Friday Night Sermon -- Online Bible Study
From: www.NailScarred.net (http://www.NailScarred.net?sciforums.com)

Have You Seen It?
An FNS Special Edition

This week, I've just been drawn to talk to you about something apart from where we have gone in recent days. We'll get back to where we have been and pickup right where we left off. Still, there's this thing that's been gnawing at me that I hope has been on your hearts too. I'm talking about the state of our nation. I'm not talking in just some financial or political sense. I'm talking about spiritually. We are no longer a nation for God. We are a nation against God. We would mock His laws in every way if not for the fact that God WILL have justice!

I'm sure that we have all seen how a church in the south Eastern portion of the country has been attacked by the forces of Satan. Why? Children were spanked for willful sin. Two of them actually had been found to have welts on their butts. Let's read something together.

Matthew 10:16-42

16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. 17 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; 18 And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. 19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. 20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. 21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. 22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. 23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. 24 The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. 25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household? 26 Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. 27 What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. 28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. 32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. 34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. 37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. 40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. 41 He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. 42 And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.

This is happening all over this country. The Godliness that was assumed by our parents and grand parents is no longer the case. God has been forgotten in our land and Christians are being brought up on charges for doing right. Thank God that He does give what to say. Did you hear the response of our Brothers and Sisters, "JESUS IS LORD!" You didn't hear long rhetoric. They said, by that statement, in loud and clear fashion, "I'm taking this matter to the KING!!!!!"

Now, I tell you I could rant and rave on my soapbox for hours about the U.N., U.S. foreign policy, and on and on. I'm sure we all could. There's no doubt that Satan is working hard to bring about his own one world religion. The fact of the matter is, no matter what we say, no matter what we do, if we do not commune with the God of the universe that cares about us more than any sparrow, we will be crushed! We are no match for the wiles of Satan. Jesus, on the other hand, can win that fight without even trying! We need to take this matter to KING JESUS!!! Pray for our Brothers and Sisters in Christ that they have solidarity in Christ and refrain from capitulation. Pray to give them strength, to help hold them up, that they might pray and hear and do the will of God! Satan's forces are standing together against them. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!!!, Stand NOW! Pray NOW! The thing Satan most wants and needs is an ineffective Christian Body unwilling to act and waiting for someone else to do it.

Christian website of the week: The American Center For Law And Justice (http://www.aclj.org?www.nailscarred.net-ChristianSiteOfTheWeek03-23-01)

Be Proud To Suffer For Christ,
ISDAMan

Many Christians say the reason, why men do not believe the Bible, is, that they do not examine it with an humble mind--and an humble mind, as they understand it, is one which has prepared itself, as far as it is able, by prayers, and fears, and a distrust of its own ability to judge of the truth of what it ought to believe, to surrender its judgment, to suppress its reasonings, to banish its doubts, and then believe the Bible on mere assumption, in spite of the incredibility of its narratives, the enormity, impiety and absurdity of its doctrines, and the contemptible character of its evidences.

They are accustomed to say that the doctrines of the Bible are too humiliating for the pride of men to acknowledge. But Deists acknowledge as strong religious obligations, and as pure moral ones, as Christians. As for the humiliation of believing Christianity, there certainly is nothing more humiliating in believing that Jesus performed miracles, or that he was prophesied of before his coming, than there is in believing any other fact whatever. If it be humiliating to believe one's self that wicked animal, which the Bible represents man to be, it is because it is contrary to nature and reason to be willing to consider, ourselves wretches worthy of all detestation, especially when our own knowledge of the moral character of our intentions gives the lie direct to any such supposition. Every human being knows, or may know, if he will but reflect upon the motives which have governed him, that he never in his life performed a wrong act simply from a desire to do wrong. No man loves vice, because it is vice, although many strongly love the pleasure which it sometimes affords. Men are induced to wrong actions by a variety of motives, and desires, but the simple desire to do wrong never inhabited the breast, or controlled the conduct, of any individual. Yet in order to prove that men's natures are in the slightest degree intrinsically and positively wicked, it is necessary to prove that individuals are, at least, sometimes, influenced by a special desire of doing wrong. To prove that men are led, by any other desires, to commit wrong actions, only proves the natural strength of those desires, and the comparative weakness of their virtuous principles, or, in other words, it proves the imperfect balance of their propensities and principles--an imperfection, which, of course, ought to be guarded against, because it often leads men to do wrong, and which may need, though not deserve, the admonitory chastisement which God applies to men-but it does not prove any positive wickedness of the heart. So that, even if a man were (as no man ever was) entirely destitute of all regard to right, still, if he had not any special desire of doing wrong, whatever other desires he might have, and to whatever wrong conduct they might lead him, he would nevertheless be intrinsically only a sort of moral negative--he would not be at heart positively wicked. (Lysander Spooner, On Man's Accountability for His Belief, 1834)
http://lysanderspooner.org/

I am compelled to add my own comment here if merely as a formality. The underlying necessity of faith in Christ is most usually afforded the notion that humans are "born in sin", and thus require redemption.

And face up to the fact that what has happened to the social acceptability of beating children is that enough of the society got sick of being spanked, whipped, slapped, banged against walls, intimidated, threatened, ad bloody nauseam. People remember the pointlessness of their parents teaching them how to resent someone. There is no excuse for violence against another human being. If that principle appears to leave out preservation of the self, it is intended to imply that there should be no bloody reason to defend the self.

