Moral Science Club

Ain't No Grave (Can Hold My Body Down) - Johnny Cash

2012-01-26T02:36:00.002-04:00

Thank You again for that, Jesus.

My Problem with voting Mormon

2012-01-23T01:41:00.000-04:00

Mitt Romney wants us to believe he's a conservative. I can overlook that. But I can't overlook that Mitt Romney is in no way a Christian. No, he is NOT my brother. Mormonism is America's version of Islam; a cheap, political, copycat religion that purports to be a valid worldview but denies the essential aspect of the real God.

You see, the true and living God is not an idol. He is a complex character, yet He is perfectly consistent. This is the God we see in nature, and the God who speaks to us in the real world, not in books written by the desperate politicians who wrote the Qur'an and the Book of Mormon. Living God is a trinity. He is the Father (Creator God), the Son (who sends Himself into History to do His work), and the Holy Spirit (who makes it all happen at the local level just as He arrived in my bedroom in the morning hours of Tuesday, November 20, 2001). That is the existential God. He is experienced every day by believers like me.

Mitt Romney and the brotherhood of godless, Mormon millionaires deny Him. Their God is unitarian, and unitarian gods are idols. They fit into a man-made box as neatly as their followers' character flaws fit into their religion. The Mormon denial of the trinitarian nature of God is enough to classify them as a cult. We don't have to peruse the myriad errors in believing that women can't get to heaven without marrying a Mormon male, that God was born as a human on another planet and grew into being God, that a tribe of Israelites ended up in upstate New York, that men can have multiple wives, etc., etc. Forget that it's as false as Flat Earth belief, Mormonism is absurd. Why does a man believe such rubbish and then ask us to make him our president?

Sorry for condemning a religion but the Constitution grants a freedom to practice religion but that is not a freedom from criticism. Something as stupid as Mormonism should never be given a pass. And I will not vote for Romney for President. If he's the nominee, this Republican is staying home on Election Day, 2012. Thank God for the people of South Carolina and their clearly decisive rejection of a cult member. I'd rather lose with Newt Gingrich than win with Romney. Enough said.

The Other Side of Salvation

2012-01-21T04:06:00.002-04:00

Several months ago I had the pleasure of meeting up with some old restaurant business friends from my life as a 20-something heathen two decades ago. We were reminiscing over all our adventures. Do you remember this one? That one? The time we were thrown out of (enter most any bar in Ft Lauderdale and a few in Miami)? My friend was a fun-loving power drinker who's driver was usually me. Many times a bouncer tapped me on the shoulder and asked those four dreaded words, "Is he with you?" Moments later, we were escorted out of (enter most any bar in Ft Lauderdale and most in Miami). We laughed heartily at all the different events of our silly, young days. In one of the events, my other friend, a woman, remembered that a girl was with us who was one of my old flames.

The conversation quickly turned on how many waitresses I'd gone out with when we worked together. I started getting pelted with names from the past. I tried to fight off the urge to become defensive by pointing out there were some of those named that I wasn't intimate with. It was a losing battle. I had to admit. I was bad. I was a "man-whore" as my daughter terms it. Not only did I rarely say no when sought by women, I sought after them, spending a fortune wining and dining them (mostly wining). As an ignorant heathen, my idea of salvation was getting into a young lady's pants. As a born-again Christian 20 years later, I turned red with embarrassment. And then shame.

Somewhere in Paul's writings there is a verse that says how we are now ashamed of things we used to brag about. This was one of those times when I realized how awful I used to be. How often I romanced a girl, gaining her confidence and intimacy, only to move on coldly to the next prey. Worse yet, those who weren't promiscuous enough got dumped after the third date. And they were the lucky ones. I was no good for them. I was bad news. It saddens me deeply how many young ladies I hurt because of my stupidity.

Then God, in His infinite wisdom, sent me a daughter. O the terror of seeing those boys seek after the beautiful blonde teenager! I know what they're thinking. I know what they're going to think! I try to be civil with them but they see the Charles Manson insanity in my eyes. I frighten them. I can't help it. I want to kill them! Or, to be more precise, I want to kill....the person I used to be. He's the only person I haven't found a way in my heart to forgive. I've written him off as an ignorant heathen, yet his shadow lingers. There are times when I am off guard - being too busy or distracted or starving for prayer - and he sneaks back. The Bible tells me he may stick around until the time of Christ's return.

