Tag: culture

Young Baby Boomers Caught in the Vortex of a Perfect Storm

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Baby Boomers, Family, God's Love, Judeo-Christian Culture5 Comments

The greatest cultural collapse in recorded history was energized by the theory of evolution and accelerated by modern technology. The Baby Boomers, born from 1946 – 1964, were caught in a perfect cultural storm. That storm compromised their soul-deep reality systems intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually, during their most formative coming-of-age years, the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. The resulting cultural drift away from Judeo-Christian tradition created a spiritual vacuum.

Boomers - People of Different Races and Older Age

The Boomer’s deepest yearnings for significance and meaning were unsatisfied or poorly satisfied. Many people attempted to fill their spiritual vacuum by participating in various political movements such as the “protests” of the 1960s and beyond, radical feminism, multiculturalism, and various “rights” movements (abortion, animal, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender). By effectively leveraging the power of mission and vision statements, even the business world learned to evoke significance and meaning in the lives of employees.

The abundance of emerging political movements and advances in business created stiff spiritual competition for the attention of vulnerable Jews and Christians. The results have produced the splintering of the traditional God-created, God-centered family and an increasingly fragmented directionless national culture. The political and cultural power of the Boomers arises from sheer numbers—76 million, greater than any subsequent generation—as well as their high level of activism.

The perfect storm was enabled, in part, because prior to WWII the intellectual skepticism regarding the existence of God and post-modern thinking was limited primarily to a small cadre of campus-cloistered academics. However, their radical thinking was rapidly instilled in the swelling student populations, beginning with the Boomer’s parents who massively used the “G.I. Bill” to finance college educations for post-WWII veterans. After the war, there were substantially more students on university campuses than ever before. Jobs for returning veterans were scarce; pursuing a college education at government expense provided a reasonable alternative.

Evolution was the “excuse” offered by persuasive and demanding professors for questioning or denying the existence of God. Intellectually the theory of evolution produced post-modern thinking contending there is 1) no god, 2) no objective truth, and 3) no overarching universal values that apply to all people. It was not necessary for the Boomer’s parents to be fully compromised; the professors’ arguments merely created doubt, regarding traditional Judeo-Christian values and beliefs—a doubt that slightly loosened child-rearing responsibilities. The “Greatest Generation” was about to unwittingly unleash tectonic cultural changes that would be expressed throughout the lives of the Baby Boomers.

The winds of the same post-modern thinking were gleefully fanned by the media, 1960s activists, the entertainment industry and politicians. Accordingly, generations following the Boomers have been increasingly compromised and their march to maturity largely disabled, because parents cannot teach their children concepts they do not know or understand themselves.

In a recent well-researched book, Diana West observed that America has become a culture of perpetual adolescence. We have replaced anchor-like virtues with slippery values, based on situational ethics. America has become a, “culture that has perpetuated and enshrined immaturity for more than a half century,” and, “…the civilization that forever dodges maturity will never live to a ripe old age.” Mike Males forcefully adds that, “The deterioration in middle-aged adult behavior has driven virtually every major American social problem over the past 25 years.”

Today, the so-called elite and many parents view the universe in strictly physical terms. As such, ordinary thinking is dominated by impersonal practical considerations (utilitarian, logic). Purposeful (spiritual) and principled (emotional) influences have been routinely torpedoed by evolution, science, the media, Hollywood, and many politicians. The results are evidenced by extreme political correctness, escalating cultural chaos, and the movement to “control” thought by defining “hate speech” and “hate crimes,” then rendering both unlawful.

A remedy, offered in future blogs, requires recognizing the role of Judeo-Christian tradition in the development of the greatest country and culture in recorded history, a culture envied the world over for the best quality-of-life and the highest standard-of-living ever achieved, and restore that tradition to prominence. Judge Robert Bork advises that “Religion must be recaptured church by church; and education, university by university; school board by school board.” Over two centuries ago, William Penn maintained, “Those people who are not ruled by God will be governed by tyrants.” Founder John Adams agreed, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion…”

So…What happened to the Baby Boomers? What constituted the perfect storm that collapsed a national culture in such an incredibly short time? That will be the topic of a future blog. Meanwhile, what do YOU think?

