My Take on the Complicated World Scene That Includes Ukraine, Russia, and Israel (part four)
What Is the Greatest Danger?
A good question to ask when evaluating United States domestic and foreign policy is “what is the greatest danger to the country?” When I grew up during the Cold War, the Soviet Union was a monumental threat to the security of the United States. If you are close to my age, maybe you remember the power of the Soviet military.
I remember hearing the idea that the Soviets would fly the hammer and sickle over the U. S. capital in 1976. At that time, almost half of the world’s land mass was communist. It was an amazing time when the government changed in Eastern bloc countries and they opened up in the late 1980s. With the fall of the iron curtain, suddenly the United States became the sole superpower. Communist dictators were everywhere all over the world from the moment of my birth in 1962 to the tearing down of the Berlin wall on November 9, 1989. Putin and Xi are barely dictators today compared to those in the Cold War.
Terrorism
A transition began in the 1980s from international communism to Islamic terrorism. Terrorists would not defeat and take over the United States, but they would cause terror and chaos to free countries. My earliest inkling was the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979, the bombing of a Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983,then the bomb under the World Trade center in 1993, and finally the culmination with terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
Terrorist attacks are still a threat, especially as long as someone could deliver a nuclear device into a major U. S. city. Conventional deterrence will not stop nuclear attack motivated by jihad, like the stalemate of mutually assured destruction. One of these random nuclear attacks still poses great danger, especially crossing the Southern border. From a sheer military risk, I still see this as the single greatest, immediate peril to national security.
China
Besides another major terrorist attack, I don’t see any great danger to the United States from a foreign country. China is the biggest threat, but in my opinion China shows no short term aspirations to invade our shores. The biggest danger by far isn’t foreign, but domestic. Every failing foreign policy relates to the internal corruption of the United States. I’m not saying Putin is better than the Democrat Party, but the latter is far worse for the United States than him.
In my childhood, Democrats supported Communists in Latin America. Bernie Sanders took his honeymoon in Cuba. They still lean socialist, even as seen in their support of the Palestinians and leftists in Israel.
The Left, the Democrat Party, and “Democracy”
In 2008 California passed Proposition 8, changing the California constitution on marriage, defining it between a man and a woman. Immediately upon it becoming law, San Francisco mayor (now governor) Gavin Newsome ramped up same sex marriage in city hall. No one said anything about democracy. No Democrat says anything about democracy with violations of immigration law and sanctuary cities. When they challenge elections, they say nothing about threats to democracy. Much more could be said about who really opposes democracy and freedom in the United States.
I don’t support the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I believe, however, that Russia saw the expansion of NATO as an existential threat. This was part of its agreement at the end of the Cold War. Will funding Ukraine end the war against Russia and will it turn Russia into a kind of long term partner, no longer a threat to American security? American meddling all over the world looks like it does more to hurt than help. The present government opposes truly democratic movements, such as what we have seen in Argentina, the Netherlands, and Italy most recently. Meanwhile, the United States is spread so thin that it hurts the American economy and security at home.
Changes are occurring elsewhere, difficult to interpret. They are framed by the establishment, mainstream media in the United States as anti-democratic. This is in the same spirit that antifa is anti-fascist, and antiracism is anti-racism. These are propaganda tools, it seems. Changes have occurred in Poland and Hungary that are called anti-democratic. California would call Florida, “anti-democratic,” because of decreasing abortion and banning pornography in the schools. The present administration pressures African countries to legalize same sex marriage.
Our Own House In Order
A stronger, more cohesive alliance with Russia, China, and Iran also supports an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian coalition in the Middle East. This hearkens to possible future events in fulfillment of prophecy unlike what I’ve seen in my lifetime.
Many Americans do not trust the Democrat apparatchiks at work in Ukraine or in Israel. These are the same characters who supported billions of dollars to Iran. The Biden family also received millions of dollars for peddling influence in Ukraine. The United States needs to get its own house in order. Then it will be better prepared to exert itself elsewhere.
My Take on the Complicated World Scene That Includes Ukraine, Russia, and Israel (part three)
Proxy Wars and Existential Threat
Two words I hear on a regular bases are “proxy war.” Ukraine fighting a proxy war. Israel fighting a proxy war with Iran. Maybe Russia is a proxy of China now too. Proxy war actually now has a dictionary definition: “a war instigated by a major power which does not itself become involved.”
Another phrase I’ve heard that relates to “proxy war” is “existential threat.” That also has a definition now: “an event that could cause human extinction or permanently and drastically curtail humanity’s existence or potential.” Is there any country an existential threat to the United States? Russia would not be an existential threat, as I see it, unless a country drove its leader to total desperation. Or, if another country could compel Russia to ally with China and maybe Iran into a more cohesive and powerful threat to the United States.
Who would want to escalate conflict between Ukraine and Russia toward a dangerous end? In a famous moment of the debate between Obama and Romney for the 2012 presidential election, Obama mocked Romney for his high estimation of Russia. He disparaged Romney for exaggerating a Russian threat, saying:
The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the Cold War’s been over for 20 years.
Later in 2014, Obama then said:
Russia is a regional power that is threatening some of its immediate neighbors, not out of strength but out of weakness. . . . Russian actions are a problem. They don’t pose the number one security threat to the United States. I remain much more concerned about the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan.
Russia, Ukraine, and the United States
Obama stood by as Russia annexed Crimea, invaded Eastern Ukraine, and intervened in Syria. Why? Obama considered the machinations of Putin as a mere regional concern. Russia was of little threat threat to United States security. What changed? Two things and from two different perspectives.
Trump and Clinton
One, Trump won in 2016 against Hillary Clinton. Immediately upon that outcome, the Clinton campaign began a predetermined or preplanned Russian collusion hoax with cooperation from the outgoing Obama administration. They had already taken preemptive action on this strategy. With that commitment to Russia as the reason for Trump’s victory, Russia and Putin took on greater importance as an international power and villain. Suddenly Russia had the power to choose the United States president. I guess 1980 called and Obama and Clinton got their foreign policy back.
