Manasseh And Ephraim Made First Alphabet Says Ph.d. — Douglas Petrovich, who has a Ph.d from the University of Toronto in Syro-Palestinian archaeology and is the author ofThe World’s Oldest Alphabet, had a fascinating interview, May 27, with Eric Metaxas concerning his discoveries.
The secular consensus is that the oldest alphabet is Semitic. Petrovich says, however, that the Hebrew was the language that used it first rather than Phoenician which is the traditional title holder.
Petrovich also says he has demonstrated conclusively that the Israelites sojourned in Egypt as described in Genesis which is something secularists insist never happened
Science Says Adam, Eve Existed — Chalk one up for William Jennings Bryan and Biblical literalists. DNA researchers are saying humanity descends from a single couple who lived about 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.
OK, you can take a half-point off the board for the literalists on that.
What’s also notable is that the research shows nine out of 10 other species studied also shows descent from a single pair from about the same time.
Mass Shootings Thoughts and Prayers — The wishing of “thoughts and prayers” after mass shootings is being mocked in some circles as simplistic to the point of being meaningless.
We have come to agree.
In fact, we think it as simplistic, meaningless and ineffective to wish “thoughts and prayers” as it is to blame access to guns for the tragedies as is done in the same knee-jerk fashion by those who mock the wishing of “thoughts and prayers.”
In the 1980s, most states made it difficult for a private citizen to carry a hand gun. Gun rights activist made it an issue and today it is relatively easy to do so. The murder rate has been halved and sometimes in dramatic fashion.
This is what the activists predicted while their opponents loudly claimed things would get much worse.
So now we have the issue of mass shootings which have become a several-times a year occurrence.
Those who desire to disarm the sane and law-abiding cynically use them to advance their political cause.
We, however, think it is far more about culture than it is about having access to immaterial objects.
We have written several times about how school shootings started after abortion was declared a right. Correlation is not causation but correlations are something worth pointing out, and this correlation makes sense.
Teach that it is up to the individual to determine whether a human life exists, and, well, who is to judge if an individual chooses in a way other than you would?
How about the manner in which our society addresses the most important philosophical question: Why are we here?
We teach our young that our existence is but due to a mere sequence of random events. Our courts, in fact, forbid teaching that we are designed, despite the quite reasonable inference of it being so.
Imagine someone being on a moral fence and being inculcated by society that he is but an accident of nature and he should “do as thy will”. Now, imagine that someone being inculcated that he was created to love his neighbor. Which message is most likely to send him to the good side of the fence?
We grant that even the right cultural message isn’t going to completely solve the problem. Limiting access to guns (and knives and cars) for those with objective psychological problems is important. Maybe this requires bringing back mental institutions.
Still, the Vegas and synagogue murderers would have passed the filter for sanity. The wise realize that perfect safety is a chimera, and that is why the sane and law-abiding need access to guns.
The NFL, until recently, was a tax-exempt, non-profit, which had been shrouded in controversy regarding corporate tax breaks and secrecy about its inner financial working. Often regarded as an organization that promotes fame and fortune, while objectifying women, the NFL has been steeped in controversy among those who worship its very existence.
Millionaire NFL players nationwide used their fame to seek self-aggrandizing attention by kneeling, sitting and fist-raising rather than standing and respecting our American flag and National Anthem. Declining ratings and viewership by American citizens boycotting the NFL caused the horizon to appear bleak for the NFL as empty seats and poor merchandise sales reflected the annoyance felt by most NFL fans.
When out of the dark, a beacon of hope emerged in the unlikeliest of teams – The Philadelphia Eagles! “This little light of mine, I’m gonna’ let it shine,”a childhood song learned by millions of American children in religious schools or Sunday school captures the essence of today’s Philadelphia Eagles!
Courageous, proud, and bold, Philadelphia Eagles players have used their fame as a platform to express their very personal and strong faith as Christians in a time when the Main Stream Media and Hollywood elite shun the very mention of Christianity. Who would have thought that their faith would be on public display exemplifying timeless themes of the weak vs. the strong? David vs. Goliath?
Team unity and faith amongst a core group of Philadelphia Eagles players appears to be the motivation that propelled the team to NFL history, as underdogs, capturing a 2018 Super Bowl victory, 41-33 against the New England Patriots!
From Carson Wentz’s vow to play for an “Audience of One” to Marcus Johnson getting baptized in a swimming pool with Eagles’ teammates witnessing his ceremony in a Charlotte, NC hotel, the Eagles are not shy about professing their faith. Carson Wentz, Zach Ertz, Stefan Wisniewski, Trey Burton, Jordan Hicks and Nick Foles appeared to be in attendance at the hotel pool baptism and Christian re-birth.
