Tag: Judeo-Christian culture

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?

Your Worldview Drives Who You Are, What You Think, the Decisions You Make, and How You Act!

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Family, Freedom, God's Love, Government, Judeo-Christian Culture, Love8 Comments

What Is a Worldview? Why Should I Care?

Everyone has a worldview, whether they know it or not. A worldview is a soul-deep spiritual-level conviction regarding life’s most basic questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? The most basic conviction arises from a personal determination, either by investigation or by tacitly going along with the cultural crowd, regarding the existence or non-existence of God. That conviction becomes the passion that drives the rest of a person’s life.

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Consider the difference between an emotional passion and a spiritual passion, which is easily clarified with a sports analogy. Suppose your favorite NFL football team has a great season and makes it all the way to the Super Bowl. For a week or so, before the big game the excitement builds until it becomes hard to think of anything else. Unless you have the means to travel a long distance and pay a very high price for tickets, you probably invite your friends over on the big day and put on a pot of your favorite chili.

An evening of screaming and hollering leaves you nearly voiceless. Win or lose, the game is the topic of water cooler conversation for the next day or so. Then—it’s gone—it’s over—just another statistic in sports history. That is an emotional passion. It is a temporary emotional roller coaster ride. It is great fun, but just does not last.

In contrast, consider the Olympic athlete who intensely trains for four, eight, twelve, or sixteen years enduring considerable pain along the way often sacrificing important aspects of life such as dating or family, in a relentless pursuit of the privilege of competing for one or a small number of Olympic medals. The medals do not have a great deal of tangible value and only a privileged few are ever pictured on the front of a Wheaties cereal box. However, the victories represented by the medals do attach significance and meaning to the life of the competitor, satisfying deep spiritual needs.

The victories or near victories separate the athlete from the vast majority of others who participate in the same sport, from childhood teams all the way to the Olympic team. Winning an Olympic medal is truly a world class achievement. Such an enduring passion and total commitment is a spiritual passion. The championship Super Bowl team may have pursued a spiritual passion as well. But for the fans, the game is merely an emotional passion.

A spiritual passion is the soul-deep conviction that forms a worldview and drives all aspects of life, including the choices made to satisfy the deepest spiritual yearnings for significance and meaning in life. Currently, there is a well-known credit card marketing campaign that uses the tag line, “What’s in your wallet?” The sponsors want their card to be in the deepest most secure part of your wallet, from where it will be used to transact most of your future purchases. Similarly, the worldview that is in your spiritual “wallet” will control most of life’s “transactions.” Consequently, the often taken-for-granted, neglected, or innocently assimilated worldview takes on monumental significance. Ultimately, there are only two worldviews. Either God exists or God does not exist.

Most of the early settlers arriving on the North American shores were seeking religious freedom. Their predetermined worldview confirmed the existence of God and His exclusive role as the only agent capable of completely satisfying all of a person’s spiritual needs. Judeo-Christian tradition formed both the foundation and the driving force of their lives.

Two hundred years later, the same culture became embedded in the culture of the United States of America, codified through the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Although not everyone in the fledgling nation was a devout Christian believer, Judeo-Christian tradition so permeated the culture that it had a strong influence on virtually everyone’s sense of right and wrong, moral behavior, personal conduct, and interpersonal relationships. The American culture experienced a unique cohesiveness that successfully resisted the negative influences of other philosophies or belief systems.

As a result, the United States was blessed with remarkably close families and an abundance of prosperity. Unprecedented intellectual, emotional, and spiritual growth produced an outstanding quality-of-life resulting in generally good or improving personal health and a rich network of interpersonal relationships, beginning with the family and working outward. Similarly, America has enjoyed the world’s highest standard-of-living, related to accumulated material blessings. Both emerged from a God-centered worldview.

An opposing worldview, championed by pagan religious systems for several millennia, received a credibility boost when Charles Darwin published, The Origin of the Species By Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life in 1859. His concepts became known as the theory of evolution. Unlike passive religious systems, advocates for evolution quickly developed a confrontational relationship with Judeo-Christian tradition, because evolution appeared to provide a naturalistic explanation for every living and non-living thing in the universe. The naturalistic explanation became the basis for denying or marginalizing the existence of God. Two thousand years ago, the Apostle Paul accurately described the confrontation. To other believers we are the “fragrance of life;” to evolution-driven people, we are the “smell of death.” [2 Corinthians 2:15-16]

The two opposing worldviews rest on the most fundamental question of the ages. Does God exist? The Judeo-Christian worldview says that God of love absolutely does exist and is personally interested in our earthly affairs and our ultimate eternal destination. The Judeo-Christian worldview is supported by nature and God’s revelation of Himself throughout Divinely inspired inerrant Scripture—The Holy Bible.

The evolutionary worldview, championed by Charles Darwin and a host of others purports that all life forms emerged from a combination of extraordinary lengths of time, chance, and necessity (natural physical laws). Although the scientific support for the theory is astonishingly thin, the culture’s blind confidence in science has enabled the theory of evolution to be widely accepted as fact—a “fact” which has had catastrophic effects on the American culture.

