Author Archives: bfrhodes99

Into Captivity

Posted in Israelites, Little known info, Religion by

In my last post, I discussed the origin of the Israelites and I suggested the reading of a few books of the Holy Bible to verify my post.  Indeed, I would hope you would read them, especially those who have not read them before in their entirety.

The first five books of the Bible and the book of Joshua explain the origin of the Israelites.  The books of Joshua, Kings and Chronicles explain the history as they lived in the Promised Land.

To be sure, in this post I want to concentrate on the events leading up to their going into captivity.  However, before I do this, I need to call one thing to your attention.

Shortly after the Israelites crossed over into the Promised Land, the book of Joshua records a very important event.  God called for the Israelites to chose Whom they would serve.  God called them to a pair of mountains and call out the blessings that they would receive for following God.  He also required them to call out the curses for not following God.  They had a choice and they chose to follow God.

God promised that, even if Israel strayed, if they would repent and follow the Lord, he would heal their land and bless them.  However, he told them that if they did not repent, that, among other things, He would scatter them throughout the world.

If we read Judges, and I wish you would, you will see several cases where they disobeyed God and worshiped idols.  In some respects, they were worse than those who were in the land before them.  Some of the events I find disgusting and I think most everyone would.

Yet, every time, they repented, God forgave them and He healed land and His people prospered.

It was God’s desire that Israel would be an example to the world.  He wanted us to know what will happen when a nation follows the Lord.  Unfortunately, they were often an example of a nation that did not follow the Lord.  Repeatedly He punished them and they repented.

When the nation was split into two kingdoms, the northern kingdom, Israel followed foreign gods.  Even though God frequently chastised them, it was only a matter of the degree of disobedience.  Finally, as God warned, he sent them into captivity.  The Assyrians came down and overthrew Israel and took many of them off into captivity.

Unlike Israel, Judah went through periods of obedience and periods of disobedience.  This was mostly recorded in the history of the kings of Judah.  When they had a good king, he would destroy the idols and made the people follow God.  When they had a bad king, he allowed idol worship, even to the point that he too would worship the idols.

Whenever God would chastise them, they turned from their wicked ways and He would heal their land and the people prospered.  In general, my own observation is that they could not stand the prosperity.  As they prospered, they turned from God and claimed their success was by their own hands…. Or worse, by the hand of idols.

These oscillations continued over the decades until, finally, Judah refused to repent.  When God chastised them, the people wrote it off as coincidence.  (Rather as we do today)

So God gave up on them.  He sent a prophet, Jeremiah.  Today, he is known as the weeping prophet because he was given an impossible task.  He was told to try to get the people to repent but God knew they would not and He told Jeremiah from the beginning that he would not succeed.  (I know I sort of repeated myself, but it was something worth repeating.)

Jeremiah wrote 2 books, the one bearing his name and Lamentations.  Parenthetically, lamentation means an expression of extreme grief or sorrow.  God let Jeremiah know some of what was going to happen to Judah and it caused him great sorrow.

God caused the kingdom of Babylon to rise up and attack Judah.  Through Jeremiah, He told them not to defend the city of Jerusalem.  He told them to give up.  The decision was already made and the best thing they could do was accept it.

Instead, they kept fighting to the point that they fulfilled the prophecies that they would eat their own babies and drink their own urine to survive during the siege.

Finally, about 100 years after the fall of Israel, Judah fell.

…BUT it didn’t stop there.

Another nation rose up, Persia and captured both Babylon and Assyria.  I guess God planned it that way.  Now, both Israel and Judah were under the authority of one king.

…and so it was that the entire nation of was again under one authority.  However, not all of Israel was in Persia.  Some remained in the Promised Land, those who were not taken away.  Some went south, many into Egypt.  To some degree, they were already scattered as God foretold back in the Book of Joshua.

After 70 years of captivity, fulfilling prophecy, the Israelis were allowed to return home.  In the Scriptures, the numbers returning was recorded accurately by tribe.  However, there is no recording of how many remained in Persia.  There is no way of telling where they went or how many remain to this day in Iran.

One of God’s unconditional promises was that He would greatly multiply the seed of Abraham and He did.  It is very likely that the number of Israelites doubled, tripled or greater while captive.  Many Israelites can continue to trace their history back through time.  Others have tried to hide their history.  They find it safer.

Also, during their captivity, there was some intermarriage.  The Book of Ester explicitly records the marriage of one Israeli woman to the King of Persia.  At this point the scattering of God’s people is well under way, but it has only begun.