Historically, the Philadelphia Eagles have boldly stood for Christ. In 1977, running back, Herb Lusk, became the first NFL player to kneel in prayer in the endzone following a touchdown. A few years later, Lusk felt a calling to become a pastor on Broad Street in North Philly.
In 1985, notable Philadelphia Eagle, Reggie White, voted by ESPN as the greatest player in Eagles’ franchise history, led Bible studies and Evangelical Christian ministries for the Eagles and the Philadelphia area.
Tim Tebow, 2015, became known for his humility and outspoken faith for the Philadelphia Eagles when he prayed in the endzone wearing John 3:16 under the black marks protecting his eyes.
I had the honor of meeting Tim Tebow’s Mom at the White House at a Pro-Life event in January, 2018. Referring to God’s guidance multiple times, Tim Tebow’s mom was an inspiration to me to continue to nurture my own children in following the narrow and sometimes unpopular path, laden with obstacles and challenges, towards Christ.
The Super Bowl LII MVP, Nick Foles, has recently announced his plans to become a pastor to high school students following his NFL career. “Unbelievable. All glory to God,” Foles said during the Super Bowl trophy presentation and MVP ceremony.
I believe this is NOT happenstance, nor coincidence but instead, divine PROVIDENCE. God’s providence is visible over our lives when we least realize it or least expect it.
Whether a football fan, Eagles fan or simply an observer of the celebrations in Philly this week, it’s hard not to smile in wonder and amazement at the strength of these young men who follow God’s calling rather than seek fame and fortune’s all too frequent rewards of “sex & drugs & rock and roll!”
Thank you for being American heroes. We all respect you. Especially our youth!
If you need a break from the polarized news and are searching for some mercy in your life,pick up a copy of Anne Lamott’s latest collection of essays “Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy” (Riverhead Books, 192 pages, $20). This book shows us there is a quieter world, one that is full of wonder, appreciation and generosity. Life is not about getting and achieving more.
Ms. Lamott, who teaches Sunday School at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in California, questions if she even recognizes mercy anymore, “the divine and human; the messy, crippled, transforming, heartbreaking, lovely, devastating presence of mercy.” She believes she, and our world, are starving to death for it.
“Mercy is radical kindness. Mercy means offering or being offered aid in desperate straits. Mercy is not deserved. It involves absolving the unabsolvable, forgiving the unforgivable. Mercy brings us to the miracle of apology, given and accepted, to unashamed humility when we have erred or forgotten. Charge it to our heads and not our hearts, as the elders in black church have long said.”
The title of the book is derived from Candi Staton’s gospel song “Hallelujah Anyway.” In spite of our problems, personal or political, the lyrics say “you get down on your knees and pray . . . Praise Him till your situation turns around. You gotta lift up your voice and say: Hallelujah Anyway!”
As in Ms. Lamott’s nine other works of nonfiction, she is vulnerable, makes you laugh out loud and want to sit down and have a cup of coffee with her. What I learned, once again, from this easy read is lack of grace and mercy starts with me. When I do the inside work of being softer with myself, then I don’t have to “condemn others for being total sh__s, although they may be that. (Okay: are).”
Ms. Rainey is a resident of Middletown Township in Delaware County, Pa.
God Proved By Computer Program — There is a certain type that insists science requires a disbelief in God.
One thing about which we have become certain is that God has a great sense of humor.
Kurt Gödel was an Austrian mathematician and a good friend of Albert Einstein, who like Einstein fled Nazi Europe for New Jersey and became Americans. Einstein always thought that Gödel was the brains of the duo.
Gödel developed a logic-based proof of God’s existence over the course of decades.
Since 2013, computer scientists Christoph Benzmüller of Berlin’s Free University and Bruno Woltzenlogel Paleo of the Technical University in Vienna have been addressing Gödel’s proof with software.
Take a moment to laugh — or tremble if you should have an account with BoA — then realize that there is a strand of logic here.
It is inevitable that everyone will be driving this, or not.
Nature follows laws and this makes science possible. It is impossible, however, to account for these laws by nature alone. Even truth itself can’t be found from a recipe.
Obviously, there is something beyond nature. Musk and the BoA analysts appear to be staring at the red pill pondering whether to take it.
We encourage them. They will not find the Matrix though. The reality that awaits is not Agent Smith but God.
Tipping Point Summit –Former Pennsylvania State Rep. Sam Rohrer will be among those speaking Saturday, Sept. 10, at the Tipping Point Summit at Grace Fellowship of York, 1405 Seven Valleys Road, York, Pa. 17408. The event runs 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and can also be viewed online.
His topic will be “The Reality of Persecution and How We Can Prepare.”
The summit is engage pastors, church leaders, elders, deacons, and all believers who want to make a difference for decades to come, with critical issues in our country in advance of the November election.
