This is the second part of my essay on “Fairness”. Go here for Part I.

I’m going to open up my discussion of “fairness” beyond the very limited and specific scope of my previous beef with RedState, and consider the wider ramifications of the Life is Not Fair™ principle.

Fairness can be seen in widely differing terms, and more often than not, fairness is challenged when there is a disparity between the real power of either party, or when the relationship of the parties is clearly defined.

In ancient times, this was often determined by raw military or brute force (such as the Gronk the Big Burly Hunter-Gatherer getting first rights to the bronto-burgers after the hunt, and the weaker guys having to wait until Gronk took a nap or otherwise left the picture)… or when a weaker nation became a client state of a much more powerful empire.

A more recent example of this could be the harsh terms forced upon post-WW1 Germany by the Allies: terribly harsh and very, very unfair to the Germans across every social strata, but quite fair in the eyes of the occupying Allies — after all, somebody had to pay for all that build-up for, and the execution of the war.

And do we look toward human government to enforce “fairness” upon us? In the USA, we used to have a “Fairness Doctrine” (which may yet be revived, if the Democrats have their druthers) that supposedly guaranteed a “fair and balanced reporting of news”, but more accurately muzzled any right-of-centre opinion or journalism in an era where broadcasting media outlets was concentrated in three major networks whose management could be easily corraled and controlled.

Or the enforced “fairness” of such disastrous programmes in the USA such as LBJ’s “war on poverty”, or the “fairness” of eliminating any semblance of prayer in schools (unless of course, it is Islamic prayers to a moon god idol - funny that there really isn’t much of a stink raised by the professional atheists about that!)

Or even the “fairness” of Mike Huckabee’s FairTax proposal (16th Amendment issues aside, it would unfairly put many folks involved with the income tax return preparation industry and many CPA’s and tax attorneys on the public dole)

Populists and social(ist) activists often point out how unfair it is that the Capitalists have mystified the Bourgeoisie - who both in turn oppress the daylights out of the poor miserable proletarians. Ho-hum… ho-hum… humbug..?

…Because, when the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia, and other Marxists took power elsewhere, the “party of the proletariat” (specifically the party leadership) was very quick to include a nice lifestyle for itself in the process of collectivizing the rest of their nation(s).

Indeed, history shows that idealism tends to take an unexpected backward turn at the altars of progressivism realized - it is human nature to paint what is truly fair according to the hand of the person holding the brush (or the whip, as the case may be).

And then, there is the question of what God sees as being fair: for it is one thing to quibble over what evil man does to his fellow evil man in his evil ways; but God, being good, is often tarred with the brush of being unfair.

This is especially so (and is the quick complaint of many who cry out “Unfair! Unfair!”) when a generally evil man (or woman) tries to drag God down to his or her level by imputing a charge of unfairness against his or her Creator, such as:

• the gay man who asks why God “made him that way”
• the family of exceedingly poor circumstances that is facing famine
• the family of fair means that is facing the hard scrutiny of an IRS audit
• the parent who cries out against God for taking her child died in a untimely and/or painful manner
• the man who lost his leg in a traffic accident
• the working father of a family of four who just opened up a “pink slip” received on the 19th anniversary of his employment
• the victim of rape and banditry from an occupying army or armed gang
• people who were killed when a tower fell down upon them (this may refer to a recent event as well as a Biblical event in Jesus’s ministry - Luke 13:4 )
• … and many other such terribly unfair things.

Indeed, God is not to blame for this… we do err if we think otherwise:

“Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?”

— Isaiah 45:9, KJV

Many of our circumstances are of our own making, or perhaps, the effects of others upon our lives as a byproduct of sin.

Yes, Life Truly is Not Fair™… not merely because anyone says so, but because we (and specifically, through our first parents, Adam and Eve) have sinned against a Righteous, Living, and True God.

By presuming to know better than God what is best for us, we have largely opened ourselves up to be compelled along by a selfish, sinful and vainglorious nature, aided by the counsels of demons and devils to do to each other all sorts of injustices and evils at one another’s expense, and then to have the audacity to blame God for the just results of our actions.

And this is not to say that God doesn’t actively judge people and nations within their respective lifetimes - to say nothing of the final Judgment we all face at the end of our natural lives. This He does, even if it is not readily apparent - consider the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 73:

1 Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well-nigh slipped.
3 For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
5 They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
6 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
7 Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.
8 They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
9 They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.
10 Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
11 And they say, How doth God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?
12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
14 For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
15 If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
16 When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.
18 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.
19 How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors.
20 As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.

— Psalm 73:1-20, KJV

Therefore, we (especially those of us who name the Name of Christ Our Saviour) do better if we take our petitions to the Throne of Grace and beyond that, ask Him to strengthen our hands to accomplish His will even if our circumstances are not what we would like them to be.

For many better and greater servants before us have suffered much for the cause of Christ, and even of them, no one may consider how deeply unfair it is of us (Christian and unbeliever alike) to have so wounded and killed the Son of God, yes, even separating Him for a time from the love of His Father, on account of our sins.

Howbeit then, that we demand and expect fairness either from governments or from our fellow man, when we know not - apart from God’s Word - how we ought to love one another and so act in that love?

That’s right: my sins, and your sins gave cause for the Son of God - an innocent and unblemished Lamb - to endure ignominy and the intensely brutal measure of unfairness of dying as a common criminal, nailed to the Cross.

Therefore, let us turn to Him who faced such unfairness on our behalf, for we well and truly deserve the penalty of death for our sins …

… and for those of us so-called by His Name, let us endeavor anew to treat both the household of faith and call the lost to repentance by our humble and loving attitudes, that we may show Christ’s work in us.

There’s falling off the wagon…

and then there’s having the wheels, axle, sideboards, and every nut and bolt exploding with the full insane fury of a fragmentation mine going off underneath it.

