The Biblical Examiner
An Examination of Biblical Precepts Involved in Issues at Hand

January 2006

Sacrificing the Future

Those who have followed us over the years know that one issue I cannot let rest is the issue of the education of our young people.

It is beyond question that the vast majority of Christian parents are in sin, as they sacrifice their children to Molech—that is, the king (state)—by allowing the state to educate their children.

Thus, Christians have willingly yielded the future to the ungodly. We can only expect things to get worse, as the children of Christian parents live according to their statist training. Christians have lost sight of and control of the future, having willingly turned it over to the ungodly.

We live in a day of self-fulfilled prophecy – Christians say, "According to prophecy, things must get worse and worse, so there is no need to try to change things." So they withdraw from trying to control things for God's kingdom, and sure enough, "Things get worse and worse, just like prophecy said." And things continue to worsen, to the delight of many Christians. "Here is the proof that the prophetic speculations are coming to pass, and we will soon be gone."

As I show in my book, Death of the Church Victorious, the dispensational view of the future almost requires that the children be sacrificed to the enemy, for any long range planning to gain Christian control of the society of the future must be avoided. "Things are only going to continue to deteriorate, so why should we sacrifice to bring about any kind of Christian influence in society?"

I have heard more than a few Christians wrongly say that the Ten Commandments are no longer binding under the New Testament. Thus, Exodus 20:5, 6, is no longer in effect:

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Despite the many Old Testament illustrations, they believe that the following generations, if they are even here, will not pay the price for the parents' sin of sacrificing their children to the state.

Education Contols the Future

Though many Christians have abandoned the future ("We will be gone before it gets here", though we are still here), the word of God tells us that whoever controls the education of the children controls the future:

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Thus we see that whoever controls the education of the children will control the future.

We are engaged in a war not only for our children, but in a war for the future, and Christians have given the future over to the ungodly by default.

Sadly, the ungodly believe this fact far more than do Christians. They believe and act upon the fact that whoever controls the training of the children controls the future. The state will spare no expense in training the children to be obedient servants of the state, as well as servants to their own lusts. The ungodly state will work and even pass laws to see that NO CHILD IS LEFT BEHIND, as the ungodly pursue their utopian plans.

Let me mention here that the ungodly not only permit but promote conditions that lead to chaos and war. Chaos and war ("War against Terror") permit the state to increase its power, as people are convinced that only the state can bring order out of the chaos it caused. Just read your newspapers, and look at history.

The ungodly fully expect to be here for millions of years (believing evolution as they do, saying that we have already been here for millions of years), so they work at training the young people for a distant future to be obedient servants. The state also needs committed consumers, that is – servants to the lusts of the flesh, because our economy is built upon covetousness, lust and greed.

John Taylor Gatto, a former NY State and City teacher of the year, has a book, The Underground History of American Education, Oxford Village Press. It is one of the most disturbing books on education you can read:

"Where the whole tendency of education is to create obedience," Brownson said, "all teachers must be pliant tools of government. Such a system of education is not inconsistent with the theory of Prussian society but the thing is wholly inadmissible here." He further argued that "according to our theory the people are wiser than the government, Here the people do not look to the government for light, for instruction, but the government looks to the people. The people give law to the government." He concluded that "to entrust government with the power of determining education which our children shall receive is entrusting our servant with the power of the master. The fundamental difference between the United States and Prussia has been overlooked by the board of education and its supporters." (P. 135.)

(Mr. Brownson spoke his warning in 1839, 13 years before the first successful school compulsion laws were passed. He said that if the government goal of licensing teachers was a control mechanism for the state and a screen for a controlled economy, it should be considered an act of treason, and treason is here.)

The people are to give law to the government, not the government give law to the people. However, state education makes the state the law-giver. Statist education makes the state master over the people, where the people should be master over the state.

Definition: education motivates independence, knowledge, ability, comprehension, and integrity. Schooling simply teaches obedience.

In America of yesteryear, it didn't cost billions of dollars to educate our children, and when they graduated from grammar school, they had a better education than most high school graduates (and even some college graduates) today. Then again, that was during a time when teachers enjoyed parents' support in maintaining discipline in the classroom. Imagine that. ... (Chuck Baldwin, Once upon a time in America. newswithviews.com. 1/17/06.)

Andrew Carnegie believed that education taught what was socially and economically useless, and transmitted bad attitudes which turned students against the ripening scheme of centralized national management:

Carnegie's new empire demanded that old-fashioned character be schooled out of children in a hurry. It would be a large mistake to assume this new empire of business of which Carnegie boasts was only a new face on old style greed. While it did take away liberty and sovereignty, it put forth serious intellectual arguments for doing so. (Underground History, p. 153.

Carnegie, and other industrialists, invested their untold wealth to transform education into schooling. They needed a consumer based society—they needed people slaves to lusts in order to increase their wealth. Their education system has marvelously succeeded.

Here is an excerpt from a fund raising letter we received from Michael Farris, President of Patrick Henry College:

Unmitigated gall. That is the only phrase to describe a recent article by a professor at Northwestern University. It's called "Lessons Learned: Red States May Be Outbreeding Blue States, but Blue Cities Particularly Blue College Towns – Can Help Turn the "Tide."

Professor Bill Savage notes a recent study showing that the most conservative states also have the highest fertility rates. This means that conservatives are having more children than liberals. But, he is not concerned with this trend because...well. I'II let him speak for himself:

"But even if this prediction comes to pass, one other fact remains which makes me sanguine that blue America's Urban Archipelago can grow larger, more contiguous, and more politically powerful even without my offspring. If we assume that red-state secondary education systems don't utterly collapse due to under funding caused by Republican anti-tax mania, then colleges and universities will come into play.

"The children of-red states will seek a higher education, and that education will very often happen in blue states or blue islands in red states. For the foreseeable future, loyal ditto heads will continue to drop off their children at the dorms. After a teary-eyed hug. Mom and Dad will drive their SUV off toward the nearest gas station, leaving their beloved progeny behind.

"And then they are all mine."

The article is decorated with some cartoon illustrations to depict the children of conservatives. Included are: a pair of farm overalls, a baseball cap with the letters WWJD, a Bible, a yellow ribbon with the words "Support our Troops", and a hunk of red meat-- making fun of Christianity, patriotism, and meat eaters. Only hicks from the country support these concepts is the clear message of both the cartoon and the article.

In other words, the left gleefully thinks that conservatives and Christians are so stupid that we not only support the wrong values, but we give our children to be educated by the very people who seek to change our moral and political views.

Professor Savage does have a bit of a point. Many Christians do in fact leave the education of their children to their philosophical opponents, but that's because there are so few alternatives.

Just imagine what would happen if we made sure that our students from red state homes– homes that teach the Bible and believe in Jesus and support America (and, yes, maybe even eat steak now and then) got an education from a college that shares the family's values.

Professor Bill Savage is right. Christians have the children, pay to rear them, and then they pay a very great amount of money to have the pagans destroy what the parents put into them, and retrain them into paganism. It seems that Christians have little inclination to train their children to be obedient servants to the Lord Jesus. But we rejoice as we see a shift in that short-sighted thinking through the home education movement.

World magazine, 11/26/05, had an article STRANGE STANDARDS. It told how the University of California has rejected all Christian School and home education courses that emphasize Christianity, particularly from A Beka and BJU. Though the conservative Christian students using these publishers out-score public and private schools by 18 to 26 percentile points, UC says that the Christian courses do not properly prepare the students for state university success.

I fully understand the hatred by the state education system for any conservative Christian influence. They must keep out that influence if they will control the future for the devil's crowd through the students. What else can we expect from the state that claims to be god?

However, the distressing thing about the whole situation is the response of some of the parents:

"They've said, ‘Well what are we going to do now? What if we want our kinds to go to UC schools?" Mr. Star [Superintendent of one of the schools involved in the suit against UC] said.'"

In other words, the parents are worried that they will not be able to pass their children through the fire to Molech as they demand the opportunity to sacrifice their children to Molech – that is, the state.

How many Christians have said, "No need to make long range plans as required by God, for we will soon be gone"? However, they are still here, and the wicked have control of the things that should have been captured for God and godliness.

If Christians expect to gain any control of the future for the Kingdom of God, they must see that education is the primary way to gain that control.

True Wisdom

Sadly, Christians have turned their backs upon true wisdom, to their own shame and destruction.

Proverbs 7:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning (principal part, marg.) of knowledge : but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

The preface has stated the object of this Book of Wisdom. The book itself now opens with a noble sentence. ‘There is not'—as Bishop Patrick observes—' such a wise instruction to be found in all their books (speaking of Heathen ethics), as the very first of all in Solomon's, which he lays as the ground of all wisdom.'† The fear of the Lard is the beginning of knowledge. So Job had pronounced before. (Job, xxviii. 28.) So had the wise man's father. (Ps. cxi. 10.) Such is the weight of this saying, that Solomon again repeats it.‡ Nay—after having gone round the whole circuit ; after having weighed exactly all the sources of knowledge ; his conclusion of the whole matter is this, that the fear of God in its practical exercise " is the whole of man " (Eccles. xii. 13. Comp. Job, xxviii. 12-14, with 28)—all his duty ; all his happiness ; his first lesson and his last. Thus, when about to instruct us from the mouth of God, he begins at the beginning, the principal part. All heathen wisdom is but folly. Of all knowledge, the knowledge of God is the principal. There is no true knowledge without godliness. (Comp. Deut. iv. 6, 7.)

But what is this fear of the Lord? It is that affectionate reverence, by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father's law. His wrath is so bitter, and his love so sweet ; that hence springs an earnest desire to please him, and—because of the danger of coining short from his own weakness and temptations—a holy watchfulness and fear, "that he might not sin against him." (Het). xii. 28. 29.) This enters into every exercise of the mind, every object of life. (Chap. xxiii. 17.) The oldest proficient in the Divine school seeks a more complete moulding into its spirit. The godly parent trains up his family under its influence. (Gen. xviii. 19. Kph. vi. 4.) The Christian scholar honours it as the beginning, the head, of all his knowledge; at once sanctifying its end, and preserving him from its most subtle temptations.

Why then do multitudes around us despise wisdom and instruction? Because the beginning of wisdom—"the fear of God—is not before their eyes." (Ps. xxxvi. 1.) They know not its value. They scorn its obligation. Wise they may be in their own sight. But surely God here gives them their right name. For fools they must be, to despise such a blessing (.Jcr. viii. 9) ; to rush into wilful ruin (Verses 22, 24—32. Comp. 1 Sam. ii. 23. 1 Kings, xii. 13. Jer. xxxvi. 22—32) ; to treasure up work for despairing repentance. (Chap. v. 12, 13 ; xxix. 1.) Good Lord ! May thy childlike fear be my wisdom, my security, my happiness!

† Preface to his Paraphrase.

‡ Chap. ix. 10 Comp. the fine description by the son of Sirach. Ecclus. i. 14-20, 27.

(Charles Bridges, Proverbs. The Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA.)

