Christmas Twist

For many years I was against Christmas. I believed that Christmas was really a glossed-over, Christianized pagan sun-worshipping festival, which was abducted by the Roman Catholic Church to keep the pagans happy while usurping control over their lives through religion.

I also believed that Jesus was not born on December 25th and that the Bible never mentions celebrating his birth.

All this stuff, and more, is true. A simple browse of the internet will provide you with all kinds of information about the non-Christian roots of Christmas. It's very interesting.

This used to bother me, but not any more. You see, Christmas is really a triumph of God over Satan. Since the beginning of time Satan has attempted to replace God's plan with his own. He is not a creator so he has become a counterfeiter. He takes things of God and twists them for his own use. He took the animal sacrifices instituted by God to cover man's sins and changed them to human sacrifices; he took music and changed it from a way of worshipping God into a way of worshipping Self.

Satan steals everything God instituted and tries to remake it in his own perverted image. But God turned the tables on him. God took the pagan ceremonies of Saturnalia and other winter solstice rituals and turned them into a celebration of the birth of the Savior who would ultimately destroy Satan and all his works and offer eternal salvation to all who are willing to trust in Him.

God pulled the old switcheroo on old Scratch and turned a pagan festival into a vehicle for spreading the Gospel. So now, instead of worshipping and serving the created thing, people are offering veneration to the Creator. Some don't even realize they're doing it.

Now Satan is trying to take Christ out of Christmas. Again, he will fail.

So, let's celebrate this Christmas with a renewed sense of awe for a God who has power over history and has compassion enough to humble himself and come to us in the form of a helpless baby, to be crucified thirty-three years later for the sins of the world.

O Come All Ye Faithful, Joyful and Triumphant!

Merry Christmas!
-Matt

Two Death Penalty problems:

The death penalty is not unconstitutional, and it does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Whether it is a deterrent or not doesn’t matter. Tookie Williams shot an unarmed person in the back. He is no longer with us, so he, at least, can never commit murder again. But I have two problems with the current death penalty. The first involves the time frames involved. The second is the method.

The time it takes from conviction to execution is way too long. No doubt defendants should have appeal rights, and should have a chance to ask for clemency or even pardon from the governor, but 30 years on death row? He gets to write children’s books? I’ve written children’s books which no publisher has taken; should I get special access to a publisher, or do I have to kill someone to get that privilege? 3 years seems to me long enough.

The method of lethal injection is too easy. The horror and pain and affliction the murderer inflicted on his victims and the loved ones of his victims should be visited on him. This is not torture, this is not cruel. Hanging or the firing squad are many times less cruel than what happened to the victim.

Those who object to the death penalty because they don’t like the government having that authority have a point. If someone is imprisoned unjustly, they can be set free, but if they are executed, they can not be brought back to life. This is a legitimate argument, but two things: 1. If we only execute people when there is absolutely no doubt about the guilt (remember they do have appeal rights), we won’t execute innocent people; 2. The government has a responsibility to protect the law abiding citizen. Harsh punishment for harsh crimes can lead to a safer society.

One thing on the deterrent question: Deterrent statistics are inherently flawed because there is no way to quantify something that doesn’t happen. No one can ever get a number on how many murders didn’t happen because the would-be murderer was afraid of the punishment. The stats are also flawed because when death penalty states are compared to non death penalty states, the length of time between conviction and execution is never factored into the equation.

Tookie has gone to meet his maker. That is a good thing. If his execution never deters a crime, I believe it is because the time frames are too long and the method is too sanitized. Life is precious. I wouldn’t suggest it be taken away lightly, but when someone indiscriminately murders several people, they have forfeited their own life. That's the bottom line.

Happy Friday

I wonder what the weekend news is going emphasize this time. The progress in Iraq cited by Democrat Senator Joe Lieberman, or the 10 Marines killed by terrorist insurgents? The additional 200,000 jobs in November or the GM layoffs? The rising stock market, or "expert" warnings about the future collapse of our economy?

There's plenty of good news out there, along with some bad, so keep an eye out for the spinners this weekend, or better yet, tune out the news, enjoy life and have fun!

Taking a short break from the mainstream news spinners can do wonders for your outlook on life.

-Matt

AIDS DAY?

Don't get mad, but if people really cared about curing AIDS they'd start by acknowledging the truth about it rather than perpetuate politically correct lies in order to advance an agenda.

There's plenty of info on how AIDS really is the "gay plague." Here are just a couple links:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34507


http://utah.indymedia.org/print.php?id=8031

The Bible predicted the AIDS epidemic: Romans 1:27; "Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due."

Don't get mad, get help! http://members.aol.com/DeliverMin/

http://www.geocities.com/wordlover777/classic_tan.html?200516

-Matt