Genesis 1:1 is without a doubt the most important verse in the Bible. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. There is no compromise regarding this verse. One either accepts the premise, or doesn’t. One can argue it’s validity, but one can not stand on the fence regarding this verse. There is no compromise. All else is based upon this verse. There is no compromise. There is no maybe He did, or maybe He didn’t. There is no compromise.

“Remember this: An army of sheep led by a lion can defeat an army of lions led by a sheep”

Red Steagal

Today is March 12, 2022. Seventy years ago today, my parents welcomed me into the world. From this you’ve already learned that I do indeed qualify as a senior citizen. Additionally, I’m white, male, heterosexual, live in the South Central United States and a member of a Southern Baptist Church. Most folks, including those who would claim to know me fairly well would, without thinking, stereotype me and apply several labels. Just so we’re on the same page, allow me to provide some definitions. The word stereotype is defined as a noun that refers to a metal plate cast from a mold taken from a page of movable types; or a transitive verb meaning to cast or print in stereotype or to fix permanently. A label is defined as a noun meaning a small slip of paper, etc. attached to anything to indicate it’s destination, ownership, etc.; codicil; a projecting molding: or a transitive verb meaning to mark with, or affix a label; classify. So, as with many English words we find several possible ways to use the terms stereotype and label. The definitions that most apply here are to assume that all individuals with certain characteristics came from the same “mold” and therefore should be “classified” as such. When someone does this, I believe they are showing prejudice.

Most would likely assume that I am a Republican, conservative, Christian, racist, financially well off, a gun owner with a huge arsenal including assault rifles and other fully automatic weapons, with a high school education at best, etc. I could go on, but you get the idea.

As I look back over the passed six years, and more especially, the passed two, I am appalled at several tendencies I see among the American peoples including:

(1.) assigning people to groups to oppose,

(2.) general ignorance (lack of knowledge),

(3.) an inability to apply general knowledge to applicable situations,

(4.) an inability to make one’s own decisions.

So here’s the deal. If you would like to understand me so that you can decide whether to oppose me or not, I’ll label myself. I’ll give you a starting point. I am a Christian. Nothing matters more than that. That one fact about me controls everything that I believe in and stand for. That’s it. Nothing else. I am a Christian. My Christianity colors my Worldview, as it should. My Worldview is a set of beliefs that begins with the fact that I believe that the God of the Bible created all that we know to exist.

Almost two months ago, I entered the 69th year of my life. I will add that having lived more years on this earth than either parent really does cause me to stop and take stock. I’ve received numerours comments through recent years that question my age. Many that questioned if I were really as old as I claimed to be. Although flattering it doesn’t change the truth. I am old enough to realize that each breath is a gift, and that there is a strong possibility that the next heartbeat will be the last. I have dear dear friends that I may never see again. Former students, former athletes, colleagues, perhaps relatives. Isn’t it a shame that we can not have a funeral for ourselves while we are still alive and lucid in order to address those we will be unable to speak to after we’re gone.

I have a good friend named Derek Moore. I mention Derek at this time to beg his pardon for this choice of phrase, but my reflection has been stimulating. Blog entriees on Absolute Truth and Freedom have been slow lately for many reasons but reflection has provided some inspiration, so allow me to get right to the point.

Recently my brother, Don, commented publicly that I was a really good brother and a quality person. He felt that I was just an all around nice guy. My brother is a pastor, and he made these comments to his congregation during a service. I am not mentioning this to brag, or to pump myself up. In fact, while I appreciate his comments, I also realize that blood is thicker than water, and he might be just so slightly prejudiced. So here is where the reflection comes in. I thought about all of the nice folks out there who have said nice things about me over the years. Sometimes they were said to my face, and I thanked them, unless I was so astounded that my brain failed to respond and I said nothing. So please allow me to say this now. If you’ve ever said something nice about me, whether in my prescence or not, Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Additionally, if any of you reading this have ever said anything bad about me, whether in my prescence or not, and it was deserved by me, I am truly sorry that I did something that caused you to say whatever it was that you said. As a matter of fact, I wish whatever it was, that I could go back in time and make amends. If I could, I would.

There are those who have said bad things about me that were not deserved. I know this because sometimes these things were said to my face. It would stand to reason that at times negative comments were not made in my prescence. Some folks over the years asked my forgiveness later. I always accepted their apology. If you’re reading this and we haven’t had that conversation, please let me say, you are forgiven. I mean it. You were always forgiven.