Observe:

1) "All heathen wisdom is but folly. Of all knowledge, the knowledge of God is the principal. There is no true knowledge without godliness."

Education without God only makes man more effective in his rebellion. (Gothard, from some years back. Now he promotes education without God.)

2) Fear of the Lord is that "affectionate reverence, by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father's law."

3) "Why then do multitudes around us despise wisdom and instruction? Because the beginning of wisdom—‘the fear of God—is not before their eyes.'"

Conclusion: Bridges points out that those who insist on sacrificing their children to the state in order to seek knowledge without godliness are fools, for they despise the blessings and wisdom of God. They rush to wilful ruin and self-destruction. They treasure up work for despairing repentance – the day will come when their children turn to paganism, and they will tearfully repent.

Obviously, there are times when statist education cannot be avoided, e.g., medical and legal professions. The best training for such professions would be apprenticeships, but the system has put a stop to that kind of practical training. However, Job clearly tells us that neither "money" nor "education" will produce wisdom. Job 28:15.

Education and the Enlightenment

Many Christians have bought into the world's lie, expressed in the Enlightenment. According to Gregg Singer:

Basic to the Enlightenment, as it developed in Europe and as it came to this country, were three ideas: the inherent goodness of human nature, the perfectibility of man, and the inevitability of progress. ... These three concepts became the foundation for a whole new world and life view which would gradually become the means of rewriting the whole fabric of American life, and furnish an entirely new concept of the American dream which would make it quite different from that envisioned by the Puritan Fathers. (A Theological Interpretation of American History, p. 26.)

Statist education, as well as Arminianism, is based in the presumption that man is basically good and when presented with a choice and with proper instruction (education), he will choose good and God; this is the basis of sex and drug education, as well as many professions of faith in Christ. (If man is basically good, then why the problem with polluting his environment? Why are the prisons overflowing?) Thus, the Enlightenment idea is that man can be made good without Christ.

The Washington Post had an article Sunday, 12/04/05; B01:

Disappearing Act - Where Have the Men Gone? No Place Good. By Michael Gurian

...

The young men who are working in the lowest-level (and most dangerous) jobs instead of going to college. Who are sitting in prison instead of going to college. Who are staying out of the long-term marriage pool because they have little to offer to young women. Who are remaining adolescents, wasting years of their lives playing video games for hours a day, until they're in their thirties, by which time the world has passed many of them by. ...

Of course, not every male has to go to college to succeed, to be a good husband, to be a good and productive man. But a dismal future lies ahead for large numbers of boys in this generation who will not go to college. ... (Of the successful men by the world's standards I have known, none of them whent to college. Their success came from dependability and hard work.)

Thus, the state sees barbarism as a result of a lack of education, rather than as a result of sin. The Lord God tells us that barbarism is a result of sin, and can only be conquered through regeneration in Christ. Though they profess to know better, Christians still allow, and even pay, the state to indoctrinate their children in its view of barbarism, and make barbarians out of them.

(I have an article in my Bill Gothard booklet about Gothard's direction — that is, moral goodness without Christ, and the word of God. Gothard also has fallen into the Enlightenment trap, and dragging many good, sincere people with him. "He has a huge following, so he must be right.? Does not Mohammed have a huge, committed following?)

The word of God is clear – MAN'S PROBLEM IS SIN, Romans 3:10-19

Scripture maintains that the natural man is a sinner, and is totally incapable of understanding spiritual things and seeking after God, without a working of the Holy Spirit. (Romans chapter 3.) Sadly, our statist education system, as well as many "Christian" religious systems, is built upon Enlightenment principles – man's inherent goodness and the perfectibility of human nature through education, and other means, which is in violent contradiction to the founding Puritan theology. Read the Mayflower Compact.

Implications

The idea that man has the ability to choose God apart from God working in his heart follows Enlightenment thinking. Thus, a logical implication of Enlightenment thinking must be that man, on his own, can choose God over self.

In other words, the false hope in the perfectibility of man apart from Christ and through education is a logical implication of the Christian denial of total depravity. Until there is a general return to the doctrine of total depravity (sin) – that is, man's natural inability to seek after God – we cannot expect to see the statist education system loosen its grip.

Education and the State

The state is not educating for occupational skills. Rather, it is educating for changing a social order by removing Christianity from society. The state is able to turn out young people who seek after fornication, adultery, sex, abortions, birth control, condom use and drugs. They learn how to fill out a 1040, how to use the banking system, how to give their allegiance to the new global community at the expense of commitment to their own country, and how to trust their teachers and political leaders over their own parents and pastors.

Quoting R.J. Rushdoony:

Here we have two basic claims of professional educators, now long familiar. First, we are the agency which can change society and create a true Utopia, paradise on earth, and, second, "let it be worked with efficiency," that is, give us the money and we can do it; our failure thus far is your fault in that we have received insufficient funds.

The common schools are thus the cure-all for sin and crime. Education meant moral reformation, moral virtue, knowledge cured sin. (The Messianic Character of American Education, p. 29.)

There was an article in the Washington Post (11/27/05. B01) that revealed the truth about government schools, a truth that most of us already know:

Of Reading, Writing — and Raising Kids

By Noel Epstein.

It's time to put an end to all the headlines about achievement problems in our schools — a far easier chore than most people imagine. All we need to do is two things: First, stop calling those establishments simply schools, when they're really hybrid institutions that are raising many of our children, not just educating them. Then ensure that those who deliver family-like services there are devoted exclusively to those tasks, so that the educators can focus fully on academics.

Few people recognize the extent of what's happened, but as I discovered while doing research for a book, the public schools have clearly evolved into public child-rearing institutions, something closer in that respect to the Israeli kibbutz, or commune. ...

Even more surprising are some of the statistics Mr. Epstein presents:

According to a Public Agenda analysis of opinion surveys, for example, Americans in 1999 said that the top three problems facing public schools were lack of parental involvement, drug use and undisciplined students. Academic standards came in seventh. Similarly, that year's annual Gallup education poll found far more concern about violence, gangs and other student behavior than about academics, which trailed in ninth place. By last year, when Gallup ranked the public's top five school concerns, academics were not cited at all (inadequate funding led the list [what a ripoff-the lie has been told often enough that it is now considered the truth), and this year's poll showed again that student achievement wasn't among the public's main worries. ...

A large percentage of government school students are from supposed Christian families. If just those families would express concern about academics, the numbers would be nothing like Mr. Epstein found. Where are the Christians who excuse their sin by saying that they want their children to be missionaries into that pagan system, who say they want their children to be salt and light in that area of almost total darkness? Obviously, their words are empty, being said to justify their sin.

Thus, we see that so-called public education is not about academics. Mr. Epstein made it clear in his article—public education institutions are "essentially one-stop academic, medical-care, mental-health, drug-education, homework-help, pregnancy-prevention, crisis-intervention, tutoring, violence-reduction, adult-education and anything-else-that's-needed institutions."

In fact, many are year around full-service "community centers." They were and are designed to replace the Christian family.

Moreover, it appears that the state works at dumbing down the population, as high tech jobs are increasingly being either sent overseas or are given to foreign students here at home, particularly those from India. (Manufacturing jobs have already been shipped overseas; check out where the products you purchase are made.)

Some time ago, I read that much of the high tech food service equipment is made overseas, in Germany particularly, and the schools in the US are unable to train the highly skilled and paid service technicians to work on that equipment (starting salary over $60,000 some years ago). Thus, they have to import the service technicians to work on the high tech machines.

The Washington Post, 10/18/03, reported that the majority of the high tech students in US colleges are from overseas, particularly India. [See Reader's Digest, Nov. 2003, "Is Your Job Next?", p. 153ff.] When foreign students graduate, many return to their home countries, taking the jobs with them. Broad band internet has made the whole world a work cubical, so high tech development work can now be done anywhere in the world. The result is that many well-known, high tech companies are fleeing like rats from a sinking ship to overseas locations where the wages are a fraction of what they are here.

If you have followed the news, Bill Gates made a deal in India where he agreed to shift many thousands of high tech jobs from the US to India. India was fed up with Microsoft's software monopoly, and was spending big bucks on open source software. No doubt, Gates made a deal to get India to drop their challenge to Microsoft's monopoly.

Christianity has been removed from Western society by the ungodly, with the support of "Christian" parents who send their children to the state schools. And the honest, hard working and dependable Christian work ethic has been removed. Ask any employer — the average highschool or even college graduate is looking for lots of pay with very little work, and even then, many times someone must teach him or her to read.

There is not going to be any immigration policy change on the federal level. There is just too much money to be made from illegals, particularly when Americans will not work. (A new roof was put on a house across the street from us in Linden. Mexicans did the job in probably 3/4 of the time an American crew would have done it. American crews seem to demand smoke, coffee and various other breaks. The Mexican wives brought their meals to them, and they came down just long enough to eat and sleep.)

 

Using their education – Sex education, that is

Sex at School Increasing, Some Educators Say

By Tara Bahrampour and Ian Shapira; Washington Post Staff Writers, Sunday, November 6, 2005; C01

Perhaps the most shocking thing about students having sex in a high school auditorium was that other students didn't find it very shocking at all.

"I glanced over and, whatever, I just let him continue on with his business," said a 16-year-old linebacker on the Osbourn High School football team who, along with a friend, stumbled upon a couple engaging in oral sex. "I stayed for five to eight minutes, just talking. We weren't worried about it. When the janitor came in, everyone started running."

Manassas school officials weren't as laid back. The students — eight in all — were quickly identified and suspended, and the matter prompted the small school system to confront an issue many adults would rather not face: in this case, two girls and three boys engaging in oral sex or intercourse on school property while three other boys watched, according to sources familiar with what happened.

"In all the years that I've been in education, I've never run into this one before," said John Boronkay, the school system's acting superintendent. "It's a new one."

Actually, it's not so new. According to some teenagers, sex on school property is more frequent than adults might imagine. And some adults who work with teenagers said it's happening more often these days.

There's anecdotal evidence to support that:

Two students were discovered recently having sex in an Anne Arundel County high school gym. Four students at Col. Zadok Magruder High in Rockville were arrested in June after performing sex acts in the school parking lot. A boy and a girl at Springbrook High in Silver Spring were caught "touching inappropriately" in a school bathroom. Last year, three teenage boys at Mount Hebron High in Howard County were arrested after a student accused them of sexually assaulting her in a school restroom, but charges were dropped after the boys said the sex was consensual and the girl recanted.

"Students would have intercourse on the stairwells, locked classrooms, in the locker rooms," said Ihsan Musawwir, 18, a recent graduate of Dunbar Senior High School in the District. "It was embarrassing for me to walk in on it."

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/05/AR2005110501414.html

For the life of me, I cannot understand Christians allowing their children to attend such a hot-house of sex and violence -- why will they allow their children to attend these houses of prostitution? Note below that the problem is with female teachers raping male students, far more than male teachers raping female students. How many teen boys can withstand an attractive female teacher "hitting" on them?