People of faith often find themselves caught in the crossfire between the two major worldviews. Most people do not spend hours and hours sitting around discussing the details of the theory of evolution or its impact on society. However, they do emerge from the public school system and many private school systems with an embedded bottom line image of man as simply a highly evolved animal. The schools disallow any discussion of the flaws of evolution or any possible alternatives.

For Christians and others, the mental image of mankind as a product of evolution is sufficient to cast doubt on the Genesis accounts of the beginnings, creating a vulnerability to increasing cultural pressure that is continually reinforced by politicians, news media, all manner of entertainment outlets, neighbors, work associates, and friends. The cultural pressure has been so great that there have been increasing attempts to compromise Scripture to accommodate science.

Whoa! What exactly is being compared? “The Bible is supreme truth, and therefore it is the standard by which scientific theory should be evaluated, not vice versa. Scripture is God’s own eyewitness account of what happened in the beginning.” John MacArthur Why should anyone seek to compromise God’s perfect Word to achieve apparent consistency with the woefully incomplete and imperfect findings of human scientists? What do you think?

All Freedom Comes From God; Governments Take It Away!

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, God's Love, Government, Judeo-Christian Culture12 Comments

All freedom comes from God. The truest most perfect freedom existed only in the Garden of Eden. Ever since, the pride of mankind has caused power and authority to concentrate with time, resulting in the progressive loss of freedom. The nearly inescapable end result is tyranny. The loss of freedom has been experienced in all cultures and political systems throughout recorded history. When freedom exists to any extent, it will be lost unless it is fervently and aggressively protected, by the people (YOU). Consider the flow:

“…where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” 2 Corinthians 3:17 KJV  

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1 KJV

All civilizations begin in a condition of chaos and anarchy with no external control by government or any other authority. Consider what might happen if you went down in a commercial airliner crash and became part of 100 survivors stranded on a remote uncharted island with no means of communication and little chance of rescue.

You and the other survivors initially work together for survival determining how to meet the immediate needs for food and shelter. Soon, however, disagreements break out, tending to escalate with time. At some point, a council of volunteers or elected members forms to draft guidelines for assuring more harmonious living among the survivors.

The guidelines prohibit certain actions and mandate others. But the voluntary guidelines are only partially effective and conflict continues. A mechanism is designed and designated people are given the authority to monitor compliance with the guidelines, seek violators, and punish them in a predetermined fashion. The guidelines have now become the beginnings of enforceable law.

Whoa! What just happened? All freedom…that’s right, all freedom comes from God as the incredible gift of free will, bounded only by certain moral limitations that He applies for harmonious living and to protect you and others from physical, emotional, and spiritual harm. Those limitations are an expression of His infinite and enduring love. Any form of government can only can only limit or deny any particular freedoms. Governments can only wield money and power in an impersonal way; they have no moral authority or ability.

Government continues to be “of the people, by the people, and for the people” as long as the laws passed and regulations adopted conform to or are aligned with Scriptural mandates as indicated by the region in the Figure labeled “Representative Government.” Such laws and regulations protect freedom.

Graphic Anarchy to Tyranny

God-given freedom powered by His love and limited by Scriptural boundaries—primarily the prohibitions of the Ten Commandments and moral/ethical limitations on behavior—depend on voluntary restraint. The prohibitions and limitations were given for the benefit of mankind to assure the richness of the human experience.

“From the day of the Declaration…they [the American people] were bound by the laws of God, which they all, and by the laws of the gospel, which they nearly all, acknowledged as the rules of their conduct” John Quincy Adams

“Though, when a people shall have become incapable of governing themselves and fit for a master, it is of little consequence from what quarter he comes.” George Washington

When laws are passed and regulations adopted extend beyond the region designed to protect freedom, then freedom is progressively lost. There is no reliable barrier along the road to tyranny. What do you think?

Sovereignty: Free Family v. Controlling State

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Family, God's Love, Government4 Comments

The family is the basic self-governing unit of all civilization. National or cultural cohesiveness and stability depend on the aggregation of cohesive families:

“Marriage makes a small state within the state. That bond breaks all other bonds; that law is found stronger than all later and lesser laws.…the small state founded on the sexes is at once the most voluntary and the most natural of all self-governing states. The Christian view of marriage conceives of the home as self-governing in a manner analogous to an independent state…In this way it is itself a sort of standing reformer of the State; for the State is judged by whether its arrangements bear helpfully or bear hardly on the human fullness and fertility of the free family.”

                                                   G.K. Chesterton

By definition, a government controls (rules) or limits freedom of individuals and families for the common “good.” Unless constitutionally limited, a government will grow without bounds, ultimately displacing the family, leading to tyranny. Consequently, there is a perpetual tension between the sovereignty of the free family and the sovereignty of the controlling government, as indicated in the Figure.

