There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
Jesus wants us to act, live, and speak just like Him. That’s why the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us as believers. The Holy Spirit animates our lives so that we can fulfill God’s purpose in the world.
The Lord’s Supper and baptism are signs and seals of God’s redemptive promises to His church. Today, R.C. Sproul discusses the importance of the sacraments.
2:16 Because God has completely reconciled believers to himself, they are free from condemnation and from practicing customs required for God’s covenant people in the past (Rm 8:1). Against this, the Colossian believers were apparently pressured by some in the church to observe Jewish dietary laws and holy days.[1]
2:16judge The Greek word used here, krinō, can mean “to condemn”; it also can refer to assessing value.
eating or drinking The criteria listed in this verse correspond with Jewish practices like food laws and calendar observances.[2]
2:16food and drink … a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. The false teacher(s) were advocating a number of Jewish observances, arguing that they were essential for spiritual advancement. On “new moon,” see note on Num. 28:11–15.[3]
2:16 Once again the Apostle Paul is ready to make the application of what he has just been stating. We might summarize the foregoing as follows: The Colossians had died to all efforts to please God by the flesh. They had not only died, but they had been buried with Christ and had risen with Christ to a new kind of life. Therefore they should be done forever with the Judaizers and Gnostics, who were trying to draw them back to the very things to which the Colossians had died. So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths. All human religions place men under bondage to ordinances, rules, regulations, and a religious calendar. This calendar usually includes annual observances (holy days), monthly festivals (new moons), or weekly holidays (sabbaths). The expression “Therefore let no one judge you” means that a Christian cannot be justly condemned by others if, for instance, he eats pork, or if he fails to observe religious festivals or holy days. Some false cults, such as Spiritism, insist on their members abstaining from meats. For centuries Roman Catholics were not supposed to eat meat on Friday. Many churches require abstinence from certain foods during Lent. Others, like the Mormons, say that a person cannot be a member in good standing if he drinks tea or coffee. Still others, notably the Seventh Day Adventists, insist that a person must keep the Sabbath in order to please God. The Christian is not under such ordinances. For a fuller treatment of the law, the Sabbath, and legalism, see the excurses at Matthew 5:18, 12:8, and Galatians 6:18.[4]
2:16
NASB
“let no one act as your judge”
NKJV
“let no one judge you”
NRSV
“do not let anyone condemn you”
TEV
“let no one make rules”
NJB
“never let anyone criticize you”
This is a PRESENT IMPERATIVE with NEGATIVE PARTICLE, which meant to stop an act already in process. This referred to (1) matters of food (cf. 1 Tim. 4:3); (2) special days (cf. Rom. 14:5; Gal. 4:10), or (3) the worship of these angelic levels (cf. vv. 8, 20). There is an obvious parallel between v. 16 and v. 18. Be careful of religious legalism whether Jewish, Greek, or modern.[5]
Particular matters of concern (verse 16)
The actual matters of concern had to do with food and drink on the one hand, and sacred times and seasons on the other. Since the language used seems to imply categories rather than particular items, we are justified in classifying the two areas of debate in more general terms. First, there are those things which (according to the visitors) an authentic spirituality could not allow, and therefore must forbid. It simply could not do with them. Secondly, there are those things which an authentic spirituality cannot do without (so it was claimed) and therefore must demand. These were matters of religious obligation.
a. Things forbidden
Here, it was a matter of certain unlawful foods and drinks. As drink is mentioned, these prohibitions go beyond Old Testament regulations. So it appears that the principles of the new teachers were based on an enthusiasm for a measure of asceticism, as well as on loyalty to old patterns of spirituality.
Every Bible reader knows that Paul was no enemy of self-discipline in the life of the Christian, but rather the reverse. It is axiomatic in his portrait of the effective servant of God that appetites will need disciplining, and self-control will need to be exercised, if time is to be found for prayer, if the body is to know its master, and if the ultimate prize is to be won. We also know that Paul respected the scruples of other believers in matters of abstaining from certain food and drink even when he did not share those convictions.2 Now since Paul clearly does not approve the prohibitions of the visitors, we must assume that their teaching in this regard was not personal and voluntary, but compulsory for all who would attain spiritual perfection.
