An Open Letter to Franklin Graham

Dear Mr. Graham,

Please, I am begging you, please stop telling people that the nation of America is suffering because it has turned it's collective back on God. Please, for the love of The Christ, stop saying that the nation's turning away from the law of God is why the chastisement of God is on this nation. That simply is not true.

It is the Christian church that has turned away from the law of God and brought the chastisement of the Lord upon themselves, and the nation. How is it that you cannot see this? How is it that so much humanism has taken over your understanding? 

Please, sir, I beg you, look at the history of the Christian church. The church flourished when it did things according to the plan Jesus set down. Then, Rome made the church part of government and it stopped doing things the way Jesus said. Finally, the Protestant movement came along and once again there was a group doing things the way Jesus said and the church flourished again. Then, Christians started to try to use the government and courts of this nation to stop sin, and it all went bad again.

This nation was founded on the idea that the church should never have the influence over law and government that it had in the nations across the pond. This freedom of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness (that is from God) should not be imposed upon by the government of this nation.

I implore you sir, stop leading Christian people in a human devised political plan, based in human understanding, that is contrary to the plan of Jesus. Stop leading the Christian people of this nation to put their trust in government and courts, and lead them to put their faith in the God who is in control.

If you want to blame someone for turning away from the law and plans of God, look in the mirror.

K. Ross Newland, Founder/Director Bless God America

Author of "If My People...The Saving of America"

www.blessgodamerica.org

Not Government's Job

      If you have read any of my blogs, you will see a pattern of my slight contempt for the idea that we human beings need the government to establish our morals and ethics. In a resent conversation with those who do not have a like mind, I have come to realize why.

       I am very willing to accept people as they are. I don't much care what your sin of choice is, or who you like or don't like. It doesn't matter to me who you love, who you marry, or what you marry. I equally don't care how many of them you marry. The simple truth, in my mind, is that it really is none of my business what you do, and it certainly is not my business to try to force you not to do it. You see, I do not have to force people to live according to my opinion of how they should live.

Yes, I do all I can to get Christians to follow CHRIST. I do not like humanism in the church. I believe JESUS gave us a perfect plan and modeled for us a perfect plan. I like that plan. I think it works. So, I try to persuade my Christian brothers and sisters to put their trust in that plan.

       I also try to get them to embrace unconditional acceptance. I would like to say “unconditional love", But, I don't think that is possible. It is towards a chosen few. Not for all. Unconditional acceptance simply means that you acknowledge you are not perfect and you accept other people who are not perfect. It seems simple to me, and “there in lies the rub”, as I am want to say.

Because I can do this. I can accept homosexuals and racists and haters and people who discriminate. In fact, I would defend to the death your right to be that type of person. I think that is really what America should be.

         So, for me, it is easy to see a nation that reflects the very best of the Star Trek universe. Where all the different people, and all the different cultures and mating rituals, live together on one planet in tenuous tolerance and acceptance. But, in my most recent conversation on the subject, I came to realize that those who want the government to force their morals and ethics an others, do so out of a need to be right and an inability to accept that other people do things differently and see things differently. They have a singular mindset that says they need to force people to capitulate.

Some of this is out of pride. They think they know it all and no one can tell them anything. If you do not live and do as they say, you are wrong. Because they are always right and you need to accept that and straighten up.

       Others do it out of fear. If we have a society where people are allowed to embrace a different life style, then people will be influenced to a life style they do not agree with. So, they fight against those in that lifestyle for fear their children, or even themselves, will fall victim to the temptations of something new and different. So they battle hard against it.

         In the end, every one of the people screaming for government to protect their rights, while wanting to infringe on the rights of others, do so because they cannot see themselves as embracing the people they disagree with.

        It is sad to think my Christian brothers and sisters are so afraid that the power of sin will have greater sway then the power of GOD. It is sad to think that this mindset has resulted in so many people no longer holding the church in any type of esteem. Still, here is the fact:

        If you completely take GOD out of the equation, which many Christians and all of the atheists have, you come down to a very real truth that we humans need to learn to accept each other. To coexist. You see, the government cannot do this. The government cannot fix racism, homophobia, or any of the haters in the nation. Forcing people to accept something only causes resentment and frustration. I believe that is why racism is so powerful today. Because people were forced to accept instead of learning to accept.

       This nation cannot be healed by legislation. It can only be healed by education. Mostly, it has to be the people. There is no greater asset then a people who come face to face with their need to change their attitude. When you know you are a sinner, then you can handle being around other sinners.