Baby Boomers Gave Us the Greatest Cultural Collapse in History!

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn Abortion, American Culture, Baby Boomers, Family, Government, Judeo-Christian Culture, Marriage7 Comments

The widely acclaimed “Greatest Generation,” those that came of age during the 1930s and 1940s are often and rightfully praised for the sacrifices they made throughout the Great Depression and World War II, their firmly held values, and the quiet unobtrusive way they conducted their post-WWII lives.

However, the subsequent Baby Boom Generation (born between 1946 and 1964) emerged as the most selfish, self-indulgent, self-absorbed, irresponsible generation in the history of America and exhibited the greatest example of generational groupthink in history. The following account is not intended to point a finger or condemn an entire generation, but rather to provoke thoughtful consideration and meaningful discussion.

baby_boomers_and_drug_abuse

The Baby Boomers presided over the fastest and greatest cultural collapse in history. It was the Baby Boomers who gave us:

  • Woodstock
  • Much of the chaos of the 1960s
  • Replacement of love with lust
  • Abandonment of personal responsibility
  • An erosion of fundamental values
  • Explosion of abortions
  • Skyrocketing divorce rates
  • Splintering of the family
  • Alternative lifestyles that undermine and devalue the family
  • Widespread “dumping” of children into day care centers
  • Children to be raised by strangers
  • Large-scale shuffling of parents or other inconvenient loved ones perceived as less than whole to adult day care centers or nursing homes
  • Substantial concentrations of politicians and journalists of low character
  • People in Hollywood and on television who used their God-given creative talents to tear people down, rather than build them up
  • Multiculturalism that creates barriers to communications and relationships
  • Deterioration of the school systems
  • Removal of morality and religion and from public discourse
  • Separation of rights from responsibilities, exhibited by pushing the Bill of Rights to absurd extremes that ultimately lead to anarchy
  • Extreme political correctness, which stifles communication and the growth of meaningful relationships
  • By far, the greatest national debt in history imposing a bone-crushing burden on our children and grandchildren
  • Over-zealous government regulations that invade virtually every area of life
  • A malignant national government that makes god-like decisions, ranging from life/death to a limitless array of minutiae

God says, “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.” [Proverbs 22:6 KJV] Whose responsibility is it to “train up a child”? Day care centers and the schools cannot do it; at best, they are geared to educating the intellect. The churches cannot do it in only a few hours per week. Only the parents can do it!

Yet, many of the Baby Boomers effectively abandoned their single most important responsibility, raising godly children. Instead, the Boomers turned their children over to strangers to be raised. In the Boomers’ view, their personal desires trumped the needs of their children.

The Baby Boomers’ careers, recreational, and other self-interests trumped everything. Do not mess with the Boomers or disrupt their golf game, tennis match, hunting trip, fishing trip, career plans or anything else that they want. In addition, their sheer numbers enable them to demand and get virtually anything they want when they want it. Of course, there are exceptions. There are a minority of Boomers who determined early in life that they would live their lives according to God’s purpose and plan. God always has a remnant. [Romans 9:27 KJV]

The Baby Boomers notable successes are mainly intellectual and include people like Bill Gates and other high technology leaders. However, the magnetically powerful effect of the intellectual achievements has all too often crowded out the emotional and spiritual influences that give life its richness as intended by the Creator. Despite the enormous importance and usefulness of high technology it has had the unfortunate and perhaps unintended consequence of progressively isolating individuals.

A walk down virtually any street, through any mall, or through any airport quickly reveals that nearly everyone is plugged into some electronic device and therefore unavailable for even casual conversation much less thoughtful engagement. The Bible says that, “I come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly” [John 10:10 KJV].

The abundant life lies in the richness of interpersonal relationships, beginning with the family. God seldom rewards the accumulation of “stuff,” but always rewards relationships when they are given a selfless priority. Yet, the “gift” of technology has all too often become a barrier to communications and the growth of interpersonal relationships. Indeed, the Boomer-spawned culture continues the relentless pursuit of stuff at the expense of relationships.

