Jamnia, Yavneh
(at Yavneh) Rituals of the temple were transferred to the home. Acts of kindness and charity began to replace atonement by sacrifice. Much of this comprehensive reformulation of Judaism by the Pharisees took place at an academy (bet midrash) at Yavneh (Jabne or Jamnia), west of Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin, composed of the leading scribes, was transferred to Yavneh. Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids MI & Dayton, OH: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company and Center for Judaic-Christian Studies, 1989), p. 77.
The sages at Yavneh were also responsible for reworking the Temple ritual so as to standardize it into the order and liturgy of the synagogue service. Furthermore, they discussed and settled questions concerning the canonicity of certain Old Testament books…Also at Yavneh the division of the Old Testament into Law, Prophets, and Writings was first clearly attested…Through ordination (semikkah, “laying on of hands”) of the disciples of Johanan ben Zakkai, the title rabbi acquired new significance. Yavneh marks the setting in motion of a succession of sages or rabbis through formal ordination. Here the meaning of rabbi must be carefully contrasted with the use of the term in the New Testament, where it was an informal term of honor bestowed on a learned teacher and hence primarily an esteemed form of address. Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids MI & Dayton, OH: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company and Center for Judaic-Christian Studies, 1989), p. 78.
Jerusalem
The rabbis taught us that there is a heavenly Jerusalem perched over the earthly Jerusalem. In order to truly appreciate the earthly Jerusalem one must also be able to glimpse the heavenly Jerusalem as well. Berel Wein in The Jerusalem Post article Dec. 6, 2007.
Jesus
A native preacher in south China was confronted by a man in his audience. “Why don’t you preach something else?” he said. “You have been preaching this Jesus for three days.”
“What do you eat for breakfast?” the Chinese preacher answered. “Rice” was the reply. “For dinner?” “Rice.” “For supper?” “Rice.” “What did you eat yesterday?” “Rice.” “What have you been eating for years?” “Rice.” “Why do you eat rice every day? Why don’t you eat something else?” “Because it keeps me alive,” said the man. The evangelist replied, “That is the reason we preach Christ, nothing but Christ. He brings us life and He is our life, and we could not live without Him.” Robert Neighbour, Living Water Commentary, Colossians 3:11-15.
[Non Christian sources mentioning Jesus] Including Josephus, there are ten known non-Christian writers who mention Jesus within 150 years of his life. By contrast, over the same 150 years, there are nine non-Christian sources who mention Tiberius Caesar. Norman L. Geisler & Frank Turek, I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2004), p. 222.
Jews & Gentiles
The historic rift between Christianity and Judaism will not be healed until Jews look at Jesus and see a faithful Jew and Christians look at an orthodox Jew and see Jesus. – Bernard Starr
When it comes to the relationship of Jew and Gentile, the major thrust of all traditional church theology is separation. (It is also the thrust of all traditional rabbinic theology). God’s major thrust, on the other hand, is reconciliation…to take two and form them into one new creation. Daniel Gruber, The Church and the Jews, The Biblical Relationship (Springfield, MO: General Council of the Assemblies of God, Intercultural Ministries, 1991), p. 1.
In the first century, the most heated, controversial, doctrinal issue of all that the church faced was: “How do the Gentiles fit into all this?”…Today, the most heated, controversial, doctrinal issue that the Church faces is: “How do the Jews fit into all this?” Daniel Gruber, The Church and the Jews, The Biblical Relationship, p. 2.
The mystery of Israel and the Nations is eternally profound (Romans 11:33). The dynamic relationship between the two is as foundational as that between man and woman, or between heaven and earth. There is a spiritual equilibrium between the two, like the positive-negative balance in electrical poles or a chemical equation. Perhaps this mystery is connected to the very nature of Yeshua himself, who is both the son of God and the son of David; both the king of Israel and head of the church. His dual nature is reflected in the duality of the relationship between Israel and the Nations. Asher Intrater Revive Israel, May 29, 2014.
Jewish Blessings
With the rise of the quantum theory came the ascendancy of Jews in science, led by Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli, and Max Born. In the post-World War II era, Richard Feynman became the paramount teacher and interpreter of quantum theory. George Gilder, The Israel Test (US: Richard Vigilante Books, 2009), p. 72.
From quantum theory ultimately issued IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Google, Sony, and Qualcomm. From quantum theory, too, would spring forth-from the wretched wastes of communism and feudal paralysis-the vast new energies of China, India, and the rest of capitalist Asia. George Gilder, The Israel Test, p. 72.
[Budapest & Vienna] In both great cities of the Hapsburg Empire, Jewish entrepreneurs led an economic miracle. But in science, Budapest was preeminent. From quantum mechanics to nuclear weapons to computer technology, information theory, and holography, Hungarian Jews bestrode the history of the twentieth century, from the pinnacles of research to the practical triumphs of Silicon Valley. George Gilder, The Israel Test, pp. 72-73.
Paramount among these Hungarian Jews were Eugene Wigner, Edward Teller, and Leo Szilard, who all played vital roles in the creation of nuclear weapons. George Gilder, The Israel Test, p. 73.
