Common Sense Commentary: I never dreamed I would ever reprint anything from the untra Liberal, Obama supporting, Huffington Post. But then, I never dreamed the ultra Liberal, Socialistic Huffington Post would publish anything like the article below. And while I am dreaming... or nightmare...ing, I never dreamed this could happen in our America. RB
Martial Law by Executive Order
Jim Garrison in Huffington Post 3/31/2012
President Obama's National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order of March 16 does to the country as a whole what the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act did to the Constitution in particular -- completely eviscerates any due process or judicial oversight for any action by the Government deemed in the interest of "national security." Like the NDAA, the new Executive Order puts the government completely above the law, which, in a democracy, is never supposed to happen. The United States is essentially now under martial law without the exigencies of a national emergency.
Even as the 2012 NDAA was rooted in the Patriot Act and the various executive orders and Congressional bills that ensued to broaden executive power in the "war on terror," so the new Executive Order is rooted in the Defense Production Act of 1950 which gave the Government powers to mobilize national resources in the event of national emergencies, except now virtually every aspect of American life falls under ultimate unchallengeable government control, to be exercised by the president and his secretaries at their discretion.
The 2012 NDAA deemed the United States a "battlefield," as Senator Lindsey Graham put it, and gave the president and his agents the right to seize and arrest any U.S. citizen, detain them indefinitely without charge or trial, and do so only on suspicion, without any judicial oversight or due process. The new Executive Order states that the president and his secretaries have the authority to commandeer all U.S. domestic resources, including food and water, as well as seize all energy and transportation infrastructure inside the borders of the United States. The Government can also forcibly draft U.S. citizens into the military and force U.S. citizens to fulfill "labor requirements" for the purposes of "national defense." There is not even any Congressional oversight allowed, only briefings.
In the NDAA, only the president had the authority to abrogate legitimate freedoms of U.S. citizens. What is extraordinary in the new Executive Order is that this supreme power is designated through the president to the secretaries that run the Government itself:
• The Secretary of Defense has power over all water resources;
• The Secretary of Commerce has power over all material services and facilities, including construction materials;
• The Secretary of Transportation has power over all forms of civilian transportation;
• The Secretary of Agriculture has power over food resources and facilities, livestock plant health resources, and the domestic distribution of farm equipment;
• The Secretary of Health and Human Services has power over all health resources;
• The Secretary of Energy has power over all forms of energy.
The Executive Order even stipulates that in the event of conflict between the secretaries in using these powers, the president will determine the resolution through his national security team.
The 2012 NDAA gave the Government the right to abrogate any due process against a U.S. citizen. The new Executive Order gives the government, through the Secretary of Labor, the right to proactively mobilize U.S. citizens for "labor" as the government deems necessary and to coordinate with the Secretary of Defense to maintain data to coordinate the nation's work needs in relation to national defense.
What is extraordinary about the Executive Order is that, like the NDAA, this can all be done in peacetime without any national emergency to justify it. The language of the Order does not state that all these extraordinary measures will be done in the event of "national security" or a "national emergency." They can simply be done for "purposes of national defense," clearly a broader remit that allows the government to do what it wants, when it wants, how it wants, to whomever it wants, all without any judicial restraint or due process. As Orwell famously said in 1984, "War is peace. Peace is war." This is now the reality on the ground in America.
Finally, the 2012 NDAA was hurried through the House and Senate almost like a covert op with minimal public attention or debate. It was then signed by the president at 9:00 PM on New Year's Eve while virtually nobody was paying attention to much other than the approaching new year. This new Executive Order was written and signed in complete secret and then quietly released by the White House on its website without comment. All this was done under a president who studied constitutional law at Harvard.
It is hard to know what to say in the face of such egregious disregard for the integrity of what America has stood and fought for since its founding. It is hard in part because none of us thought such encroachments would ever happen here, certainly not under the watch of a "progressive" like Obama.
At one level, the prospect for war with Iran is probably an immediate justification. But the comprehensiveness of the Executive Order, like that of the 2012 NDAA, speaks to something much deeper, more sinister. I would suggest that this Order, like the NDAA, has been in the works for some time and is simply the next step in the logic of the "global war on terror." Our political elites have come to consider democracy an impediment to effective governance and they are slowly and painstakingly creating all the democratic legalities necessary to abridge our democratic rights with impunity, all to ensure our "security." Of such measures do republics fall and by such measures tyrants emerge.
The only thing that really remains is the occasion to test the new rules of the game. Perhaps that will be war with Iran, perhaps some contrived emergency, or perhaps, as long as the public and media remain asleep, no occasion will be necessary at all. It will just slowly happen of its own accord and we, like the frog in the pot of slowly boiling water, will just sit there and be consumed by our own turpitude.
Mar 30, 2012
The Invisible Hand: Coordination Without Communication
Common Sense Commentary:
For the last few years we have witnessed an extraordinary, global event which has the appearance of behind the scenes orchestration. I speak of this world-wide, economic collapse... at virtually the same time .... followed by an equally unisonus stampede of nations, each to out-devalue it's currency, notch by notch below the others. It is the perfect storm, each nation singing in harmonious disharmony. It has a pattern but no pleasant purpose.
There is a similar, unexplainable, natural instinct, inborn in the animal world. It is called "Mermarlation" or "Instantaneous Continuum". You have seen flocks of birds, in the thousands, swoop and dart as a single thing... no signal or sign to do so. It is as if they have one mind. Schools of fish do the same thing, wheeling, flashing left, right, up and down in perfect unison, seemingly without touching each other. It is a fantastic thing to see. The "invisible hand" is there somewhere.
Two hundred years ago, Adam Smith postulated of "the invisible hand" that had an amazing, mysterious quality of "coordination without communication". It could somehow direct individual enterprise in such a manner as to make this industry product, by competition, grow better and better in competitive harmony with other producers ... without contact or consultation. Coordination without Communication.
The idea of "Swarm Intelligence" is seen in the unconnective but collective behavior
which arises from among the many as a single cloud of intelligent progress ...moving forward. This pattern originates in the minds, hearts and will of those created in the image and likeness of their Creator. Coordination without Communication but by the unseen, invisible hand of God dealing singly with each for the good of the whole.
The open market of Free Enterprise will, if not harnessed, shackeled, and tampered with by the heresy of centralized, government control, discover the proper price and value of every product, material, food and service by the natural forces of supply and demand. Government was instituted by God for one purpose, the protection of people one from another and defence of the nation from attackers so the people could invent, build, supply, work and worship freely.
Free enterprise competition will level the playing field, set proper prices and supply the demand if "Social Planners" will get out of the way of business. That is the Natural order of things. It works as well as Mother Nature, single handedly keeping God's forests beautiful and healthy ... if usurpers, trashers, Nation Builders, and Social Planners will get out of the way.
No body harnesses up those free flying birds and bees or tells them what to do... except
the invisible hand of their Creator. The same is true of human beings. They will build the nation, business, homes and churches naturally. It is the invisible hand of God directing them. And, yes, I know there are negatives, as in early America, but ten thousand times more successes than when Governments neutralize the God given natural order. Let the government do what God intended in Genesis 9:5-6, where He authorized civil societies to appoint Civil Law Officers to render justice and protect the people. Let government do that full time job, which they are now failing to do because of their desire to control and tax the honest, law abiding citizens with intimidations and regulations. Let them cease suffocating us with rules, ordinances, controls, restrictions, taxes and intimidation. The invisible hand of God is not with Herod, Caesar or Pharaoh but with the people. He also has an invisible fist for evil doers.
Market coordination is not motivated by government pseudo-perfectionism but by common human talent, intelligence, ambition, work ethic, need and honest competition to earn and keep customers. That is the natural order of the invisible hand and the only system which consistently works out, long term. Every other socially planned, centrally controled, counterfeit will fail in time and be laid to rest along side a long row of grave markers in memory of every other government controlled and Socialistic system inspired of the devil and devised by men. The Invisible Hand is on the strong arm of our Creator. God sent Moses to tell ole Pharaoh, "LET MY PEOPLE GO". Slavery is not the natural order. It stifles instinctive initiative, born-in desire to build freely, and to be free.
For the last few years we have witnessed an extraordinary, global event which has the appearance of behind the scenes orchestration. I speak of this world-wide, economic collapse... at virtually the same time .... followed by an equally unisonus stampede of nations, each to out-devalue it's currency, notch by notch below the others. It is the perfect storm, each nation singing in harmonious disharmony. It has a pattern but no pleasant purpose.
There is a similar, unexplainable, natural instinct, inborn in the animal world. It is called "Mermarlation" or "Instantaneous Continuum". You have seen flocks of birds, in the thousands, swoop and dart as a single thing... no signal or sign to do so. It is as if they have one mind. Schools of fish do the same thing, wheeling, flashing left, right, up and down in perfect unison, seemingly without touching each other. It is a fantastic thing to see. The "invisible hand" is there somewhere.
Two hundred years ago, Adam Smith postulated of "the invisible hand" that had an amazing, mysterious quality of "coordination without communication". It could somehow direct individual enterprise in such a manner as to make this industry product, by competition, grow better and better in competitive harmony with other producers ... without contact or consultation. Coordination without Communication.
The idea of "Swarm Intelligence" is seen in the unconnective but collective behavior
which arises from among the many as a single cloud of intelligent progress ...moving forward. This pattern originates in the minds, hearts and will of those created in the image and likeness of their Creator. Coordination without Communication but by the unseen, invisible hand of God dealing singly with each for the good of the whole.
The open market of Free Enterprise will, if not harnessed, shackeled, and tampered with by the heresy of centralized, government control, discover the proper price and value of every product, material, food and service by the natural forces of supply and demand. Government was instituted by God for one purpose, the protection of people one from another and defence of the nation from attackers so the people could invent, build, supply, work and worship freely.
Free enterprise competition will level the playing field, set proper prices and supply the demand if "Social Planners" will get out of the way of business. That is the Natural order of things. It works as well as Mother Nature, single handedly keeping God's forests beautiful and healthy ... if usurpers, trashers, Nation Builders, and Social Planners will get out of the way.
No body harnesses up those free flying birds and bees or tells them what to do... except
the invisible hand of their Creator. The same is true of human beings. They will build the nation, business, homes and churches naturally. It is the invisible hand of God directing them. And, yes, I know there are negatives, as in early America, but ten thousand times more successes than when Governments neutralize the God given natural order. Let the government do what God intended in Genesis 9:5-6, where He authorized civil societies to appoint Civil Law Officers to render justice and protect the people. Let government do that full time job, which they are now failing to do because of their desire to control and tax the honest, law abiding citizens with intimidations and regulations. Let them cease suffocating us with rules, ordinances, controls, restrictions, taxes and intimidation. The invisible hand of God is not with Herod, Caesar or Pharaoh but with the people. He also has an invisible fist for evil doers.
Market coordination is not motivated by government pseudo-perfectionism but by common human talent, intelligence, ambition, work ethic, need and honest competition to earn and keep customers. That is the natural order of the invisible hand and the only system which consistently works out, long term. Every other socially planned, centrally controled, counterfeit will fail in time and be laid to rest along side a long row of grave markers in memory of every other government controlled and Socialistic system inspired of the devil and devised by men. The Invisible Hand is on the strong arm of our Creator. God sent Moses to tell ole Pharaoh, "LET MY PEOPLE GO". Slavery is not the natural order. It stifles instinctive initiative, born-in desire to build freely, and to be free.
Mar 28, 2012
Dennis Prager For President
Common Sense Commentary:
There are still a few voices of sanity crying out of the darkness enshrouding America ... "Wake up, my country, wake up!" But America sleeps on. "A rebellious house ... have eyes to see, but see not; they have ears to hear, but hear not: for they are a rebellious house." Ezek.12:2. Our rebellious nation is spiritually blind and deaf to reality and cannot see or hear truth. She sleeps.
Should be required watching
Should be required watching
at every School and
University in
America.
THERE IS NO
REQUIREMENT FOR YOU TO WATCH THIS VIDEO;
BUT
YOU WILL EXPERIENCE A GREAT LOSS IF YOU DO NOT !
This clip features Dennis Prager on a panel
at the University of
Denver. You‚ll recognize the other panelists, but never mind; this is
about Prager. And he is about the future of this nation, so listen well.
Denver. You‚ll recognize the other panelists, but never mind; this is
about Prager. And he is about the future of this nation, so listen well.
