Tag Archives: faith

Just a Little Speculation

Posted in Christian values, Uncategorized by

We are cautioned about speculation. If it isn’t in the Bible, we shouldn’t try to answer the question. So, we are left hanging without answers. I certainly don’t have the answers. The fact is, I don’t even have all the questions. Nonetheless, lets look at a few questions and some facts associated them.

Perhaps the two most asked questions are interrelated. Why did God permits someone like Hitler to live while he He permits the death of some innocent two or three year old? You might want to remember, Hitler and all those like him were at one time innocent one-year-olds.

Yeah. That one causes me confusion too. I have seen many wonderful men die in the prime of their life. On the other hand, I have seen some survive well into old age that should have never survived their teens. We are given something of a peek into this. The king of the Jews was going to die and God told him he would. The king pointed out all the good that he did and asked to live a little while longer. God granted his prayer and he lived longer. During this time, in his pride the king showed the treasures of silver and gold to the king of Babylon. God’s judgment was that Judah would be captured by Babylon.

The Bible makes it reasonably clear that if the king had died when he was originally going to die, he would have not shown the treasures to the king of Babylon and Judah would not have had the judgment pronounced on them.

Sometimes, people are taken early to keep them from doing something bad. Don’t jump to conclusions. I am not saying if someone dies early, he or she was going to do something bad. If God always took people early before they did bad things, Hitler would not have ever started WW II. God would have taken him 6 or 7 years earlier. The irony, several attempts were made to kill Hitler and failed.

However, let’s speculate what might have happened if God caused the death of Hitler, perhaps right after WW I? Hitler would have never started WW II and the world would have been far better off, or at least that is the way it appears. That is only speculation and we need to be careful about speculating.

However, we can look at a fact. If Hitler died 20 years earlier, he would have been thought of as, perhaps a good man. Then they would have wondered why God permitted the death of such a good man. If I might, sometimes the difference between a man being good or bad is a matter of time, perhaps just a few years.

It can happen the other way. Paul, in the Bible, was a murderer. He coordinated the murders of many Christians to the point that the Christians were very much afraid of him. Then, Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus and we benefited with one of the great writers of the Bible.

God knew He did not want to kill Paul for his sin. He had plans for him. If you had asked the Christians of the time, they would have likely wanted to say God made really bad mistake.

I don’t know why God takes those he takes early. I don’t know why he allows others to live into old age. There are many that I wish God had let them live. My mother died at 49. Three of my brothers died while in their early forties. Two died of brain cancer. Certainly, why cancer. I don’t have a clue. I don’t even have a speculation.

If it had been my decision, they would have lived much longer.

About ten or twelve years after we moved in here, a couple moved in next door. They seemed the ideal young couple. They had a baby that appeared to be walking in a month or so. One day I heard some yelling and screaming out front. I went out and looked and the woman was in the street yelling. Her baby died, a crib death.

Do I go to her and tell her that God had a good reason to take him? The question is ludicrous. So much, I wished I could say or do something to comfort her. I just stood there helpless. Anything I did or said would just make things worse.

A short time later, the couple moved out. I hated to see that but I could understand. She was asking why? and she was finding no answer. I didn’t see the man much, but I’m sure he was hurting too.

Invariably, people go to preachers thinking they can say the right things. They can’t. I was five when my mother died and the only thing I heard from everyone was, I’m so sorry. I really wished they would stop it. It just made it worse.

The thing about death is that it doesn’t just hurt the dying, but the living too.

It makes me wonder. If Hitler had died as a two or three year old, do you suppose his mother would have understood it was for the good of the world?

I don’t think I answered any questions. Maybe I raised some new ones. These two things I do know though. The only thing we can take with us to heaven is our children. It would be a good idea to make sure they know they are saved. By the way, it would be a good idea to know you are saved too. How horrible would it be for them to go to heaven and find out their mother or father isn’t there.