Sovereignty Family v State 2

Families tend to break down as a result of a constellation of selfish decisions supported, facilitated, and encouraged by the government (divorce, abortion, euthanasia, infanticide, assisted suicide, career before family, allowing “strangers” to raise our children, uncontrolled personal debt, increasing dependence upon government and progressive dilution of the definition of what constitutes a family). While the clergy traditionally fights to preserve the family, the modern American government fights to destroy it.

Families and individuals living in a Judeo-Christian based culture seek to put others before self. Although doing so is a lifetime journey, the ongoing effort harmonizes many interpersonal relationships and much of society, even among those who are not adherents to Judeo-Christian tradition.

When a culture such as the United States moves from a faith in God to a faith in evolution-rooted humanism, it migrates from an emphasis on serving others to serving self, producing sharp and dramatic increases in the most selfish decisions of all—those involving life and death.

Choices forbidden for millennia in Judeo-Christian and most other cultures first become legalized, and a short time later endorsed and even facilitated by active government promotion and financial support. The most selfish decisions ever made include divorce, abortion, euthanasia, allowing strangers to raise a married couple’s children, and prematurely side-barring inconvenient relatives in institutions such as nursing homes. In a declining culture, those horrible, heart-wrenching decisions become the new norm. Many so called government-sponsored “entitlement programs” effectively promote wrongdoing (sin) by subsidizing it.

When Self reigns supreme, there is no limit to the evil that can be perpetrated by one person on another. At the national (cultural) level, the evil is readily cloaked in appealing language such as “pro-choice” or “death with dignity.”

No civilization has ever survived the breakdown of the family!

What do you think?

Husbands, Would Your Wife Rather Be Home? Encourage Her!

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Homemaker, Judeo-Christian Culture, Love37 Comments

The modern American culture has swerved so far away from the 7-millennium long traditional family-centered culture to the current career-centered culture that young women are virtually forced by cultural pressure to pursue a career as a higher priority than the family. Some have claimed it is possible to have it both ways. The reality is that more and more women are discovering that by definition there can only be one priority. If the priority is career, the family will suffer now and later.

Many women would genuinely prefer to be a homemaker. But those who are brave enough to face the wolfish cultural pressure may be confronted by another barrier closer to home. Today, many married men presumptively expect their wives to have a money-earning job outside the home.

Mother and grandchild baking cookies.

Traditionally—at least up until a few decades ago—men would be embarrassed if their wives worked outside the home. The men were proud of their ability to provide for the material needs and the security of their home. In just a few short decades, their pride succumbed to radical feminist pressures and transitioned to, “Honey, it’s OK to get a job if you want to; either way is OK with me.” The laisse-faire attitude, which was often interpreted by women as uncaring eventually became today’s, “Honey, you MUST have a job to help pay all of the bills.”

Severe cultural pressures and often poor financial planning create formidable barriers for the would-be homemaker. Here’s the rub! Men, if any of you are pressuring your wife to pursue a career, rather than encouraging her to be a homemaker, God has a very direct and stern warning for you. As you read the quote in three translations, remember, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom:”

  • “The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory forever. Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it is polluted, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.” [Micah 2:9-10 King James Version]
  • “You drive the women of my people from their pleasant homes. You take away my blessing from their children forever. Get up, go away! For this is not your resting place, because it is defiled, it is ruined, beyond all remedy.” [Micah 2:9-10 New International Version]
  • “You throw my people’s women out of the homes they love. You deprive their children of my glory forever. Get up and go! You can’t stay here! Because [the land] is now unclean, it will destroy you with a grievous destruction.” [Mikhah 2:9-10 Complete Jewish Bible]

The clarity of the three scripture translations is inescapable. Regardless of today’s cultural pressures, a husband must not encourage his wife to pursue a job outside the home. Whether or not she actually does is another discussion. However, first consider this:

God views the entirety of history as a continuum from Creation through the coming of the Messiah. He sees a holistic master portrait. That portrait includes a seamless parade of generations, each receiving the baton of civilization from the previous generation and passing it on to the next generation. At least that is His intent.

The woman as wife and mother is the link between generations. She learns from the previous generation, primarily from her mother, gives birth to the next generation, and is primarily responsible for nurturing and raising the next generation to become men and women of strong character, capable of carrying the baton of civilization onward to the following generation. She is ultimately responsible for the cohesiveness of the family and the sustainability of the culture.

The passage in Micah 2:9 indicates that when the homemaker is “cast out,” driven out, or thrown out of the home, to pursue material goals, the missing link forms a disconnect in the flow of generations and the preservation of civilization. The disconnect deprives the children of God’s glory for a very long time—the passage says, “forever.”

Visualize the disconnect as a seamless hand-knit sweater. When a single piece of yarn is broken, a slight tug causes the entire sweater to unravel. Similarly, the entire fabric of America unravels and is rapidly unraveling today when the family link in time is broken. Wow! That’s heavy; think about it for a few moments.

