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We often use the phrase, not remembering or knowing its origin.
Last Friday, California's Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law legislation that will allow children to have 3 or more legal parents.
State Senate Bill 274, which legalizes multiple parents, is said to be a bill that will spread the expenses and care of a child around to more people, thus stabilizing the child's life.
Really?
It is actually a law hatched up to assist homosexuals. It's not about the child.
Is the handwriting on the wall regarding the family structure in America?
Earlier this year, Texas State Senator Wendy Davis burst into the media spotlight and favor as a result of her filibustering a ban on abortions at 20 weeks. During her filibuster, she said her stand for abortion is "sacred ground." Nancy Pelosi has also referred to the right to abortion as "sacred ground."
Davis now says she may run for Governor of Texas.
Yesterday I wrote about the pastor of one of America's most prominent churches telling his congregation last Sunday that not affirming homosexual behavior is sin.
Is there a message emerging? Is there handwriting on the wall? If so, what does it say?
And what is the origin of this phrase?
The origin of the phrase dates back to a wild party hosted by King Belshazzar, who in the spirit of the moment, ordered the gold and silver goblets that his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem to be brought in and used by his drunken nobles, wives and mistresses. They continued their drunken orgy, using the goblets that had been set aside for higher purposes while praising the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone.
There were consequences.
During the perverted celebration, a hand was seen writing on the wall of the chamber, scribing a mysterious message.
Thus, "The handwriting on the wall."
In panic, the King called for counsel from mystics and those of many beliefs. In the end, a Hebrew gave him the interpretation.
This event was so profound and the conditions in Babylon so perverse that it continues to impact popular culture.
George Friderich Handel wrote an oratorio about it (Belshazzar), Lord Byron, Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson wrote poems about it, James Gillray caricatured Napoleon in the role of Belshazzar and Johnny Cash wrote a song about it titled, "Belshazzer" (sic).
Cash's lyrics include, "Well, the people feasted and drank their wine and praised the false gods of his time, all holy things they scorned and mocked, But suddenly all their mocking stopped. For on the wall there appeared a hand, nothing else, there was no man, in blood the hand began to write: 'mene mene tekel upharsin'."
"He was weighed in the balance and found wanting, his kingdom was divided, couldn't stand, He was weighed in the balance and found wanting, his house was built upon the sand."
And there's more. You can Google the lyrics.
The message of the handwriting on the wall was interpreted by a Hebrew named Daniel:
Mene---to number; tekel---to weigh; upharsin---to divide.
Interpretation: "You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting."
It is a tragic story with an even more tragic ending. You can read it in both the Babylonian Talmud and in the Bible in Daniel 5.
Has that message been written on the wall of America?
I don't believe it has. However, I do believe we are staggering toward destruction if we don't change our ways.
I am going to be very direct.
The current double talking and misrepresentations of Obamacare and the so-called "government shut down" and the current attacks on marriage and the family certainly expose a deeper level of corruption in government and the culture than many imagined.
The willingness of America to not only continue to kill unborn and unwanted babies and to greatly expand the practice with federal funds is not only barbaric, but is an affront to life and the Giver of life.
This practice is not a "choice". It is a celebratory orgy of rebellion against the Creator Himself and it desecrates that which was created for higher purposes.
And it will not continue without consequences.
The restructuring of the family order and redefining marriage is desecrating the "goblets" that are set aside for the highest purposes.
We are doing everything we can possibly do to help turn the tide, stem the flow of unrighteousness in the state and the country.
And I personally thank all of you who are standing with us in this ministry.
There is a looming cultural challenge and it must be addressed in spiritual terms.
America is slouching toward Gomorrah as we denigrate marriage, elevate and celebrate perversion calling it normal and redefine the most basic component of society---the family. A social unit created by God Himself.
Our country and culture is socially stoned on an overdose of perverted "tolerance" and "diversity".
The Judeo-Christian values and principles---the foundations of our freedoms, are being mocked, scorned and eroded while we worship the false gods of our time.
When we should be sounding the alarm, many churches are silent on the very issues they should be addressing. While they "emerge" into a culture that is lost and desperately needs a moral compass, they become hardly discernible from the culture itself---all in the name of trying to "reach" the culture.
Pastors are often silenced on controversial biblical teachings by intimidation and the fear of being sued or tagged as prejudiced or bigoted or simply not being "accepted" at Rotary.
Socrates said, "An unexamined life is not worth living."
If there is a blood message on the wall, and I believe there is, it must be a last call to our country to turn from our wicked ways. To repent. To honor marriage and family. To stop killing unborn babies. To elect leaders who will honor life and the Creator of life. Leaders who will protect, not destroy our freedoms and honor the Source of those freedoms.
We must elect leadership that will strengthen, not destroy and "restructure" the family.
While America may not have reached the depths of depravity as Babylon did, we are setting the table for such an event. We are making a mockery of marriage and family--- the fundamentals of our culture and God's blessing.
Our culture is sick and we are in need of examining our lives, our motives and our actions. We need a spiritual renewal.
We don't need a prophet from another country to define our destiny. We need to wake up and return to the principles, beliefs and practices upon which this country was founded.
We need to read and understand the Bible. It is the Book for all ages. We need to be restored by the redeeming power of Jesus Christ.
And that begins by each of us recommitting our lives and living out those principles, rather than being silenced by fear.
May God help us.