Reviews by Hubie Goode: The Life and Times of King David

The Life and Times 

Of King David

  

David, Israel’s greatest leader, defeated the Philistines and subdued them, breaking their power forever. His gifts as a poet, soldier and statesman make him, of all Israel’s kings, the most beloved by his people and the most respected by his enemies.

A brilliant leader, decisive and just, David transformed Israel from a weak and divided kingdom into a formidable empire. This transformation paralleled his own progress from shepherd to king. Throughout his life he was loyal to the Lord and the prophets, a fact that brought him victory against his foes and forgiveness for every human weakness, His colorful court history, written by a close friend, makes him better known to us than any other Old Testament person.

David was indeed, the Lord’s anointed one.

Toward the end of the eleventh century B.C., Israel was finally getting a leg up on its hated enemies, the Philistines. Under the direction of King Saul, several victories had given them the advantage in the foothills and valleys of central Canaan. Saul, however, butted heads with the prophet Samuel more and more. Samuel felt that all too often the King had ignored the special privileges of the prophet’s position. Samuel was soon told to anoint a new monarch for the young kingdom of Israel.

“I repent that I have made Saul king,” said the Lord to Samuel, “for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commands.” He ordered Samuel to go to the land of Judah “to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.”

Samuel feared that Saul would kill him if he learned of the selection of a new king. The Lord reassured him and Samuel then headed for Judah. When he arrived the people were alarmed to see him. The elders came to him asking if he did indeed come in peace. He told them he had come in peace to sacrifice to the Lord, and requested that Jesse and his sons be present.

But when he saw the seven boys that Jesse brought with him, he told them that the Lord had not chosen any of them.

“Are all of your sons here?” Asked Samuel.

“There remains yet the youngest,” responded Jesse, “but he is keeping the sheep.”

“Send and fetch him,” ordered the prophet and David, who was “ruddy... had beautiful eyes, and was handsome,” was brought in.

“Arise, anoint him... this is he,” said the Lord to Samuel. The prophet did as he was commanded and... “the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.”

The Negeb landscape where David hid from Saul

David was then sent back to the hills, where he wandered with the flock of sheep and goats during the day seeking good pasture. The wells in the hills provided the water the animals needed.  In the summer he would sleep with his animals under the sky, curled up in a sheepskin coat. The winter months were guarded against with a tent, cave or stone sheepfold. He ate lots of bread, cheese and olives. The hours were long and lonely and David used this time to play his lyre and write songs. He also gained a widespread knowledge of the territory and rugged terrain of Judea.

As a shepherd he carried a studded club, almost three feet long to protect the flock from predators, and humans alike. He also carried a leather sling which he had made himself. He could throw stones for a considerable distance with it, and developed a great accuracy. With it he could warn an errant sheep of going astray or fell a wolf, bear and even a lion. In his day this is a close as one came to missile defense systems, but it was accurate nonetheless.

David continued his life as a shepherd even after his anointing by Samuel, while at Gibeah, only seven miles away, Saul, unaware of David, continued to war with the Philistines. Breaking with Samuel he fell into deep depression. At times, he approached madness, for the Spirit of God had left him and an evil spirit tormented his mind. His servants suggested that music may indeed clam his mind.

“Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me,” ordered Saul.

One of his men answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse who is skillful in playing and the Lord is with him.”



David was sent for and brought to the castle at Gibeah. It was more of a fort than a royal palace in design and was only two stories tall and rather plain in decor. David played his lyre and sang for the king, and, as his servants had hoped, “Saul was refreshed and the evil spirit departed from him.”



Saul came to love the young musician, in a way of admiration and gratitude, not philio. He then appointed the young boy armor bearer. But David never forsook his families’s duties and traveled back and forth from the palace to his father’s home to care for his sheep at Bethlehem.

Valley of Elah



David was then attending to the flock while Saul was arrayed for battle against the Philistines at the Valley of Elah, in the foothills of the Judean mountains. Three of David’s brothers were in the army of Saul. David’s father sent him to them with some parched grain and ten loaves of bread as well as 10 cheeses for their commander. “See how your brothers fare,” charged Jesse.