Enter one “honourable” Representative to the Washington State Legislature, a Mr. Richard Curtis, (R) - La Center.

Yes, folks… yet another GOP politician trades a night of forbidden pleasure with a boy toy for his career, his marriage, and whatever shred of respect he might have been able to claim the morning after. And of course, no sooner does it happen, than every left-leaning paper and blog is trafficking in the mire generated by this unfortunate man’s fall. Indeed, in an election year, one fully expects the Dems to haul out the over-under shotgun loaded with double-aught malice and feed on the open-season of finding fault with anything remotely to the right of Hillary Clinton.

The grand prize for them, of course, being Legislators who can’t keep their pants zippered up… and all the more if they had anything to do with trying to impeach or censure Bubba for his tomcatting around with a certain (female) intern a decade or so back ago.

Just going off of the pictures circulating the MSM at the moment, the likely soon to be divorced and non-re-electable Mr. Curtis, (R-La Center), otherwise would appears to be a respectable citizen-leader and man of principles. This same man, who voted favourably on family values issues and kept a pocket New Testament handy for explaining what he stood for, found himself hoisted on his own petard.

Jeremiah 17:9 teaches us “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (KJV)

Of course, the Lord clearly knows what evil lurks in each of our hearts, according to verse 10 following after the above: “I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” (Jer. 17:10, KJV)

With this in mind, I will try to avoid judging this man for what he did, but only to point out nobody is safe from what happens if we let down our spiritual guard (I’m speaking to any of y’all saved Christians who happen onto this post) and entertain sin - especially sexual sin.

Various folks like Dan Savage (gay columnist who dredged up a lot of the sordid details behind Mr. Curtis’s erm, incident) will chalk this up as another failure for the conservative Right, after a rash of congressional page-molesters, bathroom stall toe-tappers, and sporting-house frequenters… and and yet also equivocate on how we all should just give up and give in to our basic sexual orientation. Or as another blogger suggests, he was simply on the “down-low”, and there just happened to be a preponderance of readily available young gays who could use a few C-notes, for lack of the effort involved in courting and maintaining a mistress.

No matter how you excuse it, giving in to any sexual sin is opening the door to far more degrading and vile acts. For all we know now, Mr. Curtis might have begun simply by lusting in his heart after women other than his wife. Then comes the porn, the internet, and anonymous hookups with whoever fits his bill.

And by way of his devilish dalliances, he met up with young master Joey “Cody” Castagna… a not-unattractive but perhaps a tad thuggish-looking young man with a growing rap sheet and snarled history of minor crimes and even a background as a gay pornographic actor. Notwithstanding a conviction for extortion of rep. Curtis… his rap sheet stands to get even longer, and Castagna faces possible prison time.

Moreover, both of them may well face eternal judgment (not specifically and only for this incident, but rather, and especially in Castagna’s case… for rejecting Jesus Christ). Again, I cannot say by only a few news media articles and some blogs what their spiritual status is… but looking at the fruit borne in both of these men’s lives, they might just want seek what God has to say about it.

This I have to say to you other GOP senators, congressmen, and other legislators: (all of you who stop here daily to read my humble wittle blog, of course)

Keep it zipped up and stowed away, and save it for your wives. And no, I am not going to tell you to find a sporting house somewhere discreet. Stop sinning against your own flesh, and against your families!

“Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.”
(1 Corinthians 6:18, KJV)

“Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.”
(1 Corinthians 7:2, KJV)

If you claim to stand on the Holy Bible as your authority… if you vote regularly against extending special privileges to the LGBT lobby, and vote for protecting the God-given family unit… then I exhort you to repent of your sexual infidelities, and make peace with your spouses, and submit therefore to the ordinances of God.

Please. control. yourselves.

If you cannot do that, then please do not re-run for election next term around… or do us a favour, and step down from office.

Better yet: Check in with Jesus and see if you are truly in the faith. Don’t think that you are above stumbling, for sin can creep in and strike when you are least ready for it.

“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”
(2 Corinthinans 13:5, KJV)

(Link: The Christian Post - Evangelist Challenges Atheists to Bible-Less Debate on ABC)

It seems to be a popular thing these days to see people attempting to “intellectually” debate the existence of God and/or “scientifically” disprove scientific theories such as Darwinist evolution.

In the above linked article, Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron (of Growing Pains fame) from “Way of the Master” have decided to debate two atheists who put that “Blasphemy Challenge” on YouTube.

Personally, I think that they are making a HUGE mistake, and are setting themselves up for a huge fall: how can they possibly go into battle unarmed(without using the Word of God) ?

God does not need us to intellectually defend Him; nor is it effective (and I will go so far as to say it is impossible) to reach lost souls without God’s word. And to claim that they can argue the existence of God without relying upon faith, or needing Scripture to back them up? This is COMPLETELY unscriptural:

8 But what saith (the Word of God) it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;

9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

(Romans 10:8-17)

The Bible itself contains God’s wisdom which alone will make men wise unto the salvation of souls:

“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.” (Proverbs 11:30)

When the rubber meets the road, it isn’t the mind or one’s intellect God is concerned with… in fact, He commands us to come to Him as simple children, trusting and believing in Him:

2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

(Matthew 18:2-5)

“But Jesus said, Allow the little children to come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mathew 19:14, EMTV)

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6, KJV)

Indeed, Ray and Kirk have seemingly missed the boat… and like so many of those so-called “Creation Scientists” and “Intelligent Design” advocates who try to argue with inveterate, unrepentant atheist scientists who have dug in their heels and oppose the Gospel at every turn… they will be wasting their time.

