The Decline of a Nation

[lighthouse]

The Decline of a Nation

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http://wwThe first stage moves from bondage to spiritual faith. The second from spiritual faith to great courage. The third stage moves from great courage to liberty. The fourth stage moves from liberty to abundance. The fifth stage moves from abundance to selfishness. The sixth stage moves from selfishness to complacency. The seventh stage moves from complacency to apathy. The eighth stage moves from apathy to moral decay. The ninth stage moves from moral decay to dependence. And the tenth and last stage moves from dependence to bondage.

These are the ten stages through which the great civilizations have gone. Notice the progression from bondage to liberty back to bondage. The first generation throws off the shackles of bondage only to have a later generation through apathy and indifference allow itself to once again be enslaved.


This is the direction this and every other country is headed. The book of Judges shows that the nation of Israel passed through these same stages. And this country will do the same unless revival and reformation break out and reverse the inexorable decline of this nation.
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/decline.html





About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

'A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government'

'A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury'

'From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship'

'The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years'

'During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:



From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence -- back to bondage

[lighthouse]

yes we are in that last stage
and we will get a president that fits
that will indeed sell us down the river

[lighthouse]

Finally, unbelief in God became more complete, parental authority diminished, and ethical and moral principles disappeared, affecting the economy and government. Thus, by internal weakness and fragmentation the societies came apart. There was no way to save them except by a dictator who arose from within or by barbarians who invaded from without.

[lighthouse]

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Although this is an ancient pattern of decline found in Greece and Rome, it is relevant today.

Ideas have consequences, and false ideas can bring down a nation

[lighthouse]

Much of the Old Testament records the history of the nation of Israel. It passed through these same stages and so will every country in the world.


As Christians we must recognize that nations will rise and fall just as individuals will be born and die. Our civilization will not last indefinitely, but will eventually pass off the scene. Only God's Word endures forever. We should not put our trust in the things of this world for they are destined for destruction. Instead, we should put our faith in God and His word.

[lighthouse]

guy odom is one person who did a study on this

we are in that last stage

can we change that
yes

but will we???...


there will be that last president
who will initiate that fall
frankly what scare me
is that i believe we have a candidate
that now fits that to a t
i pray i am wrong

[lighthouse]

Guy Odom, in his book "America’s Man on Horseback,” talks about the 10 generational cycle from bondage to freedom and back to bondage which greatly parallels Tytler’s scenario. Each generation spans 25 years. Odom begins America’s cycle in 1765, the year the patriots first started talking about independence from England. If you move ahead 250 years, you come to the year 2015. Not too far away. Something worthy of our contemplation, me thinks.

[lighthouse]

the last stage is one of dependency
especially on the goverment

[lighthouse]

When delegate Benjamin Franklin left the State House at the end of the convention, curious Philadelphians asked him what kind of a government the convention had created.

Franklin answered, “A republic — if you can keep it.”



British writer and Christian philosopher, G. K. Chesterston:

“I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on men unless they act.”

[lighthouse]

This was a period dominated by youth, but also by an explosion of political and social revolutions that fractured society, and brought about profound changes for everyone. The Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, and the Women's movement dominated national attention. The post war generation known as the "baby boomers" entered college in this period. Because of their numbers, their age is the dominant demographic fact in any period following world war II. In this period, the characteristics were those of youth-- experimentation, revolution, and innovation. Fashions of the period reflected these qualities

An Era of Youth and Change (1963-73)

http://char.txa.cornell.edu/art/dres...m/babyboom.htm
__________________

[lighthouse]

1963 was a hinge year
the beginning of the so called sexual revolution
but another year was 1968

http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/node/681

Any history of 1968 is going to be full of if onlys, what ifs, counterfactuals and might-have-beens. You can construct a zillion parallel universes of what could have happened if a single event had turned out a fraction differently. The reality was astonishing enough. And, as the 40th anniversary approaches, the year continues to maintain a remarkable grip on anyone with a sense of modern history.

[lighthouse]

But what was the point? All year, there was a seemingly endless supply of startling global headlines. However, it is still hard to discern a coherent picture in the mosaic.

The unifying factor is that across the developed world and even beyond, people-specifically the young and most specifically students-challenged established authority. Sometimes they did this violently and sometimes this invited violent consequences. Inevitably, American concerns linked in to everyone else's. The United States was obsessed with the intractable war in Vietnam. And there was a very obvious tipping point.



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For young Americans, so privileged in many respects, the campaign against the war was not some theoretical cause, any more than the black demands for civil rights were. They were subject to conscription, and liable to be shipped out to Vietnam where their contemporaries were dying (at a rate of 300 a week in 1968, compared with nearly 4,000 in all so far in Iraq).

[lighthouse]

The same applies to related social developments: in 1968 most young men still wore pyjamas and white y-fronts, even if they were now readier to take them off; casual drug use slipped only slowly from the avant-garde to the high-school playground; and very long hair for men did not become the norm until the 1970s (all the really serious student revolutionaries I knew in that era kept their hair determinedly short). Social change was far slower than history or selective memory might suggest. But 1968 made it unstoppable.

"In the end, it was a sensational victory," says Felix Dennis, "the hidden victory that set up the 21st century. And on that, the whole Western world floats as it does




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http://www.dateline.ucdavis.edu/dl_detail.lasso?id=7095

It's interesting to show people what the 1960s are about," Ortiz said. "1968 is the moment when everything explodes. It wasn't just hippies touring in painted Volkswagen vans."


People routinely say that the world has changed since 9/11," Stimson said. "The same could be said about 1968. Understanding that change and its historical consequence is useful for understanding our society now and its larger political context."
__________________

[lighthouse]

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http://www.reuters.com/article/world...72695220080215

Youth too lost, scared to rebel say '68 veterans


The 1968 generation wanted to revolutionize society, battle against authoritarianism and demolish what they saw as the old social order. In the United States, demonstrations against the Vietnam War triggered massive peace marches worldwide.


