"And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured [it] on his head. "

Mark 14:3

When Mary of Bethany broke her alabaster box, and anointed the Lord Jesus Christ with the costly ointment, everybody in the house was blessed by the delightful, amiable aroma of the precious ointment. It has long been my ambition to honor Jesus Christ with my life, and in doing thus, bless all the people around me. My frequent prayer is that God will enable me to be a blessing to other folk. My wife, Pearl, and I hope and pray that our small offering will be of value to you.

Of course, there were people in the house who were offended by this use of the ointment, and complained about it. I expect some growling and complaining from folks who don't like what is put down here, but we will continue to offer sweet fragrances. May the great Lord of all Creation sanction this work.

Jun 10 2009

Mr. Bill O’Reilly on Fox

Published by Joseph Kennedy under Editorials

Mr. Bill O’Reilly is the leading anchor man and commentator on the Fox News Channel. Mr. O’Reilly says what I would say if I could sit in his place. I watch his news cast rerun at 10 P.M. each night before I go to bed. There is some frivolous stuff on the program, and Mr. O’Reilly interrupts his guest commentators so much that I cannot understand what is going on much of the time. I did not realize there were so many beautiful, brainy women in the world, but Mr. O’Reilly seems to have a special talent to discover them. Actually, I like Mr. Hannity better than I like Mr. O’Reilly, but Hannity doesn’t come on during the two hours I can watch tv. Mr. O’Reilly claims to be a powerful man, and I am sure he is.

One of Mr. O’Reilly’s favorite guests is Mr. Dennis Miller. As I understand it, Mr. Miller is a California-based comedian who works in Las Vegas and other places, if you can call what he does “work.” Most comedians are irreverent people who get most of their laughs saying things that are bad. Comedians make much of being immoral. A cousin of mine and his wife visited a night club in Las Vegas to attend a show by Mr. Red Foxx, the junkyard comedian. Mr. Foxx’s monologue was so vile and dirty that my cousin and his wife got up to leave the night club. They were met at the door by a couple of huge, well dressed thugs who told them that no one walks out on Mr. Foxx. They had to take their seats and stay to the end of the show.

Mr. Miller has a quip that is designed to bring down the house, and usually does. This quip is tolerated by Mr. O’Reilly who evidently loves Mr. Miller’s lines because his house is brought down. “For God’s sake” is Mr. Miller’s quip.

One of the Ten Commandments says, “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” This is the third commandment (Exodus 20:7), and carries a severe consequence. Men before whose eyes there is no fear of God are men devoid of wisdom and understanding. Men who defy God are not wise. They are not funny. They bear about them the smoke and smell of burning sulphur. What can we say about a powerful man who claims to be a conservative, and allows such a foolish man to have time on his news program? Mr. O’Reilly shares Mr. Miller’s guilt, not only by condoning him on his show, but by choosing clips from Mr. Miller’s previous performances which have in them Mr. Miller’s wicked profanity.

Ordinary people cannot reason with this sort of self-proclaimed powerful man because he seems to have only contempt for the words of ordinary people. He makes it plain when he is trying to get people to email him that he will have no time to read more than a line or two. Of course, he doesn’t read all this stuff that comes in anyway. I suspect he has a battery of well trained (beautiful, no doubt) women who go through his emails, and pass on to him only those messages that congratulate him, or criticize him in such a way that he can dismiss them down on the air with a comment. I have written him several times about Miller’s profanity without success. I have told him that people down here in the South don’t cotton to people who slander our Father’s Holy name. I have written him like this, “Miller ain’t cool, he sounds like a fool. Using God’s name in vain will only get you pain.”

I have asked people on my email mailing list to write him, and I’m sure some of them have. I am convinced that a true conservative is a moral person: one who holds a high regard for things sacred. A man who is low-down, profane, and so rich he feels spiritually impregnable cannot be a true conservative, in my opinion. In fact, it makes me ashamed to call myself a conservative. The truth is, I think of myself more as a liberal than a conservative, because I am willing to allow other people to worship as they please, speak what they think, and believe what they think is right. Allowing other people to have their rights is liberal. I will do my best to persuade such people to think and behave as civilized people, but I will not attempt to force my values on anyone.