The greatest expression of love between a married man and woman is the birth of a child. New parents often cry out, “It’s a miracle from God!” and so it is. The child remains every bit as much a miracle at ages 2, 5, 10, 16 or beyond. The miracle child is on loan from God throughout the growing years. God has assigned the enormous responsibility to the parents, primarily the mother, to care for and raise His created miracle to become an adult of strong character who will continue to honor God and pass along an improved baton to the following generation. How could anything be a higher priority?

God places very high and challenging expectations on the woman. Her husband’s job is to make her job easy. One day, the parents causing or contributing to a disconnect at the expense of the children will be accountable to God. If that is you, what will you say, when God asks, “What did you do with my miracle?”

Education in Middle Ages Far More Demanding Than Today

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Education, God's Love, Judeo-Christian Culture10 Comments

Higher education during the Middle Ages was no joke. It was intense perhaps at times even brutal. But it developed the wholeness of a person to be humble before God and to be a positive influence on others. For example, before beginning higher education at Oxford University, Richard of Wallingford (1292-1336) was expected to have mastered reading, writing, and speaking Latin. Throughout a three to four year journey to a bachelor of arts degree Richard was required to master the trivium (first three of the seven liberal arts), i.e. grammar, dialectic (logic), and rhetoric. The grammar was a particularly rigorous style of Latin. Dialectic was very advanced logic. Rhetoric included polished oratory, learning to construct arguments and the correct form for writing letters.35 Bachelor’s level, courses taught:

  • Grammar-how to write
  • Dialectic-how to think
  • Rhetoric-how to speak well and persuasively

Vintage books in a row

Graduation required passing an aggressive oral exam and submission of a certificate of good character and morals. The process educated the whole person for the purpose of being a better person and a positive role model for others, goals largely unknown in modern schools, lost in the intellectual overemphasis on a career-building academics.

Becoming a master of the arts required another three years of intense study during which Richard would learn the last four of the seven liberal arts known as the quadrivium, the mathematics component. They included arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. In addition, he would learn the three branches of philosophy—natural philosophy (intellectual), ethics (emotional), and metaphysics (spiritual).36 Far beyond basic calculations, arithmetic of the time included algebra and theoretical mathematics, a broad term that included a study of prime numbers and perfect numbers. Today, the discipline is more often referred to as number theory. Geometry included an in-depth study of the massive works of Euclid. Music had little to do with learning music performance. Instead, students focused on the theory of harmony and an “appreciation of the rhythms of the universe.” 37 The study of astronomy was equally rigorous, despite the erroneous notion that the earth was the center of the solar system and all other bodies orbited around the earth. The educational process was extremely rigorous. Nothing about it would support the claim that this was the “Dark Ages.”

Moving forward, the holistic educational process integrated knowledge, morals, and religion continually through the earliest American settlements and the founding of the United States until just the last few decades. Major universities, including most of those known today as Ivy League schools were founded to prepare young people for the ministry. Harvard University proudly proclaimed, “Let every student be plainly instructed and…consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God…” and required students to read the Scriptures twice a day. Yale University proclaimed, “Above all, have an eye to the great end of all your studies, which is to obtain the clearest conceptions of Divine things and to lead you to a saving knowledge of God…” and required all scholars to “…live a religious and blameless life according to the rules of God’s Word…” Princeton University required every student to attend daily morning and evening worship. What do you think?

Classic Movie: The Ten Commandments-Sephora Compares Biblical/Secular Values for Moses

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Entertainment, Judeo-Christian Culture, Love6 Comments

After being banned from Egypt, Moses barely survives a devastating trek across the desert wilderness. He is rescued by a group of shepherd girls, daughters of Jethro, a Midianite priest. Just before their marriage, one of the girls, Sephora [Yvonne De Carlo] profoundly compares traditional and secular values for Moses [Charlton Heston]. Moses has just described an Egyptian woman looking “as beautiful as a jewel.”

shepherd

Sephora: “A jewel has brilliance, but gives no warmth.

  • Our hands are not so soft but they can serve.
  • Our bodies are not so white, but they are strong.
  • Our lips are not perfumed, but they speak the truth.
  • Love is not an art to us; it is life to us.
  • We are not dressed in gold and fine linen; strength and honor are our clothing.
  • Our tents are not the columned halls of Egypt, but our children play happily before them.
  • We can offer you little, but we offer all we have.”

Moses: “I have not little, Sephora; I have nothing.”

Sephora: “Nothing from some is more than gold from others.”

The conversation between Sephora (Greek form of Zipporah) and Moses just prior to their wedding is a clear contrast between:

  • traditional Biblical values, focusing on strong character and serving others (overcoming pride), and
  • secular values that recognize little significance in character and seeks to serve self (feeding pride and magnifying materialism).

Which would you marry? …the wealthy and materialistic, but shallow and self-centered Egyptian girl or the shepherd girl who understands the importance of virtue and strong character and is committed to a life of loving (serving) others.

  • Traditional Biblical values emerge from the wholeness of one’s soul as a conduit for God’s enduring love.
  • Evolution-rooted secular values, failing to recognize the reality of a spirit and limiting emotional considerations to Hedonistic highs/lows, emerge from primarily intellectual utilitarian considerations. The latter is a humanistic deification of man, based on the assumption that evolution has reached its highest current level in the human reasoning.