When Michael Flynn communicated with his Russian counterparts, it wasn’t the typical beginnings of diplomatic relations of a new administration. No, it was instead a secret conspiracy with Russia, negotiating its reward for handing Trump the election. One proof you heard at that time was that Trump in a speech asked Russia to find Hillary’s 30,000 emails that she deleted. According to the conspiracy theory, Trump was signaling Russia to fulfill their pact with one another. You can’t make this stuff up.
Democrat Party and Media Puppets
The Democrat Party and its media puppets had to keep this charade going. They took it to an incredible extent by impeaching Trump for a phone call, asking Ukrainian president Zelenskyy to look into Biden corruption at Burisma. The Democrat apparatus conformed every event into a particular narrative that required Russian criminality.
Russia remains China’s chief crude oil supplier. The false Russia narrative pushes Russia and China into a dangerous alliance along with Iran. Democrats talk like this occurred distinct from their narrative puppets.
A coalition of neocon establishment Republicans, invested in the defense industry, with establishment, elite Democrats accentuates the sham narrative. It protects the status quo for top corporations, banks, and investors, who prefer the reliability of conventional partnerships and woke culture.
Ukraine and NATO
Two, the Russians see the trajectory of next door neighbors joining the NATO alliance, threatening Russian security and national sovereignty. Russia says the West pledged no NATO expansion into the former Soviet bloc countries. The Ukraine especially has long historic ties with Russia and its joining NATO crosses a red line, comparable to the Monroe Doctrine of the Western Hemisphere and the United States. Soviets crossed a red line when they put missiles in Cuba.
Putin opposes influence of so-called Western democracy in neighboring countries, endangering Russian culture. This is like the concern of the British with Brexit. The left, as you might know, call it democracy. It isn’t democracy. They impose leftist “values.” If you don’t accept, you’re cancelled. Mitt Romney doesn’t care about that.
Supporters of funding a U.S. proxy war in Ukraine call the Ukraine a democracy. The present administration won’t stop an invasion at the southern border. Instead, it wants to stop the invasion on the Ukrainian border. Many traditional Russians do not trust the West. 70 to 80 percent of Russians support the war. Not Putin. Russians. Surely there is a woke faction there that opposes it, but they support it for the reasons I’m expressing here.
John Mearsheimer
International relations scholar, John Mearsheimer, has gone viral with articles and speeches blaming the War in Ukraine on the United States. His arguments are very persuasive and give massive evidence to back his assertions.
Trump would have kept good relations with Putin. The left and neocons would have mocked Trump, calling him a pro Putin puppet, to fit that narrative. He would have kept NATO expansion from Russia’s neighbors. When I say this wouldn’t happen under Trump, this is the explanation. Putin could believe Trump, because he saw Trump in action. If Trump had won, Russia would not have invaded, mainly because Trump had ejected a 1980 cold war policy with NATO.
More to Come
Good free books with Logos and Accordance Bible Software
I wrote a post in 2021 about how one can get free books with Accordance Bible software and Logos Bible software. I do not intend to repeat the content of that post, but I wanted to point out that they often can be quite good (and even when they are not, the price is right–$0). For example, this month one of them is an expensive commentary in the Anchor Yale Bible Commentary series that has a list price of $53.99. They are selling another volume in that series for $1.99–it has a retail price of $31.99. I would suggest that you bookmark this page and come back here near the start of each month and click on the links below to get the free books each month.
Free Logos Books Every Month
Another Logos Free Book of the Month (Verbum Free Book of the Month)
Logos Free Audiobook of the Month
Free Accordance Book(s) Every Month
I do not know an easy way to get links to the Accordance free book of the month–I think you have to sign up for their newsletter for that (go to the bottom of the main page linked to here.) You can also get emails from Logos about the free books, but I have found that they then email you about lots of other things that I do not want email about. Thus, I prefer to just go to the links each month.
Save $100 on a Logos Bible Software Base Package
Of course, Logos gives you these free books because they want you to buy a base package with them. If you do end up buying a base package, click on this link to save $100 off your base package (I will also get Logos credit if you use this link). I have lots and lots of books with both Accordance and Logos, and find both their packages very helpful. (I find Accordance superior for careful exegetical study of Scripture and study of the Biblical languages, while Logos has a larger number of books one can acquire and I use it more for commentaries, historical study, etc.) If I could only have one program, I would choose Accordance over Logos, but I can have both, so I do. If you do ever get a Logos base package, you get a discount for books you already own, so it is worth getting the free books each month just in case you get a package, or from already owning one get a bigger package, in the future–you will receive a discount on the books you already own.
We have amazing tools today to help us in our study of God’s Word. We are accountable for how easy it is for us. May the ease with which we can study God’s Word encourage us to strive for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus in a greater way, by His grace and for His glory.
–TDR
My Take on the Complicated World Scene That Includes Ukraine, Russia, and Israel (part two)
Israel-Palestinian Conflict
From a biblical viewpoint, the Israel-Palestinian conflict started when Abraham sinned with Hagar, who bore Ishmael. Ishmael fathers the Arab people and Isaac the Jewish. Complicating this further, 93% of Arabs are Muslim of some kind. Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook in “Kill a Jew – Go to Heaven: The Perception of the Jew in Palestinian Society,” published in Jewish Political Studies Review 17:3-4 (Fall 2005), write:
The Palestinian religious, academic, and political elites teach an ideology of virulent hatred of Jews. The killing of Jews is presented both as a religious obligation and as necessary self-defense for all humankind.
This assessment of the Jews among Arabs or Muslims goes back centuries before the Zionist movement ever began.