Back then there was the feeling that you had to completely revolutionize society," he said. "With today's movements you don't see that. There are demonstrations, like against the Iraq war, but they are not about revolutionizing society."




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read this one
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...6422-9,00.html

1968 Like a knife blade, the year severed past from future

In 1968, by the Hoffman hypothesis of atomic aging, the world was about 22 years old. The baby-boom generation, not only in America but in much of the rest of the world, grew up not merely in the shadow of the Bomb but also in an envelope of common experiences. Television gave them a collective memory -- of Howdy Doody and Beaver Cleaver, of public events (most vividly and traumatically, the assassination of President John Kennedy). Then, in the mid- and later '60s, the young endlessly enriched and elaborated their culture, through music mainly and through drugs and costume and linguistic style (groovy, far-out, rip-off, bummer, bread, acid head, pigs, narcs, rap, trash). They made a worldwide cultural revolution.

[lighthouse]

The youth of the world's atomic age came to a sort of critical mass in the spring of 1968. Nineteen days after King's assassination, students at Columbia University began occupying five buildings on the campus and held them for almost a week.

The uprising at Columbia was the work of a minority of student radicals. But it was not an aberration. Around the world that year in cities as widely spaced as Paris and Tokyo and Mexico City and Berkeley, students rose in protest and revolt. The spasms of unrest seemed almost psychologically coordinated, as if a mysterious common impulse had swept through the nervous system of a global generation. The theme of the protests, and of the generation, was . . . what? To challenge authority. To change the world. To take possession of the world. To announce itself.


1964 - The Year The Sixties Began

Viewing a transformation that still affects all of us—through the prism of a single year

http://www.americanheritage.com/arti...006_5_32.shtml


These were the days when Tom Matthews, a high school senior in California, could run for class president on the stirring platform “Vote for Tom—He’s a Real Good Guy.” “That’s the way we were,” Matthews later remarked. “… Around my high school, guys were still padding the halls in saddle shoes and humming ‘Sh-boom.’ A nice girl was a virgin who didn’t smoke cigarettes. Ideology? No one even heard of it. There were no issues. We were suspended closer to the Age of Sinatra than the Age of Aquarius.”


If the kids were still loitering in the fifties, so were their parents. In early 1964 people had tremendous faith in their elected officials, their elders, the police, and the Army. Seventy-six percent of respondents to the University of Michigan’s American National Election Study that year believed that they could trust the federal government to do what was right “most of the time” or “just about always.” By the close of the decade barely half of all Americans had faith in their public institutions. But those days of popular cynicism and skepticism still lay in the future.

[lighthouse]

Courtesy of the population bubble that produced 76 million children between 1946 and 1964, a higher birthrate than in any era before or since, young Americans not only represented a larger portion of the general population but also formed a more unified, self-conscious entity.

[lighthouse]

ps always remember
no matter what happens
God is NEVER without a witness

http://jesuspeoplemovement.com/research-3.html

Jesus People: The '60s Intriguing Offspring


Approximately 25(40 now) years ago a most curious social phenomena stunned religious analysts. On the heels of the 1966 “Death of God” pronouncement, a revival broke out among the North American hippie populace. Time magazine reported that Jesus People had taken to the streets and were "embracing the most persistent symbol of purity, selflessness, and brotherly love in the history of Western man." Once again, Jesus was more popular than the Beatles. With fingers pointed to the sky and shouts that “Jesus is Coming,” the ensuing revival spilled over into dozens of countries in its wake and has left a continuing legacy within North American evangelicalism.

The decade of the 1960s was one of transition where the norms and mores of the previous generation were seriously challenged by the young. Civil rights, the brutality of the political assassinations, student protest against the war in Vietnam and the threat of nuclear disaster all added to the increasing tension which spilled over into individual households. Kitchen tables became the ideological battlefields where child and parent clashed. Although regarded as the most affluent and educated group in history, the 'baby-boomers' (those born between 1945 and 1960), rejected the materialistic vision of their parents with the hopes of creating their own utopia. Theodore Roszak dubbed this affront to the status quo the counterculture.

[lighthouse]

The counterculture became a rallying point for youthful protest. Urban pockets of dissident teenagers gathered in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district and Toronto’s Yorkville area to find collective expression. Encouraged by self-proclaimed prophets, the media-dubbed “hippies” were invited to “tune in, turn on and drop out” in submission to the altar of experience and self-introspection. Drugs, eastern mysticism, sex and communal experimentation all pointed to the counterculture's desperate yearn for truth. When introduced to the message of Christ, the response was overwhelming. The ensuing revival spread across the continent like wildfire.

[lighthouse]

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The advent of the Jesus People offered the ultimate rebuttal to God's 1966 obituary. At the very moment when the church was announcing that a post-Christian era would ensue, the Jesus freaks proved that reports of His death were greatly exaggerated. At least one of the “death of God” pundits has recently come forward to “eat a little crow” for his miscalculations. The growth of evangelical churches continues to mystify the experts.

the song of the movement


We are One in The Spirit
Ephesians 4:4
"There is one body, and one Spirit,
even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;"




We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord.
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord.
And we pray that all unity may one day be restored.

Chorus:
And they'll know we are Christians
By our love, by our love,
Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love.
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand.
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand.
And together we'll spread the news that God is in our land.


Chorus:
And they'll know we are Christians
By our love, by our love,
Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love.
We will work with each other, we will work side by side.
We will work with each other, we will work side by side.
And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride.


Chorus:
And they'll know we are Christians
By our love, by our love,
Yes they'll know we are Christians by our love.

[lighthouse]

Imagine that it's now 2013. Illegal immigration, gang warefare, HIV infections, race tiots, rape, murder, inflation, corrupt politicians & foreign terrorism all are 10 times worse than today. Would a future Congress give the President wartime powers to clean up the mess? YES


This deterioration makes a strongman - a "man on horseback" to rein in an out-of-control nation - plausible and perhaps attractive.

