Where my daily bible reading took me this morning: Deuteronomy 19:15–21

“A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. [16] If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, [17] then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. [18] The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, [19] then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. [20] And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. [21] Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. (ESV)

The American legal system has abandoned the very idea of Justice. There is so much unpunished or wrongly punished crime happening in our communities and we have no recourse to seeking justice when the legal system conspires against it.

Take the Buffalo murderer. Justice would say that he should already have been tried, convicted, and executed. Instead, the legal system celebrates that they have charged him with a plethora of hate and weapons crimes – crimes that will never be appropriately punished. Heaping charges on a criminal does not punish him, it only makes the chargers feel virtuous.

The bible tells us we must execute murderers if we would preserve society. It further tells us that a major restraint against false convictions and executions is to punish a false witness with the punishment appropriate to the crime. If a person is falsely accused of murder, then the prosecutor or policeman or nextdoor neighbor should be tried and executed for murdering an innocent man.

Justice goes crying in our cities and the blood of the murdered cries out from the ground.

Watching some of the jubilee celebration of the 70 years of Elizabeth’s reign there in London and seeing that longest-reigning monarch standing on her balcony receiving honors from her people, I could not but think of Methuselah, the longest-lived man recorded in scripture.

According to the biblical record, Methuselah lived 969 years and died in the year God sent the Flood to wash the earth clean of the corruption that is humanity. His name means, “Man of the Dart,” or as biblical interpreters prefer, “When he dies, it will be sent.” You can see why the second meaning is preferable in understanding that the man himself was a living prophecy. As his grandson, Noah, labored on the ark, his growing old meant the end was growing near.

Elizabeth’s reign spans one of the most spectacular eras of modern history. It has been a period of incredible technological advance in which the people of our world have enjoyed unprecedented prosperity and peace. But as she draws closer to drawing her last breath, we hear the rumblings of the end of this era of prosperity and peace.

The years of Elizabeth’s reign have also been an era of incredible moral decay. As in the days of Methuselah, the thoughts of man are on nothing but evil continually. During the past 70 years sexual perversion has come out of the closet and is celebrated as liberation from a patriarchal God. Marriage is disparaged. Childbearing and motherhood are thought beneath a modern woman. Manliness is mocked; men are no longer honored as providers and protectors, but are celebrated for being sperm donors instead of fathers. Drug abuse is rampant. Our cities have filled with wastrels, thieves, derelicts, and murderers. The self-murder rate is soaring among the young; children as young as 6 are despairing and taking their own lives.

Will the end of Elizabeth’s reign be a, “It will be sent,” moment? I don’t know. I do know the world hates God as much today as it did when he brought the flood back then. I do know things can only get worse. I do know that God has set a day in which he will judge the world and pronounce humanity guilty of treason. And I do know that the penalty for treason is death.

O wretched man that I am, who can deliver me from this world’s certain future destruction? Thanks be to God! He has sent his Son into this world to rescue all who believe on his name. When the fires of God’s judgment falls on this rebel planet, there is safety and security in Jesus. As it is written, the righteous run into the LORD and are safe.

Before I speak to the issue, the young people on this ship are no different than the youth on the street or in our colleges. I do not place the entire blame for their deaths on their shoulders. America’s suicide crisis – and the military’s – has been a long time coming and will continue to fester into the foreseeable future. 

I have some understanding of a sailor’s life during overhaul. I joined the USS Darter in 1966 while she was having a major overhaul in the Charleston Naval Shipyard. I know what it’s like to stand fire watches late into the night and early before the morning dawns as welders weld and shipfitters fit. I was young, dumb, and a 19-year-old petty officer 3rd class fresh out of sonar school – and a non-qual at that! (My fellow submariners will understand that note.). That Navy wasn’t the kinder, gentler Navy of today, and nobody expected to be treated with anything other than “do your duty!”. I was a cog in the machine and expected to be nothing more. I was loaned out to two other boats in the squadron which were deploying on operations and were short sonarmen with my skill identifier. (USS Amberjack and USS Trumpetfish) So not only was I new to my boat, but I was a stranger in a strange land as a hired gun on these boats. I say this to make the point that I’ve been there, done that, and have the t-shirt. 