Debating science and intellectualizing with atheists does not convert lost souls to Christ… preaching the Gospel and giving sinners a good testimony of the redeemed soul that trusts in Jesus is guaranteed by God’s Word to have the most impact:

“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)

Now if Ray and Kirk would have chosen to go in “loaded for bear” with plenty of God’s Word, and not their own faulty, human thinking (Jeremiah 51:17)… I’d bet that at least one person in that audience would come that much closer to calling upon Jesus to save him and make the confession that will save his soul from the eternal fires of Hell.

Slightly related:

Ray Comfort asks - “here is something more sinister here than a few people not believing in God,” … “Why would so many be so bitter against Christianity in particular? Why aren’t they making videos that blaspheme Buddha or Mohammed or Ghandi?

My answer to that is that Jesus challenges people to give up trying to come to God on their own terms. There is something about realizing that one can’t make his own way to God, that simply infuriates people to no end. Interestingly enough, I’ve heard a devout Hindu man (a co-worker of mine) often swearing and using the Lord Jesus’s Name “in vain”, but to what end?

It is odd, when he could have easily sworn by Krishna or Brahma or any of the other 33 million gods he might deal with. Yet, is this not a testimony in itself, however subconscious - that Jesus Christ truly is the King of Kings, and the wicked hearts of men would refuse to have Him as their King?

Indeed! I know that before I was saved, one of the first choice words I would say when angered was the Lord’s Name - the same Name at which demons tremble, and before whom angels bow the knee and cover their eyes with their wings. What a brash, ignorant and irreverent thing for me, a being of mere dust, to do!

And yet, God is merciful, ever ready to forgive those who repent, and come to Him as children, through the Lord Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son.

Jesus is Lord, and He wants to be your Lord, even at the price of His life given up on the cross.

Take care with that, that you do not tarry longer without Him or His blood to cleanse away sins, for the penalty for rejecting Him (unbelief) is certainly dire. (Luke 19:12,14,17)

(All scripture quotes are taken from the King James Version, except where indicated otherwise).

In my wanderings around the ‘Net I stumbled upon this little page from the National Center for Science Education. Their stated purpose is “defending the teaching of evolution in the public schools”.

News to me. I was under the impression that teaching evolution in public schools was nigh unto a Holy Commandment from the Supreme Court per Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578 (1987).

Okay, okay… before someone decides to crucify someone over this… I will have to agree with the intent of this decision (but not necessarily the effects this little piece of judicial activism has had). In my opinion, the teachings of any system of cosmology or origin of life (both contained within the idea of “creationism”, and the latter expressly considered by Darwinists/evolutionists) should either be not taught at the compulsory level (i.e. primary through secondary schools funded by tax dollars) OR taught in such a manner as not to be dogmatic.

The back side of Edwards v. Aguillard is that in attempting to prevent religious doctrine from being taught in publicly funded, and therefore, secular schools - it opens the door to squelching honest academic consideration of differing viewpoints. Granted, creationism in many (if not most) of its forms is not considered to be “good science”, and has been relegated to the dark corners of superstition along with the Flat Earth and pre-Copernican geo-centric cosmography of the Middle Ages.

However (as I discussed in my post “Monkey Business”) the theory of evolution is almost as much dogma to secular humanists as creationism is to Christians. A more honest and informative discussion of the entire continuum would engage debate, and also open discussion concerning the possiblity of a Creator who had a hand in making us.

The views range from:

• Flat Earth and Geocentrism (definitely disprovable through observable phenomena such as horizon and mathematically proven curvature of the Earth’s surface, as well as orbital and gravitational observations)
• Young Earth (wishful thinking, but it is difficult to get around the preponderance of evidence for an ancient Earth) … this is probably the most popular Creationist school at present, and certainly is amongst Evangelical Christians.
• Old Earth/Ruin/Gap theories (more in line with observable data, but not necessarily proveable to exclusion of other theories) This had been the prevailing school of thought for Creationists prior to the appearance of Scofield’s Dispensations and other writings which espoused the Young Earth view, and is regaining some mind share in the minds of Christians in both mainline and evangelical/fundamentalist denominations.
• Materialistic Evolution (same as the last, except that it seeks to disprove God’s hand in any aspect or cause in biogenesis).

I am still developing my own view of the mechanism by which Life arose on the earth (biogeny) and currently lean in the direction of the idea that God created “templates with room to diversify” by way of theistic evolution (that is, evolution defined by and controlled by God with most of the inputs coded into the prime template’s DNA). In short, I can accept a form of “micro-evolution” that permits lines of adaptation and speciation - with an important caveat being that as time progresses, the lineal descendants will tend to have less of the progenitor’s original DNA information, as mutations enter the DNA, and as DNA information is lost to regional pockets (inbreeding or loss of certain varieties within a given genome).

As touching Mankind, I think Mankind is God’s special creation, made in His image as it is written in the Bible. No room left for interpretation or guesswork there.

While I am not a strict literalist (there is much in the Bible that is allegorical - Jesus Himself spoke in many parables which are themselves allegorical) I do accept and believe that all Scripture is inspired by God (2 Timothy 2:16, 2 Peter 1:20-21). The Bible is very clear on the matter of God forming man (Adam) from the dust of the earth, and breathing life into him. Science also bears this out, in that we realy are composed of the same mixture of elements as can be found in dirt, and indeed, the dusty material in space left over from the Creation of the universe.

Intertwined with this is also cosmology (study of the origins of the universe) which most scientific authority agrees is centered with the Big Bang event.

To develop my view, I start by outlining a few absolute truths which are defined by God’s word, and other assumptions which are supported by scientifically proven evidence:

1) God is, and was, and ever shall be: He exists as the Triune God (Father, Word, and Holy Spirit) and is not contained by the Time-Space continuum, but rather, is the initiator/Author of Time-Space. As such, He is able to see and control all aspects of His creation (incl. and especially the Time-Space continuum) at all times and from any angle He wishes.