This clip features Dennis Prager on a panel
at the University of
Denver. You‚ll recognize the other panelists, but never mind; this is
about Prager. And he is about the future of this nation, so listen well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=XNUc8nuo7HI
Denver. You‚ll recognize the other panelists, but never mind; this is
about Prager. And he is about the future of this nation, so listen well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=XNUc8nuo7HI
Mar 26, 2012
Is The Nag Hammadi Holy Scripture?
Common Sense Commentary: In 1945, twelve leather-bound, papyrus codices, buried in a large, sealed, clay jar were found near Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Written in the Coptic language, they contained everything from Plato's Republic to the "Gospels" of Thomas, Mary and other religious referrences and comments. These writtings were obviously written by "professing" Christians 400 to 500 years after Christ. Many believe them equal to our cannonized Bible.
The Nag Hammadi fits, I think, in the same clasification as the Book of Mormon, the Jehovah's Witness bible, the Koran and many other religious writtings that have been written about Jesus, the Apostles, the early church and denominational commentaries. There are elements of truth in all of them but they are, nevertheless, interpretations, commentary or inferior translations of what our Bible records. If all of my own sermons and writtings were published, I am sure there would be many mistakes, bad grammer or misstatements in them, as is true of every "human" preacher... whoever. My words are not verbally inspired though they are basically true. The same is true of hymns, Bible Commentaries, and every book ever written or sermon preached by men.. or women. The Mormons, Muslims and Jehovah's witnesses, and most religious believers, are absolutely convinced they are right, though each contradicts the other. But The Word of God is, as many of you know, singularly, verbally inspired. "All scripture is given by instiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." 2 Tim.3:16.
Consider the huge amount of print which has been written about Jesus for 2000 years, when much of it was hand written, and by memory, yet nothing compares to it. If He had been born in 1920, with modern communications capability, the newspapers would still be arguing about it and every kind of revision, eye witness testimony, books, articles and a thousand different denominations, and Bible translations would be flooding the internet, TV and news-media. It is only natural that professing Christians were still talking and writing about Jesus and the Apostles 400 years later even as Americans still talk and write about our Christian, founding fathers and of Jesus too, of course. None of it is equal to Holy Scripture.
The Nag Hammadi has many interpretations and probably has some historical value and maybe even some, or many, elements of truth. The Book of Mormon and Koran have enough truth in them to grab the mind and open it up for a perversion of truth. It remains, as always, If a religious idea comes along which is confirmed in the Bible, I already have it and don't need a confirmation. And if it is not confirmed in the Bible, I don't want it because God didn't leave anything important out of the one He gave us 2000 years ago. Neither the Dead Sea Scrolls nor the Nag Hammadi, both discovered after WWII, mean very much to me. I need no confirmation of Scriptural Truth and I don't want any "new revelations" which are not in the Bible which Christians have had for 2000 years. If these new "pseudo-scriptures" were important to God or us, why would He not have shared them with those who have lived and died since Christ's assention until 1945, when these were discovered? Interesting, yes. Important, no. I too am intrigued by such things but if they do not harmonize with the Bible, they are harmful and if they do, they are interesting but unneeded.
If they discovered Noah's Ark, The Ark of the Covenant, Moses' Tablets of Stone and the original Cross of Christ, It wouldn't adjust my faith or change a single thing I believe. As Abraham told the lost man in hell, when he begged Abraham to resurrect the begger and send him to warn his family ...."If they hear not Moses and the prophets, (the Bible) neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." Lk.16:28-31. Jesus said that. My Bible tells me all God thought I needed to know about Himself, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, The Prophets, The Apostles, How to be Saved, heaven and hell.
There are those who reverence and embrace these other books as equal to, or even superior to the Holy Scripture of God's Word, the Bible. That reaction is just another way Satan has in his effort to neutralize the unique power of the real thing... The Holy Bible. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Gal.5:9.
The Nag Hammadi fits, I think, in the same clasification as the Book of Mormon, the Jehovah's Witness bible, the Koran and many other religious writtings that have been written about Jesus, the Apostles, the early church and denominational commentaries. There are elements of truth in all of them but they are, nevertheless, interpretations, commentary or inferior translations of what our Bible records. If all of my own sermons and writtings were published, I am sure there would be many mistakes, bad grammer or misstatements in them, as is true of every "human" preacher... whoever. My words are not verbally inspired though they are basically true. The same is true of hymns, Bible Commentaries, and every book ever written or sermon preached by men.. or women. The Mormons, Muslims and Jehovah's witnesses, and most religious believers, are absolutely convinced they are right, though each contradicts the other. But The Word of God is, as many of you know, singularly, verbally inspired. "All scripture is given by instiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." 2 Tim.3:16.
Consider the huge amount of print which has been written about Jesus for 2000 years, when much of it was hand written, and by memory, yet nothing compares to it. If He had been born in 1920, with modern communications capability, the newspapers would still be arguing about it and every kind of revision, eye witness testimony, books, articles and a thousand different denominations, and Bible translations would be flooding the internet, TV and news-media. It is only natural that professing Christians were still talking and writing about Jesus and the Apostles 400 years later even as Americans still talk and write about our Christian, founding fathers and of Jesus too, of course. None of it is equal to Holy Scripture.
The Nag Hammadi has many interpretations and probably has some historical value and maybe even some, or many, elements of truth. The Book of Mormon and Koran have enough truth in them to grab the mind and open it up for a perversion of truth. It remains, as always, If a religious idea comes along which is confirmed in the Bible, I already have it and don't need a confirmation. And if it is not confirmed in the Bible, I don't want it because God didn't leave anything important out of the one He gave us 2000 years ago. Neither the Dead Sea Scrolls nor the Nag Hammadi, both discovered after WWII, mean very much to me. I need no confirmation of Scriptural Truth and I don't want any "new revelations" which are not in the Bible which Christians have had for 2000 years. If these new "pseudo-scriptures" were important to God or us, why would He not have shared them with those who have lived and died since Christ's assention until 1945, when these were discovered? Interesting, yes. Important, no. I too am intrigued by such things but if they do not harmonize with the Bible, they are harmful and if they do, they are interesting but unneeded.
If they discovered Noah's Ark, The Ark of the Covenant, Moses' Tablets of Stone and the original Cross of Christ, It wouldn't adjust my faith or change a single thing I believe. As Abraham told the lost man in hell, when he begged Abraham to resurrect the begger and send him to warn his family ...."If they hear not Moses and the prophets, (the Bible) neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." Lk.16:28-31. Jesus said that. My Bible tells me all God thought I needed to know about Himself, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, The Prophets, The Apostles, How to be Saved, heaven and hell.
There are those who reverence and embrace these other books as equal to, or even superior to the Holy Scripture of God's Word, the Bible. That reaction is just another way Satan has in his effort to neutralize the unique power of the real thing... The Holy Bible. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Gal.5:9.
Mar 23, 2012
Lemmings Syndrome: Unintended Self-Termination
Common Sense Commentary:
Little children may be excused, the first time, for doing dangerous and unknowing things, but not the second time. If they are allowed, after instruction, to do the same thing a third and fourth time, a pattern is created, and a precedent is set in the child's brain. But the child's brand new, bad habit is also the parent's "unintended" creation of a character flaw in their child, which may one day cost them or someone else their life or lead to all manner of unintended actions or reactions.
By the time a child is a teen-ager, if they have not yet learned what not to do, they are probably on an unintended, intransigent track to a destructive destiny for themselves and others. An inordinate percentage of auto accidents, unwed pregnancies, and drug addiction involves teen-agers who thought they knew what they were doing. They didn't intend the consequences.
It always amazes me when I see healthy, intelligent men and women, knowing how many sexual diseases there are out there, especially AIDS, engaging in illicit sex and one night stands with people they don't even know, let alone ... are not married to. Even "knowing" the other person, such behavior is not only a sin but is also ignorant to the extreme. You young people, please remember this; That person who is willing to have sex with you will, and surely has, had sex with someone else and they with others, and so on, ad infinitum. Such a life-style leads to "unintended" consequences of all kinds, not the least of which are pregnancy, self hate, disease, dishonor, death and divine judgement. There is an unrecognized meaning in the verse, "The wages of sin is death". When we commit any sin at all, we will not only answer to God for it, at the Great White Throne, for the lost, and the Judgement Seat of Christ, for the saved, but we also "unintentionally" kill ourselves off, by the act, or slowly destroy our health and shorten our lives. Our Creator built in, not only spiritual laws, but some physical laws that we must learn to live with or suffer the unintended consequences. The spiritual ones are the most important but the physical ones will also bless you or kill you. For instance, the law of gravity, aerodynamics, hygiene, balance, to name a few of the physical ones. Violate His spiritual laws and suffer both physically and spiritually. Violate the physical ones and break your bones and flesh or rot in your own filth. So when its your turn to leave this worldly scene, God doesn't have to hit you with a bolt of lightening or give you a heart attack ... though He can. He already knows exactly how we will contribute to our own demise. Jump off this cruise ship ... and it's your turn to depart.
Statistics show that Alcoholism, Drug Addiction, Prostitution, Promiscuity, Robbery and Homosexuality shorten the average lifespan of those involved in such things.
How robbery? You get shot or put in "Short Life Prison". Unintended Consequences.
Have you noticed that most very old people seem never to recognize how old or incapacitated they are? I have witnessed hundreds or thousands of people, in their latter years, who think they are not dangerous behind the wheel, or in danger ... climbing a ladder? My mother spoke of that "old man" down the street, when she was much older than he. My Aunt Millie, who lived alone, and could barely stand up or walk at all, at 97, still thought she could drive safely and maintained insurance and license on her old car till I forced the sale of it. I must have told her a hundred times she was going to fall and seriously hurt herself, the last two years of her life, and she insisted it wouldn't happen... but it did.... and killed her. "Unintended consequences." My Mother-in-law, also 97, who was in a retirement place until she fell and seriously damaged her eye a few days ago, still wants to get up and down, in bed and out, by herself. She has fallen several times and will almost surely fall again and again until a final fall ... all unintended, but just as deadly. It's a lot like those lemmings who, when short of food, space or mates, suddenly stampede, unintentionally, off a cliff or into the sea. It's almost as if they and we reach a point in life when we are programed to unintended, self-termination. I'm 81 and can drive, climb ladders, install electric wiring and dig ditches in 99 degree weather ... just as well as I always have ... or better..... 0(; ^) >* )
Unintended consequences are consequences nevertheless; and the initiator of such action will reap what he has unintentionally, but unwisely sown. "...Be not deceived ...whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Gal.6:7.
Little children may be excused, the first time, for doing dangerous and unknowing things, but not the second time. If they are allowed, after instruction, to do the same thing a third and fourth time, a pattern is created, and a precedent is set in the child's brain. But the child's brand new, bad habit is also the parent's "unintended" creation of a character flaw in their child, which may one day cost them or someone else their life or lead to all manner of unintended actions or reactions.
By the time a child is a teen-ager, if they have not yet learned what not to do, they are probably on an unintended, intransigent track to a destructive destiny for themselves and others. An inordinate percentage of auto accidents, unwed pregnancies, and drug addiction involves teen-agers who thought they knew what they were doing. They didn't intend the consequences.
It always amazes me when I see healthy, intelligent men and women, knowing how many sexual diseases there are out there, especially AIDS, engaging in illicit sex and one night stands with people they don't even know, let alone ... are not married to. Even "knowing" the other person, such behavior is not only a sin but is also ignorant to the extreme. You young people, please remember this; That person who is willing to have sex with you will, and surely has, had sex with someone else and they with others, and so on, ad infinitum. Such a life-style leads to "unintended" consequences of all kinds, not the least of which are pregnancy, self hate, disease, dishonor, death and divine judgement. There is an unrecognized meaning in the verse, "The wages of sin is death". When we commit any sin at all, we will not only answer to God for it, at the Great White Throne, for the lost, and the Judgement Seat of Christ, for the saved, but we also "unintentionally" kill ourselves off, by the act, or slowly destroy our health and shorten our lives. Our Creator built in, not only spiritual laws, but some physical laws that we must learn to live with or suffer the unintended consequences. The spiritual ones are the most important but the physical ones will also bless you or kill you. For instance, the law of gravity, aerodynamics, hygiene, balance, to name a few of the physical ones. Violate His spiritual laws and suffer both physically and spiritually. Violate the physical ones and break your bones and flesh or rot in your own filth. So when its your turn to leave this worldly scene, God doesn't have to hit you with a bolt of lightening or give you a heart attack ... though He can. He already knows exactly how we will contribute to our own demise. Jump off this cruise ship ... and it's your turn to depart.
