“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.” (NIV)
Please brother can you spare me a dime
To buy some bread and a bottle of wine
I’ll never ask for anything again
Just help me, help me to survive
This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: He was preparing swarms of locusts after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the late crops were coming up. When they had stripped the land clean, I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, forgive! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
So the Lord relented.
“This will not happen,” the Lord said.
This is what the Sovereign Lord showed me: The Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land. Then I cried out, “Sovereign Lord, I beg you, stop! How can Jacob survive? He is so small!”
So the Lord relented.
“This will not happen either,” the Sovereign Lord said.
This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?”
^^^^This is quite funny, yet still the subject matter is mind blowing!
Many people probably mistake all this talk of Neurons, etc as evidence of real understanding.
It’s supposed to make Science ‘Poetic’ and profound yet is really a song of ignorance, myth and superstition.
“Our Reptile Brain”.
“It evolved from the inside out”
Quite pathetic.
This is a Materialist Hymn.
Why would anyone believe this nonsense?
The reality is Science cannot fathom how our Conscious Minds, our Self awareness, and freewill are related to our Grey matter.
They must wax lyrical about ‘Collage explosions’… I assume on the ‘Entertainment systems’ in our heads!
The closest these guys get to the Truth is when they call our Brains.. ‘an enchanted room’.
’20 million volumes of information… A very Big place in a very small space’
The confession… “It is the most mysterious part of our Body”.
The biggest questions of Consciousness are well beyond reach, and as long as modern science remains dominated by Monist Materialism they will never be able to understand the Mind/ Brain paradox because they have willfully shut their minds to non-physical spiritual realities.
I laugh at the ‘all to common’ claims these days that mankind has mastered how the brain works, and Technology … that scientists will within the next 20 years have invented ‘Conscious computers’ which will be capable of thinking ‘human’ thoughts, and ‘feeling’ human emotions.
It is mind boggling that materialists can be so Absurd as to be contemplating ‘ethical issues’ of granting Robots ‘rights’!!!
They have traveled so far into materialist fantasy that they have forgotten the reality that *’Robot’ and ‘Morality’* are Oxymorons!
Morality only being possible for Free willed beings which have a choice, and whom exist in a universe governed by Objective Moral laws.
All these necessities are absolutely alien to Materialist cosmology.
I have said many times before that mankind may one day make an imitation mechanical bird which may be able to fly and sing, and that a person may have trouble identifying it as being a fake… none the less that Machine will never be a real bird.
Likewise with a Humanoid Robot.
They may be clever enough to program a machine with human mannerisms, so that when we interact with it we can believe we are dealing with a living, thinking…even emotional and caring *Person*, but in reality that is all just a gigantic Deception… The Robot will not be alive… will not be conscious, will not be moral, will not care… etc etc…
It is staggering to know that these fundamental truths are completely ignored by materialist thinkers.
What is worse to contemplate is just what materialists believe our life and human consciousness is!
Death, the Materialist must believe is nothing more that ‘pulling the plug on your computer’!
And *you* literally ‘vanish’.
Materialism is one of the most powerful Opiates of them all!
It’s stupefying!
Why do they choose to think this way?
Simply because they desire to subject the whole universe …neatly into their own puny… small minded Naturalistic Rationale.
They allow themselves to be dominated by their own primitive theories.
It makes them feel good.
They refuse to be Objective and admit that there are plenty of things in reality which don’t fit at all well with their materialism.
The moment they admit this to themselves, their entire ‘religion’ falls apart… and that is what materialism is… a falce religion.
The moment a person awakens to the idea that there are greater realities than mere Matter and energy is the day that their subjective scales fall from their eyes and they appreciate spiritual truths, Free will, Consciousness, Love, …Good and evil, etc are not properties of matter… nor ever could be… and they are then in a much better position to appreciate the Amazing truth of the Bible.
This silky-smooth stout contains select malt and hops to produce a beer that is rich and complex. It contains Bluff oysters and has a slightly smoky flavour.