Here’s my latest note to Mr. O’Reilly:
“Mr. O’Reilly,
Why don’t you ask Mr. Miller to change his favorite phrase from “For God’s sake” to “For the Pope’s sake”? I believe that would result in your getting so much mail, you’d have to cut it out. Of course, you could say, “For Allah’s sake,” or “For Moroni’s sake,” but that may cause you to be marked for assassination by a Muslim, or a Mormon. How about this crack, “For Zoroaster’s sake”? The Iranians would drop an atomic bomb on you for that.”

Of course, profaning people’s religion would not please us Southern conservatives, because we would not slander anyone’s religion.

That message is too long, and will likely be deleted upon arrival.
I do not wish these men any evil, God will take care of that abundantly. I pray for them, that God will send a witness across their paths that will convict them of their sin, and give them the information and wisdom they need to do that which is right.
If you honor the Lord of Glory, and you are offended by people who curse Him, and slander Him, please click here and send Mr. O’Reilly something to think about. You may be the one who crosses his path. (You may have to copy and paste the address.)
oreilly@foxnews.com.

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May 28 2009

Messiah

Published by Joseph Kennedy under Poems

The Son of God was born in flesh, and walked upon the earth,
but God the Father stayed in Heav’n and watched the humble birth.
Prophets wrote as God spoke in a very special way,
so men on Earth could know that He would come some day.
Worshiped by shepherds, and welcomed by heav’nly host,
as wise men trudged, and stars sang in the Holy Ghost.
As lambs, and cattle, and donkeys in wonder stood about
to worship their tiny Lord while God’s angels in heav’n shout!
All Nature halts to join the holy celebration.
Joseph stood by with face revealing his elation,
beholding the scene, with wonder to know
that angels had told them this would occur
just as God planned it: He who does not err,
who found this little maid, and bestowed on her
the honor sought by girls for ages past,
to bring to the world this Saviour fair,
to bruise Satan’s head when He died up there.

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May 28 2009

Day and Night

Published by Joseph Kennedy under Creation

GENESIS 1:5

It is important to note that every verse after verse one in Genesis chapter 1 begins with the word “and,” except verse 27 which begins with “so.” It is important to note that because it is evidence that the events described in the chapter took place in consecutive order, one closely behind the other. There is no hint that there was a great time span between any of the creative days, or that the creative days were more than a night and a day just as they are today. It is incredible that God would have failed to give some hint somewhere in the Scriptures if He had taken millions of years to do what He did. The verse in II Peter is certainly not acceptable as evidence that God was a long time in creating the universe. Peter said, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the LORD as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

Now, let’s give the evolutionist a thousand year day. That would give evolution 6,000 years to create the universe. The evolutionist ought to be tickled to death with that. But the evolutionist would angrily reject that, saying that evolution could not have taken place in 6,000 measly years. Who would be impressed with his palaver if he talked of thousands of years for hydrogen to turn into man? He would be reduced to an ordinary man who can’t even comprehend a million years. When man first invented the geological time scale, a few million years was sufficient time for molecule to become man, but the time span has grown until today it is in the billions of years. Hydrogen would actually have to hurry to become man even in a few billion years. No, 6,000years must be stretched to eons.

Do evolutionists appreciate the efforts to accommodate evolution? Would Islam appreciate the efforts of Christans to accommodate Islam? There can be no compromises between these faiths. There can be no accommodation. They forever are unalterably opposed. Evolution is a fanatic religion which lashes out at any attempt by creationists to compromise. Unconverted evolutionists can hate, and they do, and they show it.

