The Loss of FInal Causality

What happened to the why questions? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

We all know about little children. The constant question they ask is “Why?” Many groups will try to claim them as their own. Those include scientists, journalists, lawyers, philosophers, theologians, etc. There are many professions where one of the questions you ask is “Why?”

Except we don’t really ask that much anymore.

There’s a quote said to be from Polkinghorne where he gets asked the question “Why is water boiling on the stove?” One such answer is “Because heat is being applied to the water thus causing its molecules to move further apart and thus turn from a liquid state into a gas state.” There’s another answer to the question as well.

“Because I am going to fix tea.”

Too often in our scientific age, we think the answer is the first one, but that is not what we have in mind. The first question merely describes what is going on. The second question asks a different question, the question of purpose.

In Aristotelian thought, a final cause is the reason why something is. What purpose does it serve? What is the end goal? This does not imply that the agent is acting intentionally. Kudzu grows and spreads. So do viruses. It’s not said that these are acting with an intentional plan.

Thomist Philosopher Edward Feser gives an example of an iceberg floating through water. As it goes on its way, the water in its area of effect becomes colder. It does not become cotton candy. Yes, this gets us into the fifth way for the existing of God, but that is not the point today.

Even if one holds to evolution, evolution depends on final causality. The goal is the passing on of the genes so that the most fit can survive. It’s literally described as the survival of the fittest.

Over a week ago, I saw an atheist make this argument in a group. I only still have it because it’s so monumentally stupid that I couldn’t believe anyone made it. Lo and behold, the capacity for human stupidity ever increases. So here is one of the stupidest arguments ever in all its infamy.

If God created everything and created everything perfect. Than God created the man’s anus to stretch large enough to fit a raccon inside of it. Just think that’s only part of humans body God created to stretch that big. God certainly wanted men to have big stuff in there

Leaving aside if God created everything perfect, it was one of those arguments that I had to have it register a bit before I said anything. I just couldn’t believe someone said something so monumentally ignorant. However, they did and so I asked a simple question.

I don’t remember the exact words, but it was asking what was known about final causality.

Because if you know what the final cause of the anus is, you know that the argument just doesn’t work. It violates that order.

When debates happen in “Pride Month”, we forget that final causality. We don’t know the purpose of so many things today. We don’t understand the purpose of sex, the family, and marriage, for a start. We think we can just change what any of these are and we’ll all get along fine.

We won’t, and I’m sure that a lot of people now are asking “What really is wrong about showing items of a sexual nature to extremely young children?” This is the normalization of pederasty starting.

When we treat sex as if it’s just a recreational activity and it doesn’t even matter the sexes of the people involved, we are lowering sex and ourselves. When we treat a family as just any group of people together, we are lowering the family. When we make marriage just a long-term relationship that anyone can leave at any time for any reason, we are lowering marriage.

Will that impact our society?

Look around and tell me what you think.

This is not to deny the role of the gospel in our society, but the gospel doesn’t dwell in a vacuum. We need good thinkers who can apply the principles of the gospel to life and in studying God’s world just as much as we should His Word, then we need to understand why the universe is the way it is. Why did God make things the way He did?

Bring back final causality.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Coming For Your Children

Have we gone past the idea of equality? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

I had to look to find a video I could use. Why?

Because some of these are not fit for a blog of this type. They actually contain nudity that many of you would not want to see. However, if you did for some reason want to see it, where could you go?

A pride parade.

You might think “That’s disturbing.” Most of us would agree that having young children be in the presence of such a scene would not be good. Unfortunately, even that has to be defended now. It certainly needs to be explained to George Takei.

Some of you who haven’t heard about this can probably tell I’m holding something back. Okay. The title is coming for your children. Marching nude in a parade isn’t exactly targeting children.

Yet in the video I am about to show here, that’s not what is going on. They are explicitly saying “We’re here. We’re queer. We’re coming for your children. It’s not just one person. It’s a whole group saying it.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

Back when marriage was redefined in the eyes of popular culture to throw out the sex-specificity of it, we were told that that was it. Many of us who are Christian conservatives knew it wasn’t. You give an inch and a mile will be taken. There was even a joke meme at the time that indicated the only thing that would happen if gays got married. There are many such examples. Here’s one.

