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Controversial idea alert! Set down your preconceived notions, because I was once stunned by this life-changing truth too... (I've been mulling over when to do a post like this, letting it ruminate in my mind. Enough stewing in the mind's crockpot, time to post. (Because of the topic, I'll have to revisit this again.)
(Wall-of-text length post, my longest so far.)
I'd like to add to the reMinded post the following:
Scripture is clear (by use of the Greek word δούλος, "doulos," and the Hebrew word עבד, "ebed,") that there is no-one that is totally free to live life their way... we are All slaves of something (or someone). Shocked yet? Buckle-up.
There Must be some standard/value that, when challenged, we aren't willing to abandon. If we don't have that foundation, we will implode when something we eventually do shatters our conscience's ability to justify the failure. Whatever that deepest, most inner-core belief/worldview is, that you're not willing to let go of, is what your "master" is. If you have Any belief/value that you won't disobey, you could be considered a slave to that fundamental core belief.
"Do you not know that the one to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of that same one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?" Romans 6:16.
Being totally free to oneself is moral relativism, which is an evil that our own conscience will self-destruct over when challenged by God ...or even society if that relativism results in harm to others like murder (Charles Manson), theft (Bernie Madoff, Enron, the US Debt / Unfunded Liabilities), cheating, adultery, bearing false witness (against Justice Brett Kavanaugh), etc. You will eventually find yourself as a convict if you are "totally" free to yourself. Even if society doesn't convict you, you still might be found convicted by your own conscience.
"Forgetting God" mandates some other idea/group becoming our highest pursuit, our "master." Something must be our highest value. If it's not God, we'll be undone when that "treasure" is considered like the garbage in the sewer in comparison to Him. We might eventually even find ourselves undone when that idea/group fails us and leaves us unsatisfied, in search of a new "highest value," which also leaves us empty, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, until we exhaust ourselves to fruitless and vain pursuits. What scripture proves over and over, is that no idea/value, organization, or group is worthy of being the master of our lives (either due to their garbage nature, or our inability to measure-up to them)... none except God himself, that is.
Even though we can't measure up to God either, His will/plan is the only bridge between our sinful failure and His perfection. His perfect will can be our highest value, yet the Cross bridges the gap to our imperfection in a way that can leave us satisfied. His will, that brings the imperfect to perfection, is the only will/value that is worthy of being our "master."
I read a book by John MacArthur called "Slave: the hidden truth about your identity in Christ." If you're willing to "stop," remember the childhood saying "don't judge a book by its cover," and give this book and any other book on the "δούλος" (doulos) and "עבד" (ebed) topic a fair read, then this paradoxical and shocking topic should be an eye-opening and enlightening read.
In the book (which frequently references scripture and great theologians), it highlights sin (which encompasses "Everything" against God's will) as "the cruelest and most unjust of all masters;" "[its] burden is heavy and loathsome;" "[it] traps its slaves in darkness and death;" "[it] diverts, deceives, and destroys;" and "slavery to sin consists of everything hateful, harmful, dreadful, and despicable" (p.141).
Those descriptions still do not do justice to how bad sin is. Sin can even drive a wedge into your mind, cleaving yourself in two, then leave you enslaved to your own vices in a cage in your own mind, watching as your sinful-self falls for things you absolutely despise (yet wholly unable to affect any change to your clearly hellbound trajectory, even while engaging in an implosive civil-war of will-breaking attrition). Even that description is too nice about sin. Sin is so enslaving, that you can know something is wrong, and still be bound to fall for it... and sin encompasses "everything" apart from God. Sin is a "super-massive black hole" with an unquenchable appetite, that won't stop until your entire being is enveloped by death and death-bound behaviors. It can get to a point where your only option is to activate the emergency distress beacon, fire the flares, and pray that rescue arrives before you are consumed. If you're truthful and repentant, God will show up.