As David arrived he could hear the clamor of the Philistines as they lined up for battle. He left his gifts with the keeper of the baggage and searched out his brothers. He ignored their commands to leave and when Goliath stepped out to challenge the army, David was in its ranks.

Goliath challenged them to send their best man out to go mano a mano with him. The bet was for the victor of the fight to the death to lead his people into mastery of the populace.

These sorts of duels between warriors, to decide  the victory between two armies were common place. Sometimes the duels were only between two men, as the term duel would suggest, but at other times they involved groups of elite fighting men who would face each other. The soon to be King David would himself have a group of three men who were such a team. They were known as his greatest warriors. Commanders often loved this sort of thing for it cut way down on military attrition of soldiers. When one considers that an army may have only 12,000 soldiers, it is easy to see why this was the case. The Israelites however, rarely practiced this custom.

David and the slingshot

Goliath was about nine feet eight inches tall. He had the best armor, a bronze helmet and had chain mail that weighed 150 pounds. Greaves of bronze adorned his legs and a huge spear was slung between his shoulders. The spear was so large that its head weighed 20 pounds or so. Just image how long and thick this rod had to be in order to be effective.

No one answered Goliath’s challenge. But David, standing close by, wondered aloud who the hell this Philistine with a foreskin was who dared to challenge the armies of the living God! Saul himself warned him to check his mouth and get back to daddy, but David instead ran out to meet the giant.

Using his field tested missile defense system to the amazement of the armies surrounding him and the giant, he actually felled the Philistine.  He then ran over and beheaded the giant. In the time it takes to throw a stone, the Philistines had lost the battle and a hero was born.

David beheads Goliath

Jonathan, the prince of Israel, was deeply impressed and gave David his best sword, girdle and bow. They made a covenant of friendship that day which would stand the test of time.

more on David and his lifetime in the next segment.

Sex, Lies and Indifference Part 3

Sex, Lies and Indifference

part 3

“... For if God did not spare the Angles when they sinned, but sent them to Hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgement; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others: if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly, and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men.... if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue Godly men from trails and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgement, while continuing their punishment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.”

“....They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed. ....”

“...These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words, and by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity - for a man is a slave of whatever has mastered him. ...”

 - Excerpts from 2 Peter 2 

The Lies of Baal 

One of the first questions we have to answer for ourselves when we consider our lives and the paths we take along life’s highway is this: Who are we going to believe? I have discussed in this blog the problems of our educational system, atheist beliefs, Darwinian Evolution and several other so called truths about our reality here on the planet Earth, and one of the main subjects that always comes up is, “Who are you going to believe?”

In education, a man named Gregor Hegel, a known atheist and existentialist, got his grubby little hands on our education system and its methods of operation, and today we have a major mess on our hands for future generations; that is if indeed there are any future generations. Hegel is also known for his philosophy of finite and infinite reality. He would tell you, “A person cannot know the infinite, for man is finite and cannot know the infinite.” To many, that makes good sense. What he fails to mention is that the infinite is NOT some cosmic jelly floating around in space. The answer to him, of course, is that God is indeed infinite and capable of making himself known to the finite, namely in this case, mankind. God himself has made it clear that this life we know of is HIS  universe, not ours, and in order to be a part of the eternity before us, we MUST know him. There is no such reality where you will NOT bump into the “inconvenient” presence of God. Also, it is not in his nature to require something of you that is impossible, when that happens, he has been known to take it on the chin himself. Hegel wouldn’t tell you that, because he was an atheist. Therefore, “Who are you going to believe?”

A very long time ago, there was a major move of “religion” among the inhabitants of the earth. There were many different peoples of various names and various places all over the known world who, under myriad names all felt the need to worship a deity that is, essentially the same thing, no matter where it originates from, it is named “Baal”. 

King of Porn

Baal worship entails all the worst aspects of pornography, human rights violations, abuse of women, and also children, not to mention murder of the innocent. There were great temples where worship was all inclusive of prostitution. Men and women actually served at these temples where getting your next orgasm was an act of worship. Huge sexual orgies would take place all in the name of the local “Baal God”, and this is not to mention the Asherah phallic symbols erected next to the altars of Baal. Ashera (Asteroth) was the wife of Baal, the female counterpart and her symbol was something like a huge penis, in reality probably a large tree with no branches or leaves. Since Baal was all about rampant sex practices, it’s no stretch of the imagination to see that Ashera poles are exactly that, a big penis.