No Jews live in Gaza. Two sides dispute Jewish settlement in the West Bank. There are 144 Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Neither a majority of Palestinians or Jews back a two state solution with the addition of the creation of a separate Palestinian state. Half of Jews desire complete expelling of Palestinians from Israel — that doesn’t include Gaza or the West Bank. 75% of Palestinians want the annihilation of Israel. A large majority of all Palestinians support Hamas.
Having traveled to Israel and in the Jewish and Palestinian territories, it’s very tense there. It cannot work like it is. The Jews need a place of their own. A two state solution will never succeed for obvious reasons. Very good arguments say that Israel should have all the land and the Palestinians find someplace else to live with Arab people. Jews should have their own, safe country.
Israel and the Land
Americans would never tolerate what the Jews do in Israel. A certain psychology for the Jews not only allows them to concede to their conditions, but also causes many Jews to advocate for the Palestinians. Many Jews lay a lot of blame on their own people for their problems. I do feel for Israel because of the deep hatred from so many across the world for the Jews.
God still has a plan for Israel. Even if Israel does not own the whole Holy Land, they continue possessing a right to it, based upon scripture. God gave Israel the land, which is why it is called, “the Promised Land.” This supports Israel’s statehood, its formal establishment, and perpetuation. Palestine never had statehood. It didn’t announce it’s own statehood until 1988. The Palestinian territories are not recognized by the US, France, or the UK as a state. At least four Palestinian organizations are designated as terrorist on the United States list, including Hamas.
My assessment of Israel is not some carte blanch acceptance of the policies of Israel. I still pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States with its rampant ungodliness. Support for Israel acknowledges God and the truth of scripture.
Two Wars
Because of world politics, the war in Israel associates with the one in Ukraine. Some of the same characters appear in different roles in both conflicts. I attribute both wars to the Biden administration in the United States. Neither would have occurred with Trump as president of the United States. Many would agree with that, less that would say it in public, but I also want to explain why I think it’s true.
More to Come
My Take on the Complicated World Scene That Includes Ukraine, Russia, and Israel
Division Over Israel
What’s going on in foreign policy in the world is one of the most interesting variations of division that I’ve seen in my lifetime. Positions divide normal allies and unify former enemies. It’s a challenge even in theological circles with diverse interpretations of biblical prophecy. The event of October 7, 2023 with the brutal attack by Hamas on Israel also ratchets up emotions, making it more difficult to discuss.
When someone becomes settled, what I like to call “concrete,” in his position, he might take disagreement personally. Maybe very personally. It’s tough to talk issues when emotions run so high. Maybe you’ve seen various podcasts with arguments between an Israeli and a Palestinian. Heated doesn’t represent how hot the temperature gets. I’ve noticed very often, between school yard taunts and name calls, the same repeated accusations from both sides.
Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and the Democrat Party
Perhaps you heard about the skirmish now between Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens. The co-founder of Daily Wire called his employee an “absolute disgrace,” caught on video in a private meeting and went viral. She then sits down to comment to Tucker Carlson in an explosive interview. Shapiro has done very angry high energy rants about the expressed position of Carlson. I couldn’t possibly list every prominent ongoing debate, there are so many.
One can witness the variated division between the remaining Republican presidential candidates. A divide also exists among Democrats between university-type leftists, Pro-Palestinian, and traditional Democrat Pro-Israel stances, especially represented by Senator Chuck Schumer and others.
The Animosity Toward Israel
Hatred of Israel across the world validates biblical prophecy. Despite propaganda-like support from Hollywood and in the mainstream media for the Jews and against genocidal treatment, hatred reaches a recent high everywhere. Based on its mere size, Israel would not deserve or receive this animosity, yet it does. Why and how? Two reasons.
One, Satan opposes Israel still. He wants to throw a wrench into the ongoing plan of God in the world. He has strong influence on the easily manipulated lost nations and their leaders. Two, God still fulfills prophecy with chastisement of Israel. Israel does not have a statute of limitations on God’s reprimands. I wish for open eyes for Israel, although I don’t expect it. Yet, God still isn’t done with Israel; hence the continued discipline.
As an example of division, many reading this nod “no” in strong opposition to what I write here. Many both amillennialists and postmillennialists see God done with Israel, replaced by the church. When I say “church,” I mean their version of God’s kingdom on earth, made up of Christendom. They see Israel as an unbelieving, rebellious people, who deserves no special favor against the Arabs in Palestine.
Candace Owens, who professes Christianity, married a Roman Catholic. Maybe she leans that way now. She can find support from Reformed evangelicals with a similar view of the world. You look at the history of Roman Catholicism and even the European Protestant state churches, and you see historical anti-semitism. Tucker Carlson grew up Episcopalian and he seems right now to return to some version of Christian nationalism, as seen in his interviews of foreign Christian nationalists. I see Vladimir Putin himself a kind of Christian nationalist, more interested in the survival of his nation and culture.
Jewish Anger toward Hamas and Palestine
What I’m writing in this post would require book or dissertation level analysis. I’m not going to write that, even though it’s an interest.
I understand Shapiro’s anger. Hamas killed 1,500 Israelites and took 240 hostages. The United States is 33 times the population of Israel and had 3,000 killed on 9-11. That means this is at least fifteen times worse, and it’s almost immeasurable with the way Hamas did it.
Remove the religious and ethnic component, and even as an international incident, if Israel acts like any other nation, it would react more harsh than it even is acting. When I hear Shapiro defend Israel’s reaction, I agree with him. I’ve heard both sides of the argument in all their iterations and I support Israel’s argument. The United States should just let Israel do its thing and not get in the way. I would advocate for U.S. backing and support if international escalation occurred from prominent Israeli enemies like Iran.
Varied Points of View, Yet Still Supporting Israel
Support without Foreign Aid
On the other hand, I like the idea of not sending money to Israel. I’m in the proto-Republican anti-intervention, quasi-isolationist camp. This is more in the realm of a fresh realization of the Monroe doctrine. The United States solidifies its own security and borders, solves its own very serious problems first. It follows the Pauline view of bearing your own burdens before you bear those of others.