The Apostle Peter tell us “. . that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,” (II Peter 3:3). Now these scoffers who make fun of the second coming of the LORD scoff at everything else that the Bible teaches, and who do they scoff at? Dr. Henry Morris is one of the choice targets of evolutionists. He is a leader among creationists, having written a large number of very important books. He is a scientist as well as a Bible scholar. Dr. Stephen J. Gould, on the other hand is an evolutionist of great stature among evolutionists. According to Dr. Morris, “Dr. Gould is bitterly resentful of creationists, frequently calling them ‘yahoos’ and other choice terms of ridicule, insisting that evolution is a proven fact of science that no rational person should question.” Can you imagine Dr. Gould calling one of his colleagues a yahoo? If I had to be called a yahoo by somebody, I would want it to be Dr. Gould.

A creation ministry in northern Kentucky (Answers in Genesis) went to the county commission to request a land zoning change that would allow them to build a creation museum on their own land. Evolutionists, including local preachers, raised such a violent attack against this ministry that the request was turned down even though there was no rational reason for doing so. The people of the ministry were called all sorts of insulting names, and accused of being cultists. The leader of the ministry was called “Jim Jones,” among other ugly things.

Most people would be surprised by what sort of people they are living among, but when something like this occurs, it is shocking to find out that there are people in our neighborhoods who are religious fanatics who will stop at nothing to prevent Christianity from enjoying its Constitutional rights. Among these bigoted people are a large number of church leaders and members.

A journal entitled “Creation/Evolution” was founded and still edited by Fred Edwords. This publication contains many personal attacks on individual creation scientists. Dr. Hugh Ross is a man who has a television program. He says that the earth is millions of years old, and in other ways, attempts to meet evolutionists halfway in an effort to win them to his position. True evolutionists attack Dr. Ross and his followers even more bitterly than they do genuine creationists. Evolutionists will not tolerate any attempt by creationists to meet them halfway, or partway because they see that as nothing but an ttempt to win them to what they think of as the “Christian religion.” Compromising with sin will not bring conviction.

The passage in II Peter is not relevant to creation or the age of the earth. Tom McIver, writer of anti-creationist articles and books, raps Christians for trying to make Genesis fit evolutionary science. In a lengthy article (in which it appears he must have read everything written by Christians on the day-age theory and gap-theory) he has this to say: “Each (day-age or gap-theory) involves critical compromises with the plainest, most literal reading of the Bible to force Scripture into concordance with scientific evidence regarding the age of the earth.”2 The evolutionist has enough smart to know when he is being conned by compromisers, and he doesn’t like it.

Professors of the Hebrew language, almost without exception, agree that the word “day” in Genesis 1 means a period of about 24 hours, just like all of us think of when we use the word “day.” When scholars are right, we ought to take note. Genesis 1:5 is the first place where the word “day” is used, and it is clear to anyone what the word means. “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”
“And God called the light day, and the darkness he called Night And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Where is there in the Scripture any statement that would give us reason to believe that God was not speaking literally? God does have secrets and mysteries, but the word “day” is not one of them.

The light was day, and the dark was night. An evening and morning constituted one day. If a day was millions of years long during creation week, when did God change them to ordinary days, and why? Believing in evolution demands that those who believe in it believe in some ludicrous ideas. The believer in evolution must deceive himself, because the soul of man was created to worship God,and everything in nature points to the triune God Who created all things. Self-deception is a very sad state of affairs.

God created the darkness. He said, “I form the light, and create darkness.” (Isaiah 45:7). God is as much at home in the darkness as He is in the light. God has done some marvelous works in the dark. In Egypt He made the Egyptians languish in darkness while the Hebrews went about their daily chores. At Mount Sinai, He came down in darkness that nearly scared the Israelites to death (Exodus 20:21). He dealt with both Abraham and Jacob in the darkness (Genesis 15; 28:11ff). When He hung on Calvary’s cross, He created a darkness that covered the earth while He was made to be sin for us (Luke 23:45).

