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The Fall of the Family

Author: The Islam Show

Abdal Wadod Shalabi has remarked that a society only becomes truly decadent when “decadence” as a principle is never referred to in public debate. Prior generations of Muslims and Christians were forever fretting about their own unworthiness when measured against past golden ages of goodness and sanctity. But in our self-satisfied era, to invoke the idea of decadence is to invite accusations of a retrograde romanticism: it is itself perceived, perversely enough, as decadence.

Muslims looking at the West with a critical but compassionate eye are often disturbed by this absence of old-fashioned self-scrutiny. We note that no longer does the dominant culture avert complacency through reference to past moral and cultural excellence; rather, the paradigm to which conformity is now required is that of the ever-shifting liberal consensus. In this ambitiously inverted world, it is the future that is to serve as the model, never anything in the past. In fact, no truly outrageous (“blasphemous”) discourse remains possible in modern societies, except that which violates the totalising liberalism supposedly generated by autonomous popular consent, but which is often in reality manufactured by the small, often personally immoral but nonetheless ideologised elites who dominate the media and sculpt public opinion into increasingly bizarre and unprecedented shapes.

The debate over the status of the family lies at the heart of the present ideological collision between the bloated but “decadent” North and the progressively impoverished South, a collision in the midst of which our community is attempting to define itself and to survive. This culture clash is so vital to the self-perception of each side that it is now all but inescapable. It seems that each time we switch on our televisions and sit back, we must observe northern prejudice and insecurity being massaged by an endless, earnest-humane diet of documentaries about the ills of the rigidly family-centred Third World, and the wicked reluctance of its peoples to conform to the social doctrines of the liberal democracies.

To the average Westerner this one-way polemic seems satisfying and unarguable, confirming as it does assumptions of superiority which allay his nervousness about problems in his own society. It shapes the public opinion that goes on to acquiesce in the liquidation of Palestinians, Bosnians or Chechens with only the mildest (but self-righteously proclaimed) twinges of guilt. In fact, it is hard to resist the conclusion that the social doctrines of the modern West have been forged into the imperial ideologies of the closing years of the century, as polemicists use orthodox feminism and homosexualism as the perfect sticks with which to beat the Third World. A hundred years ago, white Christians interfered with everyone else for the sake of theological dogma and commerce; now they do so for reasons of social dogma and commerce. But the underlying attitude of contempt has remained essentially unchanged.

Muslims living in the West are perched in an interesting vantage point on this question. While many Islamic theologians have written on the “westernisation process” in the Muslim world and its nefarious effects on family life, the reality, as some of them have noted, is that this process is being championed by obsolete secular elites whose cultural formation was the achievement of the old imperial powers. The family lifestyle of the average secular Syrian or Turk is not that of a modern European, despite his outraged claims to the contrary. His clothes, furnishings, marriage rituals, and most details of life are more redolent of the 1940s and 1950s than of the present realities of Western existence. And so the mainstream Muslim debate on changes in the family, led by such thinkers as Anwar al-Jindi and Rasim Ozdenoren, tends to be of only slight relevance to our situation here in the heartlands of the “liberated” West.

As we attempt to theorise about our own condition, we are at once confronted by the irony that the country to which many of us migrated no longer exists. Back in the 1950s and early 1960s, British family values were still recognisably derived from a great religious tradition rooted in the family-nurturing Abrahamic soil. While the doctrinal debates between Islam and Christianity remained sharp, the moral and social assumptions of the “guest-workers” and their “hosts” were in most respects reassuringly and productively similar.

That overlap has now almost gone. Even the Churches no longer claim to be the coherent and convincing voices of absolute moral truths, as an increasingly spongelike rock of ages finds itself scoured and reshaped by the libertarian sandstorm. Cardinal Hume, the usually clear-headed spokesman of Britain’s Catholics, has recently made conciliatory remarks about homophilia; while an Anglican bishop, resplendent in tight jeans and leather jacket, has openly announced his relationship with another man.

So far from representing family values to their flock, 200 out of 900 London priests are said to subscribe to homosexual tendencies. The number of Christian and Jewish organisations and individuals eloquently singing the virtues of Sodom seems set to rise and rise, cheered on by the secularists, until the remaining voices of tradition are finally shouted down.

All this means that the Muslim community, already marginalised in terms of class, race, and economics, now has to confront a further and potentially far more drastic form of alienation. As newcomers who are the sole defenders of values, which would be recognised as legitimate by earlier generations of Britons, we are in a disorienting position.

The temptation to panic, to retreat into factions and cults, which excoriate the wider world as impure and evil, will claim many of us. Already such movements are making headway on the campuses. But such a sterile and facile temptation should be resisted, and, if our faith is really as strong as we and our detractors like to believe, it can be resisted easily and in favour of a far more mature and fruitful grasp of our relationship with the “host community”.