These military suicides are not because of “toxic command climate” although the mob will clammer for the heads of the Captain, the XO, and the Command Master Chief. It is easier to lay the blame on them rather than face the underlying causes. Now I’m not going to say the leadership is perfect. They after all were raised by the same culture/society that produces these youth who are unable to withstand the trials of the life they have made for themselves. 

I participated in a US Pacific Command suicide prevention seminar at Fort Shafter, Hawaii, back in 2009. After asking what they would see as an acceptable suicide rate – and being told it should be zero – I said to the disapproving murmurs of my small group that we would look back to the suicide numbers of 2009 and marvel that they were so low. I was right, and the group think was wrong. The bandaid of social workers and mental health professionals that we have applied to our schools, and military units have done nothing to treat the causes of the thinking that makes suicide an option to life. 

I’ll let someone else write the book on this subject, but here’s a brief sketch of the causes of military suicide as I see it. 

1. The scourge of feminism. Feminism is the mother of abortion, homosexuality and transgenderism, divorce and polygamy, and the feminization of the American male. Those bearded gym rats with their six-packs and tattoos are sham men. They are pretty boys who preen before the mirror, but they have no understanding of what it means to be a man who will do his duty though the heavens fall. They will spend thousands on cars and “lifestyle” but are unwilling to commit to marriage, family, and the duty of citizenship in the community. So, feminism has given us several generations now of fake men who do not know the joy of being a man and who crumble under the load that genuine manhood brings. They can press their body weight, but they can’t carry a family for a lifetime. In addition, feminism has given us women who do not want to be a complement to a husband. The American woman wants to compete with men, and as the recent kerfuffle over men competing in women’s sports has demonstrated, they cannot do “man things” as well as men can, and this gives them added stress. 

2. The military was uniquely suited to turn boys into men. I was 17 when I enlisted in the Navy, and at 17 the Navy expected me to be a man. I wasn’t a man when I joined, but I quickly grew into what was expected of me. I say, “was,” because the women’s elements of Army, Navy, and Marines were integrated into the all-male military back in the 70s and military standards were weakened to accommodate female sensibilities and capabilities. Women are incredibly strong in their God-given areas. In their arena they can do things that make a strong man shudder, but they are not men without boy parts. Women and men are not interchangeable, yet the American public pretends that they are, and feminist activists demand that we all engage in this charade. In the name of equality, our military, wherever women are integrated, produces weaker men and less capable units. They are weaker because they are not stressed to their full capabilities in their training in order to accommodate the women in the unit – the men have to move slower so the women can keep up. 

3. America has forfeited its soul. I can’t put my finger on the decade when this forfeiture began, but I can look around and see that it no longer has one. The core of a man, the core of a woman, the core of a nation is a knowledge of God. But we have been raising generations to believe they have no higher authority than their own wishes and desires. “To thine own self be true,” has become the American dream and the result is men without chests (to quote a little C.S. Lewis). A man or a woman who doesn’t acknowledge that there is a God who has ultimate authority to define and declare what is right and what is wrong has no central core to keep them from swaying in the winds of adversity. To semi-quote Dennis Prager, without God you can BELIEVE self-murder is wrong, but you cannot KNOW self-murder is wrong. If there is no absolute authority who stands outside our self-governance, all social guidance is just opinion. In the decline, and decline it is, since America quit worshipping God, our inner core has become a shadow and a memory. And people without a core break easily. 