Such prohibitions Paul always regarded as false. In the apostle’s teaching it is sub-Christian to deny the good gifts of a bountiful Creator in the cause of an advanced spirituality. This should not need arguing with the Colossians after his exposition in the previous chapter of Christ as the source of the created order. It would be a strange road to Christlikeness to refuse the blessings that Christ had made.
As a fascinating example of Paul’s dealings with immature believers tempted to move too far in the direction of asceticism, 1 Corinthians 7 repays more careful and sympathetic study than it often receives. Coming from a background in which marriage was all but obligatory, Paul justifies the unmarried state as also a good gift of God. But his approval of the celibate life is ‘very sharply qualified’ to use C. K. Barrett’s words. And from Paul there is no support whatever for the idea that refusal of marriage is a safer and quicker route to holiness. Indeed without a gift from God (Gk. charisma), it may well be the opposite. Paul’s commendation of the single life is based on quite other grounds.
b. Things required
This second category concerned the keeping of numerous festivals and fixed celebrations as indispensable means of grace for those aspiring to sanctity.
Festival, new moon, and sabbath is the terminology of the Old Testament, and makes a useful summary of annual, monthly and weekly celebrations. But here again it is doubtful if the visitors were content with traditional patterns. They were more thoroughgoing than that, and they were children of their own times. The fact that these sacred seasons are calendar feasts marked as yearly, monthly and weekly, strongly suggests, as Lohse puts it, that ‘the sacred days must be kept for the sake of “the elements of the universe” who direct the course of the stars and thus prescribe minutely the order of the calendar’.6
This may be too severe on the visitors. In as much as they were Christian in their basic allegiance, they must have known that the marking of times and seasons in the Old Testament was a recognition of the authority of the Lord over the whole circle of life. But inasmuch as they recognized the authority of other powers in the heavenlies the temptation was there to stretch traditional and scriptural terms to absorb pagan content (the essence of syncretism).
Should present-day readers doubt the power of the ‘elemental spirits’ of paganism to influence the calendar, let them consider the English names of our own seven days of the week. Sunday is a day sacred to the sun, Monday to the moon, Tuesday to Tiw = Mars, Wednesday to Woden = Mercury, Thursday to Thor = Jove, Friday to Frig = Venus and Saturday to Saturn. With that in mind it is not difficult to understand the dilemma of those who had lived as pagans, but had recently confessed Christ as Lord. Does this mean a total rejection of all other ‘authorities’, hence alienating one’s own people, and, apparently, showing one’s new faith to be intolerant and severe? Or is it possible to make the transition easier by assimilating some of the old familiar interpretations and customs into the faith of Christ?
Unfortunately it seems that the visitors had taken this second course, and had constructed a new religious calendar of fasts and feasts, based on Old Testament models, but ‘enriched’ as they might claim by the best ‘insights’ and treasures of paganism. Then the keeping of such a calendar, with its regular rhythm of festival, prayer and praise, may well have been mandatory for all who would scale the spiritual heights.
But, as we shall now see, all this found in Paul a robust opponent.[6]
2:16 / Christ’s defeat of these evil powers forms the basis for Paul’s polemic in this section. Therefore refers back to the work of Christ and his victory over those spiritual rulers and authorities that were thought to exercise power over the Christian. Christ has freed these believers, and they must guard that freedom by resisting all attempts from the false teachers to subject them to another set of legalistic rules and regulations.
This entire passage is somewhat difficult to interpret. First, Paul uses slogans and phrases that were employed by the false teachers. Though these would have been familiar to the Colossians, they are difficult for the modern reader to understand. Second, in spite of such specific references to the beliefs and practices of the false teachers, it is impossible to identify the heresy with any precision. Some of the things that Paul says look Jewish; others appear more pagan and Hellenistic. A third alternative, and one that attracts the most attention, is that the heresy represents a form of syncretism that combined elements from a number of religious sources (see discussion in the introduction).