But a strategy for the articulation of such a stance must be grounded in the knowledge that Muslim traditionalism does not appeal to the sort of comforting essentialist “metanarrative” whose claims to objective truth are less important than its status as a definer of cultural identity. Such has been the emergent error of the twentieth-century’s rival essentialisms, particularly nationalism and fascism; and it is all too often the error of Muslim activists whose alertness to spiritual realities is subordinated to, or even replaced by, the quest for the pseudo-spiritual solace of authenticity.

The narrative of Muslim civilisation, inspirational for the Muslim Brotherhood and neo-Ottoman revivalists until the 1970s, has suddenly given way to the utopian narrative of “the Salaf”, on the problematic claim that the Salaf followed a consistent school of thought; but among the adherents of neither position do we find an immediate and responsive type of faith that yields, as true faith must, an ethic rooted in compassion and concern rather than a chronic obsession with purity.

What this means is that unless Muslims in Britain can counteract the impoverishing and exclusivist “ideologising” of Islam that has taken place in some Muslim countries, and return to an image of the faith as rooted in immediate and sincere concern for human welfare under a compassionate God, we will continue to fail to contribute to the national debate on this or any other question of real moment. It is not enough for the exclusivists to shrug, “But who cares what the unbelievers think”. For Muslims are directed by the Quran to be an example to others. We cannot be an example, or successfully convey the message that God has revealed, if we hide in cultural ghettoes and act abrasively and arrogantly towards those we take such exquisite pleasure in considering beyond the pale. Instead, we must take the more difficult path of understanding the real dilemmas of this society, and then the even more difficult one of gently suggesting a remedy that may be of real assistance.

The time for such an advocacy is now. In recent weeks, several religious figures in Britain have offered their thoughts, often anguished, generally cogent, on the tragedy of the progressive decay of the family. The Bishop of Liverpool and the Chief Rabbi have both summarised the process with the usual statistics: 34% of British children are now born outside wedlock; a similar proportion of adults suffer the heartbreak of divorce; within twenty years fewer than half of the nation’s children will be brought up by their own two parents; and so on.

Few doubt the practical catastrophes which ensue: in the United States, it is said that over half of prison inmates are from broken homes, while men and women are known to suffer deep psychological harm from parental divorce even in middle life or old age. Sheppard and Sacks lament together that in a rapidly-changing world where the family haven has never been more needed by children and adults alike, it should have been wrecked by that most basic of all sins: selfishness. Nobody likes making a sacrifice: bowing at the idol of personal freedom we all shout for our rights and chafe under our duties. The lesson is irritating but clear: the Thatcherite egocentrism which posed as the apotheosis of Adam Smith’s advocacy of competitive self-interest as the key to collective social advancement is claiming so many casualties as to endanger the whole undertaking. Greed creates rich men and happy Chancellors, but it now appears to come at a long-term price. Gigantic social and economic bills are now rolling in for extra policing, prisons, social workers and a growing blizzard of DHSS cheques. The socialist revolution has already failed; it seems that capitalism too may ultimately choke on its own contradictions.

So far, so good. It is unarguable, and not just to religious people, that greed has been a culprit. And yet the pleas for a return to selflessness have been heard so often in past ages, and with so little manifest effect, that they cannot be seen as holding out a believably sufficient solution. If religions are truly to have the capacity to overcome the worst consequences of human sinfulness then they must acknowledge that simple appeals to “be good” rarely have much impact, and must be accompanied by a practicable paradigm for reform. Neither the bishop nor the rabbi seem to have much to offer that is practical and concrete; which is perhaps why they have been tolerated and even platformed by politicians and the liberal media. But as Muslims, possessed of a religious dispensation granted through an intermediary whose status as “a mercy to the nations” was manifested in a concrete social as well as moral programme, we know that the present plight of society will never be reformed through homiletics. Structural changes are called for as well: and, given the gravity of the problem, we should not be surprised to learn that they can be painful.

Hardly less obvious than the causes of family decline are the reasons why establishment ideologues refuse to recognise them. The politicians are the most flagrant instance: last week’s sorry resignation by Social Charter minister Robert Hughes in order to “repair his marriage” after an illicit fling is simply the latest in a string of by now frankly boring incidents which show the political establishment (and not even the moralising Mr Ashdown, the leader of the UK Liberal Democrat Party, has been immune) as largely incapable of leading a moral life. And yet tucked away in the office of every MP are all the clues we need. There before his desk, adding spice to his every tedious letterwriting moment, is that anarchic presence which unless he is very buttoned up indeed may prove his undoing. The number of MPs who have secretaries as second wives is second only to the number with surreptitious concubines. Only aberrant idiocy – or complaisance – can ignore the fact that if a politician, charged with that eroticism which power seems to generate, works late hours with a member of the opposite sex, a conflagration is probable rather than possible. Under such conditions the system offers no protection whatsoever for suffering children and spouses, who will be traumatised even to the point of suicide. Again, the disastrous notion that individual rights take precedence over the rights of the family has resulted in degradation for both.

But politics is merely the most notorious example of an environment in which, as the Iranians say, “fire dwelleth with cotton”. As the current anguished debate over sexual harrassment reveals, there remains hardly a public space into which private desires do not obtrude. Never before has there been a society in which men and women mingle so casually, and where the radically increased opportunity for temptation and unfaithfulness is so patent that even the most anti-moralising journalist, politician or social strategist must see it.

