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2015 - A Year of Triumph or Trial for America?

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article by Mike Kelley

After years of bad economic news, some think things are looking up for the United States. But are they? What troubling signs are on the horizon?

Has America passed, or is it about to pass, that point of no return?

Source: Chandler Erisman/Snapwiresnaps

Millions of Americans have seen reasons to believe that 2015 is on track to being better than recent years. Economic forecasts are up. Crime is down. Lower oil prices translate into hundreds of dollars more per year in consumers’ pockets.
Yet while this is all good, should we also be paying attention to troubling signs on the horizon?
To be sure, some signs do indeed look promising. After the economic crisis of 2008-2009 and several years of sluggish recovery, U.S. economists are nearly unanimous in the estimates of robust economic growth in 2015, with most expecting 3 percent or greater.
This would translate into more good news for the job market. The unemployment rate is expected to continue to decline, with tens of thousands of new jobs created each month. And the gradual tightening of the labor force should give U.S. workers more leverage in wage negotiations, finally driving up wages that have been stagnant for years.
A solid growth rate should also translate into stock and bond market gains, as an improving economy translates into higher earnings for companies. A growing economy would prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, which would help bond investors.
As mentioned, the nation can take some satisfaction in an improved crime situation. Federal Bureau of Investigation figures show a striking but positive trend: The rate of violent crime has dropped by nearly half since 1993. FBI data shows a decline in violent crime from a rate of 747 incidents per 100,000 in 1993 to 387 incidents per 100,000 in 2012, the most recent year for which complete data has been published.
Nearly every type of violent crime declined over the past 20 years, with homicides down 51 percent, forcible rape down 35 percent and robberies down 56 percent. Property crimes, such as burglary and vandalism, also dropped sharply.
Some U.S. cities are the safest they’ve been in decades. New York City of the 1970s was considered one of the most crime-infested cities in the nation. Since that time, however, the city’s crime rate has plummeted to where it is now considered safer than Dallas or Houston (Justin Wolfers, “Perceptions Haven’t Caught Up to Decline in Crime,” The New York Times , Sept. 16, 2014).
The good news is something to rejoice about. But before we start celebrating too loudly, we should ask ourselves: Are we seeing the complete picture? Or could we be closing our eyes to dangers we’d rather not think about?

Not-so-rosy economic figures

While some economic figures are encouraging, a number of others are highly sobering. For example, a Jan. 13, 2015, report by Jim Clifton, CEO of Gallup, Inc., noted at the Gallup website that over the last six years, 70,000 more businesses have shut their doors than have opened.
He went on to explain: “When new businesses aren’t being born, the free enterprise system and jobs decline . . . Without a growing entrepreneurial economy, there are no new good jobs. That means declining revenues and smaller salaries to tax, followed by declining aid for the elderly and poor and declining funding for the military, for education, for infrastructure—declining revenues for everything.”
Going hand-in-hand with this, a New York Times article last year reported that over the previous decade, “the inflation-adjusted net worth for the typical household” had declined 36 percent (Anna Bernasek, “The Typical Household, Now Worth a Third Less,” July 26, 2014).
A Jan. 16, 2015, Washington Post article noted the following shocking fact: “For the first time in at least 50 years, a majority of U.S. public school students come from low-income families . . . a statistic that has profound implications for the nation”(Lyndsey Layton, “Majority of U.S. Public School Students Are in Poverty”).
Further, a CNSnews.com headline on Dec. 10, 2014, stated, “65 Percent of Children Live in Households on Federal Aid Programs.” The total number, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures, was more than 40 million.
Especially troubling is the skyrocketing U.S. government debt. According to the U.S. Treasury website, as of Jan. 1, 2005, total federal debt was just under $7.6 trillion. A decade later, at the beginning of 2015, debt stood at more than $18 trillion —a staggering increase of almost 140 percent, and more debt than the nation had accumulated in its entire previous history of almost 230 years!
Sadly, such figures are the tip of the iceberg in terms of the nation’s true financial picture. Making matters worse, on Feb. 2 President Obama presented a proposed 2016 fiscal year budget that would add another $1.44 trillion in taxes and another $6 trillion in debt over the next decade.

An island in a sea of turmoil

In spite of its financial problems, America could be likened to an island of relative peace and tranquility in a seething cauldron of worldwide unrest, where violence and hatred seem to be escalating everywhere.
The new year was barely one week old when two French-born Islamic terrorists of Algerian descent, brothers Cherif and Said Quache, stormed into the Paris offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Jan. 7. Using automatic weapons with military precision, they gunned down 10 journalists and cartoonists, plus two policemen.
As they murdered a wounded Muslim policeman they shouted, “The prophet has been avenged!” Apparently they thought it was their Muslim duty to avenge any insult to the founder of Islam.
The murders had a chilling effect on press freedom, long a core belief of Western democracies. Major news organizations immediately began rethinking their editorial policies. At CNN, senior editorial director Richard Griffiths told staffers worldwide that Charlie Hebdo cartoons were not being shown on any CNN platforms, encouraging them instead to “verbally describe the cartoons in detail” (quoted at Politico, Jan. 7, 2015).
The Islamist terror organization al-Qaeda’s affiliate group in Yemen took responsibility for the Paris killings, which the French now refer to as their 9/11. Al-Qaeda has shown its ability to strike the major Western democracies, with nearly 3,000 killed in the 9/11 attacks on America in 2001 and 52 in England with the 2005 London subway bombings.
The sensational news of the attacks in France overshadowed other terrorist incidents that day—suicide bombings in Iraq that killed 23 people and a car bomb in Yemen that killed 38 and injured more than 60 others. These followed attacks in which an estimated 2,000 people were slaughtered by the Islamist group Boko Haram in northern Nigeria Jan. 3.
Very few realize that the Bible sitting on their bookshelf has something to say about these events. Speaking through Moses, God foretold events that would befall ancient Israel—and its modern-day descendants, particularly the major English-speaking peoples—for national rejection of His law:
“But if you will not listen to Me, and will not do all these commandments, and if you shall despise My statutes, or if your soul hates My judgments . . . I will even appoint terror over you, consumption, and burning fever, consuming the eyes and causing sorrow of heart . . . And I will set My face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies”(Leviticus:26:14-17 [14] But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
[15] And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:
[16] I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
[17] And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you., Modern King James Version, emphasis added throughout).
Could it be that we’re seeing these ominous punishments begin to be played out in America today? What do such growing trends portend for the nation’s future?

