Your Liberties and Freedoms: Hanging by a Thread

Alpha & Omega Ministries

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Webcasting around the world from the desert metropolis of Phoenix, Arizona. This is the dividing line

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The Apostle Peter commanded Christians to be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us Yet to give that answer with gentleness and reverence

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Our host is dr. James White director of Alpha Omega ministries and an elder at the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church This is a live program and we invite your participation.

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If you'd like to talk with dr. White call now. It's 602 973 4602 or toll -free across the

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United States. It's 1 877 7 5 3 3 3 4 1 And now with today's topic here is

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James White this morning we see a News article actually it's afternoon.

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Welcome to the value line this morning There was a news article entitled Denmark forces Lutheran Church to allow same -sex marriages

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I'm not sure how that works if it's forces then it's not to allow them. It's to perform them But Denmark forces

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Lutheran Church to allow same -sex marriages and a move that could foreshadow what's ahead for America Denmark's Parliament on Thursday voted to approve a bill that makes same -sex marriage legal in Lutheran Church ceremonies

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Essentially forcing the church to perform gay marriages, by the way, let me just add for the discussion here

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That's what happens when you have a state church Until now same -sex couples could only get short blessing ceremonies in the state's

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Lutheran Church According to the Associated Press the law passed by an 85 to 24 vote It is an effective and is effective

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June 15th The only saving grace if you can call it that is that individual pastors in the state will not be forced to perform the actual ceremonies

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Yet anyways some 444 ,000 members of the church were considering renouncing their membership because of all this

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Per Uram Jorgensen a former member of Parliament for the Christian Democrats told the

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Politican They will be able to join the suit against the state in 1989 Denmark became the first country in the world to allow gays to forge civil unions in the

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First country in the world to allow gays to force forged civil unions in 2009 gays were afforded the right to adopt

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Children right around the same time I get an email From a brother in Holland and He mentions the

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June 12th Podcast and Talking about gay marriages as I live in Holland Which is the first country in the world to allow

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Gary mayor gay marriage about 11 years ago Well, this article says Denmark So maybe they have to argue with each other as to which one's which and I can affirm the homosexual agenda

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Which you were talking about that first they don't force others to cooperate with it but this situation has changed and now people get fired if they refuse to marry same -sex couples and Next year primary schools are going to be forced to create a friendly environment and teach about homosexuality and transgender issues

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And I am noticing how the media is already laying a foundation for the next step in showing how bad

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Churches are who refuse to marry a gay couple and how loving the churches are who do not who do marry them?

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And I fear this I just brought a little girl into this world and I fear where this is going Still I know that if God is for me who will be against me.

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So I look to him who saved me and no And now he will walk with me through this valley of the dead

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Yes, indeed the issue of religious liberty in the secular world is front and center and we must be thinking about it and Hence when

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I fired up the briefing with dr. Albert Moller this morning the very first Clip that the very first subject that dr.

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Moller addressed was this issue and it's not over in Denmark It's not in Holland.

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It's not in Europe. It's in, New Mexico It's not in Canada.

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It's not in Australia we have a Good friend.

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I've not met him, but I have appreciated Him I learned yesterday That he's losing his church in Australia because he has stood up against homosexuality and a quote -unquote pastor had quote -unquote come out and He stood for a biblical perspective and he will lose his job as a result

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You could literally fill the program every single day with what's going on now

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Demonstrating that the when when politicians say oh we want to we want to pass these special rights.

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We want to add The the means by which you have sex with somebody else of the same sex

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We want to add that to civil rights and we want to add that to the law And we want to protect people who engage in this kind of behavior

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We want to connect these things to this we'll make that the same level as your nationality the color of your skin

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Etc. Etc. But we will allow for religious exemptions. You must realize that is a charade.

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It is absolutely positively a Deceptive false hope that is only used to get it through and Then immediately the work begins on dismantling it.

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You must understand the secular left Does not want to allow for religious freedom at all because secularism is its own religion and it is a religion that absolutely requires complete and total fidelity to all of its dogmas and One of its dogmas is you shall not disagree with us.

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You shall not think separately from how we tell you to think and That's what secularism is all about and you need to start seeing it for what it is.

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And so the first story that dr Moeller referenced is right here in the good old u .s.