In Tom Wolfe’s popular novel Bonfire of the Vanities, a young financier commits adultery, destroying his wife and daughter, simply because New York is a city “drowning in concupiscence” and he is its child. It is not simply the routine mixing of the sexes that brings about his downfall. Everywhere his eyes wander he sees advertising, pornography, news stories and squeezy fashions that grasp at him and shout aloud the charm of duty-free sex. Wolfe’s adulterer is an ordinary, not a fundamentally evil man: he is simply living in a world in which most human beings cannot behave responsibly.

New York is not yet London – but the Atlantic grows narrower all the time, and the eroticising of the public space has become part of our culture. Middle-aged men with middle-aged wives once had little to tempt them, short of an unhealthy adventure with a Piccadilly tart. Now, with a superabundance of flesh reminding them painfully at every turn of what they are missing, they are unlikely to remain loyal unless they are either stupid, or belong to that category of powerfully moral human beings which always has been and always will be a minority.

A radical diagnosis, although obvious enough: but is there a cure? Islam recognises as a major misdemeanour a crime unimaginable in the West: khalwa, or “illegitimate seclusion”. Moral disasters always have preludes; Islam seeks to reduce the social matrix in which such preludes can occur. Thus our commitment to single-sex education. Not for us the absurd desperation of the Clackmannan headmaster who last month introduced the rule that boy and girl pupils may not be closer than six inches from each other, because ‘spring is in the air.” But schools are the merest starting-point. The workplace, too, while not obstructing female advancement, should ensure that the rights of spouses are protected by denying all possibility of illegitimate seclusion in the office. Politicians and business people who insist on employing a personal assistant of the opposite sex should explain their reasons. Pornography and sub-pornographic advertising should be carefully censored as intolerably demeaning and as an incitement to marital infidelity, the task of censorship being entrusted to those feminists who so rightly object to such portrayals of their sex.

The tragedy for Britain is, of course, that this remedy, while as self-evidently worth implementing as the sex drive itself, will be brushed aside with amazement and scorn by passing journalists and politicians. Convinced that Islam implies discrimination by its policy of gender separation, and privately depressed by the prospect of diminished sexual interest at work, the same liberal establishment which bewails the fragility of modern relationships will continue to encourage and live in the public environment which is at the root of the problem. But Islam by its very nature takes the long view, and we should not be disheartened. The process of family collapse is proving so radical in its economic and human consequences that the time must ultimately come when the decadence will be recognised for what it is and radical solutions will be considered. Then, quite possibly, the principled Muslim conservatism that is so derided today will come into its own.

The secular mind may be too witless to notice, but to religious people the New Social Doctrines are fast acquiring the look of a new religion. The twentieth century’s great liberationisms often feel like powerful sublimations of the religious drive, as the innate yearning for freedom from worldly ties and the straitjacket of the self becomes strangely transmuted into a great convulsion against restrictions on personal freedom.

In this sense, the politically-correct West is an intensely religious society. It has its dogmas and theologians, its saints, martyrs and missionaries, and, with the arrival of speech-codes on American campuses, a well-developed theory of the suppression of blasphemy.

Some have mused that all this is necessary, and that human beings need certainties and causes, and that without an orthodoxy to hold itself together the West would rapidly unravel and turn to lawlessness. But the trouble is that the new doctrines, which are now enshrined in legislation, school curricula and broadcasting guidelines, do not make up either an authentic new religion, or even a sustainable substitute for one. For religious morality, whether Muslim, Christian, Buddhist or Eskimo, holds society together with the idea that personal fulfilment is attained through the honourable discharge of duties. The West’s new religion, in absolute contrast, teaches that it comes about through the enjoyment of rights.

Given the extremism of this inversion, it is not surprising that the societies which it affects should be running into difficulties. To paraphrase Conor Cruise O”Brien, the trouble with secular social medicines is that the more they are applied, the sicker the patient seems to become. It is certainly a blasphemy today to suggest that the new orthodoxies have worsened our social ills rather than bringing us into a shining and liberated utopia – but this is what has happened. And yet the pseudo-religion is still powerful enough to ensure that the notions which have presided over such destruction may not be subject to criticism in polite society. Muslims are perhaps the only people left who do not care for such politeness.

One of the most characteristic liberationisms of this century has been feminism. Divided into a myriad tendencies, some cautious and reasoned, others wandering into unimaginable territories of witchcraft and lesbianism, this is a movement about which few generalisations can be made. But perhaps a good place to start is the observation that women were the major though unintended victims of both Victorian pre-feminist and late twentieth-century feminist values. The disabilities suffered by wives in traditional Christian cultures, which denied that they even existed as financial or legal entities distinct from their husbands, may have been accepted without demur by most of them; but real injustice and suffering was caused to those for whom the social supports were cut away, and who found themselves in need of an independent existence. The feminism of the suffragettes was thus a real quest for justice. It moved Western society away from Christian tradition, and towards the Islamic norm in which a woman is always a separate legal entity even after marriage, retaining her property, surname, inheritance rights, and the right to initiate legal proceedings.

