Alcohol prohibition.

In almost all countries in the world, adults are allowed to buy and consume alcohol with very little restriction (although there are often laws about the exact hours that bars and shops are allowed to sell alcohol, and laws against drinking and driving). This is in marked contrast to the legal situation with regard to other mind-altering (or ‘psycho-active’) drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, acid, and heroin. However, the experience of ‘Prohibition’ in the USA in the 1920s and 1930s, when there was a huge black market in alcohol run by a powerful criminal underworld, makes most people very wary of trying that solution again. What balance should be struck between the need to protect society on the one hand and the need to preserve individual liberties on the other.

Alcohol is just as potentially addictive as many illegal drugs. Those who do become addicted to alcohol often lose their marriages, jobs, families, even their lives. A large proportion of homeless people find themselves in that position as a result of their alcoholism. Any drug this addictive and destructive should be illegal.

Alcohol is a contributory factor to a huge proportion of crimes. Exact figures vary from country to country, but in many countries alcohol is a contributory factor in 60-70% of violent crimes, including child abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, and murder. Alcohol is far and away the leading cause of public disorder, street fights, etc. In short, alcohol is one of the prime causes of violence and crime in modern society, and its banning would reduce the incidence of these crimes at a strike.

Despite the fact that advertising campaigns such as those run in the UK over the past 30 years have been successful in reducing the incidence of drink driving, this success has not been mirrored in all countries. And even where it has, deaths and serious injuries caused by drunk drivers still run to the thousands each year. This is an unacceptable situation - alcohol should simply be banned.

We need consistency in our drug laws. If cannabis, which is not very addictive and which results in virtually no violent crime or public disorder, needs to be banned because of its mind-altering effects, then how much more so should alcohol be banned.

It is true that currently thousands of people are employed by the alcoholic drinks industry. However the fact that an immoral industry employs a lot of people is never a good argument to keep that immoral industry going (similar arguments apply to the cases of prostitution, arms dealing, fox hunting, battery farming, etc.) Instead, a gradual process would have to be implemented, which would include governments providing funding for training for alternative careers.

It is also true that tax revenues would be lost if alcohol were banned. However, again, this is not a principled reason to reject the proposition, simply a practical problem. It should be pointed out that governments would save a huge amount of money on police and health spending (through the reduction in crime and alcohol-related illness) which would go at least some of the way to offsetting the decreased tax revenues.

Are we selfish or what?

Now, I know its not our fault that many of us are born into countries that are well off. We complain about the price of things, but we all have TVs, DVD players and cars. We all have food in our cupboard and water in the tap.

I received an email today that had some very disturbing photo's. I saw this at work and am not ashamed to say that it really nearly made me cry. Not only does it make me appreciate what I do have, it makes meel feel ashamed that I do so little to help these people.









This last photo was the worst for me. Poor little kid, struggling for life. I dont know whether the comments on the picture are true, I was shocked to read that the guy who took the photo just left the kid there. (*Edit: Actually, I have googled this story now and the guy chased away the vultures and the kid got up and continued his journey. I would have gone and carried him the rest of the way if it was me...)

So. Why aren't we doing more to help these kids? There are many aid organisations out there. Go sponsor a child, its just a dollar a day (or is it $1.20 now?). Whats that? A couple of packs of smokes? a box or two of beer a month...

They do with out. Cant we put ourselves out more? I know I can.

Catholic Dog?

A Catholic Pastor decided to get a new dog. Ever mindful of his congregation, he felt the dog must also be a Catholic. He visited kennel after kennel and explained his needs. Finally, he found a kennel whose owner assured him he had just the dog he wanted. The owner brought the dog in to meet the Pastor.

"Fetch the Bible," he commanded. The dog bounded to the bookshelf, scrutinized the books, located the Bible, and brought it to the owner.