Statistics show that Alcoholism, Drug Addiction, Prostitution, Promiscuity, Robbery and Homosexuality shorten the average lifespan of those involved in such things.
How robbery? You get shot or put in "Short Life Prison". Unintended Consequences.
Have you noticed that most very old people seem never to recognize how old or incapacitated they are? I have witnessed hundreds or thousands of people, in their latter years, who think they are not dangerous behind the wheel, or in danger ... climbing a ladder? My mother spoke of that "old man" down the street, when she was much older than he. My Aunt Millie, who lived alone, and could barely stand up or walk at all, at 97, still thought she could drive safely and maintained insurance and license on her old car till I forced the sale of it. I must have told her a hundred times she was going to fall and seriously hurt herself, the last two years of her life, and she insisted it wouldn't happen... but it did.... and killed her. "Unintended consequences." My Mother-in-law, also 97, who was in a retirement place until she fell and seriously damaged her eye a few days ago, still wants to get up and down, in bed and out, by herself. She has fallen several times and will almost surely fall again and again until a final fall ... all unintended, but just as deadly. It's a lot like those lemmings who, when short of food, space or mates, suddenly stampede, unintentionally, off a cliff or into the sea. It's almost as if they and we reach a point in life when we are programed to unintended, self-termination. I'm 81 and can drive, climb ladders, install electric wiring and dig ditches in 99 degree weather ... just as well as I always have ... or better..... 0(; ^) >* )
Unintended consequences are consequences nevertheless; and the initiator of such action will reap what he has unintentionally, but unwisely sown. "...Be not deceived ...whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Gal.6:7.
Hollow Words From Our Wordmaster
Common Sense Commentary: "The words of
his mouth are iniquity and deceit." Psm.36:3
his mouth are iniquity and deceit." Psm.36:3
Hollow words.Though I've never really known youYou are my very best friend...You and all the others I never really knew;We are "partners" to the end.The reason I truly love you;upon which my love is based,Is all the things you never do;You "punch above 'your' waist".And of all those things you've never done,And all the crises we have faced,You've bailed us out and helped us none,But you "punch above 'your' waist". RBCan hilarious also be pitiful?
Mar 22, 2012
World Government: How It Will Come About
Common Sense Commentary:
Opinion, arguments & analyses from the editors of Scientific American
A policy article authored by several dozen scientists appeared online March 15 in Science to acknowledge this point: “Human societies must now change course and steer away from critical tipping points in the Earth system that might lead to rapid and irreversible change. This requires fundamental reorientation and restructuring of national and international institutions toward more effective Earth system governance and planetary stewardship.”
The report summarized 10 years of research evaluating the capability of international institutions to deal with climate and other environmental issues, an assessment that found existing capabilities to effect change sorely lacking. The authors called for a “constitutional moment” at the upcoming 2012 U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio in June to reform world politics and government. Among the proposals: a call to replace the largely ineffective U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development with a council that reports to the U.N. General Assembly, at attempt to better handle emerging issues related to water, climate, energy and food security. The report advocates a similar revamping of other international environmental institutions.
Unfortunately, far more is needed. To be effective, a new set of institutions would have to be imbued with heavy-handed, transnational enforcement powers. There would have to be consideration of some way of embracing head-in-the-cloud answers to social problems that are usually dismissed by policymakers as academic naivete. In principle, species-wide alteration in basic human behaviors would be a sine qua non, but that kind of pronouncement also profoundly strains credibility in the chaos of the political sphere. Some of the things that would need to be contemplated: How do we overcome our hard-wired tendency to “discount” the future: valuing what we have today more than what we might receive tomorrow? Would any institution be capable of instilling a permanent crisis mentality lasting decades, if not centuries? How do we create new institutions with enforcement powers way beyond the current mandate of the U.N.? Could we ensure against a malevolent dictator who might abuse the power of such organizations?
Behavioral economics and other forward-looking disciplines in the social sciences try to grapple with weighty questions. But they have never taken on a challenge of this scale, recruiting all seven billion of us to act in unison. The ability to sustain change globally across the entire human population over periods far beyond anything ever attempted would appear to push the relevant objectives well beyond the realm of the attainable. If we are ever to cope with climate change in any fundamental way, radical solutions on the social side are where we must focus, though. The relative efficiency of the next generation of solar cells is trivial by comparison.
My Comment: Other World, Scientific fields will unite with these "Climate Scientists" such as Criminal Science, Health Science, Monetary Science etc, for the good of our earth and our human survival. The world media will, of course, package it and feed it to every nation in such a way as to convince "all seven billion of us to act in unison" and accept a World Authority which will morph into a World Government. And, of course, a government must have a controlling body with a Head.... Guess who.
"And that no man might buy or sell, except he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Rev.13:17. Paraphrased: "And when the Anti-Christ rules, no person will be allowed to buy or sell anything, unless he/she has the official, implanted chip or RFID tag, tattooed name, number or bar-code of the demon possessed Anti-Christ, on their forehead or hand".
Opinion, arguments & analyses from the editors of Scientific American
Effective World Government Will Be Needed to Stave Off Climate Catastrophe
March 17, 2012
A policy article authored by several dozen scientists appeared online March 15 in Science to acknowledge this point: “Human societies must now change course and steer away from critical tipping points in the Earth system that might lead to rapid and irreversible change. This requires fundamental reorientation and restructuring of national and international institutions toward more effective Earth system governance and planetary stewardship.”
The report summarized 10 years of research evaluating the capability of international institutions to deal with climate and other environmental issues, an assessment that found existing capabilities to effect change sorely lacking. The authors called for a “constitutional moment” at the upcoming 2012 U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio in June to reform world politics and government. Among the proposals: a call to replace the largely ineffective U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development with a council that reports to the U.N. General Assembly, at attempt to better handle emerging issues related to water, climate, energy and food security. The report advocates a similar revamping of other international environmental institutions.
Unfortunately, far more is needed. To be effective, a new set of institutions would have to be imbued with heavy-handed, transnational enforcement powers. There would have to be consideration of some way of embracing head-in-the-cloud answers to social problems that are usually dismissed by policymakers as academic naivete. In principle, species-wide alteration in basic human behaviors would be a sine qua non, but that kind of pronouncement also profoundly strains credibility in the chaos of the political sphere. Some of the things that would need to be contemplated: How do we overcome our hard-wired tendency to “discount” the future: valuing what we have today more than what we might receive tomorrow? Would any institution be capable of instilling a permanent crisis mentality lasting decades, if not centuries? How do we create new institutions with enforcement powers way beyond the current mandate of the U.N.? Could we ensure against a malevolent dictator who might abuse the power of such organizations?
Behavioral economics and other forward-looking disciplines in the social sciences try to grapple with weighty questions. But they have never taken on a challenge of this scale, recruiting all seven billion of us to act in unison. The ability to sustain change globally across the entire human population over periods far beyond anything ever attempted would appear to push the relevant objectives well beyond the realm of the attainable. If we are ever to cope with climate change in any fundamental way, radical solutions on the social side are where we must focus, though. The relative efficiency of the next generation of solar cells is trivial by comparison.
My Comment: Other World, Scientific fields will unite with these "Climate Scientists" such as Criminal Science, Health Science, Monetary Science etc, for the good of our earth and our human survival. The world media will, of course, package it and feed it to every nation in such a way as to convince "all seven billion of us to act in unison" and accept a World Authority which will morph into a World Government. And, of course, a government must have a controlling body with a Head.... Guess who.
"And that no man might buy or sell, except he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Rev.13:17. Paraphrased: "And when the Anti-Christ rules, no person will be allowed to buy or sell anything, unless he/she has the official, implanted chip or RFID tag, tattooed name, number or bar-code of the demon possessed Anti-Christ, on their forehead or hand".
Mar 20, 2012
Battle Hymn Of The Republic
Common Sense Commentary:
I love the "Star Spangled Banner", though it is hard to sing, it speaks of struggle, war for freedom, old glory, justice and determination. I like
"Dixie Land", it is a fun song, with Southern Sentiment, and was the South's song during the Civil War.... while the Union was singing "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic". Now there's a song. It was a Christian Hymn and the Official song sung
by Union troops,The entire U.S. Government, Congress, at Official functions and in every school at all levels in the North, to inspire, motivate and bless everybody who sang or heard it. They Won the war singing it! It was a spiritual song applied to a physical war.
For a hundred years the Battle Hymn was unanimously sung by all Public Schools.
Now it is Illegal. What has changed? Can you imagine the U.S.government taking action against this H.S. for singing the 'Battle Hymn Of The Republic"?
Just the title violates everything the Liberal Politicians, President, Cabinet, Courts and Main Street Media believe in. Those words, in the title, stand for... Battle=Military, Hymn=Religion, Republic=Constitutional form of government. But the words of the song itself are all about Jesus Christ.... believe it or not. Listen to this High School, Grade School and School Band doing "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic".
"Dixie Land", it is a fun song, with Southern Sentiment, and was the South's song during the Civil War.... while the Union was singing "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic". Now there's a song. It was a Christian Hymn and the Official song sung
by Union troops,The entire U.S. Government, Congress, at Official functions and in every school at all levels in the North, to inspire, motivate and bless everybody who sang or heard it. They Won the war singing it! It was a spiritual song applied to a physical war.
For a hundred years the Battle Hymn was unanimously sung by all Public Schools.
Now it is Illegal. What has changed? Can you imagine the U.S.government taking action against this H.S. for singing the 'Battle Hymn Of The Republic"?
Just the title violates everything the Liberal Politicians, President, Cabinet, Courts and Main Street Media believe in. Those words, in the title, stand for... Battle=Military, Hymn=Religion, Republic=Constitutional form of government. But the words of the song itself are all about Jesus Christ.... believe it or not. Listen to this High School, Grade School and School Band doing "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic".
| And yet the Liberal liars say this
never was a, basically, Christian Nation. Our Founders were Christians seeking freedom from tyrants in Europe. Most of the names signed to our U.S. Constitution were Christians. Our country always has been, basically, plainly a Christian Nation until recent years, since WWII. http://www.greatdanepro.com/Battle%20Hymn/index.htm Click here: Battle Hymn |
Mar 18, 2012
Justice
Common Sense Commentary: There is, among Bible
scholars, what is known as "The Law Of First
Mention". It says that the first mention of a word in
the Bible reveals the clear meaning of the word.
The first mention of the word Justice is in Gen.18:19.
There, the LORD said that Abraham "...will
command his children and his household .... and
they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice
and judgement, that the LORD may bring upon
Abraham that which He hath spoken of him."
All of God's promises are hinged upon condition.
1.Abraham must command his children/household.
2. They must keep the way of the LORD to do
justice and judgement.
3. In order that the LORD may bring upon Abraham
and his descendants, that which He hath spoken
of Abraham and Abraham's descendants, Israel .
"Justice" in "Judgement" still has the rewards of
God's promises to those who obey His Word and do
"justice and judgement" . Obedience to God's con-
ditions, in His Word, IS justice. Repentance of sin
unto salvation IS justice. "For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession it made unto salvation." Rom.10:10.
However, the "blessings" of Obedience and the
"salvation" of Repentance are not justice but grace.
Isaiah prophecied of a time in the future which is
like unto this present time. "Judgement is turned
away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for
truth is fallen in the street...." Isa.59:14.
Human Governing Is Little Better Than None.RB
"Man's capacity for justice makes democracy
possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes
democracy necessary." Reinhold Niebuhr: 'The
Children of Light and the Children of Darkness'.
Injustice Is A Contradiction Of Truth: RB
"Justice consists not in being neutral between right
and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it,
wherever found, against the wrong." Theodore Roosevelt
Injustice is devilish, Justice is godly: RB
"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with
the governing of himself. Can he then be trusted
with the governing of others?"
~ Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address
<><>
=====================================
scholars, what is known as "The Law Of First
Mention". It says that the first mention of a word in
the Bible reveals the clear meaning of the word.
The first mention of the word Justice is in Gen.18:19.
There, the LORD said that Abraham "...will
command his children and his household .... and
they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice
and judgement, that the LORD may bring upon
Abraham that which He hath spoken of him."
All of God's promises are hinged upon condition.
1.Abraham must command his children/household.
2. They must keep the way of the LORD to do
justice and judgement.
3. In order that the LORD may bring upon Abraham
and his descendants, that which He hath spoken
of Abraham and Abraham's descendants, Israel .