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Of a and dr Moeller was kind enough to give me permission to Give you his comments if you do not subscribe by the way to the

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RSS feed iTunes, however, you want to do it. There's a number of different ways to do it But if you do not subscribe to the briefing,

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I would highly recommend that you do so It is one of the best

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Podcasts available out there. It is brief whenever it's on there are times that dr

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Moeller of course takes a vacation coming up here probably in the next few weeks that's gonna happen and I'm gonna go into withdrawal but During the holidays, but when it's on you need to be listening to the briefing it's only between 13 and a half and 15 minutes at most right around that area and You will find it to be very very helpful and you get to hear a section of today's edition of the briefing

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Let's listen in the religious liberty issue looms over the entire question of same -sex marriage

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Indeed, it is no exaggeration to see that the legalization of same -sex marriage will present a more complex and more urgent set of Religious liberty issues than virtually anything that we can think of in terms of recent decades

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Now comes a story from New Mexico that makes this very clear on May the 31st of this year the

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New Mexico Court of Appeals ruled against a photography company Charging it with refusing to photograph a same -sex marriage ceremony

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Tobin grant of Christianity Today reports that on that day May 31st the court upheld a ruling by the

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New Mexico Civil Rights Commission against Elaine photography for violating the state's prohibition against discrimination

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Based on sexual orientation the background of the story is this it goes back to 2006 When a woman by the name of Vanessa Wilcox asked

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Elaine photography in Albuquerque to photograph her same -sex commitment ceremony The folks who run

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Elaine photography and that is a couple by the name of Elaine and John Hogan And they refused to do it on the basis of the fact that they did not want to endorse same -sex marriage

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They argued before the court and before the Civil Rights Commission that they were simply sticking to their beliefs

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The question that was raised by the attorney Jordan Lawrence for the Huguenins he works for the

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Alliance Defense Fund there in Arizona He said this should the government force a videographer who is an animal rights activist to create a video promoting hunting and taxidermy

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Of course not and neither should the government force this photographer to promote a message that violates her conscience

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Because the Constitution prohibits the state from forcing unwilling artists to promote a message They disagree with we will certainly appeal this decision to the

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New Mexico Supreme Court That does mean that the case is not over there is a Supreme Court there in the state but it does send a very troubling message and one that seems to have been something of an inevitability given the direction of this conversation and of many decisions by the courts and regulatory authorities in recent years a

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Church on the Atlantic Coast has lost its tax -exempt status for at least part of its property for the fact that it refused to allow the rental of its facility for a same -sex wedding ceremony

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Case after case like this is beginning to build up which points out the limitations of what were promised to be exclusionary exemptions for religious organizations and churches

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It turns out that the exclusionary language or the exemption has been very narrowly

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Interpreted if interpreted at all by some of these regulatory agencies and now by the courts

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This sends a message that should be of concern to every Christian Religious liberty means not only what is sometimes now described by people in the government as freedom of worship

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It means freedom of religious expression It means indeed the freedom of religion and that means not only the freedom to worship inside the conscribed walls of a house of worship

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It means the ability to practice one's faith and that means also to practice one's faith in such a way that one can have in this case a

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Photography service without being coerced into the endorsement of same -sex marriage ceremonies by having to serve as a photographer for them

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There's another very interesting portion of this case that should be of concern to us and it goes back to the 2003 decision of the

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United States Supreme Court in the case Lawrence v Texas in that case the court ruled and that is the nation's highest court that one cannot differentiate between sexual

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Orientation and the acts that define that orientation in other words It is indeed discrimination against homosexuals to criminalize sodomy.

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That was the presenting issue in the 2003 case well if that case and that President is then extended to all of these issues in every area of life including employment and commercial life and educational life and institutional life then religious liberty is gonna become an absolute fiction because that will mean that the inability to discriminate against Homosexuals in terms of orientation will be extended to the inability to refuse sanction to certain acts as well

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Let me repeat to you again the language from the Lawrence v Texas decision you cannot differentiate between sexual orientation and the acts that define that orientation

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It's gonna be a very interesting case to watch New Mexico is not necessarily a state that belongs on either side of the red or blue continuum

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It's something of a swing state That means it might in this case represent a likely trajectory for the rest of the country in terms of a national policy

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If so, this is a deeply disturbing development and one that bears not only our very close observation

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But also our very deepest thoughts about what it means to be a Christian in a secular society

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That is now going to be operating by rules in many cases that appear to require Christians to violate their own conscience just to do business just to go to school

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Just to be a part of the culture well, yes indeed and it is very very much a reason for concern and I know

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I know that eventually we we get worn out we get we get tired of hearing about these things and my concern is we're going to wake up one morning and We're not going to be able to fire up this webcast or We aren't going to be able to post materials on the internet

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You're not going to be able to go to your church or at first give to your church the secular religious jihad

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And that's what it's what it should be identified as because when you when we think about jihad we think about the violent external jihad

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That seeks to do what what is what is the goal of jihad in?