2) Time-Space has a definite beginning, (Genesis 1:1) and definite ends, or dimensions - even if it is beyond our capacity to truly comprehend those limits. In particular, it has spatial limits “that were stretched out” (Jeremiah 10:12) which makes sense to our frame of reference. Scientific validation of this is apparent with stellar distances, red shift observations, and measurable distances (as measured by the time light crosses a certain distance). Limitations on Time exist where the Universe has a definite beginning point, and a definite end point where Peter wrote nearly 2000 years ago:

10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

(2 Peter 3:10-12, KJV)

3) The earth and its solar system are several billion years old, with evidence of life as old as 500 million years ago (mya) - and again, God is not constrained by time. I have long embraced seven literal days of creation, but it is possible that those days are not necessarily constrained to a seven literal periods of 24 hours occuring in succession for a total of 144 creation hours (given that God rests on the seventh day).

Alternatively, the literal 144-hour creation week may well have taken place… several hundred MYA or longer, per the Gap (Genesis 1:1-2) Theory.

I do not think that the 144-consecutive hour creation week is an article of faith, since we must remember that the language used by Moses to describe the creative work of God is initially revealed to the people of Israel of approximately 3400 years ago, a civilization that had not developed a deep knowledge of natural science; it is sufficient to know that God is abundantly powerful to create the universe and all that is in it by His holy Word.

Lastly, God has probably left the exact science of how He created the Universe and all that lives in it out of the Divine Writ, in that people would be drawn to see His hand in creation, and while investigating it, give Him the glory due Him as Creator.

4) God created life in stages, according to its “kinds”: I understand this to be the relatively sudden creation of certain living beings that serve as templates for downwardly evolving, specified and differentiated beings, all according to the same general pattern as its ancestral template.

5) God specifically and specially created Adam, and placed him into the Garden of Eden; Eve was created from his tissue. This is non-negotiable, as it sets the stage for man’s eventual redemption through Christ, the Second Adam.

6) Man (through Adam and Eve) sinned and fell from innocence by disobeying God’s single commandment for them (Genesis 3:1-14)

7) God gave man a plan of redemption from the beginning (Genesis 3:15) carried it out to the cross as God the Word (God’s only begotten Son, Jesus) and shall return soon to all who believe in Him.

8) There was a global flood that destroyed all life, save for the species God selected to board the ark with Noah and his family. It is possible that many of the forms of life descended from the original DNA templates (the creatures God created in Genesis 1) were either corrupted into chimaeras or genetically altered through the science of fallen angels or thier Nephilim offspring, as well as possibly by wicked humans acting under demonic infulence. Hence it is possible that God found it necessary to destroy these corruptions in order to preserve (some smaller fraction) of the purer but limited genetic diversity which had existed between Adam and Noah’s time. This might explain the loss of certain megafauna (dinosaurs, mammalian megafauna, etc.)

It could be that some of that megafauna were the chimaera-ized hybrids of different templates and humans - extinct forms of hominids, Neanderthals, and other creatures believed to be ancestral to man; or perhaps some of the more fantastic mythological beasts that linger in collective human conscience (dragons, centaurs, basilisks and the like).

9) Extinct “hominids” and modern Great Apes are not evolutionary relations of man, nor are they templates of beasts of the same genetic stock as humans. (See point 5). Given the much-publicized “98% similarity of DNA” between humans and chimpanzees, there is still a vast gulf of a difference between the two species, enough to preclude successful, “natural” interbreeding of human/chimp hybrids. Further, it iconsistent with God’s wisdom that a creature that is so morphologically similar to the human frame would share a great deal of the same code that God used to make both of them.

Yet, chimps are designed primarily for arboreal locomotion, grasping objects with thier lower extremeties (feet/toes), and have a considerably more robust strength to weight ratio (about 7:1 against humans), give different attaching points of muscle and fascia to bones, vastly different ratios of bodily leverage, and a higher overall concentration of lean muscle mass per kilogram of muscle than humans.

Man on the other hand, is designed by His Creator to occupy a place above the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even though a little lower than angels, Redeeemed Man (by Jesus Christ) will one day judge those same angels; he is created to glorify God, and to have eternal fellowship with Him.

Other Sources of Interest:
GodandScience.org - Progressive Creation: An Overview
Christian Geology -

Much is being made of the news concerning Corporal Matthew Sanchez, USMC, and his past as a gay “adult entertainment” actor, and also his past as a paid male escort.

CPL Sanchez had been recognized by the CPAC (the same one that Ann Coulter had potty-mouthed John Edwards) for his actions in speaking out at Columbia University against anti-war radicals, and was given a Jeane Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award as well as a standing ovation at the Ronald Reagan Banquet (h/t to Michelle Malkin).

As always with the interwebs, much googling and poking around with the Wayback Machine can turn up the dirt on just about anyone; and CPL Sanchez is no exception. In spite of his turn-around from his life some 15-odd years ago (having served in the USMC, and now both a full-time student and full-time partner at a marketing company, one would have to try awfully hard to dispute his willingness to strive to be the best he can).

Naturally, the pictures and links to his old escort service profile, leather paraphenalia and his porn “career” surfaced like so much flotsam dredged up by those liberal champions of skullduggery and petty vindictiveness.

It seems that the radical left — which would have us believe that it works overtime to protect the LGBTs and other oppressed minorities — were also the first to heap scorn upon CPL Sanchez for his past. In his blog, CPL Sanchez admits to his past, and also that he has long since moved on from what he described as initially a progressive, liberal leaning worldview to that of a Reagan conservative, and finding his time in the gay porn/escort industry to be quite empty and unfilling.