4. The church and the nation now accord the same honors to a person who kills himself as to one who dies nobly. This must not be! That sounds harsh I know. Shouldn’t we minister to the sorrowing? But having an honors ceremony for a sailor who has committed suicide encourages other weak souls to follow suit. I may have great concern for the derelict who steals to support herself, but without fear of punishment, crime increases. So it is with suicide. If we do not declare suicide a dishonorable act, we enable future suicides. There was a day not long ago when the church refused burial in the church cemetery to a suicide. Later generations of clergy thought that cruel and opened their arms and graves. But what looked merciful at the moment removed a barrier to the despairing considering suicide and invited them to do likewise. In the same manner with the military, a suicide was a “line of duty, no.” If a service member committed suicide, survivor benefits were not paid to his estate and honors were not rendered. Again, this is harsh, but its abandonment has removed a barrier to choosing a permanent solution to a temporary problem. 

5. The scourge of social media. The social media to which the young (and not so young) are addicted is awash with affirming suicide as a legitimate life choice. It is glamorized instead of being denigrated, and being treated with sympathy and understanding, it increases its attraction and its occurrence. 

6. Sex. There is continual competition within the ranks for the sexual favors of the young women – and occasionally, the young men in a unit. That was true in my first mixed gender unit in 1987. It was a shock to see young female privates and specialists new to the unit being pursued. The men acted like a pack of hounds competing over a bitch in heat. And until she would either choose one as her mate of the moment or declare herself a lesbian, she had no peace. All branches of the military have huge bureaucracies dedicated to managing the sexual drives of their members, but adding layers of bureaucracy will never change human nature, and if it does, it only produces eunuchs and whores.

You could, no doubt add to my list if you’re honest about the current state of the American spirit. Suffice it to say that we have a much weaker social fabric and a much weaker military than we once had. This weakened social structure produces people who have no authority higher than their own passions and desires. And those passions and desires can never be fully met by the military or the career or the most recent “fiancé.”  

I’ve been asked if I have a biblical foundation for saying that Christians must have nothing to do with Disney and its products while there are many other corporations that have embraced the satanic/anti-God promotion of gender confusion and sexual perversion that I am not saying we should avoid. Yes, I do. 

This passage from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians provides the principle: (1 Corinthians 5:9–10)  I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. (ESV) 

You say, this passage is talking about sexual immorality within Christ’s family as opposed to that as practiced by outsiders. True. The principle I’m drawing out is exactly that. The world outside the Church is a cesspool which we cannot avoid. It is everywhere! All who have not been born anew into God’s kingdom are members of The Great Rebellion that began as a war by Satan and his associates against the rule of God over his universe. This war that began in heaven drew humanity in as we read in the opening chapters of Genesis and made us rebels as well. But we are not to tolerate the world insinuating itself into our homes and into the minds of our children. 

God created humanity as male and female for us to participate with him in the further creation of the race. The very essence of our humanity is this duality. It is the joining of male and female into a lifelong bond for the creation and development of the next generation (Note that the very word, “generation,” means to cause or make.) that makes us most human and most like the God who made us. This essential value, this most important thing that brings us into partnership with the Creator, then is the point on which The Rebellion focuses its attack. Convince people that their participation in creation is not what most clearly makes them creatures of God and you can enlist them in the rebel cause. 

Corporate America from Adidas to Zillow are participants in The Rebellion – absolutely and without a doubt. They have made it clear that corporate policy is to embrace perversion. The world and all that is within it is at enmity with God and with God’s people. These corporations and those within them who have declared themselves God’s enemies by endorsing what God has condemned and condemning what God has approved will be destroyed in the fire that is to purify this world of sin and sinners. But unlike Disney, they remain outside our families; their products are neutral, neither promoting evil nor restraining right doing. But if they start marketing perversion into our homes and into the minds of our children, then all who are friends of God must cease doing business with them or find themselves joining the enemy and participating in its rebellion and experiencing its punishment. 

Matthew 13:45–46 “ . . . the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (ESV)
Proverbs 31:30–31 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates. (ESV)

In an earlier post I wrote that women should not allow themselves to be rentals in the marketplace of life. Some might take objection to that as being a misogynistic attitude. Au contraire, I reply, this is a statement of the high value that scripture and scripture’s God holds for women.