As a companion to everything else, I like firming up freedom of speech. Some of this relates to a reaction to January 6 compared to Antifa and BLM riots and the denial of a rigged 2020 election and the denial of 2016 election seen in the Russian Hoax and Hunter Biden laptop. I understand the concerns over any even questioning of Israel policy as anti-semitic. White people in the United States, Israel supporters, have felt left out of the concern over racism from American Jews in comparison with silence over Antifa and BLM. Apparent first amendment supporters should allow free expression of these inconsistencies without pulling an anti-semitism card.
Democrat support of Israel comes with obvious strings attached. American money brings American supervision or control. When America attacked Iraq after 911, relatively little criticism came for collateral damage, death of innocent civilians. This is the cost of war for American retaliation. Hamas uses children as human shields and Israel must pause its offensive, perhaps leaving Hamas intact. The United States should consider not sending monetary support and just allowing Israel free reign on its own security. American Democrat politics affect Israeli security, bouncing Israel around like a political volleyball.
Hatred from Jews for their Own Supporters
It is tough to bridge historical support of Israel with the typical woke politics among Jews in the United States and Israel. Almost 50% of Jews in Israel self-identify as secular. They support same sex marriage and other forms of moral perversion, not operating according to objective truth. 62 percent of the 7.6 million Jews in the United States are secular. 79% voted Democrat in the 2018 midterm elections.
Pew Research did a study on American Jews in 2020 and 81 percent of Orthodox Jews supported Trump. On the other hand, the same study said 73% of all Jews opposed Trump. This describes the difference between a secular and religious Jew in the United States. Recently, secular Jew Barbara Streisand complained that she would not live in the United States if Donald Trump became president again. She would move to England — you know, the place where 300,000 pro-Hamas protestors recently gathered on the streets of London against Israel.
Shapiro himself sometimes plays, I believe, to the secular Jew. Perhaps a form of self-preservation innate from hundreds of years of persecution explains. As a professing Orthodox Jew, attaching himself to the Old Testament in a prominent way, he uses profane language and tells dirty jokes in public. Then when an Owens or Tucker, whom I would see as supporters of Israel, albeit in a lesser way, he reacts in a ballistic manner. When questioned on Trump in a secular crowd, he throws Trump under the bus in a harsher way than he would George Soros or Bill Maher.
Support of Israel and Milquetoast Response
Part of the Abrahamic Covenant, which is still intact, is that God promised He would bless people that bless Israel. Among other reasons, that explains a strong support of Israel in the United States, including welcoming those 7.6 million Jews in the United States. A majority of those Jews have been sharply antagonistic with their chief supporters, many expressing intense hatred for them. This communicates the peculiar situation this issue provides. You can greatly dislike the Jewish worldview while really loving and bestowing support for Jews and Israel.
No group provides as sharp and hateful rhetoric toward Christians in the United States like Jews do. Israel’s protection in the Middle East greatly depends on this group of people mainly hated by Jews in the United States. In a personal way, I’ve received no greater disrespect than I have from Jews and on many different occasions. I’ve never treated a Jew in a bad way, always in a loving way. A small percentage of the Jews I’ve known return that favor. Of course, they might explain that they don’t like the reason why we love them so much.
Many forms of contradiction occur over the issue of Israel and Palestine. A Jew easily can confuse a Catholic from a Protestant from an Evangelical. Even on this blog, in the comment section some attack Israel for Christian reasons while we defend Israel for Christian reasons. They both can’t be right, yet they both exist.
More to Come
Is the King James Version Too Hard to Understand? (White 11)
The James White / Thomas Ross Preservation / King James Version Only debate examined the topic:
“The Legacy Standard Bible, as a representative of modern English translations based upon the UBS/NA text, is superior to the KJV, as a representative of TR-based Bible translations.”
In our debate, James White claimed that the Authorized, King James Version was too hard to understand. He also made this claim in his book The King James Only Controversy. Dr. James White’s argument has been employed by others as well, such as the Bob Jones University graduate Mark Ward. In my eleventh review video of the James White / Thomas Ross debate, I examine the KJV’s “Translators to the Reader” and point out that Dr. White confuses the KJV preface’s claim that their version would be understood by the common man with White’s own claim that the Bible must be in the language of the common man. To my knowledge, James White never acknowledges this important distinction.
The King James Version is Modern English
I also point out that the King James Bible is not in Old English, nor in Middle English, but in Modern English, and that scholars of the English language have dated the rise of modern English from the translation of the KJV:
Old English or Anglo-Saxon -1100
Transition Old English, or “Semi-Saxon” 1100-1200
Early Middle English, or “Early English” 1200-1300
Late Middle English 1300-1400
Early Modern English, “Tudor English” 1485-1611
Modern English 1611-onward
The English Of the King James Version
Is Easier than the Hebrew and Greek of the Inspired Old and New Testament
I then deal with the crucial question-which I have not seen addressed elsewhere by opponents of perfect preservation and the Textus Receptus, and which I wish defenders of preservation would address more frequently and with more completeness–of the objective standard of what “too hard” is for a translation, namely, the level of difficulty of the original Hebrew and Greek texts themselves. Is the King James Version harder English than the Hebrew of the Old Testament or the Greek of the New Testament? This crucial question is answered “no!”
The crucial question: Is the English of the King James Version significantly more complex and harder to understand English than the Greek of the New Testament was to the New Testament people of God or the Hebrew of the Old Testament was to Israel? The answer: No! The New Testament contains challenging Greek (Hebrews, Luke, Acts) as well as simple Greek (John, 1-3 John). Sometimes the New Testament contains really long sentences, such as Ephesians 1:3-14, which is all just one sentence in Greek. The Holy Ghost did not just dictate very short Greek sentences like “Jesus wept” (John 11:35) but also very long sentences, like Ephesians 1:3-14. God did not believe such sentences were too hard to understand, and both God and the Apostle Paul were happy for inspired epistles with such complex syntax to be sent to churches like that at Ephesus–congregations that were filled, not with highbrow urban elites, but with slaves, with poorly educated day laborers, with farmers, and with simple peasants who had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Similarly, parts of the Hebrew prophetic and poetical books are much more challenging Hebrew than are many of the narrative sections of the Hebrew Bible. The Old Testament also contains some very long sentences. The whole chapter, Proverbs 2, is one sentence in Hebrew, for example.