Which would you choose? “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

What Do Jews Think About Christmas Celebrations?

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

Nearly all Americans (93%) celebrate Christmas. Only an extremely tiny minority would object to the greeting, “Merry Christmas,” a cherry greeting roughly equivalent to, “I love you,” Yet, political correctness, championed by the liberal/progressive movement, has effectively eliminated the Merry Christmas greeting from public life as well as nativity scenes and other symbols of Christmas.

God's Love

In contrast, consider what three nationally-known Jewish leaders have to say about Christmas celebrations:

Burt Prelutsky, a Jewish columnist for a number of national publications, declares:

I never thought I’d live to see the day that Christmas would become a dirty word. . . . How is it, one well might ask, that in a Christian nation this is happening? . . . Speaking as a member of a minority group – and one of the smaller ones at that – I say it behooves those of us who don’t accept Jesus Christ as our savior to show some gratitude to those who do, and to start respecting the values and traditions of the overwhelming majority of our fellow citizens, just as we keep insisting that they respect ours. Merry Christmas, my friends!

Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Daniel Lapin agrees:

Secular fundamentalism has successfully injected into American culture the notion that the word “Christmas” is deeply offensive. . . . Anti-Christianism is unhealthy for all Americans; but I warn my brethren that it will prove particularly destructive for Jews. . . . Let us all go out of our way to wish our many wonderful Christian friends – a very merry Christmas. Just remember, America’s Bible belt is our safety belt.

Orthodox Jewish radio host and creator of PragerUniversity.com Dennis Prager writes:

As a Jew, and a religious one at that, I want to wish my fellow Americans a Merry Christmas. Not “Happy Holidays.” Merry Christmas…

It doesn’t matter with which religion or ethnic group you identify; Christmas in America is as American as the proverbial apple pie. That is why some of the most famous and beloved Christmas songs were written by guess who? Jews.

  • White Christmas—Irving Berlin
  • Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer—Johnny Marks
  • Let It Snow! Let It snow! Let It Snow!—July Styne/Sammy Cahn
  • Silver Bells—Jay Livingston/Ray Evans
  • The Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting on an Open Fire—Mel Torme/Robert Wells
  • Sleigh ride-–Mitchell Parish

and many others.

The notion that non-Christians are excluded is absurd.

It never occurred to my Orthodox Jewish family not to enjoy this season. It was a tradition in our home to watch the Christmas Mass from the Vatican every Christmas Eve…Had you visited our home, you would have seen my mother—and my father, my brother and I all wearing our kippot (Jewish skull-caps)—watching Catholics celebrate Christmas…

So when and why did this pernicious nonsense of non-Christians being “excluded” by public celebration of Christmas develop?

It is nothing more than another destructive product of the 1960s and 1970s, when the left came to dominate much of the culture.

There you have it! Say “Merry Christmas” everywhere; say it again and again and again. Say Merry Christmas with love every time. Saying it mechanically, without love betrays the greeting and the Lord.

Family at Christmas dinner

So—Spread the Deliberate Joy; spread the merriment. After all, love is contagious. And—don’t forget the reason for the season!

Blogging YOU the warmest and merriest Christmas ever!

The first two quotes were abstracted from http://www.wallbuilders.com. The third quote is from wnd.com magazine, Whistleblower, “Of Messiahs False and True,” December 2014.

American Founders Endowed with Uncommon Wisdom!

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Government, Judeo-Christian Culture4 Comments

John Adams

In recent years, it seems to have become open season on the American Founders. Some have scornfully described the Founders as dead white guys who owned slaves. Well—they’re certainly dead; they were white; and only a few owned slaves and the ones that did, didn’t like the institution. Such will be a topic of another blog. The Founders were actually endowed with uncommon wisdom. To understand them, it is far better to read what they actually said, rather than what some historian may have concluded about them. My upcoming book allows the Founders to speak for themselves. For now, let’s consider the words of just one of them, John Adams. He was a Founder, signer of the Declaration of the United States, Vice President under George Washington, and the second President of the United States.