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Conservative Quranic Salafi style Taliban type

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Islam it is to strike such fear in The hearts of those who do not submit to Islam that they will submit to Islam or they will at least

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Stop Opposing Islam will pay the jizya and will become second -class citizens it that form of Islam does not brook any opposition and You look at Saudi Arabia today, you can't go to Mecca if you're not a

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Muslim It is a it is a a complete worldview

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That does not broke opposition Secularism is the same thing and The secularist is going to be much less likely to use terrorism, but much more likely to use

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The force of government and law and we must recognize that secularism is not some benign neutral Philosophy when you

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Reject as the starting place that mankind has been created in the image of God and That therefore there is a grounding for morality and ethics and law that is to be found in the purposes of the

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Creator when you start with a rejection of that and the elevation of other

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Ultimate authority statements such as Neo -darwinian micromutational evolutionary theory as The fundamental foundational basis upon which the very fabric of society is to be built and interpreted then that's going to have an

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Impact it's going to have a fundamental Impact upon the culture and the practice of the culture and the form of the culture the secularism that has taken over in Europe and Has silenced the church in Europe by and large

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Not as much in the UK, but everybody in the UK will tell you they're not in Europe in the first place, but But moving that direction certainly seen in in great detail there as well

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Clearly seen in Canada has had a chilling effect upon the freedom of expression and beliefs of the

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Christian people in those places and it is Not stopping at the borders there are many people in the government of the

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United States Not only the president, but the leadership in both parties, but especially one particular party that looked to Europe as The the great example, that's what we want to be.

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That's where we want to go and It's coming we're seeing it happening

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We had already heard about the very same type of thing happening up in Canada you know that homosexual activists will look for every opportunity there were plenty of Photographers That this person could have gone to who would have had no problem whatsoever taking pictures at this ceremony

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They will specifically search out churches They will specifically search out businesses they will specifically do this so as to create this very situation and Claim that they are the aggrieved party.

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I have said for a long time now These folks do not want equal rights.

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They want super rights. They want to silence any and all criticism and opposition to their lifestyle

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This is what they live for it's a sad thing to notice, but this is this is what they live for and They will dedicate themselves fully to Bring this about and so I Don't know how long

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I mean obviously you know this case isn't over and we can hope and pray that when it goes to the State Supreme Court that it'll be struck down and that and that their freedom will will will have a little while longer

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But we all know that what states do is pretty much irrelevant in the United States any longer We could go into the historical reasons for this

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But the fact the matter is for example if your state has a DOMA if it has a defense of marriage act everybody knows

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That once one of these Suits one of these cases makes it to the

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Supreme Court Whatever the Supreme Court does that's it. It becomes law of the land doesn't matter what your state does and We can have reprieves it doesn't matter if 31 states all express their desires

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This is What's coming our direction and I do not see any evidence

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That God is granting repentance to the people of this nation Instead as we saw last time we have men who call themselves preachers standing in front of congregations

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Utterly ignoring the Word of God We have all sorts of false shepherds false prophets and false teachers who are willingly and gladly assisting in confuting and confusing the church's message on this subject and I don't see any evidence that the people of this nation are turning away from their sin and recognizing that there is a

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God and that he has revealed himself and Even to recognize the the basic fundamental reality of our own created nature, which is so violated by homosexuality

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I see no evidence of it and so Eventually a society that is suppressing the knowledge of God will desire to silence the voice of those who would remind them that that's exactly what they're doing and That is what is happening in Western culture and it's happening in the

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United States of America there's no question about that at all and so I Tweeted yesterday.

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Are you ready to have church? Quietly secretly in homes

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Are you ready to return back to the way it was everybody wants to go back to the early church? Well, um the early church for the first 250 years of his existence

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More actually if you'd want to 280 years of its existence met secretly in homes primarily because of the persecution that was theirs as Dr.