What do YOU think?

Do YOU Really Think God Will Overlook the American Holocaust of Unborn Children?

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn Abortion, American Culture, Family, God's Love, Homemaker, Judeo-Christian Culture, Love, Marriage, Science10 Comments

Do YOU really think God will overlook the American Holocaust of unborn children? Consider the historical precedents.

American Civil War

On Saturday, March 4, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Address just a few weeks before his assassination. It’s the one with the famous line near the end, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right…” let us repair the physical, emotional, and spiritual damage of the Civil War. The brief, but profound speech is inscribed on the wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

The Civil War was by far the bloodiest of all American Wars. More blood was shed and lives lost during the Civil War than all other wars involving Americans put together. Why? Lincoln provided an answer in the lines preceding the famous one:

Both [sides] read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invoked His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” [Matthew 18:7 KJV]

If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.

Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequired toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash (slavery) shall be paid by another drawn with the sword (war), as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” (parentheses added)

Such is the “woe” (price) Americans apparently paid of the “offense” of slavery. Now, let’s fast forward to World War II.

Holocaust of World War II

We are accustomed to viewing World War II from the perspective of the Americans and Allied Forces. However, Anita Dittman provided another profound perspective in her just published book, Trapped in Hitler’s Hell: A Young Jewish Girl Discovers the Messiah’s faithfulness in the Midst of the Holocaust. Anita’s faith sustained her throughout the most horrifying times the human mind can possibly conjure. The book is her story.

Her comments near the end of the book highlight the enormous price Germany paid for the holocaust of the Jews:

Germany was a massive, burned-out crater by the end of the war. Three million of her soldiers died, and another million shivered in the prisons of Siberia (presumably dying there as well). More than half a million civilians perished in the air raids over Germany.

The Nazis did their best to exterminate the entire Jewish race. In so doing, the Germans lost nearly as many of their own citizens, in addition to massive material losses. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” [Matthew 18:7 KJV] Although the Germans paid an astronomical price for their “woe,” there is yet another one in our time.

Holocaust of America’s Unborn Children

Беременность

Since the U.S. Supreme Court rendered the infamous 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, there has been a holocaust of nearly 58,000,000 unborn children. “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones…it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” [Matthew 18:6 KJV] Each individual childbirth is widely proclaimed to be a miracle from God. Can we reasonably expect God to keep His word with respect to the woe of slavery and the woe of the Jewish holocaust, yet look the other way regarding the modern woe (holocaust) of His miracle unborn children?

In a recent South Korean TV drama, a young girl discovers she’s pregnant following a single intimate encounter. She tells the father she’ll go to the hospital and have it “taken care of.” Neither liked the idea of abortion, but in the tense moments of the conversation, it seemed to be the only way to deal with the situation. The next morning, the father awakens to a note indicating that the mother was on the way to the hospital. The father rushes into the doctor’s office during a preliminary ultrasound. The father is told that the rhythmic sound emerging from a speaker is the baby’s heartbeat.

After a few anxious moments, both mother and father sign the consent form and the father walks to a waiting room. As he sits down, an immediate expression of anguish spreads across his face. He’s soon sweating bullets. When the tension exceeds his coping ability, he charges down the hospital hall faster than a 100-yard dasher, bursting into the operating room, screaming, “Stop!”

Moments later, the father and still-pregnant mother leave the hospital relieved to have avoided the abortion. The chuckling doctor turns to the nurse saying, “The heartbeat gets’em every time. Nine out of ten of them can’t go through with it after hearing the baby’s heartbeat.” The heart begins beating a mere 18 days after conception. Of course, life begins with God’s miracle at the moment of conception.

It’s fascinating that the Korean doctor’s do everything possible to discourage abortion. In contrast, the doctors in the American money-machine abortion mills do everything possible to encourage abortion. However, it’s not a matter of encouraging or discouraging abortion. The woe of the modern American holocaust of unborn children must be banned altogether.

Anita Dittman further charged that:

Many pastors and churches sold out to the Nazis or else turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the suffering of Europe’s incarcerated. Satan worked himself into the very heart of the church in Germany and caused many church people—pastors and layman alike—to rationalize and compromise with the Nazis. A hear-no-evil, see-no-evil mentality swept the country with regard to her treatment of the Jews and other “undesirables.”