[lighthouse]

is obama
our man on horseback?


definition:

man on horseback
n. pl. men on horseback
1. A man, usually a military leader, whose popular influence and power may afford him the position of dictator, as in a time of political crisis.
2. A dictator.





Red sky at night, sailor's delight.
Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning

[CTZonEdit]

I dont believe he is a dictator. He is too weak-willed for that.

He is dangerous. In his beliefs and his associations. The danger is that he speaks in such a way that people will actually believe his rhetoric. As if the speech and his appearences today clarified anything. They didnt. He still has 'respect' for his pastor and Farrakhan for their 'roles' in the black community. Which shows he is fringe in his beliefs. Way in left field.

Then he says things about being part-white and muslim and on and on. He thinks he is everyone/man all roled into one and knows how to relate to everyone. What he has shown himself to be is foolish and no amount of smooth talking is going to save him now as far as I am concerned.

[kay-gee]

Time to do the right thing and get behind Hillary!

all the best...

[CTZonEdit]

Hillary is the fakest candidate ever to run for office. She would say anything and do anything to get there. And has.

She is about as personable and heart-felt as a cardboard box. Everything she says is some over-prepared-talking-point soundbite. Why? Because her past is so tainted she has to manufacture every word for damage control.


During the 1992 campaign, Hillary Clinton defended her role in the Madison Guarantee S&L scandal by saying, "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas. But what I decided to do was pursue my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life."
Forgotten, however, is what inspired this homily: accusations that Ms. Clinton had represented Whitewater business partner Jim McDougal's S&L before her husband's government. Here's what the New York Times reported on March 17, 1992: "Hillary Clinton said today that she did not earn 'a penny' from state business conducted by her Little Rock law firm and that she never intervened with state regulators on behalf of a failed Arkansas savings and loan association. . . "
Records would show that she did, in fact, represent Madison before the state securities department. After the revelation, she says, "For goodness sakes, you can't be a lawyer if you don't represent banks."
Susan McDougal recalled Ms. Clinton coming in and drumming up the business. Ms. McDougal told the Washington Post: "The problem was finances, her finances." The Washington Times quoted an unnamed Clinton business associate who claimed the governor used to "jog over to McDougal's office about once a month to pick up the [retainer] check for his wife."
Jim McDougal's version of the story, according to the LA Times, was that Clinton asked him to throw some legal work his wife's way to help the Clintons out of a financial crunch: "I hired Hillary because Bill came in whimpering that they needed help."
Hillary Clinton wrote Jim McDougal enclosing a power of attorney for him to sign "authorizing me to act on your behalf with respect to matters concerning Whitewater Development Corporation." Another power of attorney was enclosed for Susan McDougal. The power of attorney included the right to endorse, sign and execute "checks, notes, deeds, agreements, certificates, receipts or any other instruments in writing of all matters related to Whitewater Development Corporation."
This letter, uncovered in 1993 by Jerry Seper of the Washington Times, directly contradicted the claim of the Clintons that they were "passive shareholders" in Whitewater.
From a 1996 Chicago Tribune editorial: "The legal issues will sort themselves out in time. But one thing has become all too clear. Bill and Hillary Clinton and their aides have made a concerted effort to deceive official investigators and the American public with half truths and outright lies . . . It's not clear what the Clintons want to conceal, but it's clear that they have made extraordinary efforts to do so."
WHITEWATER
WHAT WHITEWATER WAS ALL about: Almost totally lost in the Clinton saga known as Whitewater is what Whitewater was originally all about. It was basically a land resort scam of the sort that local TV stations win awards for exposing. Here's how it happened:
In the late 1970s, the Clintons and McDougals buy land in the Ozarks with mostly borrowed funds. The Clintons get 50% interest with no cash down. The plot, known as Whitewater, is fifty miles from the nearest grocery store. The Washington Post will report later that some purchasers of lots, many of them retirees, "put up houses or cabins, others slept in vans or tents, hoping to be able to live off the land." HRC writes Jim McDougal, said that "If Reagonomics works at all, Whitewater could become the Western Hemisphere's Mecca." More than half of the purchasers will lose their plots thanks to the sleazy form of financing used. The McDougals will be among a number of close HRC's friends and business associates who will end up in jail..


The sad thing is to you it doesnt matter. You seem to have some long lost rose colored glasses, love affair with the Clinton era and the Clintons. It wouldnt matter what she was running for you'd vote for her.

[Jessie]

all that is left is enslavement as I do not see any turning back from the people at this point.

and it wont be just us, it will be the world as they are in the same condition we are in.

[kay-gee]

It dosent matter much to me personally as I am not an American. I only know one thing with reasonable accuracy, the next president will be a Democrat. I would much rather her than Obama. She already has 8 years of expeience in the office. That kind of experience can go a long way. I want USA to do well, cause when USA does well, we all do well! It's simple economics. Having said all that, If I were an American, I would likely be Republican, as I am a progressive Conservative by ideology.

all the best...

[Chrystalwuzhere]

"When America does well, we all do well."

I know you're talking economically, but think of it...that's the same type of faith our Heavenly Father wants us to have in Him. One huge mistake we make is having faith in our government to provide all of our every need...yet, God wants us to rely on Him for those things. Yes, I get up every day and go to work, yes, I pay my taxes, but my faith is not in this government, or any government for that matter. My faith is in my Heavenly Father.

Why are you such a Hillary fan, kay-gee?

[CoreIssue]

It dosent matter much to me personally as I am not an American. I only know one thing with reasonable accuracy, the next president will be a Democrat. I would much rather her than Obama. She already has 8 years of expeience in the office. That kind of experience can go a long way. I want USA to do well, cause when USA does well, we all do well! It's simple economics. Having said all that, If I were an American, I would likely be Republican, as I am a progressive Conservative by ideology.

all the best...
Exactly what experience? One miserably mishandled bad effort at universal health care?

Her lies are all over the place.