More Public Garbage

SEXTRA CREDIT

Lesbian teacher rapist off hook – no jail time

High-school coach faced 15 years, gets house arrest, probation in plea

* For the third time this week, a public school teacher convicted of raping a same-sex student has been sentenced to no jail time – this time it's a lesbian coach in Florida who had relations with a 15-year-old.

*Two homosexual male teachers this week also were sentenced to no jail time after being convicted of raping students. ...

[Posted: 1/20/06. WorldNetDaily.com. WND listed 63 instances of female teachers raping their students, primarily heterosexual rape, but some lesbian rape. The details are too gory to list here, but you can find names and pictures at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48421. Strangely, the female teachers, as a whole, were quite attractive. At the bottom of the above sickening article is this:] * Related stories at WorldNetDaily.com:

* Sex abuse, brainwashing exposed on campus! * On the ‘sin' of sending kids to public school * Why homeschooling? New resource gives reasons parent education trumps all other options * Again! Homosexual teacher gets no jail for teen assault * Judge: No prison time for ‘gay' rapist teacher * Teacher investigated for ‘raping' boy quits * Again! Woman ‘has sex with boy, 12' * U.S. teacher sexpidemic spreading across planet * Did ‘rapist' teacher have sex with 3 other boys? * Again! Woman accused of intercourse with boy * Teacher_student sex OK, says prof * Police: Teacher had lesbian affair with girl, 15 * ‘Pure nastiness': Teacher too sexy for God? * 10-year-old forced to lick teacher's toes * Another teacher faces sex charge

Why will Christian parents, who claim to love God and holiness, send their children to these cesspools of iniquity, to Sodom itself? Are they better than Lot, who willingly left his children in the most perverse environment? Christians are paying the price as their children follow after the wickedness learned at the State's feet. There are very few exceptions, and we cannot presume upon God to make us us an exception. (Numbers 15:30ff., Deuteronomy 1:43, 17:12ff., Psalms 19:13, 2 Peter 2:10.)

 

Samuel's Warning

1 Samuel 2:22-25. Eli's sons were doing wickedly, and Eli heard about it from the people. Rather than chastize them or at least remove them from the offices they held around the tabernacle, he simply mildly rebuked them. He pointed out to them that if they sinned against another man, they could get someone to judge, or arbitrate, entreat, for him. However, when one sins against God, no one can interpose as an arbitrator. Intercession cannot clear willful and continual sins against God. Eli's reproof made no impression upon them. Their hardness of heart had already moved the Lord to slay them.

V. 26. Though Samuel was surrounded by wickedness, he remained pure, growing in favour both with the Lord, and also with men.

Vv. 27-36. Before God sent the judgment spoken of in v. 25, he sent a man of God to tell Eli what he was going to do:

First, notice why God will judge –– honourest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the chiefest of all the offerings of Israel my people?

Though we are told that Eli only found out about his sons wickedness with the woman, evidently, he partook in the results of their evils, as he also made himself fat with the chiefest of all the offerings. (4:8, Eli was a fat man.)

Vv. 27, 28. Eli placed the desires of his sons before what he knew was required of him by the Lord. Eli knew his history, and how God chose his father, Levi, to serve in the Lord''s house.

V. 29. However, Eli and his sons were not satisfied with the Lord's provision.

Second, the several points of judgment.

A) V. 30. God promised honour to those who would honour him by obedience. Conversely, those who despise him shall be lightly esteemed, or despised. (Thought little of, lack of respect, held in contempt, despised, &c.)

Obviously, Eli and his sons did not openly or formally despise God. Despise here implies "presumptuous disobedience of my commands; by defiling and disgracing my worship and ordinances, either by transgressing the rules I have given them therein, or by their ungodly and shameful conversation..." (Poole.)

B) The lives of his children will be shortened.

C) V. 32. And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation could mean:

1. Someone will take his place of honour, which should have been a place of wealth. The tribe of Levi was to receive the tithes of Israel, which contained 12 tribes. Thus, that tribe should have 20% more income than the average Israelite. Samuel took Eli's place in the eyes of the people.

2. The enemy take over the areas that at one time belonged to God. Israel was defeated by the Philistines, the ark was captured, and his wicked sons killed.

3. Eli's posterity possessed the high priesthood to the time of Solomon before being transferred to another family. (2 Samuel 15:24, 17:15, 19:12, 20:25, 1 Kings 2:27.) God preserved Eli's posterity so it might see the prosperity of its enemies, and see itself destitute and despised.

Eli's "presumptuous disobedience" to the Lord's will had very far reaching effects. God's judgment "extends even to distant generations, and manifests itself to sinners both in life and death; both in their own disgrace, and in the prosperity of their enemies." (Clarke)

Observe:

1. Among other things, presumptuous disobedience to what we know is required by God is to despise God.

2. One must wonder if the hardness of heart of God's people today in refusing to see the wickedness of sending their children to the government schools is a sign that the Lord is moving to judge, even destroy them? Knowing the truth of the evil, they presumptiously continue to disobey God in the rearing of their children.

3. Is it any wonder that many try to dismiss the Old Testament as being irrelevant for our day. It promises both judgment and blessings for many generations to come, according to our obedience or disobedience to God.

Murphy's Technology Laws

* Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence. * Technology is dominated by those who manage what they do not understand. * If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization. * The opulence of the front office decor varies inversely with the fundamental solvency of the firm. * The attention span of a computer is only as long as it electrical cord.

* An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing. * Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure. Great discoveries are made by mistake. * Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget. * All's well that ends. * A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept and the hours are lost. * The first myth of management is that it exists. * A failure will not appear till a unit has passed final inspection. * New systems generate new problems. * To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer. * We don't know one millionth of one percent about anything. * A computer makes as many mistakes in two seconds as 20 men working 20 years make. * Nothing motivates a man more than to see his boss putting in an honest day's work. * Some people manage by the book, even though they don't know who wrote the book or even what book. * The primary function of the design engineer is to make things difficult for the fabricator and impossible for the serviceman. * After all is said and done, a lot more is said than done. * A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works. * If mathematically you end up with the incorrect answer, try multiplying by the page number. * Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable. Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable. * Give all orders verbally. Never write anything down that might go into a "Pearl Harbor File." * If you can't understand it, it is intuitively obvious. * In designing any type of construction, no overall dimension can be totaled correctly after 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The correct total will become self-evident at 8:15 a.m. on Monday. * All things are possible except skiing through a revolving door. * The only perfect science is hind-sight. * Work smarder and not harder and be careful of yor speling. * If it's not in the computer, it doesn't exist. * If an experiment works, something has gone wrong. * When all else fails, read the instructions. * If there is a possibility of several things going wrong the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. * Everything that goes up must come down. Corollary: Not always * Any instrument when dropped will roll into the least accessible corner. * Any simple theory will be worded in the most complicated way. * Build a system that even a fool can use and only a fool will want to use it. * The degree of technical competence is inversely proportional to the level of management. * A difficult task will be halted near completion by one tiny, previously insignificant detail. * There is never time to do it right, but always time to do it over. * The remaining work to finish in order to reach your goal increases as the deadline approaches.


Are We Missing the Boat on Literature Ministry?

By Thomas Williamson

A 1968 episode of the original "Star Trek" television series, entitled "A Piece of the Action," dealt with a visit to a planet called Sigma Iotia II. Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise were astonished to find that the Iotians had built an entire society based on one book entitled "Chicago Mobs of the Twenties" which had been accidentally left behind by the crew of another Federation starship that visited the planet 100 years earlier.

There may be a lesson for us here, with regard to the power of Christian literature, and the influence and impact that well-written and widely circulated books can have. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could help form entire societies based on the Bible?

Be assured that other religious and ideological groups are definitely aware of the impact that they can have by means of their literature. The Jehovah's Witnesses are well known for their massive literature production and zealous circulation of that literature. They have a policy of constructing relatively modest church buildings and using the money saved to spread their printed propaganda.

Another group that is well aware of the power of literature is the Communist Party. J. Edgar Hoover, in his 1958 book "Masters of Deceit," described the Communist policies for literature distribution in detail.

"The Party's literature program (comprising newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, and books) is a companion to Party schools and self-study in helping to create communist man...

"‘We probably circulate more literature per member of organization by 10 times,' one former Party leader said, `than any other organization in existence....'

Modern-day techniques of literature dissemination extend the tyranny of communist indoctrination. The Party wants mass readership. Always remember that the communists are practical, everyday agitators. Why publish something at a high price that few will buy? There are few fancy bindings, engravings, or pictures. Communist publishing firms have exploited the publication of pamphlet-form editions and paper-backed volumes, anything to gain circulation and spread the communist message.

"Prices are now higher, but communist literature is today being sold for 5, 10, 20, 25, and 35 cents. Even these prices are considered too high. `I do not consider a 5-cent pamphlet mass literature. We have to go back to mass penny literature,' one Party leader commented. Amazing circulations have been achieved. Editions of Lenin's `Imperialism' and `State and Revolution,' totaling 100,000 copies each and costing 10 cents a copy, were issued. Other pamphlets were printed in editions totaling 307,000; 275,000; 350,000; 440,000....

"During the period 1948-55, according to a report of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the writings of Lenin were more widely translated than the Bible, with Stalin's writings ranking third. Mention should also be made of communist-shop leaflets, neighborhood papers, and throwaways that are placed on doorsteps, thrown into parked cars, or scattered in buildings. Generally mimeographed, they represent an easy, cheap, and effective method of stirring up trouble."

This may be an example of the principle that sometimes "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." (Luke 16:8) The Communists believe in their cause, enough to do whatever it takes to reach their target audience with literature, while Christians are content to sit back and wait for sinners to present themselves in our church services and hear our preaching - as a result, we reach very few people at all.

Literature distribution is not a tactic to be specifically associated with the Commies or Jehovah's Witnesses. It is a tool that will be used by any group that is serious about getting its message out to as many people as possible.

The story of evangelical Christian missionary advance in the last few centuries is, to a very great measure, the story of printing press ministry and literature work. This is a theme that turns up over and over in any detailed historical account of foreign missionary work.

Antranig Bedikian, in "The Rise of the Evangelical Movement Among Armenians," describes the beginnings of evangelical missionary work in the Ottoman Empire: "About that time, a printing plant in Smyrna managed by William Griffith, had started the printing of evangelical pamphlets and books, including the Bible, at first in installments, and later as a complete volume. In 1839, in the month of May, an encyclical was read from the pulpits of all the churches in Constantinople. Through it, the Patriarch of the time, Archbishop Hagopos, forbade members of his flock from reading publications which had come from the press of William Griffith. He ordered all those who possessed any of these publications to burn them or to deliver them to the Patriarchate. Cantor Absolom was the first to obey the Patriarch's order. Without questioning the order of the Patriarch, he readily burned all such books in his possession. But it was this same cantor who, 7 years later, when the Evengelical Church was organized, was ordained and became the first pastor of that church." Now, that's the power of literature.