Today, it appears that many pastors and laymen are similarly turning a deaf hear to the holocaust of abortions. A compromise with evolution-rooted humanism, pressured by the beguiling notion of so called political correctness, is a compromise with Satan. How many Germans suffered severely just because they looked the other way. Do you really think that Americans can get away with “looking the other way?” What do YOU think?

“Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” [Matthew 18:7 KJV] “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones…it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” [Matthew 18:6 KJV]

The Family is Rock Solid!

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Education, Family, Freedom, God's Love, Homemaker, Judeo-Christian Culture, Love7 Comments

The family is rock solid. Don’t miss out! The traditional family is one of the most awesome, breathtaking, and vitally important of all of God’s magnificent creations! Here’s why:

happy family in front of house outdoors

  • God’s plan stabilizes and provides coherence to the family.
  • The stabilized family builds stability and coherence into the national culture.
  • A stable culture assures continuity of values across future generations.
  • God’s plan facilitates the growth of the God-ordained marriage partnership and family.
  • Married people are happier.
  • Married people are healthier.
  • Family is life’s boot camp for children, instilling virtues and guiding growth.
  • True family-centered families—as opposed to career-centered family arrangements reduce crime.
  • True family-centered families—as opposed to career-centered family arrangements reduce drug abuse.
  • A loving family experience facilitates interpersonal relationships outside the family, enhancing the richness of career, hobby, volunteer, and recreational experiences.
  • God’s plan enables family members to practice humility, forgiveness, mercy, longsuffering, and a servant’s spirit in a loving, nonthreatening environment.
  • The positive character embedded in family members—parents and children—is carried to the outside community throughout life.
  • Family members learn to overcome pride by serving other family members
  • The family is an incubator for building God-ordained intellectual, emotional, and spiritual views and values (character development).
  • The family aligned with God’s plan ultimately leaves the greatest of all possible legacies.
  • The family aligned with God’s plan is the married couple’s gift back to God.
  • The family aligned with God’s plan inspires frequent, comfortable, and nonthreatening opportunities for faith sharing.

The driving passion for the family visualized in God’s plan is the aggregate of:

  1. Gratitude for the Lord’s personally expressed infinite love.
  2. Desire to express that gratitude by serving Him and others as a way of life.
  3. Desire to be a conduit of His love to succeeding generations by embedding His love and character in the next generation’s children.

Anything that erodes family culture absolutely and irretrievably undermines national culture, at first weakening it and ultimately annihilating it. No culture has ever survived the breakdown of the family. Ours won’t either. It’s up to YOU to save America and the family. What do you think?

Evolution Blows Away Like a House of Cards in a Hurricane!

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Education, Freedom, God's Love, Judeo-Christian Culture, Love2 Comments

Darwin knew a living cell as only a blob of green protoplasm. However, in recent decades since the discovery of DNA, knowledge of cell structure has exploded at an exponential pace. A cell is like a micro-city. It has power plants (mitochondria), manufacturing plants (ribosomes), a central library or database (DNA), an “Interstate” highway system (microtubules), a distribution center (Golgi Complex), a fleet of trucks (vesicles), and provisions for water and wastewater treatment. Your body has 50-100 trillion of these micro-cities.

Hand holding Earth

Each of your cells houses a DNA database that contains at least 3 gigabytes of information (think Encyclopedia Britannica) coded in a language that uses a four-letter alphabet (nitrogen bases). Each of 100,000 different proteins in the body is itself a massive molecule created from a language using a twenty-letter alphabet (amino acids). Proteins contain from 50 to 36,000 amino acids in a precisely programmed sequence. A single cell contains about 9,000 of these amazingly complex molecules in addition to the DNA.

To manufacture just one protein, the information coded in a very specific DNA location must be transcribed (like old-fashioned short hand) from coded information to information in a useful form (RNA). The information in the more useful form must be translated from a 4-letter alphabet language into different 20-letter alphabet language, similar to translating English into Chinese. Only then can the actual manufacture of the protein begin.