"Justice" in "Judgement" still has the rewards of
God's promises to those who obey His Word and do
"justice and judgement" . Obedience to God's con-
ditions, in His Word, IS justice. Repentance of sin
unto salvation IS justice. "For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession it made unto salvation." Rom.10:10.
However, the "blessings" of Obedience and the
"salvation" of Repentance are not justice but grace.
Isaiah prophecied of a time in the future which is
like unto this present time. "Judgement is turned
away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for
truth is fallen in the street...." Isa.59:14.
Human Governing Is Little Better Than None.RB
"Man's capacity for justice makes democracy
possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes
democracy necessary." Reinhold Niebuhr: 'The
Children of Light and the Children of Darkness'.
Injustice Is A Contradiction Of Truth: RB
"Justice consists not in being neutral between right
and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it,
wherever found, against the wrong." Theodore Roosevelt
Injustice is devilish, Justice is godly: RB
"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with
the governing of himself. Can he then be trusted
with the governing of others?"
~ Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address
|
=====================================
Mar 17, 2012
Evil Miracles And Spiritual Wickedness
Common Sense Commentary: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Eph.6:12.
There is a strange, demonic, underlying power hanging, like a greasy, dark fog, over our nation during the last few years. Totally impossible things are happening which exude an evil energy which ordinary human beings are not capable of. The best I can describe what is happening is as ... "Evil Miracles" ... Satanic Power. We have witnessed a long series of evil phenomena, storms, earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, catastrophes, plus political, religious, and corporate corruption.....Out of the ordinary things have befallen our country like a storm of tidal waves bashing our U.S. shores. All of this seems set by a leadership standard of "spiritual wickedness in high places"
These complex assaults, too numerous to mention, are also too obvious to deny. It reminds me of the Biblical experience of God's people down in Pharaoh's Egypt.
Ex.3 thru 11. God raised up Moses in Pharaoh's palace and prepared him to lead his people out of their bondage there. At a precise moment in history's time, Moses was sent by God to tell Pharaoh, "God said, Let my people go". Pharaoh was not used to anyone telling him what to do and refused and said, "...Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice, to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go." Ex.5:2. Pharaoh Hardened his own heart. So God sent a miraculous sign by Moses and Aaron ... but Pharaoh's Magicians duplicated God's miracle with an even more impressive evil miracle. Pharaoh, unimpressed with Moses' God, hardened his heart still more. Time after time God sent miraculous disasters, and plagues of blood in the water, frogs, lice, flies, death of Egyptian farm animals, hail and flood. Each time Pharaoh's Magicians would duplicate God's miracles with evil miracles of their own ... only to compound the plagues and make them doubly bad. But they gave up on their evil miracles when God sent a more personal plague of skin disease and boils on them. They didn't want to duplicate that one and threw down their rods and quit the evil miracle business. After each of God's miracles Pharaoh would beg Moses to ask God to please stop it and he would let God's people go. But when God would withdraw the plague, Pharaoh would break his promise. So God began hardening Pharaoh's heart even harder. Pharaoh had hardened his heart one too many times and he was now beyond repentance, and the Scripture says, "God hardened Pharaoh's heart" so that he could not now repent again even if he wanted to. So God sent one final plague ... the firstborn child of every Egyptian family died. This time the Egyptian people were ready to pay God's people to leave ...and they did. But even after the Egyptians and Pharaoh lost their eldest children and they had seen the power of Moses' God, Pharaoh reneged again and sent his army swooping down upon these escaped slaves, but they were, themselves, destroyed by God and the slaves were free.
The lesson we Christians should draw from this is that during all those plagues on the Egyptians, God delivered His people from the vile anger, hatred, plagues and evil miracles surrounding them and set them free to build their nation in the promised land.
So no matter how heavy our load and how terrible the catastrophes which befall our country and the world, our God has not lost control. Even if we have to face evil miracles, hatred, slavery to our government and our faith is stretched to the breaking point .... remember, "All things work together for good to them that love God ... who are called according to HIS purpose." Rom.8:28. And, don't forget this key bit of information which should change our battle strategy.... Our enemy is not so much evil people but the power behind their evil deeds. We must fight spiritual wickedness with Spiritual weapons.... "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Eph.6:12.
Pass it on. RB
There is a strange, demonic, underlying power hanging, like a greasy, dark fog, over our nation during the last few years. Totally impossible things are happening which exude an evil energy which ordinary human beings are not capable of. The best I can describe what is happening is as ... "Evil Miracles" ... Satanic Power. We have witnessed a long series of evil phenomena, storms, earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, catastrophes, plus political, religious, and corporate corruption.....Out of the ordinary things have befallen our country like a storm of tidal waves bashing our U.S. shores. All of this seems set by a leadership standard of "spiritual wickedness in high places"
These complex assaults, too numerous to mention, are also too obvious to deny. It reminds me of the Biblical experience of God's people down in Pharaoh's Egypt.
Ex.3 thru 11. God raised up Moses in Pharaoh's palace and prepared him to lead his people out of their bondage there. At a precise moment in history's time, Moses was sent by God to tell Pharaoh, "God said, Let my people go". Pharaoh was not used to anyone telling him what to do and refused and said, "...Who is the LORD, that I should obey His voice, to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go." Ex.5:2. Pharaoh Hardened his own heart. So God sent a miraculous sign by Moses and Aaron ... but Pharaoh's Magicians duplicated God's miracle with an even more impressive evil miracle. Pharaoh, unimpressed with Moses' God, hardened his heart still more. Time after time God sent miraculous disasters, and plagues of blood in the water, frogs, lice, flies, death of Egyptian farm animals, hail and flood. Each time Pharaoh's Magicians would duplicate God's miracles with evil miracles of their own ... only to compound the plagues and make them doubly bad. But they gave up on their evil miracles when God sent a more personal plague of skin disease and boils on them. They didn't want to duplicate that one and threw down their rods and quit the evil miracle business. After each of God's miracles Pharaoh would beg Moses to ask God to please stop it and he would let God's people go. But when God would withdraw the plague, Pharaoh would break his promise. So God began hardening Pharaoh's heart even harder. Pharaoh had hardened his heart one too many times and he was now beyond repentance, and the Scripture says, "God hardened Pharaoh's heart" so that he could not now repent again even if he wanted to. So God sent one final plague ... the firstborn child of every Egyptian family died. This time the Egyptian people were ready to pay God's people to leave ...and they did. But even after the Egyptians and Pharaoh lost their eldest children and they had seen the power of Moses' God, Pharaoh reneged again and sent his army swooping down upon these escaped slaves, but they were, themselves, destroyed by God and the slaves were free.
The lesson we Christians should draw from this is that during all those plagues on the Egyptians, God delivered His people from the vile anger, hatred, plagues and evil miracles surrounding them and set them free to build their nation in the promised land.
So no matter how heavy our load and how terrible the catastrophes which befall our country and the world, our God has not lost control. Even if we have to face evil miracles, hatred, slavery to our government and our faith is stretched to the breaking point .... remember, "All things work together for good to them that love God ... who are called according to HIS purpose." Rom.8:28. And, don't forget this key bit of information which should change our battle strategy.... Our enemy is not so much evil people but the power behind their evil deeds. We must fight spiritual wickedness with Spiritual weapons.... "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Eph.6:12.
Pass it on. RB
Mar 13, 2012
SILVER !
Common Sense Commentary: "What woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? { Jesus, Luke 15:8. } I send this to you in case you haven't found it. RB
You Can’t Beat Silver as an Investment
From FutureMoney Trends
March 9, 2012
You Can’t Beat Silver as an Investment
From FutureMoney Trends
March 9, 2012
We can make a great argument that platinum is a great investment with soaring industrial demand. We can argue that gold is a great investment with soaring monetary demand. However, silver is the only metal in the world where both arguments can be made, silver is an industrial metal, jewelery, and a monetary safe haven just like gold.
What most people don’t know is that right now there is less above ground available silver than there is gold, that’s right, there is less silver than gold. This trend of consuming silver and saving in gold isn’t going to stop, the above ground supply for gold will continue to grow, while the above ground supply for silver will continue to move us towards a physical silver shortage.
Silver is without at doubt the most important metal in the world, yet most people when they think about the uses for silver, think of jewelry, silverware, and photography. However, this barely scratches the surface for the uses for silver, in fact, we could write an entire book on just the different applications silver is involved in.
What most people don’t know is that right now there is less above ground available silver than there is gold, that’s right, there is less silver than gold. This trend of consuming silver and saving in gold isn’t going to stop, the above ground supply for gold will continue to grow, while the above ground supply for silver will continue to move us towards a physical silver shortage.
Silver is without at doubt the most important metal in the world, yet most people when they think about the uses for silver, think of jewelry, silverware, and photography. However, this barely scratches the surface for the uses for silver, in fact, we could write an entire book on just the different applications silver is involved in.
.
Below are some of the uses for silver that will help continue to grow demand for physical silver. FutureMoneyTrends.com wants everyone to understand that silver is all around you, whether you are talking on the phone, driving in your car, or looking for something to eat in your refrigerator, silver is in more products than you can imagine.
Silver Antibacterial Bandages
Silver has germicidal effects that kill many lower organisms. The colloidal or ionic silver is a silver solution that is an antibacterial product now sold on special band aids. For years, burn wards have soaked bandages in low concentrations of silver solution in order to prevent infection. Silver has been used to preserve and help save the skin of burn victims. Silver also promotes the production of cells, helping to heal wounds faster.
Washing Machines
Not what you are thinking, so please don’t start taking apart your old washing machine looking for silver. The silver we are talking about is in the new Samsung washing machines that inject silver ions into the rinse cycle in order to kill 99.9% of bacteria that causes odors. By using about 1 ounce of silver, these Samsung washing machines can sanitize over 3,000 loads, this means no hot water or bleach necessary, just a dash of silver.
Food Processing
Silver based food packaging liners that preserve food quality made by Agion. Using an active ingredient of silver zeolite, which is a delivery system that dispenses silver metal ions in a controlled release over time, the silver is able to disrupt microbe growth by interrupting ribonucleic acid that is needed for an organism to reproduce.
Water Storage
According to David Eaton, secretary of The Institute of Water Ionization Technologies in the UK, silver based water purification systems offer the most reliable and cost effective alternative to chlorine. In fact, both Russian scientists and NASA concluded that the best method for long term water purification was using silver as the purifying agent. Silver kills bacteria in the water and is able to help maintain the purity over a long period of time.
Have you ever wanted to store water? Put a few drips of colloidal silver and kill over 650 known bacteria that can grow in your stored water. On cruise ships and airplanes, they often make sure there is some silver in their water tanks for this very reason.
Silver was even used in the 1980’s in the United Kingdom to help stop the spread of Legionnaire’s disease, a disease named after Legionella pneumophilia, an aquatic organism.
Oxygen Machines
Since silver will not ignite, if you want to avoid a spark turning into an explosion, then you need to use silver. When it comes to hospitals handling pure oxygen at high pressure in liquid form, in order to avoid it becoming dangerous, the equipment used to transport the oxygen is made at least in part with silver.
Auto-catalyst
In 2008, Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co Ltd announced that it had developed a new catalyst for diesel engine cars. This new auto-catalyst replaces the use of platinum with silver, platinum as we write this is about 48 times more expensive than silver, so you can see that this will be a lasting change and new use for silver. At the time of the announcement, a spokesperson for Mitsui stated that “silver will totally replace platinum in this new auto-catalyst that we’ve developed.”
Cell Phones
There is about 80 cents worth of silver in the average cell phone. In fact, the metal contents in cell phones is very precious, having all 4 precious metals in them, platinum, palladium, gold, and silver.
Solar Panels
Approximately 1 ounce of silver is in each solar panel you see on residential roofs. Without a doubt one of the fastest growing industrial uses for silver is photovoltaic cells in solar panels, in 1999 the amount of silver used in this industry was so small there isn’t even an official reporting of the number. However, 10 years later that number hit 18 million ounces, and last year for 2011, 70 million ounces were used. David Morgan, editor of The Morgan Report who runs the website www.Silver-Investor.com feels that solar demand could reach 130 million ounces per year around 2014. In fact, Jessica Cross, CEO of the VM Group believes that “solar panels will probably be one of the leading industrial uses” for silver. Silver is crucial in photovoltaic technology, silver helps collect electrons for the electrical current and transports them out of the module for power use.