Thank God the old Jim has been marked for destruction. Having known him grieves me immensely. The grieving is the other side of salvation. That moment we realize how much a burden we have been to our Father God - which is usually after we realize how deeply He loves us.

Hallelujah Cover - Kari Jobe and friends

2012-01-21T03:32:00.002-04:00

Every Life is Beautiful - Gianna Jessen

2012-01-19T03:37:00.002-04:00

Armageddon Hour - A short, short nightmare. Story

2012-01-15T02:25:00.000-04:00

Ironically, since I wrote this short story, I have to drive the Useless One corridor mentioned here every day at my new job.

ARMAGEDDON HOUR

“No, no, no. What the Hell is he doing?” I yelled as the VW Beetle ahead of us suddenly lurched toward oncoming traffic.

“Look out, honey!” my wife screamed as I slammed on the brakes and turned violently to my right.

Metal crunched sickeningly; crushed cars mushrooming into our lane on US-1. I grabbed the shoulder and sped up past the expanding wreckage. I came to a stop under the Metrorail.

“God damn! I know Miami drivers are – “

“What’s he doing?” my wife shouted. A white Toyota Matrix, front already smashed in, ran past them toward the pile-up of cars.

“I saw his face. He looks really pissed off.”

The young man had a maniacal look on his face: pure hatred was in his eyes, distilled like a vodka, many times over.

“No, don’t, guy! What the - ?”

The Toyota slammed full throttle into the pile of cars, bursting into flames.

“Oh my God, he’s got to be dead,” my wife said, tears of fear welling in her eyes. “There’s something wrong, Joe, let’s get out of here.”

“But they need help,” I replied.

“But we need to get out of here more than they need help!” She glared at me.

“Oh, Hell, you’re right.” I started the Lexus again as more cars kamikaze’d into the pile behind us. “Let’s go.” I pulled back onto the road nicknamed Useless One and hit the gas hard.

“He’s coming right at us!” my wife cried out again. Chrissy screamed and my blood went cold. A Ford Expedition swerved, trying to hit them head on. “Hit the gas!”

I downshifted and stood on the gas pedal as all 8 cylinders went into warp drive. The Expedition grazed the rear lamp on my side but we kept on moving. My wife screamed again, and then I did, too.

The Expedition flew into a group of pedestrians and then slammed the wall below the Metrorail, crushing two of the bystanders before bursting into flames.

“Did you see that guy’s face?” I asked my wife.

“Don’t talk…to me now.” She leaned forward and started to wretch. Ahead more cars slammed into each other.

“Don’t get sick, Chrissy. We’ll get out of this OK. Don’t panic. Remember, you’re six months pregnant. Freaking out is not an option.”

Chrissy wiped her mouth with her sleeve. “Shut the Hell up and park the car! I’m getting out.” She was looking at the steps leading up to the Metrorail.

“Good idea.” I pulled off the road and onto a grassy knoll by the stairs. Then a man came running over to us. It was Marty from the University.

“Marty!” I said happily as we opened the doors and got out. “Hey, Marty, it’s good to see a familiar face.”

Marty arrived a second later. He looked strange. “Give me the car!”

“What? Marty, are you all right?”

Marty raised a pistol and pointed it at my head. “Give me the damn car!”

“OK, Marty.” I stepped back. “Are you carjacking us?”

Marty jumped into the Lexus as Chrissy and I stepped further and further away. Suddenly the passenger’s window exploded with a popping sound.

“Marty, for God’s sake; you almost shot my wife!”

Then the pistol flew out the space where the window had been and landed on the grass by Chrissy’s feet. Marty floored our SUV and roared out into the traffic. I could see what was going to happen. Marty, who taught the class next to mine for the last five years, someone I thought I knew, was going to smash our Lexus into a gasoline tanker.

“Oh my God, no….no. Follow me, honey, fast!” I said, grabbing her hand and running up the steps to the Metrorail platform. The explosion that singled the end of our car was deafening, a searing heat and shock wave forced us to the ground as we reached the top.

“What’s happening? My God!” I pulled Chrissy to her feet gently.