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Moller mentioned he mentioned a church back east that has lost its tax -exempt status and some of its property

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Because they refuse to allow a same -sex marriage to take place in their facility now

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We recognize that only about 3 % of the population are homosexual, but you need to understand the secularist doesn't care in fact in the secular perspective the secularist whose religion is so often wrapped up in neo -darwinianism and All the associated things it the secularist who would hold to a consistent neo -darwinian perspective

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Would have to view homosexuality as something that is wrong Because from the neo -darwinian perspective your entire reason for existence is to pass your genes on to the next generation if You purposely choose not to then you are a waste

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You're you're a waste of resources from the neo -darwinian perspective you you are immediately to be weeded out of the gene pool and So from the secular perspective there.

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There is no logical reason why homosexuality would be the cause celeb the the central aspect of Cultural orthodoxy but Secularists don't care about the consistency of their worldview

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They only care about the promulgation of their worldview through the structures of government and Most of them are real big on finding anything

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To oppose what they know is the testimony of God in the Christian faith that brings

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Condemnation and conviction to their spirits and So if promoting a lifestyle that they themselves don't even engage in will help them to silence

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Christianity They'll be more than happy to do it more than happy to now once that's accomplished,

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I'm not sure I would want to be a homosexual because Totalitarian governments have not always been very kind to homosexuals in history

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If if the government is willing to persecute certain of its citizens and silence them

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Don't think they won't do that to you too. If you become something that is opposed to their perspective, but how long

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We will have the freedoms to do what we're doing right now, I don't know I just don't know

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I Have said it's coming quick. It's coming a whole lot quicker than even I want to believe and a single ruling by the

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Supreme Court could truly Cause every single ministry

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Ours included to have to make the decision to Fundamentally alter our commitments and what it is that we will address or Go someplace else

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Don't ask me where You look around the world, I don't know I don't know where you'd go certainly not in any other

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Quote -unquote Western country, but the fact the matter is that our religious liberties are truly hanging by a thread today and I hope

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That we're still fighting for them five years from now but the reality is

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Some of these major cases are coming down soon very soon It looks like next year will be the big year before the

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Supreme Court as far as the gay marriage homosexuality issues are concerned that's gonna be the big year and What's gonna happen,

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I don't know we pray we proclaim

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But we better be thinking about how it is that we can be faithful in The midst of persecution because it's coming it's it's not coming it's here

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I mean How much does it cost? these photographers to defend themselves against this that in any just society a lawsuit that should not have even been allowed to be filed let

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Alone go as far as it's gone if there is if there's any even common sense any righteousness at all

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This would never have gone this far, but how much has it cost them? We think of the pastor who was attacked in Canada years ago

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For daring to write an opinion column in a newspaper Saying that we should not expose kindergartners to homosexuality and the thousands of dollars he had to spend to defend himself

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The use of This kind of the abuse of the legal system to silence speech

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Not religious speech you need to understand secularism is religious speech. It is a competing worldview

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It is a it is a completely Contradictory worldview and therefore we need to recognize.

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This is just simply another worldview that claims ultimate authority and ultimate interpretive value that is seeking to silence another worldview that it cannot refute in debate

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It cannot refute on the basis of argumentation. It can only silence it Through the power of the state.

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That's what's going on. So what do we do in the meantime?

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Well We certainly have opportunity to speak out. We certainly have opportunity to continue to Try To glorify

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God and to be used of him When we look back at the Old Testament, there were times when

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God brought judgment against the people of Israel What were the faithful remnant to do during that time?

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We have no record that they Ran off and started communes someplace said, you know, we're just getting out of here.

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They continued to worship God Continued to to try to teach his neighbor the ways of Yahweh and That's what we must do as well

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That's what we must do as well. So I've put I've placed on the blog a graphic that I was

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Shown this morning, and I suppose I should give credit to whom credit is due

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I was shown this graphic by wonky yes, sometimes even wonky can come across something of some level of interest and It is a graphic that is on the blog and it says

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Christian logic and on the the right -hand column Well, let's start with the left -hand column.

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It says ignore and It has silly haircuts Leviticus 19 27 touching footballs

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Leviticus 11 8 tattoos Leviticus 19 28 Shellfish Leviticus 11 10 and mules farming and polyester

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Leviticus 19 19 on the right -hand column It says obey and in big letters.

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It says hate gays Leviticus 20 13 now as I Looked at this.

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I thought here is the very essence of the argumentation

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That the and in fact here is the very essence of the level of Argumentation that is being presented in Our society today

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It's shallow But you know, what's really sad about it.

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Think about some of the megachurches That are famous in our land think about Joel Osteen's church

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How many is that seat again? 16 ,000 I think something like that huge massive how many of the people

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I mean We know Joel Osteen couldn't handle this So how many of the people in the pews in?