See that orange unit? The family unit was already falling apart sadly, thanks to no-fault divorce, but this did further damage to it. One other chart like this had as an option that was supposed to not happen was “Teachers will teach children about gay sex.”

Whoops.

And as is said at FreedomToons, if anything didn’t happen, it was gays getting married, because marriage is a man and a woman.

There are plenty of people who consider themselves LGBTQ+ and they want nothing to do with what is going on. Ultimately, they just want to live their lives in peace. They don’t want to be glamorized. Most likely, they don’t want their sexual desires to be on the front of everyone’s mind.

I am relieved to see that this is starting to be pushed back on. The nation’s children are as always, the greatest casualties. When I was in high school and had a cold, I had to have a doctor’s note to have cough drops at school, (Which as readers of the Princess Bride know, are the greatest thing ever.) and I had to go to the school office to get one. I could not be trusted to handle cough drops on my own.

But today, not only could a teen girl get an abortion, but now the student can be taught to change their gender identity at the school and keep it secret from their parents. If the parents push back, they are the problem. If the girls don’t want a boy in the locker room while they undress and shower, then the girls are the problem.

Don’t think this is the end of it also. Every step we give in is just another step and it will never be enough. If these people are willing to take your children, what will they take next? Where will it end?

I don’t want to find out.

It’s up to us to stand up now and not support businesses supporting this and follow the adage of Get Woke, Go Broke. Bud Light should show us that we are capable of this if we work together. Naturally, this will also require us learning, truly learning, and sharing the gospel. (Along those lines, see this video I did on The Legend of Zelda and evangelism.)

If you’re a parent, go look at your children now or at least pull out a picture of them.

Those are the stakes.

Game on.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

 

A Tale of Two Flags

What flag do you recognize today? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Here is one flag:

Here is another one:

Many of you might not recognize that first flag. It is the flag of Germany. If you went to most people on the street for a sort of “Fun With Flags” game and asked them to recognize it, I’m sure the majority would not. People who like trivia or study that kind of subject would, but most of us would not.

The second flag is the Nazi flag, and I guarantee you the overwhelming majority of people on the street could tell you about that flag and that it represents Nazism. What’s interesting is that before Nazism came along, most people would be thrilled to see a swastika. It would for them represent something like good fortune.

Today, no more. We recognize it for the wicked ideology it got associated with. Many of us when we think of Germany will think of that flag. That flag has supplanted Germany as a whole for many of us.

It’s scary to think of an ideology overtaking a country like that. Surely that could never happen. Right? Well, it apparently happened in the UK. Look at this video.

So apparently wherever this is, the “pride flag” is more important than the flag of the country. It’s not even handled carefully. It’s just let go and dropped to the ground.

But hey, that’s the UK. Right? That’s not the good ol’ U.S. of A. Right? Surely such a thing like that could never happen here.

Oh, wait. It already has.

According to the flag code for the US, this should never happen. The American flag is always supposed to be central. Unfortunately, we have an administration now that ignores that in favor of “Pride.”

We as Christians should also be concerned because, like the swastika, the rainbow has historically been seen as a symbol of God’s covenant with man to never flood the world again. That rainbow represents the promise of God to His people. It is now being used in a way that directly opposes something Christianity stands for.

Not only this, but at the White House event, some of the demonstrators had to be thrown out of the event for lewd behavior. Yes. This is the same kind of behavior that they want to have normalized in your child’s school. This is the ideology that is trying to take over your society. There will never be a step where they say “Enough.” It will always be a demand for more and more and more.

We know this because this has been the pattern. “We just want to be left alone.” “We just want the right to be with the person we love.” We want to be recognized in society.” Now we have surgeries being done on minors where their bodies are being altered. Just a couple of years ago it was seen as a big reveal to show that some hospitals were doing this to children. Now it’s common knowledge.

Now you can hardly see a movie or TV show without LGBTQ representation in it. Now you can’t take your child to a store without seeing something. A Christian friend of mine showed how her young daughter saw something on Amazon today about a program about a boy’s new dress. With the Call of Duty controversy going on (Which is what it should be instead of the NickMercs controversy seeing as there is nothing controversial about saying “Leave children alone”), we are seeing it be the debate in the gaming community.