“Don’t touch me,” she growled. “I can get up myself.”

“Can you smell that?” I asked. A chemical odor like sulfuric acid permeated the air. I hadn’t noticed it inside the car, but it was stifling my breathing outside.

The smell of gasoline was in the air, too, but it was separate from this other odor.

“I’m calling 911!”

“Hah!” Chrissy said. “Like everyone’s not calling 911 right now?”

The cell phone buzzed as I waited for someone to answer at 911 Emergency. I steadied myself against a post on the platform above US-1 as the recording came on.

“We are experiencing high caller volume. Please call again later.”

“Unbelievable.”

“Believe it, Joe. Turn around!”

I turned to look out over south Miami from the rail platform. Pillars of smoke and flames shut up all over. Screams from the mad people below rang out through the putrid haze.

“Oh, God, where’s Samantha?”

“She’s with Emi and her mom at the mall.”

“Dadeland Mall?”

“Yeah.”

I looked south towards the Mall. Flames billowed from the top stories of the sprawling complex. It was engulfed. “Oh…my…dear…God.”

Then it struck me there in the sunset over a toxic, burning Miami. This was the end of civilization as we know it although I knew not why; perhaps the end was brought on by this poison in the air.

It was beautiful though! Belts of oranges and golds wrapped around the aging sun descending through the pillars of gray, blue and black smoke. Hues of pink and violet filled out the strangely wistful panorama.

“I said. Turn. Around!”

I turned to look at Chrissy. She had Marty’s gun aimed at my chest.

“You’ve gone insane, too? But, honey….we’re raising a family.”

“Not any more.”

“Wait, wait.” I turned toward the sunset over Miami. “Can I have one last look?”

Chrissy nodded, tightening her grip on the automatic.

I took one last look over Miami, trying not to breath in the poisonous air, my shirt I placed over my nose. The University of Miami was lit up like a Christmas Tree behind us. Orange flames licked out the broken windows, the smoke tinged with green from the angle of the setting sun; a beautiful and horrible sight. “I guess I won’t get tenure.” I took a deep breath through the fabric of my favorite Polo shirt. “Ok, honey, shoot.”

Armageddon Hour – Jim Jordan

Wife

2012-01-12T04:22:00.002-04:00

[Apologies to Shakespeare] Wife is a story told by God, about a flawed woman - a miserable wretch because of me - who loves me and completes me, signifying everything. To me.

Why prochoice is misogynistic

2012-01-11T16:19:00.000-04:00

Misogyny - hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women.

Many years ago an idea deceived millions of women into believing that a right to abortion was a fundamental human right for women. It has worked extremely well. To use a Herman Cain term, women have been "brainwashed" into thinking abortion is automatically good for them to "be able to choose".

The prochoice logic goes like this: Women know that babies alter lifestyles dramatically. Even if they give them up for adoption once they are born, that pregnancy itself is a dramatic experience. They might not want to deal with the pregnancy or the baby at that time. Prochoicers fight to keep that option open for women.

Before we go any further, we should ask the question, "What is an abortion?" Well, click here if you have an empty stomach. It is grotesque. In the video, you see clearly the severed head of the child in the grips of the abortionist's utensil. In abortion, that baby growing inside the mother is murdered.

Abortion kills females gratuitously. And this is good for women? I think not first of all because half of those babies are female. Advocating the killing of females does not qualify as "women's rights" to me. And you? Prochoice activists gloss over this problem with a huge, deceptive lie. They say the fetus is "not human" or "not a human being" or even the absurd "it's just a glob of cells". These are offensive statements to anyone who uses their brain to process data.

How do the benefits of abortion outweigh the negative consequences? In most cases, a key part of a woman's life is that of being a mother. How is killing the child in utero good for her? As I have explained before HERE all post-abortive women show signs of suffering, whether masked or not. Let's face it, if you watched that video of an abortion and came away saying, "That is a good thing!", you're a sociopath. And if you say abortion is a good thing and you had one, you've lost your mind; a sign of abortion's dire consequences!

I don't see how the benefits are "good for women". We have millions of post-abortive women in the US, many have turned to pro life causes and become great warriors. Some have become bitter monsters hurling profanity-laced insults at pro-lifers...until they break down and cry. No lie. I've been excoriated by prochoice activists on Twitter and on this blog only to find they are "fragile" and I shouldn't traumatize them with "grotesque pictures".