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Joel Osteen's church would be able to even begin to give a semi credible semi meaningful response

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To just this level of presentation I would say less than 1 %

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That's why the media is constantly dragging Joel Osteen Onto its sets as a means of mocking the

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Christian faith that's the only reason they have him on is to mock the

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Christian faith, but Even in a lot of what we would call conservative

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Bible believing churches what percentage of Churches that would for example confess that the

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Bible truly is the Word of God In what percentage of those churches has everyone in the church, and I'm not including little kids but 18 and older Actually read

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The book of Leviticus how many people are there in our society today who call themselves

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Christians? They've never even read the book of Leviticus Let alone spent almost any time whatsoever

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Whatsoever any time whatsoever Contemplating The relationship of say

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Leviticus to Deuteronomy or What is the nature of ceremonial law

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Why were there certain things the children of Israel were prohibited that we are not prohibited in the

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New Testament? Why did Jesus declare all meats to be clean? How could he do that and they may have heard some vague discussions, but the idea of really thinking it through Very few people we need when this when this type of thing is presented when you can see that there's someone you're talking to and in the workplace the school and Standing outside the grocery store or whatever it might be and they're the ones that raise the subject

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We need to be prepared to engage those issues and to Expose the shallow thinking that lies behind it now clearly you look at this graphic and the first objection that we have is

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That obeying Leviticus 2013 or 18 as well

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Means you hate gays first of all I don't like using that term it is a term they specifically chose to use to To get around the fact that we're talking about homosexuality

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We're talking about people who define themselves by the sex act You don't define themselves by their creator.

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They don't define themselves by their their Contributions to society or their their service to others.

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No you you they define themselves by by the form of sex act that they engage in That's that's what that's what they do and so allegedly we're supposed to hate homosexuals if we obey

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Leviticus 2013 now as we the first thing that you must be able to point out is that this kind of a list is

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Absolutely Dishonest in fact I would Since since it works since they use it we should use it too.

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You should say this is a bigoted graphic It is prejudiced.

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It's discriminatory. It's unfair Well, why is that? Well if you've actually read

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Leviticus, and I would obviously ask anyone who is promoting this tell me Can you can you tell me a little bit about the book of Leviticus?

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Can you tell me why Deuteronomy is called Deuteronomy? I Mean Deuteronomy second giving of the law

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There are parallel passages between Leviticus and Deuteronomy that shed a lot of light on The giving of the law and things like that see

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But I would ask them when was the last time you read the book of Leviticus all the way through of course and Have you read all the

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Pentateuch? and and then have you read the rest the Old Testament to see how these laws were applied and and Then have you looked at the

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New Testament and see what Jesus commentary on these things were and and you know that in 98 % of the instances

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They have absolutely positively Nothing to say at that point and we'll probably try to change the subject on to why you're such a terrible mean horrible nasty person but you've established that you're talking to someone who really doesn't know what they're talking about in that situation, but What also makes it prejudiced?

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intolerant Unfair is That the obey side

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Should be significantly longer than it is and as we pointed out as I pointed out in my response to Dan Savage Go through the

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Holiness Code How many things would they be forced to agree in the

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Holiness Code are? absolutely correct and right and proper to do

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Right in the midst of all of these discussions You have discussions of The respect that you're to have for your daughter in in Leviticus 19

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Which is you'll notice the first one silly haircuts Leviticus 1927. Well, what about Leviticus?

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And by the way, it's not what silly haircuts is about in Leviticus 1927 the biggest 1927 actually says you shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard and Honestly, you would want to go what did that mean to the people of Israel?

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Especially in light of the fact that there's a context here, which we'll look at in a moment But I'm just illustrating one thing here and that is in Leviticus 1932

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We were told you shall stand up Before the gray head and honor the face of an old man and you shall fear your

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God. I am Yahweh You are to have respect for the elderly you're to have respect for the aged

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Well, that's certainly something this society doesn't have them anymore. Does it and there's all sorts of stuff about honesty and business

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Caring for the poor and the aliens and all these things. It's right there in the same section

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I wonder why there's just a blank column there. I wonder why this intolerant unfair

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Prejudicial bigoted graphic and the person to put together. I wonder why they didn't fill in the rest of that Because that wouldn't fit their agenda.

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Of course, their agenda is to say you only pick and choose one thing. It makes you a bigot

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You don't care about all these other things That's the first thing that I would say is

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I would say to the person, you know I wonder if you really do know what this text is talking about and I wonder if you really do know how much of what?