I am pleased that this month, I am seeing pushback, but it will have to be for more than just a month. Now keep in mind when I say this about the movement, I mean the activists. I know of plenty of people in the group who just want to live their lives and don’t want all the attention. Our struggle is against an ideology and those who want to push it.

The pushback must continue though. I have a hope that sometime we will have the last pride month ever.

Maybe it will even be this month.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

 

 

 

Why White House Pride Flags Should Concern You.

It this just a harmless celebration? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Bud Light is losing. Target is losing. Call of Duty is losing. Even recently, Starbucks has said that they’re not going to have Pride material on display in their stores. (To which, if you can, stop by and get a drink then.) The line in the sand was drawn at children. Going after the children was way too much.

However, that memo hasn’t reached the White House where pride flags have draped the building. What does this mean? The problem with this is that it gives more power to the state.

Now all of this is going to be done from a viewpoint that will not use the Bible so no one can say that I’m just going by the Bible. I do contend the Bible does agree with my position, but I can make it without it.

So what about marriage? Sometimes people ask me if I believe in same-sex marriage. I always ask what marriage is. If you realize that marriage is a man-woman unit, then you realize you might as well ask if I believe in triangular squares. But why is it a man-woman unit?

Marriage is this because it is the building block of a society because within it is found the one act that is capable of producing children. We have made a mistake in thinking that we can have wanton sex without children and not have consequences. This does not mean that infertile couples or couples too old to reproduce can’t marry or even shouldn’t marry, but it does mean the public end of marriage is children. It is not the couple’s happiness, as good as that might be. It is not feelings of love towards one another, though that should be pursued. In the end, it is children.

The state does not come before marriage. Marriage comes before the state. No families? There can be no state. Marriage is a reality that we discover. Some people who want to bring the Bible into this will point to polygamy, but polygamy is if anything multiplying the man-woman unit beyond necessity.

This is also why interracial marriage was never invalid. Interracial marriage still has the man-woman unit in it. Removing that was actually a recovery of marriage and not a changing of it. However, changing the persons in the roles on an essential difference, their gender, DOES matter.

Now some can say that same-sex behavior exists in nature, as it does, but that doesn’t mean it is something we normalize for our species. After all, eating one’s own young also exists in nature. Are we going to pass a law saying that is allowable?

So the State creates something, an artificial reality, and they want to call it marriage also. The problem now is if the State produces it, the State will have to defend it. It’s their baby after all. In essence, this becomes a new religion of sorts. You do not question the dogma and if you do, the State comes against you.

And yet, in the new “marriage”, what benefit does society get? Why should the State care about the feelings of the people involved? When my ex-wife and I applied for our marriage license, we were never asked about our feelings or personal happiness. We were just to show that we were of age and of the opposite sex and not close relatives. That was it.

Redefining marriage gives the State more power and in the long run will have it be that if you question the dogma, you are guilty of treason. In the past, we destroyed the bodies of children in the womb. Now we are also destroying them outside the womb through “gender-affirming” care and puberty blockers.

The Bud Light pushback though has changed things. What this should show us is that when people work together and stand up, especially for their children, they can have an effect. Even if you are of the LGBT community, this should concern you. A state that can rule in your favor can make you the enemy the very next day.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

The Tolerance of Pride

Is tolerance still a thing? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

I’m old enough to remember when tolerance was this awesome virtue. Everyone started talking about tolerance. That was all we wanted! Tolerance!

Now if you take tolerance in the classical sense, I agree with it. Tolerance in that sense meant that I don’t agree with your viewpoint, but I support your right to it. I don’t agree with what you say, but I do agree with your right to say it. Tolerance later was morphed to mean approval. Strangely enough, though not a shock to myself and many others, when the people wanting tolerance thought they were in a position of power, there was no tolerance shown to those who they demanded tolerance from.

Let’s consider two events from the news yesterday. One is from Londonderry Junior High in Canada. Here is a teacher going after Muslim students.

These students were skipping out on class to avoid pride events. The teacher spoke about how non-Muslims acknowledged Ramadan (And I would freely support a student’s right to skip that as well) and then went on. Fortunately, it has been transcribed so I will respond to it here.

“It goes two ways! If you want to be respected for who you are, if you don’t want to suffer prejudice for you who are, your religion, your colour of skin, your…whatever, then you’d better give it back to people who are different from you. That’s how it works, it is an exchange. And it’s not like that in all countries.