  • June 21, 1776 “Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.” “The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People in a greater Measure, than they have it now, they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty.”
  • July 1, 1776 “Before God, I believe the hour has come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it (Declaration of Independence). All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it. And I leave off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment. Independence now, and Independence forever!“
  • In a July 1, 1776 letter to Archibald Bullock, former member of the Continental Congress from Georgia, Adams wrote: “The object is great which We have in View, and We must expect a great expense of blood to obtain it. But We should always remember that a free Constitution of civil Government cannot be purchased at too dear a rate as there is nothing, on this side (of) the New Jerusalem, of equal importance to Mankind.”
  • July 3, 1776 “The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever. “You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory I can see that the end is worth more than all the means; that posterity will triumph in that day’s transaction, even though we [may regret] it, which I trust in God we shall not.”
  • In concern for his sons, John Adams advised his wife Abigail to: “Let them revere nothing but Religion, Morality and Liberty.”
  • 11, 1798 (Address to the military) “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
  • On November 2, 1800, John Adams became the first president to move into the White House. As he was writing a letter to his wife, he composed a beautiful prayer, which was later engraved upon the mantel in the state dining room: “I pray Heaven to bestow THE BEST OF BLESSINGS ON THIS HOUSE and All that shall hereafter Inhabit it, May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof.”
  • August 28, 1811 “Religion and virtue are the only foundations, not only of all free government, but of social felicity under all governments and in all the combinations of human society.”
  • June 28, 1813 “Now I will avow, that I then believe, and now believe, that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God; and that those Principles of liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane System.”
  • In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, John Adams wrote: “Have you ever found in history, one single example of a Nation thoroughly corrupted that was afterwards restored to virtue?… And without virtue, there can be no political liberty….Will you tell me how to prevent riches from becoming the effects of temperance and industry? Will you tell me how to prevent luxury from producing effeminacy, intoxication, extravagance, vice and folly?…I believe no effort in favor is lost…“
  • In a letter dated November 4, 1816, John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson: “The Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount contain my religion…“
  • December 27, 1816 “As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation.” “Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have…a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean the character and conduct of their rulers.”

Do you agree that at least this Founder was endowed with uncommon wisdom?

God Modeled His Circle of Love for YOU!

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn God's Love, LoveLeave a comment

Circle of Love

Very simply, “…God is love…” [1 John 4:16 KJV]. That’s it! Love is defined in just three little words, with no qualifiers. Now that does not sound very romantic does it? It certainly doesn’t sound very Hollywoodish. But there you have it in three simple words: God is love. The implications are profound. Love is the basis and driving force for ALL interpersonal relationships, including man-woman, parent-child, boss-employee, teacher-student, friend-friend, and neighbor-neighbor. The standout differences that distinctively set apart the marriage relationship include its intensity, depth, level of intimacy, and permanence. However, all relationships are built on love. Relationships grow to the extent that love grows; relationships weaken or terminate to the extent that love weakens. Love is so important to individuals, interpersonal relationships, and ultimately to cultures that a closer look is inescapable.

Consider Step 2 of the circle, the Principle of Love. Since all love originates from God, He is the best and only totally reliable source of wisdom regarding the practice of love. Although most people tend to focus on the back end of the best known and loved verse in the Bible, to understand the principle of love it is necessary to zoom in on the front end. “For God SO loved…that He GAVE…” [John 3:16 KJV] God loved us and all of His creation to such a great extent that He gave. What did He give? He gave that which He valued more than anything else “…His only begotten Son,” Jesus Christ who died on a brutal Roman cross to pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind. Since Scripture gives evidence that God is three persons in one, often called the Trinity, (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) He effectively volunteered to give Himself as the ultimate expression of love.

Clearly, without giving there can be no love. Love and all relationships grow to the extent that there is regular giving. Love and relationships weaken or terminate when giving slows or stops. The marriage relationship has one distinct difference. It is intended and decreed by God to be permanent regardless of internal circumstances. It can be a loving marriage or a loveless marriage as the husband and wife choose, but either way it is permanent. “Therefore, what God has joined together, let man not separate.” [Mark. 10:9 NIV] Look for much more about the marriage concept in upcoming blogs. Love is always dynamic; it is never static. It cannot stand still; it will either grow or weaken as time passes.

Since God is love, what does He have to say about the importance of love? 1 Corinthians 13:2 [NIV] clearly underscores the Importance of Love in my life and yours. “…if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am NOTHING.” (zero, zilch, nada) I learned long ago that zero is a very small number. The brightness of God is shining inescapably on the view that if my life and yours are not clearly characterized by love, as evidenced by continuous giving, we are wasting the awesome and precious gift of life that God has given us.

Since love is critically important to a rich life experience, it should be no surprise that God gives it the highest of all priorities. Step 4 of God’s Circle of Love cites 1 Corinthians 13:13 [NIV], “…these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Whoa! How can love be the greatest? Does not faith “unlock the door” to heaven, our preferred eternal destiny? Isn’t eternity more important than the fleeting temporary life here and now? Of course it is! However, Scripture says that love is greater than faith or hope simply because “God is love,” thus closing God’s Circle of Love. Love drives all relationships. As a practical matter, a love-driven life reduces stress thus enriching all of life’s experiences.

Can an Unbeliever Make a Credible Movie About a Biblical Event?

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Entertainment4 Comments

Ten Commandments

The short answer? No! Throughout the 1950s, there were a number of highly successful Biblical epics made by Hollywood. The most spectacular was Cecil B. DeMille’s, The Ten Commandments. After a very long hiatus, the spectacular success of The Passion of the Christ renewed Hollywood’s interest in Bible-based movies. Recently, a movie called Noah was released and another, Exodus: Gods and Kings is nearing release. Both were made by directors who claim to be atheist or agnostic. Let’s Compare.

