Davinci Code Foolishness

Many folks are taking the Davinci Code's allegations as true without really considering how valid its claims may be.

• Dramatic fiction books in this genre are written for amusement, not critical thinking. People who buy them want to suspend disbelief, and take their mind off of everyday tedium, not understand serious issues. "Amusement" by the original definition is distraction from thinking, and The Davinci Code certainly meets that definition, but does it successfully say anything worth thinking about?
• Many plot turns in Davinci Code are based upon total incompetence - unlike most very successful drama fiction. Examples: the first big scene involves a killer of incredible skill on his fourth victim for the night - but he forgot to reload his pistol after the first three victims? Every police type semi-automatic pistol remains open after the last shot is fired, so magazines can be changed in a hurry, yet this skillful killer manages to "click" his Glock 17 shot semi-auto pistol on an empty chamber. The big murder victim in this scene is the head curator for the Louve musem, whose primary role includes ensuring that benefactors successfully pass donations on to the musem - but he does not believe in written wills? A key character is a police cryptologist - who has forgotten simple cryptographic puzzles she solved as a child? Another key character is an expert in ancient historical documents - who believes in Gnostic documents with anonymous authors claiming to give narratives from key persons in the life of Christ but which were actually written over a hundred years after the last such persons died?

Wonderful Truth: All Life is Precious

Once several years ago our then President twice vetoed a law that would have banned a medical method of abortion so incredible I will not begin to describe it. It was called "partial birth abortion" (here is what the American Medical Assn has published about it). By then I knew God must surely disapprove of what America was doing to unborn children, and I had already studied through much of the Bible. I also had the feeling it would be right to put my finger in my Bible without looking for an answer about what God thought of abortion.

My finger blindly found a verse I had already read, and one which is often read at Christmas, since it is about the first Christmas and what Mary sang when she learned she was to be the mother of Messiah, of God in human form - a role many Hebrew women longed for. The story begins in Luke 1. When the angel told Mary what was to be, he also told her that her older cousinElizabeth would have a son despite her age. So she quickly went to visit her cousin Elisabeth. When the baby (John the Baptist) in Elizabeth's womb leapt for joy at being near the unborn Jesus, Mary sang this song:

“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
For the Mighty One is holy,
and he has done great things for me.
He shows mercy from generation to generation
to all who fear him.
His mighty arm has done tremendous things!
He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
He has brought down princes from their thrones
and exalted the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away with empty hands.
He has helped his servant Israel
and remembered to be merciful.
For he made this promise to our ancestors,
to Abraham and his children forever.”
(Luke 1:46-55, NLT)

My finger was blindly upon Luke 1:54-55, which is bolded above. So what does God say about abortion? The Messiah came for mercy to all the descendants of Abraham.

Ground pounders and why I love them

Ground Pounders is military talk for infantry (Soldiers and Marines). Here is my tale about why I love them.

During the Vietnam War I graduated from college. That was before God woke me up to how Real He is, in January 1968 when the Viet Cong Tet Offensive began. During a vietnamese religious holiday the VC attacked many South Vietnamese cities to convince the US the war would cost too much. Then, even more than before, Uncle Sam wanted me and others to get involved.

I didn’t believe in the war and wanted no part of those jungles, so I enlisted in the Navy for four years. After boot camp I worked as a keypuncher on the base in San Diego until I was to be transferred. That’s when I was blessed to hand my own notice of availability to the Petty Officer who assigned recruits their next duty. He asked me what I wanted, so I asked for more data processing. That is how I got six months of computer schools in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., and then after doing well my choice of orders to shore duty in Hawaii.

Wheeler AFB is in the middle of Oahu. Less than a mile away is an underground Navy base in a large bunker, an alternate to the fleet control center in Pearl Harbor. I served there in under the pineapple fields in air-conditioned computer rooms for two years. That is how I was blessed with shore duty and the rank of Data Processing Petty Officer 2nd Class (E-5) before going to sea my last year.

That last year was aboard the USS Constellation aircraft carrier. I had about nine months at sea. I worked in a computer area with six other sailors preparing reports on fuel, ammo, and spare parts for the ship and our planes. My best sea story is that the President once ordered our forces to strike the enemy capital in Hanoi after peace talks had failed. We spent our time the night we moved to attack by passing around a magazine article about Soviet pilots based in North Vietnam with supersonic bombers, nuclear bombs, and a desire to sink American aircraft carriers.