Ah. So since we showed respect for you, then you ought to show respect for us.

Lady. Respect cannot be forced. I could sit silent during something on Ramadan if I had to attend, but that sure doesn’t mean I respect it. Forced respect is an oxymoron.

Are you also saying that if these students didn’t accept what was going on in Pride, that you would show them prejudice then? Are you telling me the reason you are not prejudice towards your Muslim students is conditional on if they don’t show it to you? I frankly think I should not show it regardless of how I am treated.

As I told you, in Uganda, if they think you’re gay, they’ll execute you. And if you believe in that kind of thing, then you don’t belong here. Because that is not what Canada believes.

It’s nice of this teacher to claim to speak for all of Canada. However, how did we get from “I don’t support Pride” to “Kill all the homosexuals!” I realize they do that in Uganda, but that doesn’t mean these Muslims were advocating that. If I chose to avoid Ramadan, does that mean I want to kill all the Muslims? If this teacher didn’t want to acknowledge a presentation by someone on Romans 1, does that mean she wants to throw all the Christians to the lions?

We believe in freedom, we believe that people can marry whomever they want. That is in the law! And if you don’t believe that should be the law, then you can’t be Canadian. You don’t belong here – and I mean it.”

Really?

So if you have a stepfather who wants to marry his eight year-old stepdaughter, do you think he can do that? He can marry whomever he wants? Really? Could a woman be allowed to marry her cat or a man allowed to marry his dog? (Wouldn’t surprise me if that has happened.) If marriage can mean anything, it really means nothing.

Also, apparently tolerance has reached its breaking point. The teacher is ready to say Muslims who disagree do not belong in Canada and are not Canadian. Friends. Many of us knew tolerance was a sham all along.

If only that were the only story.

But there’s another one.

Now I don’t really care for street preachers for the most part. I’m sure there’s some good people out there doing that, but I find most of them don’t know what they’re talking about that much. That being said, I fully agree with their right to say it.

This man had a right to speak and disagree with what was going on as long as he was being peaceful. Sergeant Bradley McClure decided to arrest him in under a minute. The Reading Police Department in Pennsylvania has been getting a lot of pushback over this.

Some of you might be atheists reading this and saying “Good! Get that guy off the streets!” However, you should not support this. If the police can do this to someone they disagree with like this, they can do it to you. Freedom extends to all of us or to none of us.

The pushback is quite relieving to see. I really hope this continues. I honestly think I’m seeing a lot of that this month. There were numerous organizations, including the Navy, that had Pride symbols up on their social media and had to take them down.

My personal thinking on this is that what really got under the skin of people with this was the transing of the kids. People are usually fine with whatever adults want to do in the privacy of their own homes. You get the children involved though and the Mama Bears and everyone else rises up.

I really hope it continues. I would be thrilled if this was the last time we ever had a month for this movement.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

 

 

Coming To A Pride Parade Near You

What is being shown to your children? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Parents. If you have children, please watch this video, but also make sure the children are not around. (Assuming they are underage.) Even if you don’t care for TimCast, this is a video of what is happening at a pride parade and at a school. All parents need to watch this.

I wish this was an isolated event, but I doubt it is. Remember Ron DeSantis said that there couldn’t be a parade in Florida if it would involve material not fit for children. They decided to just not have the parade. What is going on at these events that this needs to be shown?

Years ago when the Obergefell case came down, the case that decided to redefine marriage to include two people of the same sex, I remember all the memes going around. “All this means is that gays will get married. Nothing more.” Those of us like myself who are conservative Christians knew better.

We were right. The first step that came after the ruling was the normalization of transgenderism and now you have kids having their bodies mutilated and healthy body parts removed. These decisions are largely irreversible. These children will never be able to have children and many will never truly experience sexual pleasure.

Now also you have men dominating in women’s sports and in any other event meant for women. Men are getting access to prisons for women and to their locker rooms and everything else. You can be sued at times for “misgendering” someone.

Not only this, but in this video, take a look at what is happening in the schools. Children are being told Happy Pride Day and celebrating running under a rainbow. Do children even know what this is? Children at the age in the video?