In my next post, I will bring us up to date.  There is no way I, or anyone can completely follow where all the Israelites have gone, but I find it interesting that God, Himself, calls them Jews, all of them.  So, from this point on, so will I.  Even though Paul called himself a Jew, he was from the tribe of Benjamin.  (I don’t try to explain it.  I just take note of it.)

Who Are the Jews?

Posted in Religion, Uncategorized by

Much has been said about Jews.  However, it has become my experience that few really know anything about them.  Much of what has been said or written or said about them is either outright not true or partially false.  Moreover, the term Jew and Israelite are mistakenly used interchangeably.

Also, there charlatans, so called preachers who claim that there are millions of Jews, chosen ones, who are unaware of their blessings.

With this three part series, I intend to address both.  I will use nothing more than the Holy Scriptures that plainly address both matters.  It is all plain for all to see if they will just take the time to read it.

I base this part on the books Genesis, Joshua, I&II kings and I&II Chronicles.  You are welcome to read it for yourself.  There is nothing difficult about it.  It just takes a little time and, if you do read it, you might want to take notes.  Who knows?  You just might learn something besides what I write.  I won’t mind.  Really.

 

Prior to the great flood recorded in the Holy Bible, Noah had three sons.  Their names were Ham, Shem and Japheth.  One of the descendants of Shem was Abram, later renamed Abraham.  Abraham had 8 sons, one by Hagar and 6 by Keturah.  Isaac was his only son by Sarah and was the one who was promised by God.

To be sure, God’s promise to be the father of many nations was completely fulfilled through all the sons.  I would suspect, even a learned man of ancient history could go nuts trying to figure all the nations descended from these 8 men.

However, Isaac was the son of promise.  It was through him that God made two unconditional promises.  Isaac had two sons, twins.  One was called Jacob and the other Esau.  Later, the promises were passed on through Jacob, later renamed Israel.  Israel had 12 sons who later became known as Israelites.  Sometimes, they were known as Hebrews.

One of the sons of Israel was Judah, the father of the tribe of Judah, the Jews.  Hence, we can truly say that not all Israelites are Jews; but all Jews are Israelites.  Today, many Israelites are called Jews who are not, though they are truly Israelites.

This is not totally incorrect though.  Oddly, even God collectively calls them Jews after their return from captivity.  Don’t ask me to explain this.  I don’t know.

At any rate, they are one nation, twelve tribes as they enter the Promised Land.  As a side note, the tribe of Levi is separated out and the tribe of Joseph was split into two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh.  So, though there are still twelve tribes, though the Levites are not counted among them.  Every time God commands a census, the Levites are counted separately.  Mostly, when the tribes are listed, the Levites are not included.  They are the priestly tribe and are treated differently.

Two and ½ tribes remained on the east side of the Jordan.  At first, they remained part of the nation of Israel but gradually, they drifted away.

Also, because of the sins of Solomon, the remaining tribes on the west side of the Jordan split.  Judah, AKA the southern nation consisted primarily of the Jews, but also included Levites and some Benjaminites.  The northern nation became known as Israel.

And so things were until the captivities.  To keep this from being too long, I will cover the captivities in my next post.  By the way, the captivity is what led to all the confusion.

Cable TV

Posted in Cable TV by

I discovered something interesting about my cable service (AT&T U-Verse) a couple of weeks ago.  There is a way I can hide undesired channels.  So, I started hiding channels.  Suddenly, my channel surfing has become much faster.

One of the first things I eliminated were those home shopping channels, or anything that was nothing but commercials.  I find it difficult to believe but I have been told that there are folks that watch these channels almost continually.  I guess if they want to, I have no problems with it, but I see no reason to give them any notice at all.  Paying for advertisements sort of irks me.

Then, the other day, the power converter for my DVR went out.  Well, actually, I guess it is AT&T’s.  They are just letting me use it for a fee.  I tried to get in contact with AT&T and the first thing they wanted was my password.

So…, I got on the net and checked with Amazon.  Guess what?  They had a converter just like it for about 7 and a half dollars.  Now, a few days later, I have my DVR back and I didn’t have to deal with AT&T’s no service; and I didn’t need a password.

Between the previous 2 events, I am beginning to have second thoughts about cable, any cable.  There are only 5 TV shows I watch on a regular basis and I can get them with an antenna.  I do like to watch FOX news, but I can get that over the Internet.  I do like watching the Hallmark channel from time to time.  The biggest advantage with that channel is that they are generally careful about the ads they put on.  It would appear that even that is eroding.  They kicked off one ad and you’d think they just started the beginning of the end of the world.

