HOPE Amid the VIOLENCE" Clifford Goldstein,Signs of the Times, Sept.2017.

My many thanks to both Clifford and Signs of the Time magazine. (John B).

    THIS WORLD IS FILLED WITH VIOLENCE AND GROSS IMMORALITY, ALL OF WHICH WAS PREDICTED, LONG AGO, ALONG WITH ITS EVENTUAL DEMISE, CLIFFORD GOLDSTEIN EXPLAINS.....

Note(jb): Yes predicted, and written of, extensively in The Holy Bible, sadly few there be that read it today, let alone study it! Can Y O U dear reader, even imagine, what life would be like on earth, IF ALL lived within the the Ten Commandments?

    F.B.I. agents had been trying to plant bugs in the home of a reputed Mafia boss , with little success. The biggest obstacle were the four ferocious Doberman Pinchers, that roamed the gated  grounds. Eventually, to distract then, the agents would walk up to the fence ,at night and throw the beasts Big Macs from the local McDonald's. Before long, the dogs were eating the burgers right out of the FBI agent's hands, and other agents climbed the fence and planted the listening devices.
    I know not whether the FBI ever solved a crime for their efforts, but what's fascinating about this story is how quickly the animals were acclimated to their environment. The dogs, though trained to attack, through familiarity were literally eating out of the very hands of the very people they were supposedly trained to attack

NOTE(JB): It seems that the best way to a man's heart is via his stomach, but also works with trained attack dogs, right?

    Is it any different with people?
    Not really! Much of the history of the Old Testament is the stories of how the nations of Israel, accustomed  to the practises of the peoples around them, started doing the very same things, eventually reaching the point where they were making child sacrifices: ...
      Jeremiah 19:4-5  "Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:"

THE NEW NORMAL.

Note(jb): Have you heard many a "Leader" express this point of view, of late?  When does a wrong become a right. ever?  Isaiah 5:20-23  "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!  Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!  Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!"

   Whole societies can be warped and corrupted by practises and things that at one time would have horrified them, then, but instead, have become the "New Normal". Things that were once scandalous, that would have caused people to hide themselves i n shame, are now often glorified.
NOTE(JB):P Now they are lifted up, in honor, and celebrated as good! Example Homosexuality, IF . if all people actually practiced this live-style, for one generation, the human race would be extinct!  So how "good or normal" can it be????

    Who would ever have heard of a Paris Hilton, if not for the leaked sex tape, that suddenly made the unknown heiress a household name, with her own T.V. show? A year after a known public figure had been arrested for masturbating in public,[ in a movie theater] he received a standing ovation at a Hollywood ceremony! What's wrong with us?
     Of course, mores and social attitudes can , and have, changed for the better. After all, who will argue that attitudes towards indigenous populations and other races haven't greatly improved over the years? Or that the rights of woman in the Western world haven't changed, and for the better? But, all too often, things get worse, Sure, it was a bit much,100 years ago when Irish author James Joyce feared that a play he wrote was going to be censored because it used the word GARTER in one place. But what's worse, that or a society where sexting by underage kids has become the new normal?
    Yet, those who know the Bible, also know, all this should not come as a surprise,..
   2 Timothy 3:1-5  "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,  Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."

NOTE(JB): "...having a form of godliness..." How many people do Y O U know, who faithfully attend church each Sunday, and yet come home to work in the yard? How is this keeping a day holy? [Exodus 20:8-11 and learn of the Sabbath of the Lord, not of men! That most follow today.]

    Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God? INDEED! Talk about this as being the perfect description of today's human race, in the Western Nations! For ,many within this "New Normal", it is normal to deny the existence of both God and Satan, much less ONE whom we should one day obey, i n love, and in one day, shall answer for our words and deeds! Sadly far too many believe The Satanic lie of evolution, live, die the end! Any wonder suicides are at an all time high? The laughter you hear is Satan's!

VIOLENCE.

Note(JB): Is there really any thing on earth, or under this sun, where humans exceed, that in the "ART" of killing his neighbors? How much progress, or inventions, have been made, in our search for more and more effective ways to conduct the "ART" of war?
    However much we've gotten "Used," to things that we should NOT get used to, we can still be shocked by the violence, the total depravity, the total corruption, and the total exploitation, we see the world over.