Excerpted from CPL Sanchez’s blog:

I don’t like porn, it reduces the mind, flattens the soul. That’s not hypocrisy talking, that’s experience. If I started off with liberal leanings, being on a gay porn set should have been heaven. In porn, everything taboo is trivialized and everything trivial is projected. How does a conservative trace his roots to such distasteful beginnings? Like all followers of a cult, it’s tough to figure out when you stopped believing in the party-line, but I can tell you that by the time I finished my summer tour of the major studios, I was pretty disgusted with myself. It was an emotional low, and the people who surrounded me were like drug dealers only interested in being with the anesthetized in order not to shake off the stupor of being high. Why did I become a conservative? Just look at what I left, and look at who is attacking me to today? Let’s face it people, you’re all cynical enough to know that if I had espoused liberal causes, spoken out against the military, got a liberal award for courage and then outed with a porn-past, you’d be clamoring for my memoir, and nominating me for a diversity ticket with Barack Obama. Instead those who complain about wire-tapping reserve the right to eavesdrop on my private life for political brownie points.

Indeed, the Left is swift to punish those who flee from their “ideological plantation” - and sadly enough, one’s sexuality - or former sexuality - is yet another weapon to use mercilessly silence their opposition. Unfortunately for the Leftocrats this time, it won’t work. I think the Corporal is not a man easily intimidated, even by the “almighty Smear Machine” of the Left.

Too bad that the Left seems all to willing to turn on its would be “protected identities” to damage the right; or just as bad, trying to downplay their fringe elements much like Edwards tossing Amanda “the Toilet Mouth” Marcotte from Pandagon, and that gal from “Shakespeare’s Sister” under the bus of political convenience.

Not that I care much for those two sites or authors’ decidedly radical talking points… but a Presidential candidate is going to hire some politically wildfired bloggers to handle your press, checking out their backgrounds to see if their personal views are in line with your target consituency first might be a good idea.

But I say “Bravo!” to CPL Sanchez. I have utmost respect for someone with the grit to admit to his past, and having moved on from a “closed chapter” in his life without the whitewashing we saw from the likes of Mark Foley or Ted Haggard…

If nothing else, even if CPL Sanchez is not a Christian, the Christian attitude to have is to accept a repentant sinner with love; since he seems to have turned his back on the gay lifestyle, I think it is only appropriate that conservatives welcome him with open arms and Christ’s attitude of forgiveness.

On Michelle Malkin’s post covering this, she references a reader who quoted 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (KJV) in reference to this attitude:

9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Amen, and amen.

With Jesus, all things truly are possible, even the redemption of souls from the grasp of sin.

Monkey see, monkey do: According to the leading scientists, and the consortium of (mostly very liberal) professional teaching establishment - we are all monkey spawn, and a freakish, if not perhaps a ridiculously unlikely, accident of chemistry and luck which gave rise to our remote ancestral strains of bacteria and/or other sea slimes that arose from chains of amino acids billions of years ago.

Not quite as uplifting or inspiring as being created by a personal God who has a special plan for you and I both, is it? Yet I will contend that both ideas are derived from a theological basis - which can neither be proven nor disproven with absolute certainty.

Both positions require a large dose of faith to cover the gaps where evidence; both positions fail to provide a solid answer, UNLESS a healthy dose of belief in the more unlikely parts of the positions are held…

(more…)

Notwithstanding my attempts to search for hymns with mispelled words, I finally tracked down the lyrics to a particular hymn I’ve come to like.

I note to my embarassment that “Cavalry” (which is unit in an army, typically horse-mounted in the past, but usually referring to helicopter or light/scout armour units to-day) will affect the Google search result significantly than using the word “Calvary” (the place where Jesus was crucified, also known as “Golgotha”).

Needless to say, it is a fairly old hymn, and hard to track down. I happened to hear it on Old Christian Radio, which provides some of the oldest and best gems of Scirpturally sound hymns, the sort that moved the D.L. Moodys and the Hudson Taylors of yesteryear to the mission fields here and abroad.

That said… as much as I generally find the posting of song lyrics on blogs to be somewhat passé, I give you:

That Day At Calvary
by: Walt Huntley

I stood one day at Calvary,
Where Jesus bled and died.
I never knew He loved me so;
For me He was crucified.
And as I stood there in my sin,
His love reached down to me;
And, oh, the shame that filled my soul,
That day at Calvary.

I prayed one day at Calvary,
“I’m Thine forevermore;
Forgive me, Lord, for all my sin,
My lost estate restore,”
And as I prayed, to me He gave
Salvation full and free;
And, oh, the peace that filled my soul
That day at Calvary.

Good stuff, indeed. Their web site isn’t the prettiest, but they offer solid music (none of that dancey-pop or sold-out, compromised “contemporary Christian” music there).

Pitter, patter. The first drops fell
the sky darkened, a portent ill.
The daughters of man, with angels mingle
and man’s every intent evil, with purpose single.

The waters roser higher and higher still,
The Ship arose as well, by God’s perfect will.
At last the new seas covered over the highest ground,
The last souls perished, all men and giants drown’d.

The theme of this poem is based on Genesis, chapters six through seven.

Somehow, I woke up one morning and read through my usual roll of blogs. In a few of those blogs, there was some commentary about the drag performer Kevin Aviance, who was recently brutally beaten by a number of thugs. Truly a hate crime, no doubt about that.

Lately, I’ve noticed there is an abundance of discussion about the denial of LGBT (civil) rights, and the Vast Evil Christian Right Conspiracy™ to bring us back to the good old days of Puritan rule.

These blogs posts (and the responses to them) are usually filled with much vitriol against Christians, usually equating them with the likes of the detestable "Reverend" Fred Phelps or the marginally sociopathic Pat Robertson.