What Muslims are less happy about is the new feminism of the past three decades, the militantly ideologised world-view of Friedan, Greer and Daly. These thinkers initiated a new phase by attacking not only structural unfairnesses in society, but the most fundamental assumptions about male and female identity. “Until the myth of the maternal instinct is abolished, women will continue to be subjugated”, wrote Simone de Beauvoir; and similar noises could be heard from the new feminists everywhere. In this view, the traditional association of femaleness with femineity and maleness with manhood was biologically and morally meaningless, and was to be attacked as the underpinning of the whole traditional edifice of “patriarchy”.

At this point, people of Muslim faith have to jump ship. The Qur’an and our entire theological tradition are rooted in the awareness that the two sexes are part of the inherent polarity of the cosmos. Everything in creation has been set up in pairs, we believe; and it is this magnetic relationship between alternate principles, which brings movement and value into the world. Like the ancient Chinese, with their division of the 1,001 Things into Yin and Yang, the Muslims, naming phenomena with the gender-specific Arabic of revelation, know that gender is not convention but principle, not simple biology – but metaphysics.

Allah has ninety-nine names. Some are Names of Majesty: such as the Compeller, the Overwhelming, and the Avenger. Others are Names of Beauty: the Gentle, the Forgiving, the Loving-Kind. The former category are broadly associated with male virtues, and the latter with female ones. But as all are God’s perfect Names, and equally manifest the divine perfection, neither set is superior. And the Divine Essence to which they all resolve transcends gender. Islam has no truck with the hazardous Christian notion that God is male (the “Father”), an assumption that has been invoked to justify traditional Western notions of the objective superiority of the male principle.

Islam’s position is thus a balanced one. Metaphysically, the male and female principles are equal. It is through their interaction that phenomena appear: all creation is thus in a sense procreation. But justice is not necessarily served by attempting to establish a simple parity between the principles in society “here-below”. The divine names have distinct vocations; and human gender differentiation was created for more than simple genetic convenience. Both man and woman are God’s khalifas on earth; but in manifesting complementary aspects of the divine perfection their “ministries” differ in key respects.

Islam’s awareness that when human nature (fitrah) is cultivated rather than suppressed, men and women will incline to different spheres of activity is of course one which provokes howls of protest from liberals: for them it is a classic case of blasphemy. But even in the primitive biological and utilitarian terms which are the liberals” reference, the case for absolute identity of vocation is highly problematic. However heavily society may brainwash women into seeking absolute parity, it cannot ignore the reality that they have babies, and have a tendency to enjoy looking after them. Those courageous enough to leave their careers while their children are small increasingly have to put up with accusations of blasphemy and heresy from society; but they persist in their belief, outrageous to the secular mind, that mothers bring up children better than childminders, that breast milk is better than formula milk, and even – this as the ultimate heresy – that bringing up a child can be more satisfying than trading bonds or driving buses.

There are already signs that women are rebelling against the feminist orthodoxy that demands an absolute parity of function with men, and that “dropping out” to look after a child is less outrageous in the minds of many educated women than the media might suggest. But much real damage has been done. The campaign to turn fathers into nurturers and house-husbands shows little sign of success; and many houses have become more like dormitories than homes. Mealtimes are desultory, tin-opening affairs; both parents are too exhausted to spend “quality time” with active children; and the sense of belonging to the house and to each other is sadly attenuated. By the time children leave home, they feel they are not leaving very much.

In such a dismal context, dissolution is almost logical. The stress of the two-career family is greater than many normal people can manage. Increased income and (for some) pleasure at work are poor compensations for the increased scope for fatigue and dispute. Deprived of the woman’s gift for warming a house, both husband and children are made less secure. The overlap in functions provides endless room for argument. And when the dissolution comes, it is almost always the woman who suffers most. As an ageing lone parent, she finds that society has little interest in her. She has joined the new class of “wives of the state”.

The state, luckily, can afford to be a polygamist. The social unravelment of modern Britain has coincided with a massive augmentation of tax revenue. As long as the rate of social collapse does not outstrip the annual growth in GDP there is little for politicians to worry about. And yet the fate of literally millions of single families is a harsh one. The case for traditional single-income families, in which women are permitted to celebrate rather than suppress their nurturing genius, is increasingly looking more moral than the liberals have guessed.

But the feminists are not the only moths to have been gnawing the social fabric. There are others, some of them even more radical. The most strident are the homosexualists, the curious but always repulsive ideologues who are forcing on the population a dogma whose consequences for the family are already proving lethal.

As with feminism, the theological case against homosexuality is related to our understanding of the “dyadic” nature of creation. Human sexuality is an incarnation of the divinely-willed polarity of the cosmos. Male and female are complementary principles, and sexuality is their sacramental and fecund reconciliation. Sexual activity between members of the same sex is therefore the most extreme of all possible violations of the natural order. Its biological sterility is the sign of its metaphysical failure to honour the basic duality which God has used as the warp and woof of the world.