But violence against a child is unacceptable. There is no argument which justifies the idea that reduction of propriety to Pavlovian instinct is beneficial to the child; furthermore, violence begets violence, and there's no way around it.
The attempts of parents to make their children virtuous are generally little else than attempts to keep them in ignorance of vice. They are little else than attempts to teach their children to know and prefer truth, by keeping them in ignorance of falsehood. They are little else than attempts to make them seek and appreciate health, by keeping them in ignorance of disease, and of everything that will cause disease. They are little else than attempts to make their children love the light, by keeping them in ignorance of darkness. In short, they are little else than attempts to make their children happy, by keeping them in ignorance of everything that causes them unhappiness.

In so far as parents can really aid their children in the latter's search after happiness, by simply giving them the results of their (the parents') own reason and experience, it is all very well, and is a natural and appropriate duty. But to practise coercion in matters of which the children are reasonably competent to judge for themselves, is only an attempt to keep them in ignorance. And this is as much a tyranny, and as much a violation of the children's right to acquire knowledge for themselves, and such knowledge as they desire, as is the same coercion when practised upon older persons. Such coercion, practised upon children, is a denial of their right to develop the faculties that Nature has given them, and to be what Nature designs them to be. It is a denial of their right to themselves, and to the use of their own powers. It is a denial of their right to acquire the most valuable of all knowledge, to wit, the knowledge that Nature, the great teacher, stands ready to impart to them.
(Lysander Spooner, Vices Are Not Crimes: A Vindication of Moral Liberty, 1875)
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/vices.htm

There is no argument which justifies the idea that the violent reduction of propriety to Pavlovian instinct is beneficial to the child; furthermore, violence begets violence.

There's actually not much to add to Mr Spooner here, either, so I simply decided to repeat myself for emphasis.
If those persons, who fancy themselves gifted with both the power and the right to define and punish other men's vices, would but turn their thoughts inwardly, they would probably find that they have a great work to do at home; and that, when that shall have been completed, they will be little disposed to do more towards correcting the vices of others, than simply to give to others the results of their experience and observation. In this sphere their labors may possibly be useful; but, in the sphere of infallibility and coercion, they will probably, for well-known reasons, meet with even less success in the future than such men have met with in the past. (Spooner, Vices)
It isn't that one should let a child run unattended in the world, but I do wonder why transgressions require punishments. By what reason should fear be the primary motivating factor of a child's social development?
God has been forgotten in our land and Christians are being brought up on charges for doing right.
1) God has not been forgotten in our land. Our people express their diversity boldly now.
2) If you get twelve jurors who think spanking a child is abusive, then they will be convicted of that. Furthermore, there is no argument which justifies the idea that the violent reduction of propriety to Pavlovian instinct is beneficial to the child or to the society; people should understand cooperation for the sake of progress, as opposed to compliance out of fear. And in case nobody mentioned it, violence begets violence.
The fact of the matter is, no matter what we say, no matter what we do, if we do not commune with the God of the universe that cares about us more than any sparrow, we will be crushed!
One of the entertaining things about Christianity is the phenomenon by which the faithful can find the Devil anywhere they want to. Furthermore, what is it that I've written before? That I don't understand why all religious Creation myths seem to make that specific tribe the center of divine attention? Here we see the product of it. Sure, maybe God cares more about us than a sparrow, but that idea is derived from a number of ideas whereby anything but a religion would be called supremacist. I'm willing to bet God knows a little more than any preacher about the importance of a sparrow.

And, I'm sure, something about humility.

And what is this fact? Stories and threats taken from that book in the nightstand at the motel with the hourly rates? Sounds like faith to me. And faith ain't fact. Does this kind of inflation of image, then, to bolster faith into fact, turn the Gospel into a sort of dishonest marketing tool?

thanx,
Tiassa :cool:

PS--There is no argument which justifies the idea that the violent reduction of propriety to Pavlovian instinct is beneficial to the child; furthermore, violence begets violence.

ISDAMan,

Did you hear the response of our Brothers and Sisters, "JESUS IS LORD!" You didn't hear long rhetoric. They said, by that statement, in loud and clear fashion, "I'm taking this matter to the KING!!!!!"

Would that be the same king that is mentioned in Isaiah 14:4?

<font color="red">Isaiah 14:4 That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!</font>

Would that be the same Babylon that is mentioned in Revelations 17:5?

<font color="red">Revelations 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.</font>

Isn't your hero the same guy who holds the key to the bottomless pit? The one who is likened to the serpent that Moses held up in the wilderness? The one who instructs his would-be followers to make themselves eunuchs and hate their families? The one who admits that his purpose is to divide families and destroy nations? The one who will tell you to depart from him in the end because you never had a clue as to his true identity? Just wondering...

Emerald

ISDAMan,

No Friday Night Sermon this week? Are you okay?

Emerald

I got all messed up with some stuff. I was late and it's my fault. I'm sure that you'll want to see what I have posted in the latest FNS.

The only response I have for now, in regards to the questions and comments in this thread is that God has been forgotten. We are a nation that, for the most part, defines Him in every way other than the way He defined Himself.

I hope to have more time to devote here soon.

Thanks again,
ISDAMan