Part One - Man's Duty to Man
by Ron Panzer
August 27, 2016
https://www.hospicepatients.org/radical-radical-1-duty-of-man.html
"I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse.
Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live" Deut. 30:19
... You must not stand aside
when your neighbor's blood is being shed;
I am the Lord.
- Leviticus 19:16 (from the original Hebrew, Orthodox Jewish Bible translation)
The scripture from Deuteronomy is probably the most quoted in pro-life circles, and reminds us to promote life and protect life in our own circle of life. But, the second one from Leviticus is what calls on us and demands that we act on behalf of another, even to protect unknown strangers, and even risk our lives so that their lives may be preserved. It is a verse that those of faith, and those who labor in this mission hope that many others will hear so that they come and help in this work, to stop the bloodshed, the murders, the atrocities, and even the genocides.
We can trace the entire pro-life movement back to God's will expressed throughout the Bible and more concisely in this very commandment (mitzvot). That is what the original says in Hebrew. Not every translation conveys as complete an understanding.
What does it mean? Most directly, He is telling us to intervene to stop the bloodshed of anyone around us.
It means in part, if we are to be faithful to His will, it is not possible for us to choose to do, and actually do, nothing about the evils around us, especially when someone's life is about to be taken.
The pro-life movement can also be traced back to our own heart and conscience! Can we stand around and do nothing and still live with ourselves? If it were someone we knew and loved? Of course, we would act. But what if it is someone we don't know at all? We must take action anyway, to help those so desperately in need! We know without consulting any authority that doing nothing is wrong by the sense of shame and guilt we feel when we do nothing and turn away from those in need. That guilt and shame exist within us to help guide us to do the right!
If you or I recognize the unvarnished truth about the reality of this world, then we become radicalized and are never the same. We can no longer blindly believe in the intentionally false and misleading "white-washed" portrayals of those who govern, those who have achieved high positions in business and other areas of society, or even ourselves. We are all imperfect, with limitations, and are often foolish, selfish, and hurtful to others. Sometimes this realization of what we and the rest of the people in this world really are like comes after terrible suffering and even monstrous loss.
Recognizing the truth compels us to either act to avert further disaster — to at least speak up — or to consciously choose not to act and to remain silent. If that is what we choose, we will be responsible for the consequences of our choice forever. We can never go back in time to do now and "fix" what we didn't do then. We can only choose now because for all our lives, we only actually live in the present.
Why must we save others? Why must we speak out against these atrocities? What right do they have that requires that we act? Why must we heed their spoken or even unspoken pleas for help? There are many lofty arguments that might be given, but if we do not speak out, the abuses only get worse and worse until evil takes over! I find the following helpful: Elie Wiesel tells a story of a woman in Berlin who hid and saved Jews who were slated for annihilation by the Nazis during WW II. The reporters kept hounding her to explain why she risked her own life to save them. Finally, she said, "You want to know why I did it? Well, I'll tell you: out of self-respect."1
She got right to the point! God has placed within us a conscience, and for those whose conscience is properly informed and awakened, doing nothing is not even a choice! We are compelled to act on behalf of others for the same reason that a mother runs to save her child from being crushed by an oncoming car. When we know that God is aware, when we know that we are aware, can we live with ourselves if we do nothing? No!
Life itself demands that we act, and if we do not, we can surely know that we are not truly alive! Somewhere inside us a voice cries out for justice. Somewhere inside a voice cries out for peace and understanding, but no sooner than man has found just a little bit of these, others come and violate that peace and push aside our pleas for mutual understanding. These types just don't care! When we are confronted by them, what are we to do?
If we really have to ask, "Does this really apply to us?" or, "Who exactly is our neighbor?" We can be assured that we are far from where we need to be as moral human beings. If we really have to ask, we can be assured we are far from what it means to be a humane human being!
The dear Lord Jesus answered the question for us (Luke 10:25-37). If there is anyone in need and we find ourselves able to do so, we must help them, protect them, love them, and mercifully care for them as we ourselves would wish to be treated.
If we have a heart, we immediately know that we must go to them and help! God does not ask us to be saints! He asks us to be men and women that deserve the name men and women! Otherwise, we are doomed to live as worse than animals, because animals do not wage endless war for so many supposedly "great" justifications! However brutal life may be in Nature, they don't wage war at all. That is a particularly human evil!
Sometimes, like the courageous lady in Berlin, that help means valiantly risking our own lives. Sometimes it means serving on or maintaining a police force that will enforce the law, stop crime, and maintain order so the people live in peace. Sometimes it means praying for our unborn brothers and sisters who are being slaughtered.
Sometimes it means turning a listening ear to those who are grieving. Sometimes it means speaking up, exposing what is really going on, and working to stop it. We cannot remain silent, otherwise, we are "standing idly by" while the helpless are being killed!
Even more than that, it means that when we serve patients in any healthcare setting, we must treat every one of them as if God, Himself, were there laying in the bed. That is the kind of tender concern His love demands of us. He has given us more than much, so we must give much more to those we serve (Luke 12:48)!
Whether it is a threat to life from those acting within a healthcare setting, a threat to life from those who enter a village or nation to attack, or a threat to life from those who would sabotage the lives of many through regional or global acts of terror, we cannot remain silent. Haven't many of us been guilty of doing nothing for too long?
Whether it's killing patients, who simply need care, or killing those who do not follow one's political ideology, religion, or who belong to another nation, killing the innocent unborn, our own children — all of these are horrible evils and we must not stand idly by!
Sometimes acting to save others means standing up to healthcare bullies who intimidate the gullible family members into accepting an imposed death. But others may argue about how we are to proceed.
Some arrogantly tell us that their way is the only way, and whatever we have to say is of no importance. Some intentionally mislead others and have their own agenda in doing so! This suppression of dialogue even when we are trying to work together for the good is more than counterproductive and more than foolish.
Proverbs 15:22 tells us, "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed." Suppressing the voice of others is not loving, and it is not the way to unity and success. We all can learn something from others, and we should at least listen to hear what others have to say.
Nevertheless, we continually meet those who impose their will on others, believing they know better. They often do terrible harm even when they profess that they are interested in doing good and think they are doing good! They share that evil human failing of arrogantly refusing to allow dialog with those who intend good! Even those who are in the minority deserve to be heard! They may be sharing the truth! They may be sharing a solution!
But we do recognize that imposing death or imposing one's will on others in many ways is evil! Today, ever since the secular humanists have assumed leadership roles in government, entertainment, the universities, and in the major media, we know that speaking of evil is not politically correct. They hold ceremonies and conferences to award those who have achieved great things, praising the greatness of mankind, but they forget who created man, and they forget the extent of mankind's evil deeds.
They want to legalize assisted-suicide or euthanasia. For all practical purposes, is there a real difference in the end when surrogates may administer the lethal dose so a helpless patient can "commit suicide?" It is a deception! The actual intent of those pushing the legalization of these practices is to be able to end the lives of men, women, and children, no matter what mumbo-jumbo arguments they throw at us!
Some well-meaning but terribly naive secular humanists help to tilt the society toward this culture of death. Other secular humanists knowingly push for the culture of death. Make no mistake about it! Many are depopulationists who really, really want to make sure that you and your loved ones are killed (at some point when your lives no longer have value from their perspective!).