Failing schools reduce national competitiveness

For the past few decades, America’s failing educational institutions have been an embarrassment to the nation and a blot on its national pride.
A recent Washington Times article described American public schools as “in a free fall,”with U.S. schools now ranking 29th in the world. This from the nation that earlier put man on the moon and has for decades led the world in finding cures for killer diseases.
Slovakia, Russia and Vietnam have joined the ranks of China, India, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea in the list of nations surpassing U.S. schools in the quality of education and the caliber of its graduates.
And now comes evidence that many American college graduates lack the skills to compete even in an average U.S. work environment. In mid-January, The Wall Street Journal reported that as many as four in ten U.S. graduates lack the reasoning skills to manage white-collar work.
The Collegiate Learning Assessment Plus exam, given to 32,000 college seniors at 169 U.S. colleges and universities, measures reasoning ability needed in typical U.S. managerial environments. It noted that many students start college at a deficit in reasoning, making it that much harder to catch up by the time they graduate.
“‘Even if there is notable growth over four years, many students are starting at such a low point that they may still not be proficient at the point of graduation,’ said Jessalyn James, a program manager at the Council for Aid to Education, which administered the test” (Douglas Belkin , “Test Finds College Graduates Lack Skills for White-Collar Jobs,” The Wall Street Journal , Jan. 16, 2015).
The implications for an America competing in a global economy could be disastrous. As nations such as China and India graduate more trained engineers, scientists, business managers and computer experts, American competitiveness will suffer.

Alarming increase in mental illness

Not well publicized is the dramatic rise of mental illness in America today. No less an authority than Marcia Angell, former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, had this to say in a June 23, 2011, New York Review of Books piece titled “The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why?”:
“The tally of those who are so disabled by mental disorders that they qualify for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) increased nearly two and a half times between 1987 and 2007 —from 1 in 184 Americans to 1 in 76. For children, the rise is even more startling— a thirty-five-fold increase in the same two decades.”
Today, young people by the millions are experiencing the onset of clinical depression, among the most debilitating of mental illnesses resulting in thousands of suicides annually. Speaking to the National Press Club in 1998, Martin Seligman, then-president of the American Psychological Association, reported that the average age for the onset of depression had decreased from 29 to 15.
Antidepressant use in the United States has increased nearly 400 percent in the last two decades, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), making antidepressants the most frequently used class of medications by Americans ages 18-44. By 2008, 23 percent of women ages 40-59 were taking antidepressants, the CDC reported.
It seems every other person in the country is on some type of antidepressant these days. What does it portend for America’s future with depression and other mental illnesses on the rise?
And how much of this may be attributed to a sobering prophecy that applies to our time today found in Deuteronomy:28:28The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:? Speaking to the ancient Israelites—and their modern-day descendants—about the consequences of disobedience to His law, God tells them, “The Lord will strike you with blindness and madness and confusion of heart.”

Rising racial tensions creating a divided nation

The election of Barack Obama as the first African-American president brought hope to millions that race relations in America would enter the final stage of healing, marking the start of a new era in the nation.
That optimism soon vanished. Annual Wall Street Journal/ NBC News polls show that positive views of race relations peaked among African Americans at 66 percent in 2010, one year after Obama took office. Then opinions took a steady downturn so that by July 2013 only 38 percent thought race relations were good—worse than the 40 percent in 2007 before Obama.
Perceptions of race relations dropped even lower with the highly publicized 2014 killings of two black men by white police officers, one in Ferguson, Missouri, and the other in New York City, along with grand juries in both cases deciding not to indict the officers. In another Wall Street Journal/ NBC poll in mid-December 2014, only 35 percent of African-American respondents rated race relations as good, while 63 percent rated them as bad.
The change in perceptions among white Americans was even more dramatic, having risen from 59 percent seeing race relations as good in 2007 to a peak of 79 percent considering them so in late 2009 and then plunging to only 40 percent now feeling this way, as of December 2014 (Reid Epstein, “Poll: Views of Race Relations Worse Than Before Obama Took Office,” Washington Wire, blogs.wsj.com, Dec. 17, 2014)
It would seem that America’s long-running racial divisions have not improved nearly as much as we would have expected since the early 1960s civil rights struggles. This does not bode well for the future of the country. As Jesus Christ Himself stated, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand” (Matthew:12:25And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:, New International Version).
Certainly, the U.S. is not the only nation with significant gulfs between racial groups. But we could ask ourselves to what extent will smoldering racial tensions lead to the weakening of the world’s leading democracy?

How much longer?

Some will point out that America has faced crises before. One can’t forget the grim situation the nation faced in the 1930s, when worldwide economic depression crippled the U.S. economy with 25 percent unemployment in 1933. The nation came through a decade later when, roused from isolationist slumber by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, it mobilized its human and material resources to defeat the Axis powers.
But other observers also correctly point out the differences in the character of the American people then compared to today. With the nation’s flagrant disregard for morality and God’s righteous law, does America have what it takes to pull through today’s challenges?
Moses’ warning to ancient Israel is especially relevant to 21st-century America. Read it in Deuteronomy 28, where God promised blessings for obedience and curses for violating His laws. God dealt patiently with ancient Israel, and He will deal patiently with us today—but only to a point. Has America passed, or is it about to pass, that point of no return?
Individually, none of us can change the course of a nation bent on increasingly turning away from God. But each of us can personally heed God’s command given through the prophet Isaiah: “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah:55:6-7 [6] Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
[7] Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.).
May we have the wisdom to turn from our human ways that lead to suffering and death (Proverbs:14:12There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.; Proverbs:16:25There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.) and choose, as we’re told to in Deuteronomy:30:19I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:, the way that leads to blessings and life!

• 2015
• American financial crisis
• failing schools
• mental illness
• racial tension
• United States
• World News and Prophecy
• Good News Magazine
• United States

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America's War on God

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article by Tom Robinson

More evident than America's war on terror is a concerted effort to push God and His laws of morality out of the country's civic and personal life. Are you alert to the fight being waged? What side do you come down on?