Parents. You should want your children coming home and asking you questions about math, literature, science, history, etc. Do you really want them coming home and asking “Mom? Dad? What does Pride Day celebrate?”

Homeschool them now or get them in good private education where this is not being taught.

When you homeschool them also, make sure you teach them at age-appropriate levels about proper sexuality from a Christian worldview. You also need more than just “The Bible says so.” You need a whole worldview to explain why this is wrong. This is not to disparage the Bible, but you need to see how it applies to all of life.

After all, if you don’t educate your children, someone else will. Even if they’re homeschooled, they will have friends, they will have internet, they will have media of some kind. You can’t isolate them from the world nor should you. In a military situation, the troops are trained before they go out into the battlefield, but it is with the understanding they will see battle. Do the same for your children. They will see battle.

Keep in mind, this does not mean that individuals in the LGBT community are our enemies. It does mean the ideology is. I suspect there are some in that community who don’t want to see this done to children as well.

I also am concerned about so many Christians who seem to hide under the rubric of love. “Well, they love each other, so what’s the big deal?” Or “Why do you hate homosexuals?” Disagreeing with someone does not mean hate. As for love, these people believe more what the world says about love than what they do Jesus and the Scriptures say about love.

Love does not mean you affirm everything someone believes about themselves. It also means you call them out if they are doing something harmful. It is love when a family stages an intervention for someone who is messing up their lives. It is love to let someone have it if need be when they are doing the same.

They also don’t understand the concept of marriage. If you think there is no essential difference between two members of the opposite sex and two members of the same sex joining together, then you do not see marriage as being about building up the next generation and the continuing of the human species and the nuclear family. It is at that point simply a glorified friendship.

Churches. On you then, we have to start teaching people this kind of material. We have too many sermons that are really about how to make it through your life with your problems. There is very little about Jesus. It is all application and sermons that are just application will not make a difference.

If this means having extra classes, great. This would actually be a great way. Start having classes that are not just marriage enrichment, but about what marriage is. Start really having teaching about sex in the church that will even explore why couples should not live together or have sex before marriage that will go beyond “The Bible says so.” Our young people today especially need to understand not just what the Bible says but why it says what it says.

Parents. You are in a war, and yes, they are coming for your children. If these people are willing to kill their own children in abortion and sterilize them in transgender surgeries, then the children will have to come from somewhere. Oh, if you think the idea of coming for your children sounds extreme, well….

The people that put this up took it down. They claimed it was just satire. Color me skeptical.

Folks. We are in a war. We are fighting for the next generation. At the start, they are defenseless and we must protect them.

Do so.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(I Affirm the virgin birth)

Thoughts On Anthony Bass

How will we stand when persecution comes? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

I was just watching a video from TimCast where the conversation was Anthony Bass. Bass is a baseball player for the Toronto Blue Jays who posted something in support of the Target boycott. Hardly a day had passed and he was apologizing for it and said he was going to use Blue Jays resources to reeducate himself.

We all know what that entails.

Now when I use the word persecution, I am going to say that no, this is not like where it is in Muslim and Communist countries where you can be killed for being a Christian. However, this is a step in that direction. If the mind virus cannot be eliminated, before too long expect them to say the person must be eliminated.

Tim Pool who hosts the program is not a Christian. Seamus Coughlin who was on this episode is a devout Catholic Christian. This led to a back and forth going on and something I will say I respect is that this could have easily been a chance for non-Christians to rag on Christians. It didn’t happen. Instead, it was said that those people weren’t really walking the walk.

Tim is confident that Bass isn’t a Christian. Why would you sell out your faith so quickly? Does this really look like someone who knows they will be judged by God one day? I’m not going to be one to be so quick to say Bass isn’t a Christian or not. I’d also say all of us who are Christians can easily lose sight of the fact that we will be judged by God one day.

Do I disagree with what Bass did? 100%. If at the end he came out of this and was no longer a Christian and was waving around pride flags, I would not be surprised. I hope that doesn’t happen, but that’s what I think will.

Yet at the same time, I am hesitant in how I handle such scenarios because many of us can talk the talk when all we have to do is talk. Picture Peter who said to Jesus “Even if everyone betrays you, I never will! I’m ready to die for you!”