It is the morning of February 12, 2021. Normally I don’t include a date in my posts as the title of this blog is Absolute Truth and Freedom and absolute truth by definition is timeless. If Western philosophical beliefs are new to the reader, perhaps I should explain. One of the tenants of Western philosophical ideas is that fact that some things are always true. True in the past, true today, and true for eternity. Always true. An item that is always true is known as absolute truth. Absolute truth can also be referred to as capital T truth. Since I have based my life on the existence of capital T truth and the belief that absolute truth is timeless, why date this post? Perhaps because I am at a milestone of sorts. You see, six years ago this month, I published the first post on the Absolute Truth and Freedom site, and it has been almost two years since my last post. Why the gap? I’m not sure I can put my finger on it. It is not because I haven’t felt the need to write as I have dozens of unedited, or half finished posts in the que. Perhaps I haven’t felt that any of the material was complete, or timely, or perhaps I really don’t know why. I do know this, while I can’t say why I didn’t publish anything the last half of 2019, I do know why I didn’t post anything during 2020. The reason is information overload. First it was Covid-19, then it was the elections, or both, and all of their many connections. I’m retired, I have plenty of time to read, watch television, do online research, and let me tell you, there hasn’t been enough hours in a day to keep up with the constant flow of information. I didn’t have time to comment on anything while attempting to educate myself on a potentially lethal disease as well as the most controversial election year in my lifetime. I feel so sorry for those folks trying to make sense of what they were seeing and hearing while trying to earn a living, raise kids, maintain a home, vehicles, etc., not to mention those who were out of work during Covid concerned with food and shelter. And yet, although retired, I could not keep up with current events, much less sort truth from fiction.

At any rate, I feel as getting back on the horse is in order. Some may recall that I am a lover of words. Human beings think in words, express their ideas in words, create in words. Words are the basis of all communication. If human interaction occurs through words, then for human beings to communicate, the words they use must be common and consistent. Certainly humans can communicate on some level thorough gestures, but in my opinion not much of deep importance can occur without a shared and consistent language. Because I believe language must be consistent, I am against this thought of “living languages”. Please explain to me why the meaning of a word should change over time. Why? Just use the word that applies, don’t change the meaning of an established word to suit a need.

For instance, examine the words conservative and liberal. Viewed from a legal standpoint the word conservative means slow to change, and liberal means quick to change. From a fiscal standpoint conservative means thrifty, while liberal would indicate overindulgence. Why have we hijacked these terms to describe all residents of the United States? Why are we working to put all people in one of two boxes? The truth is that I am most definitely legally conservative. I’m not indicating that all laws are perfect and need to be left alone. I just believe we should be slow to change them. Be certain that what we propose is better than what we already have. From a financial standpoint, I am likely to be conservative with your money, because after all it is “your money” and liberal with my own, as it is mine. So you see, I don’t fit in either box. I don’t feel that I’m all that unusual. So where do you, the reader fit. I would believe that like me, most are out of the box, yet those that wish to control us must decide if another is friend or foe by making them fit one of two boxes. Think about it.

Would you like to see world peace? I know that I would. I suspect most people would feel the same. I can’t speak for other parts of the world, but in America, we often often joke about stereotypes. You know what I mean, right? One stereotype is that all beauty pageant contestants are just a pretty face with no substance and that when questioned about their life’s mission they always answer, “World peace”. Well, I don’t know about your experiences in life, but I have known many young ladies who have participated in pageants and they were all extremely intelligent and quite capable of answering questions. I also know that peace in this world would be a wonderful thing. The thing is having world peace would be quite simple if everyone would heed the following advice, “Don’t worry about anything: instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything that we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” PHILIPPIANS 4: 6-7.

I can’t worry about world peace until I have experienced personal peace. Start with yourself. Give the wisdom of Philippians 4: 6-7 a try.

“But, I………………..”, Jack’s voice trailed off with a heavy sigh, “I, had………….I had no choice”.

Well we’ve all thought what Jack is thinking from time to time, haven’t we? Thinking it, however, doesn’t make it so. We always have a choice. During my many years as an educator, I always made it a point to stress to students that they/we always have a choice, or choices. Now choices have consequences, and we may not like the consequences, but we always have a choice. Always. The consequences of some choices may be relatively or completely insignificant. For example, the only consequence of which cartoon show that I choose to watch after school may be that I got to watch Tom and Jerry, but I missed Bugs Bunny. No big deal right. It’s not that kind of a choice that is causing our character Jack his agony. Not at all. The choices that are a problem for us all are the ones that threaten to make us compromise our values. Values, you remember, are those things that we believe are right or wrong 100% of that time. You’re with me, right? Kind of like, you’ve inherited the family business, it’s been a rough year, but you think you can avoid bankruptcy by cheating just a bit on taxes. That’s a justifiable compromise, isn’t it? Or how about, the love of your life has been kidnapped, and the kidnapper has threatened to kill them unless you cooperate. All you have to do to save your love is assassinate the Governor of your state. Sorry, Governor, right? Well, no, not right. Values. You do have a choice. You always have a choice. You may not like the results of the choice, but you always have a choice.

Over the course of my career, I had the pleasure of working with fine educators, both in the classroom and on athletic fields and courts. One of them, Scott Van Hoose, always asked students after they had made a particularly bad choice, why they had made that choice. Inevitably, they would respond, ” I don’t know”. To which Coach Van Hoose would fire back, “Well if you don’t know, then who does?”. Coach just wanted them to learn to think about their decisions. To weigh outcomes before acting. To be able to have a reason why. We may not like the consequences, but we always have a choice.

The founding fathers of the United States of America realized that having the freedom to make choices, so as to reap the benefits, or to suffer punishment for those choices was important. That’s why our government is set up the way that it is. We all need to recognize these unique freedoms, and fight to preserve them.