Architecture Glass
Silver is used in the windows of skyscrapers in order to reflect away over 90% of the heat from sunlight. Silver, more than any other metal is the best reflector of light which is one of the reasons it is used in mirrors.
Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID) Chips
This industry will one day replace bar codes, already being used at the largest retailer in the world, Wal-Mart. RFID tags have a very thin silver foil that is used as a high-performance receiver. This technology is basically a tag with a mini-antenna that saves data and is able to emit a radio wave in order to send information to a central processor. Basically, retailers and manufactures who want to know more about their products and have a more efficient flow of goods after leaving their possession, can now have these RFID tags placed on their products. For example, U.S. department of State uses RFID chips in all new American passports. Now the passports can be scanned by the authorities, who will see your personal information that should match the same information on paper.
Silver Antibacterial Bandages
Silver has germicidal effects that kill many lower organisms. The colloidal or ionic silver is a silver solution that is an antibacterial product now sold on special band aids. For years, burn wards have soaked bandages in low concentrations of silver solution in order to prevent infection. Silver has been used to preserve and help save the skin of burn victims. Silver also promotes the production of cells, helping to heal wounds faster.
Washing Machines
Not what you are thinking, so please don’t start taking apart your old washing machine looking for silver. The silver we are talking about is in the new Samsung washing machines that inject silver ions into the rinse cycle in order to kill 99.9% of bacteria that causes odors. By using about 1 ounce of silver, these Samsung washing machines can sanitize over 3,000 loads, this means no hot water or bleach necessary, just a dash of silver.
Food Processing
Silver based food packaging liners that preserve food quality made by Agion. Using an active ingredient of silver zeolite, which is a delivery system that dispenses silver metal ions in a controlled release over time, the silver is able to disrupt microbe growth by interrupting ribonucleic acid that is needed for an organism to reproduce.
Water Storage
According to David Eaton, secretary of The Institute of Water Ionization Technologies in the UK, silver based water purification systems offer the most reliable and cost effective alternative to chlorine. In fact, both Russian scientists and NASA concluded that the best method for long term water purification was using silver as the purifying agent. Silver kills bacteria in the water and is able to help maintain the purity over a long period of time.
Have you ever wanted to store water? Put a few drips of colloidal silver and kill over 650 known bacteria that can grow in your stored water. On cruise ships and airplanes, they often make sure there is some silver in their water tanks for this very reason.
Silver was even used in the 1980’s in the United Kingdom to help stop the spread of Legionnaire’s disease, a disease named after Legionella pneumophilia, an aquatic organism.
Oxygen Machines
Since silver will not ignite, if you want to avoid a spark turning into an explosion, then you need to use silver. When it comes to hospitals handling pure oxygen at high pressure in liquid form, in order to avoid it becoming dangerous, the equipment used to transport the oxygen is made at least in part with silver.
Auto-catalyst
In 2008, Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co Ltd announced that it had developed a new catalyst for diesel engine cars. This new auto-catalyst replaces the use of platinum with silver, platinum as we write this is about 48 times more expensive than silver, so you can see that this will be a lasting change and new use for silver. At the time of the announcement, a spokesperson for Mitsui stated that “silver will totally replace platinum in this new auto-catalyst that we’ve developed.”
Cell Phones
There is about 80 cents worth of silver in the average cell phone. In fact, the metal contents in cell phones is very precious, having all 4 precious metals in them, platinum, palladium, gold, and silver.
Solar Panels
Approximately 1 ounce of silver is in each solar panel you see on residential roofs. Without a doubt one of the fastest growing industrial uses for silver is photovoltaic cells in solar panels, in 1999 the amount of silver used in this industry was so small there isn’t even an official reporting of the number. However, 10 years later that number hit 18 million ounces, and last year for 2011, 70 million ounces were used. David Morgan, editor of The Morgan Report who runs the website www.Silver-Investor.com feels that solar demand could reach 130 million ounces per year around 2014. In fact, Jessica Cross, CEO of the VM Group believes that “solar panels will probably be one of the leading industrial uses” for silver. Silver is crucial in photovoltaic technology, silver helps collect electrons for the electrical current and transports them out of the module for power use.
Architecture Glass
Silver is used in the windows of skyscrapers in order to reflect away over 90% of the heat from sunlight. Silver, more than any other metal is the best reflector of light which is one of the reasons it is used in mirrors.
Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID) Chips
This industry will one day replace bar codes, already being used at the largest retailer in the world, Wal-Mart. RFID tags have a very thin silver foil that is used as a high-performance receiver. This technology is basically a tag with a mini-antenna that saves data and is able to emit a radio wave in order to send information to a central processor. Basically, retailers and manufactures who want to know more about their products and have a more efficient flow of goods after leaving their possession, can now have these RFID tags placed on their products. For example, U.S. department of State uses RFID chips in all new American passports. Now the passports can be scanned by the authorities, who will see your personal information that should match the same information on paper.
.
RFID chips have been controversial for civil rights groups, however, ignoring that side of the RFID chip and just focusing on the silver content, you can see that these are becoming very popular and will add to the growing silver demand. We should note that the amount of silver in RFID chips is so small that once used to make one, the silver is literally gone, it will not be recycled or used for any other purpose.
Medical Uses
Silver compounds have a toxic effect on some bacteria, algae, fungi, and even some viruses. The use for silver goes back to the very beginning, the father of medicine, Hippocrates wrote that silver had beneficial healing and anti disease properties. Silver was also used to prevent infection during war time before antibiotics were used.
Batteries
Silver oxide-zinc is used in batteries for digital cameras, watches, and phones. Recently it was announced that all Apple products will be using silver oxide-zinc batteries.
Medical Uses
Silver compounds have a toxic effect on some bacteria, algae, fungi, and even some viruses. The use for silver goes back to the very beginning, the father of medicine, Hippocrates wrote that silver had beneficial healing and anti disease properties. Silver was also used to prevent infection during war time before antibiotics were used.
Batteries
Silver oxide-zinc is used in batteries for digital cameras, watches, and phones. Recently it was announced that all Apple products will be using silver oxide-zinc batteries.
.
Electronics
The use of silver in electronics is widespread and is used in almost all electronics you have in your home, from your television to your computer. Circuit breakers, switches, and fuses all use electrical components using silver. The odds are if something has a ‘power on’ button, then it has some silver in it.
Silver Bearings
Silver bearings in engines have become essential components in Jet engines. Steel ball bearings that are electroplated with silver become the strongest type of bearing in the industry. As noted before, silver is able to withstand high temperatures which makes it perfect for the bearings in jet engines. According to the silver institute, even in the event of an oil pump failure, silver-plated bearings provide enough lubrication to allow a safe engine shutdown.
Automotive
Throughout your vehicle you have electronics, from opening your windows to adjusting your seats. Your engine has silver and even your antifreeze has ethylene oxide, a compound made from silver.
The Uses For Silver List
The list for silver uses can go on and on and on. Silver is also used in lasers, satellites, robotics, high-tech weaponry, TV’s, refrigerators, wall switches, photography, glasses, brazing, soldering, cloud seeding, wood preservation, musical instruments, automotive industry, explosives, dental filings, methanol production, nuclear reactors, Xray machines, polyester, deodorant, disinfectants, catheters, and thousands of other applications.
Catalyst
One of the largest uses for silver is in industries like the production of plastics, where silver is used as a catalyst. Approximately 150 million ounces of silver was used last year in order to produce ethylene oxide and formaldehyde, both used to make plastics. Formaldehyde is the chemical that is the building block for plastic, so in order to produce plastic, you need silver.
The use of silver in electronics is widespread and is used in almost all electronics you have in your home, from your television to your computer. Circuit breakers, switches, and fuses all use electrical components using silver. The odds are if something has a ‘power on’ button, then it has some silver in it.
Silver Bearings
Silver bearings in engines have become essential components in Jet engines. Steel ball bearings that are electroplated with silver become the strongest type of bearing in the industry. As noted before, silver is able to withstand high temperatures which makes it perfect for the bearings in jet engines. According to the silver institute, even in the event of an oil pump failure, silver-plated bearings provide enough lubrication to allow a safe engine shutdown.
Automotive
Throughout your vehicle you have electronics, from opening your windows to adjusting your seats. Your engine has silver and even your antifreeze has ethylene oxide, a compound made from silver.
The Uses For Silver List
The list for silver uses can go on and on and on. Silver is also used in lasers, satellites, robotics, high-tech weaponry, TV’s, refrigerators, wall switches, photography, glasses, brazing, soldering, cloud seeding, wood preservation, musical instruments, automotive industry, explosives, dental filings, methanol production, nuclear reactors, Xray machines, polyester, deodorant, disinfectants, catheters, and thousands of other applications.
Catalyst
One of the largest uses for silver is in industries like the production of plastics, where silver is used as a catalyst. Approximately 150 million ounces of silver was used last year in order to produce ethylene oxide and formaldehyde, both used to make plastics. Formaldehyde is the chemical that is the building block for plastic, so in order to produce plastic, you need silver.
.
So once again, the products of silver are all around you, even if they don’t have silver in them, that plastic cup you are drinking out of and the remote control in your hand, both needed silver in order to be created.
Silver Is All Around You
Where ever you are right now, take a look around you and think about how much silver products are in front of you. For me, I’m writing on an Apple Computer, my cell phone is on my desk, and a blue plastic cup is right next to my hand that has a silver wedding band on my ring finger. When I look around the room, I notice that I have a light switch, electrical outlets, and a television. In my desk, I have plastic pens, ink, and a small flashlight. Looking out my office window, I can see my car, in it a rear view mirror, side mirrors, rear window defroster, and of course under the hood is even more silver. All these products have silver in them, or needed silver in order to be created.
Now here is the fun part for silver investors, look at a map of the earth at night. Notice the intense light that comes from the U.S., Europe, and Japan. We want you to picture what the amount of silver it takes to produce this amount of light, think about all the other electronics these first world regions have surrounding those lights. As we just described, think about all the silver in bedrooms, vehicles, and on each person. Now look at China and India, with combined populations of 2.5 billion people. This doesn’t include the South American or other Asian countries, just these two specific countries. They are going to need skyscrapers, houses, condos, apartments, vehicles, cell phones, water sanitation facilities, and hundreds of thousands of electronics... including plenty of iPhones and iPads. Bullish for Apple, yes, bullish for silver, even more.
Silver has so many uses and so many customers, it is very easy to see that if the buyers of silver ever thought there was going to be a shortage, the price could have a historic run. We are not talking about individuals, we are talking about the Apples of the world, who in the future may come into the silver market in order to protect their own businesses from delays caused by a silver shortage.
20th Century
Most of these new uses for silver are from the 20th century. Prior to this, silver had a very limited role for industrial uses, silver was mainly used for money, jewelery, and in the 19th century photography. Of the 46 billion ounces of silver ever mined in history, only about 1 billion remains above ground. A very large amount of the above ground available supply of silver was consumed in the past 60 years. FutureMoneyTrends.com believes what we saw in the 20th century is nothing compared to what we will see in the 21st century, with electronics and 7 billion people all desiring to live the lifestyle of the west, the above ground available supply should get completely consumed over the next 10 years.
Silver Vs. Other Metals
As you can see, the arguments made for silver can’t be made for any other metal. That is why when people suggest to us to diversify into physical platinum or palladium, we always suggest back to them to buy more physical silver. If you want to own a precious or industrial metal, silver is King. If you think the economy is going to collapse and we will all be living in a mad max world, then you definitely want to own some silver to barter with, silver after all is the most used monetary metal in world history. If you think the economy is going to boom and the 1990’s is just around the corner, then you want to own silver. Industrial demand will soar as the rest of the world becomes industrialized. The Chinese want cars, cell phones, and other electronics just like the west, which means the largest population in the world needs a lot more silver. The entire world will need a lot more silver, so the question is, can new mining keep up with demand?
Silver Is All Around You
Where ever you are right now, take a look around you and think about how much silver products are in front of you. For me, I’m writing on an Apple Computer, my cell phone is on my desk, and a blue plastic cup is right next to my hand that has a silver wedding band on my ring finger. When I look around the room, I notice that I have a light switch, electrical outlets, and a television. In my desk, I have plastic pens, ink, and a small flashlight. Looking out my office window, I can see my car, in it a rear view mirror, side mirrors, rear window defroster, and of course under the hood is even more silver. All these products have silver in them, or needed silver in order to be created.
