Max Hastings Says it Better Than I could

Max Hastings writes for the UK Daily Mail. His assessment of the societal deterioration in Britain is one that should lead to some introspection here in the U.S.

Notice the rioters all seem to have cell phones.

Some quotes:
A century ago, no child would have dared to use obscene language in class. Today, some use little else. It symbolises their contempt for manners and decency, and is often a foretaste of delinquency.


If a child lacks sufficient respect to address authority figures politely, and faces no penalty for failing to do so, then other forms of abuse — of property and person — come naturally.

So there we have it: a large, amoral, brutalised sub-culture of young British people who lack education because they have no will to learn, and skills which might make them employable. They are too idle to accept work waitressing or doing domestic labour, which is why almost all such jobs are filled by immigrants.

They have no code of values to dissuade them from behaving anti-socially or, indeed, criminally, and small chance of being punished if they do so.

They have no sense of responsibility for themselves, far less towards others, and look to no future beyond the next meal, sexual encounter or TV football game.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2024284/UK-riots-2011-Liberal-dogma-spawned-generation-brutalised-youths.html#ixzz1Uj8oOUoU
 

Punxsutawney Phil Confirms Global Warming

Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog that predicts the arrival of spring, confirmed today that spring will indeed arrive early.  "Clearly," said Phil, who failed to see his shadow this morning, "gloal warming will lead to an early and warmer-than-normal Spring season this year."  Phil went on to predict that Ground Hog Day will have to be moved up to mid January because Spring will be coming so much earlier now. When asked to explain how it is that the reason that he cannot see his shadow was because of a monumental snow storm, Phil said, "Look buddy, I don't make the rules.  I just call it like I see it."

A good book

Signs of the Times

Re: Michael Patton's question, What makes two people married or divorced?

http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2010/07/what-makes-two-people-married-or-divorced/#comment-37731

Living together, sex, and having children are things common to people who “hook up” for periods lasting anywhere from a week to a few years.

Clearly what is important is intent. In Matthew 19, the Pharisees tempt Jesus with the question, “‘Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorcement, and to put her away?’

8. He saith unto them, Moses for your hardness of heart suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it hath not been so.”

They were splitting hairs with the Lord, like a bunch of lawyers, trying to maneuver him into a corner. But he made it clear. God puts up with our machinations because of our hardness of heart.

The fact that God allows us to violate his ordinance should not be seen as consent.

Joel Osteen Always Good for a Laugh

Watching Joel Osteen Sunday night. His message was from the passage in which Jesus turned water into wine. Osteen used this story to say that God is going to "accelerate the blessings in your life. It goes like this:

Jesus took a process that normally takes years (the production of wine) and did it instantly. God will do the same thing with your dreams and goals. He will make your dreams come true faster than you ever thought they could. Just believe.

There is at least one major problem with this application. Water does not normally turn to wine. You can stare at a jug of water as long as you like and it will still be water (minus some evaporation). Jesus didn't speed up a process. He did the impossible.

Why Are The Begats Important?

Matthew opens his account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the most boring part of the Bible. The family tree of Jesus. To a person who has never read the Bible, the begats are the point at which that person, especially a young person, begins to wonder just how long it is going to take to get to the exciting part. The first family line is in Genesis. So right away, we run into a long list hard-to-pronounce names. There is a point, however to the family lines in the Bible. One of Matthew's main purposes is to present Jesus Christ as The King. From beginning (the lineage) to end (Matt 25), Christ is portrayed as the expected King. Jesus is not merely the King because he is God. He is the earthly king of the Jews as well.

While it is true that the Jewish leaders rejected Jesus as king (John 19) It is also true that Jesus family tree shows his royal pedigree. The King had to come from the line of King David. Look at the list in Matthew's Gospel and you will see that his line runs from Abraham through David through his adopted father Joseph. Notice verse 16 says "16Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah." The verse does not say Joseph was the father of Jesus. We know Mary was a virgin.

You might ask how Jesus is qualified to be king if Joseph is not his biological father. It is true that adopted children in Jewish society had all the rights of biological children. And later in his life Jesus was referred to as the son of Joseph so he was recognized that way. But there is even a better answer.

Mary was in the royal line as well. There is a fork in the road at David. Joseph's line came through Solomon. Mary's came through David's other son Nathan. So Jesus is doubly qualified. This is also important because in Joseph's line there is a man named Jeconiah. Jeconiah was put under a curse by God (Jeremiah 22:30). His ancestors were forbidden from taking the throne. So if Jesus were only in line through Joseph, that would have actually disqualified Jesus from being king. Another interesting thing about Jesus family tee is who is included in it. There are gentiles, women (even a harlot) and some rather unsavory people.