The day is light, and the night is dark, but both have their ownbenefits for man. We work in the day, and rest in the night. We’ve been warned of the night when no man works. The Christian ought to be at work. There is much to do. Have you ever thought about taking an extra part-time job where you could work a few hours each week and earn some money so that you could give all of it to missions, or to some special need of your church? If you are a Christian woman, you could get a job baby sitting for a professional person who would pay you royally to care for his children a few hours a week. Wouldn’t you like to have extra money that you could give to missionaries when they come to your church? You could earn nearly a hundred dollars a week caring for children ten hours a week. Think about it. Pray about it. Days are precious. And they are short and sweet. Amos 8:9 “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day: …” See also Amos 5:18-20. God continues to control light and darkness, day and night, and will continue to control them.

God did not have to create light, for He is Light. When Jehovah said, “… Let there be light: …” He energized the atoms He had created. The particles began to spin around the nucleus so fast the atoms seemed solid. Energy and light are the same thing in two different forms. Heat and light are never annihilated - they only lose their usefulness after one use, since they dissipate into space. Darkness did not exist, so God had to create darkness. We don’t know at what point in time God created darkness, but He probably did it on the fourth day when He created the sun and stars. He had to create darkness because darkness would separate the days. Nights weren’t dark until God made them dark. After God created the darkness, nights were dark so creatures could sleep.

Darkness is good stuff. Our systems shut down, and renew themselves when we sleep. The darkness makes sleep like a closed door (Proverbs 2614). When we lie down at night to sleep with a prayer for God’s protection, night is a comfort. I do much thinking at night when all is quiet. A pillow is soft and good place to repose in the darkness that the good God has created.
_______
                   1 Henry M. Morris, The Long War Against God (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1992), ppg. 24,25.
                  2 Fred Wilson, “Impact” (El Cajon, CA: Institute for Creation Research), 247.