Source: Photo illustration by Shaun Venish/Thinkstock

The culture front has been filled with bad news recently. Recent polls show that some 55 percent of Americans now say they support same-sex marriage, the highest number since Gallup began polling on the issue in 1996, when 68 percent were opposed. America is clearly following the lead of many other Western nations, including Canada and the United Kingdom, where such marriages are already legalized.
In recent months judges have struck down state-approved bans on same-sex marriage in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Oregon, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin and Virginia. Activists have filed lawsuits in all states with same-sex marriage bans, so this list will grow longer in the coming months, no doubt soon reaching the U.S. Supreme Court.
Earlier this year, "a narrowly divided Supreme Court upheld decidedly Christian prayers at the start of local council meeting . . . declaring them in line with long national traditions though the country has grown more religiously diverse" (Associated Press, May 6). This seems like a positive, until it's realized that the 5-4 decision could easily have gone the other way—and, with the appointment of more liberal justices, still could in the near future.

Drastic changes in society

Things have changed drastically in America since the Supreme Court outlawed prayer and Bible studies in public schools in the early 1960s and declared abortion legal in 1973. (Be sure to read "Silencing God's Children ".)
Over these same decades, morality has plummeted throughout the world and in the United States. Commentator Mychal Massie remarks: "They took away 'thou shalt not kill' and 'honor thy father and mother' and replaced it with school shootings, abortion and homosexual sensitivity. With God out of schools, school crime has increased 700 percent, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence" ("God, Not Crime, Barred From Schools," WND.com, August 4, 2014).
Yet the decline began earlier, often traced to the horrible aftereffects of the world wars of the 20th century—where the many millions slaughtered and attempted genocide led untold numbers of people to view life as cheap and as a godless scramble to do what you want while you can.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of World War I. In the wake of that epic conflict America, Canada and Britain devolved into the "new morality" of the Roaring Twenties. But it wasn't the war alone that led people to cast off their moorings. Other factors were already taking their toll.
Since the beginning of the 1900s, the United States and other Western nations saw the rise of progressivism, with politicians attempting to lead society gradually into utopian dreams of one-world socialism in which God is ultimately excluded. This was built in large part on the introduction in the 1800s of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and the social implications of minimizing or eliminating God's role as Creator and seeing man as just a more highly evolved animal—a philosophy of meaninglessness enabling liberation from Judeo-Christian morality.
Today the Western world is reaping what has been sown in rampant atheism, communism and immorality—with some trends and practices lowering us to depths not seen even in the debauched pagan societies of ancient times. The nations of the world are thumbing their noses at God—including America. Who would have thought that this country founded as a shining city on a hill would be projecting such godlessness today?

Overturning traditional values

In a new 2014 book titled God Less America (there is a faded B before "Less" on the cover), Fox News radio commentator Todd Starnes has compiled many recent news stories showing the attack on traditional values and the expulsion of God from public life in the nation today. It is an eye-opening and disheartening read.
After mentioning that well-known evangelical pastor Rick Warren told him that he thought religious liberty would become the civil rights issue of our generation, Starnes paints this disturbing panorama:
"Imagine the implications. Imagine what the future might look like for people of faith. Could it be that one day the pastor of the local First Baptist Church will be arrested for preaching hate? Could it be that one day police will turn hoses on little Christian boys and girls as they sing 'Jesus Loves Me' at vacation Bible school? Is it possible that Christian business owners could one day be forced to close down for refusing to violate the tenets of their faith?
"Will evangelical college students be denied entry into science and psychology programs because they believe in creationism? Will chaplains be thrown out of the armed forces if they pray in the name of Jesus? Will evangelical organizations be labeled domestic hate groups for defending the traditional definition of marriage?
"The perfect storm is brewing. The White House is waging an all-out assault on religious liberty. Public schools are indoctrinating our children with the gospel of secularism. Hollywood is spewing toxins into our homes. The soundtrack of our lives is a pulsating mix of sex and violence and filth. The American family is in ruins. What was once wrong is now right and what was once right is now wrong" (p. 3).
Alarmingly, some of these things are already happening. The awful fact is that a war is being waged against the Creator God in the public arena—and ultimately in the spirit realm and the minds of people. We must take warning in what is happening around us—and in our own affected thoughts and beliefs! Moreover, let us be among those "who sigh and cry over all the abominations" in the society around us, looking to God's deliverance when His judgment comes (compare Ezekiel:9:4-10 [4] And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
[5] And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity:
[6] Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.
[7] And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.
[8] And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord GOD! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem?
[9] Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The LORD hath forsaken the earth, and the LORD seeth not.
[10] And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head.)—for it will come.

Growing hostility toward Christian faith and morality

According to a 2012 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, religious affiliation in America has dramatically dropped, especially among the young. In 1972, 7 percent of U.S. adults had no religious affiliation. As of 2012, the figure has almost tripled to one-fifth of the adult population—and 32 percent for adults under age 30 ("'Nones' on the Rise," PewForum.org, Oct. 9, 2012).
The Pew survey further showed that 73 percent of these people with no religious affiliation support gay marriage, and 72 percent of them support legalized abortion.
These changes go hand in hand with increased demands for overturning traditional morality. Former Arkansas governor and U.S. presidential candidate Mike Huckabee wrote in the forward of Starnes' book: "In recent years militant special interest groups have made it their goal to co-opt our religious liberties and force industry and government to go beyond tolerance of their views and demand full approval of them. Anyone who believes otherwise is told to shut up. We've become a society that obsesses over tolerance and acceptance of everyone—except God" (p. xi, emphasis added throughout).

600 examples of government hostility to religion

A joint report by two religious freedom groups, the Family Research Council and Liberty Institute, has documented "more than six hundred recent examples of religious hostility" (Starnes, p. 208). Some of these and others are noted in an article titled "Persecution of Christians on Rise—In U.S." on the WND.com (formerly WorldNetDaily) website (Michael Carl, Sept. 17, 2012). Here are several examples, as listed in the article:
" • A federal judge threatened 'incarceration' to a high school valedictorian unless she removed references to Jesus from her graduation speech.
" • City officials prohibited senior citizens from praying over their meals, listening to religious messages or singing gospel songs at a senior activities center.
" • A public school official physically lifted an elementary school student from his seat and reprimanded him in front of his classmates for praying over his lunch.
"• Following U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' policies, a federal government official sought to censor a pastor's prayer, eliminating references to Jesus, during a Memorial Day ceremony honoring veterans at a national cemetery . . .
"• The U.S. Department of Justice argued before the Supreme Court that the federal government can tell churches and synagogues which pastors and rabbis it can hire and fire . . .
"• Through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, the federal government is forcing religious organizations to provide insurance for birth control and abortion-inducing drugs in direct violation of their religious beliefs. [This has been halted for now by a recent Supreme Court ruling.]
"• The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs banned the mention of God from veterans' funerals, overriding the wishes of the deceased's families.
"• A federal judge held that prayers before a state House of Representatives could be to Allah but not to Jesus."
In the same article, American Center for Law and Justice senior counsel David French cites a particularly appalling example —"attempt[s] to ban any mention of God from historical markers, monuments or even museum exhibits . . . This represents an effort to whitewash God from American history and change our national identity."

