suddenly cease to be a world power and will play no significant role in end time events.

The destruction of American power is most likely to occur due to an economic catastrophe that will result from our out of control debt situation. Our god is the dollar, and the Lord is going to destroy that god when the weight of our debt collapses our economy.  We are so close to collapse now that it seems impossible for our nation to survive.

So, what does this all mean to us today?  It means that time is running out.  If you have not made your choice to serve the LORD, you may find yourself among those who are His enemy.  This is not good.  The plans of the Synagogue of Satan are already in motion.  Satan is making his final move to bring about the destruction of God’s plan for humanity.  The power of evil is spreading across this planet, and every life is being touched by its destructive hand.  The only hope you have in this life is in Jesus Christ.  He has paid the price for your salvation and offers it as a gift to you.  Protect your soul and that of your loved ones by turning your life over to Jesus Christ.

Anti-Christian Politics In American Elections

Once again, the US presidential race has started with attacks on the evangelical believers.  Indiana South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg's comment, "It's something that really frustrates me because the hypocrisy is unbelievable.  Here you have somebody who not only acts in a way that is not consistent with anything that I hear in scripture in church."  He was speaking of VP Mike Pence and evangelical voters.

I would have ignored what Buttigieg had to say had he not included evangelicals in his comments.  I will not sit silently by and be criticized by someone who does not accept what the Bible declares as sin.  I have no hatred in my heart for those who commit sin.  I have no delight in pointing out to people the various sins that separate them from God.  No matter what sin you commit there is forgiveness.  The LORD does not want us to gain approval for our sin but rather find forgiveness and turn from our sinful ways. 

Buttigieg is trying to get the approval of his gay lifestyle.  He said, "If me being gay was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, above my pay grade.  And that is the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand. That if you a problem with who I am, your problems is not with me--your quarrel, sir, is with my creator."

That is like saying, If me being a pedophile was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, above my pay grade. Then blame the Creator for who you are.  I am not sure about the Christian faith Buttigieg claims to have is real.  He attends an Episcopal church—and his comments criticizing President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and the “hypocrisy” of the administration’s evangelical supporters does not speak well for his understanding of scripture.

How does Mr. Buttigieg understand these scriptures?

Leviticus 18:22 ESV You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

Leviticus 20:13 ESV If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Romans 1:26-27 ESV For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, and the men likewise gave up natural relationships with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Jude 1:7 ESV Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

1 Timothy 1:10 ESV The sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,

Mark 10:6-9 ESV But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

There was a reason the LORD gave commandments regarding sexual activity.  The god of this world Satan would use every means at his disposal to destroy mankind.  Satan incorporated into false religion the destruction of humanity by using the desire the LORD placed within man and women to be united as one.

The gods of virtually all civilizations engaged in sexual relations. In the Near East, the Babylonian god Ishtar seduced a man, Gilgamesh, the Babylonian hero. In Egyptian religion, the god Osiris had sexual relations with his sister, the goddess Isis, and she conceived the god Horus. In Canaan, El, the chief god, had sex with Asherah. In Hindu belief, the god Krishna was sexually active, having had many wives and pursuing Radha; the god Samba, son of Krishna, seduced mortal women and men. In Greek beliefs, Zeus married Hera, chased women, abducted the beautiful young male, Ganymede.  Poseidon married Amphitrite, pursued Demeter, and raped Tantalus. In Rome, the gods sexually sought both men and women.

Given the sexual activity of the gods, it is not surprising that the religions themselves were abounding with all forms of sexual activity. In the ancient Near East and elsewhere, virgins were deflowered by priests before engaging in relations with their husbands, and sacred or ritual prostitution was almost universal. Male and female prostitutes, serving temporarily or permanently and performing heterosexual, homosexual and other forms of sexual activities, dispense their favors in behalf of the temple. In ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Canaan, annual ceremonial intercourse took place between the king and a priestess. Women prostitutes had sex with male worshippers in the sanctuaries and temples of ancient Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Cyprus, Corinth, Carthage, Sicily, Egypt, Libya, West Africa, and ancient and modern India.

In ancient Israel itself, there were repeated attempts to re-introduce temple prostitution, resulting in repeated Jewish wars against cultic sex. The Bible records that the Judean king Asa “put away the qdeshim [temple male prostitutes] out of the land”; that his successor, Jehosaphat put away out of the land … the remnant of the qdeshim that remained in the days of his father Asa”; and that later, King Josiah, in his religious reforms, “broke down the houses of the qdeshim.”