It also says, "unlike sin, Christ is the perfect Master;" "Christ is the most loving and merciful;" "Christ's 'yoke is easy' and His 'burden is light';" "Christ brings light and life to all those who have been 'made... alive together with Him';" "Christ is 'the way, and the truth, and the life';" and "slavery to Christ entails everything good, glorious, joyous, and right" (p. 141).
I hear you, appalled modern internet-browser... "Slavery is evil! How can anything good come from forced obedience to another being? What a 'skydaddy'-worshipping sheep!"
1st) Sin is everything short of perfection, and God's will is to destroy All imperfect things. Are you so "enslaved" yourself to sin, that you are unwilling to become a slave to perfection? Do you want imperfection (hell) so much that you can't let go? If we think of things in computer terms (as in binary 1s and 0s), Everything in existence boils-down to either a "1" or a "0." Even if I couldn't convince you that God is real, which one would you "want" to be? A 1, or a 0? You're on one side, and one side only, choose wisely. When the door shuts and every "0" is erased, only the "1"s will be left. Since there can be no "0," then, by default, everything else is a slave to being a 1, to perfection.
2nd) One thing about God everyone needs to know is that He never demands anything from us that He hasn't already done Himself. Yes, scripture says it clear as day... when God made the covenant with Abraham, He had Abraham split some carcasses to signify that the one passing between them would be torn in two for breaking the covenant. Then God went between them! Not Abraham! This foreshadowed Christ's death on the cross, a death for Our breaking of the covenant! Also, the cross was a Slave's death! Christ died a slave's death on our behalf! The shocking power of the sacrifice God made for You and me cannot be overstated!
In Philippians 2:5-11, "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant {δούλου, doulou=slave} and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross. For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
https://bible.com/bible/2692/php.2.5-11.NASB2020
3rd) There's no force being applied by God to enslave anyone to Himself. If you willfully refuse Him (as Billions have, and will), He will let you be deleted when the rest of the "0s" are. It's not a good choice, but He'll let you make it. God does Not seek begrudging, forced, resisting people to be His people.
If you "Let" Him, He'll shower you, and enrobe you, with His love until you learn about Him enough to be unable to comprehend a reason to "want" to say anything other than "yes." A definition of "endearment" is "to bind with ties of affection." If you open yourself up to God, He'll show you His preemting sacrifices for you, and how He already gave Himself for you, to the point where you "respond" "I'm yours, Lord."
4th) Slavery, as we have seen it, is only between human beings... foul, sinful human beings. In that sense, YES, ALL "human" slavery is evil. Scripture says so itself. 1 Corinthians 7:23, "You were bought for a price; do not become slaves of people." (Read verse 22 also.)
The more we make ourselves "others focused," especially as a result of being "God focused," the better.
Matthew 20:25-28, https://biblehub.com/nasb/matthew/20.htm
Matthew 10:24-25, https://biblehub.com/nasb/matthew/10.htm
Among many others.
It's interesting that the quote from @carrythelight below is from Patrick Henry. It not only just so happens to be my name too (Patrick Henry); but I looked up my name, and "Patrick" in Latin is "Patricius," meaning "nobleman." Not only is the name coincidence interesting, so is the meaning. The meaning also has a good comparison to this topic.
How is "nobleman" comparable to "slave" you ask? Aren't they polar opposites? (Reclick on the Matthew 20:25-28 link again.) "...whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave" (26-27).
By this "ranking" or "scale," the one who wants to be a "nobleman" must be willing to serve others. In MacArthur's book, there's a segment from Alexander Maclaren (from the 1800s) where he states, "Such slavery {to Christ the Lord} is the only nobility." He continues, "They who make themselves God's slaves are by Him made kings and priests, and shall reign with Him on Earth {the New Earth}. If we are slaves, then are we sons and heirs of God through Jesus Christ."
The paradoxical truth is: the more like a slave you're willing to live as, the more honored, treasured, noble {patricius-like}, kingly (or queenly), heroic, and respected you are. Why? Because heroes Always put others first when they're called on. That's why heroism is so rare, surprising, and exalted as "unusual" today... because the general public is far to focused on self-anything to be bothered with heroism. In a sense, voluntary slave-like behavior is what best fosters heroism.