And yet for him, within 24 hours, what was he saying? “Jesus? Never heard of Him.” Peter himself caved. I’m not going to go and claim I would do better. I would hope that if push came to shove, I would, but I think boasting beforehand can only lead to more trouble.

But this is a reminder that we all need to live differently as Christians. Things are getting harder for us than they have before. If you do not bow the knee often to the Pride ideology going on now, then you are the ones who are ready to be thrown to the proverbial lions.

Bass is going to reeducate himself. The problem is many of our Christians aren’t going to be reeducated, but that they were never educated to begin with. I don’t mind a school education or college or university. I mean they have never been seriously educated in Christianity and what we believe.

This is especially so for children and if we don’t educate our children, well, somebody will.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

Are Boycotts Finally Working?

Are we finally seeing boycotts start to work? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

I don’t drink alcohol, but I remember seeing about the Dylan Mulvaney can of Bud Light and how some people thought it was a joke because it was April 1st.

Nope. It was real.

However, I was extremely surprised with what happened after and I have been watching the news. The stock keeps dropping more and more and the company wants to do everything but apologize. However, because they didn’t just jump up and defend Mulvaney immediately, now the LGBTQ+GBJAHVHAKJOTVAH group has gone against them as well.

That was interesting enough.

Yet now another company has joined the fray, that one being Target. Now because they had pride material upfront in their stores and some it for children, a lot of parents have decided that that’s too far. We are waiting to see if Adidas and The North Face will go the same way.

What’s going on that caused these to be different?

Bud Light I think is because frankly, Mulvaney is annoying to a lot of people. They want nothing to do with him and the last thing your average male beer drinker wants is to be seen as a woman or as gay. This has led to Bud Light being seen as a joke and now, people are learning that if you make fun of Bud Light in a meme or a video, you get noticed on the internet.

In this, conservatives start to see the impact they can have when they speak out. Around this time also, we see a push by women against the transgenderism movement, especially with someone like Riley Gaines. Women are tired of men entering their events and dominating them and getting all the rewards for it.

Then Target comes along and not only do they have Pride material, but it seems to go toward children. There are a lot of parents that don’t want that pushed on their children. Now that Bud Light has done their thing, conservatives are starting to realize that they do have power now. Thus far, Target at the time of my writing this has lost $9 billion in sales.

Add in to all of this that the Super Mario Brothers movie is a smash hit. Meanwhile, Disney movies that are going woke are indeed, going broke. Mario’s great advantage was avoiding anything political.

All of this has honestly brought me a lot of hope. I want to see the tide turn in our country. Too many times now, we’ve just bent over and let the LGBTQGUAGHIAGUV group have their way with us. We have been following the idea of live and let live, but our opponents didn’t want that. Every step forward was then a stepping stone to the next one and the last grounds that parents would not tolerate was their children.

For those of us who are Christians, I really hope we keep this coming. This is prime ground for sharing the gospel. Christianity has a view on everything, including on sex and marriage, and now is a time for us to learn how to make it definitely.

In the meantime, I wasn’t shopping at Target anyway, but now I’m definitely not going to. For those of us who want to reclaim our country, we could be on the verge of starting to do that. If we want to save our country, repentance is needed. It’s not just the world. We Christians need to repent as well for not stepping up and maintaining our Christian focus.

May the gospel shine in this time.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

On The Military on Pride Month

What is the purpose of a military? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

“And when the SJW mob passes through your area, when they see the rainbow flag on your house or business, they will pass over, but if they do not see the rainbow flag on your house and business, they will unleash their fury to get you cancelled and they will show no mercy.”

Such is what I have on my wall for what a friend of mine calls “Liberal Passover.” I get up and pretty much everywhere I go I see Pride flags. I didn’t even see this much for Black History Month or for Women’s History or Asian History or even for my own Autism Awareness Month. Mine is the one I least expect to see it for. After all, we don’t go and form mobs and shut down people that refuse to endorse us.

However, this is the first year I have seen the U.S. Military take this route and put up a statement for Pride Month on the first of the month.

So I did a search. Maybe I just missed something. I looked for Autism Awareness Month and the U.S. military. Nothing was coming up showing they celebrated it. I then replaced Autism Awareness with Pride Month and boom, it was right there immediately. Well, maybe people on the spectrum can’t serve. That was false also. There have been and are people on the spectrum in the military.