Government vs. traditional religious values

A number of observers have cited examples of hostility to traditional American religious values by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama. In April 2009, he put forward three nominees for U.S. ambassador to the Vatican who were pro-abortion—all of whom were not surprisingly rejected ( The Guardian, April 14, 2009).
In February 2011, he directed the Department of Justice to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act (in which same-sex marriage was not recognized by the federal government) against legal challenges. And in July 2011, he allowed homosexuals to serve openly in the military, ending restrictions that had been in place since the founding of the nation. Newsweek magazine showed him on its cover with a rainbow halo over his head and lauded him as "The First Gay President" (May 21, 2012).
Under the Obama administration, a Minnesota widow living in a government-funded apartment complex "was told she could not pray, read her Bible, or have private discussions of a religious nature in the commons area of the complex" (Starnes, p. 10).
In September 2011, the U.S. Army issued new guidelines for Walter Reed Hospital that read, "No religious items (i.e., Bibles, reading materials . . .) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit" (though the policy was rescinded after it was reported to the House of Representatives).
Furthermore, "two Baptist chaplains said they were forced out of a Veterans Affairs chaplain training program after they refused orders to stop quoting the Bible and stop praying in the name of Jesus" (Starnes, p. 152). (Read more in "Banning the Mention of God in Public Life ".)
Yet while government leaders attempt to push God and the Bible out, they welcome and finance alternative religion. The U.S. Air Force Academy in 2011 "dedicated an $80,000 outdoor worship center—a small Stonehenge-like circle of boulders with propane fire pit—high on a hill for the handful of current or future cadets whose religions fall under the broad category of 'Earth-based.' Those include pagans, Wiccans, druids, witches and followers of Native American faiths" ("Air Force Academy Adapts to Pagans, Druids, Witches and Wiccans," Los Angeles Times, Nov. 26, 2011).
The anti-Christian trend is not just in America. "A dispute over whether government can require Catholic schools to teach Wiccan and pagan rites as equal to the Ten Commandments and the resurrection of Jesus is heading to Canada's highest court" (Bob Unruh, "Christians Ordered to Teach Wiccan, Pagan Rites," WND, March 11, 2014).
Frighteningly, preferential treatment is now being given to Islam in numerous ways (see "'One Nation Under Allah? '").

Christian values now the lunatic fringe?

It's beyond disturbing how the great numbers of Americans still embracing the nation's traditional Christian values have been not merely marginalized but relegated to a lunatic fringe—by liberal activists, by the mainstream media and now by the U.S. military.
For an instance of the latter, "a group of Army officers was advised to monitor soldiers who belong to what were considered to be anti-gay, anti-Muslim, and anti-immigration organizations, according to a military e-mail. The e-mail was sent by a lieutenant colonel at Fort Campbell in Kentucky to three dozen subordinates, warning them to be on the lookout for any soldiers who might be members of 'domestic hate groups.'
"Among the groups the Army listed are well-respected organizations such as the Family Research Council, American Family Association, Atlas Shrugs, and the Federation for American Immigration Reform. The Army listed the groups alongside actual extremist and hate groups such as the Neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, and other supremacist groups" (Starnes, pp. 140-141).
In April 2013, Pentagon officials met with Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and others of his organization to discuss a policy introduced in 2012 called "Air Force Culture, Air Force Standards," which requires "government neutrality regarding religion." The Family Research Council's president, Tony Perkins, asked the obvious question: "Why would military leadership be meeting with one of the most rabid atheists in America to discuss religious freedom in the military?" (quoted by Starnes, p. 150).
Weinstein said that U.S. troops who proselytize "are guilty of sedition and treason and should be punished . . . 'We would love to see hundreds of prosecutions to stop this outrage of fundamentalist religious persecution.' He compared the act of proselytizing to rape. 'It is a version of being spiritually raped, and you are being spiritually raped by fundamentalist Christian predators,' he told Fox News" (Starnes, pp. 149-150).
Weinstein claims thousands of Protestants among his organization's ranks and says they are only going after fundamentalists—of all faiths—stating: "As soon as we find a fundamentalist Muslim, atheist, Jewish person, or anybody else, we will be happy to fight them . . . but so far they have been few and far between" (pp. 151-152). Really?! Does he actually expect us to believe that Protestant Christian churches are chock full of fundamentalists while Muslim fundamentalists are rare? This is clearly dishonest.
Air Force Senior Master Sergeant Phillip Monk was fired when he could not agree that those who object to gay marriage in their thoughts are guilty of discrimination. Monk said that while homosexuals are coming out of the closet, "Christians have to go into the closet . . . We are being robbed of our dignity and respect. We can't be who we are" (quoted by Starnes, p. 157). (Read "Government and the Gay Agenda "). And this comes on top of many other societal wrongs (see "A Flood of Immorality ".)