Of all the Jews who emerged from the anti-Semitic turmoil of Europe during World War II, however, none had more impact on the history of the epoch than…John von Neumann….Neumann epitomizes the role of the Jews in the twentieth century and foreshadows their role in the twenty-first…He successively imposed his synoptic mastery of abstraction in mathematics, quantum mechanics, nuclear weapons, computer science, game theory, and information theory-all through his charismatic powers of organization and persuasion. George Gilder, The Israel Test, pp. 73-74.
The progress of science and technology into the algorithmic realm has depended on progress into the quantum realm. It was von Neumann, more than any other man of his era, who joined the two…Neumann – the most practically influential of all the great scientists of the twentieth century. George Gilder, The Israel Test, pp. 74-75.
The universe rests on a logical coherence that cannot be proven but to which men must commit if they are to create. George Gilder, The Israel Test, p. 81.
Today, essentially every practical computer in the world is based on the “von Neumann architecture.” George Gilder, The Israel Test, p. 84.
Virtually the entire panoply of defense of the United States bore the imprint of von Neumann’s brilliance. George Gilder, The Israel Test, pp. 89-90.
In The Bell Curve Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein pointed to the massive superiority in IQs of Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews over all other genetically identifiable groups. George Gilder, The Israel Test, p. 32.
The proportion of Jews with IQs of 140 or higher is somewhere around six times the proportion of everyone else…” George Gilder, The Israel Test, p. 33.
Murray reports a study taken in 1954 of IQs in the New York public school system that showed Jews with some 85 percent of IQs over 170 (twenty-four out of twenty-eight). This superiority in IQ also manifested itself in excellence in games that demand exceptional intelligence. Since the 1880s, nearly half of all the world chess champions have been of Jewish heritage. George Gilder, The Israel Test, p. 33.
In the second half of the twentieth century, when Nobel Prizes began to be awarded to people from all over the world, that figure [of Jews awarded Nobel Prizes] rose to 29 percent. So far in the Twenty-first century, it has been 32 percent. George Gilder, The Israel Test, pp. 34-35.
The twentieth century was shaped and animated and endowed largely by a tiny cohort of the earth’s population usually called the Jews. George Gilder, The Israel Test, p. 240.
In most advanced countries, according to the available data, a hugely disproportionate number of brilliant and ambitious outsiders engaged in intellectual and entrepreneurial activities are Jews. George Gilder, The Israel Test, p. 246.
Jewish-Christian Relations
The so-called Birkat ha-Minim is the exclusionary benediction or blessing – but more properly understood as malediction or curse – directed against heretics. (The Birkat ha-Minim is often translated “the Heretic Benediction”). It is the Twelfth Benediction of the set daily prayer commonly referred to as the Shemoneh Esreh (the Eighteen Benedictions) or Amidah…It is to be recited three times a day by every Jew, including women, slaves, and children (Berakot 3:3; 4:1).
Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids MI & Dayton, OH: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company and Center for Judaic-Christian Studies, 1989), p. 65.
The Talmud provides information about the origin of the Benediction. It states that the prayer was added to the Eighteen Benedictions by Rabbi Samuel the Small at Yavneh (Jamnia) (see Berakot 28b-29a); this would have been around A.D. 90. Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, pp. 66-67.
Sometime before the fall of Jerusalem – probably between A.D. 66 and 68 – the Jewish Christian community fled to Pella in Perea. Located in the foothills east of the Jordan Valley about 60 miles northeast of Jerusalem, Pella became an important center for early Jewish Christianity. MarvinWilson, Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, p. 76.
But the war of A.D. 132-135 was, for all essential purposes, the final major national blow that severed the two communities. Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, p. 81.
Israeli cartoonist and creator of the well-known comic strip Dry Bones, Yaakov Kirschen, has spoken out on many subjects from anti-semitism, politics, and terrorism. Now he is speaking out on the persecution and actual slaughter of Middle Eastern Christians. He calls this the worst problem in the world today and he sighs that world leaders just look the other way. Kirschen has launched a one-man Internet crusade to aid this situation. Kirschen makes what seems a strange remark. “In one cartoon it says: ‘Santa Claus will have it easy this year. Just about the only place left in the Middle East with Christians left to visit is the Jewish state.’” Chris Mitchell, CBN News, Jan. 2, 2015.
Jewish Contributions
[A Quote from John Adams] “I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. If I were an atheist of the other sect, who believe or pretend to believe that all is ordered by chance, I should believe that chance had ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty Sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.” Adam Garfinkle, Jewcentricity (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009), p. 94.
Harry Truman supported recognizing Israel because be believed it to be a moral necessity, and his domestic policy adviser Clark Clifford agreed with him. (Clifford wasn’t Jewish either.) When in 1961 David Ben-Gurion told Truman that his support for Israel had “given him an immortal place in Jewish history,” it brought tears to Truman’s eyes-and Harry didn’t tear up easily. Adam Garfinkle, Jewcentricity, p. 97.
Both the composer and the lyricist for the most famous song and musical film in American history, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” were Jews. In the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, were first-generation Jews from New York: Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. Adam Garfinkle, Jewcentricity, p. 130.