Identifying the heresy is not essential for understanding Paul’s basic message. He wants to reassure his readers that, by virtue of the person and work of Christ, they have no need to surrender their freedom to legalism (do not let anyone judge you). The anyone refers to the person(s) attempting to set up as a judge over members of the congregation who do not follow certain laws with respect to food and the observance of religious festivals.
These regulations go far beyond the requirements of the OT, since the food laws that governed the people of the old covenant were set aside by Christ (Mark 7:19) and declared nonbinding upon the Gentiles (Acts 10:9–16; 15:19–29). One gets the distinct impression that the regulations threatening the Colossians were all man-made traditions. People in the ancient world would abstain from certain foods for a variety of reasons (cf. Rom. 14:17, 21; 1 Tim. 4:3).
The Colossians are not to be bound by rules with respect to food (what you eat or drink) or the religious calendar (a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day). It is quite possible that these “special days” governed what a person might or might not eat as well. At any rate, Paul declares freedom from all regulations imposed by the false teachers. By submitting to such regulations, the Colossians would be acknowledging the continuing authority of the evil powers over them. They need to remember that in Christ they have been set free from such tyranny (2:20).[7]
16 The first part of the practical manifestations of the theology of the halakic mystics begins with this exhortation: because of Christ’s cosmic victory, the Colossians are not to let the opponents191 “judge” them. By this word, once one factors in “disqualify” in 2:18, Paul and Timothy mean exclude from the salvation that comes from God. It might be asked how the halakic mystics judged. As was suggested in our exegesis of 2:14, we need to combine the cheirographon of 2:14 with our passage’s specific concerns (2:16–23) to see the specifics that are “written” onto the cheirographon that was used against the Colossians. These halakic demands, metaphorically speaking, were inscribed on that cheirographon, and Paul here relieves the Colossians of those demands.
A commonplace among all Jews, including Paul, entailed a future scenario in which God would render final judgment on all humans. But even standing on the belief that God was the judge did not prevent Jews or the earliest Christians from playing the part of God (cf. Jas 4:10–12). However, moral judgment is needed. Hence, the common conviction that God is the judge did not prevent the tough language of Jesus (cf. Matt 7:1–5 with 23:1–39) or the apostles (e.g., Jude). Paul can render judgment routinely in matters both small and great (e.g., 1 Cor 2:2; 7:37; 10:15; 2 Cor 2:1; 5:14; Titus 3:12); believers, Paul says, will render judgment on both the world and angels (1 Cor 6:2–3). And Paul himself, as well as other Christians, seems to render a potent moral, if not ultimate, judgment on others (1 Cor 5:3, 12; 6:1–3; 11:13). Yet, there are signs of concern about judging others: God is the final judge, so those who judge the gospel-shaped churches of Paul are acting outside God’s will (1 Cor 10:29; Rom 2:1, 3; 14:3–4, 5, 10, 13). Much of this back-and-forth dynamic in the New Testament texts comes to expression in Rom 14:10: “You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.”
Our bafflement about consistency may well be resolved by the variant resonances of what krinō (“judge”) means in Greek. In one context it can mean to render a decision, while in another place refer to a moral discernment, and in yet other places be about the final ultimate judgment (for God alone). The term illustrates the necessity of paying close attention to context for clues. The context in Pauline literature provides clarity for the meaning of krinō in our text. Colossians 2:16 has the term krinō, while 2:18 gets far more specific in its use of the term “disqualify” (katabrabeuō). Now we turn to a similar reflection from Paul in Rom 14:3, which has krinō, and then both Rom 14:3 and 10 use the term “treat with contempt” (exoutheneō), which is countered with this reminder: “for we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.” My suggestion, then, is that we would do well to combine these two passages to enter into the mind of Paul. The term krinō in Col 2:16 means to render final judgment on someone, that is, to play the part of God. In fact, it could be translated “exclude” someone from the final salvation of God. This understanding explains much of Paul’s passion in Colossians, especially visible in 2:16–23.