Even the DNA of a single-celled bacterium contains an amount of coded information in the megabyte range. Remember when computers had a memory measured in megabytes? We were amazed at even those computer capabilities at the time.

Did all this arise by time and chance alone? No way! Absolutely not! Simply imagining astronomical amounts of time cannot come anywhere close to explaining the creation of life.

Today, Charles Darwin would likely doubt, if not repudiate, his own theory. Toward the end of his life, he observed:

I was a young man with unformed ideas. I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering all the time over everything; and to my astonishment the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion of them. Charles Darwin

Praise God from whom ALL things flow!

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Family, God's Love, Homemaker, Judeo-Christian Culture, Love5 Comments

“Mothers constitute the only universal agent of civilization. Nature has placed in her hands both infancy and youth. The vital interest of America hang largely upon the influence of mothers.” T.W. Shannon

Dad and Mom Are Superheroes

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Family, God's Love, Homemaker, Judeo-Christian Culture, Love4 Comments

Both the Old and New Testaments summarize the Ten Commandments into just two. “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” [Matthew 22:37-40; Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18 NIV] Both commandments represent ultimate love characterized by extreme giving. The first is a vertical love of God; the second is a horizontal love of others.

Consider how those two commandments uniquely apply to marriage. Scripture explains the marriage relationship:

Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear (reverence, awe) of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. [Ephesians 5:21-28 KJV (emphasis added)]

A husband must give himself for his family so they may become as perfect and blameless as is humanly possible. In essence, the husband and wife are mutual givers, but there is more, much more.

The earthly marriage is a representation of an eternal relationship with God. The Lord is illustrated scripturally as the bridegroom coming for his bride, the worldwide body of believers. “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him (Messiah) glory! For the wedding of the Lamb (Y’shua; Jesus) has come, and his bride has made herself ready…blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb…These are the true words of God.” [Revelation 19:7&9 NIV] The Bible further clarifies that the apostle John, “saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” [Revelation 21:2 KJV]

Scripturally, the order of the universe is that the Lord is the bridegroom and the body of believers is the bride. Of course, in any earthly marriage the man is the bridegroom and the bride is the beautiful woman spectacularly dressed in a white wedding gown walking down the aisle to meet her man. But in a larger sense, the bride is not just the woman at the ceremony, the bride is the woman and by extension the children she later produces, often referred to as the fruit of her womb. The husband is required to love the wholeness of his bride, i.e. the wholeness of his family, even as the Messiah also loved the church, to the point of the husband’s own death if necessary.

Fallows magnificently explains, “The husband is the ‘house band,’ the earthly giver of life, uniting the divine with the human in the supreme function of fatherhood.” The wife is ‘the weaver,’ shaping and coloring in the prenatal and postnatal influences of sacred motherhood the destinies of her offspring.” “As the “earthly giver of life, uniting the divine with the human,” the husband/father becomes the role model for “the first and greatest commandment” to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

As the “weaver,” the wife/mother is the connection between the past and future generations of her family, but also the past and future generations of the culture. She is the role model for the second summary commandment to ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Shannon clarifies,

Mothers constitute the only universal agent of civilization. Nature has placed in her hands both infancy and youth. The vital interest of America hang largely upon the influence of mothers.” The queen that sits upon the throne of home, crowned and sceptered as none other ever can be, is—mother. Her enthronement is complete, her reign unrivaled, and the moral issues of her empire are eternal. “Her children rise up, and call her blessed.” Rebellious at times, as the subjects of her government may be, she rules them with marvelous patience, winning tenderness and undying love. She so presents and exemplifies divine truth, that it reproduces itself in the happiest development of childhood—character and life…An ounce of mother is worth more than a pound of clergy.

The complementary responsibilities of the husband/father and the wife/mother are awesome and readily illustrated by The Cross of Family Life, which of course resembles the iconic ancient cross used for crucifixion. Although the old Roman cross was a notorious instrument of extreme torture and ultimate sacrifice, for Christians it is also a symbol of incomparable love. The Lord’s amazing self-sacrifice was an expression of his infinite love for all mankind for all time. Similarly, The Cross of Family Life is a representation of the parents’ many daily sacrifices as an expression of their love. As an expression of God’s infinite love, Dad and Mom routinely set aside their own desires as an expression of love for each other, the children, and the larger culture.