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May 07 2009

ONE HUNDRED PRECIPITATE DAYS

Published by Joseph Kennedy under Editorials

A hundred days of humiliation, fear, and consternation. The most infamous one hundred days in American history. Having rational, unemotional thought about Mr. Obama is difficult. If ever a nation deserved the sort of government it has, America is that nation. I don’t deserve it, but the majority of the nation has forced it on me. Germany elected Adolph Hitler; Americans elected Barack Obama. Mr. Hitler murdered the Jews, Mr. Obama has set in motion the murder of millions of innocent babies of all races and colors. This is not a false, inflammatory statement. We know at this time that fetuses are living, feeling human beings, though yet unborn. And we know Mr. Obama has unleashed the hounds of Hell on them.
My feelings and thoughts about Mr. Obama are not motivated by racial considerations. There are good men of color in this country who would have made excellent presidents, and I would have voted for them. Mr. Obama’s history is wound up in mystery. We don’t even know if he is an American citizen. We cannot be altogether certain that he is not a Muslim. We can only conclude that his personal history does not make him a patriot.
More important in evaluating his first hundred days is the fact that he sat for many years under a racist preacher who spread hatred like sparks in a high wind. This fact stamps him as a man who is not capable of making wise decisions. During the time he was a member of this “church,” he probably didn’t attend the services very often, but his membership in the “church” is indication enough that we can be sure that he has no wisdom, except that which the Lord gives him in answer to the prayers of God’s people. Mrs. Obama’s hatred of Anglo-Saxon Americans is well known. His lack of wisdom is seen in his appointments of his cabinet. Thieves, radicals, and tax evaders do not gender confidence in government.
Mr. Obama’s lack of understanding in spiritual matters is illustrated by his idea that enemies can be conquered by kindness. We are taught to love our enemies by One Who has all wisdom and understanding. (And that is not to say that I believe Mr. Obama knows this One personally.) But He did not mean to submit to enemy nations who would enslave our innocent ones. Government should not wield the sword in vain. We should not bow (as Mr. Obama did), to enemies who mock us. As individuals, we must love our enemies, but the government is required to keep us free, regardless of what it takes. We should not give rights to people who would destroy those rights. Government is responsible to keep us safe. There is no such thing as torture when it comes to securing our nation. Just as one cannot be a radical in the defense of our country, no interrogator is a torturer in the pursuit of information to keep us safe. A president cannot be trusted if he is not willing to do anything to defend us. A heart of soap is no substitute for guts of brass.
Mr. Obama does not understand our enemies because he knows nothing about spiritual matters. Our enemies are not driven by a lust for material gain. The Muslims would tear down every building in America, and salt our farmland. They would devastate this country, and reduce it to a land of peasants. Their motivation is religious in nature. To them, murder is a “holy war.” Kill the infidels is their motivation. This motivation can only be ended with the sword. I love Muslims’ souls. I pray for them, but I would kill every one of them who stepped on our beaches with the intention of drinking from the Ohio River. (Of course, when Mr. Lincoln used that expression, you could drink from the Ohio River without being poisoned with pollution.) There’s never been peace between Israel and Ishmael, and there never will be. The only hope is to set up a situation where Israel can live in peace, secure from Muslims.
Another outrage committed by Mr. Obama’s government was the giving of great sums of money to corporations. How dare him take money earned by my children, grandchildren - my descendants for centuries - and hand it to millionaires who have brought the nation to the brink of disaster? It must be called thievery. To take my children’s pitiful income, and give it to millionaires is the worst kind of stealing. We are not responsible for the greed of corporate management, and union officials. If they cannot manage their affairs, let them go bankrupt. Welfare is not healthy for people, whether they get millions of dollars, or a paltry few. He claims that America could not survive if these institutions went under, but how does he know? My family and acquaintances don’t need them.
I heard a figure of 3 ½ trillion dollars being thrown around. Math is not easy for me, but let me try to illustrate something. Here, I think, is 3 ½ trillion dollars:
$3,500,000,000,000
3,500,000 people in America
If I’m not mistaken, those figures tell me that Mr. Obama’s 3.5 trillion dollars would give every one of those 3.5 million Americans $1,000,000 each.
This day (May 7, 2009) is another day that will go down in infamy. Mr. Obama decided to show his contempt for people of faith in this country by boycotting the National Day of Prayer. It is still my opinion that Mr. Obama would do well to follow the example of presidents who served before him. He is smart, but not that smart. He is not troubled by slapping people of faith in the face - he didn’t get their vote last time, and won’t get it next time. He prays at home like he always does, his spoksman said. I would like to know who it is that he prays to. I can’t believe it is Jesus Christ.
Finally, I have only contempt for Mr. Obama, his government, and the people who elected him. Mr. Obama’s incessant, paranoid attacks on Mr. Bush make me furious. Whether Mr. Bush was a good president or not remains for history to tell us, but Mr. Obama is certainly not qualified to condemn anything that Mr. Bush or anybody else did. Mr. Obama was just a wet-behind-the-ears senator when he was elected president by a foolish majority of Americans. He is not qualified yet to evaluate any president. If Mr. Obama leaves a legacy half as good as Mr. Bush, he had better get cracking. And he’d better turn around, and go in the right direction. Mr. Obama is just a run-of-the-mill politician, in my estimation. He’d make a great movie star. I wish he had been for the last hundred days.

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Apr 14 2009

HUMAN GOVERNMENT

Published by Joseph Kennedy under Editorials

Human government means exactly what it says, “Government for Humans.” It includes every human on earth, every nation on Planet Earth. How can government be the same for peoples in Africa, America, China - all the humans on this earth? We must understand that all humans, regardless of color or language or culture, have certain things in common because we are all human. All of us are descendants of the first pair of humans. Here may be the first point of disagreement with some folks, for there are those who think evolution made us what we are. It’s as though a god named evolution, did this to us single cells. So if you don’t believe humans are divinely created beings, you won’t give a thought to the rest of this essay. The same authority that informs us about our origin, informs us about how we should govern ourselves. Surely, you would not think that God would create a thing like a human, command man to reproduce, and then fail to give instructions as to how these humans should behave among other humans. God Almighty is rational. He has thought of everything.Humans are not the only creatures who need government. From ants to elephants, creatures in the animal world must have rules and regulations (government) in order to survive and interact safely and productively. Biologists study these creatures, and we have learned much about animals. If biologists could shed the evolution blinder, we could know much more. Biologists recognize this government among animals though I haven’t heard any of them speak of it as government, they simply talk about groups having leaders. Some animals have female leadership, usually an old grandmother who has shown herself worthy of leadership. Elephants go with her regardless of where she goes. God programmed these creatures to behave like this.