NOTE(JB): Look at our own Congress, most are not millionaires upon entry, yet most of them leave as millionaires, some many times over! Yet our "Justice" department does nothing, most of the time, yet they cast us i n prison for less!

However, much we've gotten used to things of evil, we shouldn't get used to them, that we can still be shocked,  by the violence, the depravity, the corruption, and the exploitation we see in the world. Again, it is the Bible that informs us that this also will happen. The Letter that Paul wrote to Timothy were the apostle's take o n humanity, even though this may sound harsh, is it really? Is this not a fit indictment of humans today?
   Romans 3:10-18 " As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes."

NOTE(JB) Mr. Goldstein had space restrictions, that I do not have here.....

     In early 2012, as drug wars were ongoing in Mexico. 45 head-less bodies were dumped in a public place. Nor only had they been beheaded, but also their feet and hands had been cut off, as well. The purpose?  The sending of a strong message to both the authorities and their rivals, "Leave us alone, or you are next"! This is with the totals of 50,000 murdered since 2008, thus this too, is Mexico's "New Normal"!
    In Illinois, a newly wed was found stabbed to death, and left in a bathtub, still in her wedding dress! Yet, sadly, we hear stuff like this almost daily, and if affects us about as much as a normal weather report, we shake our collective heads, and murmur TSK-TSK, and forget all about it! The "NEW NORMAL", right?

   One of the greatest Heroes of World War two, was Winston Churchill, who wrote: "I n the last war {WW1}  the bombing of open cities was regarded as forbidden, now we all do this as a matter of course, thus perhaps we should consider bombing Germany with poison gas, It's simply a question of fashion as she does with long and short dresses for woman!"
   So going from bombing cities to gassing the like the change of fashions? Golly we must not so hope, but mankind has been talking about peace for centuries, and that ALL we do, is talk and talk. Yet even with the so called United Nations {Yes they are united against Israel and the Democracy JB]we still have wars after wars, just as Jesus predicted almost 2,000 years ago. He said:  that near the time of the end...
   Mark 13:8  "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows."
   He never said it would stop before He returned, and it has not!

NOTE(JB): Are Y O U beginning to see, dear reader, that the Bible is as 'tomorrow's newspaper...today'!

Is it not interesting that with the advent of wide-spread use of gun-power, many thought that was would become obsolete, for being far too deadly? Yet now we have both the atom and the Hydrogen bombs, that are millions of times more destructive, than simple gunpowder and bullets. There is however, a far greater battle ongoing, in fact we can legitimately call it the "Great Cosmic Battle for Souls".

THE COSMIC BATTLE:

    The world is in the midst of an epic struggle, a struggle we can call The Cosmic Fight.  The Bible puts it in these words:
     Revelation 12:7-9  "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."

NOTE(JB):  Please know, that Revelation is NOT written in a Chronological order, and personally I teach this passage as part of Genesis the 3rd chapter to show the tie in., that The Father KNEW Satan would succeed, but that He had already had a Savior ready, for mankind's salvation! This fact and many others prove this verse....Isaiah 46:10 " Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:"
   Did you gather the why...why we are living?  "..for His pleasure..." have we given Him any pleasures of late"????

   This battle came to this earth, and it one that every one of is fully engaged in!  We each have a continual struggle, within each of us, as we chose between the good and the evil, between the powers of Darkness and Light, between right and wrong! If our local and national news is any indicator, many of us do not chose to act as God wants us all to do! Unfortunately, far too often the Satan side wins out, in our decision making! Just as Adam did, he chose to rebel, Eve was deceived, Adan was not!
    And though some struggle with a conscience, others don't at all--- that's how bad things are. Take the late Edward von Kloberg III, one of  Washington, D.C. more infamous lobbyists. No one was too despicable for him to work for, providing the pay sufficed. From Saddam Hussein to Nicolae Ceausescu the former strong man of the Communist party leader of Romania. This von Kloberg, would of course represent his paymasters interests in D.C.
    In order to expose him a investigative journalist {of whom today there's but a few. JB}who posed as a Neo-Nazi, asked him to represent his organization's cause, to seek the annexation of Poland, for one million dollars, the very action that began WW2. When he von Kloberg, was exposed the only thing he said was  "Shame is for sissies"!