It is true, nonetheless, that the homosexual drive remains poorly understood. It appears as the definitive argument against Darwinism’s hypothesis of the systematic elimination over time of anti-reproductive traits. In some cultures it is extremely rare: Wilfred Thesiger records that in the course of his long wanderings with the Arabian Bedouins he never encountered the slightest indication of the practice. In other societies, particularly modern urban cultures, it is very widespread. Theories abound as to why this should be so: some researchers speculate that in overpopulated communities the tendency represents Nature’s own technique of population control. Laboratory rats, we are told, will remain resolutely heterosexual until disturbed by bright lights, loud noises, and extreme overcrowding. Other scientists have speculated about the effects of “hormone pollution” from the thousands of tonnes of estrogen released into the water supply by users of contraceptive pills. Again, this remains without proof.

But what is increasingly suggested by recent research is that homosexual tendencies are not always acquired, and that some individuals are born with them as an identifiable irregularity in the chromosomes. The implications of this for moral theology are clear: given the Qur’an’s insistence that human beings are responsible only for actions they have voluntarily acquired, homosexuality as an innate disposition cannot be a sin.

It does not follow from this, of course, that acting in accordance with such a tendency is justifiable. Similar research has indicated that many human tendencies, including forms of criminal behaviour, are also on occasion traceable to genetic disorders; and yet nobody would conclude that the behaviour was therefore legitimate. Instead, we are learning that just as God has given people differing physical and intellectual gifts, He tests some of us by implanting moral tendencies which we must struggle to overcome as part of our self-reform and discipline. A mental patient with an obsessive desire to set fire to houses has been given a particular hurdle to overcome. A man or woman with strong homosexual urges faces the same challenge.

To the religious believer, it is unarguable that homosexual acts are a metaphysical as well as a moral crime. Heterosexuality, with its association with conception, is the astonishing union which leads to new life, to children, grandchildren, and an endless progeny: it is a door to infinity. Sodomy, by absolute contrast, leads nowhere. As always, the most extreme vice comes about when a virtue is inverted.

None of this is of interest to the secular mind, of course, which detects no meaning in existence and hence cannot imagine why maximum pleasure and gratification should not be the goal of human life. The notion that we are here on earth in order to purify our souls and experience the incomparable bliss of the divine presence is utterly alien to most of our compatriots. And yet there is a purely secular argument against homophilia which we can attempt to deploy.

Homosexualism represents a radical challenge to the institution of marriage. Its propagandists will not concede the fact, but it attacks the most vital norm of our species, which is the union of male and female for which we are manifestly designed and which is the natural context for the raising of children. In times such as ours, when nature is no longer regarded as authoritative, and lifestyles are in all other respects an abnormal departure from the way in which human beings have lived for countless millennia, society cannot afford to believe that male-female unions are of only relative worth. The more the alternatives proliferate, the less the norm will be seen as sacred. Every victory for the homosexualist lobby is thus a blow struck against that normality without which society cannot survive.

It is in the context of the struggle to protect the family that the campaign against homosexualism becomes most universally accessible. The screaming fanatics who “out” bishops and demand a lowering of the “gay” age of consent are among the most bitter enemies of the fitrah, that primordial norm which, for all the diversity of the human race, has consistently expressed itself in marriage as the natural context for the nurturing of the new generation. That which is against the fitrah is by definition destructive: it is against humanity and against God. This awareness needs to be reflected in legislation, which for too long has sought to relativise the family as merely one of a range of lifestyle options.

Muslims sometimes hold that the collapse of family values in the West will serve the interests of wider humanity. Decadence, they say, is what it has chosen and deserves; and the inevitable implosion of its society will leave the field open for morally strong Islam to regain its place as the world’s dominant civilisation. The trouble with this theory is that the implosion shows no sign of leading to total collapse. Technology and wealth allow the creation of surveillance and social security systems, which can deal with the growing number of casualties. There is certainly an irony in a New World Order policed by a state, which cannot keep order in Central Park after nightfall. But unless we are foolishly optimistic, or hope for absolute totalitarianism, we cannot but be anxious about social trends in the West. The survival of the Western family is a question of immediate Muslim concern, and we must offer our views until the time comes when our friends and neighbours, their doctrines broken on the anvil of reality, are humbled enough to listen.

Cambridge

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/the-fall-of-the-family-4240452.html

About the Author

Nasir Pasha, 36 Years, B.E Electrical and Electronic, Loving Father, Husband, Author, Thinker, Reader, strongly believe peace is the only way to solve all problems of the world.

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The Word of God – Which Is Jesus Christ

Author: T.O.D. Johnston

Reading from Genesis Chapter one, the first three verses:
1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters.
3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
The Word translated “God” in verse one in Hebrew is Elohim – the plural form – meaning more than one person. The verb is singular, thus showing the united work of the Trinity. God the Father the source and planner of the whole universe. In verse 2 we see the Spirit of God working. In verse 3 we have The Word of God speaking – “Let there be light: and there was light.”