Adam and Eve were created as innocent adults, like little children with extreme intelligence, but they had government. God was the LORD of the universe. He gave Adam a certain command that was the first law. He gave only one law. God was the LORD because He was the Supreme Being of the universe. He was the owner of the universe because He had made it. He had the right to rule it as He pleased. It was a theocracy. We will have that sort of government again. Even the plants, the elements, the heavenly bodies all had parameters in which they moved. All these parameters were in God, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; …” (Acts 17:28). The laws of thermodynamics, and the law of gravity for example. Squirrels climbed trees, rabbits ran along on the ground, fish would swim, birds would fly. They could do nothing else. They are governed by what they were.

Man was the only creature who defied his LORD. Animals have stayed in their parameter. Animals have never sinned. Adam was the Lord of Earth because God gave him that privilege. If a tiger had disobeyed God, we can believe that God would not have cursed the entire universe. He might have cursed the tiger and his descendants, but since the tiger was not responsible for man, we don’t believe God would have cursed man along with the tiger and all that pertains to him. God gave the whole universe to man, and when the Lord of the Universe failed, he brought down the universe with him.

Soon after creation Adam’s oldest son murdered his younger brother. We will learn later in the Bible (Leviticus 17:14) that blood is the life of the flesh. The sin of Cain was not first of all the killing of his brother. The real sin of Cain was in violently opening the circulatory system of his brother so that his blood drained out onto the ground. This naturally resulted in Abel’s death. Since God had not given the Law, including Exodus 20:13, the sixth commandment, God could not execute Cain (Romans 5: 13-14) . God did not give His laws before the fact. He did not give laws until the need of them arose. He had not yet said, “Thou shalt not kill.” In fact, God placed a mark of some kind on Cain to warn others not to kill him in vengeance. Cain’s father, Adam, or one of his brothers may have tracked him down and killed him.

Lamech was the next bloody murderer. Lamech also has the low-down distinction of violating God’s principle that a man have only one wife. As the first pervert, Lamech had two wives, and he bragged to them about killing two young men. It has been suggested by some that one of these two wives was guilty of adultery. Lamech was the fifth generation of Cain’s line, and was contemporary with Jared who was the granddaddy of Enoch, the mighty preacher of righteousness. By the time of Lamech wickedness had engulfed the world, and would continue to get worse until we have the condition of man’s morals as recorded in Genesis 6. By the time we get to Genesis 6, and Noah, men have become so wicked they are demon possessed.1 Violence was so common that men were killing each other by the thousands. It is estimated that at the time of the flood, there could have been billions of people on Earth, but the bloodshed was so common there were many fewer than that.

It was at this lawless time that Jehovah was ready to destroy the earth and its air-breathing creatures with a mighty world wide flood. There were only three righteous men on Earth, Noah’s daddy and granddaddy, and they would die before the rain began the deluge. Noah, his wife, three of his sons, and their wives were the only survivors of the flood. As soon as the flood was over, Noah and his boys knocked pieces off the ark, and having built a an altar of some sort- maybe of mud bricks, they offered sacrifices to God. God was pleased with the sacrifices, and the faith of the men who offered them.

God was determined to do all He could, given man’s free will, to prevent the world from becoming a place of violence and murder again. He gave Noah and the surviving creation a covenant. God gave the covenant, and man had nothing to do with it except to live in it. God established His new order for the happiness and security of man. Everything God has every done, it has been for the benefit of man. The only time God is violent is when He is forced to be so by the wickedness of man which endangers the peace and prosperity of His own children who obey Him.