It's not that they love death itself. They love the elimination or annihilation of those they hate. The push to legalize assisted-suicide is all about killing others and absolutely not about one's right to commit suicide with the assistance of others. It is not about relieving unbearable pain. It is about killing!
If you tell me that they don't hate, that they just seek legalization of assisted-suicide or euthanasia to eliminate suffering, I will tell you that you have no idea! They truly hate the idea of the chronically-ill languishing for a few years in some extended care facility, or the cognitively disabled surviving, or the frail elderly persisting into their 100s and then "using up scarce medical resources and funds!" They hate that funds would be "wasted" on individuals that they don't consider to be real persons!
Oh yes! They hate! In l983, Daniel Callahan, then director of the Hastings Center, wrote that:
"...a denial of nutrition, may, in the long run,
become the only effective way to make certain that
a large number of biologically tenacious patients actually die."
[Daniel Callahan, "On Feeding the Dying," Hastings Center Report, October 1983, p. 22]
Yes, they already have the will to kill. They have crossed the line within but they seek to cross the line without! They seek the legal permission to kill! To kill, not in war, not in defense of one's loved ones or nation, but to kill innocent, helpless human beings! If they cannot yet be killed by a lethal medication overdose (because euthanasia has not yet been legalized), then Callahan and the many who have accepted his sinister strategy support depriving patients of food and water. It is a very effective method that was also used by the Nazis and Japanese to kill off some of those who persisted in living!
This method was used to execute a young wife who was disabled, abused, neglected, and absolutely not "brain dead:" Terri Schindler Schiavo! The many broken bones she had that night back in February of 1990 tell a different story! Her fractured posterior ribs, vertebral compression fractures, and distal femoral periosteal elevation, as well as her permanent neck injury — all could never, ever have arisen from simply "dropping to the floor" and collapsing!
She was traumatically injured, and then the victim of that trauma was made to die through Callahan's method (deprivation of food and water) later in front of the whole world, because she didn't die back then and just wouldn't die on her own! In Daniel Callahan's words, she was "biologically tenacious," and of course, in the view of the utilitarians, that was a terrible, terrible thing! Nurses who worked with Terri before she was fraudulently enrolled into hospice (because she was not terminal at all) have testified that her husband's exact words, screamed in the nursing home halls were: "When is that bitch going to die?" He also bragged that he was "going to get rich!"
The Nazis had the will to kill long before the Final Solution was actually implemented. Like Terri's "guardian" and legal husband, they had to wait impatiently until they had seized complete control of the German nation and then obtain legal permission to kill those they hated: the Jews. In Terri's husband's case, judging by his actions, it was his wife that he hated. He hated her so much that he could not tolerate that her family would take care of her. Or, perhaps he feared that one day she might recover and tell the truth about what happened that night so long ago.
So, who is pushing for legalization of assisted-suicide or euthanasia? Insurance companies, managed care organizations, and health maintenance organizations, who stand to reduce expenditures and take in more revenue. State and Federal government officials and bureaucrats who also seek to reduce expenditures on the elderly, disabled, congenitally different, and the chronically and terminally-ill.
Any others? The depopulationists who believe there are too many people on Earth and would be overjoyed if a billion of us were no longer living. The utilitarians, transhumanists, and those who subscribe to secular bioethics, as well as adult children and relatives who do not wish to care for dependent family members and wish to save the estate for themselves — among others. There are many aligned against the lives of your loved ones, even you, should you meet the criteria to move into their "disposables" category.
Our society's power structure has already been tilted beyond the tipping point and a major shift from a culture of life to a culture of death has occurred. That is why many decisions that are being made appear as complete madness to some, while others — anarchists, communists, socialist feminists, secular humanists, utilitarians, and others — who do not share traditional Judeo-Christian values, rejoice.
In their quest to suppress and stifle the voice of faith, they have demanded that language only be used for their agenda, and that language used to promote a Biblical worldview, a Judaic or Christian worldview, be condemned. What they define as good was traditionally regarded as evil, and what they regard as evil is what traditionalists consider good (Isaiah 5:20)! However, just because they insist on blacklisting terms like good and evil used with a faith-based understanding, that doesn't mean the terms don't apply!
In years to come we will be forgotten, but we must renew the voice that calls for a human brotherhood that honors the glorious God who created us and all that is. We must speak up for the helpless and act now!
Humanity has gone so far off the path and committed horrific atrocities and even genocide in its struggles for domination over others. We are so narcissistic, so full of ourselves that if anyone dares to think differently or challenge, we are offended! Even if they have been family members or our friends, we say, "No more!" "You are banned forever!" and we cut off the relationship. What heartache this intolerance causes!
Others disagree? We condemn them! If they seek to analyze our thought in ways that may expose the weakness of our position? We stifle them! If they seek dialog? We reject them. "Dialog is only for those who agree with us!" "That's the only way we will reach consensus and arrive at a decision!" If there are others who still "stubbornly" disagree? "Get rid of them!"
These are the signs of fanaticism, intolerance, hatred, bigotry, and racism. These arise from the hate within. These arise from a mind aligned with evil, and the fruit of this hatred, this evil, is violence, death, and war .
We are called to a higher and better way! If we are ever to find that better way, we must remember the God of love and wisdom who calls on us to be truly human, to be humble before Him and others, and to serve them tenderly.
When we speak of a culture of death, what we really are experiencing is an entire group of people who choose to act in a way that is in line with what they mistakenly believe to be "the right path" that might bring them what they seek, but which necessarily results in death for any who resist or who are deemed undesirable and expendable. At the heart of a culture of death is intolerant hatred for some and fanaticism about one's religious, ethnic, economic, or political beliefs.
It also includes the fanaticism of healthcare workers about their deadly healthcare practices, including those "holier than thou" hospice nurses who believe they can "do no wrong" but who have renounced the principle of doing "no harm!" Of course, there are many fine pro-life hospice nurses, doctors and others in the health care system, but in many cases they are being winnowed out of the system. They are either fired or forced to resign.
Fanaticism is not faith, even if its adherents profess to be religious and occupy themselves with religious rituals, customs, and ceremonies all the day long. Political fanatics do not worship God, but their intense, callous narrow-mindedness has the same quality as those who destroy religion while they profess to be the most religious of all.
Fanatics take offense and become enraged at any who question their beliefs, actions, or plans. They tell themselves and others, "I'm only trying to do what is best!" Yet, quite often, that "best" action may help them to enrich themselves or advance their own position, or strengthen their comrades' positions and influence. When we're considering a culture of death, there are always others who are looked upon as sacrificable for the cause! The ends always justify the means for the fanatic, and they wonder why anyone would ever question that.
We must understand that what people choose to will and do is guided by what they understand to be "the good" and the goal of life, however they express it. What they believe is the greatest good depends upon their worldview. If their worldview is not in line with reality and the God who created the reality we experience, then the actions they choose to do, will and must result in terrible harm, and even death, usually to others, but sometime later, possibly to themselves. All the problems of the world related to man's inhumanity to man arise from the various faces of evil in the world.
So, we can "understand" theoretically why the Nazis who sought to create their Aryan utopia and a race of "super men" committed unimaginable and truly un-believable crimes in their madness, committed genocide, and killed 6 million of my people, or why Stalin in the Soviet Union gave orders that resulted in the deaths of tens of millions in the Soviet Union. We "understand," but we do not accept! We understand they were aligned with horrific evil!