…Without Jerry Wexler’s having invented “rhythm and blues,” without the genius of Brian Epstein, the British Jew who managed and guided the young Beatles…? Adam Garfinkle, Jewcentricity (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009), p. 131.
Here are some names that don’t sound Jewish but, in fact, belong to Jews: Victor Borge, Authur Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, Paula Abdul, Billy Joel, Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Peter Yarrow, Phil Spector, David Copperfield, and Geraldo Rivera… Adam Garfinkle, Jewcentricity, p. 132.
Christians have for years now been singing “White Christmas,” the top-selling song of all time, and “Easter Parade,” the most popular Easter song. Who do you think wrote these two songs? The answer, a Jewish composer from New York City, Irving Berlin. Hirsh Goldberg, The Jewish Connection (NY: Bantam Books, Inc., 1976), pp. 23-24.
Jewish Customs
To keep the family strong, marriage was in effect compulsory for men, and for women of child-bearing age: the genizah documents reveal no word for a spinster. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (NY: Harper & Roe, 1987), p. 200.
Jewish Influence
Columbus: He used the tables drawn up by Abraham Zacuto and the instruments perfected by Joseph Vecinho. Even his interpreter, Luis de Torres, was Jewish… Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (NY: Harper & Roe, 1987), p. 230.
Jews helped to create the New York stock exchange in 1792. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, p. 283.
Jewish unbelief
82 percent, a majority of white evangelicals believe God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people, compared with 40% of American Jews who believe the same. Pew Survey, Oct. 2013.
Jews, Literature and learning
The people of Israel were not great craftsmen, or painters, or architects. But writing was their national habit, almost their obsession. They probably produced, in sheer quantity, the greatest literature of antiquity, of which the Old Testament is only a small fragment. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (NY: Harper & Roe, 1987), p. 88.
The Jews were the first race to find words to express the deepest human emotions, especially the feelings produced by bodily or mental suffering, anxiety, spiritual despair and desolation, and the remedies for these evils produced by human ingenuity – hope, resolution, confidence in divine assistance, the consciousness of innocence or righteousness, penitence, sorrow and humility. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, p. 93.
Indeed, in many respects Hebrew literature was far more dynamic than Greek. Greek texts, from Homer onwards, were guides to virtue, decorum and modes of thought; but Hebrew texts had a marked tendency to become plans for action. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, p. 120.
Having lost the Kingdom of Israel, the Jews turned the Torah into a fortress of the mind and spirit, in which they could dwell in safety and even in content. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, p. 149.
Henceforth the Jews formed themselves into a cathedocracy: they were ruled from the teacher’s chair. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, p. 149.
At Jabneh, the sword was forgotten, the pen ruled. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, p. 149.
The ordinary Jewish masses learned the five books of Moses and the prayer-book, which also contained material on the Oral Law, the Sabbath and feasts. Scholars in addition must have mastered the rest of the Bible as well as ‘ordinances’ and codified law. The doctors knew all this, plus the Mishnah, the Talmud and the commentaries. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, p. 181.
John the Baptist
John the Baptist’s community survived his death at the hands of Herod Antipas. It may indeed have continued down to the present day. South of Bagdad there is a small sect called the Mandaeans; their origins undoubtedly go back to the Jordan valley, and at least to the second, if not to the first, century of the Christian era. Walsh, Michael, Roots of Christianity, (London: Grafton Books, London, 1986), p. 46.
Joy
In the US, 2.4 billion prescriptions are written each year. 118 million or these, or the largest group, are for anti-depressants. July 31, 2007, ABC News
A great Scottish preacher once spoke of the joy that man can give with a postage stamp. William Barclay, The Letters to the Phillippians, Colossians and Thessalonians, Revised Edition (Louisville: The Westminster Press, 1975), p. 15.
Judaism
Death itself is not tragic in Judaism; every individual must die. The only relevant question is to what extent the individual, when alive, participated in Jewish eternity.Shlomo Riskin, The Jerusalem Post, May 18, 2007.
It is important for today’s Christian community to understand, however, that Judaism does not teach that participation in the olam ha-ba “the coming world,” is achieved by works, but through the gratuitous mercy of God. Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids MI & Dayton, OH: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company and Center for Judaic-Christian Studies, 1989), p. 21.
Christianity is the only religion in history to consider another religion, Judaism, to be wholly true. Dinesh D’Souza, Life After Death, The Evidence (Washington: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2009), p. 46.
This is no idle conceit. As has been detailed in these pages, the precepts of Judaism, the Hebrew Bible and the Jewish people are the underlying target in the uproar over social, cultural and moral issues, manmade global warming, Darwinism, the Iraq war, and of course Israel…all these movements involve an attack on the bedrock values of Western civilization-and those values rest upon and are deeply intertwined with the teachings and fate of the Jewish people, a fact which is almost totally overlooked. Melanie Phillips, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power (New York: Encounter Books, 2010), p. 339.
[Israel]…it was the first society of antiquity to reject slavery. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (NY: Harper & Roe, 1987), p. 158.
Judaism, the Rabbis
Indeed rabbis were often the most assiduous and efficient traders…Rabbinical Judaism was a gospel of work because it demanded that Jews make the fullest possible use of God’s gifts…The Jews were the first great rationalizers in world history. Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (NY: Harper & Roe, 1987), p. 172.