Robin Waterfield, in "Christians in Persia," tells how vast areas of Central Asia were reached through literature: "In 1816 the centre of the work [of the Edinburgh Missionary Society] and the printing press were moved to Astrakhanand. The New Testament in Azerbaijan Turkey was printed there. The annual report of the mission for this year records that the translation was very well received and many of the Persian merchants who visited the town took it to Darband, Shirvan and even to Isfahan. . . . They continued to print and disseminate tracts far and wide and since Astrakhan was a focal point for traffic from north to south as well as from east to west, they had frequent contact with pilgrims from Bokhara, Khiva, Samarkand and Afghanistan.

"In 1820 the mission received a letter from a Captain Gordon in Tabriz, urging them to come to Persia; in June of the same year he wrote again from Isfahan saying that he had distributed some of their Christian tracts quite freely in the bazaar...."

Waterfield goes on to describe the outreach to the Jews of Persia: "Thanks to the extensive itineration of such men as Stern, Bruhl and Sternschuss, Christian literature had been widely disseminated in Persia and eagerly accepted by Jews and Muslims. One of the most remarkable results of this work was the spontaneous formation of a little group of Jewish-Christian believers in the town of Hamadan.

" ... Lotka was interested to find that in spite of their abject poverty many Jewish families had Hebrew New Testaments and that they read them. . . . In Shiraz . . . he remained 10 days and made contact with the Jewish community, which he estimated consisted of some 400 families, all of whom were very poor. He was assisted by the Rabbi in his distribution of Bible portions - the Rabbi pointing out to him those who could read a little."

Waterfield concludes with a statistical report of literature work in 19th Century Persia: "There is no doubt that Bible colportage was `the simplest and least questionable method of evangelizing' - to quote the Society's historian. Many hundreds of thousands of Bibles, Testaments and portions have been distributed over the years: for instance, during the period 1804-1904, 17,412 portions in Judaeo-Persian, 20,000 whole Bibles, 64,000 New Testaments and New Testament and Psalms, and 179,481 Gospels and other portions of the Bible - and this during a period when the reading population was never more than 100,000."

The "Hiscox Standard Baptist Manual" for 1936 places an emphasis on Christian literature work: "Another practicable and effective means for bringing religious truth in contact with human minds is the use of the printed page. Every good book or periodical put into circulation is a personal and a public blessing, and this means of grace is so accessible that none need be without it... .

"1. A few good religious books should be in every home. A few, read over and over until the mind is thoroughly imbued with their spirt, are better than many carelessly read, or not read at all. Many Christian families, it is a pity to say, have a generous supply of secular books in their homes, but few or none at all of a religious nature.

"2. Church libraries are an excellent means for intellectual and religious instruction.

"3. Religious periodicals are, if possible, still more important than books, not in their intrinsic worth indeed, but because they are so much more easily obtained, and so much more likely to be read. Few things could become so great a help to a pastor in his pulpit and pastoral work as a really good religious paper in every family."

If the literature we circulate is going to be effective, it needs to be soundly doctrinal in nature. We need literature that will deal with, tackle and refute such modern errors as evolution, Roman Catholicism, the cults, the DaVinci Code, etc. And yes, we need books that promote Baptist doctrine, Baptist history and Baptist distinctives.

M.L. Moser Sr., in "Baptist Doctrine," had this to say: "The mission of Baptists will not be attained by apologizing to the world for an existence, by asking on of other denominations for differing from them, or by begging that we may not be esteemed as bigots. We must become aggressive in spirit, positive in the advocacy of our principles.

"And these truths can be made known best by the free and wide-spread circulation of our Baptist tracts, pamphlets, and books. Let them, then, be freely used. Tracts cost but little, and what an irresistible, all-pervading power might be called into being by the churches, if they would but address themselves with determination and perseverance to the gradual but perpetual distribution of these tracts, pamphlets, and books!

"How greatly might converts be guarded from erroneous views and practices, be indoctrinated in the principles of the gospel and faith of the church, and he made substantial Christians, if with the hand of fellowship, the pastor could give to each one received the best small work on Baptism, another on Communion, and still another on the Duties of Church members! And the pastor should not hesitate to ask the church to supply him with these aids in his work."

The big difficulty nowadays is to find good, hard-hitting specifically Baptist books and literature. For some reason some of us are embarrassed to write and circulate such material, even for our own internal use. But other denominations do not share that attitude of false modesty, and are not shy about sharing their distinctives in book form.

Recently I read a book called "A Good Time to Be the Church" by Bishop H. George Anderson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. This book promotes, without apologies, the interests of the "mainline" liberal movement in general, as well as presenting doctrinal and practical explanations of such Lutheran distinctives as infant baptism. Any Lutheran who reads this book, published by the official ELCA publishing house, Augsburg Fortress, will feel better about his church and beliefs.

We as Baptists should publish and circulate such books that promote our movement - we have nothing in our heritage to be ashamed of. If we don't teach people why they should be Baptists, then they are not going to know why, and they will eventually drift off to other kinds of churches.

Some will say that personal witness, cold calling, door knocking, street preaching and other forms of personal work are more effective than literature distribution. Quite possibly this is true, and those who are effective at these types of personal work should definitely concentrate on them. But what is wrong with enhancing the effectiveness of personal work by distributing tracts, books, pamphlets and Bible portions as we go about that vital work?

Others point to 1 Corinthians 1:21, which says that it is by "the foolishness of preaching" that God has ordained to save those who believe. Certainly, however, it is the message preached, not the specific method of verbally preaching that message, that leads souls to Christ. That message may be preached or presented not only through verbal witnessing and preaching, but also through literature, Bible distribution, Christian videos, tapes, CDs, radio and television broadcasting, and other means.

The real foolishness on our part would be to rely only on word-of-mouth outreach to preach the Gospel message, ignoring mass media such as literature, and other methods of presenting the message that are available to us through modern technology.

We tend to look down at the Amish and other groups that refuse to take advantage of modern improvements in technology. And yet some of us, when it comes to Christian work, seem to be living in the 15th Century ourselves, ignoring the benefits that Gutenberg provided when he invented the printing press in 1452. We need to get with the times, move into the space age, and use all modern methods available to us to preach the message, including Christian literature.

Paul McCain, reporting in Christian News on his visit to Wartburg Castle in Germany, says, "Luther once said that he threw ink at the devil while staying at the Wartburg. For the sake of tourists visiting, curators carefully replenished the ink on the wall for hundreds of years. Actually, what Luther meant was that all the writings he did while there attacked Satan with ink."

Let us all emulate the example of Luther, and toss as much ink at the Devil as we possibly can, through the printing and circulation of Christian literature.

Thomas Williamson, 3131 S. Archer Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60608

[Editor's note: Though I am a Baptist, I have purposely avoided denominational "discussions", e.g., infant baptism vs believer's baptism. There are so many other issues with which to deal. The purpose of offering Bro Williamson's article is his emphasis on literature. Obviously, he is right. Sound Biblical Christians in general have ignored the value of the printed page. Though the Plymouth Brethren (Darbyism/Scofieldism) was a very small group, it hijacked victorious orthodox Christianity, replacing it with defeatism, and they did it with their vast amount of literature. We make The Examiner available for mass distribution for those who request multiple copies. Please remember that though we make this available at no charge to you, it certainly costs us. In fact, just the postage is more than we care to think about. PLEASE LET US KNOW WHEN YOU MOVE. It will save us the 70 cents that the PO charges for an address correction, IF they will notify us of your change before it is too late. Many times the PO fails to honor the imprint we have on our mail, and we lose addresses. Moreover, the PO will not notify us of 911 changes to addresses.]

Computer Chaos

The Computer and Grandma

The computer swallowed grandma

Yes ‘honestly' its true.

She pressed ‘control' and ‘enter'

And disappeared from view.

 

Its devoured her completely

The thought just makes me squirm.

Maybe she's caught a virus

Or been eaten by a worm.

 

I've searched through the recycle bin

And files of every kind.

I've even used the Internet

But nothing did I find.

 

In desperation I asked Jeeves (*)

My searches to refine.

The reply from him was negative

Not a thing was found ‘online'.

 

So, if inside your ‘In Box'

My Grandma you should see.

Please ‘Scan', ‘Copy' and ‘Paste' her

In an e-mail back to me.

* AskJeeves is a UK search engine


Some Skeptical of Growing Phenomenon

Among Evangelicals, A Kinship With Jews

By Alan Cooperman, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, January 8, 2006; A01

DANVILLE, Va. — Everyone who worships at the Tabernacle quickly learns three facts about its deeply conservative pastor. He comes from a broken home. He rides a canary-yellow Harley. [Good choice, but he is sure messed up in other areas.] And he loves the Jews.

There is some murmuring about the motorcycle. But the 2,500 members of this Bible-believing, tradition-respecting Southern Baptist church in southern Virginia have embraced everything else about the Rev. Lamarr Mooneyham.

Out of his painful childhood experiences, Mooneyham, 57, preaches passionately about the importance of home. Out of his reading of the Bible, he preaches with equal passion about God's continuing devotion to the Jewish people.

"I feel jealous sometimes. This term that keeps coming up in the Old Book — the Chosen, the Chosen," says the minister, who has made three trips to Israel and named his sons Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. "I'm a oned gentile, but I'm not one of the Chosen People. They're the apple of his eye." [He his no business preaching if he is not one of God's Chosen People. John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.)

Scholars of religion call this worldview "philo-Semitism," the opposite of anti-Semitism. It is a burgeoning phenomenon in evangelical Christian churches across the country, a hot topic in Jewish historical studies and a wellspring of support for Israel. ...

[T]he pastor was watching television before a Sunday morning church service when he came upon an infomercial by Rabbi Yechiel Z. Eckstein, founder of a group called the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Eckstein was standing in Israel with an elderly woman from Russia who said she was finally home.

"She started crying, he started crying, and I started crying," Mooneyham said. "Then I said, ‘Lord, help me, because I'm really going to throw my congregation a curveball today. We're going to help Jews — we're not going to witness to them, we're just going to help them. Because I know what home means.' " ... [How sad!! His goal is not conversion, but to move them back so 1/3 can die in the battle of Armageddon. That battle is just as much a part of Christian-Zionism as is the faith that modern Israel is the same in God's sight as was the old Israel. Thus, you would think that those who are able to think would be raising funds to help Jews move far away from Palestine, so they will escape the terrible coming battle.]

In his sermons, Mooneyham returns again and again to God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12: "I will bless those who bless you, and curse him who curses you."

It is a theme echoed in many conversations at the Tabernacle, a plain red-brick church in a community that has seen one factory after another close, yet where the congregation made a Christmas offering of $25,000 to help pay for the immigration of Russian Jews to Israel. ...

Since that day five years ago, according to Eckstein, the Tabernacle has sent more than $175,000 to the fellowship, which has a donor base of 400,000 Christians and has contributed more than $100 million to Israeli causes.

"I can only say that what we've done should speak for itself, because we've given and we've asked nothing in return," Mooneyham said. "And that's the way it will stay."