God Miracles Millennials — Pew Research Center, last year, found that “religious nones”, which they describe as a shorthand for atheists and agnostics, make up about 23 percent of American adults, which is seven percent higher than in 2007.
Among the major reasons cited for disbelief are “learning about evolution when I went away to college”, “lack of any sort of scientific or specific evidence for a creator”, and “I’m a scientist now, and I don’t believe in miracles.”
This is ironic. Francis Bacon, generally considered to be the father of the scientific method, sneered at atheism.
“God never wrought miracle to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it,” he wrote in 1612 in his essayOf Atheism. “It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.”
In his essay, he called atheists hypocrites which they are when they deny their belief to be a faith. Ask one how everything came about and what the purpose of existence is, and then ask him to prove it via the scientific method.
He will inevitably change the subject.
And not to get into a dispute about the flaws and virtues of the Theory of Evolution but those who hold it as a certainty upon which to base one’s value system are not practicing science.
All the scientific method can do is explain consistencies in nature. It cannot reveal the great truths and to believe that it can is, again, by definition anti-science.
As to the reason for the recent increase in atheism, Bacon hits it on the nose in his 400-year-old work. He cites scandals by priests; the scoffing holy things “which doth by little and little deface the reverence of religion”; and peace and prosperity.
The last point is a little counter-intuitive but when one has a soft life and death seems far away and fear is not a common experience, then the old rules don’t seem to make much sense.
Until one realizes that death is not as far away as one thought and one has to account for the choices one has made.
Quick quiz Ms. Attorney General: What’s more “violent”, drawing this or trying to kill the person who did?
Quran Hate Speech. Obama’s Attorney General Loretta Lynch responded to the Dec. 2 Islam-inspired slaughter in San Bernardino, Ca. by making a pledge the very next day to a Muslim lobbying group that she would prosecute anyone who used “anti-Muslim” rhetoric.
“When we talk about the First Amendment we make it clear that actions predicated on violent talk are not American. They are not who we are, they are not what we do, and they will be prosecuted. My message not just to the Muslim community but to all Americans is: we cannot give in to the fear that these backlashes are really based on.”
Violent talk not American? Well, she may have a point. Pamela Geller brilliantly produced some very striking examples of violent talk found in the Quran which can be found here and are reproduced below. This talk is certainly unAmerican in our view.
Will Lynch prosecute? LOL.
And slay them wherever you come upon them, and expel them from where they expelled you; persecution is more grievous than slaying. But fight them not by the Holy Mosque until they should fight you there; then, if they fight you, slay them — such is the recompense of unbelievers, but if they give over, surely Allah is All-forgiving, All-compassionate. Fight them, till there is no persecution and the religion is Allah’s; then if they give over, there shall be no enmity save for evildoers. (Quran 2:191-193)
Men are the managers of the affairs of women for that Allah has preferred in bounty one of them over another, and for that they have expended of their property. Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for Allah’s guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them. (Quran 4:34)
They wish that you should disbelieve as they disbelieve, and then you would be equal; therefore take not to yourselves friends of them, until they emigrate in the way of Allah; then, if they turn their backs, take them, and slay them wherever you find them; take not to yourselves any one of them as friend or helper. (Quran 4:89)
This is the recompense of those who fight against Allah and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth, to do corruption there: they shall be slaughtered, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall alternately be struck off; or they shall be banished from the land. That is a degradation for them in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement. (Quran 5:33)
When thy Lord was revealing to the angels, ˜I am with you; so confirm the believers. I shall cast into the unbelievers’ hearts terror; so smite above the necks, and smite every finger of them! (Quran 8:12)
Make ready for them whatever force and strings of horses you can, to strike terror in the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others besides them that you know not; Allah knows them. And whatsoever you expend in the way of Allah shall be repaid you in full; you will not be wronged. (Quran 8:60)
Then, when the sacred months are drawn away, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then let them go their way; Allah is All-forgiving, All-compassionate. (Quran 9:5)
Fight those who believe not in Allah and the Last Day and do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden — such men as practise not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book — until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled. (Quran 9:29)
Allah has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions against the gift of Paradise; they fight in the way of Allah; they kill, and are killed; that is a promise binding upon Allah in the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Koran; and who fulfils his covenant truer than Allah? So rejoice in the bargain you have made with Him; that is the mighty triumph. (Quran 9:111)
O believers, fight the unbelievers who are near to you; and let them find in you a harshness; and know that Allah is with the godfearing. (Quran 9:123)
When you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks, then, when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds; then set them free, either by grace or ransom, till the war lays down its loads. So it shall be; and if Allah had willed, He would have avenged Himself upon them; but that He may try some of you by means of others. And those who are slain in the way of Allah, He will not send their works astray. (Quran 47:4)