The Dangers of Evolution

The Danger of Evolution

I have written briefly on some of the lies used to promote evolution to the masses. But, what does it really matter. Is it harming anyone? Well, on an eternal scale, 75% of Christian kids who go to college will reject Christianity as a result of being convinced of evolution. On a material, Earthly scale? Let's take a look;

Adolf Hitler murdered 6 million people because he felt they were less evolved, inferior animals. Hitler had determined that there was an evolutionary proof that Germans were nearly as evolved as humans could get. He had a whole list of peoples that he rated. He determined that blacks were mostly ape and Jews were 100% ape. He decided that it would be a crime against evolution for an inferior animal to mate with a superior human, so they should be killed.

       Hitler offered to send the Jews to any nation that would have them. He even offered to send them on luxury liners. Roosevelt refused because of Darwin inspired racism. A ship of 900 Jewish refugees was turned away from every port on the East coast and returned to Europe.

             60,000 people in America were sterilized in the eugenics movement. This was done by the U. S. government to those people who had been determined it was better for humanity if they didn't reproduce. I bet you know what color they were.

           Joseph Stalin murdered 14,700 Polish officers at the end of the war because he felt they were a lower form of animal and shouldn't be allowed to pollute the gene pool of higher species.

           In Australia, the Tasmanian Aborigines were completely eradicated as a result of a law that said it was OK to kill them, because they weren't human. They were shot, poisoned, even exposed to small pox in an effort to kill them. All of that was because they had a larger jaw bone and brow ridge. They were determined to be apes by how they looked.

“At some future point, not very distant, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world.” Charles Darwin

          American soldiers in Japan could not comprehend how totally void of compassion that Japanese were. Their ability to inflict torture and kill prisoners for sport was simply beyond their understanding. But, they didn't understand that when Darwin's book of evolution was translated into Japanese and distributed in their culture, it fit right into their many religions. Scientists in Japan set out to determine which races were the most evolved. They determined that Japanese have less body hair and body odor, so they were less like the apes. That meant that all other races needed to be eliminated and were of no value.

        What Charles Darwin presented in his book was a foundation for determining some races to be less human than others. Not just in ideology, but in actuality. Darwin himself considered blacks and Australians to be on a lower evolutionary level. Perhaps no one embodied that ideal more than his friend and supported, Charles Kingsley. You can look him up if you choose.

         Immediately after Evolution was introduced into public schools, teen sex and teen pregnancies increase four and five times previous levels. Teen violence has ballooned out of control. Today, nearly 75% of teens will have been assaulted by another student with a weapon. All of the increase in the wows of society go back to the institution of the teaching of an unproven, falsely supported, unscientific belief system that those who back it have elevated to the level of a theory and treat like a holy institution.

          Evolution has become a religion for those who do not wish to retain any notion of God or self control and accountability. Though many believe it, as a result of how it has been presented to the masses, most of the scientific community goes along with it because it is the best option they have. They know it has no evidence. It has no foundation. It has nothing to actually elevate it past the status of an idea.

          It is incumbent on every parent to at least learn the science of both sides of this issue before your children are indoctrinated into this most hideous and dangerous cult. Because, despite the fact that scientists have declared humans to be animals, you are something higher and greater than that. You are the creation of a common creator and you are all equal in this world.

Creation vs evolutionism

        I regularly like to delve into the sciences. I enjoy a search for the truth as much as the next guy. So, I often revisit creation science and the latest in evolutionary guess work. Lately, what I have found in the current text books of our schools is an intentional effort to bolster the hypothesis of evolution with what can only be describes as blatant lies in the text books.

        In a concerted, and organized effort, our children are being indoctrinated into a belief system that has no scientific evidence to support it. In it's earlier stages, evolution was just set out there as an idea to replace God. Many of the first proponents that followed Darwin, fabricated evidence to support the notion that we evolved from lower forms of life.

        The most notable was a man named Ernst Haeckel who created a chart of the drawings of embryos of different animals. He said the embryos showed that all animals went through the stages of evolution during their formative time in the womb. In 1874 this man was put on trial for falsifying his data. He admitted that he did it because there wasn't any evidence to prove Darwin's theory. He also taught people that embryos have gill slits. 45 million abortions later and not a gill slit to be seen. These drawings and false teachings are still in your child's biology text books today, even though all of the scientific community knows it is a lie.

