Ain't It the Truth

Equality Plus Inequality Equals Reality

When the authors of the Declaration of Independence observed that "all men are created equal," to whom were they referring? Were they referencing the entire human race, or targeting Americans with their words? A careful reading of the Declaration itself, with supplemental study of U.S. history, reveals that their comments applied to Americans, who, in 1776, were overwhelmingly Caucasian Christians of European ancestry. The Founders did not live inside a cultural or racial hodgepodge, nor did such an amalgamation exist on these shores until after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (the Hart-Celler Act) brought profound and deliberate demographic change to the United States.

I make mention of the above because most people in politics, the media, or academia who speak about equality, today, ignore the fact that our country has weathered an existential transformation since Thomas Jefferson penned the words, "all men are created equal."

The Left's successful march through our cultural institutions has ensured an interpretation of equality more in line with that of Marxism than Christianity. The powers that be have shrugged off the raiment emblazoned with the words "Spirit of 1776," and wrapped themselves in a French mantle adorned with the logo, "Spirit of 1789." 

Notwithstanding these observations, a certain select framework exists wherein it may be said truly that all men are equal. Following is a list of items falling within that field. Keep in mind that I am a Bible-believing Christian with views of reality and history informed by the Holy scriptures.


1. Humans are created beings. This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; -- Genesis 5:1

2. All of humanity has the same Creator -- the God of the Bible, the One True God. Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. -- Genesis 5:2

3. God created every single one of us in His Image. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. -- Genesis 1:27

4. All of Mankind is born with a sin nature, fallen from Grace. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; -- Romans 3:23

5. Everyone is in need of redemption from sin. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: -- Romans 5:12

6. God has provided a plan of redemption and a redeemer -- redemption in His gift of salvation and resurrection and eternal life; a redeemer in the person of Jesus Christ, who was and is God in the flesh, and the Son of God in His relationship and position within the Holy Trinity. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. -- John 14:6

7. No one can come to Jesus without being called by God, first. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. -- John 6:44

8. God's offer of redemption is open to all people. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. -- 2 Peter 3:9 (see also 1 Timothy 2:4)

9. All men face eventual judgment from God, for good or ill. Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead -- Acts 17:31 (see also Ecclesiastes 12:14)
 
10. Race, sex, state of servitude, the question of Jew versus Gentile: none of these elements matter, in terms of the security and legitimacy of one's membership in the family of Jesus Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. -- Galatians 3:28


Apart from these metaphysical basics, all men share specific material or emotional/psychological necessities:


11. Food

12. Water

13. Shelter

14. Clothing

15. Companionship

16. Love and affection


Perhaps other categories pertain in which all people are equal. If so, they escape me at the moment. But, with the noted exceptions, human beings could not be more different, or more unequal. Examples follow.


Physical characteristics:


1. Height

2. Weight

3. Strength

4. Speed

5. Stamina

6. Beauty


Character traits:


7. Ambition

8. Virtue

9. Work ethic

10. Empathy

11. Charity or kindness

12. Self-discipline

13. Temperament


Others:


14. Intelligence Quotient (I.Q.)

15. Learned skills

16. Spiritual or temporal gifts or talents

17. Eternal destination


These just off the top of my head. One could wax eloquent all the live-long day listing ways in which people differ from each other by a wide margin. But where is the equality in that?

Genuine equality exists within a narrow corridor. Beyond this limited scope, humans vary as much -- if not more -- than dog breeds.

Here are some questions for reflection:

Is a man of an 85 I.Q. the intellectual equal of a man with an I.Q. of 105?

Is a man who bench presses one hundred pounds with difficulty the pectoral equal of a man who bench presses two hundred pounds with ease?

Are men and women equals in physical traits?

Is a fat white guy the equal of an East African Olympian at long-distance running?

Is a man who works two jobs, saves money, and never lives beyond his means economically equal to a man who is unemployed, lets money burn a hole in his pocket, and is up to his eyeballs in debt?

Is someone with a scalding-hot temper the temperamental equal to someone who is relaxed and patient?

The answers are obvious to any thinking person. Here's one more:

Is a man who rejects Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior the spiritual equal of a man who bows the knee and says, "Thy will be done."?

Again, the answer is self-evident to anyone who knows what the Bible teaches.

Most people group themselves under one of two headings: those who spurn the concept of equality in its entirety, and those who embrace the idea of equality in its multifaceted totality. My contention is that both views are incorrect. In actuality, the truth lies somewhere between these two polar extremes: yes, in some regards, people are equal; and in others, they are as unequal as Rembrandt and an individual whose artistic labors never rise above the level of stick figures.