Editor's note: How sad, misinformed, and lacking of Biblical understanding, as well as orthodox Christianity. He needs to read his Bible.

Zechariah 2:8

Apple of his eye

A common misconception is that modern Israel is the apple of God''s eye. The term is used in Zechariah 2:8, where we find Zechariah's third vision. It is short and simple, yet it covers a tremendous amount of ground. The first vision had warned those who were following the Lord for what was in it for them——their hearts were not in their service. The next vision was given to the Godly workmen, and covered the promised defeat and destruction of the pagan world powers which were standing against the kingdom of God. As we consider Zechariah, we must remember Hebrews 12:22, tells us that the Gospel Church is Mount Sion.

Two months after Haggai had begun to prophesy, Zechariah was also sent of the Lord to help him in the labour, and to confirm the same doctrine. First therefore, he puts them in remembrance of that reason God had so severely punished their fathers: and yet comforts them if they will truly repent, and not abuse this great benefit of God in their deliverance which was a figure of that true deliverance, that all the faithful should have from death and sin, by Christ. But because they remained still in their wickedness, and lack of desire to set forth God's glory, and were not yet made better by their long banishment, he rebukes them most sharply: yet for the comfort of the repentant, he ever mixes the promise of grace, that they might by this means be prepared to receive Christ, in whom all should be sanctified to the Lord. (Hengstenberg, Christology of the Old Testament, MacDonald Publishing Company, McLean VA..)

The vision in chapter 2 reveals the unlimited, world-wide expansion of the kingdom of God. In this vision, Zechariah saw a man with a measuring line in his hand, which is very similar to Ezekiel's vision of chapter 40. So Zechariah asks the interpreting angel who is with him what is going on. He responds that Jerusalem is being measured.

Zechariah's interpreter goes to enquire of the angel who is doing the measuring to find out what He is doing. As the interpreter goes toward the one measuring to find out the meaning of the measuring, another angel comes out to meet the interpreter.

He tells Zechariah's angel to go back and tell Zechariah (v. 4, this young man. Zechariah was a young man at this time), ""Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein: For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her."" The measuring angel is the angel of the Lord (For I, saith the LORD, v. 5——that is, The Lord Jesus Christ, Exodus 3:14 with John 8:58), and He sends the interpreting angel back to Zechariah with the explanation of what He is doing.

Vv. 1-5 What does the message mean?

1) v. 2, the city is being measured. This vision of Jerusalem being measured presupposes that the city is already in existence; but it was not at that time. The vision is being given to Zechariah as encouragement for those doing the work of rebuilding the city.

But the message does not stop with simply rebuilding the city under Ezra and Nehemiah. It looks forward to a future city which will far exceed its present boundaries. Remember, the angel is speaking to Zechariah, who is surrounded by the ruins of the city. Zechariah will be speaking to those people living in the midst of the city's ruins. What Zechariah is being told goes just the opposite of what appears in the surrounding ruins. (John 7:24.)

Thus Zechariah is being told that Jerusalem will prosper and be enlarged beyond anything they can even hope or dream about in the midst of their present rubble. In fact, the city's enlargement will not include walls for protection from her enemies; rather, the Lord Himself will be her protection; the Lord will be unto her a wall of fire round about.

V. 4 And said to him, Run, speak to this {b} young man, saying, {c} Jerusalem shall be inhabited [as] towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle in it: (b) Meaning himself, Zechariah. (c) Signifying the spiritual Jerusalem and Church under Christ, which would be extended by the Gospel through all the world, and would need no material walls, nor trust in any worldly strength, but would be safely preserved and dwell in peace among all their enemies. (Geneva)

V. 4 Furthermore, not only will He be a wall of fire round about the city, but He will be the glory in the midst of the city, which corresponds to Ezekiel 38:11.

The thought is therefore the following: Jerusalem is in future to resemble an open country covered with unwalled cities and villages; it will no longer be a city closely encircled with walls; hence it will be extra ordinarily enlarged, on account of the multitude of men and cattle with which it will be blessed, (cf. Isa. 49:19, 20; Ez 38:11). Moreover, (2) Jerusalem will then have no protecting wall surrounding it, because it will enjoy a superior protection. Jehovah will be to it a wall of fire round about, that is to say, a defence of fire which will consume everyone who ventures to attack it, (cf. Isa. 4:5; Deut. 4:24). Jehovah will also be the glory in the midst of Jerusalem, that is to say, will fill the city with His glory, (cf. Isa. 60:19). (Keil)

There can be no mistaking: Zechariah is speaking of the Gospel Church and its glories under its King, as is evident throughout this chapter. Again, this prophecy is being given to a handful of people who are faced with heaps upon heaps of rubble from the old city; they are faced with a seemingly impossible task of raising up a thing of beauty out of the ashes of war and fire.

In the midst of the ruins, Zechariah tells of the future greater glory which awaits the city of the living God, the capital of the nation of the covenant people.

V. 5 For I, saith the LORD, will be to her a wall of {d} fire on every side, and will {e} be the glory in the midst of her. (d) To defend my Church, to strike fear in the enemies, and to destroy them if they approach near. (e) In me they will have their full felicity and glory. (Geneva)

No doubt those who heard and read Zechariah totally expected his prophecy to be literally fulfilled at a future date under the Messiah. But from v. 5, we see that Zechariah cannot be referring to a literal, physical fulfillment as we would think of a city or nation in the natural realm. V. 5 clearly tells us that the city of the great King will be the Gospel Church under the care of her King, and the King''s glory will be in the midst of her.

Note that the Lord protects His church with His fiery vengeance.

There is an abundance of New Testament passages which speak of Christ (1) being the protector of the church, and Christ (2.) indwelling in the midst of the church, e.g.,

So that we may boldly say, The Lord [is] my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. (Hebrews 13:6)

And who [is] he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? (1 Peter 3:13)

19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. (1 Corinthians 6:19)

Vv. 6-9

This section contains God's call to those still in Babylon. Because of Israel's sin, she had been scattered everywhere. God used the heathen nations to judge His people's sin, and when they moved against Israel, they destroyed everything, and scattered God's people far and wide. Now the Lord is going to judge Babylon, and He calls on His people to get out of her before she falls.

Though Ezra and Nehemiah returned to Palestine with many Jews, far more remained in Babylon than returned to Palestine. They were settled into the system; they had good jobs and security, so they remained in Babylon. Others may have remained in Babylon for fear of returning to Jerusalem. Regardless, those who remained were more interested in self than they were in serving the Lord in the hard work at Mount Zion. Sadly, most of God's people feel the same about the hard work at the New Mount Zion.

Zechariah, though, is looking far past the ones who remained in Babylon, and speaks to the time of the new City of God, the New Jerusalem.

There are several points from this section:

I. V. 6, the same power that scattered them has the power to restore them.

II. V. 7, Zion and daughter of Babylon.

Just as He spoke in 2:4, 5, the Lord now speaks far past Zechariah's time, not to the Babylon of his day, but to the Babylon yet to come. Zechariah's people were building a city with strong walls, but the prophecy looks far past that their present effort of building the city. It looks past the time of the Messiah's coming to the glorious day of the Church and the Babylon system in which it finds itself.

2:7 continues the thought of 2:4, 5. Vv. 4-5 spoke of the glorious dwelling of the Lord in the midst of His people. One of the results of His dwelling in their midst was going to be and will be His judgment upon the world, the daughter of Babylon.

Some of the New Testament passages which fulfill this:

A) Colossians 1:27, Christ dwelling in the believer.

B) 1 Corinthians 3, we have the New Testament building which God is building, as well as the definition of the temple of God since Christ.

Observe:

First, the New Testament building, Zechariah's temple, was looking forward to was the Gospel Church which has Christ as its cornerstone, 1 Corinthians 30.

Second, Christ is the protector of the church, Revelation 1:16.

Third, Christ indwells the church, Colossians 1:27.

Fourth, the command to separate from the world system, 2 Corinthians 6:14-18. This is the command for the child of God to separate himself from the world, Babylon if you please, not in the sense of a Monastic life, but in the sense of forsaking the sinful, worldly practices.

While in VA Beach visiting my sister, we went to the beach. It is amazing how many people want to take their clothes off. I have no doubt that many of those "naked" people there were good Christians at home. The Word of God clearly commands us to not take on the dress and ways of the world around us.

Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed <4832> to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Strong's No. 4832 (GREEK) 4832 summorphos {soom-mor-fos'} from 4862 and 3444; TDNT - 7:787,1102; adj AV - conformed to 1, fashioned like unto 1; 2 1) having the same form as another, similar, conformed to. For Synonyms see entry 5873

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed <4964> to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Strong's No. 4964 (GREEK) 4964 suschematizo {soos-khay-mat-id'-zo} from 4862 and a derivative of 4976;; v AV - conform to 1, fashion (one's) self according to 1; 2 1) to conform one's self (i.e. one's mind and character) to another's pattern, (fashion one's self according to) For Synonyms see entry 5873

•Synonyms See Definition for summorphos 4832

See Definition for suschematizo 4964

4832 - describes what is the essence in character and thus complete or durable, not merely a form or outline

4964 - to shape one thing like another and describes what is transitory, changeable, and unstable

In other words, Romans 8:29, speaks of strength of the total character, including but not just outside appearances. It refers to inner Christ-like strength that results in outward Christ-like appearances and actions.

On the other hand, Romans 12:2 speaks of maybe having the indwelling Spirit of Christ, but the outside actions and appearances are easily influenced by the world's fashions and patterns.

Fifth, the glorious, triumph of the church in God's good time, 1 Corinthians 15:24-28.

Sixth, a New Testament promise of judgment against the enemies of the church, 2 Thessalonians 1:6.

III. v. 6.

God scattered His people abroad to the four winds. Thus v. 6 is the call to God's people to return. As we keep in mind that Zechariah is built upon Jeremiah, the call reminds us of Jeremiah's prophecies, 31:7, 8.

Though the gathering of God's people from throughout the world sounds like He is regathering the Old Testament Hebrew race, it is the gospel call to Christ. It is the command to take the gospel world-wide because God's people are everywhere. God calls His people to return from the places to where they have been scattered, v. 4.

Isaiah 11:10-12 also speaks of this call as the gathering; of course, around Christ. John 3:14, 12:32. Hebrews chapter 4 clearly states that the promised land is Christ (and thus the "apple of His eye" is Christ, or those in Christ), and Galatians clearly states that the Gospel Church is the New Israel of God. (Those who make that small piece of land in the Middle East the ""promised land"" that has upon it the protection of God must remove Hebrews four as well as the book of Galatians from their Bibles, which they do not seem to mind doing in order to support what they want to believe, and/or that brings in the money.) The Spirit used things with which everyone at the time the prophecy was given could identify to describe the gathering of the Elect to Christ.

Vv 6 & 7 could be a warning to those still dwelling in Babylon to flee from the city, which is the same warning our Lord gave to His covenant people to flee Jerusalem before it was judged, Matthew 24:15-22. Babylon was destroyed, and is even today a pile of dust.