Now here is the fun part for silver investors, look at a map of the earth at night. Notice the intense light that comes from the U.S., Europe, and Japan. We want you to picture what the amount of silver it takes to produce this amount of light, think about all the other electronics these first world regions have surrounding those lights. As we just described, think about all the silver in bedrooms, vehicles, and on each person. Now look at China and India, with combined populations of 2.5 billion people. This doesn’t include the South American or other Asian countries, just these two specific countries. They are going to need skyscrapers, houses, condos, apartments, vehicles, cell phones, water sanitation facilities, and hundreds of thousands of electronics... including plenty of iPhones and iPads. Bullish for Apple, yes, bullish for silver, even more.
Silver has so many uses and so many customers, it is very easy to see that if the buyers of silver ever thought there was going to be a shortage, the price could have a historic run. We are not talking about individuals, we are talking about the Apples of the world, who in the future may come into the silver market in order to protect their own businesses from delays caused by a silver shortage.
20th Century
Most of these new uses for silver are from the 20th century. Prior to this, silver had a very limited role for industrial uses, silver was mainly used for money, jewelery, and in the 19th century photography. Of the 46 billion ounces of silver ever mined in history, only about 1 billion remains above ground. A very large amount of the above ground available supply of silver was consumed in the past 60 years. FutureMoneyTrends.com believes what we saw in the 20th century is nothing compared to what we will see in the 21st century, with electronics and 7 billion people all desiring to live the lifestyle of the west, the above ground available supply should get completely consumed over the next 10 years.
Silver Vs. Other Metals
As you can see, the arguments made for silver can’t be made for any other metal. That is why when people suggest to us to diversify into physical platinum or palladium, we always suggest back to them to buy more physical silver. If you want to own a precious or industrial metal, silver is King. If you think the economy is going to collapse and we will all be living in a mad max world, then you definitely want to own some silver to barter with, silver after all is the most used monetary metal in world history. If you think the economy is going to boom and the 1990’s is just around the corner, then you want to own silver. Industrial demand will soar as the rest of the world becomes industrialized. The Chinese want cars, cell phones, and other electronics just like the west, which means the largest population in the world needs a lot more silver. The entire world will need a lot more silver, so the question is, can new mining keep up with demand?
.
We don't think so, though we are bullish on ALL metals, the fact is nothing will beat silver over the next 10 years.
.
The opportunity in owning silver and silver mining companies is epic
Mar 12, 2012
Predestination IS a Very Difficult Doctrine
Common Sense Commentary: I received the following response to my recent blog on "Foreknowledge and Predestination", from a fine young pastor I knew as a child. He took a kind and gentle difference with me concerning the root origin of predestination and what it means in Scripture. He is doing a wonderful work for the Lord.
=========================================
On the flip-side. Scripture, both old and new is filled with detail after detail of God's direct selection of those who would bring Him glory by their obedience to
His command, and be the object of His wrath for their rebellion. He does state that every knee will bow...; some to their Savior, Some to their judge.
I see God as sovereign over all his creation; making vessels for honor and for dishonor as he wills. If His redeeming work on Calvary was sufficient to save, it must be only for those He as predestined for it. Otherwise, the human will has somehow overridden His, dissabling the effectiveness of Christ's supreme sacrifice.
=========================================
Here is my answer to this very common position on predestination:
Since I gave Scripture in the Blog in question, I will not repeat it here.
Did God get "glory by their obedience" which He predeposited in them?
Did God predeposit the "rebellion" in the lost, upon whom his "wrath" shall fall, without any freewill choice or sin or rejection on their part?
Did God predestinate, before their birth, the refusal of the lost to
"bow their knees" to Him, during their lives, by no choice of their own?
Yes, God is "sovereign" and it was within His supreme sovereignty that He chose to give those created in His image and likeness, a free will to decide and choose to believe and obey or disbelieve and rebel. And, yes, God did, "make both vessels (people) who honored Him and those who did not. But, He did not "make" some good and some bad, some honorable and some dishonorable. He did not "make" us sinful before we were born or after. With Satan's help, we are sinners by choice ... our choice not God's. If we will be judged for our actions, we alone are responsible for them.
So, the question becomes, "Why did God even make those He foreknew would reject Him?" the answer is simple. He could not have foreknown a thing that would never even happen. If He stopped it before it happened, He wouldn't foreknow that it did happen. He would foreknow He stopped it. Though He foreknew the unsaved would reject Him, He had to let the fact of their rejection play itself out in reality or He could not have foreknown it would, indeed, come to pass. Also, if God had not let the bad go ahead and happen, which He foreknew that people would do, but instead, simplified matters and just sent them straight on to hell at conception or upon their birth ... as babies, would that be their just rewards? Would that be like God? Most of the world are not Christians. Most die lost. God knew it before they were born. If predestination
were not based of God's foreknowledge but strictly upon His preferential choosing of one and rejection of another, based on nothing else, then every fetus and baby born is destined for Heaven or Hell. And most of them, who die before or at birth, would go directly to Hell without ever sinning or having a choice. That would also apply to a little child, too young to be saved, who dies. Hyper-predestinationalists, to be consistent, must believe that fetuses and babies predestined for hell are sent there by God's choice and nothing else even if they die at or before birth. Give me a break!
And this based solely on the preferential selection by God of one and rejection of the other, without the baby ever having lived to sin, choose or reject God on its own.
Preachers, if you believe that interpretation is Bible truth, you are obligated to preach it. I have never heard such a sermon even from the most convinced Hyper-Predestinationalist. Why do you suppose that is? Can't you see that little mother's face, who just lost a toddler, when she hears that from the pulpit? She would rush out in tears, never to return and most of the church with her. But if its true, preach it.
"Rightly dividing the word of truth" means study God's word in depth, every sentence and each word. Dig deep, read every verse in the Bible related to every sermon. Think! Is your conclusion consistent with every other verse in the Bible? What are the ramifications and consequences of your beliefs, followed to their ultimate end???
We must not preach or teach error. One error has a rippling effect on every other thing we read, hear and believe.
I have wrestled with this subject for years seeking harmony between "Whosoever will" and "election, fore ordination and predestination". I have never yet found any harmony with "predestination" without the prerequisite of God's "foreknowledge".
The word, foreknowledge has no hint of an action by God in determining our eternal destiny within it. Think! God's Foreknowledge IS Predestination. The natural, automatic, equal of God's Fore Knowledge IS Predestination. GFK = P . True
Knowledge, like truth, is neutral; it is what it is and stands alone like a column reaching from heaven to earth. True knowledge, and Truth itself, are God's dominion and have his power within them. A lie about either is neither. Hate it and it yet stands
for eternity. True knowledge and True truth can be attacked but cannot be changed.
Twist it and you twist yourself. Pervert it and you are perverted but it is still truth.
A final thing. The response of my friend is sincere. He says, "Otherwise, the human will has somehow overridden His, dissabling the effectiveness of Christ's supreme sacrafice."
Actually, the opposite is true. "In the beginning" it was God's own, perfect will to give us a free will to choose and decide our personal thoughts, words and actions. God, having set that precedent by His soverign will, all else must harmonize with it. He, Himself, does not violate His word and will. If the erroneous interpretation we are discussing were correct, and we were selected or rejected by God without our having done anything, on our own, by our free will decision, thought, word or action, to effect
it, and were Divinely "chosen" of God, for Heaven, why did Christ die at all? He died for our sins because we were responsible, we chose to sin, we were guilty. We did it
.......God did not do it to us or put it in us or predestine us to sin. We did it. Freewill.
Pass it on. RB
Mar 11, 2012
"Hope & Change" Is Now "Politics & Debt"
Common Sense Commentary: In Politics the voters seldom ever get what Political candidates promised to do, but most often get what they promised not to do. It happens so often and consistently, that it cannot be just a change of conditions or a change of mind or heart. It has to be some unseen, unheard power which possesses seemingly sincere, "promising" candidates, when they take positions of political power. They
just seem to morph into "money hungry, power addicted, fame seeking, well dressed, ruling superiors at the pinnacle of elite status. Was their candidacy all pretense? Were they always rotten at the core? Were they suddenly possessed of demons? Were they lying all the time? Could so many voters be so deluded or hypnotized. Mysterious!
"Hope and Change" is now "Politics and Debt"
=================================
Rayburn Blair
Here in "Politics Ruined USA" we "hopefully" abide,
On a political fault-line we stand fearfully astride,
Upon QE Infinity... a volcanic, high mountainside.
Here where political hurricanes blow hard ashore,
Now, all year long, they are at Freedom's Door,
With economic hailstorms and tornadoes galore.
Political mudslides and wildfires attack, it seems,
With Inflation, Deflation and Funeral Requiems,
They say, "to save us"... from American Dreams?
I was milking my "stock" cow that political night,
Lightning struck my barn and put out the light,
And old, political Hussie jumped atop me in fright.
She kicked that "debt" bucket right over my head,
And there I sat, not knowing which to dread,
Death by God's lightening or politicians instead.
My domesticated wife had soup on the range,
As she juggled our books of "Hope and Change",
She could not balance those books or rearrange
That stack of "Past Dues" way out on a limb,
Those subtractions and divisions from us to them,
Appended with notices "You gotta sink or swim".
But the thunder grew louder...everything shook,
As a stampede of Americans spit out BO's hook,
And flooded the polls with ballots and The Book.
So finally "change" came: We ousted the crook.
RB
HOPE and PRAY...today!
just seem to morph into "money hungry, power addicted, fame seeking, well dressed, ruling superiors at the pinnacle of elite status. Was their candidacy all pretense? Were they always rotten at the core? Were they suddenly possessed of demons? Were they lying all the time? Could so many voters be so deluded or hypnotized. Mysterious!
"Hope and Change" is now "Politics and Debt"
=================================
Rayburn Blair
Here in "Politics Ruined USA" we "hopefully" abide,
On a political fault-line we stand fearfully astride,
Upon QE Infinity... a volcanic, high mountainside.
Here where political hurricanes blow hard ashore,
Now, all year long, they are at Freedom's Door,
With economic hailstorms and tornadoes galore.
Political mudslides and wildfires attack, it seems,
With Inflation, Deflation and Funeral Requiems,
They say, "to save us"... from American Dreams?
I was milking my "stock" cow that political night,
Lightning struck my barn and put out the light,
And old, political Hussie jumped atop me in fright.
She kicked that "debt" bucket right over my head,
And there I sat, not knowing which to dread,
Death by God's lightening or politicians instead.
My domesticated wife had soup on the range,
As she juggled our books of "Hope and Change",
She could not balance those books or rearrange
That stack of "Past Dues" way out on a limb,
Those subtractions and divisions from us to them,
Appended with notices "You gotta sink or swim".
But the thunder grew louder...everything shook,
As a stampede of Americans spit out BO's hook,
And flooded the polls with ballots and The Book.
So finally "change" came: We ousted the crook.
RB
HOPE and PRAY...today!
Mar 10, 2012
When "ABNORMAL" Is A Compliment
Common Sense Commentary.......
They are not normal...they're Marines.
The Last Six Seconds"..SEMPER FI
Take a few minutes to read this and thank the young men
who are preserving our freedom...
"The Last Six Seconds of two Marines"
>One can hardly conceive of the enormous grief held quietly within General Kelly
>as he spoke.
>On Nov 13, 2010, Lt. General John Kelly, USMC, gave a speech to the Semper Fi
>Society of St. Louis, MO. This was four days after his son, Lt Robert Kelly,
>USMC, was killed by an IED while on his 3rd Combat tour. During his speech,
>General Kelly spoke about the dedication and valor of our young men and women
>who step forward each and every day to protect us.
>
>During the speech, he never mentioned the loss of his own son. He closed the
>speech with the moving account of the last six seconds in the lives of two young
>Marines who died with rifles blazing to protect their brother Marines.
>
>"I will leave you with a story about the kind of people they are, about the
>quality of the steel in their backs, about the kind of dedication they bring to
>our country while they serve in uniform and forever after as veterans. Two years
>ago when I was the Commander of all U.S. and Iraqi forces, in fact, the 22 ND of
>April 2008, two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 "The Walking Dead," and 2/8 were
>switching out in Ramadi. One battalion in the closing days of their deployment
>going home very soon, the other just starting its seven-month combat tour. Two
>Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20
>years old respectively, one from each battalion, were assuming the watch
>together at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks
>housing 50 Marines. The same broken down ramshackle building was also home to
>100 Iraqi police, also my men and our allies in the fight against the terrorists
>in Ramadi, a city until recently the most dangerous city on earth and owned by
>Al Qaeda.Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and
>daughter, and a mother and sister who lived with him and whom he supported as
>well. He did this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000. Haerter, on the other
>hand, was a middle class white kid from Long Island. They were from two
>completely different worlds. Had they not joined the Marines they would never
>have met each other, or understood that multiple America's exist simultaneously
>depending on one's race, education level, economic status, and where you might
>have been born. But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same
>crucible of Marine training, and because of this bond they were brothers as
>close, or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.