Judeo-Christian Heritage
As a Child is bonded to mother, Christianity could not exist without Judaism. Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids MI & Dayton, OH: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company and Center for Judaic-Christian Studies, 1989), p. 19.
Indeed, the more biblical one becomes, the more Semitic one will be. It is impossible to be anti-Semitic or anti-Judaic and take the Bible seriously; otherwise one engages in a form of self-hatred. Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, p. 20.
Our Judeo-Christian heritage is both multifaceted and rich. This fact is memorably encapsulated in the words of William Lecky: “Hebraic mortar cemented the foundations of American democracy.” Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faiht, p. 23.
Stuart Rosenberg poignantly reminds the Christian community that before one can be “fully Christian,” one must also “know what it means to be a Jew.” Furthermore, he points out that “the stronger a man’s Christian faith, the more Jewish will he regard himself.” Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, p. 24.
In sum, therefore, we must emphasize with Davies that “the whole complex of Judaism is meant by ‘the Jewish heritage.’ That is, Judaism as well as the Old Testament constitutes the heritage of Christianity.” Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, p. 31.
Within the biblical concept of covenant, Judaism sees at least four pillars upon which it rests: God, Torah, the people of Israel, and the land of Israel, each on depending on and interacting with the others. Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham, Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, p. 32.
Judging
An unknown Amish man said: “The Bible is a mirror to examine ourselves, not a spotlight to shine on other people’s shortcomings.”
God called us to play the game, not keep the score. – Vance Havner
Judgment
God’s judgment often consists in giving people what they want and letting them experience the self-inflicted consequences of their choices. Nancy Pearcey, Finding Truth (Colorado Springs: David Cook, 2015), p. 137.
Justice
[Justice] The word will still be used, of course, but it will no longer mean that which is just…It will mean that which is most popular or pragmatic. Josh McDowell & Bob Hostetler, The New Tolerance: How a cultural movement threatens to destroy you, your faith, and your children (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 1998), p. 58.
Justification
“No Christian is ‘more justified’ than another Christian”…Wiersbe adds that “Justification is not just forgiveness or just pardon. It is more.” Warren Weirsbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, on Gal. 2:15-16, electronic edition.
Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God is the reign of God expressed in the hearts and lives of his people both now and through eternity. – Pastor Greg Ralston
These things shall vanish all; The city of God remaineth. – Martin Luther
Kingdom on Earth
When Jesus declares that there are many dwelling places in his father’s house, the word for dwelling place is mone, which denotes a temporary lodging. N. T. Wright, Surprised By Hope, Rethinking Heaven, he Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (New York: Harper, Collins, 2008), p. 41.
[Rev. 21-22] This is the ultimate rejection of all types of Gnosticism, of every worldview that sees the final goal as the separation of the world from God, of the physical from the spiritual, of earth from heaven. N. T. Wright, Surprised By Hope, Rethinking Heaven, he Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (New York: Harper, Collins, 2008), p. 104.
The word for “dwelling places” here, monai, is regularly used in ancient Greek not for a final resting place but for a temporary halt on a journey that will take you somewhere else in the long run. [Wright and others see mankind as living on a renewed earth and not in some remote and unfamiliar heaven]. N. T. Wright, Surprised By Hope, Rethinking Heaven, he Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (New York: Harper, Collins, 2008), p. 150.
The good news is that the living God is indeed establishing his kingdom on earth as in heaven, through the finished work of Jesus, and is inviting people of all sorts to share not only in the benefits of this kingdom but also in the work through which it will come to its ultimate completion. N. T. Wright, Simply Good News, Why The Gospel Is Simply Good News and What Makes It Good (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2014), p. 164.
Kinsey Report [a modern hoax]
On January 5, 1948, a bomb was dropped on America. Indiana University zoologist Alfred C. Kinsey released the book Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Today, more than five decades later, Kinsey is universally referred to as the “father of the sexual revolution.” David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, (Nashville, WND Books, 2005), p. 133.
Kinsey had “discovered” that while American men of the World War II “greatest generation” pretended to be faithful and monogamous, virtually all of them – 95 percent- were, according to 1948 law, sex offenders. Specifically, Kinsey claimed that 85 percent of males had intercourse prior to marriage, nearly 70 percent had sex with prostitutes, and 30-45 percent of husbands had extramarital affairs. Moreover, from 10-37 percent of men had engaged in homosexual acts, according to Kinsey. In fact, the oft-repeated claim that one in ten human beings is homosexual-a cornerstone of the “gay rights” movement until it was debunked-came directly from Kinsey’s published research. David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, 133.
The Kinsey Reports came to the stunning conclusion that children are sexual from birth, and that youngsters as young as a few months of age have the capacity for a pleasurable and healthy sexual life. David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 134.
Despite the radical nature of Kinsey’s findings, he was honored as a heroic scientific pioneer, pushing back the dark boundaries of ignorance and delivering new knowledge that would guide America in a brave, new world of sexual enlightenment. That is, until 1981, when a sole researcher-a Ph.D. and scholar named Judith Reisman-came along and raised the question of “Table 34.” David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 134.