Really, the only reason I got the cable in the first place was for my wife.  Here lately, she hardly watches TV much at all.  I think she watches it about 4 or 5 hours a month.  I may just call them up and tell them to discontinue it, that is, if I can remember my password.

My suspicions are that, if I had it pulled, I wouldn’t miss it.  Not only that, I would save over $150 dollars a month.  I know some people consider cable a necessity, but I believe they are just selling us a bill of goods.  Out all those hundreds of channels there’s not a dozen that have any worth.

Epson 2760

Posted in Computers, Elections, Obama, The Squad, Uncategorized by

Purchased one of the Epson that claim a year’s ink comes with it about a week ago.  I bought the ET-2760 because it was on special at Best buy.  The next one up was $150 more.  Considering that I am living off Social Security nowadays, I decided on the less costly one, though the more expensive one advertised two sided printing.

Guess what?  The ET-2700 has 2 sided printing and it is easier to use than the laser printer I was using.  Oddly, I was confused as to why they don’t mention that in the advertising or on the box…as near as I could tell.  Maybe I missed it.

The install…via USB port went picture perfect.  The only hitch was that I had to fish the ink bottles back out of the trash.  It seems that ink needs to be installed twice, once after the basic install.  No big deal.  Just thought I’d mention it in case any of you want to buy one.

I also have a second computer, my laptop, printing to the printer through the desktop system via my network.  Though the install did not go as well, it is due to Windows, not the printer software.

The printer, the scanner and the copy functions work easily.  There is a one-button color copy function.  I guess just about anyone can do that.  I suppose it gets more complex for more complex functions, such as two sided copying.  I don’t yet know if it does that.

As near as I can tell, the only thing I gave up by buying the less expensive printer is that it does not have a page feeder for the scanner, copy source function.  That is a function I would very rarely use.

One more note: They cautioned to remove all tie downs that they used in shipping.  Look carefully.  There are a couple that are somewhat hidden.

It isn’t quite as fast as my laser printer, but the ink is less expensive, I hope.  Also, my new printer will print the first page in about the same time as my laser printer warmup time.  Naturally, you can’t beat laser for quality, but this comes pretty close.

As an aside, I do like the idea that I can monitor the ink levels by just looking through the four windows on the front.  I have never seen this advantage anywhere, even in ink jet printers.  Just a glance now and then to determine when it is time to order more ink… or go to the store.

For those interested, they can tell Obama and the squad that it is likely more green.  I don’t have any sound references, but it does seem to me that ink jet printers use less power than laser printers.  Somehow, I don’t think anyone will notice the savings.  I suspect I won’t notice it.

Question For Bernie

Posted in Communism, Dummycrats, Uncategorized by

You think maybe Bernie should have run as a third party in the first place?  Look at all he spent to come in 2nd place and you know the dummycrats aren’t going to let him have the nomination, even if they have to cheat as they did before.  It is the nature of the dummycrats.  Look at all the dead who have been voting in Chicago.  Look at all the illegal aliens they’ve been importing.  They have learned from their dearly departed leader, Karl Marx.  The end justifies the means, regardless.  To them, the only evil is that which impedes their conquest.  Lying, cheating and deceit are there normal way of life.

Looks to me as if the only people really benefiting from this race are those charging for the advertisements.

Another Free Series

Posted in Amazon and Kindles, Free E-books, law enforcement by

March 7, 2020, you will be able to order free the 3 books from Amazon that make up the Mitch Series.  To order them, simply go to my author’s page at :

http://www.amazon.com/author/story_teller

and select those you want.  If, by the way, you should find any others you like, feel free to order them.  There are over 35 to choose from and not one of them a rehash of the other.  You will especially find this series diverse.

The first of the series, “Mitch” is about a private detective who has gone through a traumatic experience and, from time to time has difficulty coping with his past.  The story opens when he is about to violate his third rule, which he made in this effort to cope.

In the second of the series, a friend convinces Mitch to re-enter the world of law enforcement to head up a special task force.  In his efforts, he discovers a particularly sinister plot.  He made the discovery literally based on a thread.

The third one… well, let’s let you find out about that one on your own.  After the finish the first two books, you will certainly want to read the third.  It will likely surprise you.  Maybe not.  You just might figure it out on your own.  Then again, a few readers never figured it out.  For those who don’t figure it out, I enclosed a small explanation at the end of the book.