When God created humanity (Adam being the Hebrew word for both humanity and man), he created us in two complementary sexes that we might join with him in the further creation of our race – this creation not just being the joining of egg and sperm in the womb, but in the nurturing and education of our children who are born of that union that they might take their place glorifying God and blessing their fellowman. This act of creation requires that the man and woman be joined in lifelong union as it takes a lifetime to create the next generation.

I am tempted to say that sexual pleasure has been divorced from its creative purpose uniquely in our time and place. I’m tempted, but I’d be wrong to say it. The pleasure of sex and the purpose of sex have been divorced for as long as humanity has divorced itself from the God who created us. This is not something new for our time. Granted, modern technology and social attitudes have made it easier to live in this divorced state, but people have created for themselves ways to avoid the children for which sex was purposed since forever. People have always been killing babies. We may have made it easier to prevent the pregnancy though the use of hormones or to kill the baby in the slaughterhouses of Planned Parenthood, but before the pill and legalized slaughter, newborns were left exposed to the elements or fed to the dogs in many different times and places.

Women bear the greatest burden and gain the greatest joy in being co-creators with God and their man. To put it simply, men, regardless the babblings of today’s “experts”, do not get pregnant. They do not endure the transformation of their bodies into the incubators of their offspring, and they do not carry fragments of that new life in their bodies for life. (Just a side note here, a mother doesn’t just carry that baby from conception to delivery some nine months later, but seriously, some cells from that new and unique human being are transferred into her system and remain there. That child is, quite literally, in her forever!)

Womanhood and its purpose of motherhood demand protection. And that brings me to the above text. Jesus said the kingdom of heaven was like a pearl of incomparable value which, when found, was so highly valued that the man went and sold everything he possessed to purchase it. Now the intent of the text is to let us know that heaven is worth everything we hold dear, but I’m going to give a secondary application. A wife is of incomparable value as well. She is of such great worth that a man will give everything for her. When a man takes a wife, he has exchanged all of his singleness for the lifelong bond of marriage.

I often say, No Wed, No Bed. A woman must value her womb as her most precious treasure to be discovered once and forever by the man she weds, and he must place equal value upon her and her gift of sharing the future with him. But, I am sorry to say, many women do not value themselves as God values them. They do not demand the man who desires their pleasures pay his entire life for entry. Instead, they are encouraged, enticed, and sometimes enslaved to put themselves on the rental market.

Rental women come in various styles and price ranges. There are the pornography rentals, both soft and hardcore. They are the women who put their wares on display as theatrical actresses and entertainers to draw the eyes of men and to enrich themselves from their lusts. I call these the rent-by-the-minute women. There’s no physical contact, just a visual representation of availability to those who will, both far and near, and the money pours in.

Then there are the rent-by-the-hour women. These are the prostitutes, and Tinder dates. No investment other than an open wallet for the men, and little emotional investment by the women along with the risk of disease, violence from their “date”, and a pregnancy to be terminated.

Finally, there are the rent-to-own women. These are those who live with their man without any long-term commitment on his part as he can walk away without so much as a fare-thee-well, and she can entertain the fantasy that she is the mistress of her destiny. She may feel empowered, though few do, but she is squandering the pearl of great price – herself.

I could wax long about young women who are enticed into slavery by wicked men. Not every prostitute or porn actress is there voluntarily. Many are ensnared by a man with some drugs and a plan to use them until the bloom is gone and they are cast aside to turn tricks in bathroom stalls and tents on the street. Society needs to do better for our young women, but I don’t see that happening as long as their enslavement is broadcast as freedom. To be free from the constraints of God’s law is to be enslaved by the evil that lurks within us all.

Be a for-sale woman. Not a for-rent woman, but a woman bound to a man who has given his all for you in the same way that we are the possession of Jesus Christ. Don’t rent yourself out. Demand full price – a man whose life is dedicated to join with you in the creation, education, and development of the next generation. Demand a man with whom you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You are worth no less.