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this text talks about comes directly into the teachings of Jesus, you know about loving your neighbor as yourself and Protecting the marriage situation and not engaging in incest and not engaging in bestiality

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Did you know that stuff's there? and that if you and that if you just Mock this section out of ignorance because that's what this graphic does is mock it out of ignorance that you're undercutting those fundamental issues those fundamental moral principles

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But after objecting to that we still need to answer and we have and again, we've linked to this before but number of years ago,

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I went through the Presentation that was done the anti dr. Laura thing that was done the

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West Wing and and that is something you need to look at But we're gonna look at this again. And you know, the first one that we have is silly haircuts

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Leviticus 19 1927 well, I wanted to back up and I wanted to read a context here be a good thing to do

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Leviticus 19 23 Leviticus chapter 19 verse 23 begins by saying

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When you come into the land and plant any kind of tree for food, then you shall regard its fruit as forbidden

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Three years it shall be forbidden to you. It must not be eaten And the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy an offering of praise the

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Lord But in the fifth year you may eat of its fruit to increase its yield for you. I am the Lord your God now

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What is what is this all about a Planting of why why not eat of its fruit for three years?

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Well, you know some people have thought well, you know, then the fruit drops in it it you know

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Helps with the ground as far as making it more fruitful and maybe it was a concern about how you know you're coming into a polluted land and there needs to be time for the pollution to be dealt with it there's all sorts of questions have been raised about it, but the point is you have the people coming into a land that has been polluted and Much of the law that specifically has to do with what they are allowed to do is to make a clear distinction between themselves and the people

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Who had dwelt in the land before them? They are to be a separate people.

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They are not to look like the people of the land They are not to act like the people of the land and if it even if the only reason for this is

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To show their discipline in their obedience to God then that's enough To have that beautiful fruit there, but God has said

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Not until a certain time if that's all there was to it, then that would be fine, but that's the context

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It then says Leviticus 19 26 you shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it you shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes well, clearly this was something that again the people in the land before them did and There's obviously again people have talked about reasons

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Especially in that day in light of diseases and things like that what you can you can discern possibilities of reasons

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But again, if God simply wants his people to be different than the people around them, then he can do that But then when you have you shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes now you're talking about the religious worship of the people that lived in the land before them and that probably

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Continues through the next few verses sometimes It looks like the material in the

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Holiness Code just jumps from one subject to another subject to another subject But if you step back and think about it, actually there's more to it than that You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes refers to Well, who did these things?

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Who provided the interpretation of omens and telling of fortunes and things like that? There was frequently a priestly class

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It was the the pagan religions of the time and they would literally feed upon others as far as enslaving them

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Because you want to get a good omen and so you give more money to get a good omen than a bad omen or something like that and Then you've got the two that are cited both of these are cited

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Excuse me cited in the in The text in the graphic.

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I'm sorry You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard

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You shall not make any cuts on your body or for the dead or tattoo yourselves.

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I am the Lord Now in all probability all of these are related to each other

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In the sense that you're talking about the religious activities of the people of the land and The rounding of the hair on your temples or marring the edges of your beard probably had to do with the

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Priests or the religious of their day who marked themselves off differently from others as if Demonstrating that they had a certain spiritual authority demonstrating the different casts of Religious authority in the land and Leviticus 19 28 you shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead

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Very clearly is about the religious worship of the day

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That could have to do with either Cutting yourself in Honor of the dead or Or marking yourself in fact the very term tattooed is used here is kaka is a

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Hapax legomena, it is only used one time in the Old Testament and its meaning is unclear in Fact you can see how its meaning is unclear when you look at the parallel passage this and Leviticus in Deuteronomy chapter 14 if you just turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 14 verse 1

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You will see that it says you're the sons the Lord your God. You shall not cut yourselves.