Summation; the benefits are dwarfed by the harsh consequences of killing your own child.

So how is tricking women into murdering their children "pro woman"? It isn't. Remember the prochoice movement's key martyr, Geraldine "Gerri" Santoro? Here's her story:

In 1963, domestic violence prompted Santoro to leave her husband, and she and her daughters returned to her childhood home. [1] She took a job at Mansfield State Training School, where she met another employee, Clyde Dixon. [1] The two began an extramarital affair — Dixon was also married — and Santoro became pregnant as a result.
When Sam Santoro announced he was coming from California to visit his daughters, Gerri Santoro feared for her life. [2] On June 8, 1964, six-and-a-half months into her pregnancy, she and Dixon checked into a motel in Norwich, Connecticut, under aliases.[2] Their intent was to perform a self-induced abortion, using surgical instruments and a textbook, which Dixon had obtained from a co-worker at the Mansfield school.[1] However, when Santoro began to hemorrhage, Dixon fled the motel. She died, at age 28, and her body was found the following morning by a maid.[1]

Your attention please: "Dixon had obtained (a textbook) from a co-worker at the Mansfield school" and "Dixon fled". Why were they doing this? Prochoicers wax emotional and cry foul over illegal abortion. But this man forced his girlfriend to risk her life to kill her child - HIS child. And for what?

Who does abortion benefit, immoral men or women? In very few cases did the real "choice" come from the woman. Abortion is a watershed right for MEN, not women. Abortion is the right of choice for libertine men like Clyde Dixon. Irresponsible men have been setting women up for failure for millennia. Prochoice is their chance to flee the consequences and conveniently pin the guilt on the woman.

Summation: The prochoice joke is on women. Abortion rights are the worst form of misogyny; punishing women with a lifetime full of guilt and mixed up emotions so men can have THEIR lifestyle.

I know this sounds insensitive, prochoice women. Women have been injured more deeply by abortion than by any other action in the last 100 years. Rethink your position on abortion. Post-abortive women are the backbone of the prolife movement. Things can change. Forgiveness is available to you. Choose well. Choose life.

Wedding Anniversary Music - Burbujas de Amor - Juan Luis Guerra

2011-12-31T02:03:00.000-04:00

Best Song of 2011 - If I Die Young - Band Perry

2011-12-26T01:23:00.002-04:00

LAst year it was Frenchman Stromae with "Alors en Danse". This year the best song goes to The Band Perry with "If I Die Young". A tribute to Tennyson's "The Lady of Shallot". Also, I discovered this song thanks to my daughter. Our kids are indeed the scouts that lead us into the future.

Need To Breathe's "Go Tell it On The Mountain"

2011-12-03T06:56:00.001-04:00

This is too good to wait for Sunday...or Christmas. Halleluyah, Jesus Christ is born....in a heart very few seconds! By the power of God.

Is God on Tim Tebow's side?

2011-12-01T16:09:00.000-04:00

The media is in a frenzy over Tim Tebow's consistent outward display of Christianity. Tebow gives all the credit to Jesus Christ; twice during his Heisman Trophy acceptance speech. He sneaks in Bible verses wherever the league allows him, or hasn't banned yet. He is unashamed of his Christian faith. While you can disagree with Christianity, it is a free country and he is free to evangelize. And there is one other thing a naysayer cannot do. That is, say that Tebow is praying for his team to win.

In 2002, when the US faced Germany in the Quarter-Finals of the World Cup, I tried to resist but I had to ask God to make a miracle that the US team would defeat Klose, Ballack and the Germans. It was a ridiculous request. I even ended my prayer with the waffling footnote, "if it is your will, Lord." Sure enough, Germany won the game. I never prayed a prayer like that again. As a mature Christian (what I like to think of myself), I understand that God didn't put me here to bat 1.000 or to win every battle. Tim Tebow understands that as well. So what is he praying for?

Tebow and Christians pray to be used by God; that His glory may be displayed through their life and work. I pray every day in my business life for competence, discipline and improvement so that others may see me as wise, and Christian. It's not about winning every battle. Every Christian should know that the ultimate battle has already been won. Christ died on the cross as prophesied, for our sins. He rose again from the dead to usher in a new world; a new world of victory.