IV. V. 8, the warning goes to and beyond the time of the Messiah. Within this though is the judgment upon the nations which have opposed the kingdom of God (Hengstenberg).

V. 8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the {i} glory hath he sent me to the nations which wasted you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the {k} apple of his eye. (i) Seeing that God had begun to show his grace among you by delivering you, he continues the same still toward you, and therefore sends me his angel and his Christ to defend you from your enemies, so that they will not hurt you, neither along the way nor at home. (k) You are so dear to God, that he can no more allow your enemies to hurt you, than a man can endure to be thrust in the eye; # Ps 17:8. [Ps 17:8 Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, 9 From the wicked that oppress me, [from] my deadly enemies, [who] compass me about. {oppress: Heb. waste} {my...: Heb. my enemies against the soul} (Geneva)

...for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. We will find this idea of God''s vengeance against those who stand against His covenant people of all time first given to Abraham in Genesis 12:3. Not only does the context of Genesis 12:1-1 require that it be understood as Christ and those in Him, but the entire book of Galatians teaches the same thing. (See my commentary on Galatians.) The promise followed through in the New Testament to the church, 2 Thessalonians 1:6.

Seeing [it is] a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;

What He will do for His church shall be an evident proof of God''s tender care of it and affection to it: He that touches you touches the apple of His eye. This is a high expression of God''s love to His church. By His resentment of the injuries done to her it appears how dear she is to Him, how He interests Himself in all her interests, and takes what is done against her, not only as done against Himself, but as done against the very apple of His eye, the tenderest part, which nature has made very fine, has put a double guard upon, and taught us to be in a special manner careful of, and which the least touch is a great offence to. This encourages the people of God to pray with David (Ps 17:8), Keep me as the apple of thy eye; and engages them to do as Solomon directs (Pr 7:2), to keep His law as the apple of their eye. (Zechariah 2:8. Matthew Henry.)

trouble you... you must be defined as the covenant people –– that is, the blood bought Christians who suffer for Christ. The wicked who partake in troubling the covenant people face the recompense of a righteous God. Not only do the wicked face this recompense, but so do those of the covenant people who do not separate themselves from the wicked. (1 Corinthians 3:17, Hebrews 10:25-31.)

The promise of God's righteous vengeance is against all those who stand against His kingdom. As the covenant people partake of the wicked's deeds, they also will face God's righteous vengeance, recompense, consuming fire, judgment and fiery indignation. Those of the covenant people who are yoked together with the unbelievers will face the physical destruction which the unbelievers face, yet their souls will be saved. (1 Corinthians 5.)

V. 9.

V.9 For, behold, I will shake my hand {l} upon them, and {m} they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath {n} sent me. (l) Upon the heathen your enemies. (m) They will be your servants, as you have been theirs. (n) This must necessarily be understood of Christ, who being God equal with his Father, was sent, as he was Mediator to dwell in his Church and to govern them. (Geneva)

A seventh I will thus far. I personally find tremendous comfort in these "I wills" of the Old Testament. There are three in this chapter, five in chapter 3, five in chapter 8, eight in chapter 10 and seven in chapter 12. The liberal use of "I will" is typical of these prophets; in fact, they are found throughout the Old Testament.

I will... God promises to do a certain thing. Most of the "I wills" are based upon a condition of obedience, e.g., Abram, Genesis 12:1-3. God said, "Abram, go to where I will show you, leaving everyone behind. If you will go, I will (do these things for you)."

But some of the I wills have no conditions upon them, such as the one here in Zechariah 2:9. Here we see God's promise of His judgment against the ungodly: "I will shake mine hand upon them---." "within this God's promise of "I will judge the wicked" is His promise "and they shall be a spoil to my servants..." Within this promised judgment is God's promise not only to protect His covenant people, but also His promise to give to them the wealth of the wicked.

Of course, the spoiling by His people will be according to a condition——that is Malachi 3:17, faithful service to the Father will result in His faithful children, 1) being spared in the judgment against the wicked, and 2) spoiling the heathen. The VERY IMPORTANT POINT here again is this —— IT IS GOD'S WORK, NOT MAN''S. (Note Isaiah 63:17)

V. 9, I will shake... This shaking is no doubt referred to in Hebrews 12:26-28, where we have two shakings: The first is referred to in Haggai 2:6, and is talking of the coming of Christ.

The second, Hebrews 12:27, 28, is the shaking which continues among the nations since His coming —— the destruction of those things which can be destroyed. Really, it would be Matthew 7:24-29, where our Lord told of the destruction of those things built apart from obedience to the principles of His word. Hebrews 12:28, 29, follows the thought, telling us that what is left after this shaking will be in the hands of His faithful servants. V. 29, our God is a consuming fire, and He will consume everything that is not built according to His building instructions, (Ez. 11:21).

This threatened (promised) fire, judgment or shaking against the world system (symbolized by the words, the daughter of Babylon), should cause those dwelling there to flee to the daughter of Zion, because the Lord dwells in the midst of Zion.

This passage in Zechariah saw a fulfillment as the Lord shook Babylon to the very foundation. Babylon fell into a pile of dust, yet Jerusalem rose to prominence once again.

The Maccabees led the nation to great victories, yet this prophecy cannot stop there. This was but a dim shadow of the glory of the new Mt. Zion which will be obtained under the Messiah (see Hebrews 12:22).

Zechariah 2:10 (8:8) is a reference to Leviticus 26:12, which is easily traceable into the New Testament as a reference to the church, 2 Corinthians 6:16, Ephesians 2:19-22.

the apple of his eye is clearly defined as the Gospel Church, the blood bought Bride of Christ. God will judge those who attempt to take the wonderful promises of God which are given to His chosen people, the church (John 15:16), and give them to a clearly open, pagan, throughly anti-christ nation, modern Israel.

The public figures who teach errors have big names and many followers, but that just does not make them right. Only the word of God is the truth.

(My complete study in Zechariah is posed at www.biblicalexaminer.org.)

Never be afraid to try something new.

Remember: Amateurs...built the ark.

Professionals...built the Titanic

Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:

* 29 have been accused of spousal abuse

* 7 have been arrested for fraud

* 19 have been accused of writing bad checks

* 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses

* 3 have done time for assault

* 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit

* 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges

* 8 have been arrested for shoplifting

* 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits

* 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year...

Can you guess which organization this is?

Give up yet?

It's the 535 members of the United States Congress. The same group that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line. (As you can see, the above is quite outdated.)

Misdirection at the White House

By Al Kamen, Washington Post, 1/20/06. A15

Back in the Clinton era, people often made the mistake of trying to get to the administration Web site by typing "whitehouse.com" instead of "whitehouse.gov." That, sources told us at the time, would take you instantly to a porn site featuring, well, the usual.

Some people just couldn't stop making that mistake, no matter how hard they tried.

But now, in the Bush era, typing in "whitehouse.com" directs you to Loan.com, a site offering help on mortgages, debt consolidation, auto loans and the like.

Christians Willingly Deceived?

Bush & Co. is doing more to destroy what freedom we had left than any president since Abraham Lincoln. His "Patriot Act" has been revealed for the sham it is. He is claiming we must have more spying on the American public in order to find out what the "terrorists" are doing. (It is just a matter of time before we hear of "politically incorrect" groups being branded as "terrorists" in order to bring the full weight of the military against them. Bush offers the empty promise of protection from terrorism to sell us on the need to make him King with unlimited power. There is a big fight now with Google, as Bush demands Google turn over the search requests of millions of people. In the name of a supposed "war against terrorism," Bush is monitoring all kinds of electronic communication without the required court approval.

However, the truth came out some time ago. The plan for the "911" attack was known for some time before the attack, but there were no steps taken to stop it.

... Now this native of Puerto Rico [Rodriguez] and remarkable American hero is taking his 9-11 activism to an even higher level. He has commenced, as Plaintiff, a federal court lawsuit against George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney, Donald H. Rumsfeld and others alleging that they and others were complicit in the 9-11 attacks, and either planned the attacks, or had foreknowledge of the attacks and permitted them to succeed, in order to exploit a "New Pearl Harbor" to launch wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. (The phrase "New Pearl Harbor" comes from a declaration of principles by the neo-conservative "Project for the New American Century," in which it is proposed as an event needed to steel American public opinion to support the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, and U.S. military domination of the Middle East.) ... (http://www.911forthetruth.com/pages/Press%20ReleaseRod.htm)

Zogby International. Released: August 30, 2004

Half of New Yorkers Believe US Leaders Had Foreknowledge of Impending 9-11 Attacks and "Consciously Failed" To Act; 66% Call For New Probe of Unanswered Questions by Congress or New York's Attorney General, New Zogby International Poll Reveals ... (http://zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=855)

U.S. Knew of Suicide Hijack Threat in 1995

FOX NEWS. Tuesday, March 05, 2002

U.S. law-enforcement authorities knew as early as 1995 that Middle Eastern men were training at American flight schools and had discussed crashing planes into federal buildings, but did not follow up on the information, according to documents and interviews with American and Filipino authorities. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,47133,00.html)

All of that to say this: If you dare and are not fearful of Bush tracking your search, do a Google search on 911 coverup. You will find more than enough to prove that Bush & Co knew what was coming. It was the perfect "Pearl Harbor," which enabled the powers that be to move toward their evil goals.

There is no "Home Land Security," other than an excuse for Bush & Co to increase controls on honest Americans.

Texas-Mexico Border Standoff Reported

1/25/06, By ALICIA A. CALDWELL. Associated Press Writer

SIERRA BLANCA, Texas

... Chief Deputy Mike Doyal of the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department said that Mexican army personnel had several mounted machine guns on the ground more than 200 yards inside the U.S. border, the Daily Bulletin newspaper reported earlier.

"It's been so bred into everyone not to start an international incident with Mexico that it's been going on for years," Doyal said. "When you're up against mounted machine guns, what can you do? Who wants to pull the trigger first? Certainly not us."

Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West, whose officers were involved in a similar incident last year, said he is certain that Mexican authorities know who was involved.

After the newspaper reported on Mexican military crossings earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the report was overblown and most of the incursions were just mistakes. ...

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/01/25/D8FBOSCO3.html

The lies continue, and Christians continue to support the liars in high place.

Personal

Typical of every year, this past year has flown by. It seems every year is shorter than the previous year. Since this is the start of a new year, here is a year end report from 05.

The year started with having the slide collection appraised (http/www.ww2color.com); then a Father-Daughter conference in Georgia, and a graduation trip with Christina by AMTRACK to CA, up the west coast, and back along the top of the country. We were able to spend some time with my brother, who is a missionary with Wycliffe. He was on the field in Brazil as a radio technician until his breathing became so bad he had to return to the states. They are now in Sun City, CA, at the Wycliffe headquarters. He still goes into the field when needed to work on computers, networks and aircraft radios.