Contains Bluff oysters?! A “slightly smoky flavour”?! No wonder, this ungodly beer is a burnt offering to Baal! It’s an abomination! It goes directly against God’s word as clearly spelled out in Leviticus 11:9-12.
These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.
And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:
They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.
Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.
I have previously warned of the addition of foodstuffs to beer. Beer is water, malt and hops ONLY. Chocolate and coconut were but thin ends of the wedge. And now, alas, it’s come to this.
No doubt, my Dispensationalist co-blogger will tell me that these dietary strictures do not apply in the present Age. I am unmoved.
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. (NIV)
When I was convinced to convert from Atheism to Christianity… 29 years ago, a most vital part of my conversion was the fact that the Christians whom shared with me their faith in Christ were King James Bible believers, and they were able to convince me of the trustworthiness of the Bible as Gods Divine revelation to mankind.
Now I was an Ignorant Atheist Evolutionist Nihilist Bogan West Aucklander who worshipped Jim Morrison.
I was Militantly Atheistic, and believed that people who believed in ‘The Big Man up in the Clouds’ were Bat shit Crazy (like my Mom!)
I would rip into them!
I would Mock them!
I would roll around on the ground in a fit of hysterics at the very thought that People could be so stupid as to really believe in Miracles, Heaven, etc.
Didn’t they Know that Science had proven that We came from Monkeys????
Didn’t they know that only Children, and Primitive Savages believed in Ghosts, Boogie Men, Angels, Fairies, God, Santa, etc ????
This clearly meant that the Bible was complete Bullshit!
It was written by Ignorant superstitious savages…before the Advent of science.
And The fact that there were many Bibles also further proved that it had been altered with the process of Time.
Everybody knew the Bible was full of Superstition, and contradictions (though I had never read it).
And Like our society, It was filled with Man made customs and rules which in reality were not binding upon anyone… *only Chumps believed morality was real!*
I ‘Knew’ reality was Materialistic, and that there was no Heaven for the Good, no hell for the wicked, and that all the rules of society were simply ‘Made up’…. and believed by slaves and Idiots.
I was Free!
I ‘knew’ There was no ‘Right or wrong’ in Atoms or the Periodic Table.
I ‘knew’ there was no Divine judge… no Divine Lawgiver….nothing out there but empty space… and a lot of fear ridden Idiots whom wasted their lives worshipping Fake Gods.
This was the Package Deal I called my Atheist/ scientific/ worldview.
And it was this entire Package which had to be confronted and overthrown if I was to become an honest believer In Jesus Christ.
It was quite amazing that circumstances arose that I actually gave one particular Christian opportunity to present his case for belief in God, and a vital part of his case was that Mankind had been ‘Visited’ by God and that he had given us his word, and preserved it, and that it was trustworthy, and ought to be believed.
Had he not presented his faith as standing upon such an absolutely trustworthy foundation I would have immediately said to myself that even the Christians themselves know the Bible if full of errors.
Ie That they admit the Atheist position is Valid, and I would have rejected Christianity upon that basis alone. Ie The Bible can not be relied upon. End of story.
Amazing enough… though the belief that the Bible is ‘untrustworthy’ is held by the Majority of so-called Christians today… God instead sent a Bible believer across my path, and It was via a systematic process of convincing me the Bible was indeed trustworthy, and that the Christian cosmology, and explanation of what Humanity really is, is vastly superior and more scientifically and historically accurate than my previous Naturalistic Materialist cosmology, that one day I saw the light!
‘One evening… after many months of Conversations, etc… in my mind it was like a whole cascade of pieces of a jigsaw puzzle all simply fell into place, and I could see what this Christian had been saying made perfect sense!
I began to be able to feed scenarios into this new cosmology and it would spit out ‘answers which added up perfectly with reality!
It’s explanitory power was immense!
And so I decided I would ask Jesus Christ to be my savior… and I was so convinced of his reality that I was kinda surprised no Angel turned up and shook my hand and gave me a Job from God to do! 🙂
I was a changed Man.