What did I take away from Navy service?
During my Vietnam war service I learned what undeserved gifts are that you can never repay. At all times my air-conditioned computer room was defended by several other ships, many tons of steel, and dozens of aircraft. Only a few miles away there were ground-pounders and flyboys suffering and dying in the jungle in my place and partly for my freedom. Those flyers who didn't suffer it were risking the worst of it alone in enemy territory. Those men faced unknown enemies in miserable conditions. Getting shot at or booby trapped there might even be easier than facing the unrelenting heat, humidity, bugs and diseases at every turn - never knowing when someone might surprise you with a grenade or AK-47, or a buddy die in some horrible way before your helpless eyes. There were many horrible things those men cannot forget, and I hope they try to warn us against. Unlike some of them, I came away with only good things.

Undeserved Gifts.
Experiencing that undeserved gift of life and freedom, knowing just a little bit what other men chose to do partly for my sake, was part of what finally compelled me to REALLY consider the Bible. In a far greater measure, that is exactly what the Messiah, who is fully God yet fully in the form of a man, did on the cross. Jesus paid for our lifetimes of unholiness, for us to have an undeserved eternity of incredible friendships and celebrations, with His own blood. To reject that message, to delay attempting to know it for yourself, is the only sin that actually condemns us to eternity without God. Every other sin of a lifetime is forgiven the instant we actually know that truth in our hearts, enough to keep acting upon what we know.

Jesus suffered untold pain in the hope we would seek Him through His Word, come to know Him because of it. I have had many Real answers to prayer, yet often I cannot expect an answer because of my unholy thoughts, deeds or failures to do. The truth is He DOES answer prayer when we expect an answer because of HIS Holiness.

Yes I take the Bible literally, including Genesis chapter one. Which actually says that God created heaven and earth from nothing in the beginning, THEN God let the first visible day occur on the surface (dispersing thick clouds, see Job 38:8), then during those six Hebrew “yom” periods of activity created three life forms from nothing including mankind. Those six periods of activity completed the making of heaven and earth, but clearly did not include creating any part of heaven or earth from nothing. Take the Bible literally, hope for answers there, and keep hoping until God hints it is time to look.

Westboro Baptist Church speaks for God?

BACKGROUND. Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) has recently made news by disrupting prominent funerals to publicize their concern that America is suffering God's wrath because we as a nation have not discouraged prideful homosexual behavior. It is true we give God many reasons for wrath, including failure to confront awful public sins, but WBC arrogantly proclaims God's wrath for Him, and painfully disrupts funerals to do so.

Westboro Baptist Church claims many sufferings by Americans (including Iraq war deaths and the Amish girls killed recently) are due to God's wrath against America for our public acceptance of prideful homosexual behavior. WBC has not read what happened to Job, a godly man who suffered greatly, and his three "friends" who arrogantly claimed Job must have deserved God's wrath (Job ch 30-37). When God appears in answer to Job's cry for help and understanding, He says to Job's three friends, "I am angry with you..., because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." (Job 42:7, NIV)

WBC hopes to inspire repentance by disrupting funerals. They have not read, "Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.... Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:17-21, NIV)

WBC has strayed so far from ordinary understanding of the scriptures, it seems reasonable to suppose they may have a human "special" teacher who arrogantly promotes human teaching over the personal responsibility to know God's Word for oneself. This would not be possible if their members truly loved God and His Word with their whole heart and mind. Becoming a "special" teacher or deferring personal understanding about God to one is exactly what Jesus warned against when he said:

"Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels. And they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the seats of honor in the synagogues. They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi.’

“Don’t let anyone call you ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one teacher, and all of you are equal as brothers and sisters. And don’t address anyone here on earth as ‘Father,’ for only God in heaven is your spiritual Father. And don’t let anyone call you ‘Teacher,’ for you have only one teacher, the Messiah. The greatest among you must be a servant. But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted." (Matthew 23:5-12, NIV)

American Jewish Congress http://www.ajcongress.org

Has published video interviews of Hezbollah operatives here, here, and here describing how Hezbollah members and Lebanese civilians conspire to place anti-tank and other missiles in civilian areas, and attack from civilian areas to deliberately sacrifice civilian homes, civilian lives, and children for the Islamic cause by attracting Israeli retaliation.