There are also more rare or hard-to-recall words in the original language texts than there are in the English of the KJV.
Thus, evaluated by the objective standard of the literary level of the inspired Hebrew and Greek texts of Scripture, the King James Version is NOT too hard to understand. If you encounter people who argue that the KJV is too hard to understand, I would encourage you to challenge them to consider whether their claim is true based on the linguistic level of the original language texts of the Old and New Testaments.
Learn more by watching debate review video #11 at faithsaves.net, or watch the debate review on YouTube or Rumble, or use the embedded link below:
Please also check out the previous debate review blog posts here at What is Truth?
–TDR
What Is the “Mind Virus” Of Which Elon Musk Alludes?
Elon Musk and the Mind Virus
Civilizational Threat
Not until very recently did I hear the terminology, “mind virus,” and it came from Elon Musk (the wealthiest man in the world) in various podcast interviews. In a few of those by various individuals, he talks about the “mind virus” as a civilizational threat. When asked why he bought Twitter (now X), even though it was an apparently very bad investment, he explains that he did it to ward away again, “civilizational threat.” He saw a particular mind virus, which took the world in a trajectory that he assessed would result in the destruction of humanity. His purchase of X would push that back for a time, Musk surmised.
Elon Musk could be right, depending on what the real “mind virus” is. The terminology hearkens to a biblical truth that gets at the crux of the real problem in the world. The actual mind virus is not, however, we know, the same one of which he speaks, based on scripture. Yet, mind virus as a concept, I would agree, depending on its definition, is the greatest civilizational threat.
Richard Dawkins and “Viruses of the Mind”
It seems that the words “mind virus” originated with Richard Dawkins with a 1991 article, entitled, “Viruses of the Mind,” originally delivered as a lecture. Others that then used the terminology equated a similar concept. Dawkins saw religious faith as the chief mind virus, but really faith itself, people with which he calls “faith sufferers.” His point, albeit very false, was that faith bypassed evidence, so it mainly blocked or impeded evidence.
In most recent times, maybe the most common usage of “mind virus” refers to the technical terminology, “woke mind virus.” Googling those three exact words brought me 123,000 hits. This seems to be where we’ve settled in the realm of “mind virus.’ “Woke mind virus.” References to “mind virus” now mean “woke mind virus.”
Meaning of Woke Mind Virus
Musk’s Definition
At the top of a google search is an article at Rolling Stone, titled, “Elon Musk and Bill Maher Fear the ‘Woke Mind Virus’.” When asked, Musk defined this virus as “anything anti-meritocratic and that results In the suppression of free speech.” He said the main cause of it is “the amount of indoctrination that’s happening in schools and universities.” One man, I think, accurately described the woke mind virus with the following quote by G. K. Chesterton:
We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which furious party cries will be raised against anybody who says that cows have horns, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure, and hang a man for maddening mob with the news that grass is green.
Some of that to which Musk refers is what I also believe is the mind virus, including in his assessment of Netflix. Commenting on the hemorrhaging of Netflix subscriptions, Musk said Netflix was “unwatchable” because of its “woke mind virus.”
The Real Woke Mind Virus
“Woke” became contemporary terminology to describe a state of totally subjective enlightenment, untethered to objective reality. Someone woke is awake to something probably invisible to almost everyone. An apparent woke person can see someone is a racist like a Geiger counter picking up radioactivity. No evidence of racism is necessary. His inner Geiger counter detects racism; therefore, it must be there. A woke practitioner also sees more than two sexes and even fluidity in gender identity, where someone can label himself a woman, when he is a man, even depending on the day of the week.
A Reprobate Mind
What Musk called the “woke mind virus” is what Romans 1:28 calls “a reprobate mind,” that does not “like to retain God in [its] knowledge.” Concerning the same, 2 Timothy 3:8 says, “these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.” It’s what 2 Thessalonians 2:11 calls a “strong delusion.” In modern vernacular, someone infected with the woke mind virus is delusional. 2 Corinthians 3:14 and 4:4 say these people’s minds are blinded, so that they cannot see the light of God’s truth.
Musk himself rejects the light of the gospel. He considers the earth billions of years old and that man emerged from naturalistic evolutionary processes. Musk also contends that an extinction event for earth is inevitable. He says, “An extinction event is inevitable and we’re increasingly doing ourselves in.”
Public schools keep teaching lies of the most fundamental and foundational nature. These lies are the root that poison every fruit on the entire tree. They are what Paul calls, “imaginations that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5). These ways that seem right unto man, Solomon says are the ways of death (Proverbs 14:12).
Prevenient Grace
How do Musk and other’s like him, themselves deluded, correctly identify the woke mind virus? In a default manner, God gives every human “the law written in their hearts” (Romans 2:15). The same verse says, “the conscience also bearing witness.” In the previous chapter, the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 1:19: “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.” C. H. Spurgeon said in a sermon entitled, Prevenient Grace, preached:
PREVENIENT GRACE, or the grace which comes before regeneration and conversion. I think we sometimes overlook it. We do not attach enough importance to the grace of God in its dealings with men before He actually brings them to Himself. Paul says that God had designs of love towards him even before he had called him out of the dead world into spiritual life.
That grace doesn’t end in salvation for everyone, as seen in Romans 1:18. Even though they know God through many general means, men still suppress the truth in their unrighteousness. As a result, they become “vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21). This is another description of the “woke mind virus.”