It would be wrong to ask God to bless you with a victory so you can glorify Him. He is to be glorified whether we are a first string quarterback or the homeless man on the corner. He's done all that could be done already. So what Tebow is doing is drawing attention to the one, true living God who's done the only, true finished work of salvation.

And that thought brings me back to my 2002 World Cup prayer. It was answered in a most spectacular way! Germany went on to the final against Brazil. The team of Ronaldo and Rivaldo easily defeated Germany 2-0. Then, what did they do? They used the opportunity, while all the world watched, to give all praise and honor and strength to the Lord Jesus Christ. As the banners were brought out on to the field and the Brazilian players ripped off their jerseys to show an undershirt that praised Jesus. It was one of the most endearing sports moments I have ever seen in my life.

Win or lose, God wins. If and when I succeed in anything, I will give all the credit for my knowledge and ability to the God who created me and gave me life eternal through His Son, Jesus Christ.

I rest on bended knee not because God gave me a victory, or may, but because He is victory and has made it known that He knows me. Nothing else matters.

Things Atheists Can't Grasp About the Crucifixion - A Response

2011-11-29T07:45:00.000-04:00

This is a response to a blog post by my friend, "Ben From Canada" called Something Christians Can't Grasp About the Crucifixion. I am reposting his comments in red and then adding my remarks in black.

Christians regularly proclaim that Jesus' Crucifixion is the greatest act of kindness ever, a divine act of supreme sacrifice that redeems all of humanity. Much like just about every other aspect of christianity, this idea goes unexamined. Well, that's what I'm here for!
The big issue, aside from the troublesome human sacrifice issue (rather beautifully demolished by Sam Harris at the end of this video here), is that it wasn't actually a sacrifice. You see, sacrifice (n.), when defined by thefreedictionary.com, is one of the following:

1.a. The act of offering something to a deity in propitiation or homage, especially the ritual slaughter of an animal or a person.
b. A victim offered in this way.
2.a. Forfeiture of something highly valued for the sake of one considered to have a greater value or claim.
b. Something so forfeited.
3.a. Relinquishment of something at less than its presumed value.
b. Something so relinquished.
c. A loss so sustained.

I'm not sure how this could be overlooked, but the sacrifice of Christ is described by the first definition. But first, here is Ben's response:

1: Jesus was the god to which the sacrifice was being made. As such, if we are to believe Jesus was sacrificed, or was the sacrifice, we're saying either that Jesus was given to himself which is a contradiction of terms, or that he, a god, was killed to appease the only god in existence, another contradiction of terms.

Jesus was exactly God? Atheists seem to think so. While on a spiritual level, Jesus is also God, the "God can't sacrifice to Himself" theory falls apart under basic scrutiny. Jesus is not only Son of God but Son of Man.

The datum that destroys Ben's theory is that Jesus had a mother, a quite human mother named Mary. Mary was not perfect. I've argued that she clearly sinned at Cana when she asked her son to make wine in lieu of going to Walgreen's. Mary was fully human. And, here's the stone in the "skeptic" shoe: Jesus was fully human, too.

While that might not make sense to the atheist, it is exactly what the Scriptures predicted. God was going to redeem us Himself. Jesus taught exactly this point as well. God was going to give us His Son. (Isaiah 41:12-14, Isaiah 9:6, and in dozens of passages in the OT and the NT)

Now a "skeptic" will protest that God can't give us His Son as a sacrifice. My response is to ask them to show how He CANNOT do such a thing. I'll help them out; His spirit PLUS a 100% human body EQUALS the perfect sacrifice.

2: Jesus did not forfeit anything of value. Jesus' human form was even less worthwhile than a regular human form, because, as seen in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20-21, and other passages, Jesus was able to resume human form shortly after his death. We have only one life, meaning our bodies are quite valuable, Jesus can raise himself as much as he wants, and when he's tired of it, he can go back to ruling heaven. It's akin to you or I playing Achievement Unlocked. You can't die no matter how often you die in that game, so one elephant life isn't worth anything. Jesus essentially traded up. He left his flawed human form to be permanently in heaven with the rest of the trinity.