Our place in the war

"In a recent foreign-language interview," reported WND chief editor Joseph Farah, "Roman Catholic Cardinal Raymond Burke, the head of the highest court at the Vatican, spoke the truth when he said Obama's policies 'have become progressively more hostile toward Christian civilization'" ("The Answer to Obama's War on Christianity," WND, Mar. 27, 2014).
Farah goes on to comment: "I believe Obama and the agenda he personifies have used abortion and homosexuality as battering rams against the Christian faith. For the proponent of unlimited government, God is truly the enemy because He is the author of liberty. He is the enemy because no one must serve a higher god than government. Men have been placing themselves in God's place, divining right from wrong, since the Garden of Eden. There's nothing new under the sun. It always leads to one end—disaster, catastrophe, death, destruction, misery, hopelessness.
"Obama can scarcely take all the blame for our arrival at this ungodly destination. Believers are more responsible. They let it happen. They continue to allow it to happen. They have the power to direct the nation in a reverse course—just as the children of ancient Israel had the power. It's still there for us today. All that is required is that believers follow the prescription God gave us in 2 Chronicles:7:14If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.."
In this powerful verse, God assures us, "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
So the answer is of course national repentance—a drastic change in our thinking and behavior to turn to our Creator and His laws. But that does not begin nationally. Each of us has been enlisted in the war against God individually—and each of us must repent personally.
This is by no means a new war. It goes back to Satan's initial rebellion against God—when he led a third of the angels in revolt. It continued in the Garden of Eden, when Satan as the serpent misled and corrupted the first human beings—taking captive God's precious creations to make a mockery of God.
Satan has done the same with America—a nation God has often blessed and protected—leading it repeatedly into the depths of depravity as part of his vile assault on God and His ways.
And he still does the same with all humanity. The confusion, the irrationality, the constant conflict, the mire of immorality—it is all under the deception and sway of the ruler of this world, the god of this age, Satan the devil (John:12:31Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.; John:14:30Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.; 2 Corinthians:4:4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.). All mankind has been in "the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will" (2 Timothy:2:26And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.).
So much of the bizarre political rhetoric we hear in the world is not the product of a sound mind, but is the manifestation of spiritual warfare—the screeching of demons fighting both one another and God through their unwitting proxies on the world stage.
And we must understand that we also have not been immune. God's Word says of all of us that "there is none righteous, no, not one . . . They have all turned aside" (Romans:3:10-12 [10] As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
[11] There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
[12] They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.). It further assures us that "the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God's law, for it is unable to do so" (Romans:8:7Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be., Holman Christian Standard Bible).
We need a new mind from God to help us overcome the hostility toward Him that has become ingrained in our thinking—and thankfully God does provide us with the needed spiritual help when we repent!
Yet even with believers, Satan still strives to use us in his war against God. He can't destroy us outright, so he tempts us to corrupt ourselves. And what a shame it is when he succeeds in this, cackling with glee at his ability to capture the height of God's creative work and use it to mock God and His ways!
Let us never be among those of whom it is said: ". . . who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them" (Romans:1:32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.).
But if we have so fallen, the answer is still to humble ourselves in repentance—returning to God for His help and forgiveness. He will empower us to extricate ourselves from wrong ways to instead fight on His side—to be "a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Timothy:2:3Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.).
This is not a physical fight but a spiritual one, battling the evil spiritual forces around us (Ephesians:6:12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.)—and the wrong thoughts arising from our own carnal or fleshly nature: "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians:10:4-5 [4] (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
[5] Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;).
In the war against God, there is no question about who will ultimately win. Almighty God will win. The question is, whose side of the war will we be fighting on? And will we endure?

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Good Friday - Easter Sunday: It Doesn't Fit With the Bible!

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article by Scott Ashley

Jesus Christ said He would be entombed for three days and three nights. Can this be reconciled with a “Good Friday” crucifixion and burial and an “Easter Sunday” resurrection, which allows for barely a day and a half in the tomb? Or do the Gospels spell out a surprising, simpler solution that fits perfectly with what Jesus foretold?

When Mary Magdalene arrived “while it was still dark” she found the stone rolled away and the tomb already empty!

Source: Scott Ashley

In Matthew:12:38Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee., we read where some of the scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign to prove He was the Messiah. “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you,” they told Him (New International Version).
But Jesus responded that the only sign He would give was that of the prophet Jonah: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” ( Matthew:12:40For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.).

Traditional view doesn’t fit

But how can we fit “three days and three nights” between a Friday afternoon crucifixion and entombment just before sundown and a Sunday morning resurrection at sunrise? This traditional view allows for Jesus to have been in the tomb for only a day and a half!
Some believe that Christ’s statement that He would be “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” does not require a literal span of 72 hours or even close to that. They reason that any part of a day, even just a few minutes, can be reckoned as a whole day.
Thus, since Jesus died in the afternoon and was entombed just before sunset, they think the closing few minutes of that Friday constituted the first day, Friday night was the first night, Saturday was the second day, Saturday night was the second night, and a few minutes at dawn on Sunday morning made up the third day.
But where, then, is the third night? Even if a few minutes of daylight late on Friday and another few on Sunday morning constitute “days,” this interpretation fails to explain how only two nights—Friday night and Saturday night—can somehow be the three nights of which Jesus spoke.
In fact, Scripture is plain that Jesus had already risen before Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early Sunday morning, arriving “while it was still dark” (John:20:1-2 [1] The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
[2] Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the LORD out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.). So in reality, no parts of Sunday could be counted as a day, as Jesus was already resurrected well before the break of dawn.
Jonah:1:17Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights., to which Jesus referred, states specifically that “Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” We have no biblical basis for thinking that Jesus meant only two nights and one day, plus part of another day. If Jesus were in the tomb only from late Friday afternoon to early Sunday morning, then the sign He gave that He was the prophesied Messiah was not fulfilled.
So which is it? Is something wrong with Christ’s words, or is something wrong with the traditional view of when and how long He was in the tomb?
Let’s carefully examine the details from the Gospels. When we do, we uncover the real story of how Jesus’ words were fulfilled just as He said!

Two Sabbaths mentioned

Notice the sequence of events outlined in Luke 23. Jesus’ moment of death, as well as His hasty burial because of the oncoming Sabbath that began at sundown, is narrated in Luke:23:46-53 [46] And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.
[47] Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.
[48] And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned.
[49] And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things.
[50] And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he was a good man, and a just:
[51] (The same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them;) he was of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews: who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.
[52] This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.
[53] And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.. Luke:23:54And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. then states, “That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near.”
In Jewish society of that time, heavy cooking and housecleaning were done on the day before a Sabbath in preparation for it. Thus the day before the Sabbath came to be called “the preparation day” or simply “the preparation.” The biblical Sabbath falls on Saturday, the seventh day of the week. According to Bible reckoning, days begin at sunset (Leviticus:23:32It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.; compare Genesis:1:5And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day., Genesis:1:8And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day., Genesis:1:13And the evening and the morning were the third day.), so all weekly Sabbaths start Friday evening at sundown.
Based on these facts, many people have assumed that it is the weekly Sabbath mentioned here, and that Jesus was therefore crucified on a Friday. But two types of “Sabbaths” are mentioned in the Scriptures—the regular weekly Sabbath day, which fell on the seventh day of the week, and seven annual Holy Days (listed in Leviticus 23), Sabbaths that could—and usually did—fall on days of the week other than the regular weekly Sabbath day.
Was the day after Jesus was crucified a weekly Sabbath, or one of these annual Holy Days?
John:19:31The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. clearly states that this approaching Sabbath “was a high day.”This term does not refer to the weekly Sabbath (Friday sunset to Saturday sunset), but in this context to the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, one of God’s annual Holy Days (Exodus:12:16-17 [16] And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.
[17] And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.; Leviticus:23:6-7 [6] And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread.
[7] In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.). A number of Bible commentaries, encyclopedias and dictionaries will confirm that John is not referring to the weekly Sabbath here, but rather to one of the annual Sabbaths.
According to the biblical calendar, in that year this high-day Sabbath fell on a Thursday (meaning it began on Wednesday night at sunset). We can confirm this by looking at the details in the Gospel accounts—which show us that two separate Sabbath days are mentioned.
Luke:23:55-56 [55] And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid.
[56] And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment. tells us that the women, after seeing Christ’s body being laid in the tomb just before sundown, “returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils” for the final preparation of the body.
They would not have done such work on a Sabbath day, weekly or annual, since it would have been considered a Sabbath violation. This is verified by Mark’s account, which states: “Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices [which they could not have purchased on a Sabbath day], that they might come and anoint Him” (Mark:16:1And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.).
The women had to wait until this Sabbath was over before they could buy and prepare the spices to be used for anointing Jesus’ body. Then, Luke:23:56And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment. tells us that, after purchasing and preparing the spices and oils on Friday, “they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment”—which means they had to have acquired the spices before that Sabbath on which they rested. This second Sabbath mentioned in the Gospel accounts is the regular weekly Sabbath, observed from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.
By comparing details in both Gospels—where Mark tells us the women bought spices after the Sabbath and Luke relates that they prepared the spices before resting on the Sabbath—we can clearly see that two different Sabbaths are being discussed here.
The first, as John:19:31The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. tells us, was a “high day”—the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread—which fell on a Thursday that year. The second was the weekly seventh-day Sabbath.