Sometimes, There Are Real Benefits to Surrendering

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Strange as it might seem, sometimes defeat has its advantages. Consider Nazi Germany’s defeat. While for the short time, Germany suffered badly after WWII, it was not long before they benefited greatly. The German nation is now a great nation and the people greatly benefited from their loss. Naturally, this is even more so since it was reunified. As a side note, the east side ruled under did not truly benefit until it shook the shackles of evil communism.

If Japan had won its battle in WWII, it would be far worse today. It is only after their surrender that they began enjoying the life of liberty and freedom.

North Korea did not surrender and look where they are now.

By now, isn’t it obvious that when the nations remain under communism suffer until they surrender to us capitalists. So why is that that people in this very country try to bring us under communism. I will answer in one word, power.

Indeed, it is not truly communism they want but a dictatorship and they are not shy about the loss of life to get there. Communism is simply the carrot they dangle in front of us in hopes we don’t see the deceit and distractions.

So, after looking at the past, doesn’t it become obvious about the future. If HAMUS were to surrender to Israel, don’t you think it would be better for Gaza to have peace for a change. Will not be better than living in world of physical shambles. All they need do is put down their guns and surrender. In less than a year, the people would be far better off. They would wonder why they ever listened to those who gain their power from lies and the deaths of others. However, instead, they prefer to fight. Why? Is it truly because they hate Jews?

Partly. However, if you take the time to really study it and look at the real leaders, they seek power and they don’t care how many Palestinians suffer or die paying for it. Take away the chances of gaining power, the desire to fight would quickly go away.

Thinking back over it, there is one more place where surrender is greatly to our benefit. We as humans have a natural adversarial tendency with God. It is only when we surrender and make him Lord over our lives that we are truly free. Until then, we are enslaved to sin and Satan.

Again, it is about power. The question is, do we let Satan or God rule over us? When we Surrender to to God, we win and Satan loses.

Let’s not permit evil to rule over us, neither physically under tyrants nor spiritually under Satan.

It Would Seem God Is Inconvenient

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And so it is that when a person wants to do this, or he wants to do that, he is hindered from doing it because God does not want him to do that. “It seems God keeps me from doing what I like to do.”

I suppose that it sounds ridiculous, maybe a little sacrilegious. And yet most have had such thoughts. I heard a pastor say it a little different way. He was talking about how hard it is to make decisions. He said that it is easy to know what the right decision is. It’s doing it that is so difficult.

You think, I know this is right, but I really, really want to do that. It is inconvenient to tell this truth to my best friend, but…. The teen says “I really would like to go to that big party. That new girl in town will be there, but I don’t think God wants me to go there. There will be drinking and maybe drugs. And now I might not ever get to meet that girl.”

There was a certain dem, a liar, that produced a movie, “The Inconvenient Truth.” The hitch, history has proven that he lied. It was a prophecy that never came true. He said that Florida would be covered by the ocean. He said that most of Washington DC would be under water. It would appear that the inconvenient truth was really a big lie that made a bundle, not only for the producer of the movie but also for many of his cohorts.

Now if he had been a real Christian man, he might have had to think about producing that movie. He would have wanted to produce “The Inconvenient Truth,” but he’d have known it to be a lie from the beginning. God would have been an inconvenience to his desire to make the movie. Then again, knowing it was wrong, maybe as a Christian, it does make me wonder if the man had some incredible way of justifying it. Maybe, when he went to confession, he told the priest, “Well, how was I to know. I thought it was going to rain, a lot.”

The fact is, there are many others who would have us believe the lie of the going green outfit. They are able to make money from it. They are able to gain power from it. However, to borrow the title of the movie, There is an inconvenient truth. It’s all part of a big lie. And, by the way, here is another inconvenient truth. There is a God. We all shall one day meet him face to face. Those who love the lie will realize they got it wrong. Those who love the abortions, will realize, they were on the wrong side of that idea. Those who love to call good evil and evil good, will realize they really got that wrong. Moreover, they will have eternity to think about it all.

Blaise Pascal’s Wager

Posted in Christian values, Religion, Uncategorized by

Among other things, Pascal has lent his name to perhaps the best high level programming language ever. I have become pretty good at it, which is easy. It is so similar to English that it is easy to pick up in an afternoon.