One more note:  I discovered that some browsers do not work with the above URL.  There are two that I have tried that failed.  I have no idea why.  If it doesn’t work for you, simply log onto Amazon.com and do a author search on Ben Rhodes.  I have done this a number of times and found it effective.  Also you can search on the titles, “Mitch”, “Frequent Flyers” and “Emergency Husband.”  These searches work, but you will likely find more clutter.  Also, if you perform the author search, you will be more likely to find another story or two of mine that will interest you.

Remember, if you are using a Kindle, you can sample all books before ordering them.  Also, you can order a sample of most books free.  In addition, for those that like to listen to books, all my books have text-to-audio enabled.  You might find this nice should you have a long commute to work.  Before I retired, I had an hour commute to work and the drive was made a little more pleasant by listening while I drove.  In a few cases, I sat in my car a few minutes after my arrival, just to keep from interrupting a certain passage.

For those interested, none of my books contain profanity or adult situations.  These books should be fine for anyone in 9th grade or above.  Though there is some violence spoken of, most is indirect and far less than most kids see on TV these days.  I would suspect most 7th or even 6th graders see far more violence on TV regularly.

 

Success

Posted in Build the Wall!, Deceit, Dummycrats, Immigration, Lawyers and Representation, Pelosi, Politcal Opinion, Uncategorized by

Some people work hard for success.

Others, like the dummycrats, destroy others to succeed.  Ever since Mr. Trump became President Trump (and actually a little before) the dummycrats have done what they can to destroy him and his presidency.

In itself, that is bad enough.  The problem is that they have no reservations about also destroying the lives of virtually all who are around him.  At the least, they destroyed the lives of 4 good people, including a 4 star general with an impeccable record.  In addition, they have all but brought the workings of congress to a stop.  That is not right.

Even worse, in their effort to destroy President Trump, they have no qualms with causing harm to our nation and its citizenry.  This is true even to the point that they cheer when the stock market takes a downturn.  …and, this includes the corona virus.

Now tell me, just how dumb is that, to cheer when our country is potentially overrun with a disease that just might cost the lives of, perhaps 3 million.  Some of them just might be your grandparents.  One or two of them might be relatives or friends who have had transplants.  To be sure, anyone who has asthma or COPD is subject to being killed by the virus.

Of course, they don’t care.  They don’t mind if businesses and travel all slow or possibly stop.  They aren’t the ones who will suffer.  They will always have the best of care and they will always have their access to transportation.

I wonder if they have considered what might happen when senators and representatives start showing up on the job wearing masks.  Think of how it might be like when that colleague next to him starts coughing and sneezing.  Will it become a requirement for representatives to be checked for fever before entering either chamber.

Regardless, the fulfillment of their wish might become  their worst nightmare.  Many of those, such as Pelosi are old.  If they are exposed, the best healthcare will do them little good.  There is only so much that even the best doctors and the best medicines can do.

Nonetheless, none of them, unless they become personally threatened by the bug will have any remorse for calling the president a xenophobe for keeping travelers from China out of the US.

 

It is why I call them dummycrats.  It is why I encourage the construction a wall from one coast to the other.  Presidents will come and presidents will go; but the wall will continue doing its job for decades or even centuries.  It is the only thing, which provides some insurance that, when a dummycrat becomes president, he won’t do something really do something dumb, such as open the flood gates.

Caronavirus

Posted in Build the Wall!, Dummycrats, Immigration, Lawyers and Representation, Mayor Pete, Uncategorized by

I’m sure everyone is just waiting on pins and needles to learn what I have to say about caronavirus.  Well, I have observed a thing or two.  I’m sure most of you won’t be surprised by any of them.

First, let’s look at the cold hard facts, as near as we know them.  There are roughly 300 million people in the US.  The virus has a fatality rate of about 2%.  I would suspect that it is quite a bit lower.  It is highly likely that there were many who contracted the disease who never reported it, which would throw off the calculations.  Nonetheless, let’s use the numbers we have.

That means that if everyone in the US caught the disease, roughly 10 million would die.  That would be a disaster.  It would be horrible.  However, our country would survive it.  It would leave 290 million people who would still live within our borders.

I strongly suspect that it will not be anywhere near that bad.  First, the bug kills only the old (that’s me) and those who have breathing problems to begin with.  (That’s me too.  I have COPD.)  Also, those who have compromised immune systems would be susceptible. By isolating such people, our losses would likely be less than a million.