Baal worshipers also sacrificed children. They would place their own young in the flames of the idols mouth (furnace) while either singing loud hymns and or playing lots of loud drums and other instruments in order to drown out the horrified screams of young babies and kids who were burned to death in worship of Baal. Stop and try to imagine that kind of scene for yourself for just a moment. If you have a child, try to think about that when you next read them a bedtime story. Reprehensible, right? How much anger and fight would you have if you were there at such a sacrifice? And yet, this is fully historically documented as the way things used to be. All for an orgasm. 

Were these people lied to? Well, you and I would think so today in our day and age. Or at least we SHOULD think so. But try to remember what I have just told you about the diamond trade. Will you stop buying diamonds for anniversaries? Will men stop using diamonds to propose marriage? Why should they, its what we’ve always done, no matter the lie.

Baal, like Gregor Hegel, would have you believe that the universe is really OURS. We can have all the promiscuous sex, drunken parties, laws that protect immorality and tolerance of offensive behavior that separates us from God, all we want. There will be no recompense. God doesn’t exist so eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. Or do we?

Baal worship is all about licentious behavior (besides other things), and the big problem is that it has mankind by the “short and curlies”. Sex is tough to fight. Sex is tough to ignore. But mostly, sex is perhaps the biggest tool to use in keeping you concentrated on the physical and ignoring the spiritual. Like a drug, it calls to you, it drives you, it even has a place in the creative process. Some of the greatest works of man have been formulated out of the sex drive channeled into creativity. This is hard to ignore. Music is a prime example. Some of the best classical music even has a “sex drive” to it that echoes the flesh. Think about that, why does some music please you and other music leave you flat? It has to appeal to your flesh, even in your individual predilections of music. And that’s just one example.

Let’s take a look at this attitude right out of the Bible...

“But she carried her prostitution still further. She saw men portrayed on a wall, figures of Chaldeans portrayed in red, with belts around their waists and flowing turbans on their heads: all of them looked like Babylonian chariot officers, natives of Chaldea. As soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. After she had been defiled by them, she turned away from them in disgust. When she carried on her prostitution openly and exposed her nakedness, I turned away from her in disgust, just as I had turned away from her sister. Yet she became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of a horse. So you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when in Egypt your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled.” 

 - Ezekiel 23:14-21

Sound like porn? You bet. (Notice this is sex outside of marriage) Don’t be shocked, the Bible is full of sex. Not much changes in mankind’s state. The clothes and the names change, the industry gets more complex, the technology is born in efforts to satisfy the imaginary. But mankind doesn’t change much.

Much of the known world was focused on the above concept of pleasing the physical drive and desire. They had absolutely no idea of any other type of spiritual reality beyond that which served their own lustful desires. Sex was chief among these desires, and as an addicted and brainwashed  commonality, there would be no turning them back, even at the expense of killing their own children.

Just Leave Us Alone to Do What We Want 

Times were different then, of course, and all one needs to do to realize this is to look at some of the stories of the Israelites as they traveled through the desert and into the land God had promised them which was hugely populated by sex addicts. Yep, sex addicts. 

One of the other great questions you have to ask yourself, if you don’t believe in the truth of the stories of the Bible, then: “What are you going to do with the Jews?” Set apart to be a living example of the reality of God’s relationship to man, they are a fine example of all that is wrong with the inner life of mankind. If it had not been for the existence of the Jews, none of this I am writing today would have any significance, but you can’t ignore them, warts and all. The Jews are here, and we have the example of their history and their relationship to God, down through the ages. 

In their invasion of the promised land, they had to commit all sorts of human rights atrocities. They were ordered by God to burn down entire villages, to hunt down and kill even women and children. They were invaders from a far off land. What did the inhabitants of the towns in that part of the world have to do with the Israelis? We’re all just happy to be sitting here having our Baal worship, our orgy festivals, our child sacrifice. Just leave us be. Tolerate us, we have the same rights that you have. But Joshua and his men overran everything, they did indeed chase down helpless women and children and put them to the sword. Can you imagine the horror?