We will never accept what they did, and we will always remember so that we honor the victims who have no voice. We must speak for them now, because too, too many, all around the world stood "idly by when" their "neighbor's blood was being shed!"
On my father's side, my grandfather and grandmother were Jews who were living in Austria. On my mother's side, my grandmother was a Jew who had lived in Russia (like the Jews in Fiddler on the Roof) and my grandfather was a Jew who had lived in Poland. They came to America in the early 1900s, but there certainly were some relatives who were still living in Europe during the 1940s and were rounded up. It is clear that some of my family's cousins were sent to the death camps. If we were living then, there, we would be no more. How can anyone explain such evil?
Do you understand what the Nazis really did to approximately 6 million Jewish lives? Mothers and daughters stripped naked and — how do you describe what they did? Fathers and sons — the same. Most children younger than about 15 years were immediately killed upon entering the death camps. Of course, some were saved for horrific medical experimentation by monsters masquerading as men — men and women with hearts of pure evil. We need not mention here what was done to men, women, and children like you and me.
Think about your own children and imagine what these children experienced. Think what these mothers and fathers experienced as their children were killed in front of them. At some of the death camp sites, the layers of ash from their incinerated bodies is still visible today, over 70 years later!
If those taken to the death camps were not killed immediately, they were forced to work and fed almost nothing till their bones were visible from every side and they collapsed and then died. Jews, Gypsies, Christians and many other men, women, and children were wiped out. That is a culture of death! You must have witnessed memorial services where the names of the fallen are read aloud, right?
If we took just a mere 30 seconds to speak the name of each victim, how long would it take to honor each man, woman, and child killed? Well, this is grotesque to even think about this, but how long would it take? Correct me if I'm wrong. Earlier, I miscalculated the number of days needed to remember each one for just 30 seconds.
It is just not even conceivable how many were killed, but here we get a sense of the incomprehensible immensity and monstrousness of what was done: 6,000,000 x 0.5 minutes/person killed = 3 million minutes/60 minutes per hour = 50,000 hours/24 hrs in a day = 2,083 days/365 days in a year = 5.7 years! ... just to give each one of them only 30 seconds of remembrance! It really is not even possible to imagine the extent of the evil. There are no words to even begin to describe it. 6,000,000 people just like you and just like me.
We cannot even begin to understand the extent of the horror of what genocide means. From 1915-1923, the Ottoman Empire's (now Turkey's) Muslim population annihilated about 1.5 million Armenian Christians and many others. They hated Jews and Christians then, and hate them even today. That is genocide, and the use of that term originated as a way of recognizing what the Muslims in the land we now call Turkey did to the others who refused to convert to Islam! These are obvious cultures of death, but there are others we may not remember or even recognize for what they are.
We also may not understand that the threat of genocide swallowing up the lives of any one of us and our families, and the families of innumerable others really exists, even today! We scoff at the idea. "That's just not possible in modern times!" That's exactly what good-hearted but tragically naive people in Europe thought before Hitler seized total control and implemented his diabolical and monstrous agenda. They thought as you do, "Nobody would ever do such things!" "It's not possible."
But it was! And it is possible today, because there are those who think exactly the same as they did! They have influenced healthcare's precipitous fall into the abyss of undeclared imposed death as well as legalized killing. They consider killing the unborn embryonic and fetal human being a "sacred right." They despise those of faith who are "pro-life." They spit on them and shout them down if they are invited to speak on many college campuses.
There are others who seek to impose their political religion by force on others. They hold the same Nazi views and seek the deaths of "Americans," "Jews," "Christians," and any who disagree with their political ideology of creating a global Islamic regime.2 If we invite them into our communities, when they believe the time is right, they will practice what the Nazis did and seek to kill those who do not agree with them.
It is undeniable that this brutal and utterly ruthless destroyer of peace has arisen once more and is making war against the rest of the world. It is in the news every day and night. The Islamic State in Syria (ISIS) is one face. Al Qaeda is another. Boko Haram is another. These are just a few of dozens and dozens of militant, radical (meaning true to the fundamental teaching of the political, fanatical ideology) violent Islamic groups that are waging war against all who disagree with their interpretation of their political religion.
Many are afraid to speak up to share the truth, but if we fail to do so, we will be standing idly by when others' blood is shed! Even the many peaceful Muslims who do not agree with all this violence are afraid to speak up. They know that many, many Muslims have been killed for challenging the bloodthirsty fanatics. But, if we are to remain human, we must speak the truth now, warn others, and after recognizing the reality of the problem, act to protect those who are being targeted!
In Nazi-occupied Belgium in 1944, a young Jewish teen sensed that his entire family and world would be swallowed up by those who are filled with fanaticism and virulent hatred. Moshe Finkler's sad expression and words shared toward the end of his heart-breaking diary, "Young Moshe's Diary - The Spiritual Torment of a Jewish Boy in Nazi Europe"3 haunt anyone who reads them:
I am sitting at the window and readying myself for the ... prayer. I look out, and I see that all is red, that the whole horizon is red. The sky is covered with bloody clouds, and I am frightened when I see it. I say to myself:
"Where do these clouds come from? Bleeding clouds, where are you from?"
Suddenly everything is clear to me, everything is simple and easily understood. Don't you know? They come from the seas of blood. These seas have been brought about by the millions of Jews who have been captured and who knows where they are?
"We are the bleeding clouds, and from the seas of blood have we come. We have come to you from the place where your brothers are, to bring you greetings from your people. We are witnesses; we were sent by our people to show you their troubles. We have come from the seas of blood; we were brought into being by an inferno of suffering; and we are a sign of peace to you.
We have come straight from your people — do you still remember ...?
Shortly after this, the diary ends, as did Moshe's life. Moshe did remember his people for the brief time he was alive on this Earth. But most people do not remember! They don't want to remember! They have pushed such horrible memories — if they ever learned about the Holocaust — aside, out of mind, not to be thought of, not to be considered, not to interfere with the comfortable lives we have now! They do not wish to recognize the changes that are happening all around (Matthew 16:1-4). They protest, "No, we don't wish to be bothered!" "They won't come for me!" "Not my children!"
Moshe Finkler's diary ended in 1944 when he was still a teen; he died in Auschwitz after he and his family were deported by the Nazis to the death camps. You think, "That was then, not now!" But genocide is being committed today! Genocide is occurring right this minute in Iraq where the Yazidis and Christians are being crucified, beheaded, turned in sex slaves, raped, burnt alive, drowned, and more. Today!
It is happening in other nations as well, hundreds of crimes against the innocent all across the world, but the major media is downplaying it and ignoring most of it. If those who think that way and have done these things come here, and come in significant numbers, then they will do the same here when they can get the chance. That is simply the truth, not "fear mongering."
We can and must call these barbarities by their true name, "evil!" If an entire culture or sub-culture is guided by a false understanding of life, then that is a "culture of death" that can only result in the deaths of many thousands and even many millions of people. What will I do about it? What will you do?
When those advancing a particular culture of death seize control of the power structure, they do not tolerate those who object. They do not allow any interference with the achievement of their agenda, so they use dictatorial methods.
Communists believe that an elite group of government officials can dictate and micromanage all aspects of society and achieve a perfectly "just" society, so they perceive anyone who objects to their decisions or disagrees with their thoughts or actions, as "the enemy." They yell with outrage, "How dare you question the Revolution!" and have any who rebel imprisoned, tortured, or killed for being obstructors of their utopian goals.