The next element of our section concerns the practices the halakic mystics required: “what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.” At first glance this is simple: Paul and Timothy here are referring to representatives of Judaism who insist on Torah observance according to some halakic set of interpretations and practices (e.g., Lev 10:9; Num 6; Judg 13:5, 7; 16:17; Amos 2:11–12; Gal 4:10). However, first glances are not entirely reliable, and hence some scholars think Paul is referring to some kind of Hellenistic Judaism that may better be explained through the lens of severe asceticism (e.g., Col 2:23; 1 Tim 4:3) or to an angelic worship or some kind of intense visionary experience. A third interpretation may be added on the basis of the widely neglected Acts 15:23–29, namely, that the so-called opponents contended that Gentile converts ought to live according to the Torah as designed for Gentiles living in the land (e.g., Lev 17:10–14; 18:6–18, 26). Complicating the issues is how one construes the intent of these practices, with some thinking it pertains to the desire for transmigration of the soul, for confidence in halakic purity status, while yet others see a yearning for religious revelations (see Col 2:18). There is no need for an extensive discussion of these terms because this time the first blush remains very probable: when one combines “eat or drink” with “New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day” and notes how these terms are used in Paul’s writings (Gal 4:10; Rom 14) and those he has in mind in those texts (Jews each time), one is led firmly to the conclusion that the halakic mystics believed Gentile converts were to observe these very features of the Torah and its necessary halakic rulings.198
With this matter settled, we look now at the precise terms, beginning with the first two of the five observances listed: “eat or drink.” The Torah specified which foods were pure/kosher (e.g., Lev 7:26–27; 11:1–23; Deut 12:16, 23–24; 14:3–21), and food laws became a notable symbolic feature of Jewish faithful observance, at least from the days of Daniel on (e.g., Dan 1:3–16; 10:3): “But many in Israel stood firm and were resolved in their hearts not to eat unclean food. They chose to die rather than to be defiled by food or to profane the holy covenant; and they did die” (1 Macc 1:62–63).
This observance became both a challenge and then a successful modus operandi for observant Jews in the diaspora, as seen in Josephus (Jewish Antiquities 14.261): “Now the senate and people have decreed to permit them to assemble together on the days formerly appointed, and to act according to their own laws; and that such a place be set apart for them by the praetors, for the building and inhabiting the same, as they shall esteem fit for that purpose: and that those that take care of the provisions for the city, shall take care that such sorts of food as they esteem fit for their eating, may be imported into the city” (also 14.226, 245). Gentiles had their own usually negative opinions of Jewish food laws, which in pressing upon the Colossian Christians, the Jewish halakic mystics were creating a second boundary marker to cross.
The issue of Torah observance with respect to food and drink became a burning issue in the Pauline mission because it was common to purchase food and drink that had been offered to idols. The issue probably lurks from behind the shadows of rhetoric in Gal 2:15–21 (cf. Acts 10:14; 11:3; 1 Cor 8:1–13; 10:14–33). This Jewish evidence is made even more forceful by the language of Rom 14:5–6, 14, 17, 20, 23, where we read about not only food and drink but also feast days and judging one another (14:3–4) in that Jew-Gentile struggle. The texts deserve to be cited here to make the point clear:
One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. (Rom 14:5–6)
I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. (Rom 14:14)
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Rom 14:17)
Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. (Rom 14:20)
But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. (Rom 14:23)
To finish this point off, we need to observe the focus in Col 2:21 on abstinence (“Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”). We can safely see the language pointing to Jewish food laws that focused—as is the case for all observant diaspora Jews—on what not to eat or touch.