I cannot rewrite books here, but I can hit the high points and point to other sources to further "deep-dive" into (Please do, even if you aren't a believer. Search for any criticisms you have to this and see if those are actually valid by finding what scripture says, not just from some ranting-rando critic-blogger).
Here's a few sources:
The Bible (obviously). I recommend the NASB or HCSB for "doulos"-accurate reading; the NIV, and maybe NKJV are "ok;" but the original King James version is stunningly garbage on the "doulos" topic. I read that it's because the English words changed meaning since then, but even so, even the theologians still wrote about it as: the "Authorized Version" says servant (for most uses of "doulos"), but the real meaning is "slave."
Biblehub.com is great: it has the Lexicons and Concordances for both Greek and Hebrew, plus comparisons with basically all prominent English versions, including intralinear Greek/Hebrew to English.
Greek δούλος "doulos": https://biblehub.com/greek/1401.htm
1396-1402: https://biblehub.com/strongs/k.htm
Hebrew עבד, "ebed":
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5650.htm
https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5649.htm
John MacArthur's: "Slaves: The hidden truth about your identity in Christ"
duckduckgo: anything you want to look for!
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31Reminds
More from JetStreamPLC
(Wall-of-text length post below)
Critics used to say "time will tell"... well, it has told. The truth is made known, the subversive agenda is now fully in the open.
I'm a Christian, so I'm fully aware of the public criticism of Christian opposition to gay marriage (and everything else they call LGB...). [True] Christians have said for many decades that pedophilia, and sexualization and abuse of children were clearly on the horizon for the LGB... community. They blatantly denied it, and those that support them mocked the [true] Christian community as "intolerant," "bigoted," and "hateful." (You can always hate ideas without hating the person holding them, but that's beside the point.)
Now the truth is out... they ARE "coming for your children... slowly... without you noticing" (their words, not mine). The Christian community's warning that fell on ignorantly naive and deaf ears is completely vindicated. The claims of the "slippery slope fallacy" have now been proven to be willful and evil deflections of the blatantly obvious truth to anyone with two brain cells between their ears.
I've read that at least 4 of the singers are confirmed to be on the Sex Offender Registry. Another one was a lead cast member of (I think it was a play) called "Boy" that is widely criticized for glorifying sexual slavery of underage boys in Afghanistan (even criticized by former Afghans!) How can you possibly be any more blatant than having sex offenders and a child-boy-sex-slave fetishist singing "were coming for your children"?
(That last sentence is almost certainly putting me on some NSA, or other alphabet agency, watch list or something... but so be it. Some people on the web need a solid smack upside-the-head to knock some sense into them.)
This is real. This is more prevalent in the LGB... community than anyone wants to know... even many within the community itself. We can't bury our heads in the sand and hope they'll go away. They've now said they won't, so what is our response? Make no mistake, they tried to "walk it back," claiming it to be a troll/joke. ...
First, who jokes about sexual child abuse and corruption?
Second, this is a blatant taunt to anyone with morality, it is a taunt. They're saying (through publishing this), "Ok, we Are 'coming for your children.' What are you going to do about it?"
How much are you willing to endure being called a hateful, intolerant, bigoted homophobe or transphobe? How willing are you to lose your job if your employer focuses on diversity/inclusion, has LGBT... outreach, or labels their logos/products with LGBT... symbols? How far are you willing to push? If not all-the-way, then not far enough.
To be honest, I am willing to maintain "zero" hate for LGB... individuals, as fellow human beings. That said, the Only way to stop complete destruction of morality (to include boy sex-slaves... I hate that this even needs to be mentioned...) is to completely reset sexual degeneration to 0%. There is no substitute. No LGB..., no gay adoption, no gay marriage, no kink or pride anything... period. Anything less-complete eventually leads us right back to where we started.