From creation throughout the Old Testament we see the Lord speaking to men, the Word of God unto His prophets. And they spoke with authority, “Thus saith the Lord.”

As we turn to the New Testament, the Gospel of John chapter one we are told exactly who the Word of God is: verses 1-5 and 10-14.
1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2. The same was in the beginning with God.
3. All things were made by Him; and without Him was no anything made that was made.
4. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

10. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.
11. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.
12 But as many as received Him, to them gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name:
13. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

The opening words of the Bible are repeated here ‘In the beginning’ and then the personal title of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. He was with the Father from the beginning. His word brought into existence all of creation. In Him are life and light. He came into a world of death and darkness. The very world He created, the very creatures which He had formed, but they knew Him not. They had turned from God. Those who received Him, received the adoption of joint-heirs of Christ, sons of God. Verse 14. ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The eternal Son, creator and maintainer of the universe, came to us as a human baby ‘born of a woman’ and placed in a donkey’s feedbox. What unfathomable love is this!

This is the fulfillment of the promise made to Eve in Genesis 3:15 that her seed would bruise the serpent’s head. The rest of the Old Testament in many forms, types, symbols, and prophecies, point to this birth. The Old Testament is the long story of preparation by God of a people to believe and await and obey His Promise of a coming Saviour.

A nation through whom all the nations of the world would be blessed.

A Messiah descended from Abraham, from the tribe of Judah, in the line of David, a prophet like unto Moses, a suffering servant, the coming King.

John’s message to us is “Jesus has come!” Are we beginning to see it? The Plan of the Ages worked out among men and recorded by the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Bible.

In spirit and in truth, the written Word of God reveals the Living Word.

The Holy Scriptures make known to us the Living Christ who is Jesus our Lord.

Above all other ways that God has made Himself known, whether through the created universe or providence, He has exalted His written Word. Why? Because it reveals and magnifies His Son. And truly the greatest ministry that God has appointed to the Holy Spirit is to reveal Christ to us through the written Word.

It is Christ’s promise in John 16:14 -
‘He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you!’

Sometimes today we get depressed, things go wrong, sickness, frustrations try to take us over. And yet we don’t even get near the heart-sick lost and confused feelings of the two disciples who had lost all hope. Their faith was shattered when Christ had died and they were on their way home on the road to Emmaus. They had believed that Jesus was the Promised Saviour. They had heard the report of the women and the others that had gone and seen the empty tomb – yet this only confused them more. Jesus walked with them and could not understand why they had not believed the Scriptures which revealed what the Messiah must go through. In Luke 24:25-27 -

25. Then He said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?
27. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.

If they had but known the Scriptures, they would have believed the promises of God in His Word. They witnessed to what had happened to them in verse 32:

32. And they said to one another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures.

Psalm 22.
“1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
5 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8 He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.
10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly.
11 Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
12 Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
13 They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
19 But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.
20 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
21 Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
23 Ye that fear the LORD, praise him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
26 The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him:
your heart shall live for ever.
27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
28 For the kingdom is the LORD’s: and he is the governor among the nations.
29 All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him:
and none can keep alive his own soul.
30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.”

Later the same day, after the two rushed back to Jerusalem in much excitement to the brethren Jesus appeared again, now to the disciples – and He reminded them – Luke 24:44-49.

44. And He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
45. Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,
46. And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
47. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem.
48. And ye are witnesses of these things,
49. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until you be endued with power from on high.

Christ is showing that all of the Scriptures of the Old Testament spoke of Him.

The logos of the Old Testament, the spoken or written word of God makes plain, points to and portrays the invisible thoughts of God.

The Logos of the New Testament, the Living Word of God which is Jesus Christ reveals the Heavenly Father, the invisible God.

In verse 48, Jesus tells them that they have actually witnessed the fulfillment of the prophecies – with their own eyes they have seen them unfold. And the great commission is given – salvation from sin in Jesus must be preached to every nation – The Word became flesh and had dwelt among men and the world knew him not. But they had to wait until the Holy Spirit came to minister to men by revealing Jesus through the preaching of the Word which is Christ.

That we are here today is evidence that they carried out this command. They told what they had seen and heard with the power of the Holy Spirit and authority of the Scriptures and the command of Jesus Himself.

We have inherited their ministry in the New Testament Scriptures – the Gospels reveal how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament Prophecies:

In His perfect life He fulfilled all the demands of God’s Law, which no man had done or ever could do.

In His death on the cross only the Sinless One, the pure and innocent Lamb of God could be our substitute and take our punishment for sin – which is death. God’s judgment against us has been met, with His precious life blood.

In His resurrection He became the first fruits of them that slept – God’s great sign of approval of the Finished work of the Cross. Christ was glorified and took His place at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.