No, I don't care for McCain, but at least he tries to be honest.

[kay-gee]

Why am I a Hillary fan? hmmm let's see. I guess I love to see history made. She would be the first female president in your 232 year history. I think of all the changes to protocol that will go with it. For instance...Would Bill be referred as the first gentleman? Will you call her "madame" president. I believe that a womans touch would do your country some good, as it is no secret, women see things from a different perspective. Women have proven to be very effectve leaders and command respect. For example...Margaret Thatcher. Perhaps I should not be confessing this on a Christian site, but I find pwerful woman extremely attractive. I have a gut feeling that the public is going to punish the Bush Republicans over the Iraq issue. There will be, in all likelihood, a Dem in the whitehouse. I would rather her than Obama. That's all

all the best...

[InTheWind]

If there is any sanity left in this nation McCain will be the next prez. :nod:

[Jessie]

all fantasy KG.

powerful wemon are not nice wemon.

an evil one is much worse than a evil man.

[InTheWind]

A man died and went to Heaven. As he stood in front of the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him. He asked, "What are all those clocks?"

St. Peter answered, "Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on earth has a Lie-Clock. Every time you lie the hands on your clock move."

"Oh", said the man. "Whose clock is that?"

"That's Mother Teresa's", replied St. Peter. "The hands have never moved, indicating that she never told a lie."

"Incredible", said the man. "And whose clock is that one?"

St. Peter responded, "That's Abraham Lincoln's clock. The hands have moved twice, telling us that Abraham told only two lies in his entire life."
"Where's Hillary's clock?" asked the man.
SCROLL DOWN
You'll love this one!





"Hillary's clock is in Jesus' office. He's using it as a ceiling fan."

[kay-gee]

That is a funny one! It is not likely a try at health care would fail this time, as the House is full of Democrats, which was not the case when Bill was in charge. Hillary should be able to free up the grid-lock and actually accomplish some things. I really do believe it's gonna be a Dem prez one way or the other. The last congressional elections sent the message loud and clear.

all the best...

[Jessie]

ohhhh they tried to push the health care then they were the ones who did it.
the people did not want it.

[CoreIssue]

ohhhh they tried to push the health care then they were the ones who did it.
the people did not want it.
Even the Dems realized they could not pretend to pay for it.

[kay-gee]

Gotta see past the propaganda

all the best...

[Jessie]

not propaganda. health care is bad here,
we used to have the best.

not anymore. its gotten to the point going to the dr. for the most part is a waste of time. you just get hit in the pocket book, and they wont do a thing for you.

[kay-gee]

So why is that better than having the doc do nothing for you, but letting the government pay the tab?....D'uh.........LOL

all the best...

[lighthouse]

I Wish We'd All Been Ready
Larry Norman
1 Corinthians 15:51-53

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.



Life was filled with guns and war
And everyone got trampled on the floor.
I wish we'd all been ready.
Children died, the days grew cold,
A piece of bread could buy a bag of gold.
I wish we'd all been ready.
There's no time to change your mind,
The Son has come and you've been left behind.
A man and wife asleep in bed,
She hears a noise, she turns her head, he's gone!
I wish we'd all been ready.
Two men walking up a hill,
One disappears and one's left standing still.
I wish we'd all been ready.
There's no time to change your mind,
The Son has come and you've been left behind.

There's no time to change your mind.
How could you have been so blind?
The Father spoke, the demons dined,
The Son has come and you've been left behind.
You've been left behind
You've been left behind!

[lighthouse]

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

[lighthouse]

in the 60's the music
talked to you
it was called folk music
it was a story of what was going on
i feel this following song fits today


If I had a hammer
I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening ... all over this land,
I'd hammer out danger
I'd hammer out a warning
I'd hammer out love between all of my brothers and my sisters
All over this land.

[lighthouse]

Only Visiting This Planet
by Larry Norman



Lyrics:

Some say he was an outlaw, that he roamed across the land,
With a band of unschooled ruffians and few old fishermen,
No one knew just where he came from, or exactly what he'd done,
But they said it must be something bad that kept him on the run.

Some say he was a poet, that he'd stand upon the hill
That his voice could calm an angry crowd and make the waves stand still,
That he spoke in many parables that few could understand,
But the people sat for hours just to listen to this man.

Some say a politician who spoke of being free,
He was followed by the masses on the shores of Galilee,
He spoke out against corruption and he bowed to no decree,
And they feared his strength and power so they nailed him to a tree.

Some say he was a sorcerer, a man of mystery,
He could walk upon the water, he could make a blind man see,
That he conjured wine at weddings and did tricks with fish and bread,
That he talked of being born again and raised people from the dead.

Some say he was the Son of God, a man above all men,
That he came to be a servant and to set us free from sin,
And that's who I believe he is cause that's what I believe,
And I think we should get ready cause it's time for us to leave.

ps larry norman went home to be with the Lord 02/2008

[lighthouse]

http://www.ourcivilisation.com/theend.htm

The fact that the Americans refrain from killing their enemies does not mean that their enemies will refrain from killing them, as America was recently reminded. On September 11, 2001, around 3,000 people were murdered in a barbarian raid upon the USA, when the fanatical followers of an Islamic sect deliberately crashed hi-jacked passenger planes into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

The Barbarians Are Coming—With A New Dark Age
The World Trade Centre attack is confirmation of Arnold Toynbee's claim that the decline of a civilization means the appearance of Barbarian war-bands. And it is clear that, in one way or another, it is only a matter of time before the increasing senility of the countries that make up the Western world, will see them succumb to invaders. The result will be the final extinction of Western Civilization, along with its wealth and power, and a return to the Dark Ages: a time when there is no human community anywhere that is sane.



The French Revolution was not a protest against tyranny, but against authority. It marked the time when Authority stopped being the master and started being the servant of its charges. Which was a choice to abandon sense—sensible rule where parents rule children—with nonsense—the rule by popular whim where children rule parents.