THE NEVER, NORMAL.

  American humorist and author Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was set in the south, during the days of slavery. The main character, Huck Finn, experienced a moral dilemma: To help Jim, a slave, to escape from a woman who had taken him Huck Finn from an abusive home and who had been nothing but kind and generous to him. And now he's repaying the old woman kindness by helping her slave, Jim, to escape?   Talk about the changing of morality, with the times, right?
   So, YES, some moral "Principles" do change and become the "New Normal", right?  BUT some must not ever change, regardless of time or place. Even in this day of all the talk of moral relativism, postmodernism and cultural tolerance, yet what post modern Liberalism isn't going to be appalled by is truly staggering problem of children, both boys and girls, who are sold in slavery and prostitution,as young as ten years of age! One seven year old girl was sold by her Mother to a brothel in Phnom Penh, to work as a sex-slave, where she was imprisoned, {JB after all she was property bought and payed for!] tortured and forced to have sex with ads many as 20 men per day! {JBI ask what kind of sickness does a man have, to pay for sex with a imprisoned 7 year old girl??] This went on for years, until she saw the chance, to escape and she did!
    Yet what kind of Mother, does it take to do this to her own child? [ JB Is it the same mind-set, it takes for a mother to abort her child, even if they call it a collection of cells? Has any woman ever given birth to a litter of pups?]
      The Bible answers with this:  Romans 3:13-17 " Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: "

Note(JB): A sepulchre, is an old term for a hewn in rock grave, that was used in the Holy lands, for the human body to be reduced to dust, that the bones were gathered and place in a stone box for permanent burials. A Asp, is a very poisonous snake, the same type Cleopatra used to kill herself with.

   It has been estimated, that some 12 million victims are currently victims of forced prostitution, world-wide, and the earth's sex slave "Industry" is a 30 Billion a year global business! This is from the United States, State Department's 2009 TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS  report! Estimates do vary but it can be taken that millions of these are children boys and girls as young as seven years old!

HOPE AMID THE MADNESS.

   There's no question that our world is a sick place. And that as per the Bible, it shall stay this way, until Jesus comes, again! Becoming even worse, as  each year passes, until then, as signs of the times we all can learn in Matthew 24, Mark 13 and, Luke 21, but as written of earlier, who reads the Bible today?
   The good news, however, is that from the moment sin appeared, there was a Savior, God's plan was and is always ahead of Satan....
      1 Peter 1:19-20  "But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,"
    And though we're horrified by the terrible state of today's society, which holds that anyone can wake up from their sleep, and decide today I am no longer the the same sex I was yesterday, and somehow the rest
of us must accept this as fact, so we have boys and girls and who knows? California now has laws on its books, that If one uses a wrong pronoun in speaking to another, repeatedly, its a crime! Yet in Oregon, a law no allows free to the woman a abortion for any reason, and it shall be paid for by the tax payers! Is this nation still the "Land of the Free"?  Is where's the "Brave Ones", the silent majority, as the left tail is wagging the dog!
I John B, know not the author of this: "For evil to succeed, takes good people doing nothing"!
So you Mother's out there, if you need to take your daughters to the bathroom, please be not surprised when a man, dressed as a woman enters right after you! Or You Father's taking your son into one, are followed by a woman, who wants to be known as a man!
  One more Point of contention: ALL illnesses today is called a disease, and not a addiction! OK, but who is the person that willingly takes on a disease? Any alcoholic begins with the first drink, or any drug addict begins with the first High, voluntary!

My hope is in these three promises:
      John 14:1-3 " Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."
     Luke 21:26-27 " Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory."
     Philippians 1:6-7  "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:  Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace."

NOTE(JB): I am NOT the man my Father wants me to be, but Thank God, I am no longer the man I used to be, thanks to His Power and love!

All Bible texts are from the King James.

Thanking Y O U for your time.
Want/Need more? Visit your Seventh-day Adventist Church any Saturday/Sabbath at 9-10 AM, and learn that Heaven needs YOU, as it's YOU and you only that can fill your place.

Other sites: servantsite@wordpress.com aftv.org: amazingdiscoverries.org: BLBN.org: redee.international
   itiswrtten.com
jb