Sign of the Messiah

After the women rested on the regular weekly Sabbath, they went to Jesus’ tomb early on the first day of the week (Sunday), “while it was still dark” (John:20:1The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.), and found that He had already been resurrected (Matthew:28:1-6 [1] In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
[2] And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.
[3] His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:
[4] And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
[5] And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.
[6] He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.; Mark:16:2-6 [2] And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.
[3] And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?
[4] And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.
[5] And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.
[6] And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.; Luke:24:1-3 [1] Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
[2] And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
[3] And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.). Jesus was not resurrected at sunrise on Sunday morning. When Mary Magdalene arrived “while it was still dark” she found the stone rolled away and the tomb already empty!
When we consider the details in all four Gospel accounts, the picture is clear. Jesus was crucified and entombed late on Wednesday afternoon, just before a Sabbath began at sunset. However, that was a high-day Sabbath, lasting from Wednesday sunset to Thursday sunset that week, rather than the regular weekly Sabbath that lasted from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.
While no one witnessed Jesus’ resurrection (which took place inside a sealed tomb), to fit His words and the biblical evidence it had to have happened three days and three nights from Wednesday near sunset until Saturday near sunset—with Jesus leaving His tomb at the end of the weekly Sabbath.
This time line perfectly accommodates three nights (Wednesday night, Thursday night and Friday night) and three daylight periods (Thursday, Friday and Saturday). This is the only time that fits Jesus’ own prophecy of how long He would be in the tomb. And, as we have seen, it fits perfectly with all the details recorded in the Gospels.
We can be assured that the entombment period Jesus gave as proof He was the Messiah was the very duration He foretold.
Because most people do not understand the biblical Holy Days Jesus Christ and His followers kept, they fail to understand the chronological details so accurately preserved for us in the Gospels!

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Say "No" to Communion

What's in a name? What did Jesus institute with the bread and wine?

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[Steve Myers] Which one doesn’t belong – the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, Passover, Communion? Can you pick out the term that doesn’t belong?
Well, the one that doesn’t belong in that group is Passover. Passover doesn’t belong in that list, and it’s biblical. It’s biblical. Let’s notice what it says in Luke 22. Luke 22 focuses something interesting that Christ said when He instituted the New Testament Passover. It says, “He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, saying, ‘This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ Likewise, He also took the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood which is shed for you’” (Luke:22:19-20 [19] And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.
[20] Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.)
Now, the difference between what Christ was doing with the Passover and the Eucharist or Communion or the Lord’s Supper, and that list of other kinds of names for what Christ did goes on and on and on. You won’t find those other terms in the Bible, referring to what Christ was doing. He didn’t call it the Lord’s Supper. He didn’t call it the Eucharist. He didn’t say it was Communion. He didn’t give it that name because it takes away from the meaning of what Christ was doing.
In fact, if we go back just a little bit to verse 8 in Luke 22, Christ Himself names this service, this ceremony that He instituted in the New Testament. He said to Peter – verse 8 – and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat” (Luke:22:8And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the passover, that we may eat.). So Christ referred to it as the Passover. And it wasn’t just Christ. The New Testament church, the apostle Paul himself, called this ceremony “the Passover”.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, 1 Corinthians:5:7Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:, the apostle Paul puts it on the line, and he says this: “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” So think about it. What’s in a name? Well, you could say no to Communion, or say no to the Eucharist, or the Lord’s Supper. If you really want to be biblical, check it out. There’s so much information in your Bible that points to the Passover and what Christ was all about. Be sure and check it out.
That’s BT Daily . We’ll see you next time.

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World News and Trends: Rape crisis in South Africa

article by Good News Editor

Reports from Johannesburg say a woman is raped every 17 to 28 seconds in South Africa. According to Interpol, these statistics make South Africa the rape capital of the world.

Said Time magazine: "In 1998 the official South African rate was 104.1 rapes per 100,000 people; in the U.S., the rate was 34.4 per 100,000." However, rape researchers say only one in 35 rapes in South Africa is reported, which if accurate renders the situation far more critical than the official figures indicate.
David Jones, reporting from Johannesburg, closes his Daily Mail feature article with good advice for the government: "For the sake of every South African woman—whatever her colour—the leaders of this nation, in many ways so potent with promise, must address their growing humanitarian scandal with considerable urgency."
The Bible takes an even more serious view. "... For just as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter" (Deuteronomy 22:26But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter:
See All...). The context makes it clear that the subject under discussion is rape (verses 25, 27). To God, rape is as serious a crime as murder because it destroys something that can never be replaced. (Sources: The Daily Mail [London], Time .)

Divorce Revolution Spawns the Cohabitation Generation

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Divorce Revolution Spawns the Cohabitation Generation






article by Cecil Maranville





Hoping to avoid the difficulties they saw in their parents' marriages, many young adults are skipping marriage in favor of living together outside of marriage. But does this solve problems or create new ones?