Observation of this demonstrable truth is not bigotry, and willful blindness to it is not true tolerance.

Hallelujah! Christ arose!

⁶ Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

⁷ But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

⁸ And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. -- Philippians 2:6-8


*****


⁹ For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. -- 2 Corinthians 8:9


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⁶ And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. -- Mark 16:6


*****



Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!


Happy Easter, my friends.

Happy New Year

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man. --Benjamin Franklin

Merry Christmas

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. -- Isaiah 9:6-7


*****


He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 

He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. -- John 1:10-14

REPOST: The Legacy of September 11, 2001

This is a post from September 11, 2011. It sums up my position very well, so I have little else to say on the matter, at this time. May the victims of that terrible day rest in peace, and may their families and friends find the peace that passes all understanding from Jesus Christ.


*****


Begin with a man in slacks and a button-up shirt with a collar plummeting through the air -- a man who began his day in an office at a desk, and ended his day and his span on Earth hurtling toward the ground in a ten-second fall at one hundred twenty-five miles per hour. Seek out the photographs online. Look at those still shots of terror taken moments before death swooped in and took its victims away. Yes, viewing such grim reminders is a painful, depressing task, but a necessary one for understanding what September 11, 2001 meant. For approximately three thousand people, that day meant death -- and not a quiet, dignified passing at a ripe old age, in a bed surrounded by family and loved ones; but a noisy, confusing cut-off filled with dread, overshadowed by a backdrop of fire and smoke and raining debris. A proper perspective on the tenth anniversary of the September 11 atrocities begins and ends with a human being plunging into eternity.

Paeans to multiculturalism and platitudes about strength through diversity cannot erase this indelible image. No matter what those who rule over us say -- I dare not suggest that they govern -- multiculturalism and diversity were the unreasoning juggernauts that brought the victims low.

It saddens me to say that we are no better off today, ten {twelve} years later, then we were on that day in September when Musim jihadists struck in Pennsylvania, at the Pentagon, and brought the World Trade Center towers crumbling into rubble. Indeed, the situation is worse than ever.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, it is said that Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto said, in effect, that "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." Subsequent events proved him correct. The American people retaliated, declaring war on Japan and defeating the nation in a long, bitter conflict.

Fast-forward to 2001. The evil acts committed in New York City and elsewhere roused the "Sleeping Giant" once again; but this time, the giant's handlers steered its ire in the wrong direction, and dissipated its resolve in fruitless democracy-building projects and assaults on people who had nothing to do with the attacks, while leaving our worst enemies in peace. All the while, people in positions of power assured America's citizenry that the problem was not Islam or Muslims or jihad, but rather "extremism," "terrorism," and the "hijacking" of religion for nefarious purposes. Islam was a religion of peace and goodness and light, and its followers were not that different from Americans. And so after going on an unfocused tear like a drunken sailor on shore leave, the giant settled back down into placidity and sleep.

Today, the "Sleeping Giant" is in a coma. It is an artificially induced coma, brought about by people with motivations as lofty and honorable as those of the man who drags a young woman off the street and chloroforms her into oblivion in the backseat of his car. It is a state of lassitude born in the honied lullabyes of a liar.

Since 2001, the powers-that-be have subjected the U.S. to a daily regimen of pablum regarding the identity of our enemy. We're in a "War on Terror," as if a tactic is an enemy. Listening to the mouthings of liberals and neo-cons like Obama and Bush and their cronies, one would think that the terrorists have no ideology, no over-arching philosophical worldview. They just exercise terror and mayhem for the sheer joy that terror and mayhem bring. They believe nothing. Religion is a tool in their hands, used cynically in the art of destruction. It means nothing to them on a metaphysical level.

Here is a partial post-September 11 list of policies, statements, and positions taken or made by our "leaders":

-- George W. Bush promoted unfettered immigration from the Third World, upping the ante in his second term by supporting amnesty, while lying about his intentions. He did not support true immigration reform, which would entail changes for the better to our chaotic system. He also refused to construct and complete a border security fence of any lasting significance.

-- The Bush Administration launched a war against Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with the atrocities on September 11, 2001. The administration also invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban. After initial victories, Bush initiated democracy projects in both countries, losing far more soldiers in these endeavors than in the earlier fighting. Ten {twelve} years after the attacks, American troops remain stationed in both nations, in deteriorating conditions. The Iraqi Christian community is under seige, and our Afghani "allies" regularly betray U.S. soldiers and even murder them. Both countries have sharia-based Constitutions.