Marriage Cross

Sadly, far too many dads in modern America fail to carry out their God-assigned, high- priority, family responsibilities, either due to a lack of holistic understanding, the powerful lure of excessive materialism or both. Far too many moms fall short by not being there and available for raising the children. Together, such parents effectively sacrifice their children on the altar of the false god of materialism. However, when Dad and Mom lovingly and enthusiastically bear The Cross of Family Life, the results can be deeply heartwarming and sometimes even breathtaking. When they do not, the results can range from troublesome to tragic.

Some time ago, I devoted seven years to meeting virtually all the needs and providing around-the-clock care for my terminally ill late wife. She endured a neurodegenerative condition similar to Alzheimer’s disease. After her passing, a well-wisher said. “You really sacrificed a lot during those years.” I thanked her and replied that it did not seem like I sacrificed anything. Providing total care was more important than anything else I could have been doing during that time. It was a monumentally life-changing experience that has had long-term impacts on me and those around me and will continue to do so far into the future.

Together, fueled by God’s infinite supply of love, Dad and Mom become virtual super heroes, an incredibly awesome team stabilizing God’s brilliantly designed family and the national culture as a whole. A child forms a vertical relationship with God, primarily, though not exclusively, through the role model of the father; a child forms horizontal relationships with others within and beyond the family primarily, though not exclusively, through the role model of the mother. The complementary combination produces godly character in the child. The actions of role modeling build character in the parents. The character of every family member extends outward to the community and the nation.

That is God’s grand design for Dad and Mom. What incredible superheroes!

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Family, God's Love, Judeo-Christian Culture, LoveLeave a comment

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. [and] …love your neighbor as yourself.

Deuteronomy 6:5 & Leviticus 19:18/Matthew 22:37 & 39/Mark 12:30 & 31 NIV

Biblical and Evolutionary Worldviews Cannot Coexist

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Entertainment, Freedom, God's Love, Government, Judeo-Christian CultureLeave a comment

Evolution, also known as scientific naturalism, is a faith system that underlies secular humanism. According to The Humanist Manifesto 2000, “The unique message of humanism on the current world scene is its commitment to scientific naturalism.” In 1961, the Unites States Supreme Court declared, “Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God are…Secular Humanism, and others.” MacArthur observes that,

Religion is exactly the right word to describe naturalism. The entire philosophy is built on a faith-based premise. Its basic presupposition—a rejection of everything supernatural—requires a giant leap of faith…The notion that natural evolutionary processes can account for the origin of all living species has never been and never will be established as fact. Nor is it “scientific” in any true sense of the word. Science deals with what can be observed and reproduced by experimentation. The origin of life can neither be observed nor reproduced in any laboratory. By definition, then, true science can give us no knowledge whatsoever about where we came from or how we got here. Belief in evolutionary theory is a matter of sheer faith. And dogmatic belief in any naturalistic theory is not more “scientific” than any other kind of religious faith.

Even Charles Darwin remarked, “I was a young man with unformed ideas…to my astonishment the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion of them.” A century later, Whittaker Chambers added, “Humanism is not new. It is, in fact, man’s second oldest faith. It’s promise was whispered in the first days of the Creation under the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: “Ye shall be as gods.”

Consider the practical implications of the two opposing worldviews expressed in Figure. The dichotomy of the two worldviews is clear. The evolution dominated worldview isolates the individual as a temporary, purposeless, and insignificant fragment of the universe dedicated to self-centered survival, a self-indulgent life and promotion of self-interests. It is a view that evokes all the characteristics on the left side of the Figure. Civilization eventually dissolves into chaos, which is soon overtaken by totalitarianism, personal freedom is lost and the individual is controlled by others. Ultimately he/she dies—that is the end—there is nothing more.