Now in a sense, I don’t really want the military to get involved. The military is not about raising awareness for causes necessarily. The military just needs to purely be America first. That is no longer happening.

My great concern with this? If the military can’t stand up to the SJW front, how on Earth can I expect them to stand up to our enemies? I can definitely assure you that the Russian and Chinese militaries are not spending their time making sure they’re supporting Pride Month or using proper pronouns or anything like that.

It’s also disappointing to see that if this is the case with Pride, then apparently the military is saying that the cause of Pride matters more than all those other causes, and this is part of the danger when it becomes political. Many of us on the right are very concerned that our military is becoming weaker because SJW causes are more important than the real point of the military, that of winning wars.

Do I still support the military? At the time, yes, but I am concerned about our future with this. I am more and more concerned that we are becoming a nation that is focusing on feelings instead of focusing on reality. I’m especially thinking about this after a great recommendation from someone that I read the book Strange New World. I have just recently started it and I am reading it on Audible and I definitely plan to review it as I am concerned about the Strange New World we find ourselves in.

I really hope the military returns to winning wars instead of political acceptance.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

The Sin of Sodom

What was the sin of Sodom? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

So we’re going back a bit because I was mentally going through Genesis recently and realized I had skipped this story and the next one. This starts in Genesis 13 which tells us that these cities wlil be destroyed and assumes its readers already know that. (Which tells you this had to be a most memorable destruction meant to stay in the minds of the audience.) We could picture it as if a person was telling about the history of New York City and said “This was before the World Trade Center towers were destroyed.”

When the story begins for Lot, he pitches his tent near Sodom. We don’t hear from him again until lo and behold, now he is living in Sodom. Lot’s first mistake here was not keeping his distance from a city that had a wicked reputation. How often do we fail to keep our proper distance from something or someone wicked when we should?

Now move forward to Genesis 18 where God reveals that He is about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah to Abraham. God gets to the point of saying that if he can find ten righteous people in that city, he will spare it. Unfortunately, those ten righteous people cannot be found.

So what was Sodom being judged for?

We go over to Ezekiel 16 and what do we see?

49 “‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.

Well, here you have it! They were prideful and thought only of themselves and didn’t help the poor and needy. That fully backs the inhospitable reading that we often see. Their sin wasn’t homosexual behavior obviously! It was not being kind to others.

Before we just dismiss this, let’s consider some matters. They definitely were inhospitable and that in the ancient world was a great sin. Also, all Christians should definitely agree that pride is a great sin. Lewis called it the greatest sin actually.

Yet if we stopped reading at that verse, we would miss out.

50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

The word for detestable is the same as used for the abominations in Leviticus 18 and 20 and does refer to homosexuality. We can then say that if it wasn’t the only reason for destruction, it was a big reason. Perhaps we could say pride was the main reason and this pride led to the inhospitality and to homosexual practice.

Such an idea might seem shocking to modern readers. Aren’t homosexual relationships all about love? In the ancient world, not necessarily. They were often a way of showing social dominance. We say the same today in some cases. We often say rape is not primarily about sex. Rape is about power and showing the dominance a rapist has over their victim, whatever sex the criminal and the victim are. Anyone could easily find someone willing to have sex with them, even if they had to pay money, but rape is not about that.

In these cases, a man would often be seen as feminizing another man by having homosexual intercourse with him. Such was the case going on with Sodom. There was no reason to think that strangers showing up in town were showing up to have sex with other men. Instead, the men want the men who visited Lot to come out so they can “know” them.

And yes, while know can sometimes refer to knowledge, in this and many other cases in the Old Testament, it’s clear it refers to sexual intercourse. This is clear when we see that Lot says his daughters have never known a man. Their Dad is there with them and they are engaged, so surely they know men, but they have never had sex with men.

By the way, there is also no defending Lot’s offer to them. Good guys in Scripture don’t always act like good guys. People make stupid mistakes in stressful situations, and your house being besieged by a personal army of angry men does count as such a situation.

Fortunately, Lot’s angelic visitors save the day. Everyone is given a chance to flee the town as destruction starts. Lot’s wife is the one who suffers since she looks back to the city as she was told to not do.

So why was Sodom destroyed?

Pride?
Inhospitality?
Immoral sexual behavior?

Yes.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)