We met many wonderful people on the trip, including Pastor Campbell, for whom we had the privilege of speaking. He took us up into the Sequoia National Park. We stopped and spent a few days with the Schumachers in Astoria, OR, who have been on our mailing list for many years. They took us to Mt. St. Helens, but it was overcast, as usual, so we could not see much. They also took us to the Western Trail End of the Lewis & Clark expedition. The Schumachers were kind enough to lend us their vehicle, so we could visit the Tillamook Air Museum where Bettie's first husband was killed. This was her first visit back since that time.

We thank the Lord for the wonderful people we met.

2005 included a mission trip to Peru to teach the word of God. It was a wonderful experience to speak to a group of spiritually hungry people. However, the mega, compromised church movement is reaching Lima also. It is sad. If the Lord will provide, we would like to go back again next winter -- their summer. This time, we will know what to expect, and can go better prepared to try to meet their needs. The ladies my wife met with pleaded for her to come to their churches and teach. Of course, we were out of time by then.

This past year also presented the opportunity to make new friends in Oklahoma. When Pastor Ashwood heard we needed to go to Indiana, he invited us to come on over to Ft. Gibson, OK, to speak. It was a wonderful experience, as we met many new people. While we were there, Christina's grandmother had to go to the hospital, so we hurried to Indiana. She passed away before we came back to Virginia. While in Indiana, I had the privilege of speaking at the Linden church and visiting the grandmothers: Thelma Crabtree, Jeanette Clements & Marj Shipman. We were privileged to return and be with Bro. Ashwood in December, which was a time of spiritual refreshing. (His Bible Conferences are intentionally more like Fellowship Conferences, which include preaching.)

The VA doctor had me take a stress test, which showed a blockage (which I had told them was there). The cardiologist had me undergo an angiogram at the DC VA hospital. They said it was not blocked enough to bother with. However, within a month, I became so short of breath, they had to place a new stent in the blocked stent. It was the same blockage I had to go back into the hospital for just after they placed the stents the first time in 2000. This time, they used a drug-impregnated stent that should resist plugging. I feel better than I have in years. I would not encourage any young person to go into the armed forces today, but it has certainly paid off for me in health care benefits.

My oldest daughter, Jessica, and her husband, Corey, are dong fine in OH. Christina is taking Spanish, progressing with her sewing, cooking and her housekeeping skills. (See praticallyprettydesign.com) Bettie is now working on a chapter for our marriage book dealing with second marriage, and how those lessons learned apply to first marriage. We plan to name it Bettie and the Biker. (Her first husband flew airplanes and wrote, and I ride a motorcycle and write. She loves homemaking and being a wife. Bettie is enjoying her 3 children and 14 grandchildren, with 3 more on the way (one set of twins).

Bettie's daughter in law, Heather Ethell, is expecting, and her oldest daughter, Jennie Chancy is expecting twins (this will make 7 children for Matt and Jennie). These three will give Bettie (us) 17 grandchildren from her three children. Jennie's husband, Matt Chancy, is organizing 10 Commandment's Judge Moore's campaign for Governor of Alabama, so they moved back to Alabama. Please pray that God will be glorified in that situation. Her youngest daughter, Julie, and her family have started a cabin rental business in the Hocking Hills area of Ohio, south of Columbus. Her son, David, is starting a small family farm just about on the banks of the Shenandoah River, North Fork.

Letters

God has been good with the Examiner. Here are some typical letters concerning the Examiner:

Bro Need:

Thanks for your paper. I enjoy it so much! Your articles, stories and cartoons are always so good. Given your good sense of humor, I though you might get a chuckle out of the above comic strip.

Thanks, Glenn, Rocky Mount NC

Ovid:

Miss seeing you as we once did at UBF-IBT meetings before the Klintonista/Bush storm troopers seized the IBT (building & property-that is).

But truly appreciate your Biblical Examiner newspaper & analysis, the Biblical Worldview (theonomic/covenantal/reconstruction), the exegetical precision, and the prophetic boldness. Would appreciate a dozen or so past issues, if available, that I can pass along to men I am mentoring to hopefully become Men of Issachar

Joe Rogers

Enclosed is a love gift for the Biblical Examiner. I thoroughly enjoy all the articles in the last issue. Such good and very needed teaching for today's Church as our young people are not being taught these things. ["Dinah's Fall."] Probably because most parents don't even realize how much a part of this world system they are living themselves.

Thanks!

In Messiah Yahshua

Sam and Mary Joe, Basin MT

Dear Folks:

Greetings in the precious and powerful Name!

My brother Mike rants & raves how good your paper is —Please add me to your subscription list.

Could you send me the latest one you mailed out? Looking forward to it.

I pastor a small church in Hagerstown [MD], not far from Front Royal, eh? We're strong on missions.

Thanks

Psalms 119 Blessedly long!!!

May the Work of the Lamb be Honored by us.

Pastor Nick.

IF YOU KNOW PASTOR NICK, PLEASE HAVE HIM SEND ME HIS ADDRESS. THERE WAS NO ADDRESS ON THE CARD.

I also received a call on the answering machine from a pastor wanting to be added, but he left no address nor phone number.

We are glad to add folks, and provide extra copies of each mailing, if requested. However, please be sure you tell us who you are, and give us a proper address.

It seems that each publication is questionable; that is, will we have the funds to mail? But the Lord has provided. I made this issue 1 sheet shorter, cutting out 4 pages. By doing this, we cut down the weight for overseas mailing, and thus reduce postage about .80 each piece.

We now have PayPal on our web site, so material can be ordered and gifts made through PayPal.

Thank you so much for your support.

Bro & Sister Need, and Christina <http://www.biblicalexaminer.org>

Christmas Banned in America, But Not in Muslim Countries?

By Thomas Williamson

I am not sure if we should feel mad, sad or glad that some major American retailers have lost interest in using the name of Christ and Christmas in order to drum up sales and make money.

Instead of taking this as an evidence of anti-Christian persecution, perhaps we should use it as an opportunity to try to turn Christmas into a geniunely religious holiday, instead of the materialistic shopping and spending festival that it has been since department store owners in early 19th Century New York invented the customs of Christmas as we know them today.

Meanwhile, since some corporations, schools and governmental entities in America are backing off from any mention of Christ or Christmas during this "holiday" season, it is interesting to note that some predominantly Muslim countries have issued postage stamps in honor of Christ's birth (see photocopies of actual stamps from Islamic Republic of Iran mentioning "Christ's Birth" and from the Palestinian Authority with the forbidden word, "Christmas." These are photocopies of actual stamps used for postage, of which I have the originals).

It is interesting also to note that Christmas Day is an official, public national holiday in such predominantly Muslim nations as Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Palestinian Authority, Indonesia and Albania. (In Pakistan Christmas is an elective holiday for Christians only). In all these countries, the term "Christmas" is used to denote the holiday. December 25 is the day of observance in all these countries except Egypt, where Coptic Christmas Day, a national holiday for all Egyptians including Muslims, is observed on January 7.

If it is okay to publicly mention Christ and Christmas in these Muslim countries, this should be an encouragement to us to bear witness to the birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ, which of course is something we should be doing 12 months a year, but if people are especially receptive to that message at Christmas, we may as well make use of that opportunity. Ho Ho Ho, and a merry Winter Shopping Festival to you and yours.

Muslim Scholars Were Paid to Aid U.S. Propaganda

By DAVID S. CLOUD and JEFF GERTH. The New York Times, 1/2/06.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 - A Pentagon contractor that paid Iraqi newspapers to print positive articles written by American soldiers has also been compensating Sunni religious scholars in Iraq in return for assistance with its propaganda work, according to current and former employees. ...

Question: Where is the cry for separation of church and state that sounds so loudly in this country? Obviously, the cry is not against the state influencing or controlling the church; rather, it is against the danger of the gospel church influencing the state. Obviously, it is the wicked who fear what the righteous (gospel church) might do to them.

The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion. Proverbs 28:1

Getting Older

—I feel like my body has gotten totally out of shape, so I got my doctor's permission to join a fitness club and start exercising. I decided to take an aerobics class for seniors. I bent, twisted, gyrated, jumped up and down, and perspired for an hour. But, by the time I got my leotards on, the class was over.

— Reporters interviewing a 104-year-old woman: "And what do you think is the best thing about being 104?" the reporter asked. She simply replied, "No peer pressure."

—Just before the funeral services, the undertaker came up to the very elderly widow and asked, "How old was your husband?" "98," she replied. "Two years older than me." "So you're 96," the undertaker commented. She responded, "Hardly worth going home, isn't it?

— I've sure gotten old.! I've had two bypass surgeries, a hip replacement, new knees. Fought prostate cancer and diabetes. I'm half blind, can't hear anything quieter than a jet engine, take 40 different medications that make me dizzy, winded, and subject to blackouts. Have bouts with dementia. Have poor circulation; hardly feel my hands and feet anymore. Can't remember if I'm 85 or 92. Have lost all my friends. But, thank God, I still have my driver's license.

— An elderly woman decided to prepare her will and told her preacher she had two final requests. First, she wanted to be cremated, and second, she wanted her ashes scattered over Wal-Mart. "Wal-Mart?" the preacher exclaimed. "Why Wal-Mart?" "Then I'll be sure my daughters visit me twice a week."

—My memory's not as sharp as it used to be. Also, my memory's not as sharp as it used to be.

— Know how to prevent sagging? Just eat till the wrinkles fill out.

—I've still got it, but nobody wants to see it.

—It's scary when you start making the same noises as your coffeemaker.

—These days about half the stuff in my shopping cart says, "For fast relief."

—Don't think of it as getting hot flashes. Think of it as your inner child playing with matches.

—Don't let aging get you down. It's too hard to get back up!

— Remember: You don't stop laughing because you grow old, You grow old because you stop laughing.

—THE SENILITY PRAYER : Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do, and the eyesight to tell the difference.

Home Education

HOMESCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND SYSTEM EDUCATION

By Lynn Stuter, May 20, 2003

One of the "alternatives" parents have been encouraged to pursue, in circumventing the un-education being used in the government (aka, public) schools and the cost of private education, is homeschooling.

Homeschooling, up until the advent of Horace Mann and compulsory education, was how many parents educated their children. John Quincy Adams, son of John and Abigail Adams and sixth president of the United States, was homeschooled. He graduated Harvard College at the age of 20 and entered the study of law.

An added advantage, in homeschooling, is that the child is educated according to the world view of the parents, whatever that world view is. This was the intent of our Founding Fathers and conforms with the First Amendment prohibiting the government from establishing a state religion or interfering in the free exercise of religion.

Since the advent of Goals 2000 (aka, systems education) funded by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 — also known as the Improving America's Schools Act in the Clinton Administration and the No Child Left Behind Act in the Bush Jr Administration — the rise in the number of parents homeschooling their children has created a problem for the system. It is apparent that those implementing systems education never anticipated the number of parents who would turn to homeschooling as an alternative to the government un-education and the cost of private education.