Rule By Democracy Is Decline
Being ruled by the occasional will of the people, which is democracy, is to replace the rule of wisdom with the rule of wishes, and inevitably obtain social decline.


http://www.ourcivilisation.com/french.htm

[lighthouse]

Corruption Progresses a Generation at a Time
The corruption of tradition progresses a generation at a time, with each succeeding wave of offspring corrupting more tradition, which in turn means showing less restraint and thus less understanding than the last generation

http://www.ourcivilisation.com/decline.htm


Or as the ancient Roman poet Horace (BC 65-8) said:

"Our parents, worse than our grandparents, gave birth to us who are worse than they,
and we shall in our turn bear offspring still more evil."

And the result is a community growing ever more demented and impotent







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http://www.ourcivilisation.com/diagnose.htm

3. Determine if the community is discarding traditional morality, a condition immediately marked by the disappearance of manners, which themselves are dictated by morality. Politeness is a prerequisite for public order, which is why it is constantly refined by the improving understanding of a waxing community. The opposite result is documented by Edward Gibbon in his work "The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire", which reveals the decline of the Roman empire was paralleled by a decline in the morality of its citizens.

[lighthouse]

Corruption Progresses a Generation at a Time
The corruption of tradition progresses a generation at a time, with each succeeding wave of offspring corrupting more tradition, which in turn means showing less restraint and thus less understanding than the last generation

http://www.ourcivilisation.com/decline.htm


Or as the ancient Roman poet Horace (BC 65-8) said:

"Our parents, worse than our grandparents, gave birth to us who are worse than they,
and we shall in our turn bear offspring still more evil."

And the result is a community growing ever more demented and impotent







--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.ourcivilisation.com/diagnose.htm

3. Determine if the community is discarding traditional morality, a condition immediately marked by the disappearance of manners, which themselves are dictated by morality. Politeness is a prerequisite for public order, which is why it is constantly refined by the improving understanding of a waxing community. The opposite result is documented by Edward Gibbon in his work "The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire", which reveals the decline of the Roman empire was paralleled by a decline in the morality of its citizens.

[lighthouse]

5. Consider the community's general attitude to truth; a civilization rises because it pursues truth, it falls when it suppresses truth

6. Consider the attitude of children towards their parents. When a civilization is waxing progeny revere their parents whom they dare not disobey, but when a civilization is waning it is the parents who revere their children whom they fear to upset—see the law of reverse civilization.



When a civilization declines it goes into reverse with all the wealth, power and wisdom realised by its rise being discarded at an ever increasing rate until dissolution.
2. The essential requirements of:

i. Peace will be disturbed by increasing interruptions of:

• Noise.
• Indecency (see f-word and loss of shame)
• Violence from within and from without the community
http://www.ourcivilisation.com/whycare.htm
__________________




1. Growing Communal Dementia is because of increasing public confusion as a result of the widespread abandonment of the community's founding morality along with its associated beliefs, which are the wisdom of society.

2. Faltering Communal Strength is a direct result of the growth of selfishness among its citizens, for a community's strength is built upon its members' willingness to make private sacrifice for the common good.


1. Wisdom cannot be restored because it has to be founded upon a morality, which no longer exists. And inspiring a people with a morality can only be the accidental work of events because it must precede understanding. This means that just as a man cannot choose his morality nor can a community, so once lost a morality can never be regained.

2. Strength cannot be restored because it needs a pool of unselfish citizens who no longer exist, and it is impossible to change the existing selfish into unselfish people.
http://www.ourcivilisation.com/cure.htm
__________________

[lighthouse]

Our civilization has been declining since the late Eighteenth century (see "A Study Of History" by Professor Arnold Toynbee), which means that since then the majority of citizens of western civilization have been selfish — for selfishness is the influence that rejects moral restraint, along with its associated beliefs. In place of the guide of tradition the selfish rely upon feelings to recognise right from wrong and fact from fancy. Now, after more than two centuries of discarding and reversing traditions, most citizens are fools who can neither tell right from wrong nor fact from fancy.



"So long as the young generation is, and continues to be, well brought up, our ship of state will have a fair voyage; otherwise the consequences are better left unspoken."—Plato, Laws


Decline is inevitable because the reversal of authority has an immediate and crucial impact on the process by which a community constantly renews itself — the way it rears its children.


A Community
Waxes
When parents demand respect from their children
Wanes
When parents seek the approval of their children





What Is Political Correctness?
Political Correctness (PC) is the communal tyranny that erupted in the 1980s. It was a spontaneous declaration that particular ideas, expressions and behaviour, which were then legal, should be forbidden by law, and people who transgressed should be punished. (see Newspeak) It started with a few voices but grew in popularity until it became unwritten and written law within the community. With those who were publicly declared as being not politically correct becoming the object of persecution by the mob, if not prosecution by the state.


http://www.ourcivilisation.com/pc.htm

[lighthouse]

"But the emergence of Hitler, the conditions for his rise and his triumph, depended on circumstances far beyond the narrower framework of conditions in Germany. We need not mention Versailles, nor Munich, nor Moscow. We may confine ourselves to the common inner characteristics of which these and countless other comparable stages on the road were only symptoms: The turning away of almost all European powers from reason and realism; the disenchantment with traditional values and ethical standards, accompanied by a lack of will to defend any moral and legal principles whatever; a short sighted striving for advantage and security as well as, in particular, a susceptibility to illusion —the fatal characteristic of the epoch." —J.C. Fest 'The Face Of The Third Reich'.