Human government was established in Genesis 9:5 and 6. “And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.”

Herein we discover a truth that probably not a single government on Earth is aware of. Human government is established to keep order. Since we live in the devil’s world, this means we must have policemen and soldiers to defend innocent, law-abiding people. A policeman does not wear that pistol on his side as ballast, and a soldier does no carry a rifle for calisthenics. An executioner pulls the electric chair lever for the protection of the helpless.

Most people in government think that the purpose of government is to rob the rich and give to the poor. They sit around in mahogany offices thinking up ways to increase “revenue,” and how to spend it. Unfortunately, the citizens have the same pie-in-the-sky notions. Governments all over the globe do not have the foggiest notion of why they exist. Many nations consider their armies as something to be used to take what belongs to others.

With the enormous responsibility of taking a human life given to him, man would have to form himself into a government to carry it out. They would have to employ individuals to carry out their judgments: executioners, policemen, soldiers, and other law enforcement personnel as needed. The persons who would be the government would be acting for the people, and the people they employed would be active for them. The safety of the violent individual must be guarantee until he is found guilty of innocent. But how will we find a man guilty of innocent of a crime? Will we make him run through a fire to see if he is burned, and declare him innocent of guilty on the results of his ordeal? All sorts of like trials have been used, but all were foolish.

The Bible tells us that a man on trial must be condemned by two witnesses. In the absence of witnesses, evidence must be presented. The government must be sure that the person accused of a crime is guilty. There must be no revenge involved. Vengeance belongs to God. There must be no vigilantes riding through the night. After all, the blood of the accused one must not be shed until we are certain he is in fact, the murderer. His blood is precious, too. (There are no doubt some who will argue with the word “certain” in the last sentence. Human frailties will cause an innocent person will be executed now and then. That does not invalidate the nessesity of the law.)

How does God’s order of government work out in real life? The great King David, who was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22) who would do all of God’s will was a man who had killed his ten thousands (I Samuel 18:7) in war. He was also the high general over warriors of enormous fighting ability. Though he was a man after God’s own heart, he was not allowed to build God’s temple. I will not go into the reasons for David’s warfare at this time, but I can justify it if I have to. God did not condemn him because he was a warrior.

A policeman often has to kill. Is he a murderer. It is the business of keeping the innocent safe in their environment. If an individual is so determined to disrupt the security of the innocent that nothing will deter him, he often has to be killed. The state kills this individual, following God’s desire that the innocent are to be protected. It is not the policeman who kills, but the state who hires him and supports him in his duty. The same is true for a soldier who is called up (or volunteers as I did) to defend the country from foreign governments or people who would endanger our citizens. These soldiers do no murder when they kill the enemies of our peace and security. The soldier who enjoys killing and does it for his own pleasure must answer to God on an individual bases.

Humanity could not exist in the devil’s wicked, violent world without the protection of duly appointed governments and persons who will do the actual work of protecting us. People who understand that this is a world under the domination of the devil and his angels should understand better than anybody the need for enforced peace. There is no tranquility among men without force. I stand in opposition ro war or violence as a means of resolving disputes,” but I am not going to roll over and play dead if the disputer is demanding the freedom, safety, and security of my family. I’m going to kill him, myself if necessary, but ideally with my army or policemen if possible.

I honor our soldiers and policemen who themselves are honorable peace-loving men with families of their own, who are committed to keeping our neighborhoods out of the hands of criminals and thugs. I am glad that I and my sons do not have to protect our families ourselves. We could not do anything productive for fear of a thug attacking our children. And how much happier would our people be if left alone by government which understands its duty. As long as we’re no more that “revenue” providers to be robed for the benefit of the unworthy, governments will continue to fail as they have for millenniums.

God’s plan for government has never changed. He did add, “Thou shalt not murder.” , the message being, and if you do kill, my servants are going to kill you. I’ll not have my good Earth splattered with blood again.
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1. Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Record” (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1991), p. 164 ff.

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