And then, I’d be remiss not to notice the general sense of distaste that the typical, ordinary "Christian" is held with by many of the LGBT bloggers.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that some of them hate Jesus Christ and His followers with a hatred bordering on violence… whether those followers be true Christians, or the shamefully watered down, largely disobedient and/or scripturally ignorant "Xtians"…

You know the ones: they jam-pack those mega-McChurches and shout and sing and rock out to the lushly funded "Xtian Rock Band" up on the pulpit stage… but as soon as they leave church, they are cussing each other out and seething with road-rage before they’ve even left the parking lot.

Nevermind the terrible example they make of themselves as people make note of what a sore person that person is with the fish symbol and the "God is My Intelligent Designer" stickers on thier SUV.

Or worse, the true Christian is lumped in with those troglodytes from a certain Topekan church, whose members picketing funerals with thier hateful signage. It is almost to the point where if God and Christ are mentioned, you can see the hair on the necks of every liberal bristle up for miles around.

Folks, the sword of prejudice and red-neckery swings both ways.

For every (so called) Christian who directs hateful invective against queers, there are at least a proportionate number of LGBTs that blame many (if not most) of thier ill-circumstances against the Vast Evil Christian Right Conspiracy™.  Some even wear these chips on thier shoulders like a giant bright badge, perhaps looking to it as the thing that defines thier existence on this earth.

One of the more common arguments I hear (against Christianity) is something along the lines of, with thier thoughts of that dreaded Leviticus 18:22-23 or verses like it:

"How can we tolerate/participate in a religion that endorses killing people who choose to be witches or are queer, or believe that it is right to smash up and totally annihilate foreign enemy nations… or *gasp* calls my sexual orientation an "abomination"?

Surely, is it must be true that the Vast Evil Christian Right Conspiracy™ wants to deport us all to Holland or lock us away in a Gaylag (gulag) somewhere in West Mississippi..!" 

And then, as if on cue, some fool supporter of the "Reverend" Phelps will only cement this idea into the LGBT conscience by waving his hate signage around and spewing some verbal sewage such as:

"Yeah, that’s the way to do it! Yarrgh! All them filthy fags, Lee-vit-ah-cus sez they will all burn! Haw haw haw!

Now whurz my cousin slave wife at… I needs to smack her up as she didn’t cook my dinner right!!"

Ah, how both sides love to pull out the Old Testament for the purpose of either justifying violence against certain people, or for maligning Christianity as a brutal, archaic and bloodthirsty religion. And if some choose to hold to a more moderate application of the Old Testament, then suddenly we are hypocrites for "picking and choosing" what parts of the Bible we like.

Let me pause here, and share my stand on this. 

1) For the true, Bible-believing Christian, the Bible is the final and complete revelation of God’s will to humankind; it will remain the completed Word of God, at least until Jesus returns to this Earth. I won’t touch on the "which Bible version is correct" argument, although I do prefer the "Authorised Version" or the King James Bible, as it is known in the USA. Plus, it is not under copyright, which means I can freely quote it anywhere at any length. (Bonus!)

As a rambling counter to this though… based upon the words and deeds of so many "professing Christians" in the USA: very, very few do indeed strive to imitate Christ, and spend altogether too much time trying to prevent the gays from legally marrying, or get public schools to start praying again, or any of a number of  issues where Church attempts to impose its will over the State. Such time and energy would be better spent on thier knees in prayer before the Only True and Sovereign God, beseeching Him for the souls of men and women to come to believe and confess in Christ, or funding missionaries to go out and preach the gospel… or *gasp gasp* share the gospel with others around them, that lost souls may be brought to the saving knowledge of Christ.

2) If the Bible is the complete Word of God, then ALL of it is God’s word, even the disagreeable bits found in the Old Testament. Actually, there are plenty of disagreeable bits in the New Testament too.

3) The disagreeable bits are EXTREMELY hard to reconcile, with our "modern" worldview, especially if you (the reader) are not a Christian… and therefore filled with God’s Holy Spirit, (John 14:16-17) who will lead you into all truth, (John 16:13) and teach you all things (John 14:26) about His Word. 

In fact, the Bible evens states that the natural man, that is, unsaved men and women, are unable to receive the things of God, (1 Corinthians 2:12-14) having been blinded by (Satan) the god of this world. (2 Corinthians 4:4)

4) The disagreeable bits are left in the Bible to teach us what God’s view of sin is. God is capable of, and exercises hatred toward sin. He does have wrath. He has requires a blood price for sin (Romans 6:23) - and will someday punish sinners who refuse to accept His mercy and reject His forgiveness (Romans 1:18-32) in Christ’s perfect sacrifice. He is a God who is slow to anger, but He does have wrath.

However, as I said… these disagreeable bits serve a purpose in pointing out that we are all guilty of sin - everyone from the bum on the street to the President Bush, from that drag queen (Kevin Aviance) that was beaten recently in the Gay mecca of New York City, and those men thugs who beat him up.

…for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:22b-23)

5) Here is where some understanding is required, that we may "rightly divide the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). Is what the Phelps cult publishing on thier hateful web site in keeping with God’s word, and is this hateful attitude correct?

As a Christian, hating sin is acceptable (and even desirable), but never hating individual people. The most practical application this is to hate our own sin which creeps into our lives. While hating sin in other people’s lives is biblical, we (Christians) must not forget to check if we do not first have a beam in our eye before removing the mote (speck) from someone else’s eye. (Luke 6:41-42)

That beam is judging people according to our own (filthy rags, Isaiah 64:6) "righteousness". Christian, you had better take care here, when you look at the gay man or lesbian or transgendered person, and think to yourself that you are any better than they: I assure you that except for Christ, Christian… you are no better. And Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us clearly that our faith is a gift from God, and not some good thing that sprang up from within us.