Worldview Cannot Coexist

In contrast, the Judeo-Christian worldview recognizes the uniqueness of a person made in the image of God and assigned the dual purpose of loving Him and loving others. “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[Matthew 22:37; Deuteronomy 6:5 NIV] This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ [Matthew 22:39; Leviticus 19:18 NIV]  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” [Matthew 22:40 NIV] The Judeo-Christian worldview considers life as sacred to be honored and protected. The focus is on self-sacrifice, giving, and meeting the needs of others. Culture (civilization) is strengthened and personal freedom is maximized and guaranteed by a limited representational government. Ultimately, his/her eternal life is the supreme joy of being forever in the presence of the Creator.

Which do you prefer? Is it the frantic and frenzied high-stress short-term hedonistic pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain ending in annihilation (death)? Or is it the orderly, joyful satisfaction of meeting the needs of others, sharing life in a network of many others holding similar views, relishing the ultimate joy of sharing eternity with God and others in a place called Heaven? The choice should be an easy one, don’t you agree?

There is no evolutionist that perfectly fits the left side of the Figure. Similarly, there is no Christian that perfectly fits the right side. Nevertheless, a person’s wholly or partially adopted worldview will tend to drive him/her either toward the left or the right. Life is not static; the absence of movement is not possible. There will be “growth” in one direction or the other. In recent decades, growing cultural pressure has resulted in a general drift to the left of both the background American culture and also the Judeo-Christian culture, although the believers’ culture tends to be a few steps “behind” the background culture.

Jews and Christians have collectively displayed a growing character weakness primarily because they must live within a culture saturated with the fruit of evolutionary thinking. However, they are only available to a gathering of other believers in the churches and synagogues a few hours each week for what tends to be primarily a one-dimensional, spoon-fed intellectual education, i.e. listening to the teacher/preacher/rabbi in an atmosphere devoid of real personal experience. Believers often lack the soul-deep tools for resisting the nearly overwhelming cultural pressure. Consequently, a series of very slight compromises causes a sort of devolution (evolution in reverse) of moral sensitivities. The aggregate result of thousands of very slight compromises, by many people, is the leftward drift of the Judeo-Christian culture. The remedies will be in upcoming blogs. Meanwhile, what do YOU think?

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Education, Freedom, God's Love, Government, Judeo-Christian CultureLeave a comment

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God?” Thomas Jefferson [Engraved on the walls of the Jefferson Memorial]

Public Apathy Enables Rise of Statism Said President Ronald Reagan!

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Education, Freedom, God's Love, Government, Judeo-Christian Culture2 Comments

At Reunion Arena in Dallas, 1984, President Ronald Reagan stated: “Without God there is no virtue because there is no prompting of the conscience. … Without God there is a coarsening of the society; without God democracy will not and cannot long endure. … America needs God more than God needs America. If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under.”

Open Bible on American Flag

In 1961, Ronald Reagan stated: “One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. … James Madison in 1788 … said … ‘There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations.’ … What can we do about this? … We can write to our congressmen and our senators. … Say right now that we want no further encroachment on these individual liberties and freedoms. … We do not want socialized medicine. … If you don’t, this program I promise you will pass … and behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known … until, one day … we will awake to find that we have socialism. And … you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.”

Excerpts courtesy of Bill Federer

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/ronald-reagan-prediction-coming-true/#q2FDXd8VYsD1rJut.99
On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn Abortion, American Culture, American Exceptionalism, Baby Boomers, Church, Education, Family, Father, God's Love, Homemaker, Judeo-Christian Culture, Love, Marriage, MotherLeave a comment

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” 1Peter 4:8 NIV “Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.” Proverbs 10:12 NIV

Happiness Arises from Good Health and Growing Interpersonal Relationships

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Family, Freedom, God's Love, Judeo-Christian Culture, Love2 Comments

The Declaration of Independence stipulates that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” [emphasis added] Since these rights have been established and given by God, they are self-evident, requiring no further explanation or support. Such rights are unalienable, meaning that they cannot be abridged or infringed upon in any way by government. However, “we may do something ourselves to forfeit the unalienable rights endowed by the Creator, but no one else can TAKE those rights from us without being subject to God’s justice.” An example of forfeiture may be committing a crime that requires incarceration. Now that our right to the pursuit of happiness is locked in exactly what is it?