There was an outside chance 30 years ago that a youngster might know a child from a home broken by divorce. Nowadays there is an outside chance that a youngster might know a child from a home not broken by divorce. Children living at home with their married biological parents are increasingly oddities.



Are these statements hyperbole? Maybe. Maybe not. A quiet but phenomenal change has swept through Western civilization. It's so quiet few seem to know about it. Fewer still seem to think it matters.



Over the course of the last few decades, societal norms have evolved from viewing divorce as a stigma to seeing it as normal, natural and often necessary and desirable. Sociologists call this change in attitude the divorce revolution.



The children of the divorce revolution don't buy the cavalier philosophy that divorce is normal. They are taking steps that will—they think—help them avoid the pain and other costs associated with broken marriages. In short, the divorce revolution has spawned the cohabitation generation.



Unmarried cohabitation, or living together, is the status of couples who are not married to each other, but are sexual partners sharing a household. God reveals that sexual relations outside of marriage are harmful and damaging: "Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body" (1 Corinthians 6:18Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.



See All..., emphasis added throughout).



Why? What does God know that people lately have been discovering the hard way?



Far from insignificant, the trend toward living together is nothing short of revolutionary. In the United States about 11 percent of couples lived together before marriage between 1965 and 1974; 44 percent cohabited before marriage between 1980 and 1990; more than 50 percent of couples marrying today lived together before marriage. Almost 60 percent of American high-school seniors agreed or mostly agreed with the survey statement that cohabiting is usually a good way to prepare for marriage.



In 1970 the number of people living together without marriage was 523,000. Today the number exceeds four million. According to figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, the rate of people cohabiting has increased by some 700 percent since 1970 and number of couples with children in the home increased almost 550 percent from 1970 to 1994. Marriage statistics are equally shocking. The U.S. marriage rate has dropped 43 percent over the past four decades to its lowest point ever.



Why young people choose to live together

Why has the rate of marriages dropped? What has caused this revolution? In large part, it's a result of the divorce revolution, aided by a general loosening of attitudes toward morality. Having witnessed and experienced firsthand the negative results of divorce, today's youth want to avoid them. According to a Rutgers University study, "For today's young adults, the first generation to come of age during the divorce revolution, living together seems like a good way to achieve some of the benefits of marriage and avoid the risk of divorce ... According to surveys, most young people say it is a good idea to live with a person before marrying" (David Popenoe and Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, "Should We Live Together? What young Adults Need to Know About Cohabitation Before Marriage: A Comprehensive Review of Recent Research," The National Marriage Project: The Next Generation Series).



They believe that cohabiting couples who eventually marry will have stronger marriages for their having lived together first. Cohabitation, they reason, enables them to get to know each other much better than people who enter into marriage without first living together. Then, if things don't work out, the relationship can be broken without the hassle of either legal procedures or religious permission.



They assume many divorces will be avoided by starting relationships with a trial period of living together. Cohabiting, they believe, will provide opportunity for the unmarried man or woman to experiment enough that he or she will find the ideal match before eventually entering into marriage.



That's not to say that all young adults have the same reasons for cohabiting. Some live together with no intention of marrying. Others live together briefly before marrying each other. Still others see cohabiting with various partners as preparation for marriage with someone—eventually.



Other reasons are often cited. It is claimed that cohabitation provides economic benefits. Marin Clarkberg, assistant professor of sociology at Cornell University, addressed cohabitation in the March issue of the scholarly journal Social Forces (Vol. 77, No. 3). Expressing the popular view, she wrote: "For those unsure about their economic prospects, living together and pooling resources in the short run may be a smarter strategy than simply living on one's own while waiting to mature into marriage material" ("Money, Jobs Decide Who Cohabits or Marries," Cornell University, 1999, www.newswise.com ).



Young adults perceive the idea that living together is a more progressive, realistic approach to today's world than old, repressive, Victorian attitudes toward intimacy.



The feminist movement, with its theme of reversing male dominance of the American family, encourages cohabitation instead of traditional marriage roles. The modern approach, it is argued, allows a woman more control, more freedom and less subjection to men.



Included in the report were the results of a survey of a group of young adults about their views of living together and marriage. All were single, from New Jersey and 20-something.



"[Most] of them thought marriage should occur [only after] there are children, and children should come after a house is bought and a couple has a good annual income—around $75,000 in the women's views ... [The] young people saw ... cohabitation as a good way to test compatibility, detect character strengths and weaknesses, and arrange certain household economies ... Women preferred short-term cohabitation, saying they could determine the man's suitability for marriage in a few months. In contrast, many of the man said they could cohabit indefinitely" (Cheryl Wetzstein, "Cohabitation No Formula for Future Bliss in Marriage," The Washington Times, March 30, 1999).



What do the results show?

In spite of such a vast increase in numbers of couples cohabiting without benefit of marriage, and in spite of the many reasons offered for their behavior, evidence is sorely lacking that cohabitation makes any positive contribution to marriage whatsoever.



In fact, the evidence runs strongly to the contrary, that cohabitation is detrimental. Researchers have found that living together before marriage increases the risk of divorce after marriage. "Research conducted at Yale and Columbia University and published in American Sociological Review found, 'the overall association between premarital cohabitation and subsequent marital stability is striking. The dissolution [divorce] rates of women who cohabit premaritally with their future spouse are, on average, nearly 80 percent higher than the rates of those who do not' " (Neil Bennett, "Commitment and the Modern Union: Assessing the Link Between Premarital Cohabitation and Subsequent Marital Stability," American Sociological Review 53, p. 127-138).David Popenoe and Barbara Dafoe Whitehead of the Rutgers University study concluded that "virtually all research on the topic has determined that the chances of divorce ending a marriage preceded by cohabitation are significantly greater than for a marriage not preceded by cohabitation. A 1992 study of 3,300 cases, for example, based on the 1987 National Survey of Families and Households, found that in their marriages prior [cohabitants] 'are estimated to have a hazard of dissolution [divorce] that is about 46 percent higher than for [noncohabitants].'"



Other researchers have come to similar conclusions, that those who live together before marriage are 50 to 100 percent more likely to divorce than those who wait until marriage.



Researchers have also found that living together outside of marriage increases the risk of domestic violence for women and the risk of physical and sexual abuse for children. "One study in Great Britain ... found that, compared to children living with married biological parents, children living with cohabiting but unmarried biological parents are 20 times more likely to be subject to child abuse, and those living with a mother and a cohabiting boyfriend who is not the father face an increased risk of 33 times" (Popenoe and Whitehead).