>
>The mission orders they received from the sergeant squad leader I am sure went
>something like, "Okay you two clowns, stand this post and let no unauthorized
>personnel or vehicles pass. You clear?"I am also sure Yale and Haerter then
>rolled their eyes and said in unison something like, "Yes Sergeant," with just
>enough attitude that made the point without saying the words, "No kidding
>‘sweetheart’, we know what we're doing." They then relieved two other Marines on
>watch and took up their post at the entry control point of Joint Security
>Station Nasser, in the Sophia section of Ramadi, Al Anbar, Iraq.A few minutes
>later a large blue truck turned down the alley way - perhaps 60-70 yards in
>length, and sped its way through the serpentine of concrete jersey walls. The
>truck stopped just short of where the two were posted and detonated, killing
>them both catastrophically. Twenty-four brick masonry houses were damaged or
>destroyed. A mosque 100 yards away collapsed. The truck's engine came to rest
>two hundred yards away knocking most of a house down before it stopped. Our
>explosive experts reckoned the blast was made of 2,000 pounds of explosives. Two
>died, and because these two young infantrymen didn't have it in their DNA to run
>from danger, they saved 150 of their Iraqi and American brothers-in-arms.When I
>read the situation report about the incident a few hours after it happened I
>called the regimental commander for details as something about this struck me as
>different.
>
>Marines dying or being seriously wounded is commonplace in combat. We expect
>Marines regardless of rank or MOS to stand their ground and do their duty, and
>even die in the process, if that is what the mission takes. But this just seemed
>different. The regimental commander had just returned from the site and he
>agreed, but reported that there were no American witnesses to the event - just
>Iraqi police. I figured if there was any chance of finding out what actually
>happened and then to decorate the two Marines to acknowledge their bravery, I'd
>have to do it as a combat award that requires two eye-witnesses and we figured
>the bureaucrats back in Washington would never buy Iraqi statements. If it had
>any chance at all, it had to come under the signature of a general officer.I
>traveled to Ramadi the next day and spoke individually to a half-dozen Iraqi
>police all of whom told the same story. The blue truck turned down into the
>alley and immediately sped up as it made its way through the serpentine. They
>all said, "We knew immediately what was going on as soon as the two Marines
>began firing." The Iraqi police then related that some of them also fired, and
>then to a man, ran for safety just prior to the explosion. All survived. Many
>were injured, some seriously. One of the Iraqis elaborated and with tears
>welling up said, "They'd run like any normal man would to save his life." "What
>he didn't know until then," he said, "And what he learned that very instant, was
>that Marines are not normal."
>Choking past the emotion he said, "Sir, in the name of God no sane man would
>have stood there and done what they did." "No sane man." "They saved us
>all."What we didn't know at the time, and only learned a couple of days later
>after I wrote a summary and submitted both Yale and Haerter for posthumous Navy
>Crosses, was that one of our security cameras, damaged initially in the blast,
>recorded some of the suicide attack. It happened exactly as the Iraqis had
>described it. It took exactly six seconds from when the truck entered the alley
>until it detonated.You can watch the last six seconds of their young lives.
>Putting myself in their heads I supposed it took about a second for the two
>Marines to separately come to the same conclusion about what was going on once
>the truck came into their view at the far end of the alley. Exactly no time to
>talk it over, or call the sergeant to ask what they should do. Only enough time
>to take half an instant and think about what the sergeant told them to do only a
>few minutes before, "Let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass." The two
>Marines had about five seconds left to live.It took maybe another two seconds
>for them to present their weapons, take aim, and open up. By this time the truck
>was half-way through the barriers and gaining speed the whole time. Here, the
>recording shows a number of Iraqi police, some of whom had fired their AKs, now
>scattering like the normal and rational men they were - some running right past
>the Marines. They had three seconds left to live.For about two seconds more, the
>recording shows the Marines' weapons firing non-stop the truck's windshield
>exploding into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart and tore in to the
>body of the (I deleted) who is trying to get past them to kill their brothers -
>American and Iraqi-bedded down in the barracks totally unaware of the fact that
>their lives at that moment depended entirely on two Marines standing their
>ground.If they had been aware, they would have known they were safe because two
>Marines stood between them and a crazed suicide bomber. The recording shows the
>truck careening to a stop immediately in front of the two Marines. In all of the
>instantaneous violence Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports and by
>the recording, they never stepped back. They never even started to step aside.
>They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread shoulder width
>apart, they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could work their
>weapons. They had only one second left to live.The truck explodes. The camera
>goes blank. Two young men go to their God. Six seconds. Not enough time to think
>about their families, their country, their flag, or about their lives or their
>deaths, but more than enough time for two very brave young men to do their duty
>into eternity. That is the kind of people who are on watch all over the world
>tonight - for you.We Marines believe that God gave America the greatest gift he
>could bestow to man while he lived on this earth - freedom. We also believe he
>gave us another gift nearly as precious - our soldiers, sailors, airmen, U S
>Customs and Border Patrol, Coast Guardsmen, and Marines - to safeguard that gift
>and guarantee no force on this earth can ever steal it away.It has been my
>distinct honor to have been with you here today. Rest assured our America, this
>experiment in democracy started over two centuries ago, will forever remain the
>"land of the free and home of the brave" so long as we never run out of tough
>young Americans who are willing to look beyond their own self-interest and
>comfortable lives, and go into the darkest and most dangerous places on earth to
>hunt down, and kill, those who would do us harm.God Bless America, and SEMPER
>FIDELIS !"
Semper Fi, God Bless America and God Bless
the United States Marine Corps...
Often Tested, Always Faithful, Brothers
I have but one comment ... AMEN !...
Rayburn Blair USMC "The Chosin Few Survivors"
They are not normal...they're Marines.
The Last Six Seconds"..SEMPER FI
Take a few minutes to read this and thank the young men
who are preserving our freedom...
"The Last Six Seconds of two Marines"
>One can hardly conceive of the enormous grief held quietly within General Kelly
>as he spoke.
>On Nov 13, 2010, Lt. General John Kelly, USMC, gave a speech to the Semper Fi
>Society of St. Louis, MO. This was four days after his son, Lt Robert Kelly,
>USMC, was killed by an IED while on his 3rd Combat tour. During his speech,
>General Kelly spoke about the dedication and valor of our young men and women
>who step forward each and every day to protect us.
>
>During the speech, he never mentioned the loss of his own son. He closed the
>speech with the moving account of the last six seconds in the lives of two young
>Marines who died with rifles blazing to protect their brother Marines.
>
>"I will leave you with a story about the kind of people they are, about the
>quality of the steel in their backs, about the kind of dedication they bring to
>our country while they serve in uniform and forever after as veterans. Two years
>ago when I was the Commander of all U.S. and Iraqi forces, in fact, the 22 ND of
>April 2008, two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 "The Walking Dead," and 2/8 were
>switching out in Ramadi. One battalion in the closing days of their deployment
>going home very soon, the other just starting its seven-month combat tour. Two
>Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20
>years old respectively, one from each battalion, were assuming the watch
>together at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks
>housing 50 Marines. The same broken down ramshackle building was also home to
>100 Iraqi police, also my men and our allies in the fight against the terrorists
>in Ramadi, a city until recently the most dangerous city on earth and owned by
>Al Qaeda.Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and
>daughter, and a mother and sister who lived with him and whom he supported as
>well. He did this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000. Haerter, on the other
>hand, was a middle class white kid from Long Island. They were from two
>completely different worlds. Had they not joined the Marines they would never
>have met each other, or understood that multiple America's exist simultaneously
>depending on one's race, education level, economic status, and where you might
>have been born. But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same
>crucible of Marine training, and because of this bond they were brothers as
>close, or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.
>
>The mission orders they received from the sergeant squad leader I am sure went
>something like, "Okay you two clowns, stand this post and let no unauthorized
>personnel or vehicles pass. You clear?"I am also sure Yale and Haerter then
>rolled their eyes and said in unison something like, "Yes Sergeant," with just
>enough attitude that made the point without saying the words, "No kidding
>‘sweetheart’, we know what we're doing." They then relieved two other Marines on
>watch and took up their post at the entry control point of Joint Security
>Station Nasser, in the Sophia section of Ramadi, Al Anbar, Iraq.A few minutes
>later a large blue truck turned down the alley way - perhaps 60-70 yards in
>length, and sped its way through the serpentine of concrete jersey walls. The
>truck stopped just short of where the two were posted and detonated, killing
>them both catastrophically. Twenty-four brick masonry houses were damaged or
>destroyed. A mosque 100 yards away collapsed. The truck's engine came to rest
>two hundred yards away knocking most of a house down before it stopped. Our
>explosive experts reckoned the blast was made of 2,000 pounds of explosives. Two
>died, and because these two young infantrymen didn't have it in their DNA to run
>from danger, they saved 150 of their Iraqi and American brothers-in-arms.When I
>read the situation report about the incident a few hours after it happened I
>called the regimental commander for details as something about this struck me as
>different.
>
>Marines dying or being seriously wounded is commonplace in combat. We expect
>Marines regardless of rank or MOS to stand their ground and do their duty, and
>even die in the process, if that is what the mission takes. But this just seemed
>different. The regimental commander had just returned from the site and he
>agreed, but reported that there were no American witnesses to the event - just
>Iraqi police. I figured if there was any chance of finding out what actually
>happened and then to decorate the two Marines to acknowledge their bravery, I'd
>have to do it as a combat award that requires two eye-witnesses and we figured
>the bureaucrats back in Washington would never buy Iraqi statements. If it had
>any chance at all, it had to come under the signature of a general officer.I
>traveled to Ramadi the next day and spoke individually to a half-dozen Iraqi
>police all of whom told the same story. The blue truck turned down into the
>alley and immediately sped up as it made its way through the serpentine. They
>all said, "We knew immediately what was going on as soon as the two Marines
>began firing." The Iraqi police then related that some of them also fired, and
>then to a man, ran for safety just prior to the explosion. All survived. Many
>were injured, some seriously. One of the Iraqis elaborated and with tears
>welling up said, "They'd run like any normal man would to save his life." "What
>he didn't know until then," he said, "And what he learned that very instant, was
>that Marines are not normal."
>Choking past the emotion he said, "Sir, in the name of God no sane man would
>have stood there and done what they did." "No sane man." "They saved us
>all."What we didn't know at the time, and only learned a couple of days later
>after I wrote a summary and submitted both Yale and Haerter for posthumous Navy
>Crosses, was that one of our security cameras, damaged initially in the blast,
>recorded some of the suicide attack. It happened exactly as the Iraqis had
>described it. It took exactly six seconds from when the truck entered the alley
>until it detonated.You can watch the last six seconds of their young lives.
>Putting myself in their heads I supposed it took about a second for the two
>Marines to separately come to the same conclusion about what was going on once
>the truck came into their view at the far end of the alley. Exactly no time to
>talk it over, or call the sergeant to ask what they should do. Only enough time
>to take half an instant and think about what the sergeant told them to do only a
>few minutes before, "Let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass." The two
>Marines had about five seconds left to live.It took maybe another two seconds
>for them to present their weapons, take aim, and open up. By this time the truck
>was half-way through the barriers and gaining speed the whole time. Here, the
>recording shows a number of Iraqi police, some of whom had fired their AKs, now
>scattering like the normal and rational men they were - some running right past
>the Marines. They had three seconds left to live.For about two seconds more, the
>recording shows the Marines' weapons firing non-stop the truck's windshield
>exploding into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart and tore in to the
>body of the (I deleted) who is trying to get past them to kill their brothers -
>American and Iraqi-bedded down in the barracks totally unaware of the fact that
>their lives at that moment depended entirely on two Marines standing their
>ground.If they had been aware, they would have known they were safe because two
>Marines stood between them and a crazed suicide bomber. The recording shows the
>truck careening to a stop immediately in front of the two Marines. In all of the
>instantaneous violence Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports and by
>the recording, they never stepped back. They never even started to step aside.