Like me, many of the framers of the Constitution believed in a Creator of all that we know to exist. They believed that this Creator was the God of the Bible, and that this God was the original Grantor of Freedom. The New International Version of the Bible tells us in Genesis Chapter 2 verses 15 through 17, “The Lord god took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the Garden; but you must not eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die'”. God, you see, gave Adam, the first man, freedom of choice from the very beginning. To refuse to eat from the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, or to eat. To make a choice. A few chapters later in Genesis we learn of the choices of Cain and Able, then Noah, Abram, and on and on throughout the Old Testament and into the New Testament. In this great work we learn of the freedoms God granted man. The two greatest freedoms gifted mankind by the Creator, involve simply believing. Believing that God is who He says He is, and secondly, that Jesus is who He said He is.

The choice is yours. What do you believe?

Recently, a Twitter acquaintance was being taken to task for being so naive as to believe that Jesus rose from the dead.  The doubter summarized his stance  with a statement similar to, “once something is dead, it stays dead”.  I must admit, that has been my experience as well.  Daily, I am surrounded by death.  Plants, insects, animals, and yes, people pass regularly from this life never to be seen or heard from again.  As much as I would like to have one more visit with a friend or a family member no longer with us, I have yet to witness any living thing come back to life.  It is understandable why many doubt.

And yet, it’s that fact isn’t it, that because none of us living today have witnessed the resurrection of a human being that makes the possibility of a dead body living again, all the more intriguing.  All the more wonderful.

As far as the resurrection of Jesus goes, only two possible choices are possible.  As the opening paragraph depicts, all of us fall into one of the two camps presented.  After an unimaginably brutal death, three days later, life was restored to the flesh and blood body of Jesus the Christ, or it wasn’t.  No other options exist.  It happened or it didn’t.

A more important question may be if Jesus was resurrected, how would this possible?  The whole issue is not so much a belief in a man living again after death, but how could this claim be possible.  What is your worldview?  Where do you believe all that we know to exist came from?  Do you believe this all to be the result of a cosmic accident?  A giant explosion eons ago.  The result of some freak natural occurrence?   If all is the result of chance, then there is no natural anything, and so no Jesus was not resurrected, and the non believers are correct.  If however, all that we know to exist, including this planet and it’s inhabitants,  were not the result of chance, but the result of careful planning and construction by a powerful being………… and if this being, this creator, were the God of the Bible, then yes it is possible that Jesus was resurrected.  After all, if a being exists with the where with all to design and construct all of this from nothing, then that being, that Creator, would also have the ability to bring a dead person back to life.  In fact, that seems a much simpler task then creation.  So I ask again, what is your worldview?

……………………………..the 2018 midterm, in fact.  With all of the hoopla, and the money being spent, it appears to be a very important election at that.  I was just thinking about elections, and voting.  Back in our day, my wife and I had to be 21 to vote.  We were married before we were 21.  I only mention that because I can say that she and I have always voted.  We are mid 60’s now, and I don’t believe that we’ve ever missed a vote.  I could be wrong.  If I am, only once or twice.  And we have voted because of the privilege, the honor, the importance of it all.  And as we’ve grown older, we realize the blessing that comes from having this privilege.  Many have died for this right we Americans have to vote.  And so I wonder, is voting, having a say, even if only a small say, is it important to you.  Do you vote no matter the issue, no matter the office up for grabs, no matter the weather?  My wife and I can’t imagine that the weather effects turn out, but the experts tell us it does.  But it shouldn’t.  it’s either important, or it isn’t.  How many sit in the rain, the cold, to watch an athletic contest, yet won’t brave those conditions to vote.

Here’s the deal.  I’m not trying to talk you into voting.  If voting is no more important to you than that, then please, don’t vote.  Because if it is no more important to you than that, you have no real opinion on the issues, and if you have no real opinion on the issues, you don’t need to mess it up for everyone else.  I’ve never voted because someone asked me to.  I’ve never had to be asked by celebrities to go to the polls and vote because if I didn’t I would bring shame to my ancestors.  I’ve never voted because a former President has asked me to vote for our cause.  I have voted because I believe in the system.  I have voted because I educated myself on the issues and then expressed what I believed to be the choice that represented what I felt to be right, and just, and what would be best for the majority of this country.

If you have no opinion on the issues based upon educated choice , than please stay away from the poles…………this time.  There will be another one of these coming up in two years.  That gives all plenty of time to do the research necessary to make informed choices.

So, a few weeks back, Ted Cruz was lambasted for daring to share his belief that freedom was a gift of God, and not that of  the government.  How each of us feels about Senator Cruz’s belief should not be based upon our feelings about the Texas lawmaker, but the truth.  Just because one doesn’t like the Senator doesn’t mean that he is wrong.

I, for one, agree wholeheartedly with Senator Cruz.  May I also point out that I feel the government is protector of my freedom, but not the grantor.  By the way, Ted Cruz and I stand in good company.  Thomas Jefferson is quoted below.

Magruder’s American Government;  Allyn and Bacon, Boston, 1967; page 97