Radical Islamists who follow the actual literal teachings and sayings found within the Qur'an and the Hadith have and do kill millions who disagree and oppose the establishment of the Islamic state. They yell with outrage, "How dare you question at all!" "Blasphemy!" and then also have any who rebel either imprisoned or killed for being obstructors of their goals.
Radical feminists, and those who have followed their teachings, have already killed over 55 million unborn human beings (in the USA alone since Roe v Wade). These unborn embryonic and fetal human beings4 (who live just as you and I once did), by simply living and existing, obstruct and interfere with the goal of total autonomy for women, for self, without regard to the consequences.
"I can not be bothered with this human being!" "I will not care for him!" "I will not care for her!" "Their rights don't count!" "They are not human!" "They are not!" "They are not!" — even though the basic biology learned as freshmen or sophomores in high school forces them on some level to realize that, "Yes, this is a tiny human being, my own flesh and blood!" But they harden their hearts and tell themselves, "I don't care!" "I will do what I want anyway!"
These women, and often the men who demand it or impose it, do this without regard for the lives of their very own unborn children who cannot even speak to call out, "Save me!" "Don't kill me!" "Please!" Yet, on ultrasound we can see them recoil in pain from the knife-like instruments used to tear their bodies apart!
These radical, secular feminists yell at any who question their icy attitude toward life, "How dare you question women's rights to kill the unborn!" "These are sacred rights!" "Sacred rights?" To kill one's own unborn child? It is only a sign of how evil their thinking has become that they would invoke God when mentioning the right to kill the life He created! "Sacred" means having to do with God!
Mother Teresa of Calcutta called this abominable act the most evil of acts, "the greatest destroyer of love and peace." If a mother can kill her own unborn child, then virtually any other evil can be permitted and then committed. The act crosses the line and violates our conscience! Those who accept it, accept the permission to kill others — helpless patients, for example, and others.
I would ask blacks who support abortion rights, what happened to the over 12 million black babies that were never born? What contribution to black society have they made? Where are their scientific achievements? What have they done to help other blacks? But I have to remind you, they were never born because of the culture of death machine called Planned Parenthood.
It sounds benign. Parents should be able to plan, right? But there is no plan for the life of the unborn black and others! The unborn are slain and the adults are manipulated to kill their own people by the socialists in government who have kept them on the welfare plantation for decades — and yes, the racism that fueled Margaret Sanger's hatred for blacks is still alive within the hearts and minds of the corporate administrators of Planned Parenthood and those who pledge unqualified support for it.5
Do black lives matter? Of course! But the Black Lives Matter movement will never admit that over 12 million unborn black lives matter. They will never work to stop the black on black crime that has killed tens of thousands of blacks. They will not work to help black men see that they must stay involved in their children's lives and marry the women who carry their babies to birth. Black Lives Matter doesn't care about black lives at all. It is actually all about communists creating anarchy and inciting violence so that the federal government can expand its reach into every major city and state, moving our nation even further into a socialized state.
Of course, radical, secular feminists only use the clinical term, "abortion," so they can more successfully deceive themselves and others about what is being done, and avoid any acknowledgement of the long-established science that clearly shows they are actually killing embryonic and fetal human beings who exist just as you and I! However, although they would like to do so, because they have not yet fully seized control of government, they are not yet able to imprison or punish those who object to what they are doing, what they teach, and what their ultimate goal actually is.
Those who promote a culture of death of any sort use deception as a tool to mislead others (Genesis 3:4). Language, the media, entertainments, and even governmental policies and laws become their tool. They lie — just as the earlier revolutionaries in Russia, Cuba, or China promised that a free and democratic utopian nation would be born. There is a tipping point where control of the power structure in a society may be seized through force or other means. When the tipping point is reached, and either their numbers or power are sufficient to seize control, these culture of death agents act decisively and swiftly. They push hard while most of the people are completely unaware what is actually being accomplished.
Once the tipping point has been reached, the process of subjugating the people and indoctrinating them begins, thereby ushering in the totalitarian state. That is their hope and that is their change!
Once the tipping point has been reached, transformation of the society moves rather swiftly, stunning those who were not paying attention to the incremental progressive changes that made society vulnerable to that final push. Think about a bottle filled with pure water. You push at the top and it tips just a little, and when you let go, it falls back so it remains standing upright. But keep pushing, and pushing, and pushing, and eventually and all of a sudden it falls all the way down and the pure water runs out. That is what has happened to our society, and the "bottle" is re-filled with "dirty water" — false beliefs that prop up those who have seized control of government and established the totalitarian state.
Instead of hoping in God's grace and goodness, they place their hope in man's designs and efforts. They believe man is great, and he is capable of much that is to be praised, but man is not God, and he is far from being perfect or generally moral at all. Throughout history man has inflicted unending suffering on others.
Instead of changing themselves to love others, to love God, and to live in harmony with God's Divine Law, they impose change on others as they see fit! Instead of aspiring to live as God would have them live with love for all, sacrificing at times for the good of others, the elite seek to make others live as they dictate. The unsuspecting masses learn only too late that the society they took for granted has been swept away and that they have been deceived. They bitterly realize with horror what the revolutionary reality actually is!
What is also common to all the culture of death agents is a virulent hatred for those who love life, who seek to protect life, and who maintain their faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and that of the Jewish and Christians everywhere. Secularists hate them. Islamists who follow the literal teachings given hate them. Nazis and Communists hate them. Transhumanist-Depopulationists hate them.
Today, many of these groups (secularists, communists, Islamists, transhumanists, and others) are working toward the same goal: to suppress the voice of both Jews and Christians all around the world. Anti-Semitism and anti-Christian fervor is at a global height that has not been seen since WW II.
As it is said, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," and the proponents of secularism, communism, Islamism, and transhumanist depopulationism have one shared goal: to remove the influence of Judeo-Christian values in Western society. They hope to change the very foundation of our laws and remove any vestige of Judeo-Christian influence. It is happening right in front of us and for all the world to see!
Some secular humanists tell me that they don't even understand the phrase, "culture of death." Perhaps that is because they are part of it without realizing it! When they are selected for death by those in power, will they blame those who value life for the legalization of euthanasia, physician assisted suicide, stealth euthanasia, and other methods of imposing death involuntarily on those who are unable to protect themselves at all? Maybe at the very end they will call out to God and ask Him to forgive them for denying Him for so long and contributing to the culture of death that exalts man, and with that, man's ability to kill.
This is a warning, a sounding of the alarm, to all who revere God and who revere life. The threat to peace and the people's very lives is becoming more and more obvious to anyone who is witnessing the events of our day. Violence against many lives is escalating all around the world, not just in remote lands far away. Patients' lives are also being threatened, but so many really do not understand the transformation that has been planned for so long and is being implemented day by day in all aspects of Western society.
Terror is terror whether it is aroused by an approaching army, by thieves, by gangs and drug dealers, by tyrannical government agents that arrest, imprison and torture the innocent, or by smiling but arrogant health "care" professionals that act to take life, even against a patient's strongest protests!
Terror is not just a word. When you get that terrible sinking feeling in your gut, you begin to tremble, you break out into a cold sweat, and your heart pounds within your chest. That is terror. When that threat to your life and those you love approaches, you know terror. You palpably fear for your life! Such an experience changes your life, if you survive.