>They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread shoulder width
>apart, they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could work their
>weapons. They had only one second left to live.The truck explodes. The camera
>goes blank. Two young men go to their God. Six seconds. Not enough time to think
>about their families, their country, their flag, or about their lives or their
>deaths, but more than enough time for two very brave young men to do their duty
>into eternity. That is the kind of people who are on watch all over the world
>tonight - for you.We Marines believe that God gave America the greatest gift he
>could bestow to man while he lived on this earth - freedom. We also believe he
>gave us another gift nearly as precious - our soldiers, sailors, airmen, U S
>Customs and Border Patrol, Coast Guardsmen, and Marines - to safeguard that gift
>and guarantee no force on this earth can ever steal it away.It has been my
>distinct honor to have been with you here today. Rest assured our America, this
>experiment in democracy started over two centuries ago, will forever remain the
>"land of the free and home of the brave" so long as we never run out of tough
>young Americans who are willing to look beyond their own self-interest and
>comfortable lives, and go into the darkest and most dangerous places on earth to
>hunt down, and kill, those who would do us harm.God Bless America, and SEMPER
>FIDELIS !"
Semper Fi, God Bless America and God Bless
the United States Marine Corps...
Often Tested, Always Faithful, Brothers
I have but one comment ... AMEN !...
Rayburn Blair USMC "The Chosin Few Survivors"
Mar 9, 2012
Which Came First, Foreknowledge or Predestination?
Common Sense Commentary: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son ...." Rom.8:29.
"Fore" means "prior to" as in before . We have forefathers, foremen, forerunners, and forethought but no absolute "foreknowledge" except Biblical Prophecy and Promise. We can anticipate, imagine, hope and even guess at the future but cannot "know" it for certain except for the fact of death.... if the rapture doesn't occur first. Only God truly knows the future and we can know what His Word, the Bible, has revealed to us about the future, but not one thing beyond that. When people say, "I knew that was going to happen", they mean, "I feared it, I thought it, it was told me, or, my experience anticipated it. They did not and could not know it for a certainty.
Foreknowledge describes a divine attribute of God only. He foreknew everything, past present and future in minute and perfect detail. Some of the things He foreknew, He Himself caused to happen. His foreknowledge preceeded the fact by infinity past. Other things He foreknew, His Spirit influenced, encouraged, inspired, convicted, or impressed people to do and they responded and did it, but others did not respond and do the thing God willed for them. "The Lord is...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2Pet.3:9. God did not "reject" them until they rejected Him and His will for their lives. God foreknew both rejections. So if He foreknew it, it was destined to happen, but His foreknowledge of it, preceded the destined fact. Predestination is a "result" of God's Foreknowledge, not the other way around. It is the automatic derivative or His foreknowledge. He did not harden Pharaoh's heart until after Pharaoh had hardened his own heart first. "And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go." Ex.5:2. Only after he hardened his own heart did the LORD harden Pharaoh's heart 15 times beginning two chapters later, in Ex.7.
"And if ye will not be reformed by me ... but will walk contrary unto me; Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins." Lev.26:23-24
Many other things God foreknew would happen, were not His will except for the fact, He gave all His created beings a limited, free will of their own. This, obviously, included Lucifer, Adam and Eve, and all of us. That is why He told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of knowledge. He did not want or will them to disobey but created them, and us, with a free-will ... to do, basically, as we will, except with certain boundaries and exceptions. Human freewill does not often do the perfect will of God but He does not force us to do His will. WE are responsible for our own choices.
God did not "will" for Lucifer to rebel, but He did will for Lucifer, the angels and us, to have a free "will" to obey or not to obey. They, and we, are not machines or puppets, but living beings with a personality and will of our own. Lucifer's and the third of angels who followed him were personally responsible for their own failure. God recorded Lucifer's fault and sin in Isa.14:12-15, where Lucifer had said, "I will" six times in his infamous declaration that HE would dethrone JEHOVAH GOD and enthrone himself AS GOD over the whole universe. Lucifer willed it but God's will over-ruled Lucifer's will and cast him out of Heaven ... all of which God already foreknew, but it was Lucifer's own fault and selfwill. In v.12, God asked Lucifer how it was that he had fallen from heaven and then told him it was because he was responsible for his own calamity by plotting against God of his own free will. It was not God's will but Lucifer's. If you presume that Lucifer and his angels were "predestined" to rebel and be cast out of heaven, you must base that "Pre-destination" upon God's "Pre-knowledge" which is foreknowledge. Anything God "Foreknows" will happen, will happen even if it is contrary to what He would have us to do of our own free-will. Because He gave us a born-in, free will, that falls under His "Permissive Will" not His "Perfect Will".
God does not will or make the rapist, thief, abuser, betrayer or murderer to do their vile acts and sins; but He is God Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient ... all knowing. We, as FREE WILL agents, must CHOOSE to accept Christ or to reject or neglect Him of our own will. So, if, as 2Pet.3:9 says, that "God is NOT WILLING that any should perish but" IS WILLING "that all should come to repentance", whose fault is it if we are not acceptable to enter heaven but will "perish" ... God's?? ... simply because He Foreknew our choice before we made the choice??? When the religionists asked Jesus, "Are you the Messiah? Tell us. And he said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not believe: And if I ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go." Lk.22:67-68. Here we see an example of Christ's foreknowledge of man's will.
A hyper-Calvinist would say, "But Jesus was determining their will and and they could not be saved." Not so! They could have if they would have. "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." Jn.5:40.
What glory would God get out of it if we did only what He programed us to do with no choice, decision or responsibility in the matter, like pegs on a game board? God can't get bored but that would bore Him if it were the case, which it is not. Would you, truly, want your children or even a pet, to do only what you willed them to do like little robots with no will or personality or accountability of their own? If so, I now know who bought those "pet rocks" thirty years ago.
Prophecy and Predestination are nothing more than the "foreknowledge" of God. Prophecy, is expressed to and through His Biblical prophets. An Example: God gave Moses instructions on setting up the best system of government, its laws, priests and judges to lead them, keep the peace and enforce and execute that law. At that time, in 1451 BC, God also foretold, by His foreknowledge, that the time would come when the people would, in their self-will, demand a king instead of judges, God's Perfect Will, Judges. That they would do because of two corrupt judges. "When ye are come into the land which the LORD thy God shalt give thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein,and will say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me." Deut.17:14. That "foreknowledge" of God came to pass 339 years after He foretold it. In 1112 BC, Judge Samuel's two sons were corrupt, lusting after money, taking bribes and "perverting judgement". The people rose up and demanded "change". "Then all the elders of Israel ... came to Samuel ... And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel ... And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: (Permissive will) for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." 1Sam.8:3-7. God gave them a government of Laws and Judges and Freedom but because of a couple of bad leaders they demanded a King. That same God gave America a system of Laws and Judges in a Constitution but because of a couple of bad leaders, they demanded "change" and a King ... and they got one. God didn't do that to them or to us but He foreknew they would reject Him of their own free-will.
Pass it on. RB
"Fore" means "prior to" as in before . We have forefathers, foremen, forerunners, and forethought but no absolute "foreknowledge" except Biblical Prophecy and Promise. We can anticipate, imagine, hope and even guess at the future but cannot "know" it for certain except for the fact of death.... if the rapture doesn't occur first. Only God truly knows the future and we can know what His Word, the Bible, has revealed to us about the future, but not one thing beyond that. When people say, "I knew that was going to happen", they mean, "I feared it, I thought it, it was told me, or, my experience anticipated it. They did not and could not know it for a certainty.
Foreknowledge describes a divine attribute of God only. He foreknew everything, past present and future in minute and perfect detail. Some of the things He foreknew, He Himself caused to happen. His foreknowledge preceeded the fact by infinity past. Other things He foreknew, His Spirit influenced, encouraged, inspired, convicted, or impressed people to do and they responded and did it, but others did not respond and do the thing God willed for them. "The Lord is...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2Pet.3:9. God did not "reject" them until they rejected Him and His will for their lives. God foreknew both rejections. So if He foreknew it, it was destined to happen, but His foreknowledge of it, preceded the destined fact. Predestination is a "result" of God's Foreknowledge, not the other way around. It is the automatic derivative or His foreknowledge. He did not harden Pharaoh's heart until after Pharaoh had hardened his own heart first. "And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go." Ex.5:2. Only after he hardened his own heart did the LORD harden Pharaoh's heart 15 times beginning two chapters later, in Ex.7.
"And if ye will not be reformed by me ... but will walk contrary unto me; Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins." Lev.26:23-24
Many other things God foreknew would happen, were not His will except for the fact, He gave all His created beings a limited, free will of their own. This, obviously, included Lucifer, Adam and Eve, and all of us. That is why He told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of knowledge. He did not want or will them to disobey but created them, and us, with a free-will ... to do, basically, as we will, except with certain boundaries and exceptions. Human freewill does not often do the perfect will of God but He does not force us to do His will. WE are responsible for our own choices.
God did not "will" for Lucifer to rebel, but He did will for Lucifer, the angels and us, to have a free "will" to obey or not to obey. They, and we, are not machines or puppets, but living beings with a personality and will of our own. Lucifer's and the third of angels who followed him were personally responsible for their own failure. God recorded Lucifer's fault and sin in Isa.14:12-15, where Lucifer had said, "I will" six times in his infamous declaration that HE would dethrone JEHOVAH GOD and enthrone himself AS GOD over the whole universe. Lucifer willed it but God's will over-ruled Lucifer's will and cast him out of Heaven ... all of which God already foreknew, but it was Lucifer's own fault and selfwill. In v.12, God asked Lucifer how it was that he had fallen from heaven and then told him it was because he was responsible for his own calamity by plotting against God of his own free will. It was not God's will but Lucifer's. If you presume that Lucifer and his angels were "predestined" to rebel and be cast out of heaven, you must base that "Pre-destination" upon God's "Pre-knowledge" which is foreknowledge. Anything God "Foreknows" will happen, will happen even if it is contrary to what He would have us to do of our own free-will. Because He gave us a born-in, free will, that falls under His "Permissive Will" not His "Perfect Will".
God does not will or make the rapist, thief, abuser, betrayer or murderer to do their vile acts and sins; but He is God Omnipotent, Omnipresent, and Omniscient ... all knowing. We, as FREE WILL agents, must CHOOSE to accept Christ or to reject or neglect Him of our own will. So, if, as 2Pet.3:9 says, that "God is NOT WILLING that any should perish but" IS WILLING "that all should come to repentance", whose fault is it if we are not acceptable to enter heaven but will "perish" ... God's?? ... simply because He Foreknew our choice before we made the choice??? When the religionists asked Jesus, "Are you the Messiah? Tell us. And he said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not believe: And if I ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go." Lk.22:67-68. Here we see an example of Christ's foreknowledge of man's will.
A hyper-Calvinist would say, "But Jesus was determining their will and and they could not be saved." Not so! They could have if they would have. "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." Jn.5:40.
What glory would God get out of it if we did only what He programed us to do with no choice, decision or responsibility in the matter, like pegs on a game board? God can't get bored but that would bore Him if it were the case, which it is not. Would you, truly, want your children or even a pet, to do only what you willed them to do like little robots with no will or personality or accountability of their own? If so, I now know who bought those "pet rocks" thirty years ago.
Prophecy and Predestination are nothing more than the "foreknowledge" of God. Prophecy, is expressed to and through His Biblical prophets. An Example: God gave Moses instructions on setting up the best system of government, its laws, priests and judges to lead them, keep the peace and enforce and execute that law. At that time, in 1451 BC, God also foretold, by His foreknowledge, that the time would come when the people would, in their self-will, demand a king instead of judges, God's Perfect Will, Judges. That they would do because of two corrupt judges. "When ye are come into the land which the LORD thy God shalt give thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein,and will say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me." Deut.17:14. That "foreknowledge" of God came to pass 339 years after He foretold it. In 1112 BC, Judge Samuel's two sons were corrupt, lusting after money, taking bribes and "perverting judgement". The people rose up and demanded "change". "Then all the elders of Israel ... came to Samuel ... And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel ... And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: (Permissive will) for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." 1Sam.8:3-7. God gave them a government of Laws and Judges and Freedom but because of a couple of bad leaders they demanded a King. That same God gave America a system of Laws and Judges in a Constitution but because of a couple of bad leaders, they demanded "change" and a King ... and they got one. God didn't do that to them or to us but He foreknew they would reject Him of their own free-will.
Pass it on. RB
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