Who were these people? Well, if you follow the Bible, they were Israel’s brothers and sisters. They weren’t set apart by the promise to Abraham, but the same blood ran beneath them. They were all the descendants of Noah, as you and I are also, according to the Word of God. But, “Who are you going to believe?”

Asherah Poles Today?

Much time passed from the days of Noah until the days of Israel’s invasion of the promised land and the people had long since forgotten that they had any attachment to Noah, or much less God himself at all. Well, neither did Egypt, they forgot Joseph rather quickly. So this is not unheard of.  But look at where the descendants of Noah  ended up, and this was fairly common. Egypt had its sex rituals too, but they were more interested in death. Do we have a fixation with sex and death today? Hmmm...

Notice the human skulls beneath Asherah

Here we have the descendants of the righteous Noah, worshipping the sexual rights of Baal and killing their young in thanks for this weeks blessings, or orgasms, depending on how you view this sort of thing. They were miles away from the  position God would have them be at, and he ordered them destroyed. In our day, its hard to imagine this sort of thing would have been necessary, surely we could have rehabilitated them, surely we could find some more humane way of stopping their hedonistic ways. But why would they even listen? Sex is tough to fight. They had always done things that way, and it had them trapped. The lie became the truth.

Considering further, there is the story of Ruth.  Here you have a young woman who was married to one of the sons of another woman named Naomi. Naomi had a husband herself, and two sons who were both married. At one point they all moved from the town they lived in due to a famine that was happening, and they lived in a another place as a family. Eventually all the men died. The wife, Naomi, was left with the two daughters in law, and she told them she was returning to her former home and the two girls should go back to their own former homes. One of the daughters eventually goes home, but Ruth demands to stay with Naomi. In fact, Ruth gives up her entire life to remain with her mother in law. Ruth deeply loved Naomi, even though they were only marriage relations (despite the long term genetic ties). Naomi agrees and they both return home. Eventually Ruth meets a man and marries him , then she becomes a part of the lineage that leads to King David. 

My point here is that you had two women who loved each other. Were they lesbians? No, Ruth marries a man of stature eventually. But notice how it is totally possible for a woman to love another woman. It is also possible for a man to love another man. In Europe you just might be greeted with kisses on both cheeks, man to man. This doesn’t make them homosexuals. Here in America, we tend to stand at a bit of a difference from each other as we chat socially, but Europeans will get right up in your face, they have no such social space between them. So here’s the question: Is it possible to be a homosexual without the sex?

As I have said, we are supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves. This means we care for other human beings with the same magnitude we would for ourselves. Labelling of “man love” and “woman love” as only a sexual thing, robs many a lonely person of physical social contact. A hug can be seen, eventually as only something “homosexual”. That’s a sad thing. Things aren’t this bad yet, but as I have illustrated so far, when the sex act and the sexualized life become the main focus of our lives, it takes over. It directs and drives and even begins to make decisions in our lives based upon it’s stifling, redundant demands.

One need only look at young girls, 4 or 5 years old  who are given high heel shoes to wear as fashion, or even worse, those beauty pageants for children, to see that over sexualized thinking is taking hold in our society. Why is this dangerous? Because it always has been. And the increase in  the homosexual component of our society is in direct result to this rise in the “worship” of sexualization. We’re lead to believe that it’s all a matter of tolerance, but who are we to think that we are any better or different than the  myriad of societies that have all come before us? People have been people forever. We’ve all had sex forever. We’ve all fallen for many of the traps and inconveniences sex provides to us, even ancient peoples. Why should we feel we are any different? Any superior? Is there perhaps a big lie happening right before our eyes? 