If we then skip to “Sabbath,” which is peculiarly and profoundly Jewish (Gen 2:2–3; Exod 20:8–11; 31:13–17; Deut 5:12–15; Isa 56:6; Ezek 20:12; Mark 2:23–3:5), we are left with a beginning and ending that makes Jewish Torah central to the halakic mystics. This connection enables us to say without hesitation that both “religious festival” and “New Moon celebration” refer to Jewish calendrical concerns. Festivals are common and widely attended in the Jewish calendar (Lev 23; Num 28–29), as was therefore the regulation of the New Moon (Num 10:10; Isa 1:13) so one would know when to celebrate feasts. The three combined are perhaps a typical Jewish way of referring to the Jewish calendrical life. Even more, they are often used with reference to offerings and sacrifices on those days (e.g., Num 28:9–10; 1 Chr 23:31; 2 Chr 31:3; Neh 10:33; Isa 1:13–14; Ezek 45:17; Hos 2:11; Jubilees 2:19–20; 6:34–38; War Scroll [1QM] II, 4–6). That is, perhaps the halakic mystics of Paul were referring here to the sacrificial system in Judaism (the temple) even more directly. The combination of these two concerns—food laws and calendar/sacrificial system—yields a life regulated by Torah and in accordance with the Jewish communities of the diaspora, including regular Sabbath rest. Thus Dunn: “We must conclude, therefore, that all the elements in this verse bear a characteristically and distinctively Jewish color, that those who cherished them so critically must have been the (or some) Jews of Colossae, and that their criticism arose from Jewish suspicion of Gentiles making what they would regard as unacceptable claims to the distinctive Jewish heritage without taking on all that was most distinctive of that heritage.”207
We are thus drawn into the orbit of Gal 4:9–10 because (1) the same laws are mentioned and (2) the stoicheia are also mentioned there and shortly in our text at Col 2:20. The supposed distance of the opponents at Galatia and the opponents at Colossae has now dwindled to a common glance across the street.
We are thus looking here at proselyte customs; one way to explain our situation is to say the halakic mystics believed Gentiles who believed in Jesus were Godfearers until they converted the whole way, which entailed circumcision (only perhaps also baptism) and the assumption of the yoke of the Torah (Jdt 14:10; Jos. Asen.). The Christian readers of Paul today who do not comprehend the compellingness of the logic of halakic mystics are failing to think how the observant thought.
Paul’s no-holds-barred riposte is that surrender to the halakic mystics is theological and eschatological departure, but the argument is also ecclesial (see Col 3:11). They would be abandoning what God is doing in Christ. But we need to add that Paul’s instructions do not mean Jewish believers in Christ were to surrender food laws or the calendar or the Jewish Sabbath/sacrificial system. Rather, they were not to impose them on Gentiles as a condition of full conversion.[8]
16 Don’t let anyone sit in judgement on you, he tells them, in matters of food or drink. He had said this sort of thing already when addressing a situation in which people of different practices and traditions in such matters shared one Christian fellowship: “let not him who abstains pass judgment on him who eats” (Rom. 14:3). But now he is not simply referring to an attempt to impose Jewish food laws on Gentile believers, nor yet to a ban on eating the flesh of animals that had been sacrificed to pagan deities—a subject which had been discussed in his correspondence with the church of Corinth (1 Cor. 8:1–13; 10:19–30). The Jewish food laws did not extend to beverages, but here the reference is to more stringent regulations of an ascetic nature, perhaps involving the renunciation of animal flesh and of wine and strong drink (after the Nazirite fashion). In any case, Paul lays down the principle of Christian liberty in all such matters, in the spirit of his Master who, by one comprehensive pronouncement, “declared all foods clean” (Mark 7:19).
Elsewhere, in dealing with these matters, the apostle introduces a further principle which might impose a voluntary limitation on one’s Christian liberty—the principle of respect for the tender conscience of a “weaker brother” (Rom. 14:13–21; 1 Cor. 8:7–13). But this latter principle is invoked when Christians are asserting their liberty at all costs (even at the cost of Christian charity); at Colossae it is precisely Christian liberty that needs to be asserted in face of specious attempts to undermine it.