"Now find Psalm 23," he commanded. The dog dropped the Bible to the floor, and showing marvelous dexterity with his paws, leafed through and finding the correct passage, pointed to it with his paw. The Pastor was very impressed and purchased the dog.

That evening, a group of church members came to visit.
The Pastor began to show off the dog, having him locate several Bible verses. The visitors were very impressed. One man asked, "Can he do regular dog tricks, too?"

"I haven't tried yet," the Pastor replied.
He pointed his finger at the dog.

"HEEL!" the Pastor commanded. The dog immediately jumped on a chair, placed one paw on the Pastor's forehead and began to howl.

The Pastor looked at the church members in shock and said, "Good Lord! He's Pentecostal !

Where oh where art though oh Witnesses of Jehova?

Well, much to my disappointment, the JW's didn’t turn up this Saturday. I had actually spent a little time preparing for their arrival, researching what they believe and seeing if it adds up to what I can read and understand from the bible. I use NIV version as I find it is easy to understand and accurate.

Now, here are some of the things I was going to go through with the JW's.

I found that their little booklet ("What does the bible really teach") to be well put together and, as I have mentioned previously, on the money for much of what they say. I found that it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling about the whole God, Jesus, death, and judgment thing. They seem
to be saying that everyone will be resurrected and will live in paradise, the good and the bad, and that there will be 144,000 that will live in heaven and be princes and kings and rulers..or some such. What became glaringly obvious to me after a while was that there is no sense
of Gods justice in their booklet. They focus only on Gods loving nature, but God is also a God of justice.

2 Peter 3:9
9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

1 Timothy 2:4
4who wants all men to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.

Romans 2:4-11
4Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?

5But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6God "will give to each person according to what he has done."[a]
7To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10but glory, honour and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11For God does not show favouritism.

Footnotes:

Romans 2:6 Psalm 62:12; Prov. 24:12

Now as you can see by these few passage, yes, God is a loving God, however, for those that do not follow the path of righteousness "there will be wrath and anger", "there will be trouble and distress". Seems pretty obvious to me. The unholy will suffer damnation. For anything else to happen would only mean that God (and Jesus) are liars..and somehow, I dont think so.

Titus 1:2
2a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time,

Hebrews 6:18
18God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.

This also brings me back to Ecc 9:5-10. The JW's have read this passage to mean that when you die. You are dead. Period. There is no life after death in the spirit world, you a dead. However, as I ponted out previously, the tale of Lazarus and the rich man appears to be an actual account of something that has happened, rather than a parable, even then, if was just a parable, well, not even a parable teaches error. I would like to point out also, that in parables you are never given
personal details such as names. It is always "a farmer", "a poor woman", "a frog", "a duck", not "this happened to Lazarus the poor man"...get my drift? So, if the tale of Lazarus and the rich man is a true account, which it must be, then there is "life" after death. The bible is all too
clear to miss the point; eternal punishment awaits the wicked after this life.

Ecc 9:5-10 is looking at death from the livings perspective. The dead do not know what happens here anymore. They have no input to the world of the living, no knowledge of what is happening here. They know what is happening to them in hades, that is for sure.

Revelation 14:9-12
9A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, 10he, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever.
There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name." 12This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.

Revelation 20:10
10And the evil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

Mark 9:48
48where
" 'their worm does not die,
and the fire is not quenched.'[a]

Footnotes:

Mark 9:48 Isaiah 66:24

Matthew 25:41-46
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

I would also like to comment on the JW’s position on hell, or Hades. The paint a picture, once again, that Hades is nothing more than the grave, rather than a place where the dead go to. I think a simple look at Luke 16:23 really does answer that argument.

Luke 16:23
23In hell,[a] where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.

Footnotes:

Luke 16:23 Greek Hades

There is also the matter of the JW’s and the 2nd coming of Christ. Apparently he came in 1914. Nice of him wasn’t it..oh, did you miss it? Well, so did everyone else. Apparently, he was invisible for his 2nd coming, this is what the JW’s teach anyway, even though doctrine say that “every eye will see him”.