Alfred C. Kinsey-the universally proclaimed “father of the sexual revolution,” the supposedly conservative family man, the objective scientific researcher and amiable academic-was a sexual psychopath. David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 136.
Reisman adds: “An early adherent and advocate of masturbation, Kinsey suffered an untimely death due, at least in part, to ‘orchitis,’ a lethal infection in his testicles that followed years of sadistic, orgiastic ‘self-abuse.’ Kinsey’s obsessive, brutally masochistic masturbation methods appear to have assisted in his early demise.” David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 137.
“Both of Kinsey’s most recent admiring biographers,” summarizes Reisman, somewhat less euphemistically, “confessed he was a sadistic bi/homosexual, who seduced his male students and coerced his wife, his staff and the staff’s wives to perform for and with him in illegal pornographic films made in the family attic.” David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 137.
[Kinsey’s “research” revealed by Reisman- Kinsey’s group] “Forced” subjects to give the desired answers to their sex questions, 2) secretly trashed three quarters of their research data, and 3) based their claims about normal males on a roughly 86 percent aberrant male population including 200 sexual psychopaths, 1,400 sex offenders and hundreds each of prisoners, male prostitutes and promiscuous homosexuals.” David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 138.
“…Nazi criminal Fritz von Balluseck, who was arrested and investigated for the murder of a ten-year-old girl and ultimately convicted of sexual abuse of up to two hundred children. As a Times of London story notes, Kinsey and von Balluseck corresponded, with Kinsey once warning the Nazi pedophile to “watch out” so as to avoid being caught. David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 139.
In April 2004, with Reisman’s help as science adviser, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization of twenty-four hundred state legislators, issued a “State Factor” report titled “Restoring Legal Protections for Women and Children: A Historical Analysis of the States; Criminal Codes.” The number-one focus of this in depth report was the fraudulent “junk science” of Alfred Kinsey. David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 140.
Reisman documents Kinsey as the inspiration and mentor for two men who carried forward the torch of sexual liberation: Hugh Hefner and Harry Hay…Hay was the father of the modern “gay rights” revolution that began in the 1960’s. David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 141.
Fully 100 percent of the sex science citations in the original 1955 American Law Institute’s “Model Penal Code” cite Kinsey’s bogus data on “normal sexuality” –alive today in courts and legislatures. David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 141.
To sum it up, today virtually everything having to do with sex-from attitudes toward extramarital affairs and homosexuality to the nation’s sex-education curricula, to the ways medicine, psychiatry, psychology, and even the criminal justice system define and deal with sexual pathology-is rooted firmly in the ludicrously fraudulent “data” of Kinsey and his cult of criminally deviant sex “researchers.” David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 142.
That’s why the Ozzie and Harriet generation could be taken in-because, just as with all con jobs offering wealth, riches, fame, love-some part of every person wanted to believe it. David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil, p. 145.
Knowledge
The myth of knowledge solving all problems is repeated like a mantra in our culture. That many people believe something so erroneous is no reason for you to believe it too. Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Business Secrets From The Bible, (Hoboken: Wiley, 2014, p. 73.
Thus on the basis of the Scriptures, while we do not have exhaustive knowledge, we have true and unified knowledge. Francis A. Schaeffer, Escape From Reason, A Penetrating Analysis of Trends in Modern Thought (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1968), p. 21.
Our world contains hidden knowledge that is waiting to be expressed. It seems as if a metaphysical substrate is impressed upon the physical. Gerald Schroeder, The Hidden Face of God, How Science Reveals the Ultimate Truth (New York: The Free Press, 2001), p. 48.
One of the things that distinguishes man from the other animals is that he wants to know things, wants to find out what reality is like, simply for the sake of knowing. When that desire is completely quenched in anyone, I think he has become something less than human. – C. S. Lewis
The high degree of plausibility of these beliefs qualifies them to count as “knowledge.” So we can reject Descartes; view of knowledge (as absolute certainty) and still truly know things. Descartes raised the bar for knowledge much too high. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong? (Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2005), p. 24.
Certain beliefs may be far more plausible or likely than others. We can know truly even if we don’t know exhaustively or with absolute certainty. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 25.
Furthermore, if we assume “100 percent certainty=knowledge,” we’ll be denying lots of things that we really do know. So we should embrace a more modest kind of knowledge- that of a “high degree of plausibility,” “greater likelihood,” or a “belief (or set of beliefs) that does the best job of explaining.” Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 30.
It’s just not obvious that knowledge necessarily involves 100 percent certainty. Can you really be 100 percent certain that knowledge requires 100 percent certainty? It’s highly doubtful. Paul Copan “How Do You Know You’re Not Wrong?, p. 30.
Laity
Clement of Rome, who died in about 100, was the first Christian writer to make a distinction in status between Christian leaders and non-leaders. He was the first to use the word laity to distinguish them from the ministers. Clement argued that the Old Testament order of priests should find fulfillment in the Christian church. Tertullian was the first writer to use the word clergy to refer to separate class of Christians. Both Tertullian and Clement popularized the word clergy in their writings. Frank Viola and George Barna, Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2002, 2008), p. 113.