[lighthouse]

European Reason Failing In The 1930s
These sentiments not only applied to the European governments leading up to the Second World War, but naturally to the people they represented. The very rise of the Third Reich is the story of a Nation losing sense, for the people who flocked to the Nazi rallies demonstrated a complete and utter disregard for reason and morality. Nazism was never a concept, but a series of promises and slogans that were merely irrational excuses to indulge in prejudice and wishful thinking. The population of Nazi Germany had decided to give control of their actions to their feelings, rather than their intelligence.


http://www.ourcivilisation.com/signs/chap9.htm

[lighthouse]

The Importance Of Religion
Naturally distinguishing good from evil is crucial for any community which is why religion is the foundation of a community, because that is the concern of religion. It is the church's prerogative to tell citizens what behaviour is good, or virtuous, and what is sinful, or evil. The church's commandments are presented as divine instructions on how to avoid a private eternity in hell after death, but are in fact practical directions for the best way for citizens to improve their life. By being good, individuals are improving the lot of their society and so improving their own and everyone else's life. While being sinful (evil), does not just threaten the well being of their souls but the well being of their community and hence themselves. (See the example of marriage).

The Decline Of A Community Is Its Descent Into Evil
All the institutions, customs and manners that make up the tradition of a community are inspired by its communal understanding, which in turn is guided by its recognition of good from evil. So a society that is extending and refining its traditions is extending its ability to distinguish good from evil, and prospering. While a community that is corrupting its traditions — discarding, or reversing the nature of, its manners, customs and institutions— is not only losing wisdom and facing dissolution, but it is embracing evil.

http://www.ourcivilisation.com/moral2/moral8.htm
__________________

[lighthouse]

The dissolution of society is clearly described in that part of the work headed "The Disintegration Of Civilizations". Professor Arnold Toynbee's scholarly treatise, based upon consideration of numerous civilizations, sets out the symptoms and prognosis of our condition, and it leaves no doubt that our society is disintegrating.

[lighthouse]

Chaotic 1968 changed America forever
http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live...U.html?sid=101

"It was a calamitous year," said former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, now a professor of public policy at the University of California-Berkeley. "Anyone who looks back on that year with nostalgia doesn't remember how awful and frightening it was."

It was a "year of total turmoil," said Jules Witcover, the syndicated columnist who wrote a book on Kennedy's final campaign. Vietnam, the sexual revolution, political upheaval and the struggle for civil rights "came together to create a fervor in the country," he said.


http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/insight/stories/2008/03/30/1968.ART_ART_03-30-08_G1_JL9OP2U.html?sid=101

[lighthouse]

Kennedy clearly sensed the yearning for change among younger voters and blacks
With his hair flopping over his ears and eyes, the 42-year-old offered an imposing blend of youthful determination while harkening back to the glamour of President John Kennedy's time

Humphrey had the delegates, but Kennedy had the passionate support of frenzied crowds rarely seen in American politics.


, Kennedy said it was clear "that we can work together in the last analysis and that what's been going on within the United States during the period of the last three years -- the divisions, the violence, the disenchantment with our society ... that we can start to work together."

He left the ballroom through a kitchen. Sirhan Sirhan fired his .22-caliber pistol. One shot struck Kennedy in the head. Later that morning, he was dead.

Two months later, Democrats turned on each other and nominated Johnson's handpicked successor, Humphrey.

[lighthouse]

Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler and Robin Moore,
Fighting soldiers from the sky
Fearless men who jump and die
Men who mean just what they say
The brave men of the Green Beret

Silver wings upon their chest
These are men, America's best
One hundred men will test today
But only three win the Green Beret

Trained to live off nature's land
Trained in combat, hand-to-hand
Men who fight by night and day
Courage peak from the Green Berets

Silver wings upon their chest
These are men, America's best
One hundred men will test today
But only three win the Green Beret

Back at home a young wife waits
Her Green Beret has met his fate
He has died for those oppressed
Leaving her his last request

Put silver wings on my son's chest
Make him one of America's best
He'll be a man they'll test one day
Have him win the Green Beret.

[lighthouse]

Thus Arnold Toynbee could rightly say, “Civilizations die from suicide, not murder.”

Toynbee, a British historian (1889-1975), is most famous for his magisterial A Study of History, 1934-1961. In this 12-volume work he examined the rise and fall of nations.

One of his more significant remarks is worth recalling: “Of the twenty-two civilizations that have appeared in history, nineteen of them collapsed when they reached the moral state the United States is in now.” Given that this is now a dated comment, how much more true is it today?

Other historians have of course remarked on the suicidal tendencies of nations. Will Durant (1885-1981), an American historian, made this observation: “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within. The essential causes of Rome’s decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming wars.”


http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2006/07/07/when-nations-collapse/

[lighthouse]

Lord Macaulay (1800-1859), the English writer and historian, made a similar observation about the fate of democracies. He said that the average age of the world’s greatest democratic nations has been 200 years. Each has been through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith.
From faith to great courage.
From courage to liberty.
From liberty to abundance.
From abundance to complacency.
From complacency to selfishness.
From selfishness to apathy.
From apathy to dependency.
And from dependency back again into bondage.

(A letter from Lord Macaulay to an American friend, May 23, 1857)

The questions of course that arise are these: Where are we in this progression? How far along are we on the road to decay? Can we escape this fate?

[lighthouse]

Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927-2003) wrote an important essay by this title in 1993. In it he decried the moral collapse in the West, and the way we try to cope with it. He wrote: “The amount of deviant behavior in American society has increased beyond the levels the community can ‘afford to recognize’ and that, accordingly, we have been redefining deviancy so as to except much conduct previously stigmatized, and also quietly raising the ‘normal’ level in categories where behavior is now abnormal by any earlier standard.”


He rightly noted that the saturation of evil is becoming so complete that the only way we can cope is to redefine it


“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20)

[lighthouse]

Our moral decline is directly connected to our rejection of God. Will Durant offered this insight: “There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion.”


Will Durant concurs: “From barbarism to civilization requires a century; from civilization to barbarism needs but a day”

[lighthouse]

Indeed, the bottom line is this: Society is in a mess because the church is in a mess. And the church is in a mess because you and I are in a mess. We need to get back to our first love. We need to stop our trivial pursuits. We need to realise that we are here for a purpose, and the purpose of our existence does not revolve around ourselves, but around someone who gave his very life for all of us. We can do no less for him.