You sense evil around you and if you are prepared and strong enough to fight and well-trained, you may fight. Otherwise, you try however you can to escape. What if you cannot escape and what if you are not able to fight and win? Then, you hide! You pray that you are not found, caught, and killed. You stay as still as a stone if you can. You try not to breathe, which you cannot do. You wait with dread and hope. That is what Anne Frank and Moshe Finkler did when the Nazis took over most of Europe. Hiding did not save them!
In every culture of death, there are those who are found and killed. Will it be you, your loved ones, or your neighbors? It depends upon what all of us do, right now! Shall we freeze in place doing nothing or shall we act with the hope that the future can be changed?
The Tides of History
It is imperative for pro-life individuals to understand the expanding modern-day threats to free speech, patient advocacy, conscience rights, pro-life work, patients' lives, or any one of our lives. In an actually ever-more violent world and more totalitarian nation, none of us would be free to speak our minds and advocate for the defenseless men, women, children and the unborn who are victimized and even killed.
Why should we care? There are many reasons. We already do care about those we love, but if we are true disciples of the dear Lord, we must care about all the human lives He has given us in this world. He has commanded us that we are not to stand aside and do nothing when our neighbor's blood is being shed (Leviticus 19:16). In addition, we may find that in the end, by saving others, we have saved ourselves in more ways than one.
The pro-life mission permeates both the Old Testament (Tanakh) and the New. The teaching, the love for all, the call to serve, is found throughout! If we take up this work, we may find a renewed faith, an influx of energy, because we are doing His will (Matthew 25:31-46)!
Who will save the helpless if we do not? Who? Will you?
If we do not, innocent men, women, and children will continue to be killed. Genocide against Christians, Jews, and many others has been committed in the past, but is being perpetrated against them right now. In some areas, they are being completely wiped out or literally enslaved!
Too many of us have sat back on the sidelines and allowed terrible changes to be made to our own nation. Today in some ways, the nation that we knew as the United States of America has already been re-formed into a socialist-leaning nation. Thousands and thousands of regulations governing many of the activities we do in business and in our lives have been issued by the Executive Branch's several departments, so that none of us can ever know them all!
With these changes comes a top-down, ever-expanding tyrannical approach to governing and controlling the people, rather than the original Constitutional intent that the government's elected officials and bureaucrats serve the people and be limited to only the powers set forth in the Constitution itself.
While our nation was without any doubt founded as a Christian nation — and every colony and state's founding documents reflect that reality — we have strayed so very far from the original intent of this nation. Straying this far, Christians, Jews, and anyone who is pro-life are now considered potential threats to the now secular, socialist-leaning, but nominally "free," nation. Just violate any of the many politically-correct, promoted ways of behaving and you will likely find yourself in jail or sued in court. Then you will understand!
In order to clearly see what is coming to our nation and our world in the very near future, we must know some of the historical events that have preceded our times. We must be able to see what the historical trends were and are now, as if we were figuratively viewing this world from near-Earth orbit over centuries. We might see one power sweeping across large regions of the Earth, seizing power and remaining in power for decades and more. We might then see other powers erasing one regional power and supplanting them over time. These are the tides of history — the trends that determine the societal environment within which real people live and die.
All of human history is filled with periods of peace — however brief those may be — and periods of conflict of all sorts: man against man, man against woman and woman against man, family against family, tribe against tribe, village against village, city against city, nation against nation, empire against empire. Alliances between individuals and groups have been formed in order to advance the cause of any one or more of these. The saying, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" does explain how political, business, and other alliances form for pragmatic purposes.
Some of the conflicts arise out of competition for basic needs like food, housing, resources, land, or water. Entire populations may migrate from one area that is devastated by natural disasters, earthquakes, famine, drought, flooding, and other conditions to another that is safer or has more abundant resources, for example. Other conflicts arise out of ambition — vying quests for power over others, wealth, and name and fame, among other desired ends. Some of the conflicts arise out of the desire to impose an ideology, political agenda, or religion upon others.
Naturally, individuals and various groups will defend themselves if they can against such attacks, whether those attacks come to us as outright militaristic aggression, migrating (or invading) populations, or the introduction of incompatible ideas, philosophies, or worldviews that clash with the current society and threaten its stability.
No matter why or how these conflicts arise, we must understand that behind every conflict there are people — individuals just like you or me who are pushing that conflict forward. Behind every religious, ideological, militaristic conflict is a group of people and sometimes just one powerfully charismatic or brutally domineering person who influences others to support the move.
Sometimes power struggles to advance revolutionary groups occur violently, but at other times, seemingly peaceful but deceptive methods are used. Original Islamists centuries ago sometimes would enter a well-defended city that had superior defenses and portray themselves as peaceful visitors, while slowly adding to their numbers until they had sufficient numbers to overthrow the government and take control. That is what they did, and they beheaded those they had "befriended."
Subversive revolutionary groups led by community organizers will protest any injustices they can discover creating as much anger and chaos at times. They will mislead people about their intentions, manipulating them, and deconstruct a correct understanding of society's foundational principles, casting these as evil. They will encourage policy changes that destabilize that society or industry, and will then promote further changes that will result in the complete re-casting of society in their ideology's image.
When it comes to violent means, in much of human history, it is not always the number of combatants, but the people with the most technologically advanced weapons or the shrewdest battle plans that often won the battles and wars, and then acquired the territory. "Might makes right" is the motto of bullies as well as military conflict resolution. When war erupts, our philosophical debates are swept aside while military generals and brute force take control.
While National Socialist ideology was behind Hitler's invasion of Poland and other nations, it was military force swiftly applied that allowed the Nazis to rush into new territory and seize control from unprepared nations, and then commit the atrocities they did. In some areas, the Nazis entered as supposed friends, but once they had established an overwhelming and irresistible presence, they seized control.
Alexander the "Great," Napoleon Bonaparte, and other ambitious leaders swept through nation after nation using shrewd military strategy and superior forces to establish their empires.
Though we do not like to think about it, the future of entire peoples has often been determined by brute force, not diplomacy, yet we hope and pray that our future is determined by peaceful means, by reason, and respect for all human lives. As mundane as it may seem to those of us who are comfortably unaware of threats to our well-being and society, without an adequate military defense of some sort, all nations and its peoples are subject to conquest, invasion, and sometimes, annihilation.
With that in mind, I ask you, "What happens if the commander of all the military tells it to do nothing when a hostile nation's soldiers attack?" "What happens if the commander of all the federal law enforcement departments tells them to ignore any threats coming from an enemy that has declared war on a nation?" "What happens when the enemy is invited within the gates?"
Our Human Condition
These problems of societal, national, or even individual human survival have human causes. In order to solve a problem, we must understand the origins of that problem. In pro-life work, historical, philosophical, and religious trends matter. We also must understand what these human beings who create the conflicts actually are, what our human nature is, and what path in life can even possibly lead to lasting peace and happiness for individuals and society as a whole.
Now, in our "post-modern" age, some anthropologists amazingly question whether there is such a thing as a universal human nature. However, historical records of all sorts demonstrate unequivocally that there have been numerous common behaviors and characteristics of man throughout history. Get together with other people anywhere in the world, and you'll find that you share this common nature. People who deny this are really "stretching it" and deceiving themselves and others in order to justify a distorted view of the world and mankind.