The virus also creeps into churches. Churches accommodate the world system. They subjugate themselves to conventional wisdom, what James 3:15 calls “wisdom [that] descendeth not from above, earthly, sensual, devilish.” These are what the Apostle Paul calls in 1 Corinthians 2:13, “the words which man’s wisdom teacheth.” He also calls it “the carnal mind [that] is enmity against God” (Romans 8:7).
The True Woke Mind Virus
Musk doesn’t know or understand the true woke mind virus. Yes, the god of this world deludes most men, including Musk, and God turns them over to a reprobate mind. They are bewitched like the Galatians, “that they should not obey the truth” (Galatians 3:1).
The only escape from the woke mind virus is what Paul calls ‘the law of the mind’ (Romans 7:23). This is akin to replacing the “heart of stone” with a “heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19, 36:26). With this change of nature, man can and will think characteristically how God wants him to think. This is the only true and real cure for the woke mind virus. God can and will deliver through the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul writes (Romans 7:25):
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God.
The Colossal Emphasis Put on Mercy in the Bible
Mercy in Scripture
The English word “mercy” is pivotal in all the English Bible. I say English Bible, because it’s tough to accommodate the main Hebrew word translated “mercy” with just “mercy.” It is the Hebrew word, chesed. Maybe you’ve even heard someone say that word in a sermon or class. Maybe you know Hebrew.
Forms of the English word mercy, which include mercies and merciful, occur 361 times in the King James Version. The Old Testament usages are not always chesed, but they are mainly chesed, and the Hebrew Old Testament uses that word 261 times. The first time chesed appears in the Old Testament (Genesis 19:19), the King James Version translates it “mercy.” The next time in Genesis 20:13, the KJV translates it “kindness.”
I say “colossal emphasis put on mercy in the Bible” because forms of the word “grace” are found 204 times. “Goodness” is found 50 times. Yes, “love” is a lot — 310 uses of the noun form in the English. The adding of the related words to love, including the verb forms, sees “love” in a greater place in the Bible.
Undeserved
Very often when I’ve read about chesed, defining it as “lovingkindness,” and yet it’s main historic English translation is “mercy.” At the root of this attribute of God and transient attribute, because God allows and even requires mercy from man, is the undeservedness of the recipients. Mercy is the flip side of justice. The recipients of God’s mercy deserve justice but receive mercy. In this is the withholding of punishment deserved.
I want to focus on the first usage in the New Testament in the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus in Matthew 5:7: “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” There are six Greek words in that verse, two of which are related: eleemon and eleeo. The first is an adjective, “merciful,” and the second is a verb, “they shall obtain mercy.”
Salvation Evidence
The beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount provide first entrance requirements (5:3-6) and then expected outcomes (5:7-12). The expected outcomes give the audience the evidence of salvation. The first evidence or outcome revealed by Jesus: mercy. Based on the order, it is the fundamental attribute that indicates salvation in a person.
You can see mercy as the expected outcome of the righteous in the Old Testament.
Hosea 6:6, “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”
Micah 6:8, “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
God could just immediately destroy anyone based on what they’ve done. He doesn’t because mercy characterizes Him. This is not His nature. When He saves someone, mercy becomes their nature.
Mercy at the Bottom of Goodness
In recent days, I wrote the following:
Habakkuk 1:13 says about God, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil.” He can’t even behold evil. Yet, God withholds from men the punishment for sin, and that’s even before salvation. No one would make it to his salvation without the mercy of God. Then after God saves a person, he does not live sinless perfection.
You reader do not live sinless perfection. Yet God doesn’t kill you immediately for that. Mercy should motivate surrender to Jesus Christ. Then once someone receives Jesus Christ, God’s mercy is far, far more than enough to sustain constant living for God, faithfulness to Him and His Word, and continuous love for Him. Think mercy. Mercy, mercy, mercy.
Every goodness every person experiences finds mercy at the bottom of it. No one deserves it, but deserves just the opposite.
The Mother’s Womb
A common word translated mercy in the Old Testament, rachamim, has at its root, the word “womb.” When you do a search on the root of the word, “womb” comes up again and again. Womb? Yes. In the womb, the connection forms between child and mother. Consider Jeremiah 31:20 when you think of “womb” and “mercy”:
Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.
God made man in His image. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have a connection to men. The goodness men receive evinces the connection God has.
Mothers as a strong instinct do not want the destruction of their children, even when they sin against her. Notice then this in Jesus in Matthew 23:37:
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Despite Israel’s treatment of God, this was God’s sentiment toward Israel. Mercy offers vivification for every human spirit against the bad all around the world. It’s there to embrace and enjoy. If you haven’t received Jesus Christ, let mercy provide the impetus to come to Him.
Israel & Hamas: Just War vs. Pure Evil & the United States
As blog readers surely know, on October 7 thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and butchered and tortured many helpless Israeli citizens. On the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, they did things like the following:
A young boy and girl, 6 and 8 years old, and their parents were around the breakfast table. The father’s eye was gouged out in front of his kids. The mother’s breast was cut off, the girl’s foot amputated, and the boy’s fingers cut off before they were executed. And then their executioners sat down and had a meal.
In total, around 1,400 Israelis have been murdered by Hamas, and more than 4,500 injured. It was Israel’s 9-11.
In response, Israel invaded Gaza, intending to overthrow Hamas. Israel told civilians to leave the northern area ahead of time–but Hamas told them not to leave, and was turning people back into the war zone. (Did Hamas give early warning to Jewish civilians before launching their unprovoked attack? Hmm.) Hamas deliberately puts people in Gaza in harms way so that they can be killed, and then Israel can be blamed. Hamas’ main headquarters is underneath Gaza’s main hospital because Hamas knows that Israel respects human life, while they do not.
What are some things we can learn from this war?