But now to touch on this whole disagreeable bit in Leviticus (the oft-quoted by LGBTs and Christians alike, Leviticus 18:23 and 20:13) or even the wars of extermination that were sanctioned (in fact, commanded) by God against the dwellers of the land of Canaan in Joshua’s time.

1) These laws and activities were intended to be literally obeyed only by the covenanted nation of Israel, whom God ruled directly for a time, and then through the line of King David until the Babylonian captivity. This covenanted nation no longer exists as a theo-political entity; nor did its laws ever apply to non-Jewish people. In fact, some of those laws were not even intended for regular everyday Jews, but for the priestly class of Levites.

2) The basic underlying premise for the wars of extermination were to completely eradicate the previous occupants, who had so thoroughly polluted thier land with sin, that the land was to "vomit them out".

God had promised Abraham (and later to his son Isaac and grandson Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes of Israel) that his seed would possess the land of Canaan (the Levant). God told Abraham that he would not possess the land in his lifetime, (Genesis 15:13) fore-knowing that the ancient dwellers of the Levant continue to store up wrath - they would continual to sin for another 400+ years before God was moved to act against them through Abraham’s descendants… (Genesis 15:15-21)

Some of the more notable vices of that society included things like ritual incest, ritual infanticide, and cultic (sometimes homosexual) gang rape of "temple prostitutes" involved in the worship of certain fertility dieties.

3) The basic idea behind the harsh laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy outlined why God had commanded the eradication of the Canaanites (which by the way, was not completely done: as promised, the remants of those Canaanite civilizations proved to be a moral snare [Exodus 34:12] to the new nation of Israel).

Most of the Israelites rejected God’s divine rulership, seeking to have a king over them. Eventually, the kingdom broke into two kingdoms, the northern one "Israel" with the majority of the tribes, and "Judah" (from which comes the word "Jew") with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The Jews in Judah more or less kept to following God for a short time, and the remaining Israelites in the north rather quickly turned away to all the sorts of pagan worship that the Canaanites had practiced before they had arrived.

God kept his promise: if the Israelites followed God, He caused them to prosper above and beyond thier  contemporary nations. During the reign of Solomon, Israel had unequaled wealth and fame among the nations of the Middle East, excercising its influence as far east as the River Euphrates (in modern Iraq) and as far west as Egypt and Ethiopia.  Not too bad for a little podunk country of mostly sheep herders living far from the main trading routes…

But when the northern kingdom fell away to same sins as the previous inhabitants of the land… God raised up the Assyrians under Sennacherib to carry them off into slavery and diaspora. That kingdom never recovered (until modern times) - even in Jesus’s time, it was the dwelling place of a mixed race of Jews and foreigners known as Samaritans, who were regarded with no small amount of hostility by pureblood Jews.

In due course, even the relatively faithful kingdom of Judah fell away to practing "abominations" (i.e. imitating its sister kingdom of Israel and the Canaanites that preceded them) and were judged by God when He rose up Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon against them.

Over time, a certain remant of the Jews were allowed to resettle Jerusalem and its surrounding precincts, and they ruled off and on as Greeks and Romans saw fit to up until the time of Christ.

The old Levitical system was still in place, but significantly hampered and functioned as a shadow of itself from the days of Kings Solomon and David. This is significant, in that Christ said that He did not come to suspend or take away the Law, but to fulfill it.

We now come to the crucial point in the Jewish Law: Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. (Hebrews 9:22) … this all comes back to Romans 3:23 and 6:23, which establishes that we are all sinners, with a blood price upon our heads because of our sins.

The central focus of the rituals in the Jewish temple was the Rosh Ha’Shannah, or the Day of Atonement. Once each year, a special sacrifice would be made to atone for the sins of Israel. This was an exceptionally Holy day, as the High Priest would have to do many things just to prepare himself to go in before the Mercy Seat of the Lord, bearing the sacrifice.

It is noteworthy here to mention again that Jesus spoke of Himself not as "taking away the Law", but rather, as "fulfilling" it. 

He actually became the final blood sacrifice for all time, to take away our sin - past, present and future (Matthew 26:28, Acts 10:24, Romans 3:24-25, 8:10) when He died on the cross, and overcame the death penalty of sin by His resurrection.

The final death knell to the old Mosaic/Levitical system came in AD 70, when General Titus (the future Emperor Vespasian) marched against Jerusalem to supress a rebellion which resulted in horrific amounts of death and destruction; upwards of 1.1 ~ 1.3 million persons may have perished. If those accounts are true, then it would unequaled in its scope until modern times.  But with it, came the destruction of the Temple, and the end of the sacrifice system, along with the end of Israel/Judea as a political entity.

Thus, the strict and literal application of Levitical and Mosaic laws is not appropriate to Christians. It is not for any Christian to go around killing gays and other LGBTs, much less condemning them because of thier sin.

God’s word by itself condemns sin perfectly - and also provides the Perfect way of escape in Jesus. Fellow Christian, our "job" (or scripturally speaking, our commission) is to preach the word, not to condemn. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. 

Rather, it is the spiritual application of recognizing the things - the sins - which God detests in our lives, and for the Christian, it is God’s will for us to overcome that sin in our lives through the blood of Jesus, and obedience to His word, i.e. not partaking of that sin behaviour. 

Preface: This post is the extended response to a post Adam (The Krebs Cycle) made on his blog concerning the (overreaction) by Christians to the DaVinci Code. 

(Adam’s original post "Hysteria") :
I don’t understand why there are people coming out of the woodwork over The Da Vinci Code. The book is fiction. If your religion and belief system is so fragile that it can be torn down by the movie adaptation of what is basically a pulp novel starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou then I suggest you seek and subscribe to a higher truth.