The point of this is that God uses whom he chooses. No one is chosen by God because of any special righteousness or qualificatiosns. In fact, the people God chose for His puproses were sinners. Just like us.

Matthew-First Installment

Background: Matthew was a tax collector. Tax collectors were employed as contractors by Roman senators. The senators would bid amongst themselves to auction off the rights to collect the taxes from particular territories of the Roman empire. The senator would pay the tax for say, Jerusalem. Then he would collect the tax plus a mark-up. The tax collectors would pay the senators and collect the tax plus the senators fee plus something for themselves. By the time the citizen paid the tax it was much more than what was actually paid to Rome, depending on just how much the senator and the tax collector were trying to extract for themselves. There was a fair amount corruption in the whole system. The Jews considered Rome to be an evil occupying force. Tax collectors were considered just above prostitutes in the social structure. Some (not all) tax collectors were ruthless. Zacchaeus was the tax collector who Jesus found in a tree (because Zacchaeus was short, he climbed up to see Jesus) (Luke 19) along his path and called him down to spend time at his home. Zacchaeus was so moved that he vowed to pay back everyone he had defrauded four-fold and give half of his belongings to the poor. This came AFTER he had been called by Jesus. Salvation came first. Charity and restitution second. Apparently, Matthew felt no such compulsion. Or he simply did not say so. Matthew may have been a relatively honest tax collector. Taking only a reasonable commission. This would not change the fact that Matthew was a sinner in general or mitigate the overall lostness of his soul. God's Word does say that when Matthew was called by Jesus, (Matt 9) Matthew left his previous life behind immediately. Even though Matthew is describing his own experience he writes in the third person, always keeping Christ at the center of the story.

What is Copenhagen Really About?

Two words. Envy and money. This is all about the less developed countries seeing an opportunity to fleece the developed world of billions of dollars. The idea that tyrants like Mugabe will put the money towards cutting emissions in their countries is laughable. They will do what they have always done with foreign aid. Pocket the money and leave their citizens to suffer.

You Didn't Say What Kind Of Change

Once there was a man who was married. After eight years of marriage, he became fed up with his wife and they divorced. The wife left the man with $10,000 of credit card debt. The man remarried and put the second wife in charge of the family finances. She had promised him 'change' if he would marry her. Faced with a ten thousand debt, the second wife decided the solution was to go further into debt by $100,000. This was ten times the debt left by the first wife. The husband was furious. This was not the kind of change he had in mind. When he asked the second wife why she had done something so irresponsible, the second wife blamed the first wife for leaving behind such a financial mess. This made no sense to the husband. The family could now not even afford to pay the interest on the debt. The husband demanded that the second wife cease her irresponsible spending. The second wife responded by spending another $20,000 on credit. All the while, she claimed that she was left with no choice because of the first wife. She said this even though the debt she had accumulated was now twelve times the debt of the first wife.

The husband wanted to divorce the second wife. Unfortunately, he lived in a country where couples could not divorce until they had been married for at least four years. He had no choice because the second wife ignored his wishes. All she would tell him was, "You said you wanted change. You didn't say what kind of change."

The World's Only Universal Religion

Outside of Christianity, there really is one true world religion. It is the melding of all of the world’s other religions into one common theme: The Self is God. In this religion, I am sovereign. The world revolves around me and you exist at my discretion and to serve my purposes.

In my religion, there may be times when I will grace you with my liberal generosity. I will, when it suits me, perform random acts of kindness. The criterion for my good deeds is a complicated, arbitrary system based mainly on my own self-aggrandizement. The main purpose of such charity is to appease my own screaming conscience. As long as I feel better about myself, it’s a good thing. It also helps if others notice.

In the religion of self, I hold the scales of eternal justice. The balance may tip any way I please. I decide what is reasonable. I decide what is important. I decide what is sin. I decide what I must do to redeem my soul. That is, if I decide my soul needs redeeming at all.

I may decide there is no such thing as sin at all, at least in terms of what I owe to any man. In my religion, you are a commodity to me. You are either a prop in the theatre of my life or, perhaps a tool by which I may acquire a thing or achieve a goal. If I am ill and your stem cells might cure me, hand them over, even at the cost of your life. If you are old and occupying valuable space and sucking tax dollars from the system, you may need to be eliminated. Get this straight. This is about me.

The only conflict in my religion comes when my interests compete with yours. When this happens, I will attempt to make you an ally for a while. Otherwise, I will form a coalition against you. It will be whichever is expedient.

The religion of self is Darwinism taken to its ultimate end. This is survival of the fittest. Someday, I may be on the short end of the equation. Until then, you are either a resource to me or a burden. If you are a burden, you have lost you usefulness. Prepare to be eliminated.