The LORD GOD CREATOR placed controls on sexual activity. It could no longer dominate religion and social life. It was to be sanctified—which in Hebrew means “separated”—from the world and placed in the home, in the bed of husband and wife. The LORD's commands restricting sexual behavior was one of the essential elements that enabled society to progress. The commandments were to regulate the sexual life of the followers of the LORD started when He declared war on the sexual practices of the world that would destroy mankind.

Anyone who takes the Bible’s views on homosexuality seriously is not obligated to prove that they are not fundamentalists or literalists, let alone bigots. On the other hand, those who claim homosexuality is compatible with their belief bear the burden of proof to reconcile this view with the Bible. Given the explicit nature of the biblical attitude toward homosexuality, however, such a compromise is not possible. All that is possible is to declare: “I am aware that the Bible condemns homosexuality, and I consider the Bible wrong.” That would be an intellectually honest approach. But this approach leads to another problem. If one chooses which of the Bible’s moral commands to take seriously (and the Bible states its prohibition of homosexuality not only as a law but as a value—” it is an abomination”), of what moral use is the Bible?  If you cannot accept all the teachings of the LORD's commandments, then you do not accept the LORD.  Jesus said, “If, you love me you will keep my commandments."

Advocates of the religious acceptance of homosexuality say the Bible is morally advanced in some areas, it is morally regressive in others. Its condemnation of homosexuality is one example.   Far from being immoral, however, the Bible’s prohibition of homosexuality was a significant part of its liberation (1) of the human being from the bonds of unrestrained sexuality and (2) of women from being peripheral to men’s lives.

The Bible lists homosexuality together with child sacrifice among the “abominations” practiced by the peoples living in the land about to be conquered by the Israelites. The two are certainly not morally equitable, but they both characterized a morally primitive world that LORD set out to destroy. They both characterized a way of life opposite to the one that the Creator demanded of Israel. Finally, the Bible adds a unique threat to Israel if they engage in homosexuality and the other offenses of the Canaanites: “You will be vomited out of the land” just as the non-Jews who practice these things were vomited out of the land. This threat “suggests that the offenses were considered serious indeed.”

Christianity cannot make peace with homosexuality because homosexuality denies many of Christianity’s most fundamental principles. It denies life, it contradicts God’s expressed desire that men and women cohabit, and it rejects the root structure that the LORD wishes for all mankind, the family.  The LORD has given us a choice “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse, and you shall choose life.” Christianity affirms whatever enhances life, and it opposes or separates whatever represents death.  So, as a Christian, our concern is with life.

What is amazing about the discussion of homosexuality is that gay men are not seen as the enemy of women.  Homosexuality has an adverse effect on women.  Where is the outcry from women?  In societies where men sought out men for love and sex, women were relegated to society’s periphery. For example, ancient Greece, which elevated homosexuality to an ideal, was characterized by “a misogynistic attitude,” in Norman Sussman’s words. Homosexuality in ancient Greece, he writes, “was closely linked to an idealized concept of the man as the focus of intellectual and physical activities… The woman was serving but two roles. As a wife, she ran the home. As a courtesan, she satisfied male sexual desires.”

In medieval France, when men stressed male-male love, it “implied a corresponding lack of interest in women.  The women of Arab society, where male homosexuality has been widespread, remain in a notably low state in the modern world. This may be a coincidence, but common sense suggests a linkage. So, too, in traditional Chinese culture, the low state of women has been linked to widespread homosexuality. As a French physician reported from China in the nineteenth century, “Chinese women were such docile, homebound dullards that the men, like those of ancient Greece, sought courtesans and boys.”

So, Mr. Pete Buttigieg, I trust your understanding of government is better than your understanding of scripture.  Your theological views on homosexuality are not compatible with historical Christianity or with the scriptures.  Historically any nation that has accepted a sexual lifestyle that is contrary to Biblical teachings has suffered judgment at the hand of God.  It is men like you, Mr. Buttigieg that has brought moral decay to our Nation.  It is my prayer that your political career will end, not because you are a homosexual but because you do not honor God.  You have changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served your own self interests.