The Merriam Webster Dictionary, Tenth Edition, defines culture as “the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties especially by education.” Page 282. Note: “intellectual and moral faculties….” Why is it, then, that the San Diego Union-Tribune “Arts and Culture” weekly section special advertises stage-plays, musical entertainment and movies—the edgier, raunchier the better—as “Arts and Culture”?
Theodore Bikel, Jewish actor declared himself spiritual, but not religious, spiritual being his interest in and mastery of music. So in many lives, spiritual replaces religion. Because spiritual means anything the person has as an interest. In the Bible sense, spiritual begins with GOD, not mortals. He authors the word, as he authors the word holy. All kindred words also originate in him. The Bible believer knows it all has a Biblical basis—and the more Biblical it is, the deeper the morality and more uplifting the music, teaching, politics, benevolence and education. It doesn’t matter that in centers of higher learning today the Bible isn’t even considered cultural, let alone the basis of culture, including morality and spirituality!
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It can’t be overstated: Agriculture constituted the world’s first, thus oldest, profession, practiced by Adam and Eve. “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” Genesis 2:15. Vegetarians before the Fall, the first human family became multi-agricultural after the Fall, with the birth of their two boys Genesis 4:1-2. Animal husbandry supplemented, if not dominated, their diet: what produced the necessary protein for body building-blocks; and fruits and veggies in all their forms to prolong health.
It can’t be overstated: the first, and therefore the continuing, model for all human generations, A MAN and a WOMAN constituted the nuclear family. That definition has never changed, and won’t, in history. Only two genders exist. No more. Anyone demanding an alteration in God’s plan becomes God’s enemy, with all the terrors associated with rebellion against him. It can’t be overstated: the first generation of humanity had been endowed with intellectual powers they bequeathed to succeeding generations to build cities. The second generation—children of the first—had the technological skills to build a CITY. And, within five generations after Cain, had begun the turn from an agricultural society of small settlements, Genesis 4:17-24,
All of this a bequest of Adam and Eve to their first generations. Then, within 150-200 years after Noah’s Flood, the advance in technology eventuated in Genesis 11:1-9. Leading to the confusion of tongues that God didn’t eliminate until Pentecost—when the listeners heard the single language spoken by the apostles in their own tongues Acts 2:5- (other tongues of verse 4 explained in verses 5-6). All of this but a beginning, deserving far more study. Fini The Holy Bible, GOD’S OWN WORD, ranks as the most important, by being the first and highest level of knowledge:
Other collections, called libraries, include:
(Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, 1573) End Part I Archaeologists and historians of past civilizations understand that modern efforts to interpret the past have strict limitations. We have to “take a leap of imagination” to bridge the fixed gulf between THEN and NOW. THEN is a word alien to NOW. The scholars make a huge mistake, however, when they instinctively feel that our opinions and persuasions are almost invariably “prejudices and preconceptions”. Lost Cities of the Ancient Southeast, 4
That puts us at an unnecessary disadvantage. It sees the ancient Indians of America as the norm and we as invasive interlopers. They become the standard of correct behavior and we the nihilist of their Good, Excellent, Superior culture. Such scholars invariably consider Europeans as invaders, not as creators. That makes the seven nations of Canaan innocent victims of a predatory Israel. And all Europeans as exploiters of innocent American natives. The truth is...Europeans did enough harm to be condemned for greed, pillage, and brutality. But they DID NOT have to teach those vices to Indians; they had bloody religious practices that made everyday brutality commonplace. Nor did they teach them war, for warfare had been systemic for longer than the first Americans could remember, and for causes they had long forgotten. The spiritual truth is, Christians cannot avoid the challenge of calling unsaved sinners from the old rut-worn ways of egotism, humanism and materialism to the foreign concept of a Christ-centered life of self-denial. That’s a challenge some preachers won’t accept because it makes them prophetic oppositionists to behaviors acceptable in our depraved society. Unlike paleontologists, who see in ancient Americans standards Europeans should never have violated, God’s word calls us to his OLD PATHS because only he determines behavior and lifestyle. Yours for a faithfulness to God’s word that begins, as Jesus did, with the demand to “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” Matthew 4:17. The only way any mortal, whatever his educational, financial or cultural fame, will enter God’s presence is through self-denial Matthew 16:24-26. |
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