-- Bush and Obama spent years telling the American people that Pakistan was an ally in the "War on Terror." When the U.S. discovered Osama bin Laden's location, he was living in a compound in the middle of a major city in Pakistan, just down the street from the Pakistan Military Academy, Pakistan's version of Westpoint.

-- In a speech in Cairo, Obama made the statement that "I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear."

-- Our military -- the finest in the world -- has become infested with welfare cases, thugs, and foreigners.

-- Obama went on record in 2007, saying that the Muslim call to prayer is "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset." That same year, Obama recited from memory a portion of the Muslim call to prayer and profession of faith in perfect Arabic in an interview with Nicholas Kristof. Here are the words:


Allah is Most Great. Allah is Most Great.
Allah is Most Great. Allah is Most Great.
I bear witness that there is none worthy of being worshipped except Allah.
I bear witness that there is none worthy of being worshipped except Allah.
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah.
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah.
Come to prayer. Come to prayer.
Come to Success. Come to Success.
Allah is Most Great. Allah is Most Great.
There is none worthy of being worshipped except Allah.


The Islamic call to prayer sounds just like something a Christian would recite in an interview, doesn't it?

-- The U.S. government continues allowing Muslim immigrants into our land and even rewards them with citizenship. The number of Muslim immigrants to the U.S. increased after 2001.

-- The Bush and Obama administrations have enacted security measures that make Americans less free than they were before 2001, such as warrantless wiretapping, and intrusive TSA procedures in airports. The federal government's practical policy is that no indignity or inconvenience endured by American citizens is too great, if such intrusions succeed in protecting Muslims from "discrimination" -- i.e., minimal observance and recognition of their threat potential.

-- Muslims continue building mosques across the U.S., backed by virulent Saudi Wahabbism and funding. These mosques serve as bastions of the Dar-al-Islam in the midst of the Dar-al-Harb (Islamic outposts in a sea of infidels). Evangelical Muslims preach hate from their sanctuaries, spreading Islam within the U.S. -- even in the Bible-belt.

-- Cordoba House, an Islamic development group named after a Muslim victory over the Spaniards, plans to construct a lavish mosque at ground-zero in New York City -- with the blessings of the mayor, most of the mainstream media, and the president.

-- Muslims continue serving as prison chaplains, despite using their positions as proselytization platforms for fundamentalist Islam.

-- Muslims continue as members of our military, despite strong evidence that their religious beliefs pose conflicts of interest.

-- A Muslim soldier murdered fourteen people at Ft. Hood, Texas, and wounded thirty-one. He shouted "Allahu Akbar!" just before opening fire. In the aftermath, Chief of Staff of the United States Army George W. Casey, Jr had this bit of enlightenment for America: "I'm concerned that this increased speculation could cause a backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers ... Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse."

-- Between 2002 and 2010, Muslims or Muslim sympathizers committed twenty-five other small-scale acts of terrorism or honor killings in the U.S.

-- Muslims in America demand the installation of footbaths for ritual washing in airports, demand that butchers and restaurants prepare food according to Islamic dictates, and call for the institution of sharia. Prior to 2001, such clamoring happened at a much lower level, if at all.

-- The mainstream media has embraced Islamic agitation groups with ties to terrorism and happily indulges their self-mischaracterizations as groups that want peace and interreligious harmony. An example of this media whitewashing is the front-group, CAIR.

-- The U.S. military burns Holy Bibles sent by Americans to Afghanistan, while teaching soldiers to revere the Koran.

-- The mainstream media and most politicians refuse to admit that Islam is a warlike religion chiefly spread by the sword, that this state of being has existed for 1,400 years, and that the violence endemic to the religion may be found in its founder's actions and Islam's "holiest" writings. They also ignore the important fact that one of Islam's tenets, taqiyyah, is a concept that endorses Muslims lying to non-Muslims, if the purpose of their lies is the enlargement of Islam. Deception is a built-in facet of Islam.

I'll stop right there. I easily could write three or four lengthy posts, perhaps even a book, listing the asinine attitudes, utterances, and policies of our leadership post-2001. My readers may feel free to add to this list in the comments section, if they wish.

In summation, I do not believe that we're better off, now. I do not believe that we're more secure, or stronger. It pains me to say that the three thousand people murdered on September 11, 2001 died in vain. And every American who has died a Muslim-related death since then also has died in vain. We did not take this lemon of a scenario and make lemonade. We did not erect a golden monument to liberty out of the ashes of 2001. We did not find lasting unity, greater resolve, or more clarity of purpose in the wake of those deaths. And an unsung victim of that woeful day was the Truth -- only the jihadists did not slam jets into the Truth. They did not kill it or tuck it away, because the presidential administrations and the Congress and media did that for them. They have spent every single day doing it for them, renewing the lies and distortions and wishful thinking. The Truth fell under friendly fire, as it were.