Aristotle the Opinionated

You know who Aristotel was, he was the teacher of Alexander the Great. Alexander captured most of what was the known world in his lifetime. Aristotle philosophies have influenced much of the western world of thought, even in our day. Did you know that Aristotle once lived for a time on the island of Lesbos? You know Lesbos, that’s the island where we get the term “lesbian” from. According to a book on Alexander, Aristotle is quoted as saying, “Lesbos was a vast intellectual wasteland.” That’s some tough stuff, for we know today that such a thing is not necessarily the case in our society. We have many smart women in high end fields of industry, finance, and yes, of course the arts, who openly claim to be lesbian. It’s a curious thing how many who claim lesbian and homosexual proclivities have an abundance of talent also. But let me ask you, have you ever seen any of the great works from Lesbos? Where are the great temples? Where are the cities built on a hill? Where are the paintings, literature and other historical remnants that most societies leave behind? And lastly, where are their descendants?

Isle of  Lesbos

Well, the last question is a bit of a stretch, because obviously there would be none. Your right, they can’t reproduce. But with a surrounding society of productive industry, the homosexual element flourishes. The “cushier” things become, the more sexual dalliance rears its head. In the end a society of lesbians are all dead. Lesbos is a fine example of how the sexual element is paramount. It IS about sex. And as we have seen, when given primary place in our lives, sex takes over. History has shown this over and over again. And for nations like Rome and Greece. It eventually  puts and end to them, or at least has a primary place in the dissolution.

But let’s talk science for just a moment. There are elements of the blood called androgens (and testosterone) and estrogens that belong solely to men and women respectively. I remember when I was a little younger, I dated a young lady in her twenties who had not dated all that much in her life, and we hit it off quite well. Back then, I was quite the kisser (no, really!) and of course since we were close we kissed a lot. Incredibly, this twenty something young lady, who had always had a certain breast size for most of her adult life, had developed a whole cup size within a few years of our relationship. We were both amazed. Well, as it turns out, this was always in her potential, but the trigger for development had never been thrown, so we were told by a physician. How did we throw this trigger?  We traded spit, of course, and in doing so received  those blood elements of androgen and estrogen from each other. Little does anyone really suspect the role such things play in the bonding of two people. Just try to remember a bad breakup you have had and how rotten you felt for a time after you no longer saw this person anymore. Part of that lousy feeling is chemical withdrawal. Men and women were made this way, this was no million year long evolution for keeping people together. And, of course, this works for trading other body fluids, too, but I think I have made my point without going there. 

I am not one who agrees with the Catholic Church in the idea that marriage is only for procreation. No, no... it is also the bonding of two people who become one. They have sex with only one person on the planet and they trade physical intimacy, body fluids, emotional ties and deep knowledge of each other. This is the "glue" which helps to cement the relationship. Multiple partners destroy this ability. Scientifically, according to the blood, men can’t trade the correct body fluids among themselves and neither can women. And I haven’t even pointed out the fact that the sex organs are very determinant. 

Now, in a universe where there is no creator, no ultimate authority, none of this matters. Go ahead, have all the homosexual unions you want. But then you would also not need all those psyscology studies and  entire websites with volumes and volumes of “intellectual figuring” to defend the “homosexual right”.  Innocent people don’t defend themselves. If you have an attraction to the same sex, your creator would like you to come to him with the matter, he knew you before you were born. It’s no accident that you have the sex organs you have, and those determine your sexual destiny, whether you like it or not. It’s not OUR universe. 

Let me just say right here, as I have defended those who are different races who “love each other” and the science facts that there really is no such thing as race, I also stand for the people involved in this subject. Those who claim homosexuality are part of the human condition, but they are still people we are to love. And I mean love as in taking care of them, not in the “sexual” way. They are NOT to be threatened, bullied or treated as something less than human, because they are INDEED human, and our bothers and sisters. They also need God as much as you and I, and to throw hate their way is to show them the opposite of a loving creator. Hate is never an option.  

WTF?

We as human beings have a strange, weird connection to sex. Just look at the language we use. When we are angry or frustrated, we often come out with  the “F” word. “F*** you”, is a consistently common  curse with many, many people, and yet, how many of us think about the fact that it is hate language. How can we curse someone with F*** you, when you and I both know we LIKE to indulge in this activity. You know you do. So do I. But if you have ever gone to a Seth Rogen movie, you know he uses the term like a machete. He stabs and stabs with the F word over and over again. How can people WANT to see this in a movie? Why is it cathartic? It feeds something within doesn’t it? It actually relieves something in there, in our mind, spirit and emotions. Doesn’t it?

