Earth Day vs. Good Friday

Ecology Symbol

It appears that Earth Day and Good Friday fall on the same day in 2011. Does that leave a dilemma for some? Which should we celebrate? Or do we celebrate both? Earth Day originated after the decade of the 1960s. Some would say this decade has resulted in more ill for the Earth than any can remember. Prior to the 1960s, people had a sense of God, honor, and country. Since that time, all people can think of is themselves. They have made Self their god. This religion of Self has many outlets. One is radical environmentalism that is represented by events like Earth Day. Should we care for and maintain the Earth? Certainly. Should we make it a pillar of a religion of one's own making. Certainly not. 

Today, even the tradition of showing up for church once each year has fallen out of favor...so we can spend more time on Self. 

Which day wins? The one that celebrates the greatest day of all, the day the God-Man gave himself for us and died on a cross. Something truly worth celebrating.

Decline is Inevitable

Entropy: Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.

Our world is one in which we must work continuously against the ever present demands of constant deterioration. We mow our lawns, keep our gardens, reconcile our bank accounts always working, always struggling. If we take a break, it builds up around us like a slow tide that will soon wash us out to sea. If we wait too long to work against it, sometimes it seems as though it will completely overwhelm us. That is our nature. The college student takes a few weeks off from studying and finds that there is a great deal of work to do to catch up. The road worker neglects some of the streets in town and the entire street needs to be scrapped and an entirely new one built in its place. A society forgets it first principles and soon entropy sets in and that society is on the brink of disaster either from outside forces or from an internal decay that has set in while it rested.

History has shown that when one country is weakened, it is eventually replaced by another stronger nation that has not neglected the necessary work to stave off the decay. God. Duty. Honor. What are these? What happens when an entire world succumbs to the temptation and forgets that work needs to be done? First principles, the foundation of a country - remember what they were. Work to find them and build them back up again. Fight the decay from within and reestablish the foundation that will withstand the attacks from without.

John MacArthur Rebukes Joel Osteen

In this video, John MacArthur shows how the teaching of Joel Osteen is really satanic. Osteen's message is that we can have it all now - your best life now. As MacArther indicates, that would only be true if one were going to hell.

If one looks at Osteen's "church", it is actually a converted sporting arena that holds over 16,000 at one time. Is this a sign of truth? I think not. When Jesus preached the truth, he actually lost disciples. If you only preach what the people want to hear, they will come. Hitler knew this. He led people by talking about their basest, ugliest desires. Osteen's message is a little prettier, but no more Godly.

What or Who is Our god?-Eternal, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Benevolent

Are people today a-theists; oblivious to the need for a higher power in their lives? Do they live like there is no god or do they worship a god of their own making? History has shown that throughout the world and in every era, various people groups have developed systems of religion. They have worshipped nature, created things, demonic spirits, and even their own ancestors. There has always been an inherent need to have a religion; a need to explain, and consequently, to try to control the uncontrollable events that happen to us and to others.

However today, there does not appear to be this need. We go to sporting events, buy toys, and working to climb the corporate ladder. Apparently, these are adequate distractions that make the otherwise inherent need for religion unnecessary. But do we really operate without a god? Are we truly religionless? Actually, we do have a god. We may even have many gods. One of the more obvious gods is the god of self. We think about ourselves, pamper ourselves, and basically spend all our time, talent, and treasure attempting to please only ourselves. Even our acts of kindness are done in order to make ourselves feel good about ourselves. However one god that is often overlooked, but is taking more of an active role in our lives is the god of government.

Government is:

Omnipotent -All powerful
The government is able to create. It is able to create jobs and wealth and health for all of it citizens at all times.

Omniscient-All knowing
The government is expected to know when tragedy is about to happen. President Bush should have known that 911 was about to happen, so he could prevent it. He was also supposed to know that the stock market was going to crash in 2008, so he could prevent it.

Omnipresent-Everywhere
The government is expected to be everywhere at all times. The government was supposed to be in New Orleans moments after the hurricane Katrina hit. It should be everywhere there is a need at all times.

Benevolence
The government is expected to be kind to all its citizens at all times. Even those who commit heinous crimes are to be treated kindly. Those on “death row” are put to death in a “humane” way. It also takes several years for them to reach their end which is supposed to be more just.

Eternal
The government is expected to be eternal. People today do not know their history. We think we are unlike other people in other times where governments have risen and fallen. Since we live in the (post) modern era, a change in government would be unthinkable. Even a change in border due to war is unthinkable. For example, it has been over 40 years that Israel has taken over the “occupied territory” of the “west bank”. How many years does a country need to occupy territory before it is accepted as being theirs? The United States took land from the original inhabitants over 200 years ago. It is now accepted as being the United States, but there are still those who say it should never have happened; that somehow the United States should not be geographically be the United States.

As time goes on and more of us come to depend on government for our food and our income, our shelter and all of our needs and wants, government will become more and more of our god. Our expectations will increase and when our god does not satisfy, we change the makeup of the government, so our needs and wants will be met.

See this video to illustrate:

America's New Religion at the Church of Oprah

The folks at today's Oprah program were in rapture over all the new stuff America's Priestess of all things Spiritual (and material) was handing out.