At the beginning of the movie, The Ten Commandments, director Cecil B. DeMille did something remarkable. He walked out on a stage to preface the movie with a few heartfelt comments:

Ladies and Gentlemen; young and old; this may seem an unusual procedure, speaking to you before the picture begins, but we have an unusual subject: the story of the birth of freedom; the story of Moses. As many of you know the Holy Bible omits some thirty years of Moses’ life, from the time that he was a three- month old baby and was found in the bull rushes by Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh and adopted into the court of Egypt until he learned that he was Hebrew and killed the Egyptian. To fill in those missing years, we turn to ancient historians such as Philo and Josephus. Philo wrote at the time that Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth; Josephus wrote some fifty years later and watched the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. These historians had access to documents long since destroyed or perhaps lost like the Dead Sea Scrolls. The theme of this picture is whether men ought to be ruled by God’s laws or whether they are to be ruled by the whims of a dictator like Rameses. Are men the property of the State or are they free souls under God? This same battle continues throughout the world today. Our intention was not to create a story, but to be worthy of the divinely inspired story created 3,000 years ago in the five books of Moses.

DeMille’s understanding of the importance of God’s laws was further clarified in the souvenir book distributed along with the movie:

The Ten Commandments are not rules to obey as a personal favor to God. They are fundamental principles without which mankind cannot live together—THE TEN COMMANDMENTS are not laws. They are THE LAW. Man has made 32,000,000 laws since they were handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai more than three thousand years ago, but he has never improved on God’s law.

The movie was clearly DeMille’s labor of love.

In contrast, a movie entitled Noah, about the Biblical worldwide flood was recently released. The director, Darren Aronofsky, is a self-proclaimed atheist. He departed widely from the Biblical account portraying Noah as the first great environmentalist and not mentioning God at all despite over ten references to God in the original. Another movie, Exodus: Gods and Kings is nearing release. The director Ridley Scott, is a self-acknowledged agnostic. Christian Bale the leading man has on separate occasions referred to Moses as schizophrenic and a terrorist. Scott’s rendering has God speaking to Moses through an angry child, rather than the burning bush and at least a few supernatural events, such as the Nile River turning to blood, are explained in natural terms. In the case of the Nile, a non-Biblical plague of crocodiles feeds on people whose blood turns the river red.

Can an evolution-driven humanistic director possibly make a God-honoring movie when he disavows the existence of God? The Ten Commandments was made to glorify God; the modern depictions of Noah and Exodus: Gods and Kings were made to glorify Hollywood and the creativity of man. Cecil B. DeMille felt morally and spiritual bound to present Biblical history as accurately and respectfully as possible. Aronofsky and Scott claim no such allegiance. To them, the Biblical “stories” are merely a starting point. They feel free to depart from Scripture as often and as widely as they choose to achieve their goal of an agenda-filled entertaining movie. The state-of-the-art is such that the modern movies can be wildly entertaining but at what price?

Flashback! For decades preceding World War II, Hollywood elites were fascinated supporters of Joseph Stalin and communism in general. The pre-war communist influence in Hollywood has been well documented. At that time, American Communist Party leader Earl Browder discouraged the making of propaganda films. Instead, he encouraged movie makers to slip in “a drop of progressive thought” in regular movies, about five minutes in each movie. In the decades since WWII, Hollywood continued and still does have a love affair with socialism, which is communism-lite. The agendas in Noah and Exodus: Gods and Kings are clear. Despite the entertaining nature of the movies, the makers want to discredit Judo-Christian tradition by displacing it with humanist values and goals.

In 1956, Cecil B. DeMille billed his movie, The Ten Commandments, as the story of “the birth of freedom.” It was the story of the Moses-led exodus of the ancient Israelites, following 400 years of slavery in Egypt. Many centuries after the Hebrews were freed from Egyptian bondage, that God-given freedom was codified successively in the Magna Carta (1215), the Mayflower Compact (1620), the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639) and the Constitution of the United States (1787).

It is difficult to avoid billboards. But YOU get to choose movie, television, and Internet experiences. All are powerful art forms, powerful because they reach the depths of the soul branding an imprint in a powerful and lasting way. No art form is neutral; it will either lift the soul toward God or drag the soul down. There is no movie, television show, or Internet experience that is just entertainment and nothing else. Even if the art form does not have an explicit agenda, it absolutely does reflect the worldview of its creator. As they say in the radio editorials, “That’s our view; we welcome yours.”

Have You Ever Received a Love Letter from God?

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, God's Love, Judeo-Christian Culture, Love6 Comments

Roses bouquet and greeting card

God’s love letter—the Bible—contains everything necessary to assure the richest possible human experience. However, simple intellectual knowledge of the Bible is seldom sufficient to change a life to the extent necessary to experience the full richness of life that God intended. A life-changing experience tends to arise when intellectual knowledge expands to include emotional and spiritual knowledge deeply embedded within the soul. The movement of the wholeness of knowledge from the head to the soul arises from growing interpersonal relationships and frequent, active, and conscious choices to serve the needs of others, sacrificing the desires of self along the way. Knowledge embedded in the soul creates the drive to do right and grow in godly character. Soulful knowledge evokes motivation; head knowledge is merely stored.