It’s the same with cursing using Jesus’ name. How many movies have you seen where the fight brings out a “Jesus Christ!” cursing? Have you ever considered how nothing else works like that one does? You can’t say “Mohammed! Get the F*** out of here!” It doesn’t work. Neither does, “Buddha! Get the F*** out of here!” Only “Jesus Christ” is cathartic. And that’s for everyone. Movies prove it. That, my friend, is called “empirical evidence”.

What does that have to do with sex? Well, its interesting how we as people are connected to and satisfied by that kind of cursing. Especially the cursing involving the name of Jesus. This proves our connection, at least on some level to God and Jesus and not something or someone else. Consider that the misuse of  the sexual part of our lives may also be much in the same vein as the cathartic use of cursing in human society. If we are not using sex as the creator of our own bodies designates, this may indeed be cathartic  for many. It’s a way of “slapping God” in a form we are indifferent to understand. 

So, no matter what we are talking about; be it believing lies about diamonds meaning love, pornography  being harmless and homosexuality being natural and normal, it actually feels good and right and normal to our fallen state against God to believe so. Once we all realize how these deceptions actually produce hate and separation among us and also God himself, we can being the process of deciding, on any of these issues, “Who are we going to believe?.........”

“.............hate, ....or love?”

Reviews by Hubie Goode: Europe's spiritual death, great falling away, religious liberalism, Julius WellHausen

The Wellhausen Agenda

part 3

It wasn’t long before the inception of Religious Liberalism that it jumped the pond and soon began being preached in old-line denominational churches, colleges and seminaries of the east coast United States. European intellectuals made the case that a new understanding of the Bible was indeed progress and would bring about a marvelous new humanism that would deliver America from the shackles of “dark ages” thinking that had held them back.

Scholar J. Grescham Machen reviewed those days and the coming liberalism to the Methodists, Anglicans, and the Presbyterians. He reminded us of what religious liberalism really is. Valiantly holding to the Word of God, he announced to those churches the degree of chicanery that was inherent in religious liberalism. It went about promoting itself as Christianity but was in fact a wolf in sheep’s clothing. In much the same way George Orwell outlined the re-definition of terms in his classic novel, 1984, this liberalism used the same terms, i.e. “Christ”, “God”, “Bible” and “inspiration” to mean something other than what had been the traditional meaning for the use of those expressions.

One must hold fast to the hope and prayer that the ordinary man of our time will not be forced to adhere to a religion which is in fact “Neo-Christianity”. We must all stand tall and fight against the bastardization of the true Christian faith, for woe be to us to believe one thing and live quite another.

Machen wrote his book, Christianity and Liberalism in 1924, but for many of the day the warning was too late. The arguments of religious liberalism had already insinuated themselves within the educational structure of society. Not surprisingly, in the wake of the so called intellectual revolution of the times, many of the famous thinkers and philosophers of the day had their own ideas included in religious liberalism. This so called progress went as follows:

1) Darwin’s teachings on evolution are indeed fact, despite a weak presence of evidence, and because of this, we know that we are here due to evolution.

2) Because we know that we have evolved, then the brain must also have evolved, along with the mind of man, and therefore we have moved from the simple of the past to the complex of the present and then on to the future.

3) Therefore, since the mind of man has evolved, then it follows that his ideas, concepts and understanding has also evolved and matured. (This of course is evidenced by the fact that we have done away with war, hatred, conflict, prejudice, insanity, injustice, yadda yadda....)

4) If the ideas of man have evolved, then also our understanding of God must evolve. God used to be a tough taskmaster, but now he is a God of love.

5) Now that God is all about love, the idea of sin is anachronistic. Sin is not a violation of God’s law, God cannot be offended. Therefore, sin itself is sort of like Santa Clause, something made up when we had an immature understanding.

6) Therefore it is education that is the real salvation, not forgiveness and redemption, but re-education of a higher form. The spark of divinity is already in man and just needs to be fanned into new flame.

7) As we pursue new enlightenment, the old ways of war, hatred, famine and the like will become as anachronistic as our old ways of thinking about God.