A similar pattern was found in another American study. The Family Violence Research Program at the University of New Hampshirefound that 'cohabitants "are much more violent than marrieds." More specifically, the rate of violence among cohabiting couples was twice as high as for marrieds and the rate for "severe" violence was found to be nearly five times greater (Kersti Yllo and Murray Straus, "Interpersonal Violence Among Married and Cohabiting Couples," Family Relations 30, pp. 339-347, emphasis added).



People who live together are much more likely to enter unsuccessful cohabiting relationships again. They become serial cohabitants. Leaving one relationship apparently makes it easier to leave another—rather than providing the stability many say they seek.



Fully three quarters the number of children born to cohabiting parents will see their parents split up before they reach age 16, whereas only about a third of the children born to married parents face a similar trauma.



Chances that cohabiting mothers will marry their children's fathers are declining. The most recent statistics show that it will happen in only 44 percent of cases.



Economic relationships of cohabitants are often tenuous. Depression in cohabiting couples runs more than three times the rate among married couples. Overall, unmarried couples have lower levels of happiness and well-being than married couples.



So, rather than providing the benefits of marriage without the problems, cohabitation delivers the opposite: the difficulties of poor marriage relationships without many of the benefits of good ones.



Religion ineffective in reversing the trend

In the United States of 30 years ago, people who lived together unmarried were said to be "living in sin," but American society is rapidly distancing itself from that religious perspective. Many young people associate getting married before living together with values of a past, out-of-date generation—values that are not for the current generation. They prefer not to worry about having to discuss their relationship with a clergyman either at the beginning or dissolution of their union.



"Underlying all of these trends is the broad cultural shift from a more religious society where marriage was considered the bedrock of civilization and people were imbued with a strong sense of social conformity and tradition, to a more secular society focused on individual autonomy and self-invention. This cultural rejection of traditional institutional and moral authority, evident in all of the advanced, Western societies, often has had 'freedom of choice' as its theme and the acceptance of 'alternative lifestyles' as its message" (Popenoe and Whitehead).



Men have long misappropriated religion as authority to suppress and abuse women. Seizing advantage from reactions to those wrongs, the feminist movement has influenced religious thought and practices to be more accepting of cohabitation. The feminist angle is that living together is a more positive arrangement for women. (As noted above, research shows that just the opposite is true: The incidence of abuse increases.)



Religion ought to take the lead in teaching and encouraging the practice of balanced, biblically based roles for husbands and wives to reverse further erosion of marriage. Instead, some religions rush to take a more popular, acceptable and politically correct stance, attempting to respond to and accommodate social trends. They have begun to offer "commitment ceremonies" as an alternative to weddings.



Those who read and believe the Bible know it is God's will that relationships between single men and women progress to marriage without living together first. "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from unchastity; that each one of you know how to take a wife for himself in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like heathen who do not know God; that no man transgress, and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we solemnly forewarned you. For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness" (1 Thessalonians 4:3-7 [3] For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

[4] That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

[5] Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

[6] That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.

[7] For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.





See All..., Revised Standard Version).



Are most religions teaching God's point of view on this crucial issue and leading people in ways that will benefit them the most?



"... Few religions prohibit cohabitation or even actively attempt to discourage it, so the religious barrier may be quite weak ... As the practice of cohabitation in America becomes increasingly common, popular distinctions between cohabitation and marriage are fading. In short, the legal, social and religious barriers to cohabitation are weak and likely to get weaker. Unless there is an unexpected turnaround, America and the other Anglo countries, plus the rest of northern Europe, do appear to be headed in the direction of Scandinavia" (Popenoe and Whitehead).



Scandinavia, principally Sweden and Denmark, lead the world in cohabiting couples—along with the lowest marriage rate and one of the highest divorce rates.



What does the future hold?

Popenoe and Whitehead wrote: "We recognize the larger social and cultural trends that make cohabiting relationships attractive to many young adults today. Unmarried cohabitation is not likely to go away."



That translates into more abuse of women and children, more depression, more unhappiness and more divorce. To address issues such as health care, financial contracts and child custody, new legislation will be written to accommodate these marriage-without-getting-married relationships.



Family law in many states already takes it into consideration but will likely have to accommodate new legislation to deal with the complexities brought on by the modern kind of cohabitation. Current cohabitation practices don't necessarily fall within the framework of existing law, which is geared toward marriage, not the avoidance of it. Presently 11 states and the District of Columbia recognize common-law marriages. The family-law statutes of six states and the District of Columbia include cohabitation in their definition of a common-law marriage. But that is, of course, looking at cohabitation as proof of intent to be married, not as proof that the couple doesn't intend to marry.



Cohabiting is often done supposedly to avoid the very problems it brings.



"Unlike divorce or unwed childbearing, the trend toward cohabitation has inspired virtually no public comment or criticism," says the Popenoe-Whitehead report. That in itself is a sad commentary on our civilization.



But The Good News isn't afraid to comment: Living together unmarried isn't a way to right the wrongs of the divorce revolution, but another wrong in itself. It is sin—sin that has been dressed up in acceptable-sounding words, perhaps, but sin. When people sin, they pay a price, their children pay a price, and their entire nation pays a price—a terrible price.



Christ's words resound with wisdom and warning: "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery [ porneia, meaning immorality, including fornication and unmarried cohabitation].' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart'" (Matthew 5:27-28 [27] Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:

[28] But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.





See All...). Knowing the damage that sexual sins inflict on mankind, Jesus commands to avoid it at all costs.



Whether a man and woman should live together unmarried must not be decided by economics, convenience, societal trends or personal preferences—not by human opinion in any form. Marriage is a divine institution, ordained of God. He alone makes the rules. He knows what works and what doesn't. Research increasingly confirms that rejecting His way brings only sorrow and heartache, as many are learning the hard way..



God meant marriage for learning to love with loyalty and tenderness. It involves commitment, self-sacrifice and a willingness to share. At its deepest level, marriage pictures the loving relationship between Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:22-32 [22] Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

[23] For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

[24] Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

[25] Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

[26] That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

[27] That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

[28] So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

[29] For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

[30] For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

[31] For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

[32] This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.





See All...). It pictures faithfulness, commitment and permanence. Living together detracts from this biblical legacy. God is the author of the marriage institution. GN



The Popenoe-Whitehead report can be read in its entirety at http://www.smartmarriages.com/cohabit.html  .

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