I'm not sure what this is saying. First he quotes verses that point to the Messiah's human form being beaten beyond recognition. This does not disqualify the sacrifice unless it was required that he leave a sexy corpse behind for three days, and I'm not aware of such a requirement. What the beaten form of Jesus shows is the value of His sacrifice for us. He endured that horror and death for our eternal good.

Keep in mind, if Jesus is the Son of God, then His sacrifice is of the utmost importance to every person who lived before, during or after that event. The horrors of September 11, 2001 affected only a small percentage of people. Jesus's sacrifice on the cross affected everyone who ever lived.

3: Human bodies are all but worthless in christianity, and the salvation of allpeople is the single greatest thing ever. Destroying a human body for the salvation of all other humans doesn't really count as getting rid of something for less than what it's worth.

"Human bodies are all but worthless in Christianity". Really? So that's why God commands us not to commit adultery, or practice sexual immorality, or murder another human body, etc. I'll just put this claim in the "he thought it sounded good so he added it" circular file. Oh, wait, add to that file this claim: "Destroying a human body for the salvation of all other humans doesn't really count..." This commentary by Ben would be irrefutable if I accepted the proposition - that to him is a priori - that God simply does not exist.

Reread all of Ben's comments and then consider the atheist attack in general. Every atheist argument starts with the assumption that the universe was not created by a deity. You can sum up their argument by saying, "There is no God, therefore......"

But I'm going to help out my atheist friend here. Assume that the claim is true and proceed from there. You do that with the Qur'an and you find that the claims of Allah's deity are incoherent. You do that with the Bible and it becomes harder and harder to dismiss.

The Bible is consistent that sin is deserving of death; sin is the biblical reason why we die in the first place. And that the only solution to living forever after death is to believe God, NOT to merely believe in God but to believe what He has said. And what He has said is extraordinarily consistent, historically convincing, and has volumes to say about the news of the present day. At the core of "believing God" is believing in the promise begun in Genesis 3:15, and repeated over a thousand different ways in the Hebrew Bible, that a Messiah would be crucified, dead, and buried, but risen on the third day as a sign that the Creator of the universe still loves us with the same burning passion that moved Him to create us.

This final point I know beyond a shadow of a doubt. It is to my discredit that often I forget and fail to serve my Creator with a spirit of thanksgiving. But my happiness is never far away, thanks to the perfect sacrifice for sin of the Son of Man who also is the Son of God. Amen.

Kari Jobe - O, How He Loves Us So

2011-11-20T23:56:00.000-04:00

Born Again Birthday

2011-11-20T03:45:00.000-04:00

We do not have to be perfect for God to notice us. The night He found me I had cussed him out from the bottom of my heart. I gave Him a piece of my mind. In return, He woke me up and gave me a piece of His kingdom. No, God doesn't find us when we're perfect. He finds us when we're broken.

My 10 years with God have been indescribable. Thank You, Lord, for the blood shed for me by my Savior and the life He gives that I never imagined I could have.

Why the Old Testament Doesn't Make Sense Without Jesus

2011-11-16T21:11:00.001-04:00

In Science Speaks by Peter Stoner (1958) the odds of Jesus of Nazareth not being the Messiah foretold in the Hebrew Bible are calculated. The result; one in 10 to the 157th power (that's 1 in 10 followed by 157 zeroes). The Old Testament accurately predicted His lineage (line of Judah), where He would be born, and that it would be to a virgin, and that He would spend time in Egypt, live in Gallilee, be without sin, be betrayed and crucified, buried in a rich man's tomb, and rise to life again on the third day. Et cetera, etc. There are hundreds of prophecies. Imagine for a moment the sheer unlikelihood of any one of these predictions hitting home, and then understand that they all happened to the same man. It would be impossible to accept without the established paper trail of the Old Testament foretelling. The prophecies were even known widely before Christ was born. There was simply no chance to make them up after the fact.

The shocking truth is that the entire Old Testament leans heavily and specifically on this Messiah. He is God's first (Gen 3:15) and final response to the sin nature of man. This long web of prophecies that God will make come true establishes the very fingerprint of the true and living God. No wonder Jesus Christ has been such a compelling figure in history. His role in history demands a response. And everything is riding on your response for you.