Diversity Ethnicity Multi-Ethnic Variation Togetherness Concept

Happiness is often equated with momentary or short-term excitement. “My favorite team won the Super Bowl!” “I got an ‘A’ in chemistry!” “She said ‘YES!’” There is no doubt about it; everyone enjoys that type of feel-good excitement. But it is based on emotion; it does not last. No one can live on a perpetual emotional high.

In contrast, a lifetime of long-term happiness has deeper spiritual roots that provide the support to withstand life’s challenges and hardships as well as celebrate the victories. That dimension of happiness reflects an inner joy anchored in a robust faith in God. Ever since Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden for disobeying God, every life has experienced occasional or sometimes long-term suffering. But a robust faith provides a clear vision of the light at the end of the tunnel and an appreciation of the character building opportunities associated with the hardships. The inner joy may be severely challenged but remains secure despite the pain.

Although my late wife never suffered any real physical pain, she did endure the progressive loss of physical mobility and mental capacity. Did her suffering have a purpose? Absolutely! Her experience dramatically and permanently changed my life and has had a rapidly expanding rippling effect on everyone with whom I come in contact. I explained to a rather large crowd at her memorial service that she and God gave me one of the greatest gifts I have ever received—the wonderful and glorious gift of tears. As a man, an engineer trained in logic, and the product of a rather stoic family, there was not much room for a manly expression of tears. But the wonderful and glorious gift of tears stirred by seven years of accommodating her progressive loss opened up to me whole new realms of life experience both emotionally and spiritually that were not previously available. I became much more sensitive to the needs of disabled people and virtually everyone else as well. Her experience also contributed greatly to the motivation to write this book.

Happiness is the Result of Virtuous Living

Here’s the deal: Ultimately, happiness is the result of living a virtuous life. How boring is that? Actually, a virtuous life is not boring at all; it is very rich, satisfying, and happy. During George Washington’s First Inaugural Address, he emphasized, “…there is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists…an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness…” To President Washington, the link between “goodness and happiness” was plain and inescapable.” Further, Noah Webster found that, “If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the divine commands, and elect bad man to make and administer the laws.” A life based on virtues anchored deeply in the soul produces goodness of choices and actions that ignite a happy and joyful spirit within an individual and ultimately across cultures.

Feds Routinely Breach Family Sovereignty!

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Family, Freedom, Government, Judeo-Christian Culture13 Comments

A previous blog, “Sovereignty: Free Family v. Controlling State,” discussed the perpetual tension between the sovereign family and the sovereign state. In recent decades, the federal government has been winning that tug-of-war at an accelerating pace that is nothing less than frightening. Here’s how:

fallen prayer

The state breaches family sovereignty by:

  • Encouraging divorce, abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide
  • Removing children from their family
    • Tacitly for ever increasing amounts of “education”
    • Physically for an ever-widening list of alleged “abuses”
  • Dilution/diffusion (ever broadening definition of “family” to include a growing list of “alternative lifestyles”)
  • Increasing control over personal health, including life and death decisions
  • Promoting radical feminism and materialism, which undermine and scatter the family
  • Attacking the traditional amazingly complementary roles of family members
  • Facilitating a progressively increasing dependence on government
  • Replacing traditional family values with evolution-rooted post-modern views (no god; no absolute/objective truth; no single universal set of best values)
  • Promoting multiculturalism over traditional Judeo-Christian culture and values
  • Adopting a suffocating array of ever increasing over-zealous and over-reaching regulations

All is not lost. God is still in charge. By a huge majority, Americans still claim a faith in God. If they learn the importance of voting for candidates of strong character, we’ll be well on the road to recovering freedom and reducing government intrusion into family life.

The Founders referred to the right to vote as won with blood, precious, important and vital. They also often referred to voting as casting the “sacred vote.” We are called to vote for candidates of strong character, because one of our great purposes in this life is to grow in godly character. Only candidates exhibiting strong character are able to understand the importance of God-given freedom.

What do you think? Are you willing to fight and vote for freedom restoration for your children and grandchildren?