           If you look in your child's text book, you will also see a chart of apes progressing into humans. Yet, most of those figures in the text book do not exist, the bent over deformed humans are old men with arthritis. The Neanderthal is a human being they added hair to.

           Then you have the Geologic column. A non-existent fabrication that is used to explain how different layers of rock show different time periods in earth history. Did you know, they date fossils based on what layer they are found in and date the layers based on what fossils are found in them? Do you know that sediment laid down by flood water will make the same layers and bury animals in the same divisions?

           All of the geological formations, the fossils, the shape of the continents, the formation of mountains, and the seas can all be dealt with by extrapolating exactly what happens in a catastrophic flood. The Bible holds all the answers to the questions.

            Now, I know you have been told over and over again that all of this took billions of years and dinosaurs died out millions of years ago, but it just isn't true. There are too many proofs.

Do you know that man made items are found in coal deposits. Think about that. According to your science books, coal was laid down millions of years before man walked on the Earth. How is it that there can be man made items in the middle of coal deposits? How can trees be petrified standing straight up through layers of coal and rock and then coal again? Did you know that fossils are only formed it the animal is buried quickly? They can't sit on the surface of the Earth for millions of years waiting for that layer of rock to form.

           Many Christian folk get tripped up by these lies that are told to your kids. Even more are tripped up by the expansion of these lies told in Collage, where peer pressure mocks their Christian beliefs. I can tell you that I have, many times, tried to filter my understanding of the Bible through the filter of the science of the age. But, I came to realize that the Bible really is the authority and that I needed to filter the science of the age through the filter of the Bible. Those things that seem to present a problem for the Bible almost always prove to be fabrications of the minds of people who grasp at anything that allows them to reject the idea of being accountable to a higher power. Men want to fulfill the lust of their flesh without consequence.

The teaching of evolution has dehumanized humanity. It has lead to mass murder and genocide. It is dangerous and needs to go away. Not for religious reasons. Because it is not true. I will write more on the danger of evolutionary theory next week.

The Homosexuals and Atheists are Doing It Why Shouldn't Christians

I hope, that immediately you see a problem with that question. I took the following quote from a news article on Yahoo;

Reverend Franklin Graham, son of world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham, urged Christians “to get involved in government” and “in politics,” noting that “gays and lesbians are in politics” and “all the anti-God people are” as well.

Is this really what Christianity has come to? Where we take our cues from what those of the world are doing? Is it destined to be common practice that we who are not of this world will follow the lead of those who are? Is it not incumbent upon us as ambassadors of CHRIST to follow HIS lead in all matters of Christian life?

Is there a place where JESUS showed us that the weapons of this world, the courts and government, are the weapons of our warfare? Is there a place where JESUS gave us a command to go into the world and conquer it for CHRIST? Is there any verse or prose in the Bible that would lead any of HIS people to believe that this is a course of action ordained by GOD for HIS people????????????

I think not. I think there are verses that tell us that GOD establishes governments and courts. GOD appoints leaders and authorities. GOD gives victories and defeats. GOD who raises up nations and tears nations down. It is GOD who is, was, and always will be the first and the last, the Alpha and Omega, the word that spoke everything into existence and will be the word that brings it to an end.

There is only one group of people whom GOD chastises. The ones HE loves. HIS children. If a government and a court system has arisen that chastises HIS people, then it is on the shoulders of HIS people to seek to understand why HE has done this, so that they might turn from their wicked ways and bring the blessing of GOD back to the nation.

This does not come from rising up against the government GOD has established. It does not come from human effort in the human courts. It comes from an act of GOD to change the course of the nations that will only happen when HIS people humble themselves and seek his face and turn from their wicked ways.

Franklin Graham, along with many other leaders of the church, seems to think that human effort (battling against the flesh and blood humans who embody the spiritual sickness of the nation) with the weapons of the world that Satan uses much better (courts and government) will alter the course of the nation. In truth, no amount of law or government can change a thing. All the theistic law passing that could be done will not stem the tide of evil running rampant in our streets. Only an act of GOD, only a change in the spiritual condition of the people, only the regeneration of human souls that comes from the salvation that is in JESUS the CHRIST can change the course of this once great nation. That will only happen when Christian stop taking their lead from godless people and start taking their lead from the Bible.

I am disgusted with the Grahams and Dobsons and Robertsons of the world. Those who advocate government and courts to fight evil. Evil will be defeated by the word of GOD and doing what JESUS said to do, the way HE said to do it. In a nation that is spiritually healthy, there is no need for laws. In a nation that is spiritually sick, laws have no effect.