Though we may not share in the particular idiosyncrasies of various cultures around the world, ancient art, poetry, architecture, and literature from both Eastern and Western civilization strike a deep chord within us, echoing the feelings and thoughts you and I have today. We can imagine ourselves in analogous situations or even in those very situations that are described in histories from thousands of years ago.
We can read ancient tales about a mother's grief, a warrior's ambition, a father's concern for his family, the jealous rage that fans the terrible flames of violence, the fierce anger aroused after being deceived or robbed or seeing the victimization of the innocent. We listen to those who are long gone telling us about the great and tender love between man and woman or between parents and their children, or the care and concern given to their elderly parents, among many others.
We can recognize in their writings the unspeakable joy that brings streams of tears running down one's face because it is so great: what a father and mother feel when a child is born, just as billions of others experience throughout the world. The greed portrayed in other tales and the generosity shown to others moves us because these also exist in our world today. We also have experienced these things in our lives.
We can understand others' sadness and grief and their happiness and joy, because we feel those same things. We understand what it means when the one we love must leave. We do recognize these things even though they lived in such a different time, with different societal and technological settings. They felt what we felt! They were what we are: human beings capable of so many things!
Across time and space, we recognize our kinship with those who lived so long ago or anywhere in the world. The historical record is overwhelmingly filled with evidence that we have a common human nature. When we travel to other societies around the globe, we may find friends who share in our human experience, dreams and aspirations. I know I am forever grateful that I did.
Some of these communicated the greatest love for God without speaking even one word! One time very long ago in 1977, I was staying with friends several miles away from the city of Agra where the Taj Mahal is in India. I must have collapsed and passed out from an acute illness brought about by drinking impure water, but I don't remember passing out at all! At that time, when I was sick and near death for many days, I was not aware at all of my surroundings. My friends tended to me with the greatest care.
I awakened several days later on a primitive cot with cows nearby and freshly cut sweet-smelling hay all around. The fever and illness had passed and I was completely healed. The world is filled with wonderful people like these who live within very different but rich cultures.
When our hearts are open, we understand what it is to revere God and to revere life and all the beauty around that He has blessed us with!
Because we do actually have a common human nature, and because we have the gift of reason, it is possible to establish basic principles that can guide us to do good and avoid evil. These very basic principles that help us recognize what is good or bad for all human beings, and that are recognized through reason, comprise what is called a natural moral law, or simply "natural law."
Although there are many today who dispute that there is such a thing as natural law, they are lying to themselves and others. Again, you could travel the world and ask people whether murder, stealing, rape, and lying are wrong when these are done to their own people, and they will agree. Of course, some will say that it's ok to murder, steal, rape, or lie to those who are not part of one's own people, nation, or religion, etc., but that is where we go wrong.
While natural law is not going to immediately reveal the details of a complex legal system — that is something we have to work out for ourselves — it does give us the basis for those laws that are just and therefore, respect the God-given right of individuals to live, to exist in a peaceful society, to be free, and to seek happiness in life.
In pro-life work, the ethics of life that tell us what is truly good to do and what is truly wrong to do must be in harmony with Divine Law (Exodus 20). We can gain an understanding of those ethical principles by relying on the authority of the wise who have told us about these things, or we can arrive at those principles ourselves through the use of our reason and the observation of human nature and experience.
Using our reason to consider whether some actions are good or bad (evil) involves ethics, but there are many different ethical systems, not just the one many assert to be correct. It seems that each person believes that their way of looking at life and the actions of mankind is the only right one, yet if we only take just a few steps in any direction, we will easily find someone who will strongly disagree with us! To really arrive at the system of ethics that shows us what is good or bad for all human beings, we need to think carefully about our common human nature, our common human needs, and be honest with ourselves about what we observe.
What makes us human beings? Being human involves many things. We obviously share in a physical anatomy and what we require to physically survive, but we also share in the types of emotions we feel and the types of thoughts that come to us. We find ourselves desiring certain things we find pleasurable or satisfying and seeking to avoid others that are painful or distressing. When our desires are thwarted, we experience frustration and anger that can lead us to choose to act violently, often causing many problems.
We have the capacity to think and reason but must develop it from infancy onward. Separate from our feelings and ability to will to do something, we have an intellect or capacity to understand and know things that gives us an understanding of what we are perceiving or thinking about. As we develop, we begin to understand and know things more clearly. Our minds are also capable of visualizing and imagining just about anything. With these capabilities come the ability to look all around and within ourselves and to arrive at conclusions about the objective reality that confronts us.
Each of us can choose to act one way or another, willing ourselves in one direction or another. We also have an inner sense of what is right and what is wrong to do, our conscience. From the moment we are born, our parents begin the process of shaping our conscience, teaching us what is right or wrong, and other teachers continue that process throughout life.
Parents may consciously shape our conscience to do good or evil and they also may live in such a way that teaches us to believe certain actions are good or bad. Whether what parents teach their children to do is actually good or bad depends upon their habitual tendencies to do good or bad, their virtues and their vices. In many cases, children do often copy what parents do and not what they say.
If we do not possess the facts involved in a specific situation, or if we have an incomplete or improper understanding of what is right or wrong, we may choose to act in ways that are damaging to ourselves and others. We might mistakenly believe that an embryonic or fetal human being is not a real human being, and because of that misunderstanding, kill them, for example. There are innumerable possibilities which make for the challenging and sometimes evil nature of the world around us.
Within the family setting, the understanding that we must raise our children to become adults by teaching them for many years is universal. As children and youths, we do not automatically know what we must do in order to survive simply through instinct as a bird, a frog, or a dog might do, for example.
We are capable of thought and reason and are considered the "rational" animal in this world — rational beings! — though many dispute whether we are truly rational or even truly human! We also have self-awareness and at some point, the awareness that death awaits us all in the end, whenever our time comes.
Awareness of the possibility of death creates an urgency within that does motivate us to do what is necessary to survive and also to choose to live more meaningful and productive lives. Rather than filling our time with the mundane and profane, we seek to invite the Sacred One into our lives so that the sacred accompanies us when we deal with the mundane activities of life.
Dutiful fathers and mothers are aware of those threats to life and the possibility of death, so while simultaneously doing everything they can to survive themselves, they do everything possible to protect their children and educate them. They help them learn how to function within Nature and in human society so they can succeed in taking their place in adult society. They understand implicitly that we are not just rational creatures, we are also social creatures, and children must gain the skills necessary to function and navigate that social world.
More importantly, responsible fathers and mothers encourage their children's sense of wonder and awe for Nature and for God. They teach their children about the Divine Law and how to behave in this world so that God is honored each and every day of their lives.
Because we are social creatures, man develops all sorts of relationships that aim at the mutual benefit of all those who participate in those relationships. We have the ability to communicate with language that guides our way of thinking and shapes our cultural differences. Those who have studied other languages understand that each language has its own unique strengths and limitations. What can be communicated in one language quite clearly may be impossible or quite difficult to express in another.
We have marital relationships between man and woman for the purpose of raising children and assuring the survival and continuation of the species. We have family relationships to help fulfill the needs of each member, especially the children.
We have business relationships to meet the mutual individual needs for goods and services as well as political relationships that provide physical security to assure the survival of the people as a whole. In all the activities that we undertake, in one way or another we seek to attain the fulfillment of our mutual needs on several levels as well as our individual happiness.