Rev 1:7
7Look, he is coming with the clouds,
and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be!
Amen.

Odd isn’t it. Doesn’t that make the JW’s false prophets? Hundreds, if not thousands of people sold up shop because they believed that the end was nigh. What did they do when they woke up still here?…Oops!

There is much much more that could be said about what the JW’s believe, but I think I will leave it there for tonight. I will say one thing. I do not hate them, or look down on them (or any other group of believers), I feel sad for them that they are being mislead by people who should know better. As a Christian we should all study in depth the word of God and obey.

God Bless, and remember, always verify what people tell you about what God has said he wants you to do with what the bible says, as the bible is Gods inspired word.

Compulsory military service.

I think that a year of military service should be compulsary when you leave school. You should be able to have a exemption if you are going to uni or something, but otherwise..in you go laddie.

This serves a number of purposes.

1: Life skills. Self dicipline, respect, courage etc. All skill that you can apply to civilian life.

2: You learn that you can do things if you try, even if you don't want to, and you gain the courage and self belief to try.

3: Get paid. Say the average wage for a private in the army is what $26k? As a private in the army, all you food, accomidation, clothing etc is provided. This means that you can save a large majority of your pay.

Imagine. Go into the army at 18. Come out a year later with 20 odd thousand dollars saved. Enough for a deposit on a house one day.

4: Further employment opportunity in the Army.

Most the people I have seen in these things come out as better people. Not the wussy brat camp thing that's on TV in New zealand right now, they need to go to hard out military camp with lots of dudes that will fark you up. I actually think that the government should implement somehting like this for hardend criminals. Like, they go to jail, then, 1 year, 6 months before their release date they have to go to a military camp.

Wandering Jehovas

My darling wife took pity on some wandering Jehovas the other day and decided to talk to them. She explained that I was a Christian and they asked a few questions about what I believe. They asked if they could come back and talk to me, so she kindly invited them back this Saturday! EEK! Now I have to do some research. They say they wont try to convert me….but I will certainly try to convert them :) They gave my wife a copy of their booklet for us to read, and I have been pleasantly surprised at its content. I haven’t read all of it, but most of what it says seems to be on the money. Their heirachy and style of government however, I believe is unscriptural.

One thing I did come across is their section of "What happened when you die" is the passage Ecc 9:5-10.

5 For the living know that they will die,
but the dead know nothing
they have no further reward
and even the memory of them is forgotten.

6 Their love, their hate
and their jealousy have long since vanished;
never again will they have a part
in anything that happens under the sun.

7 Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun— all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

Now, this seems to say what they says it says....BUT! I think think of the rich dude and the poor guy. They were in heaven and hell (or hades?), plus, the apostles saw elija and moses with Jesus on the hill (where he went up in the cloud?)...they are dead, but their souls/spirits are there..arent they?
So how does the above passage relate?

Basically, the Jehovahs are saying that when you die, you are dead. Dead. Full Stop (or “period” for you Americans). Dead. No going to the afterlife as a soul, or ghost or spirit. Just dead. And Ecc 9:5-10 seems to say what they say they think its saying. But, if this is the case, then how come we are told about a number of people that are in the spirit world. For example...

Luke 16:15-30 (New International Version)

The Rich Man and Lazarus

19"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

22"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In hell ^[a] where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

25"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

27"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

29"Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'

30" 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

31"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "

Footnotes:

[a] Greek Hades

This appears to be in contardiction to what Ecc 9 teaches (as per below), that "the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten."

Actually, the more I read this passage, The more I think it is talking about the dead persons affects to the living world. Rather than what they are doing in the afterlife.

But, as per the passage above, the rich man know where he was and was afraid for his brothers, he had knowledge "for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.". And Abraham himself. A dead man, talking to another dead man...you see what I mean?

Do I make sense?

Subsisto lascivio per meus monachus!

here monkey monkey.