1.) It is a just war for Israel. Anyone who recognizes that God blesses those who bless Israel (Genesis 12:3) should automatically be biased in Israel’s favor in a situation like this one, but even if one very foolishly rejects God’s Word, anyone with half a brain can see which side is right in this war.
2.) Hamas is acting like faithful Muslims should act. They are obeying the god of Islam, who told them: “slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush” (Quran 9:5). The Quran is full of open-ended commands to violently kill people, and Muhammad was a bloodthirsty murderer, as one can clearly see if one reads his biography.
3.) Not just Hamas, but Muslims in general have an anti-Jew problem, because of their religion. Is every Muslim anti-Jewish? No–many Muslims do not care about their religion, just like many Roman Catholics don’t care what the Bible says or the Pope decrees. But the Muslims that do care about their religion are anti-Israel. Why is Rashida Tliab advocating and defending genocide of the Jews? Her district is full of Muslim immigrants. Islam in America–like Islam everywhere that it is true Islam–is violent and bloodthirsty, which is why the most dangerous evangelistic endeavour I ever had, where I was closest to being killed, was not at various Gay Pride parades, but in the American heartland politely and respectfully passing out the evangelistic work The Testimony of the Quran to Muslims. A majority of American Muslims are at least partially in favor of the brutal murders that Hamas committed on October 7, and around 40% of them approve the terrorist leader of Hamas. Imagine if 40% of any other demographic were in favor of terrorism. The people in Gaza voted in Hamas. Now since that vote there have been no other elections, since Islam is against democracy and in favor of dictatorship. There are no free and fair elections under Sharia law. But when the Muslims in Gaza had a chance to vote, Hamas won.
4.) Because the left is anti-Bible, and because Joe Biden needs Muslim votes in swing states like Michigan to win reelection, the Democrat party is becoming more and more anti-Jewish. Calling on Israel for a ceasefire is absolutely bonkers. More Jews were killed in a single day than at any time since the Holocaust, but Biden calling on $100 million in aid to the Muslims in Gaza and the West Bank for “humanitarian” purposes is about what the Babylon Bee described it as, and the money is certain to be diverted to support terrorism. Would we have been fine with calling for a ceasefire after 9-11 and then giving “humanitarian” aid to the Taliban and Al Qaeda? Biden should be calling on Israel to utterly obliterate Hamas. Hamas should immediately release all American hostages and all other hostages. Anyone who actually cares about the people in Gaza not getting killed should want Hamas overthrown as soon as possible.
5.) Because the mainstream media is dominated by the left, all kinds of false equivalencies are made between Israel’s just war and Hamas’s unjust murders. Inflated numbers of casualties in Gaza are repeated by major press organizations from figures spoon-fed to them by Hamas itself. Of course, Islam allows Muslims to lie. Reporters in Gaza can either repeat what Hamas tells them to report or they can get tortured and killed themselves, or at the very least get kicked out of the territory. How many Jewish reporters do you think are on the ground in Gaza getting information? Oh yes, the same number as the number of Jews who live in Gaza–zero–while in Israel Muslims are around 20% of the population and have equal rights (yes, the freest place for Muslims in the Middle East is in Israel). And even though Israel is the freest place in the Middle East for Muslim Arabs, usually only around 33% of Arab Israeli citizens oppose Hamas, and the large majority oppose Israel’s defending itself; immediately after this butchery of Israelis–including Arab Muslim ones–23% of Arab Israelis still do not oppose Hamas, while 33% oppose Israel defending itself even while the blood of their murdered and tortured fellow citizens is barely dry. Israel is pressured to stop fighting because its terrorist, true Muslim opponents in Hamas want as many of their own civilians killed as possible. (If you want information about Israel that is free from anti-Jewish bias, please check out FLAME: Facts and Logic about the Middle East, and consider their newsletter. They are a Jewish, not a Christian organization.) The mainstream media are very, very worried about the the three Nazis that are left joining with the 17 KKK members in the country holding a demonstration somewhere that has thousands of counter-protesters, but a blind eye is turned to the vast multitude of American Muslims who are actually in favor of killing the Jews.
6.) The fact that this is a just war for Israel does not mean that Israel is a righteous country. The vast majority of Jews reject and hate their Messiah, the Lord Jesus. Jews from all over the world are allowed to immigrate to Israel, but Jews who believe Jesus is the Messiah are not allowed in. Tel Aviv is considered one of the most gay friendly cities in the world, despite the clear statements in the Old Testament about the abomination of sodomy. Moses in Deuteronomy 28 describes exactly what Israel has faced for the last 2,000 years since “all the people … said, His blood be on us, and on our children” (Matthew 27:25):
And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. (Deuteronomy 28:66-67)
Israel is not going to have peace, not only because the nation is surrounded by Muslims who hate Jews like the Quran tells them to do, but because the curses of Deuteronomy are upon them, and will continue on them until they repent and believe on their Messiah, the Lord Jesus.
7.) As individual Christians and churches, the best thing we can do is preach the gospel to every creature. Love and preach the gospel to the Jews and send evangelists to them. Love and preach the gospel to the Muslims and send evangelists to them. How well equipped are you to evangelize Jews? How about Muslims? Do you have tracts for these two specific false religions? Love your neighbor as yourself. How well would you want a Christian to be equipped to speak to you if you were lost in one of these false beliefs?
