I just returned home from the Baptist History Tour sponsored by Jeff Faggart. We had thirty men who went on the trip, most of whom were preachers and many of these were pastors. We were greatly blessed during the trip in many ways and I may be able to speak of some of these blessings later. However, the trip also seemed to be a lesson in the battles and even the failures experienced in the ministry. Many of these problems revealed themselves as current events and not history.
According the the "Wall Street Journal" of May 1, 2006, the historian Bernard Lewis wrote: "Make no mistake, those who are unwilling to confront the past will be unable to understand the present and unfit to face the future." God's people must renew their interest in history; especially their own history.
According to the May 13-14, 2006, edition of the "Wall Street Journal," more and more children are getting something for themselves for Mother's Day. That's right. One son removed a tatoo that neither he nor his mother liked for his Mother's Day gift. Some are starting therapy or sitting down with a financial planner and calling it a Mother's Day present. Others are buying themselves phones so their mother can reach them. This the age when "men shall be lovers of their own selves" (2Timothy 3:2). This is just another example of our new age of narcissism.
An article in the May 12, 2006, edition of the "Wall Street Journal" reviews a couple of television programs dealing with reproductive technology that show how this technology is presently being used. Prospective parents are coming to the United States to choose sperm and eggs according to the donor's appearance, intelligence, ability in sports, music or other areas of interest. Many are coming from nations that do not allow the level of eugenics offered in the "land of the free." Others who cannot travel to America are turning in orders over the internet. The most popular choice is for blond, blue-eyed white children. Surrogates often have the children for them. One surrogate said of the babies she bears for income stated, "It may sound heartless, but I don't get attached." At some point, God will again look upon mankind as He did at the Tower of Babel and say, "and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do" (Genesis 11:6). At the Tower of Babel, He confounded their languages. We may wonder what He will do to end this renewal of a eugenics program that would have been envied by Adolf Hitler and his compatriots.
In the classic film, "The Ten Commandments," Pharaoh watched his army, chariots and all, suffer complete destruction in the Red Sea after the children of Israel safely cross over. But is this the case? No, it is not. Although the text in Exodus 14:17-18 sounds like Pharaoh died there, we have more absolute proof in the Psalms. Paslm 136:15 states, "But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea: for his mercy endureth for ever." Pharaoh died with his army in the Red Sea. To parapharse Romans 3:4, let God be true and every movie be wrong.