Water, Big Bang hypothesis, Escape velocity

    I call it a hypothesis because it hasn't got enough science and evidence behind it to be called a theory.

    OK, I sometimes like to delve into the world of science because I am not a scientist and I have questions.

    Recently I read an article about a hypothesis that water was brought to this planet by meteors. It seemed like such a ridiculous idea that it has been infesting my brain.

    The basics of the story went something like this: (Follow this LINK to read the story)

After the Big Bang caused trillions of trillions of tons of dust and rock to be flung into the universe, it formed up into planets. Earth being one of those planets. This happened as rocks came together and formed a gravity well (for lack of a better name). The gravity then drew in more particles and the Earth grew bigger. As a result of all this gravity and mass, the Earth became a molten ball of super heated rock.

    I really want to stop here, because this part makes no sense. Yes, the core would become molten under this extraordinary pressure and the mass of the Earth. But, why would the crust? Why would the outside of the Earth, that is not under this force and pressure? Just a question. Space is cold after all.

    So, the Earth got super heated and all the water was vaporized. Since the Earth had no atmosphere, the water vapor disappeared into space. Why? How?

    According to this theory, all these particles were drawn by the tremendous force of the gravity of the Earth into this big ball. So, how did all these water and gas particles achieve escape velocity? How did these water and gas molecules that are being pulled into the gravity of this forming planet, suddenly acquire the energy to be propelled away from the Earth with enough force to escape that gravity?

    I would like to tell you this isn't rocket science, but it actually is. It is rocket science that has taught us about escape velocity. Escape velocity is necessary for a rocket to escape the gravitational forces of the Earth and achieve orbit or go to the moon, or anywhere else. It has nothing to do with atmosphere. It is all about gravity.

    But, why wouldn't the Earth have atmosphere? Surely gasses and dust would have come with all the rest.

    You see, we do not have atmosphere because we have atmosphere. We do not have water vapor in the atmosphere because we have atmosphere. We have them both, because we have gravity.

    Now, if the Big Bang hypothesis were true, then science has to try to explain why we have atmosphere and other planets don't. Most of that can be explained by temperature. Planets far from the sun would have their gasses frozen and lying on the surface. Planets that are real close to the sun, might have had their atmosphere swept away by solar winds. But, since those are such big planets, it is really hard to believe that solar winds would be able to do that.

    So, there is a need to add a hypothesis. That is, some way that atmospheres could be lost and then replaced. Although, the idea that all this water would have come to this planet and not the other, larger, planets with stronger gravity seems like such a reach.

    When you start from the idea that the Big Bang is true, you then have to come up with amazingly fantastical and unbelievable stories of how it could have come about. After all, “GOD did it” just isn't a good enough answer, even if it is true. The one thing that can be said about science is that it is not a search for the truth. It is just a search for convenient answers.

    The truth is, there is no scientific explanation for the water on this planet. There is no scientific explanation for life on this planet. Maybe, someone will come up with an idea that actually makes sense, some day. But for today, it would be much easier to just say we don't know and continue to seek answers, then to put out answers that any sophomore in high school can see has no validity.

    So, I have to ask myself, how is it that such a hypothesis gains any ground in the light of the simple understanding of Escape Velocity?

Any Answers?

HISTORICAL JESUS

Historical JESUS

I have recently seen an increase in those who refer to “The Christ Myth”. That is, those who deny JESUS came in the flesh. To this, I reply: HA!

It is unlikely that the Romans have ever made much of a list of the thousands of Jews, and others, they crucified. It is equally unlikely that the Sanhedrin, those who convened an illegal assembly, hired false witnesses, and had JESUS killed illegally, would have had their deeds recorded for history.

However, that having been said, I have been in a number of these conversations over the years and in one such conversation the following information was given. I do not know the name of the contributor, but I am certain he wouldn't mind my using this information.

ENJOY THE READ:

Josephus, Antiquities Book 18, Chapt. 3, part 3:
"Now there arose at this time a source of further trouble in one Jesus, a wise man who performed surprising works, a teacher of men who gladly welcome strange things. He led away many Jews, and also many of the Gentiles. He was the so-called Christ. When Pilate, acting on information supplied by the chief men around us, condemned him to the cross, those who had attached themselves to him at first did not cease to cause trouble, and the tribe of Christians, which has taken this name from him is not extinct even today."