In John the beloved’s first Epistle, he opens his letter with words so thrilling that we today can scarcely take it in: verse 1-
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

John again reminds us of Christ’s eternal existence. This is the very close friend of Our Lord’s who reminds us that he was with Jesus for 3 years – seeing Him, watching Him teach and heal and pour out His love upon all in need, and pour out His life on the Cross. Then words almost impossible for us to grasp – He touched and placed his hands upon the Saviour – the Word of life.

Are we like Thomas – that we need to see and touch our Saviour before we believe?

Jesus knew of us. He knew that we would believe through he Ministry of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of His Word – the Gospel, yet to be written.

In John chapter 17, verse 20, Jesus is praying for His disciples shortly before the trial.

20. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.

We have their word. It is indeed another great miracle of the providence of God to read about the lives of those who suffered and died that we might hold in our hands an accurate copy of what the apostles wrote over 1900 years ago. This is made even more remarkable by the fact that no other book or writings of Greek or Roman authors of that age can come anywhere near this continued accuracy.

But the question for us is – What are we to do with this Book. Jesus speaks plainly on this in John’s Gospel.

Chapter 14, verse 23: If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.

Christ promises life-union with anyone who keeps His words by the Spirit of love which unites the Father and the Son.

Chapter 15, verse 3: Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

Chapter 15 verses 7-12: If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
9. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my life; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.
11. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
12. This is my commandment, that yet love one another, as I have loved you.

If we would know our Blessed Saviour we must seek Him in His Word. The Holy Spirit is our guide and interpreter and will reveal unto us the Living Christ, the Living Word of God. We must abide in His word. We must obey His Word – not if we feel like it or only when convenient with those we choose. God’s love for us was an active decision of His will – while we were completely unlovable. While we were yet sinners – so must we love one another – by an act of our will in Christ – we must look at others through the redeeming work of Christ. He died for them too – those who are yet sinners and unlovely. Our message to them and for them is the love that Jesus showed in doing for their sins too. Is not the greatest joy to share the message of Jesus Christ with another?

We who know the Living Word of God which is Christ Jesus must continue to seek Him in His Written Word, that we might abide in His love, that we might grow in the knowledge of His grace, that we might grow in grace, in holiness, that we might know God as our Father that we must learn to trust in His promises, and we must obey His commandments, to live in the hope of His soon coming, that we may be with Him and be like Him, and see Him as He is, and be with Him where He is.

In Revelation chapter 19, verses 11-13 we have a picture of His coming -
11. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
12. His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
13. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called the Word of God.

Let us Pray
Oh God, righteous and holy, we stand in awe of your mercy – that you sent your only begotten Son to suffer and die the death of a criminal on a cross, for us.

We see in Your Holy Word the depths of your love. We see the love of Christ for His disciples, and for us.

We know Him so little and spend to little time with Him in Your Word. Father continue to reveal Him to us by your Spirit, that we may ever remember His precious gift that even our sins are forgiven by His spilled blood. Dear Lord keep us unto the day of Your Coming ever abiding in the Word of God, Which Is Jesus Christ. Amen and Amen.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/christianity-articles/the-word-of-god-which-is-jesus-christ-4229772.html

About the Author

T.O.D. Johnston was licensed to preach the Gospel by Paran Baptist Church on May 26, 1979. He has been a student of Scripture since 1972. T.O.D. taught art for the Florence School District #3 for over 30 years, and lives in Lake City, SC with his wife. View more lessons at his Bible Study Lessons page.

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Often I am asked what I think about computer games ?

Author: educationworldwide

Often I am asked what I think about computer games, so I have put down my two pennies worth here for anyone who is interested.

I remember when I was about ten how I would play cops and robbers; personally I always liked playing the bad guy!

Normally just after Christmas or a birthday I would have additional caps for my tin gun.  I can still remember the thrill that short sharp pop-bang would make when I pulled the trigger and aimed it at an unsuspecting passerby in the street below my bedroom window.

On one particularly good day I managed to “kill” the milkman, the postman twice, 5 to 10 seagulls and the local cat at least nine times. Although I also recall how absolutely mortified I was later that day when my partner in crime, Andrew also aged 10, told me that “I ‘didn’t get him”.

Although he was in point of fact, at point blank range!

(“You didn’t get me”, he would shout, “I have my super invisible armour on.”)

Well, the days of playing cops and robbers may now be few and far between for the children of today, I don’t even recall the last time I saw a child dressed up as a cowboy or such like.

With the advent of Nintendo, PlayStation, XBox, and laser tag (Ha, take that Andrew just, try and wear your super invisible armour now!). Of course, I’m sure now Andrew would use a cheat code so he couldn’t be hit, but that is beside the point.

Video games have become the pastime of today’s youth, and will ultimately be the pastime of tomorrow’s work force too. Video games are here to stay, but they are here to stay in different intensity and forms.

Possibly you’re thinking that you don’t want your child to sit around all day on his or her behind playing a game which requires only the full force of both their thumbs.

Perhaps their time would be much better served getting a bit of fresh air outside of the house?

I’ll admit video games can be quite a violent medium, and you don’t want to expose your child to inappropriate images, all be it computer generated.  I hear you, I understand and I agree with you. The thing is though, not all video games are about violence.