Happy Independence Day

Never have I felt less enthusiastic about celebrating the Fourth of July. After all, talk of liberty and the explosions of fireworks ring hollow in a nation where the federal government spies on the citizenry without probable cause or warrant; where congressmen elected to represent the people's interests champion mass immigration of unassimilable aliens, without concerns for quality or quantity; where the legislative and executive branches spend and borrow with a kind of flagrant disregard for fiscal responsibility that would land each of us in prison, if we were to put into practice on an individual level what the government does at the national level; where all three branches of government buy into the co-opted, phony civil rights rhetoric utilized by homosexuals in their crusade to unite in unholy "matrimony;" where the Powers That Be treat average citizens who uphold the traditional American outlook like bigots and Nazis and even terrorists, while ignoring or praising the demonstrable harm done by those societal wrecking balls who hate everything traditional about the culture and heritage of the United States; and where bloodthirsty monsters murder over a million unborn children in abortuaries each year.

This is where we are as a country, and this is where I am as an American whose ancestry on this continent goes back generations.

I am not saying that there is nothing left of the old America, the true America. What I am saying is that a great, bat-winged shadow is sweeping across the land, blocking out the light and suffocating us under an evil pall. When I was younger, I never thought I'd live to see the demise of what I considered our sweet land of liberty; but she is falling into decay and ruin as I type these words, like a man succumbing to some dreadful wasting disease.

The only answer or hope for us is revival -- revival that leads us as individuals and a nation back into the ways and the spirit of Jesus Christ. That is where a real and lasting future lies.

So the question arises: will our Lord allow another Great Awakening to come to pass, as He did in the 18th and 19th centuries, or has America lapsed into that final sleep, that coma preceding death?

I don't know the answer.

What I do know is that there is a remnant, as there always is in times such as these -- a remnant who give glory and honor to our God, as in olden days -- who fall on their faces at His feet and weep for joy, instead of spurning Him. If America is to become more than a footnote, more than a pile of ashes in the dust-bin of history with all of the other debris of Time, it is that remnant who will make her so. All of this means reclaiming our God and our heritage, and remembering whence we came.

So this year, I celebrate not what America is, but what she was, and what she can be, again, with God as our polestar, shining a light unto our path.

And to those of you who recognize the worth of our past, and still call upon the name of the Lord who blessed us when we were His as a nation -- to you I say, "God bless you," and raise a glass.

This Is What Apostasy Looks Like

 

National Cathedral Rings Bells to Cheer Gay Marriage

Hallelujah, Christ Arose!

⁴⁵ Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

⁴⁶ And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:

⁴⁷ And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

⁴⁸ And ye are witnesses of these things. -- Luke 24: 45-48


*****


In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

² And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

³ His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:

⁴ And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.

⁵ And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

⁶ He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

⁷ And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. -- Matthew 28:1-7


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³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

⁴ To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

⁵ Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. -- 1 Peter 1:3-5

Lawrence Auster, R.I.P. (1949 - 2013)

It is with great sorrow that I must announce the passing of Lawrence Auster, of View from the Right. I consider his tireless defense of Christian, traditional America as nothing less than heroic. Few have made greater inroads into explaining the failures and successes of the United States of America, past and present. Words cannot describe how much we needed his voice. Words cannot describe how much he will be missed.

I am thankful that his sufferings are ended. I am also grateful to report that I made amends with him, after a nasty butting of heads a few years ago; no bad blood remained between us.

Most of all, I am thrilled that he embraced Jesus Christ as his Savior. We know where he is, tonight, and it is a better place, by far, than this one.

I thought that he had more time, and I believe that he thought so, as well. I intended to write to him and let him know just how much his efforts defending our civilization from the destroyers within and without meant to me, but I ran out of time and never fulfilled that intention. He was in worse shape than I realized, though I knew his condition was dire. If there's one thing that I've learned from my failure, it is that one should not procrastinate over what needs to be said, regarding someone who is terminally ill. Say what you have to say, today. Right now. Don't put it off until tomorrow, for there may not be a tomorrow on this Earth for that person. The Lord does not promise us another day on this globe anyway, even for the healthy and robust. How much more tenuous is that foothold for someone with a terrible illness?

I know that I will never forget Lawrence Auster -- for though we never met in person, I considered him a friend.

Rest in peace, Larry, and may you delight in the presence of our God and King, Jesus Christ.


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