By the fifth century, the concept of the priesthood of all believers had completely disappeared from Christian practice. Frank Viola and George Barna, Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices, p. 117.
[Karl Barth] The term ‘laity’ is one of the worst in the vocabulary of religion and ought to be banished from Christian conversation. Frank Viola and George Barna, Pagan Christianity? Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices, p. 206.
Laughter
“If you’re not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don’t want to go there.” It wasn’t Mark Twain who said that. It was Martin Luther. Randy Randy Alcorn, Heaven (Tyndale House Publishers, 2004), p. 423.
Law
James 4:11 tells us that speaking against a brother is to speak against the law. This illustrates that the law is alive and with us. It is written on the hearts of fellow believers. J. G.
As Martin Luther once said: “Grace makes the law lovable to us…and the law is no longer against us but one with us.” Martin Luther, Preface To The Letter Of St. Paul To The Romans, Introduction.
Law & Grace
We see in Titus 2:11-12 that even grace instructs and teaches us.
A person driving an automobile must observe all the laws that relate to automobiles. However, when a person pilots a balloon he is free from all these laws. – Stan Nausbam
Law & Health
Israeli experts are urging a visiting World Health Organization (WHO) team to promote circumcisions of both adults and of newborns in the Third World to help reduce HIV transmissions. Current research shows that six in 10 circumcised men are immune to HIV infection, but only about a fifth of men around the world have been circumcised for religious, medical or cultural reasons… Jerusalem Post by Judy Siegel Nov.28, 2006.
Lawlessness
In south-central Los Angeles, ground zero for the Crips and the Bloods, “guns and color wars have killed more than 15,000 people over the last 30 years,” reports Newsweek – “more than that have died in the sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland in the same time.” David Kupelian, How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America (New York: Threshold Editions, 2010), p .191.
Lawsuits
Lawsuits are not even a financial success. They are like Aesop’s fable of the two cats finding a cheese, jumping into a fight and making the fur fly terrifically, till the monkey comes in, and pleading with them to desist from their mutual cruelty, proposes to make an equitable division of the cheese equally between them. To this they give their mutual consent. Sitting down and watching the proposed settlement of all difficulties by their neighbor monkey, who, taking a knife and cutting the cheese in two in the middle, putting one-half in either end of the scale, and observing that one piece is too heavy, pulling up the other, goes to it, eating off the excess till it tilts up. Then he goes to the other end, and with his sharp teeth gratifies his appreciative appetite till that piece flies up and the other comes down. So he proceeds with his contract to effect an equal division, constantly eating the heavier piece, till the cats see he is going to eat it all, and interpose, begging him to desist, and proposing to settle the matter themselves. The monkey now gravely observes, “But the balance is due me for my service.” William Godbey, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:8. http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/ges/1-corinthians.html
Law, Of God
God never sets aside fundamental laws of nature. The laws of God are never violated, only our human understanding of what these laws actually are. Frank J. Tipler, The Physics of Christianity (NY: Doubleday, 2007), p. 134.
Laziness
“You can’t run with the foxes and sleep with the hounds.” Sybil Haydel Morial, Witness To Change (Winston Salem: John. F. Blair, Publisher, 2015), p. 165.
Learning
Here is a remarkable thought: Among the world’s children starting grade school this year, 65 percent will end up doing jobs that haven’t even been invented yet. This projection, while impossible to prove, comes from a highly respected and responsible source, Cathy N. Davidson, a Duke University professor, who is also the Co-Director of the MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competitions. Salman Khan, The One World Schoolhouse (New York, Boston: Twelve Hachette Book Group, 2012), p. 179.
Sadly enough, there is a kind of an anti-intellectualism among many Christians: spirituality is falsely pitted against intellectual comprehension as though they stood in a dichotomy. Such anti-intellectualism cuts away at the very heart of the Christian message. Francis A. Schaeffer, Death In The City (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1969), p. 84.
The Greeks learned in order to comprehend. The Hebrews learned in order to revere. The modern man learns in order to use. To Bacon we owe the formulation, “Knowledge is power.” This is how people are urged to study: knowledge means success. We do not know anymore how to justify any value except in terms of expediency. Abraham Joshua Heschel, Thunder in the Soul, ed. Robert Erlewine (Walden, NY, Plough Publishing, 2021), p. 58.
Leprosy
Dr.[Paul] Brand’s career centered on perhaps the most problematic aspect of creation, the existence of pain. I was writing the book Where is God When it hurts; he invited me to consider an alternative world without pain. He insisted on pain’s great value, holding up as proof the terrible results of leprosy- damaged faces, blindness, and loss of fingers, toes and limbs – all of which occur as side-effects of painlessness. As a young doctor in India, Brand had made the groundbreaking medical discovery that leprosy does its damage merely by destroying nerve endings. People who lose pain sensation then damage themselves by such simple actions as gripping a splintered rake or wearing tight shoes. Pressure sores form, infection sets in, and no pain signals alert them to tend to the wounded area. I saw such damage firsthand in Brand’s clinics. Philip Yancey, Soul Survivor, How My Faith Survived The Church (NY: Random House, Inc., 2001), p. 71.