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There's the same Command that we have in Leviticus 19 28 but then the the

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Kaka parallel is make any baldness on your foreheads for the dead

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So the parallel connects both activities somehow to the dead and so The fact is we don't know what kaka means

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But it has something to do with marking yourself and the parallel passage is shaving yourself

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So doing something with the hair and the skin it's the outward appearance and it all has to do with the dead and the only possibilities that I can see would be a

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That you are somehow seeking to honor the dead and we know that many of the religions of the day

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Even today pagan religions Will be related to the honoring of the dead the the worship of ancestors is very very common in the religions of men and the the belief that Your ancestors will you know benefit you if you honor them things like that So it's possible that the cutting the marking the shaving has something to do with honoring the dead

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Maybe for a period of time as a mark of mourning of them or something like that I think

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More probably than that It's fear of the dead because that man go down to Mexico go down to the

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Dominican Republic go down to Jamaica Go down to New Orleans and You will find out that there are people who fear the dead

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Their fear the curses of the dead and I think what makes sense here given that we're talking about shaving trimming the head marking yourself cutting yourself

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I Think personally as I have looked at this and I've looked at for a number of years

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I think what's being referred to is trying to alter your appearance for fear

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As an attempt to avoid the curses of the dead The dead were thought to be able to come back but evidently

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Maybe they weren't as smart when they came back. I don't know and oh, that's not him That's not how he looked like and you go on to somebody else keep looking for the other guy

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Because you've altered your appearance. You don't look the way that you used to and so When you actually take the time to look at this then you see this has to do with the religious practices of the day and Then you can tie this together with what the

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Bible says about well just earlier in that You don't you don't go to the necromancer

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You don't go to the person who tells Interprets omens or tells fortunes why because I'm the Lord your

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God and you can trust in what I have to say to you Not only do you not want to look like The pagans in your religious worship, but there's a reason why you should not so we could take a real lesson from this

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Because there's a lot of evangelicals that want to look like the world today in their worship To try to make the worship the worship more comfortable to the world and yet people don't think about these things when they look at these texts and Look deeply at what they're saying so the the other

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Leviticus 19 text, and I'm gonna have to hurry up here I apologize. I've started preaching, but the other

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Leviticus 19 text is Leviticus 19 19 and that one is attached to Mules farming and polyester and Again the homosexual thinks the homosexual advocate doesn't even have to be a homosexual

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I mean there's so many people who aren't homosexuals who use these same arguments, but the homosexual activists like well

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Is that a hundred percent cotton shirt you're wearing if not, then you're violating Leviticus 19 19

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Now you can't you can't expect to give a 10 -minute response to that I? Think you need to put the person back on the defensive

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And I would just simply and I'm known for being a terrible horrible nasty person But I think my response would be boy that is really demonstrating

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That you don't understand Leviticus 19 19 Well, why is that? What does it say? You shall keep my statute you shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind you shall not sew your field with two

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Kinds of seed nor she will wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material That's what it says right there

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Yeah, that's it's right there. Do you know why that text exists, and what it's prohibiting

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Well, yeah, it's prohibiting polyester and farming. That's not prohibiting farming There's all sorts of discussions of what you how you're to farm and the fact that you're to let your fields lie fallow one year out of seven and that you not to Go to the edges of your field so that the poor can get something from the edge of the there's all so obviously there is farming

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But what does each one? Why do you think they're all in one verse? Make them actually think about the verse and most of them are not even gonna want to most of them have never even read verses 18 and 20

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Especially you don't want to Do that So what you do is just say look the reason these three are put together is they all have something in common

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There is to be purity You're gonna be proclaiming that there is one

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True God, they don't believe that they believe there's many gods They've got a God for this a God for that a God for the other thing.

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You're gonna be proclaiming there's one true God who's God over all of life and you're gonna demonstrate it by being obedient to him and By doing things in such a way that you'll always have illustrations to be able to point to the fact

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There's only one true God and that you're different from the people around you and that you don't mix your worship and Here's some illustrations.

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We're not gonna mix our fields We're going to keep our fields pure when you have one crop growing.

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You only put one crop there We're not gonna mix our livestock and allow them to cross mate we're not gonna wear clothing made of different kinds of Thread or fabric and it's not because there's something wrong with polyester

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But as the Jewish person going into the land Teaching that there is but one

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God who is God over all of life We're going to do these things as illustrations and we're going to be obedient to him and there is going to be something different about us and that's why it's there and So it's not a matter of ignoring

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Leviticus 19 19 it's recognizing that it had an application to the people going into a land for a specific

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Purpose and these are going to the people be the people from whom the Messiah is to come

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Who will purify a remnant people and you'll notice you can probably if you really wanted to Go from that to a discussion of The gospel which is always a good thing to do

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But the other two references as time is unfortunately flying by us The other two references are to Leviticus chapter 18,

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I'm sorry 11 Leviticus chapter 11 You shall not eat any of their flesh. You shall not touch their carcasses.