The Power of the Code…

I find this whole thing rather humourous… I’ve noticed that it is the Roman Catholic Church that seems to be the most visibly upset over this "DaVinci Code".

What it all boils down to… is power.

Which is fitting, since the RC Church is arguably one of the most powerful church/organizations in existence.

No group of elites will easily give up its power (either real or perceived).

Those who truely hold to the beliefs in Christ, that He is the Son of God, risen from the dead, and that He is both Judge and Redeemer - will have no problems with the "DaVinci Code"… for thier God is one who is Soveriegn, and is the author of all power.

True Christians will not fear any "loss of power", because by themselves, they have no power.

For them, it is Christ’s Word - God’s words - which is power, (Greek: dynamis) and it is the Christians’ power when they live to Him.

True Christians should not be concerned with much more than living thier lives to please Jesus Christ, and doing His work (Matthew 28:16-20)… as opposed to hawking political agendas, or getting caught up in big-money politics.

As for the various denominations and church and parachurch organizations (Focus On the Family, and those kinds of groups) with vested interests in the government, or in industry, or other sectors of influence in our lives…. they have MUCH to fear from this spectre, this supposed "loss of power".

Thier faith (the parachurch powers) is less in God than it is in the power of their own devices to exert thier influence in the world.

The same is true for any HUMAN organization, regardless of its actual religion or belief system: if its power (or perceived power) appears threatened, it will work to either deny, or eliminate that threat.

The Pharasaic rulership of Judea - the Sanhedrin - felt threatened enough by what Jesus preached against them in order to plot His destruction; He challenged thier legalistic attachment to the Mosaic Law, while they had hearts that were just as wicked and corrupt as the sinners they preached against.

Sure, many "christians" are bothered by this book by Dan Brown. So what? What is Jesus thinking on the matter?

He is God: He is not in the least worried by whatever ill some folks may think (or write) of Him, according to Psalm 2:1-5 :

1) Why do the heathen (the nations of the world) rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

 2) The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed (Jesus), saying,

 3) Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

 4) He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.

 5) Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.

Check, please!

Therefore, it is not the (true) Christian’s place to loose any sleep over this kind of thing. If God is God, He is more than capable of preserving His people from something as picayune as some guy’s book, and reproving… or even punishing… those who make light of His Word.

Dan Brown is only a recent challenger to Jesus’s claims to perfect, sinless manhood and perfect, divine Godhood; there are nearly 2000 years worth of other writings that have come before him.

Yet [a fellow blogger, name remoived] (mockingly?) said,

"Your fiction conflicts with my fiction; hands off my fiction! (snicker)"

I’m rather thinking that God will have the last laugh.  

No mere book that has been written is able to convince a man of the guilt he has for his sins, and of the judgment of Hell; much less, save his soul.

God’s word has. It did so for me, who has been no less of a sinner than anyone who has posted a comment here (on Adam’s blog), or read (that) blog.

In fact, I might be bold enough to say that I have been a sinner exceeding what many readers who read and post (there), but this might not be a profitable thing for me to boast in, except that God’s grace for salvation be revealed as something stronger still.

2 Peter 1:21 says:

20) Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.

21) For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake [as they were] moved by the Holy Ghost.

And now for the REAL Devil in the Details.

Back to the power thing… it could well be … that if there is a real Jesus Christ who did all the things that He supposedly did in the Bible…

… then it would also be true that His avowed enemy (and ours as well) - who is called the "Devil" and the "Serpent" and the "Destroyer", the "father of lies" - or simply Satan, (if you prefer) he just might feel threatened enough by Jesus’s claims and deeds to try refuting them and casting doubts at every turn.

Ever since the Garden of Eden, this has been Lucifer’s charm, his "lightest feather of doubt" against God’s inerrant word:

"Yea, hath God said…?" (Genesis 3:1)

Then again, most "intelligent" people will dismiss the idea of Satan as being some nasty little Pan-like, pitchfork-bearing imp, a medieval construct that the RC Church used long ago to keep the serfs happily toiling away on thier lords’ manors.

I propose this: That the among greatest evils that the Devil ever done, was to convince the "intelligentsia" of this world… that neither he nor God ever existed.

Or as another twist, that The Devil would claim that God (Yahweh, the Judeo-Christian God, and His Son, Jesus) is a satan (an accuser and an adversary), and Lucifer is a god.

The above statement could be deemed true by bending some semantics… : God is an adversary against sin and wickedness, and as a Holy and Righteous God, is able to judge us for our sins; Lucifer (specifically, the fallen angel we call Satan) is called the "god of this world", (2 Corinthians 4:4) who is a false demonic god specifically given dominion over unbelievers living on earth for a short time.

However, most folks will be quite content never to question the false god (Lucifer) who holds them captive in the cruel bondage of sin and shame. I know it took me a while to listen to God trying to wake me up and convict me of my wretchedness, my sins that had earned for me a death sentence to an eternity in a Hell of fire (Romans 6:23).

The bottom line, folks… is that one of the following cases is the true case, and the other false:

(1) God (and Jesus) are who they say they are, and (a) a terrible judgment for our sins remains, from which (b) only Jesus’s atonement - His sacrafice and resurrection from the dead can save us, IF we believe in Him…

— OR —

(2) God is a liar, and the myriads of His followers have chosen to give thier lives to Him in vain.

Thus, everyone’s fate is to be worm food, and in all likelihood, we will have left this planet utterly unsustainable for any future generations after us…. thus sealing the coffin for humanity at large.

But let God be found true, and every man a liar: if He is true, then ALL of us will someday stand before God, whether to face judgment and condemnation to an eternity in fiery hell… or the reward of eternal life (in Christ).

Wasn’t this originally about Power? You bet it is - it is all about God’s Power:

 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)