Liberalism
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson first appeared as a series in the New Yorker in 1962. Afterwards DDT was banned worldwide. Perhaps some birds were saved but at a cost of 30-50 million people who died of malaria. J. R. Dunn, Death by Liberalism NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 2011), p. 64.
Liberalism has led into a wilderness. Francis A. Schaeffer, Death In The City (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1969), p. 54.
The characteristic of modern “liberal” critical teachers which amazes one most is their absolute confidence in their own conclusions, based upon evidence however trivial, and involving tremendously important departures from tenets maintained for centuries by the historic church. Stephen W. Paine, Wycliffe Bible Commentary, New Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 197l), p. 996.
What we call “liberalism” in public discourse today is really just the worship of self. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender (New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2017), p. 2.
Self-worship has become the predominant religion in our culture. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender, p. 5.
If progressives can wield the power to demolish and remake even the definition of man and woman in their own ideological image, then they have achieved a total and irreversible cultural victory. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender, p. 174.
Progressivism has officially declared jihad upon reality. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender, p. 174.
Liberals have made it clear that they intend to finally and categorically reject and outlaw reality itself. Matt Walsh, The Unholy Trinity, Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender, p. 175.
Lie
A lie can go around the world while truth is lacing up her boots – Mark Twain
We elect liars as leaders because we actually need lies if we’re avoiding inner Truth. David Kupelian, How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America (New York: Threshold Editions, 2010), p. 13.
There’s dark magic in boldly lying, in telling a “big lie” – repeatedly, with a straight face and with confidence and authority. David Kupelian, How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America, p. 14.
[Hitler in Mein Kampf] “In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie.” David Kupelian, How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America (New York: Threshold Editions, 2010), pp. 14-15.
A crisis throws us off our guard, upsets us, and inclines us to make decisions and accept “solutions” we normally would reject. Politically, the strategy is to create a crisis, or exploit a real one, by throwing people into a mode where they can be redirected toward a predetermined “solution.” [the Cloward-Piven Strategy inspired by Saul Alinsky and adopted by Barack Obama]. David Kupelian, How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming the Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America, pp. 16-17.
Life After Death
A survey of beliefs about life after death conducted in Britain in 1995 indicated that though most people believed in some kind of continuing life, only a tiny minority, even among churchgoers, believed in the classic Christian position, that of a future bodily resurrection. N. T. Wright, Surprised By Hope, Rethinking Heaven, he Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (New York: Harper, Collins, 2008), p. xii.
From Plato to Hegel and beyond, some of the greatest philosophers declared that what you think about death, and life beyond it, is the key to thinking serious about everything else – and indeed, that it provides one of the main reasons for thinking seriously about anything at all. N. T. Wright, Surprised By Hope, Rethinking Heaven, he Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, p. 6.
Life, Brevity Of
A silver goblet from Boscoreale near Pompeii, now in the Louvre, shows human skeletons with the inscription “Enjoy life while you are alive, for tomorrow is uncertain.” One skeleton holds a large purse full of money (inscribed ‘envy’) and a butterfly (representing the human soul), which he presents to his companions. Beside them smaller skeletons play the lyre, and clap their hands. Michael Grant, The World of Rome (New York: Praeger Publishers, Inc., 1960), p. 130.
Life, Complexity Of
It is perfectly obvious, in the case of the feather, that function as an aerofoil is impossible unless the hooks fit the barbules, that is, unless the components are exquisitely co-adapted to function together. It is the same in the case of the avian lung or in the case of the wing of a bat, and it is the same in the case of human artifacts such as a watch which can only function when all the cogwheels fit together and it is the same in the case of sentences. Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis (Bethesda, MD: Adler, & Adler, Publishers, Inc., 1985), p. 270.
The life of the cell depends on the integrated activities of thousands, certainly tens, and probably hundreds of thousands of different protein molecules…Altogether a typical cell contains about ten million million atoms. Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, p. 329.
The capacity of DNA to store information vastly exceeds that of any other known system; it is so efficient that all the information needed to specify an organism as complex as man weighs less than a few thousand millionths of a gram. The information necessary to specify the design of all the species of organisms which have ever existed on the planet, a number according to G.G. Simpson of approximately one thousand million, could be held in a teaspoon and there would still be room left for all the information in every book ever written. Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, p. 334.
It is the sheer universality of perfection, the fact that everywhere we look, to whatever depth we look, we find an elegance and ingenuity of an absolutely transcending quality, which so mitigates against the idea of chance. Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, p. 342.
To the skeptic, the proposition that the genetic programs of higher organisms, consisting of something close to a thousand million bits of information, equivalent to the sequence of letters in a small library of one thousand volumes, containing in encoded form countless thousands of intricate algorithms controlling, specifying and ordering the growth and development of billions and billions of cells into the form of a complex organism, were composed by a purely random process is simply an affront to reason. But to the Darwinist the idea is accepted without a ripple of doubt- the paradigm takes precedence! Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, p. 351.
Evolutionary thought today provides many other instances where the priority of the paradigm takes precedence over common sense. Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, p. 352.
Evidence from the earliest sedimentary rocks gives no indication of a supposed primeval soup. Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, p. 352.