8.) From a public policy perspective, the United States should support Israel because God has sworn in the Abrahamic Covenant that He would bless those that bless Israel, something repeated throughout the Old Testament. God used Babylon to punish His rebellious people centuries ago, and He uses Islam to punish them today, but woe to the Babylonians and to the Muslims who attacked the Jews! If someone says we give Israel too much foreign aid and we can’t afford it, he is consistent if he is also aware that foreign aid to all countries is less than 1% of the federal budget and is also in favor of the kind of drastic entitlement reform that could actually save us from defaulting on our national debt. If he doesn’t want to either abolish or drastically reform Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, but is very indignant about foreign aid to Israel (most of which, for weapons, goes to American companies), his position is not very consistent. Once someone is a citizen here, he has freedom of religion and speech. He is free to be a fool and put on a white hoodie and burn crosses. He is free to be a fool and chant “From the river to the sea” and so call for genocide of Jews. But we should let as few of these people immigrate here as possible. Muslims who actually believe in Islam should not be let into the country, and those non-citizens who believe in Islam’s teachings about jihad should be deported. Furthermore, we need to recognize that, like Muhammad, modern faithful Muslims respect power, not truth. When Muhammad was powerful, he killed the non-Muslims; when he was weak, he advocated religious tolerance. If we want to deter terrorism and want there to be more peace, and less war, then Israel should be allowed to enact a ferocious response on Hamas that will discourage the Muslims who surround Israel from acting upon their religion’s murderous and anti-Jewish teachings.
By the way, Russia is also guilty of awful war crimes in Ukraine. (Did you know Ukraine has the second largest number of Baptists of any European country–only less than the UK?) Deterring Russia means letting the Ukrainians defend themselves. Ronald Reagan, in God’s good providence, won the Cold War by helping to arm those who fought the Russians when they were invading. We should balance the budget and pay off our national debt by fixing entitlements, and that can be done while, without putting any Americans on the front lines to fight, we send weapons to an imperfect but pro-Western nation with freedom of religion that the Russians decided to butcher the citizens of in their cruel, unjustified, barbaric, and wicked invasion.
The Experience of Divine Hiddenness
Is God Hidden?
Is God hidden? Yes and No. God doesn’t hide Himself. In people’s experience, He remains hidden. That doesn’t mean He is in fact hidden. They experience Divine hiddenness.
In scripture, people experience Divine hiddenness. Job said to God (13:24):
Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?
The Psalmist says in Psalm 10:1:
Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
Unbelievers claim the hiddeness of God in Isaiah 45:15:
Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.
God Himself says that people say He hides Himself. They are Egyptians, Ethiopeans, and Sabeans (Isaiah 45:14). This isn’t new at all.
Argument for Atheists
Divine hiddenness is a hot new argument for atheists. It shows up in the most recent material of philosophical atheism:
However, “divine hiddenness” refers to something else in recent philosophical literature, especially since the publication of J.L. Schellenberg’s landmark book, Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason (1993). In this context, it refers to alleged facts about the absence of belief in God’s existence, on the basis of which one might think there is no God.
For example, Schellenberg argues that, since there are nonbelievers who are capable of a personal relationship with God and who do not resist it, there is no perfectly loving God, while Stephen Maitzen argues that naturalism better explains the “demographics” of nonbelief than theism and Jason Marsh argues that naturalism better explains “natural nonbelief” than theism. Understood in this way, divine hiddenness constitutes putative evidence for atheism.
Some people do not recognize the existence of God and they use as their basis the reason that God hides Himself from them. Others acknowledge God exists, but He does not appear to them in their estimation enough for them to believe. They live like He doesn’t exist.
The Crown Performance
People require God to give them, what I call, the “crown performance.” They expect God to come to them like a traveling minstrel. They hold Him hostage. If He will not provide the necessary experience they require, they will not believe in Him. What I’m describing is unbelief. Unbelief requires more and then more revelation from God.
As an argument, Divine hiddenness contrasts with the sovereignty of God. Men become sovereign. If God does not accede to however unbelievers expect Him to appear, they can ghost Him. God must obey their chosen methodology, because they are ultimately in charge. It exalts their intellect, which is too lofty to accept God’s kind of evidence. He’ll just have to do better, if they will acquiesce to Him.
Those who embrace the hiddenness of God set the terms for God’s revelation. He must accede to their expectations. If not, they justify their unbelief with hiddenness.
Sincerely Seeking?
Many of those who use Divine hiddenness as their reasoning for unbelief proclaim their own sincerity. They really want God. These unbelievers truly seek for Him, based on their own testimonies. If He would give them but a glimpse, a brief flash of light from Him, they would believe.
God says, I’m not going to hide. I’m revealing myself to everyone (Rom 1:19-21). It’s not that people can’t know God. They refuse the means by which He reveals Himself. Rather than receive His revelation of Himself in the manner He gives it, they want something else.
Unbelief makes excuses for not believing. To the unwillingness to receive what God shows of Himself, Jesus says in Matthew 12:39:
An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it.
Then He says it in Matthew 16:4:
A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it.
The gospels record this teaching of Jesus again in other places (Mark 8:12, Luke 11:29). A sign points to the reality of God’s existence.
God Wants Relationship, Not Mere Acknowledgement
On Divine hiddenness, I wrote earlier this year:
People may not use this exact language, but in essence they very often ask a question concerning God, “Why is God so hidden?” God could have made more evident His existence and the truth of Christianity. He could make his existence as plain as anything. First though, scripture doesn’t read like God tries to persuade belief in His existence. No, God manifests Himself toward free reception of a saving, love relationship with Himself.
God knows the evidence sufficient for people with open minds and hearts. If you seek Him while He may be found, He will be found (Isaiah 55:6-7). But that means you want Him. This is your first act of worship of God, an offering of your soul to Him. This is more than mere acknowledgment of His existence, like the demons (James 2:19).
Faith in God’s love and knowledge acquiesces to the superiority of His ways. He displays His goodness and mercy in the way He reveals Himself. First, God uses it to bring the most people to Himself and, second, He leaves suitable ambiguity against hardening hearts toward Him. God does not force lost men to believe. He gives ample time and opportunity to encounter the dramatic, true story of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and His glorious resurrection and ascension. The foolishness of God is wiser than men, His weakness stronger than them.
A big difference exists between God hiding Himself and His revealing Himself in an unsuitable way to an unbeliever. Just because someone says he’s sincere in his seeking doesn’t mean he is. God judges that sincerity by His Word and that professing seeker falls short.
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