You may think I'm proposing the above as an innocent puritan Christian with no understanding of "LGBTQQIAAP+", BDSM, and anything surrounding them... you would be woefully mistaken to the highest degree. I stumbled upon the worst-of-the-worst that the internet had to offer at 10. I still remember the first 2 URLs that Google linked to. You could say I experienced being one of their targets through the web... and nearly outside of it once (near miss).
I could prove to you that any child in the US could access hundreds of similar sites in 5 mouse clicks. 1) open browser, 2) click on address bar, type search term, enter [search desired content], 3-5) click the safe-search, click the "I-pinky-swear-promise-im-18-even-though-you-have-to-be-18-to-be-able-to-sign-a-legal-contract" button, and save the change. That's it... everything available for kids, even 6-yr-olds (I hear Islam is ok with that? Married at 9?). Nothing has changed since the 1990s and early 2000s.
Unless every device ever used by a kid is "fully protected" with {fallible} software, kids are utterly defenseless. Thousands could be watching 50-shades (or far worse) right now. The particularly tech-interested ones could find ones that even the LGBTQ community doesn't want you to know they have. Absolute evil.
The tech giants, search engines, and websites couldn't care less about kids (because of the fake "I promise I'm 18" confirmation button.) Utter garbage. That's like telling a kid not to go upstairs because only the adults are allowed to have the 5 gallons of cotton candy, 3 funnel cakes, 2 regular cakes, tray of brownies, 2 dozen cookies, 3 half-gallons of icecream, and 2 bags of Lindor peppermint white-chocolate truffles that are up there! Ludicrous!
On a similar note, you cannot ever expect kids to say no to websites...ever. I am a pilot, and we have an FAA training video that talks about the H.I.M.S. program (an addiction treatment program that allows addicts to overcome their problem). That is a good thing. One note from the video from a psychologist, is that the most addicting thing for the human mind (more than crack, alcohol, and smoking) is porn on the web. No wonder everything is being sexualized! We're being too naive to understand that it is an addiction! Either that or we're glorifying/worshipping addiction. There was going to be a Canadian study on the effects of web porn on the brain a while ago (or there was one), but they didn't have enough individuals for the control group, because most respondents had indulged to where they couldn't be in the control group.
With the highly addictive nature of this topic, you can imagine the devastating consequences it would have on a developing child mind.
I'll end with this Biblical scripture:
"...but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to the person through whom the stumbling block comes!"
Matthew 18:6-7 NASB2020
https://bible.com/bible/2692/mat.18.6-7.NASB2020
Look in Deuteronomy and Leviticus for scripture against LGB+ (Leviticus 20 I think).
It's time for a great [morality] reset. Our kids' futures depend on it.
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Alphabet Agenda is Real
More from JetStreamPLC
(Wall-of-text length post below)
Critics used to say "time will tell"... well, it has told. The truth is made known, the subversive agenda is now fully in the open.
I'm a Christian, so I'm fully aware of the public criticism of Christian opposition to gay marriage (and everything else they call LGB...). [True] Christians have said for many decades that pedophilia, and sexualization and abuse of children were clearly on the horizon for the LGB... community. They blatantly denied it, and those that support them mocked the [true] Christian community as "intolerant," "bigoted," and "hateful." (You can always hate ideas without hating the person holding them, but that's beside the point.)
Now the truth is out... they ARE "coming for your children... slowly... without you noticing" (their words, not mine). The Christian community's warning that fell on ignorantly naive and deaf ears is completely vindicated. The claims of the "slippery slope fallacy" have now been proven to be willful and evil deflections of the blatantly obvious truth to anyone with two brain cells between their ears.
I've read that at least 4 of the singers are confirmed to be on the Sex Offender Registry. Another one was a lead cast member of (I think it was a play) called "Boy" that is widely criticized for glorifying sexual slavery of underage boys in Afghanistan (even criticized by former Afghans!) How can you possibly be any more blatant than having sex offenders and a child-boy-sex-slave fetishist singing "were coming for your children"?