The relationships we choose to enter into, from marriage and family, to our relationships with those around us in society comprise a type of social contract that establishes the stability of our societal world. Marriage is the foundation for societal well-being and for its preservation. It involves lifelong commitment through a covenant that is entered into by a man and a woman with God and those around us as witnesses. It begins with that promise to honor and be faithful to each other throughout life.
Any other type of "marriage" other than this natural marriage is an attempt to mimic the authentic relationship through which man and woman not only assure the continuation of the species, but through which man and woman complement each other as God-given helpers throughout life. Man and woman bring different natural gifts and characteristics to the relationship. Each has a different perspective and a unique wisdom to share, and the two together create the sometimes challenging crucible through which each is polished emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually.
If they approach the relationship as a blessing from God, as is only right, marriage becomes a major vehicle through which each may learn to be humble before the other and before God! If they don't, then they fail in helping each other and themselves. They also fail in finding humility before God which is even more catastrophic!
Each of us has our own dreams, aspirations, and also memories, and we also share memories with those who accompany us through this journey in life. Our lives are filled with events and interactions that make up the pages of the books of each of our lives. We all aspire to different goals day to day, year to year, or in our life as a whole, depending upon the circumstances of our lives and how we come to define that which we believe will actually bring us happiness. We may differ in some or many details about our goals, but we all do share a common human nature and we seek that happiness.
We seek that happiness even in the face of suffering, for we all suffer in one way or another. It is unavoidable, and because it is unavoidable, some of us sink into despair, thinking it will never end while others hope for release from that suffering. How we deal with the suffering that comes with life demonstrates much about us. Shall we despair and shrink in life or shall we hope for the good and take action, expanding our circle along with our hearts.
How we come to define what makes for happiness does make all the difference. Does happiness consist only in having enough to eat and drink, having shelter from the elements, having adequate clothing and other material goods or enjoying some of the pleasures of this world? Some believe this alone is enough.
However, others find that although these things are necessary, ultimately we desire more. Friendship and companionship help to diminish the sense of loneliness that may arise as a part of our human condition. Education helps us to arrive at a more complete understanding of our lives and our surroundings as well as achieve more in many fields. Technological developments bring innumerable conveniences to our lives.
Even then, there is no end to what we may learn, no end to technological development, and we may still find ourselves yearning for something more. Finally, in the end, we see that what we thought was terribly important was not so important at all, and what we thought to be unimportant was the dearest and most precious of all (Ecclesiastes 1).
Tragically, some of us spend our entire lives focused on the acquisition of more and more material goods or on the preservation of what we have amassed. Many stubbornly stick to this sad strategy and discover only too late that they had erred for so long.
If we have spent our lives in finally worthless pursuits, we may experience shame, something that the proud have no time for and suppress with every fiber of their being. To experience and feel shame is a universal capability, just as self-pride is, and actually, shame is a product of pride and conscience. It is only when our conscience informs us that we have done wrong that we naturally experience shame (Genesis 3:7).
However, like sin, the idea that we might experience shame is politically incorrect as well. Proud man — and that includes all of us at some point in our lives, or all points in our lives — refuses to allow shame to enter his mind! Secular materialism emboldened by relativism leads us to conclude that whatever we do is acceptable and that we should be proud whatever it is we actually do. Shame and humility are not only hardly promoted within today's post-modern, relativistic society, they no longer exist within that worldview! I certainly never was brought up to even begin to think of any behavior as "sinful." The concept did not exist within the secular worldview!
Some of us look forward to the things to come in life, imagining that then — some imagined time in the future — things will be better for us. Others look back to happier times while remaining discontented with their lives. Others manage to find that contentment in the present. How do they do it? They have found a third way, a way neglected by so many. These look to something else that we as human beings all share yet which most neglect: our spiritual nature.
These few find anew what has been forgotten and neglected. They see that they have a capacity to recognize the reality that is God. It seems as if a cloud has been lifted from before their eyes and suddenly everything in Nature literally shines with a bright and joyful light whispering silent praise for the Creator.
This is a real beginning to a new way of life. We realize a capacity to love in a higher way, to reach out through faith to God, to experience His grace and to seek to truly live in harmony with His will. This is the beginning of an authentic human life where each moment is filled with meaning and deep satisfaction.
We may find that we have the capacity to experience joy and to appreciate the beauty of His Creation. We have the capacity to hope and dream of things never before seen. We have the capacity to be transformed so that our hearts overflow with love and we revere and adore God and then revere the lives He has given us to lovingly serve in this world.
But others may not be receptive to this way of life. Many have closed their hearts to the Truth. Do we look up at the stars and understand how vast the Created universe really is? When we stand on the shore of the sea, do we consider how small we are and how great and unfathomable God truly is that He cares about us, that He unconditionally loves us, even when we are just one "little one" among billions?
How laughable is our claim to "greatness" when our life span is infinitely less than a trillionth of a second compared to eternity! How deluded we must be when we believe ourselves to be so "superior" to any other individual around us!
One of my teachers reminds me that Aristotle taught that "a small error in the beginning leads to a multitude of errors in the end." (De Coelo). I would like to add that an infinitely huge error in the beginning leads at the end to societal disaster, a complete misunderstanding of our purpose in life, of what is right or wrong, and how we are to live. This is the state of society that many of our leaders and false teachers have led us to today.
While scientists study living organisms, how many look up from or into their microscopes to appreciate the genius in how living things are put together? Many begin any thought process or investigation with the fundamental assumption and demand that the idea of God not enter the discussion, or that the idea of God be actively rejected, separate from any scientific investigation. "That's what it means to be scientific," they tell us. Of course, science deals with what is observable and God is not observable by objective empirical methods, but that does not in any way compel us to disbelieve in Him.
Today we have science without conscience! Today we have philosophers who have no love for Truth. They begin their plans and designs with the demand that the idea of God not enter the discussion, but more than that, they insist that because they cannot see Him or observe Him directly, He does not exist! There is no logic in that! However, that is scientism.
When it comes to ethics, many modern philosophers begin their evaluation of right and wrong and what truth is, and what reality is, with the demand that the idea of God not enter the discussion.
Well, if our premises are incorrect, the logical argument we develop will also be incorrect. If we begin everything we do in life with the premise that God does not exist, everything we think, will, and do is tainted. Ultimately, this is the original source of the culture of death: violating the First Commandment in which God, Himself proclaims, "I am the Lord your God! ... You shall have no other gods before Me! (Exodus 20:1-3)
In modern philosophical circles, it seems that positions that reject God's existence are encouraged, so that a philosophical worldview that affirms His existence is soundly rejected, mocked, or condemned and relegated with disdain to the "religious fanatic" folder and is discounted without examining any of the content. Yet, if we reject the reality of God, the very essence of all being, the Creator, how can philosophy succeed in its major purpose: helping to know what can be known about existence, man's purpose, or any other particular subject?
How can science restrain itself from doing terrible harm like the Nazi doctors and "scientists" who performed monstrous experiments? If scientists do not acknowledge God, or the Divine Law, then man becomes the subjective determiner of what is "ethical," and that is what has happened in our society. Men and women who do the science permit themselves — nobody else is restraining them! — to do whatever they want to do!
With respect to man, human nature, the purpose of life, and how we should conduct ourselves, if we reject the reality of God from the start, how can philosophy and our reason even begin to help us to investigate and know what can be known and to do good and avoid evil as we proceed?