Josephus: Testimonium Flavianum, Book 20, Chapt 9, part 1:
"...so he assembled the sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned... "

Tacitus Annals, book XV:
"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular."

Pliny, Letters, transl. by William Melmoth, rev. by W.M.L. Hutchinson (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1935), II, X:96:
"They (the Christians) were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food but food of an ordinary and innocent kind."

Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars - Claudius, sec. 25:
"He banished from Rome all the Jews, who were continually making disturbances at the instigation of one Chrestus."

The Talmud, Babylonian Talmud, transl. by I. Epstein (London: Soncino, 1935), vol. III, Sanhedrin 43a, p. 281:
A."On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, "He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Any one who can say anything in his favor, let him come forward and plead on his behalf." But since nothing was brought forward in his favor he was hanged on the eve of the Passover!"

As well, William Foxwell Albright, one of the worlds foremost known Biblical Archeologists used the Bible as a Guide. As well Nelson Gluek of Harvard, who used the Bible as a guide to find some of the mines of Solomon, stated:
"It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries.” Dr. Nelson Glueck, Rivers in the Desert, (New York: Farrar, Strous and Cudahy, 1959),

Hundreds to list? There are the Gospels, there is Acts, there is the apostolic epistles, particularly Paul who is admitted by all scholars to be a very objective witness to the things he describes. There are the disciples of the apostles such as Ignatius of Antioch and his epistles, Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Quadratus of Athens. There is Aristides. There is Josephus, since almost all scholars consider it to have partial genuineness to talking about Jesus being crucified by Pilate, doing great deeds, and the sect of Christians coming from him.

There is Celsus who used ancient Jewish traditions that mention how Jesus could do miracles of what they called them to be things he learned in Egypt, which would then point to the flight of Egypt in Matthew. They mention many other things about him in the Gospels, such as the bird descending from heaven announcing hm to be the Son of God in the river with John the Baptist.

There is Hierocles, there is Porphyry, there is Julian the Apostate, all secular men who hated Christians and still believed their founder lived and did miracles, Julian the Roman caesar even confirming the census in Luke's account being accurate. Julian was considered a very intelligent man historically and philosophically by his contemporary Roman historian Eutropius. Porphyry was considered the first INTELLIGENT debator against the Christian movement, yet not even he denounced Christ's existence nor miracles.

There are the many Christian sources who point to other secular sources or secular beliefs. Tertullian in his address to the Jews of his days talks about how not even they deny Jesus healed the blind, the leper, the deaf, and rose people from the dead among them. He also mentions (as a former Roman lawyer himself) that the archives of Rome preserve Jesus and his family names in them at the time of the census. He said that to the Roman officials as well, reminding them of that evidence they had.

He, Justin Martyr, and Eusebius, all indepenedently testify to Pontius Pilate's contemporary account right after Jesus was crucified, where he wrote to Caesar Tiberius, talking about Jesus of Nazareth healing the blind and sick and raising people from the dead in his province, how he just crucified him, and how the report of him rising from the dead and ascending into heaven was being noised everywhere in his province immediately after he crucified him.

There is Justin Martyr speaking to the Jews in his Dialogue with Trypho and tells Trypho (who was some time of leading Jew in his days) that he and his people were spreading the report ever since Jesus was crucified that his twelve apostles came and stole hs body from the tomb and reminds the Jews how they keep telling it today and how the story is wrong and based on progaganda.

And there are MANY more that I can keep mouthing off. That is why no scholar or professor that I am aware of, or EHrman, or any other apologetic scholar I have read denies Jesus existed, but not just his existence, his crucifixion by Pilate, and baptism by John, and probably a few things I am forgetting.

"Yet, once in a while, I run across someone like Russell who, in spite of the evidence insists on denying that Jesus ever existed at all. One of these occasions happened during a debate sponsored by the associate students of midwestern university. My opponent, a congressional candidate for the Progressive Labor Party (Marxist) in New York, said in her opening remarks: 'Historians today have fairly well dismissed Jesus as being historical.' I couldn't believe my ears. But I was glad she said it, because she gave me the opportunity to show twenty-five hundred students that she had not done her history homework."
(McDowell, NEDV, 119-20)

"Some writers may toy with the fancy of a 'Christ-myth,' but they do not do so on the grounds of historical evidence. The historicity of Christ is as axiomatic for an unbiased historian as the historicity of Julius Caesar. It is not historians who propagate the 'Christ-myth' theories."
(Bruce, NTDATR, 72, 119)

I removed the rest to shorten this blog.