However, godly growth—the movement of the fragmented head knowledge to the wholeness of the soul—is inhibited by intense cultural peer pressure. Like everyone else, Jews and Christians are endlessly bombarded by the lures of materialism, self-indulgence, and boundaryless sex, which virtually always come at the expense of others. The lures are so intense and unrelenting that they facilitate compromises in honesty, integrity, and other important character values. The lack of values has become a new norm in the mainstream culture and a persistent temptation within what remains of the Judeo-Christian culture. So many believers have at least tacitly moved from a sense of temptation to the new norm of lost or compromised values that statistically there is no difference in the tragic rates of divorce and abortion between believers and unbelievers, including atheists and agnostics.

No one wakes up in the morning stretching, rubbing the sleep out of his or her eyes thinking, “What a beautiful day; what a great day to go out and sin!” Compromises to values, patterns of poor behavior, and a drift away from God progressively result from extremely small, barely inappropriate, seemingly inconsequential decisions that accumulate over days, weeks, months, and years. The gradual erosion of values is ultimately passed from generation to generation. The end game is that the American culture and the great American experiment in self-rule are in grave jeopardy, because Judeo-Christian believers have become compromised followers, rather than principled leaders. The cultural pressures are so great that believers are unlikely to mature and grow in character without making regular, conscious, deliberate decisions to serve the needs of others, beginning with the family and working outwards. In an expanded sense, the price of spiritual apathy is extremely high here and may cause many people to miss out on eternity with God later.

The Judeo-Christian culture is a subset of the national culture. From the founding of the United States through the first 150 years, the Christian culture and Judeo-Christian tradition dominated the national culture. Regardless of whether or not specific individuals or groups were “believers,” the culture was driven by the national “soul,” which was steeped in Judeo-Christian tradition. But in recent decades major demographic changes along with the steady erosion of morals and traditional standards of behavior have resulted in a shrinking proportion of loving devout believers in the American culture wielding diminishing influence. The United States simply cannot survive continued massive assaults on Christianity, the family, the Constitution, and the free enterprise economic system. Founder John Adams thoughtfully commented:

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Several years ago a protestant pastor was heard commenting that, “Christians no longer have a culture.” They have been largely assimilated by the secularized national culture. Similarly, in an interview, the Catholic Pope Benedict was asked to identify the greatest challenge facing the church today. His reply was that the greatest challenge facing the church today is the secularization of the church, a response remarkably similar to the pastor’s comment. What do you think?

No Homemaker “Gap” in Resume

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

beautiful smiling girl with headscarf

Occasionally, women who have stayed at home for a number of years to be a homemaker and mother ask me how to handle the “gap” in their resume. I tell them that there is no gap. They have served as the:

Chief Operations Officer (COO) of the home, responsible for:

  1. operations and maintenance of the home,
  2. capital improvements (remodeling),
  3. purchasing, budgeting, financial management, and marketing (representing the family’s interests and reputation inside and outside the home),
  4. managing subcontractors (plumbers, electricians, appliance repairs, yard workers, etc.),
  5. field operations (activities related to hobbies, sports, and places of worship),
  6. human resource management (inspiring and motivating family members to be productive and actively responsible),
  7. personnel training (raising the children with a strong sense of values), and
  8. environmental management (greening the home & family worldview).

Building a safe, stress free family organizational culture. Making the home the most desirable place in the universe for the family and raising offspring to become adults of strong character is a boundaryless (24/7) full time responsibility. Serving as a homemaker is much like running a small business. The multidisciplinary wisdom and management experience acquired is applicable to virtually any workplace.

If you agree with the above characterization of a homemaker, you may feel free to use it without attribution. What do you think?

American Culture in Free Fall

On By Dr. Lloyd StebbinsIn American Culture, Government, Judeo-Christian Culture4 Comments

eagle and flag

America, specifically the United States of America has been truly blessed in extraordinary ways throughout most of its history on this continent. However, in the last fifty years there has been a readily observable and measurable decline in the American culture.

The importance of lifelong character development has largely been lost. A true understanding of the intimate and inescapable link between the cohesiveness of the traditional family and the cohesiveness and sustainability of the American culture has faded rapidly. Children have become virtually disposable by abortion, neglect, or surrendering them to strangers to grow up with an endless procession of day care centers, government-sponsored programs and schools, and babysitters while mom and dad devote their best and highest priority time to chasing the elusive “successful career.”

The millennia-long multicultural definition of the family is rapidly being diluted to near oblivion. The decline has reached the point that all major institutions (media, education, politics, and entertainment) are dominated and driven by people with an evolution-driven humanistic often godless mindset. The juggernaut of decline is diving toward chaos or totalitarian government control of every aspect of life. Freedom is becoming little more than a legend related by the oldest seniors to their grandchildren and great grandchildren.

To what do YOU attribute the decline of American culture and the family?