[lighthouse]

In the end, we must agree with Toynbee: “Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God.”


The question is, how will we respond?

[lighthouse]

Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the flowers gone?
Girls have picked them every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young girls gone?
Taken husbands every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the young men gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young men gone?
Gone for soldiers every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Covered with flowers every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

[lighthouse]

When Nations Collapse
A lot of thought has gone into human mortality, and how we can prolong life. Less thought has gone into the question of why nations die. But nations, like people, do have a beginning, and do have an end. Thus it is worth looking at the questions of how and why nations collapse.
http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2006/...ions-collapse/


How did this happen?

There is a long answer which we cannot go into here. We could look at the Enlightenment and its impact. Or more recently, the counter-culture of the sixties. But we can provide a short answer: The past century has been one grand social experiment to see what life is like when we reject God. (And the results are in!)

We have tried to live as if there is no God, and we are now reaping the whirlwind.

One modern prophet who shares this view is the former Russian gulag prisoner, Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He has written much on this theme. His assessment is simple yet profound: “It is because we have forgotten God. That is why all this is happening to us.”

Our moral decline is directly connected to our rejection of God. Will Durant offered this insight: “There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion.”



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We have tried to live as if there is no God, and we are now reaping the whirlwind.

Our moral decline is directly connected to our rejection of God. Will Durant offered this insight: “There is no significant example in history, before our time, of a society successfully maintaining moral life without the aid of religion.”


Another important voice in this regard is TS Eliot (1888–1965). The American-British poet and critic wrote an important volume in 1948 entitled, Notes Towards the Definition of Culture. His thoughts are well worth recalling:

“If Christianity goes, the whole of our culture goes. Then you must start painfully again, and you cannot put on a new culture ready made. You must wait for the grass to grow to feed the sheep to give the wool out of which your new coat will be made. You must pass through many centuries of barbarism. We should not live to see the new culture, nor would our great-great-great-grandchildren: and if we did, not one of us would be happy in it.”



Indeed, the bottom line is this: Society is in a mess because the church is in a mess. And the church is in a mess because you and I are in a mess. We need to get back to our first love. We need to stop our trivial pursuits. We need to realise that we are here for a purpose, and the purpose of our existence does not revolve around ourselves, but around someone who gave his very life for all of us. We can do no less for him.

Thus we need to get back to basics. And we need to seek forgiveness for losing the plot. As we were reminded so long ago: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

[lighthouse]

We live in an age where virtues have become vices, and vices have become virtues. What most societies shuttered at just decades ago is now paraded and promoted, especially by popular culture. And the old virtues, like faithfulness in marriage, truth-telling, humility and concern for others, are now mocked and derided as hopelessly out of date.

http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2004/...by-aj-conyers/
__________________

[lighthouse]

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There is one word that is heard constantly and incessantly: “tolerance”.




In the past, you tolerated someone, treated them with respect, even though you might violently disagree with their beliefs or their lifestyle. Today, to tolerate someone means you must also embrace their philosophy, their worldview, their lifestyle. That is a big difference.


The modern doctrine of toleration promotes isolation, but the practice of real toleration pushes us gently to community. Thus we need to reclaim the lost tradition of real tolerance. The modern hijacking of the concept has served the interests of those seeking economic and political power, but has not been a panacea to the struggling masses

[lighthouse]

"When evening comes, you say, `It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,' and in the morning, `Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” (Matthew 16:2)
__________________

[lighthouse]

Nations rise and nations fall. Every nation has followed this progression from bondage to bondage. The nations of this century will be no different. But let us not accept the Marxist notion that these are fixed and intractable laws of history. Christians can point to unusual times when revival has redirected the inexorable decline of a civilization. In the Old Testament, Jonah saw revival postpone God's judgment of Nineveh. In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther and John Calvin saw a Protestant Reformation transform Europe. And even in the history of the United States the First and Second Great Awakenings changed individuals and our society.


But apart from God's intervention, nations will decline and eventually pass off the scene. Much of the Old Testament records the history of the nation of Israel. It passed through these same stages and so will every country in the world.


http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/decline.html

History has shown that the average age of the great civilizations is around two hundred years. Countries like Great Britain exceed the average while other countries like the United States are just now reaching the average age.


Each of the great civilizations in the world passed through a series of stages from their birth to their decline to their death. Historians have listed these in ten stages

[lighthouse]

In his book Our Dance Has Turned to Death, Carl Wilson identifies the common pattern of family decline in ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. Notice how these seven stages parallel what is happening in our nation today.

In the first stage, men ceased to lead their families in worship. Spiritual and moral development became secondary


In the second stage, men selfishly neglected care of their wives and children to pursue material wealth, political and military power, and cultural development.

The third stage involved a change in men's sexual values

The fourth stage affected women. The role of women at home and with children lost value and status.

In the fifth stage, husbands and wives competed against each other for money, home leadership, and the affection of their children.

In the sixth stage, selfish individualism grew and carried over into society, fragmenting it into smaller and smaller group loyalties. The nation was thus weakened by internal conflict

Finally, unbelief in God became more complete, parental authority diminished, and ethical and moral principles disappeared, affecting the economy and government

[lighthouse]

Although this is an ancient pattern of decline found in Greece and Rome, it is relevant today. Families are the foundation of a nation. When the family crumbles, the nation falls because nations are built upon family units. They are the true driving social force. A nation will not be strong unless the family is strong. That was true in the ancient world and it is true today.






Carl F. H. Henry, in his book Twilight of a Great Civilization, says:



There is a new barbarism. This barbarism has embraced a new pagan mentality . . . not simply rejecting the legacy of the West, but embracing a new pagan mentality where there is no fixed truth.
Today we live in a world where biblical absolutes are ignored, and unless we return to these biblical truths, our nation will continue to decline.



Historians have listed the stages in the decline of a nation. These should not be too surprising to any student of the Old Testament. The stages of decline parallel the stages through which the nation of Israel passed.