From that starting point, rejecting God and any conclusions that will naturally follow from acknowledging His existence, many philosophers have thrown their "hat into the ring" and offered the world their solution to the world's problems. Their shared stance, though they differ in the details of their systems, is: Here's how to understand the reality of the world and behave without God even being considered. They all then proceed to tell us how man should live and what the "truth" is about the world around us.
There is a never-ending stream of effects arising out of the mainstreaming of this secular, anti-life way of seeing the world. These effects are not merely being introduced by citizens or leaders of one nation, but are being promoted by internationally supported elites, and associations of elites, some of whom are working to implement what is called by the United Nations: Agenda 21.6
Many of these self-satisfied, cold-hearted, elitist secularists puff themselves up as they pontificate on every aspect of societal practices and issue directives that leaders in several nations are putting into practice. They tell the public that all of the changes required through Agenda 21 are "voluntary," however if mayors, governors, and our Presidents implement the Agenda 21 directives year after year, even over the protests by thousands of independent, isolated (and therefore ineffective) local protests all over the country, Agenda 21 is being implemented.
If you've heard leaders speak of the "New World Order," you have heard what this is all about. It is not a "conspiracy theory," but an actual plan to "manage" the entire world population and every industry and aspect of global society. One example is the effort by governmental leaders to make it difficult for family farmers to survive so that virtually all rural farmland will be bought up and managed by very large corporate farms that follow the globally-approved methods of farming (like using Monsanto's GMO seeds and growing monocrops throughout the nation). These elitists have no real love for mankind, and are truly anti-God, yet they proclaim loudly that they do "love" mankind.
Their writings may flow into hundreds of pages of seemingly intelligent philosophical, economic, and societal analysis, like Karl Marx and Engels wrote, but it simply demonstrates that very intelligent people can be really blind and bull-headed about the most important things. The Pharisees of Jesus' time were prime examples of great academic intelligence misdirected through self-pride and ignorance. Though they were academic students of their religion, enough of them had lost the spirit of the religion they professed to follow so that they went completely astray and did not recognize the Truth in what the dear Lord Jesus taught and in what He was!
The stance of the elitists of any age is something akin to someone standing in a mud puddle looking down at the puddle and telling everyone that the mud puddle is the entire universe and that nothing exists outside of that mud puddle! How blind and ignorant we would consider anyone so foolish as to do this! Yet, we give great respect to so-called "great thinkers" who ignore infinitely more than the proverbial "elephant in the room!"
They ignore the infinite God, Himself. If you question them and express these concerns, they simply write you off with disdain as a "religious fanatic!" Or worse! They don't even give one serious thought to consider what would happen to their "philosophy" if God were considered to be real. Of course, they will tell you, "We cannot be sure that He exists." "We don't have any evidence that He exists." "There is no objective evidence that He exists." "Therefore, we must begin and continue our inquiries by rejecting His existence!"
Well, the elderly widow across the street from our home walks her dog every morning, afternoon, and evening, perhaps several times a day. When she is not walking her dog, she is weeding and otherwise caring for her beautiful flower garden — which we enjoy very much!
If I didn't believe in dogs, I could tell myself that the creature she is leading down the street is not a dog, but is anything else. I could make all sorts of conclusions about what she was doing, but I would be wrong. The evidence of dogs existing is thrust into view every day and night on this street in the universe.
I would add that the evidence for God's existence is also present every day and night everywhere throughout existence! If I choose not to admit that the evidence is the evidence, then that is my problem — my tragic choice to remain blind! Every field of science and every perception of Nature not only hints that God exists, it shouts that God exists. It all reveals His infinitely perfect Creation.
All of life is organized intelligently down to the most microscopic detail and all of any living being's physiology, for example, works together perfectly to preserve and maintain life. The organization found in all living things is itself a sign of intelligence, yet we know that all things left to themselves tend to disintegrate over time and lose any organization or semblance of organization that might exist. Disorder and chaos result without anyone or thing organizing matter. This is called entropy. That life remains life — which must maintain its internal organization to the nth degree to continue living — is wonderful and never-ending evidence of His hand at work in Nature!
And, of course, that which is cannot come from nothing. Whether we consider today, yesterday, or all the way back to the beginning of a universe, none of this could arise out of nothing. What was that? These philosophers who reject God are desperate to ignore the question or they come up with the most pitiful theories about "what existed before." We can go on forever hypothesizing that something existed before this and something else existed before that, but ultimately we arrive at the same question: "Before all, what?" And God gave the answer to Moses in the desert, (variously translated as) "I am what I am" "I am and will be what I am and will be!" or "I am He who was, am and will be" (Exodus 3:14)
When those who seek to tell us how to live and what is right or wrong reject Him, they begin on the wrong foot, take the wrong road, and cannot arrive at the truth until they admit their glaring error and retrace their steps to begin anew with the right foot, the right assumptions and take the right road.
Those who reject Him do not even begin to appreciate the value of humility — quite the opposite! They become puffed up and start believing how great they are and how brilliant they are! With their ever-growing pride comes the arrogance that makes them believe it is right for them to impose their will upon others. This is the beginning of tyranny in relationships among the people and between nations. This is the beginning of hate. This is the source of the cultures of death and each one of these are the faces of evil in this world!
All of us have succumbed to self-pride at one point or another. In the end, we must call out and ask for His blessings and grace so we are enabled to leave that all behind. God is not dead! He is just as available to you and me now as He ever was to any of those who lived long ago. This is actually what the good news is about: His kingdom of God here among us. He is with us, available to us at every moment of our lives! May we open to His love and invite His Holy Spirit into our hearts, and be as He would have us be!
Whatever we do when we sincerely put our shoulders to the task — to the task God has set for us — Yes, it will be enough to bring a little light into a very dark world, and that is all He asks!
Those who may be victimized in the future depend upon us to make the difference and save them. The memory of all those who have been victimized demands that we open our hearts and protect life now, in whatever way we can. We have a greater ability than we know, but we will only know the extent of that strength when we take a first step and reach out to Him and walk with Him as He guides us to follow a formerly unknown path, a mysterious path that is filled with wonder and joy!
We join in the hope of millions throughout the world. We hope in Him and find that change guided by His law will restore a culture of life. Yes, there are peace-loving devout Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, Christians, Jews, secularists and Muslims who only wish to live in peace and who genuinely love one another. Their generosity and kindness were made evident to me as I traveled from country to country so long ago.
These peace-loving people live all around the world. Let us honor them and their wish that peace reign in this world. Let us honor the inner heart blessed by His holy spirit so that it is filled with His love. Let us journey together to fulfill the yearning He has planted within us that compels us to seek the truth in all things and the Truth that He eternally is.
Isn't this what He taught, really? The Kingdom of God is to be realized within us by His grace (Luke 17)! I pray that we open to His grace, find the Truth and be blessed!
I pray that in the end before I die: at least "May I finally be a human being!" If I can at least be human as He intended, that will be enough! I know that if He is with me, and I am with Him, then there is a chance.
So, I pray,
"Dear Lord, be with me as I am with You!" and
"Help me to be with You as You are with me!"
I hope you pray this prayer, too! — speaking directly to Him from your heart, and then listen to the calling of your heart and find a way to serve!
Next: "Modern Cultures of Death" (Part Two)
Back to Table of Contents for Radical Radical: Deception and the Cultures of Death
Endnotes:
[for endnote links, go to original online page at:
https://www.hospicepatients.org/radical-radical-1-duty-of-man.html
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