Thus, if one believes that Jesus is not the Messiah - as in today's rabbinic Judaism - they have a BIG problem in that their Bible shows God is not perfect. His Word did not come true!

In fact, the Old Testament doesn't make a whole lot of sense without the Messiah it promised to make all things clear. Likewise, for you "New Testament Christians", the New Testament doesn't make a lick of sense without the Old. The more we study the Old and New Testaments together, the more we see the seams that our foolish brains created fade away. The unity of the Bible is undeniable to any one who studies it daily over time.

The amazing truth here is that the Bible - the Old and New Testaments - is one unified work that is all about one single, solitary man. It's a story about Him. Take Jesus away and the Bible makes no sense from Genesis to Revelation. One man; fully God and fully man. One man; on God's side and on our side. Son of God and Son of Man who splits history into BC and AD.

"He gave His life so we could be free". That is the story of the Bible; 10 to the 157th power! Amen.
Love You, Jesus.

Phil Roebuck - Can I Keep You?

2011-11-13T21:35:00.001-04:00

El Shaddai - Amy Grant

2011-11-10T01:24:00.002-04:00

Dr John M. Perkins Supporting Life and MS Amendment 26

2011-11-07T00:44:00.001-04:00

"We have racialized LIFE". Dr. Perkins gives this amazing address on the heels of the news that his cancer has returned. Powerful.

The Band - The Youtube Collection

2011-11-04T21:45:00.000-04:00

Thirty-four years ago today, the Band aired their "Last Waltz". While I had just learned how to pick my nose without drawing blood, I feel I must have known that....history was in the making....

Planned Parenthood lies to women yet again

2011-11-02T23:09:00.001-04:00

Watch as calls to Planned Parenthood in Mississippi confirm that PP is lying about birth control pills not being available after Amendment 26 is passed this Tuesday, November 8th.

You Raise Taxes by Raising Businesses..And Vice Versa

2011-11-02T21:59:00.004-04:00

August, 1995. I was at the local Health Department office looking up the history of the restaurant I was thinking about opening. The older woman nearby was apparently remodeling a bar/restaurant. She was not happy. She looked over at the young blond-haired novice politely asking for records.

"Don't do it!" she shouted.

I smiled and politely acknowledged her without knowing what to say. What she said next became the best business advice I ever got.

"You gotta have rocks in your head! You'll end up working for the government and the landlord. But only do it if you got rocks in your head."

As you might gather from this blog, I had rocks in my head. I did well, too, moving up in the world until my taxes quadrupled and my rent tripled. Thirteen years later I gave up and sold that business, tired of working for the government and the landlord.

My advice to the world of business and politics is this: Businesses are tax revenue monsters. They create payroll taxes, guarantee property taxes, "collect" (really, they pay punitive) sales taxes, electricity taxes, liquor, beer and wine VAT taxes, corporate income taxes, municipal taxes, and create revenue streams for local charities. My cheesy little eatery paid well over a million dollars in taxes in it's 13 years, and today under the new owner, pays even more. It always goes up. But one day, it will bring everything down as the tax burden is too high. And I'm not sure how many rocks my buddy who owns it now has in his head. Will they last him 10 more years? I doubt it.

President Barack Obama's idiotic "spread the wealth around" ideas kill businesses, and, in doing so, DIRECTLY kill tax revenues. Businesses generate tax revenue. Our government has made them the primary tax collector of our nation. We discourage the expansion and opening of businesses at our own peril. Government has discouraged business creation and thus tax revenues have suffered.

And what do people say? "You'd be crazy to open a business in this economy!" Indeed, this is an Obama economy. And it has come on the heals of a disastrous Republican establishment economy. Here in Florida we suffered under a big-government Republican in Charlie Crist and a dismal business president in George W. Bush. Then came Obama to show, as Thomas Sowell says, "Democrats are the only reason you'd ever vote Republican."

Summation: Businesses are tax revenue monsters. If we are serious about meeting our needs we will make it easier to open businesses. By reducing the tax burden on businesses, we will stimulate expansion, create real jobs (not just census jobs) and rake in more taxes than idiots like Obama ever thought possible.

Driving 500 miles today - Big Log - Robert Plant

2011-11-02T06:32:00.000-04:00

Going to New Smyrna Beach, Florida and back. Again.