[lighthouse]

In fact, Romans 1 shows the decline of a civilization from a societal perspective. Looking at the Hellenistic world of his time, he reflects on the progression of sin in a nation.


The first stage is when people turn from God to idolatry.


The second stage is when men and women exchange their natural use of sex for unnatural uses
In a society where lust- driven sensuality and sexual perversion dominate, God gives them over to their degrading passions and unnatural desires.



The third stage is anarchy. Once a society has rejected God's revelation, it is on its own.


The final stage is judgment.


Notice that this progression is not unique to the Hellenistic world the Apostle Paul was living in. The progression from idolatry to sexual perversion to anarchy to judgment is found throughout history.





This progression happened throughout the Bible and to Greece, to Persia, to Babylon, and to Rome. And if it happened to these nations, then it can happen today.Unless we return to God's principles, decline and destruction are inevitable.

[lighthouse]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Imagine that it's now 2013. Illegal immigration, gang warefare, HIV infections, race riots, rape, murder, inflation, corrupt politicians & foreign terrorism all are 10 times worse than today. Would a future Congress give the President wartime powers to clean up the mess? YES.

obama???

[lighthouse]

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http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/ess...raldecline.htm

America's Moral Decline


From her earliest days, America existed as a Christian nation. Perhaps this was due to the fact that most of her first settlers came for the purpose of being free to express their Christian beliefs in accordance with their own consciences. Yet it is undeniable that America has changed greatly since that time, forsaking moral values, and grower colder and colder towards Christianity. Throughout the centuries, there have been many events which have been turning points of decline, decline which has occurred in mainly the churches and schools of America.



Perhaps one of the first major turning points of decline occurred in the church. Before 1662, in order to be a full-active member of a Congregational (Puritan) church, one was required to provide a testimony of their salvation before becoming a member who was allowed to take communion, be baptized, and vote


Three men that lived and worked in the nineteenth century would have a profoundly detrimental effect on America; Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, and Julius Wellhausen.

In 1963, prayer was removed from schools in yet another attempt to rid America of any reference to God.6 President Ronald Reagan recognized the danger of this act when he said:

“Our Pledge of Allegiance states that we are ‘one nation under God,’ and our currency bears the motto, ‘In God We Trust.’ The morality and values such faith implies are deeply embedded in our national character. Our country embraces those principles by design, and we abandon them at our peril. Yet in recent years . . . Americans . . . [have] for the sake of religious tolerance . . . forbidden religious practice in the classrooms. The law of this land has effectively removed prayer from our classrooms. How can we hope to retain our freedom through the generations if we fail to teach our young that our liberty springs from an abiding faith in our Creator?”


Thus, another declining step was made as America's citizens began to accept the beliefs of others as equal truths. Toleration lead to the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973

[lighthouse]

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In conclusion, it is interesting to note that early Americans were facing a land of emptiness; their future and all their well-being held no security. Therefore, these people recognized their daily need for God, and their circumstances kept them dependent on Him. However, we may note that as America grew more established and economically stable, her people began to forsake God, not recognizing their constant need for Him. The words of Jesus ring true, as he stated that "And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."10 More importantly, they began to disregard their need for a Savior, and turned away from God. Now religion is yet another thing that people may seek to make themselves happy, and thus is may be pursued in any way shape or form. Scripture makes it quite clear what must be done to reverse the tide of evil, yet many Christians wonder why America is in such a dire situation, while at the same time disregarding God's admonition. "If My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, the I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

[lighthouse]

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.


Pastor Martin Niemöller







Original Translation
Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.

Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.

Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.

Als sie die Juden holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Jude.

Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.


When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

[lighthouse]

"First they came…" is a poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.


An early supporter of Hitler, by 1934 Niemöller had come to oppose the Nazis, and it was largely his high connections to influential and wealthy businessmen that saved him until 1937, after which he was imprisoned, eventually at Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps. He survived to be a leading voice of penance and reconciliation for the German people after World War II. His poem is well-known, frequently quoted, and is a popular model for describing the dangers of political apathy, as it often begins with specific and targeted fear and hatred which soon escalates out of control.

[lighthouse]

sailors WARNING!!
RED SKY IN THE MORNING!!

[CoreIssue]

Warning indeed.

Can this nation be woken up? I wonder.

[CTZonEdit]

Not until elected officials start doing what is right instead of what is popular.

[Jessie]

well, oregon has selected obama.

you know it would be nice to have elected officials do whats right, but
they never will. the people have a leader just as corrupt as themselves.

I see a lot of this in familys.
where one cant speak truth, it might hurt someones feelings...
and those who have done this are very willful.
and this is the generation of my grandparents filtering down.

cant be honest, so I think PC started there and of course now its everywhere!

what a mess, and a bigger mess is coming! sadly.

[lighthouse]

sigh..... and so it begins
http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?f...w&pageId=65111
In a grilling of oil executives by a House panel yesterday, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., threatened to nationalize the industry if it didn't do something about the rising prices at the pump.

A report by Fox News, captured in a clip posted on YouTube.com, showed Waters challenging the president of Shell Oil, John Hofmeister, to guarantee the prices consumers pay will go down if the oil companies are allowed to drill wherever they want off of U.S. shores.
"Would be about, basically, taking over, and the government running all of your companies. …"

The oil executives responded, according to Fox News, by saying they've seen this before, in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.

[InTheWind]

Wow. :swoon:

[CoreIssue]

I saw the FOX report. She knew she blew it the second 'socialize' came out of her mouth.

That is where her ilk are, socialism, pure and simple, with them as the ruling council.

[lighthouse]

so very sad

[lighthouse]

so we come full circle
Father come get your children!!!!!

[CoreIssue]

Agree! :nod:

[lighthouse]

Jeremiah 18:
7 *At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
8 *If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
9 *And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10 *If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them

[CoreIssue]

Jeremiah 18:
7 *At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
8 *If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
9 *And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10 *If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them
We are at that time on a world scale.