“Every day and in every way, I am getting better and better,” was the Freudian chant of the day, and I am talking about inside of churches. The Power of Positive Thinking had yet to be written but the audience for its readership was already in the making. Encouragement, optimism and perspective tricks were the new clarion call of the day.

What had existed for so long as the mainstay of Christianity was now redefined as “butcher shop” religion, and the masses bought this lock, stock and barrel. It was now all about expanding a persons thinking about himself and his human possibilities. Check your local book store, the self-help section is quite large and has been large for over 70 years now. This stuff sells books. (If nothing else)

Not only Darwin and Freud were involved here, but Karl Marx as well. Marx’s “social Darwinism” promised the improvement of humanity if people would sacrifice themselves unselfishly for the good of the commune. Religious liberalism was a strange bedfellow of the political left and the conservatives of the day saw this as nothing but a Communist front organization influence upon the American public.

Fortunately, liberalism had not won the battle in the United States at this time. Frontier Christianity upheld its strong doctrine and allegiance to the infallibility of scripture. Toward the end of the 1800’s, the preaching of persons like Dwight L. Moody had a profound effect upon the masses of America. Colonial America was not so easily shaken by the ideas of Europe and held fast to the essential true nature of scripture and the inspiration of the Bible. This is not surprising, as there are no atheists in fox holes, and pioneers of the day had to make their way in a wilderness, they weren’t comfortable on the couch like the Europeans were and keeping their faith true and correct was something akin to daily bread, sometimes the only daily bread.

The result, as we all know, was the brith of the fundamentalist movement. Young preachers from all around the country began pressing forward against the poison of the encroaching liberalism. They saw the dangers of accepting the ideas of evolution, Marxism and Bible denying liberalism. New churches spread like wildfire and new denominations sprang up all around the country as an ebb tide of resistance formed.

These believing preachers postulated on five points in the battle against liberalism:

1) They preached “verbal plenary inspiration” as the way that God made the Bible. A person could trust every word, for scripture could not be broken due to God’s protection and the life or death seriousness with which those who delivered the message and those who copied it took the “Words of God.”

2) They preached the deity of Christ. Due to the romanization of Christ in many art works, and a few other references, the liberals were stating that Jesus was born of a Jewish girl and a roman soldier. This made fundamentalist preachers livid as they took this as flat out blasphemy. We all know what someone who is Jewish looks like, for the most part, and scripture itself says that he looked like any ordinary man. The blue eyes are possible, but I say, improbable. Regardless, the main point is of course, Jesus birth by divine means.

3) They preached the finished work of the cross. The shed blood of Christ at the cross was central to everything. To minimize the role of Christ’s sacrifice was similar to slapping someone’s mother. When this argument is put forward, it covers all roads leading back to the main point of the very existence of God. But in the interim to getting there, you also deny his great love for you and me and his insistence on seeing us brought back to a proper place with him in the whole of our reality. This is not a gift to be taken lightly.

4) They preached salvation by grace alone. Salvation by works was contained within the liberalist message and once again, was a slap at the personhood of God and also his sacrifice. If you could bring about that restored relationship yourself, then not only was Christ’s sacrifice simply a nice gesture, but you and I share a plane with the creator himself. That’s an inescapable point of logic when considering this. If you can restore the broken relationship with God that happened in the Garden of Eden, then Adam could have just killed himself, since the price of sin (stepping out of the will of God) is blood, death. Does this remind you of some folks who believe they can kill themselves and other innocent victims and arrive in the presence of God? hmm.

5) The premillennia return of Christ. The doctrine of the special mission of the church as the Body of Christ and its deliverance from the world before the days of the Great Tribulation that was to come upon the earth was a fundamentalist linchpin. They looked forward to the sweet chariot that would swing so low, and the liberalism churches would never even come near this preaching.

Interestingly enough, the results of all this fire and brimstone was that liberalism became firmly rooted in America. Liberalism’s impact was largely felt in the east and waned as one traveled farther west, naturally, to the lesser developed and smaller townships, away from the big cities. Comfort and satisfaction often result in liberal ideas taking a hold they would not have otherwise.