Although let us be very clear – video games are not toys, they do not allow for imagination which is the key to development.

Toys and play in general, are very important when it comes to learning about the world around.  Children use toys to discover their identity, help their bodies grow strong, learn cause and effect, explore relationships and practice skills they may use as adults.

Older young people use toys and play to form and strengthen social bonds, teach, remember and reinforce lessons, discover their identity, exercise their minds and bodies, explore relationships, practice skills and decorate their living spaces.

The computer game is merely a distraction, a cheap babysitter, a substitute carer if you will.

If you must buy a computer game, do not buy them from a toy store as you will end up wasting money; Spider-man 2 is 30 Euros at Toys World and 9 Euros at Games World – there is a clear lesson here folks, shop around.

So you decide to buy a computer game for your child, you may not be happy about it, but well, what can you do, all the kids seem to have them and you don’t want to seem like an ogre do you?

Although before you reach the shop you need to set out some guidelines with your child; be firm about what games are acceptable and at what price.  Now many games do have aspects of violence so you need to decide up to what level you’re willing to be flexible.  A bonus here is that larger gaming zones (shops) will have stations set up so you can watch the game being played.

So after some pesky pestering by the little cherub you agree to hand over your hard earned cash and the next thing your child is playing contently away in some room in the house.

Now the danger here is that you feel your job is complete.

If you are going to let them play video games then do show an interest in what’s happening on the screen, don’t just look at the monitor in passing and then walk off in revulsion when a bad guy is turned into goo. Try and find out the motives for the actions being played out on the screen and possibly talk through what’s happening when they finish playing if you’re concerned.

By talking with your child and of course depending on their maturity level, you should be able to come to some logical conclusions about what is happening on the screen and how they feel about the game.

If in doubt you can always replace the game with a non-electronic toy. I can highly recommend a family game of monopoly, or chess. Or my all time favourite, a cap gun and a visit to the park to shoot at the invisible tree monsters.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/computer-games-articles/often-i-am-asked-what-i-think-about-computer-games-4234797.html

About the Author

Author is an international educator with expereince of more than three decade. Here i am to share my and my colleague  thought about education.

Dr. Paul F. Meekin
Headmaster
Trio World School
3/5, Kodigehalli Main Road
Sahakar Nagar
Bangalore – 560 092
INDIA

Ph   : + (91-80) 4061 1222
Fax : + (91-80) 2355 1228
Website : www.TrioWorldSchool.com

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Basic Strategy For Article Marketing – Do What Your Teacher Taught You

Author: Christian A. Lautenschleger

Article marketing is an extremely popular way for affiliate marketers to gain, free organic traffic to their website(s).  But it also entails writing, which can scare many budding affiliate marketers.  Remember what your teach taught you about writing five paragraph essays?  Well, that is also a great basic strategy for article marketing.  If you can write an introductory paragraph, explaining about what you will write, three paragraphs highlighting the meat of the article, and an article concluding what you wrote, you will be on your way to writing great affiliate articles!

It is a great basic strategy for article marketing because it is simple.  You want to be able to write about a topic, and give at least three sub-topics about which to write.  You do not always have to write very long and verbose articles, but it is nice to have a few thoughts to really give your audience something to crew and digest.

You also want three body articles to give you article content.  You, of course, do not want to write articles so long that they are hard to follow – break them up in that case.  But you also do not want a few sentence-long articles.  In that case, try to combine a couple sentence-long paragraphs into one paragraph.  It will look like better writing practice. Take your time while thinking about what to write, so you can create smooth transitioning sentences and paragraphs.  No, you will not be graded by your least favorite English teacher, but it will look better if when you write an article online, you use proper English.  Do you look for proper English when reading articles online?

Try to keep from writing too many articles that include too many bullet point paragraphs.  At times, they are appropriate, but they should not substitute for actual paragraphs.  If you are able to write about articles properly, you should be able to construct paragraphs without having to resort to create excessive bullet points.

This article exemplified why writing five paragraph articles can be easy to create.  Without spending too much time, I was able to create an article of five paragraphs, covering several different topic about which I wanted to discuss.  With practice, this method will become easy.  If you have a formula you use, it will become more easy for your when you sit down and write an article.  Practice makes perfect.  I have written more during the past month than anytime in college.  And I graduate with two liberal arts majors (OK, I wrote longer papers in college, but that was once or twice per quarter – nothing of the frequency with which I write today).  Try this technique for your next few articles and see if this basic strategy for article marketing works as well now as it did when your teachers taught it to you.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/article-marketing-articles/basic-strategy-for-article-marketing-do-what-your-teacher-taught-you-4230040.html

About the Author

My name is Christian A. Lautenschleger and I founded Contemporary Marketing Success. I started the website to help people become successful internet marketers. It can be very frustrating for beginners at affiliate and internet marketing, and I want to help the budding marketer through their initial struggles.

Please visit Contemporary Marketing Success to read more articles, motivation, and suggestions about the most conducive affiliate marketing tool online.