Desperate Churchmice - George Weigel - National Review Online

2011-11-01T18:03:00.000-04:00

Desperate Churchmice - George Weigel - National Review Online
The fading of the Catholic Left

Reasonable Doubt vs No Doubt

2011-10-30T14:40:00.000-04:00

I once had a series of debates with an atheist lawyer about whether the Bible was true or false. His modus operandi was proving the Bible verses in question had reasonable doubts about them i.e. reasonable doubt means they must be false. You have to disqualify the verses and what they claim. While this might be a good policy in a courtroom, he's forgetting something pivotal, in my opinion. Reasonable doubt exists because it is better to acquit the defendant because they might be innocent. It is preferable to letting a guilty man go free than to sentence an innocent man to an unjust punishment. It is a cornerstone of our system of justice.

Thanks to famous trials and the ubiquity of TV, this mode of logic has entered our national consciousness. We've grown up with a great respect for the "reasonable doubt" standard. Nonetheless, this is a courtroom standard - a civil rights standard - that deals with likelihood, NOT truth. What happens when a man is sent away convicted "beyond a reasonable doubt" and DNA evidence exonerates him of the crime 22 years later? Nicolas James Yarris was on Pennsylvania's Death Row, convicted beyond a reasonable doubt yet was truly innocent. In fact, 112 people, per the article, by 2003, had already been exonerated due to DNA evidence. What does this mean?

In short, you can be convicted beyond a reasonable doubt and still be innocent. Ooops! How does that happen? Wouldn't that mean that the verdict was UNREASONABLE? Well, no. Not exactly. Verdicts focus on likelihoods, not the truth per se. The verdict was simply WRONG.

The accusations against Yarris and hundreds of others turned out to be false. While the evidence seemed iron clad, it was deeply flawed and misleading. And in defense of our justice system, new evidence such as DNA can reopen a case at any time. So even a conviction can be overturned after it's made. It's not set in stone.

Faith in Christ differs from Christ on trial. One might say, "I'll believe in Jesus Christ if I find no reasonable doubt about his life, death, and resurrection". That is a good start. It at least obligates the seeker to evaluate the evidence. I did that as a skeptic from 1996-2001.

Nonetheless, you reach a sort of timberline (Blaise Pascal's metaphor) where you can't go further. Some jurors, like my atheist lawyer acquaintance, rules for a reasonable doubt and dismisses the case of Christ. I would like to think I went farther than he did, but, in truth, that cannot be said. The atheist lawyer appears to have done as much or more diligence in his quest than I have. While I'm closing in on 1,900 articles, most of them on faith, just since February, 2005 on this blog, he has quite a background of research to show also.

"Reasonable doubt" and "No doubt" are oceans apart from each other. It might be easy to prove that there is no doubt that I live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. But the life of Christ 2,000 years ago is hard to convey without a doubt at all. It always ends in a draw in debating atheists. I cannot drag them across the threshold of "No doubt" and they sure aren't going to succeed with me. And I think that's a key principle of faith in Christ to ponder.

My bedrock point; it is the work of God Himself to bring the believer over the threshold of "no doubt" into the absolute assurance of salvation through Christ. I've described my conversion on November 20, 2001 as I saw it. God revealed Himself to me. Yes, I had begun to grasp who God is and how He is by studying His Word, reading analyses on the faith, and talking to other Christians, but it was He who brought me over the threshold to the "no doubt" position. In the 10 years since, my conviction has been reinforced through a daily walk, an indelible experience, of fellowship with my Creator.

Therefore I can say, not simply with conviction, but with absolute certainty, that Jesus of Nazareth is exactly who He said He was (and is), the Messiah prophesied hundreds of times in the Old Testament; the Son of God, the response of God to our sin, and the only way for us to salvation.

Is that enough to sell the atheist on Christianity? No, but it's not about selling, or buying. If they do not believe in God's existence, less they will believe that the mystery of God revealing Himself to believers is real. As Pascal put it, faith is founded upon reason, but transcends it.

As for me, I have no doubts about Christ. The rest of my life will be filled as they are now with elaborations on why I know that. And that's more than good enough for me.

And, Jesus, thanks again.