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They are unclean to you as verse 8 but that is coming after a discussion of of the hair and the pig and and and I Don't have time to go through this

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But this is something that we have discussed at some point in time on the dividing line. I'm sure I know we have and That is people will say that the hair does not chew the cud because they take a modern definition of chewing the cud and import that back into the ancient text, but if you just looked at a

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Rabbit a hair. What's it doing? It's moving its mouth. Like it looks like it's chewing the cud just like Like others like other animals that do chew the cud and these laws had to be applicable to people who lived at the time

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Not people who live in a post -scientific age where you can Get into all the anatomy and physiology and stuff like that So you've had a definition of the pig and things like that and there you have

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Leviticus 11 8 You shall not eat any of their flesh. You shall not touch their carcasses. They are unclean to you.

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Therefore. You should not touch a football Well There is no question that the people of Israel going into the land of Israel Probably would not have founded the

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NFL I You know, there's or if they had they would have made the football out of something other than a lambskin exactly and You know what that would have made more sense because when you land on the lambskin ball

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You're not gonna get hurt as badly as if you land on a pigskin ball And in fact, it would probably catch easier to we should start something here.

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We should start I think you've come up with a great idea there I really I really think you do you you came up with a great idea there.

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Should we suggest just suggest this the NFL? We'll call it lamb football or Lambo Lambo and the folks at Lambo will like Lambo and and you know

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Maybe bringing lambs wool into this and really that we could really go for it. I think we could yeah, I think we could

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All right, anyway We will admit that for the observant Jew Going into the land of Israel A pigskin football and most of them aren't made out of pigskin anyways, but a pigskin football

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Would not have been a good idea that that would have been a violation. That's true

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But so would have been eating pig and yet Jesus made all foods clean so You that opens up the opportunity of saying don't don't you see that Jesus is the ultimate interpreter of these things and these things point

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To Jesus you can go to the Hebrews you can again to the go the gospel But you say you see it's not a matter of picking and choosing and likewise right after this

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Leviticus 11 9 These you may eat of all that are in the waters everything in the waters that has fins and scales

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Whether in the seas and the rivers you may eat but anything in the seas the rivers that does not have fins and scales the swarming

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Creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters is detestable to you You shall regard them as detestable.

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You shall not eat any of their flesh and you shall detest their carcasses now You could make an argument that at least as far as the football went

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It's a argument against touching their carcasses not something made out of carcasses But you'd have to touch the carcass to make the thing to make the football in the first place and nobody was playing football back

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Then anyhow, but the point is these things were prohibited to the people of Israel But the question is why do you stop in Leviticus?

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You you start there you understand the reasons once again You're separating the people of Israel from the people of the land

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There may have been opportunities when the two meet they see that you don't eat certain things

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Why is that you have the opportunity to talk about the fact that you're obedient to your God? And he has said

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X Y & Z about these things It gives you the opportunity of being a witness for the one true God, but why do you stop in Leviticus?

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Why don't you allow for the fulfillment paradigm the Continuation into the

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New Testament and see how these things are understood. I mean most of these people well not all not all especially the the the pro -homosexual ones, but Most these people they're still in our society somewhat of a hesitation to say something really directly against Jesus And so and they're the ones who

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I was a well, geez there was something about homosexuality. Well, actually he did But you see what you can do

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Then is you can if you know these texts and you know their background then you can say but you know

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Jesus then in the New Testament made all meats clean and He also interpreted

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These same Old Testament texts to teach that God created male and female and he blesses their union and there's no other union he blesses and Now you've taken over the conversation and you can direct it to a positive presentation of God's moral law and then of the gospel making application that individual

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But you can't do that If you've never even read Leviticus 11 or you've never even read Leviticus 19 and you have no earthly idea of How these things relate to one another you have no earthly idea that Leviticus 1928 uses a hapoxogamena

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Which means a word used only once and that therefore you have to interpret it into context And there's a parallel passage in Deuteronomy 14 1 and all the rest of stuff

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You can't control the conversation When the people objecting the Christian faith know more about the text they're citing than we do we have to Know our scriptures because folks.

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I just don't know how long we're gonna have To be able to discuss these things openly without it costing us greatly

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Without it costing us greatly Very very important things to be considering please fellow believer the memorization of God's Word the reading of God's Word Put down a foundation that you are going to be one of those who when the day comes

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That being a disciple of Jesus Christ becomes a costly thing That you are ready and willing to pay the price

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Thanks for listening to vine line today. We'll be back again next week Lord willing on Tuesday a regular time.

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We'll see you then We need

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Today The dividing line has been brought to you by Alpha and Omega ministries

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