Moreover, it is very modular. I can write a module for one program and use it with any other program it is useful for. It sort of means I don’t have to keep re-inventing the wheel every time I write a program. Another benefit is that the programs can be very easy to read and or modify. That becomes important when modifications need to be made 3 or 4 years later, after the guy who wrote it has moved out of the state.

If I had to say it lacked one thing, it is an interface to audio, especially text-to-speech and speech-to-text. That aspect of it did cause me a little frustration. It would have been nice to write programs that would be able respond to voice commands and or provide audio alerts.

I am sure there are such interfaces that are available for a price. Given I am living on Social Security, I figured I’d not have the asking price. Still, it would have been nice to make a spreadsheet that would not require a mouse or keyboard.

Actually, I started this post completely on a rabbit trail. I didn’t get off on one. What I wanted to write about is something called Pascal’s Wager.

First, a short word about Pascal. He was a mathematician and theologian who lived during the 1600s. Also, he was a pretty a confirmed Catholic, and pretty much believed that Catholicism was the one true way to God, which is one of the things he and I would have disagreed with, should we speak face-to-face.

Nonetheless, he did come up with an interesting concept, which is called Pascal’s Wager. Hopefully, at the least will cause the atheist to reconsider his position a little. It is a very long article and it is worth a person’s time to take a look at it. However, I will attempt to give you the short version with some of my own personal views.

Let’s consider the flip of a coin. When it comes down, it will either land on heads or tails. I have heard of cases where they come down on their edge but let’s ignore that. Before the coin is flipped, we have three choices, heads, tails or no choice at all. We have the option of not participating.

Let’s change the rules. You must participate. We have just taken that choice away from you. You must chose heads or tails. If you are right, you live forever. If you’re wrong you die, though maybe not immediately.

Such is the way it is in real life, with a few variations. The Christian has chosen the one way. By choice or by default, the atheist has chosen, no God. The choices are exclusive. At least one of the choices has to be wrong. If there is no God, the Christian is wrong. If there is a God, the atheist must be wrong.

So, it would appear we are looking at the proverbial coin toss, right. Wrong. According to Blaise Pascal, the Christian has the least to lose. He will have given up smoking drinking and wild women. He might even lose that fortune that he gave to that church. Then look at all the time and work he provided for the church. Nonetheless, it is finite. The losses are tolerable.

On the other hand, if the atheist is wrong, he will lose everything, throughout infinity. There would be no do overs, no Mulligans. Invariably, there would be pleas for a second chance but there would be none. The punishment for not accepting Jesus doesn’t last just a lifetime, but forever.

So, that is the thumb-nail sketch of Pascal’s wager, based loosely on the toss of a coin. I’m just trying to get you to think about it. We are talking eternity here, not just flip of a coin. As I’ve said many times. I cannot ever make the decision for anyone. All I can present is the truth. Everyone must make their own choice.

I’d like to add just one more little thing. Maybe Bill Cosby has fallen from the graces of most, but he did say something that is very likely true, though it is not exactly biblical. The Bible does say that when Jesus returns, every eye will see Him and every knee shall bow. (Philippians 2:10)

Bill Cosby said there ain’t no such thing as an atheist. On my copy of the routine, he repeated it 4 or 5 times, each time more emphatically. Then, finally he said, “The difference between the Christian and the so-called atheist is that the atheist will be the first ones on their knees when Jesus returns.”

I think maybe Mr. Cosby is right.

Difficult as it is to Believe

Posted in Abuse of Power, Being woke, Biden, Cancel Culture, Christian values, Communism, Crazy Nuts, Education by

Harvard and Yale have their early roots in Christianity. Just goes to show what can happen when you permit Satan to take control little bits at a time.

I suspect many of the universities have Christian origins. You will find little trace of it today. Government influences have seen to it that residuals have been removed, oddly using the 1st amendment. Christian colleges cannot accept federal funds, including for research.