Fundamentalism eventually has given way to something called evangelicalism. Evangelicals unite around the firm conservative platform, it is less likely though to go to war over its convictions. It’s a “softer” version of the fundamentalism which is willing to come to some sort of midway compromise with liberals for the betterment of everyone’s living conditions within society. They are more than likely to see their movements as a “social action” but are also still a major counter force to liberalism.

Liberalism’s conquest of Europe and its continuing battle in America is certainly one of the major stories of mankind. Part of that story still remains to be seen. One thing is inescapable though, Europe, since 1900, has given the world the bloodiest century in the history of mankind. No tribal or hill country rivalry, no civil war anywhere on the planet has so covered the Earth with blood like World Wars I & II which have directly and indirectly caused 50 million deaths there about. Nor has the world itself been so in jeopardy from powerful men who mean to do harm on a major scale in order to initiate their own agendas. Don’t wonder where God has been during all of this, for when you ask him to leave your churches, schools and legal departments, he leaves a nation or nations at the whim of his enemy, and the results are a painful reminder to us all.

Despite Europe’s vaunted so called intellectualism, it has been unable to defend itself against the rise of movements like Nazism, Communism, fascism, the occult and other ideas that have literally corrupted its soul. America today is seen as “prudish”, but Europe would never call itself “depraved” despite the evidence. The external results of a spiritual death are hard to ignore and Europe has written a book on this in big bold letters.

Wellhausen and his liberal cronies killed the spiritual life in Europe. Will America learn this lesson? Will it stop to see the deathly results of giving Satan a voice in society? Do you think he is our friend? Do you think he has ANYTHING to say to you and me? Just ask Europe.

When we stop to consider the centuries old family fued between the Jewish nation of Israel and its disgruntled brothers the United Arab Emigrates, can you see how Europe and America can become just as distanced due to the spiritual death of Europe and the continued (although quickly eroding) divine protections of America? Does an attack have to come from tanks and missiles? Or can a nation long held close as an ally have already have been wearing away its partner in freedom simply by the illicit influences it proposes? Does Europe realize that if it hadn’t been for America, they would all be strongly influenced by Nazism today? Fascism would have taken over major parts of the whole world, as is another major movement planning to do in the near future which both Europe and America have become more and more chummy with.

The people of Ancient Israel, time and again preferred to listen to the rantings of the used car salesman from hell at the expense of their love relationship with God, based mostly on the appeal to human ego. It’s an old story, from Genesis to Judas, who are you going to listen to? Whom will you believe? The idea of “Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord”, is not some fairy tale, or nice platitude. It’s a political fact. When Israel couldn’t get it together, they were thrust from the land God had promised them, scattered all over the world for centuries. You and I could have Jewish blood in our families and not even know it. This is no “Atlantis” hypothesis. The Israelites are an historical fact that remains with us today and their story is a black and white representation of what happens to nations who ask God to leave. Whether it be Europe with its intellectualism or America with its Supreme Court rulings.

Liberalism is a parasite that sucks the life from true Christianity. It calls itself Christianity, but it denies the inspiration of the Bible, the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, the true nature of faith, and yet they want real Christians to still consider them part of the overall pie. No such luck! What is so insidious is that they do not have their own churches. They are a church of the mind, of the perspective and only reveal themselves when they put forth their ideas in the social realm. Learn to spot them. Root them out. They could be in the pew next to you. Not the “bodysnatchers” but the “spirit snatchers”.

Clarity is divine, and the game here is confusion. If you are confused as to the black and white truth of these things, then you have been effected. Don’t like my saying that? It wouldn’t bother you if you were right with God.

1Timothy 4:1 says: “.... in latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” Defection from the faith is an historic part of mankind, from Eden to Jerusalem, to Europe in the 1800’s. Paul mourned over those who had been led astray from the faith, and in a rather speedy manner. He told them to accept no other Gospel but that which he had given them when they first believed (Galatians: 1:6-8) and to let those who had preached that false Gospel to be accursed. Let world history be your guide. Review the history of Europe in the 1900’s versus the 1700’s. Or for that matter, review the history of the world. The cause and effect of forgetting God is the same for us today as it was for ancient Israel, and they are a chosen people.

Certainly rationalism cannot be superior to revelation, for plainly the wages of rationalism and relying on our own reason can be seen in the escalation of our own dissolution time and time again.