(That last sentence is almost certainly putting me on some NSA, or other alphabet agency, watch list or something... but so be it. Some people on the web need a solid smack upside-the-head to knock some sense into them.)
This is real. This is more prevalent in the LGB... community than anyone wants to know... even many within the community itself. We can't bury our heads in the sand and hope they'll go away. They've now said they won't, so what is our response? Make no mistake, they tried to "walk it back," claiming it to be a troll/joke. ...
First, who jokes about sexual child abuse and corruption?
Second, this is a blatant taunt to anyone with morality, it is a taunt. They're saying (through publishing this), "Ok, we Are 'coming for your children.' What are you going to do about it?"
How much are you willing to endure being called a hateful, intolerant, bigoted homophobe or transphobe? How willing are you to lose your job if your employer focuses on diversity/inclusion, has LGBT... outreach, or labels their logos/products with LGBT... symbols? How far are you willing to push? If not all-the-way, then not far enough.
To be honest, I am willing to maintain "zero" hate for LGB... individuals, as fellow human beings. That said, the Only way to stop complete destruction of morality (to include boy sex-slaves... I hate that this even needs to be mentioned...) is to completely reset sexual degeneration to 0%. There is no substitute. No LGB..., no gay adoption, no gay marriage, no kink or pride anything... period. Anything less-complete eventually leads us right back to where we started.
You may think I'm proposing the above as an innocent puritan Christian with no understanding of "LGBTQQIAAP+", BDSM, and anything surrounding them... you would be woefully mistaken to the highest degree. I stumbled upon the worst-of-the-worst that the internet had to offer at 10. I still remember the first 2 URLs that Google linked to. You could say I experienced being one of their targets through the web... and nearly outside of it once (near miss).
I could prove to you that any child in the US could access hundreds of similar sites in 5 mouse clicks. 1) open browser, 2) click on address bar, type search term, enter [search desired content], 3-5) click the safe-search, click the "I-pinky-swear-promise-im-18-even-though-you-have-to-be-18-to-be-able-to-sign-a-legal-contract" button, and save the change. That's it... everything available for kids, even 6-yr-olds (I hear Islam is ok with that? Married at 9?). Nothing has changed since the 1990s and early 2000s.
Unless every device ever used by a kid is "fully protected" with {fallible} software, kids are utterly defenseless. Thousands could be watching 50-shades (or far worse) right now. The particularly tech-interested ones could find ones that even the LGBTQ community doesn't want you to know they have. Absolute evil.
The tech giants, search engines, and websites couldn't care less about kids (because of the fake "I promise I'm 18" confirmation button.) Utter garbage. That's like telling a kid not to go upstairs because only the adults are allowed to have the 5 gallons of cotton candy, 3 funnel cakes, 2 regular cakes, tray of brownies, 2 dozen cookies, 3 half-gallons of icecream, and 2 bags of Lindor peppermint white-chocolate truffles that are up there! Ludicrous!
On a similar note, you cannot ever expect kids to say no to websites...ever. I am a pilot, and we have an FAA training video that talks about the H.I.M.S. program (an addiction treatment program that allows addicts to overcome their problem). That is a good thing. One note from the video from a psychologist, is that the most addicting thing for the human mind (more than crack, alcohol, and smoking) is porn on the web. No wonder everything is being sexualized! We're being too naive to understand that it is an addiction! Either that or we're glorifying/worshipping addiction. There was going to be a Canadian study on the effects of web porn on the brain a while ago (or there was one), but they didn't have enough individuals for the control group, because most respondents had indulged to where they couldn't be in the control group.
With the highly addictive nature of this topic, you can imagine the devastating consequences it would have on a developing child mind.
I'll end with this Biblical scripture:
"...but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to the person through whom the stumbling block comes!"
Matthew 18:6-7 NASB2020
https://bible.com/bible/2692/mat.18.6-7.NASB2020
Look in Deuteronomy and Leviticus for scripture against LGB+ (Leviticus 20 I think).
It's time for a great [morality] reset. Our kids' futures depend on it.
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Alphabet Agenda is Real
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