Certainly, President Trump did a brilliant by keeping those who might be carrying the disease out of the country and he also isolated those who he permitted entrance.  Now we currently have 60 known people who were infected.  If our luck holds, it will be a long time before anyone slips into the US without our knowing it.  That gives us time, precious time.  If we can keep the epidemic at bay for about a year, it just might give those doing the research time to develop something to resolve the problem more permanently.

That means, the last thing we want to do, is to allow a swarm of people in the country who who might be carrying the virus.  That sounds like a really good reason to BUILD THE WALL!!  The last thing you want is for someone sneaking across the border and giving it to who knows how many.

That’s not the half of it.

He just might pass the virus to a few of his fellow travelers.  Even if we catch the original one, 5 or 6 of of his traveling companions could completely bypass all the efforts to keep the disease out.  Worse yet, he might have infected hundreds or even thousands.

There are dummycrats who think we should take money away from building the wall to treat those with the virus.  That’s stupid.  If the wall had been built already, it would drastically decrease the chances of anyone sneaking in.  Not only would that be effective against the caronavirus but many other diseases as well.

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think keeping diseased people out of the US is a good thing.

BUILD THE WALL!!

 

Motivate Teachers

Posted in Abuse of Power, Dummycrats, Elections, Important things, Politcal Opinion, President Trump, Unions by

Please permit me to become just a little radical.  Allow me to propose a literacy test before voting.  To be sure, it would be restrictive.  Some people would not be allowed to vote simply because they can’t read or write.

In truth, I don’t really suggest such a thing.  It would be wrong to restrict an American from voting because they can’t read.  That, to be sure, is true no matter what color their skin is.

However, consider the following, if you will.  Probably within a decade, the literacy rate would approach 100%.  The dummycrats would not like the idea of any of their voters being kept from the voting booth.  I have a feeling, given the right prod, the dummycrats would suddenly find a way to encourage the teachers.  Suddenly, all those excuses that they give us for their failures would disappear.

It is no secret that the dummycrats rely heavily on the African-American vote.  Yet, they stand in the way of every attempt for the Republicans to improve the schools.  I have my suspicions for this,; but I’ll let you figure it out for yourself.

The point is this.  We have bad schools and bad teachers because there is a lack of motive to improve them.  If we provide the motive, then the schools will improve…likely overnight.

As I said, I don’t really suggest removing the right to vote for any rightful citizen.  However, wouldn’t it be nice if the people voting would at least be able to read and write at a sixth grade level.  Wouldn’t it be nice if they had at least a basic concept of The Constitution.  Do we really want people voting who have no idea what the constitution is, let alone have a basic idea of the three branches of government.  Wouldn’t it be a good idea if they knew and understood at least the first 10 amendments, also known as The Bill of Rights.

To be sure, there are other problems besides teachers.  However, the teachers have the kids for at least 6 hours a day.  Shouldn’t they be required to do more than babysit?

Many, perhaps most of the teachers have master’s degrees.  Yet they are abject failures.  I have only a high school diploma and, if I were given 30 kids 5 hours a week for nine months, I assure, I would at least have them reading on a 3rd grade level.  Double that time and I they would have a good understanding of The Constitution.  If I can do it, they, with their degrees ought to be able to do it at least as well.

 

One more quick word.  At the beginning of the 1900s, most of our teachers had only 12 years of education.  They actually did a pretty good job.  Some would say better than today’s teachers.  It is the type of thing that happens when the federal government gets involved.  In the old days, the schools were, for the most part, locally controlled financed and controlled.  The schools didn’t have as much money, but what they did have were teachers who taught and students who learned.

Against and For

Posted in Abuse of Power, Uncategorized by

The two questions and answers of the dummycrats:

What are you against?   Trump.

What are you for?          Free everything.

Surely, you don’t want to get everything free from the government.  First, you would think very little of yourself, living off the dole.  Second, the government would have total control over you.  You would become a servant to those who are in charge of the government.

It is the old statement.  Those who will give up liberty for security will have neither.

The truth is that the dummycrats seek control; and those they want to control are you.  In the end, the elite will get the best of the healthcare, the best food and lodgings.  They will tell others what to do.  They will get the cars and planes.  The ones that are controlled, they will get little or nothing.   …but it will be free, if you don’t want to include the taxes that are paid.

It is the pattern throughout history.  There have always been those who seek power and wealth.  It is the reason for wars and it is the reason why politicians take and give bribes.  It is the reason the governments seek exorbitant taxes.  Oddly, it is the reason they encourage gambling.  They know it will provide them with another source of money.  With the money, comes more power.