As such, there is a movement afoot to pull homeschoolers back into the system. This is being done by offering homeschoolers incentives such as computers, money for curriculum, testing, supervision and assistance in weak areas ... this type of thing.

One "incentive" that has reached across the nation is William Bennett's K12® Virtual Academy program. Many will remember William Bennett as Secretary of Education in the Reagan Administration. Bennett was/is also a contractor in one of the original nine design teams funded by the New American Schools Development Corporation to oversee the transformation of American education to systems education. Bennett's design team was called the Modern Red Schoolhouse. For all his talk of virtues, Bennett is an avid supporter of systems education. The K12® Education for a Lifetime website www.k12.com states very clearly that the curriculums offered are standards-based, a term synonymous with outcome-based and performance-based education (aka, systems education).

Many homeschool parents are buying into Bennett's K12® Virtual Academy program under the assumption that it is free from government control. That is an assumption they should not make. The K12® Virtual Academy program receives from the state coffers full-time equivalent (FTE) money as though the child were sitting in a classroom in a government school. This means that if the parent joins Bennett's K12® Virtual Academy program, the child is no longer considered to be homeschooled but is enrolled in a government school.

Indications are that parents are not being told this before they join the K12® Virtual Academy program. There has been at least one instance in which parents came by this knowledge when the local school district called their home and requested their children's immunization records. Having joined the K12® Virtual Academy program, the local school district was able to include their children in its FTE count for state apportionment monies. As their children were now considered enrolled in the government school, the government school was required to ensure the children's immunization records were current in accordance with federal law.

But there is a far more sinister side of all this, one that is not being spoken of except in whispers and certainly not publicly.

As way of explanation, in the 2003 Legislative Session, a House Bill 1658 was introduced by a supposedly conservative Republican, Gigi Talcott. The bill tied the ability of teenagers to obtain a driver's license to passing the Washington Assessment of Student Learning — the infamous WASL. (see Washington State Ties Assessment to Driver License. [http://www.newswithviews.com/Stuter/stuter15.htm]) Protest ensued when the bill became public knowledge and Talcott withdrew it.

But what Talcott proposed has been the intent all along. Remember that under systems education, all really does mean all. The system must include everyone. To that end, homeschoolers must be drawn back into the system. This is to be accomplished in one of two ways: 1) offer the homeschoolers incentives (carrots) sufficient enough to encourage them back into the system whether they know they are back in the system or not; 2) force the homeschoolers back into the system.

The first is being accomplished via such means as Bennett's K12® Virtual Academy program. The second will be accomplished by laws such as HB1658 introduced by Talcott in Washington state. Undoubtedly, the bill will be back either as a bill unto itself or as an amendment to another bill.

Following is how the second "option" works, in effect. In order for the child to obtain the CIM — the Certificate of Initial Mastery or Certificate of Mastery — the child must demonstrated proficiency of the new basics: team work, critical thinking, problem solving, communications, adapting to change, and understanding whole systems (WTECB, 1994). [Note: Nothing about academics – the three "Rs".] The new basics are defined by the exit outcomes established at the state level — the state "academic" standards — and benchmarked to varying grade levels. The tool used to demonstrate proficiency is the state assessment. The result of demonstrating proficiency is receiving the CIM at or about the age of 16. (Note: for the purposes here, generic terms are used, such as state ‘academic' standards and state assessment as these instruments, although reading much the same in every state and being for the same purpose in every state, are called something different.)

It has been the intent, from the outset, that the child who does not have the CIM will not be able to 1) obtain a driver license; 2) go on to higher education; or 3) get a job. This will affect students in homeschools as well as private schools that do not pursue un-education under the federal/state system. These "sanctions" also fall under the heading of "accountability."

Will any child be able to take and pass the state assessment? In a word, "No." Remember, the state assessment is to determine if the child has demonstrated proficiency of the new basics: team work, critical thinking, problem solving, communications, adapting to change, and understanding whole systems. Does this sound like math, science, history, English, geography ...?

Very few homeschool or private school education programs focus on these new basics. Too, the state assessment is looking to see if the child is performing the wanted process defined as behavior/procedure or product defined as result of doing (Stiggins, 1986). In other words, systems education is a process to inculcate in the child the wanted behaviors and procedures to assure the wanted product.

The documents forthcoming from the Schools for the 21st Century pilot project for education reform in Washington state (many states piloted this program) were very enlightening. It became very apparent from these documents that ..

• content is defined as excellence in terms of the change agenda;

• process is the product; the destination; what learning is about;

• emotionality and affectivity are the means by which content and process will be achieved;

• feelings are paramount (SBE, 1995).

To this end, subjects are "integrated" or taught across the curriculum in the context of unit themes or thematic units focusing on four areas: world ecology (environment), world economy (globalism), world security and world population growth. Knowledge is only incorporated as it is used and applied in teaching the unit themes or thematic units. If the child needs to know that 2 + 2 = 4 in the teaching of the unit theme or thematic unit, the child will be taught that. Otherwise, the child will not be taught that 2 + 2 = 4.

The same is true with career paths where the child will be taught what the child needs to know to pursue a career path. The child will not receive a liberal arts education. Systems education follows the socialist/communist/fascist mantra of "from each according to his ability to each according to his needs." This falls right in line with the purpose of systems education: to produce a worldclass workforce (WTECB, 1994).

Should parents not pursue homeschooling or private education? Yes, they should. It is imperative that parents remove their children from harms way. But, once they have secured the immediate safety of their children, parents must pursue the long term safety of their children by getting involved to help stop the system that is being built and is almost complete at this time.

In stopping this system in its tracks, in returning to the intent of our Founding Fathers in the wording of the First Amendment, then and only then will future generations of Americans be able to enjoy the freedom that their forebears enjoyed, that their forebears fought and died for.

Sources:

State Board of Education; Final Report, Schools for the 21st Century; unpublished; 1995. (This document was 782 pages of haphazard, unorganized scribble, written by Peter Holly of Cambridge, England, who was paid at least $143,000 over the term of the pilot program as a consultant, including $15,000 to write the 782 pages of scribble. This mostly handwritten document was later typed by Lynn Stuter, proofed by many loyal Washington citizens, and reproduced in quantity by Senator Harold Hochstatter.)

Stiggins, Richard; Evaluating Students by Classroom Observation: Watching Students Grow; Washington, DC: National Education Association; 1986.

<http://www.newswithviews.com/Stuter/stuter40.htm>

Editor's note:Proverbs 1:7, Job 28:15, 16.

From the Past

State Pchools = Paganism

Dr Dabney, in his letter to the Virginia Superintendent of State Schools (4/18/1876), put it this way as he spoke of the free school he was providing:

No penny of salary of its teachers is exacted by the tax-gatherer from unwilling hands. Your "free schools," like not a few of the other pretensions of Radicalism [the wicked Republican government that started the War, and as victors of that war, enforced their evil designs upon the Southern States], are in fact exactly opposite to the name falsely assumed. The great bulk of those who pay the money for them do it, not "freely," but by compulsion. They are virtually thrust down our throats by the bayonet. And the exemplars you most boast and imitate not only make the payment compulsory, but the attendance also, as your consistency will doubtless cause you to do in Virginia also in a few years. The only freedom of your system is your freedom to compel other people's money.

... Our true statesmen always taught us that government should not be allowed to go into any project aside from its direct, legitimate ends, especially if that project would subsidize many persons and create for them a motive of personal advantage to uphold it. Because whenever that project might be wrested to mischief, these interested motives might prevent a wholesome and necessary repeal. ...

It is the teaching of the Bible and of sound political ethics that the education of children belongs to the sphere of the family and is the duty of the parents. The theory that the children of the Commonwealth are the charge of the Commonwealth is a pagan one, derived from the heathen Sparta and Plato's heathen republic, and connected by regular, logical sequence with legalized prostitution and the dissolution of the conjugal tie. The dispensation of Divine Providence determines the social grade and the culture of children on their reaching adult age by the diligence and faithfulness of their parents, just as the pecuniary condition of children at that epoch is determined. [In other words, attainment in this life is determined by God, not by education nor the state.] [Dabney asks, What justifies the state's interference in education?] By the plea that it (the State) is so vitally interested in the intelligence of the citizens that this entitles her to take effectual means for preventing thier ignorance. See, now, whither this assumption leads. The morality of the citizens is far more essential to the welfare of the State; and the only effectual basis for morals is the Christian religion. [That is, morality is the key for the State's welfare.] Therefore the State would be yet more bound to take order that all youth be taught Christianity...

[What necessitates building of jails?] The fruits of the system show that such is the result, and hence the plea for the State's intrusion is utterly delusive. The regular result of the kind of education [State] which alone it can give is to propagate crime. Allison's History of Europe states that four years ago [from 1876] two-thirds of the inhabitants of France could neither read nor write. In Prussia, at the same tiem, the government had made secular education almost universal, by compelling parents to send their children to school from seven to fourteen years of age. Statistics of the two countries show that serious crime was at that time fourteen times as prevalent in intelligent Prussia as in ignorant France—volume V., page 15. Again it has been found from the official records of the 86 departments of France that the amount of crime has, without a single exception, been in proportion to the amount of scholastic instruction given in each. Again, we are told that much of the largest number of the lewd women of Paris come from those departments where there is most instruction. In Scotland the educated criminals are to the uneducated as four and a half to one. M. De Toqueville remarked of the united States that crime increased most rapidly where there was most instruction. ... The Northern States of the Union had previously to the war [of Northern Aggression] all adopted the system of universal State schools, and the Southern States had not. In 1850 the former had thirteen and a half millions of people, and twenty -three thousand six hundred and sixty-four criminal convictions. The South (without State schools) had nine and a half millions, and two thousand nine hundred and twenty-one criminal convictions—that is to say, after allowing for the difference of population, the "educated" masses were something more than six times as criminal as the "uneducated." The same year the North was supporting 114,700 paupers, and the South 20,500. ... In the South State school-houses were unknown, and consequently jails and penitentiaries were on the most confined and humble scale. The North is studded over with grand and costly public school-houses, and her Jails are even more "palatial" in extent and more numerous than they.

...

The law which we assert is accounted for by several practical causes. Parents who remain too poor and callous to educate their own children are so because they are ignorant, indolent, unaspiring and vicious. The Children's characters are usually as much the progeny of the parents as their bodies. ... The home education is so much more potential than that of the school, that the little modicum of training which a "common-school" system can give to the average masses is utterly trivial and impotent as a means of reversing the child's tendency. That which costs nothing [tax supported schooling] in never valued. ... [Emp mine.]

( Discussions by R.L. Dabney, DD. Vol. IV. p. 191ff. 1897. Reprint by Sprinkle Publications. Dabney had Would you like to know the truth about Lincoln's intentional destruction of the Constitution? Get this volume which gives an account of Virginia's effort to preserve the Union and Lincoln's determination to destroy it: Narrative of Col. J.B. Baldwin, of his Secret Interview with Abraham Lincoln in 1861, Disclosing the Origin of the War & The Real Cause of the War.)