Life, Creation Of
Interview with Jonathan Wells, PHD, PHD (Doctorate in molecular and cell biology from Berkeley; research biologist at Berkeley; widely published scientific writer).
“The problem is you can’t make a living cell, there’s not even any point in trying. It would be like a physicist doing an experiment to see if he can get a rock to fall upwards all the way to the moon.” Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), p. 39.
[Interview with Stephen C. Meyer, PHD] “Even if you had the right chemicals to create a living cell, you would also need information for how to arrange them in very specific configurations in order to perform biological functions.” Lee Strobel, The Case For A Creator, p. 223.
If life arose spontaneously from random chemical processes, we would have no more moral obligation than a bowl of soup. Rice Broocks, God’s Not Dead, Evidence For God In An Age Of Uncertainty (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2013). p. 51.
Life, On Earth
Contemporary physics has discovered that the physical universe burst into being with structural values precisely fine-tuned in numerous ways to accommodate the formation of life. Dean L. Overman, A Case For The Existence of God (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2009), p. 59.
Darwin’s theory, for all its merits, does not explain or even address why something exists or why it is intelligible, rational, and mathematical, nor does it address why beauty in abstract mathematics points toward truth in the physics of the universe. Dean L. Overman, A Case For The Existence of God, p.68.
Lifespan
Excavations of tombs where three or four generations of a family have been interred often find that only about one-third of the members of a given family reach adulthood, and many of those who did reach adulthood did not make it to forty years of age. Jeremiah J. Johnston, Unimaginable, What Our World Would Be Like Without Christianity (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2017), p. 34.
Light
It’s fair to say that the discovery that light comes in discrete chunks, or quanta, was the single most shocking discovery in the history of science….The first person to realize that light was made of photons was Einstein. Marcus Chown, The Quantum Zoo, A Tourist’s Guide to the Neverending Universe, (Washington: Joseph Henry Press, 2006), p. 16.
Light sometimes behaves like a wave and sometimes like a stream of particles. Marcus Chown, The Quantum Zoo, A Tourist’s Guide to the Neverending Universe, p. 19.
Two bombshells about to create a massive explosion in the twentieth century physics; Their names were relativity and quantum theory, and both theories had something to say about light. F. David Peat, From Certainty to Uncertainty: The Story of Science and Ideas in the Twentieth Century (Washington: Joseph Henry Press, 2002), p. 1.
Both the Talmud and cosmology acknowledge that this first “light” was of a nature so powerful that it would not have been visible by humans. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., Genesis and the Big Bang, The Discovery of Harmony Between Modern Science and the Bible (New York: Bantam Books, 1990), p. 89.
We are made of recycled star dust. Gerald L. Schroeder, Ph.D., Genesis and the Big Bang, The Discovery of Harmony Between Modern Science and the Bible, p. 91.
I believe we make the mistake the Welsh woman made. She lived many years ago in a remote valley but determined that it would be worth the cost and trouble to have electricity in her home. Several weeks after the installation, the power company noticed that she had barely used any. So they sent a meter reader to see what was wrong. “Is there a problem?” he asked. “No,” she answered, “we’re quite satisfied. Every night we turn on the electric lights to see how to light our lamps.” Cited in Max Lucado, God’s Story Your Story (USA: Zondervan, 2011), p. 110.
Loneliness
A Duke University study found that Americans reported having an average of three people with whom they discussed important matters in 1985, but only two in 2004; the percentage with exactly zero confidants doubled, and the percentage who talked only to family members rose from 57 percent to about 880 percent. Ross Douthat, Bad Religion, How We Became A Nation of Heretics (New York: Free Press, 22012), p. 240.
The average Facebook user has 130 “friends” but only interacts regularly with four to six of them. And 80 percent of a person’s Skype phone calls are placed to just two people. Scott Cleland with Ira Brodsky, Search & Destroy, Why You Can’t Trust Google Inc. (St Louis MO: 2011), p. 211.
In the early 2000s, just 12 percent reported being lonely, today, that percentage has grown to 20 percent…” George Barna & David Kinnaman, eds., Churchless (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2014), p. 20.
Love
[Matt 4:43-48] – In the Qumran literature there is a command “to love all the sons of light and hate all the sons of darkness” (1QS 1.9, v.p 72) Samuel Tobias Lachs, A Rabbinic Commentary on the New Testament, The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke (Hoboken, NJ & NY: Katav Publishing House, Hoboken, NJ and Anti-Defamation League of B’Nai B’rith, New York, 1987), p. 107.
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless–it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. – C. S. Lewis.
The difference between duty and love is that the first represents Sinai and the second represents Calvary. – Richard Braunstein
True love is a lack of desire to check one’s smartpone in another’s presence. – Alain de Botton
Lust
He who has a pure heart in love, looks not on a woman with thoughts of fornication. (Test. Benj. 8.2). Samuel Tobias Lachs, A Rabbinic Commentary on the New Testament, The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke (Hoboken, NJ & NY: Katav Publishing House, Hoboken, NJ and Anti-Defamation League of B’Nai B’rith, New York, 1987), p. 96.