I became a religious fanatic… much to the surprise of my Family and friends…esp to my Mother, brother, and sister whom I had always mocked for believing in God!
It was a *real Miracle*!
To this day I believe it was in answer to my mothers prayers, and God’s plan for my life, that he sent his Bible believing servants to preach to me the gosple, with a powerful enough foundation to undo my Infidelity.
I have spent the last 30 years of my life…through Highs and Lows… putting the King James Bible to the test.
I have subjected it to every criticism that the doubters have been able to throw at it… and like a house built upon the Rock…. though the Tempest rages… It standeth sure!
I simply cannot understand how someone can claim to be a Christian yet doubt the trustworthiness of the Bible!…. yet Millions do just that!
And they stand with the atheists attacking my faith in the King James Bible!
Let me say that when I preach the gospel to others, I preach it from full conviction that It is *the Gospel truth*.
That it really is what God says a man must believe to be saved.
And when I call unbelievers to ‘wake up’ that I really have something far superior to show them.
And when I go about my Libertarian activism, it is based upon an absolute conviction that Morality is Objective… that God did create Man equal, and endowed him with certain inalienable rights, and that to secure those rights Governments are instituted among men…
I believe that when an English speaking person stands before God, that he will be judged in accordance with the KJV. Ie God will hold us accountible by It, and our access to it.
We have no excuse.
Those whom a planning to tell God that they did’nt believe the gospel because the Bible was untrustworthy and full of errors will be in for a shock!
They will be found naked, and guilty, and shall be judged… because they chose to reject Christ and the love and Grace of God.
I must go to bed now.
To be continued!…
I will get into particular reasons *why I maintain my belief in The 1611 King James Bible.
“Williamson likes to talk about big gay rainbows, but it would help if he understood what the rainbow actually means. After Noah’s flood, God painted a giant rainbow across the sky, which was a message that he would never again flood the world, unless we made him very angry. And we have.”
– Colin Craig, Leader of the Conservative Party of New Zealand
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
“Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”
But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.
Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” (NIV)
My metaphysical model is monism, which means that I believe that there is one reality, and that everything in it is subject to a single set of physical laws (the Standard Model of Physics — until something better comes along). Now, most monists do not believe in miracles. Why? Because the term “miracle” typically denotes something which is supernatural — i.e., something which defies the laws of physics; something which requires that we appeal to metaphysical dualism: the idea that there are two planes of existence; a physical one, and a separate one, a spiritual one, which can override the physical.
The majority of people who believe in the existence of a Deity (or deities) accept some dualistic metaphysical model. I believe in God, and I accept a monistic model. I also believe in miracles. Is this a contradiction? No; but I’ve had to manipulate the concept of “miracle” somewhat.
It has been said: “That which seems miraculous is actually merely the unexplained.”
I consider that statement to be accurate.
I add one twist:
That which is, admittedly, physically explicable, yet is clearly not coincidental must be considered to be miraculous.
The Ten Plagues of Egypt can be explained as a severe natural disaster. Does that mean that it is coincidence that it happened to occur just as the time was right for the Israelis to leave?
The parting of the Red Sea in the book of Exodus has been explained as being the result of comet activity. Does this mean that it is coincidental that it occurred just as it began to look like the children of Israel had their backs against the wall?
When the Israelis arrived at the Promised Land, on two separate occasions, the walls of a city they were attacking spontaneously crumbled at a strategically advantageous moment. This could have easily been the result of seismic activity. Coincidence?
I think not.
What I think is that this entire universe is a magnificent machine, which operates in a flawless, albeit brutal and bittersweet manner.
God does have love for mankind. That’s not to say that He’s very nice. He’s not.
God’s miracles are physical events that He has set into motion long beforehand.
In that sense, inasmuch as God is sovereign, every waking moment that you experience is a clear and present miracle.
Do not squander the beautiful and terrifying miracle that is your life.