And don’t let anyone sit in judgment on you, he goes on, in respect of holy days. The observance of the sacred calendar, like the observance of the levitical food laws, was obligatory on Jews. But Christians are free from obligations of this kind. If a Christian decides to abstain from certain kinds of food and drink, or to set aside certain days or seasons for special observance, commemoration, or meditation, good: these are questions to be settled between the individual conscience and God. Concerning such questions Paul writes in another letter: “Let everyone be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. He also who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; while he who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God” (Rom. 14:5–6). But to regard them as matters of religious obligation is a retrograde step for Christians to take. When the churches of Galatia were minded to adopt the observance of special “days, and months, and seasons, and years,” Paul told them that this was nothing less than placing themselves afresh under the yoke of the “weak and beggarly” elemental ordinances which regulated these time divisions (Gal. 4:9–10). He now uses a similar argument for the benefit of the Colossian church, which was being criticized by the innovators for not observing festivals and new moons and sabbaths.
Most cultures had their festivals, and many observed the appearance of the new moon (which was normally important for the ordering of the calendar), but the sabbath was peculiarly Jewish. It is therefore probable that the festivals in question are those of the Jewish year, and that the reference to the new moon is to the Jewish celebration of the first of the month (Num. 10:10; 28:11–15). Like the Galatians at an earlier date, the Colossians are now told that the observance of these occasions as obligatory is an acknowledgment of the continuing authority of the powers through which such regulations were mediated—the powers that were decisively subjugated by Christ. It would be preposterous indeed for those who had reaped the benefit of Christ’s victory to put themselves voluntarily under the control of the powers which he had conquered.
Had this lesson been kept in mind in post-apostolic generations, there might have been less friction than there was in the church over the divergent calculations of the date of Easter (whether during the quartodeciman controversy or later). No doubt it was awkward (as it still is) for Christians to have differing procedures for fixing the anniversary of their Lord’s passion and resurrection when they wished to commemorate the saving events year by year; but the adjustment of such discrepancies is a matter of expediency, not of principle. And sabbatarian controversies among Christians would be laid to rest if serious account were taken of the injunction: “Let no one sit in judgment on you with regard to a sabbath.”105[9]
16 Because of what God has accomplished through Christ (note the “therefore”), Paul commands the Colossians not to let anyone judge them with reference to diet or days. Until this point in the epistle, Paul has spoken of the “philosophy” in rather general and polemical terms (1:23; 2:4, 8). Here, however, the reader is belatedly given concrete clues concerning the commitments of the movement against which Paul is reacting. (It is unlikely that circumcision [2:11, 13] was a point of contention in the light of Paul’s pacific treatment of the topic [so also Kümmel, 338 n. 4; Lincoln, 623].) It seems there were some (the pronoun is once again indefinite [cf. 2:4, 8]) who were seeking to act as umpires over what the Colossians ate and drank (cf. 2:21). Controversy over “appropriate” foodstuffs also arose among Roman and Corinthian Christians (Ro 14:1–4, 6, 13–23; 1 Co 8:1–12; 10:14–11:1). A number of early believers, presumably under the influence of their Jewish brothers and sisters, were scrupulous about what they ate and drank and in some instances about where and with whom they dined (Ac 11:2–8; 15:19–20; Gal 2:11–14). (On difficulties arising over dietary issues among Pauline Christians, see my Conflict at Thessalonica, 182–85.) Concerns stemming from Jewish purity laws appear to have prompted some believers with whom Paul interacted to abstain from certain food and drink. Ascetic tendencies (extending even to abstinence from sexual relations) also seem to have arisen from a desire to enhance one’s spirituality and to enable closer communion with Deity (1 Co 7–10). Dietary scruples and revelatory longings appear to be linked in the Colossian context. It appears that personal purity gained through the swearing off of certain foodstuffs was thought to foster and facilitate mystical spiritual encounters. The tack Paul takes here in addressing dietary issues differs from that which he employs elsewhere. While the apostle enjoined the “influential strong” in Corinth and Rome to acquiesce and accept the “vulnerable weak,” he commands the Colossians who were being regarded and castigated as “spiritually inferior and inept” to ascertain and assert their standing and status in Christ (cf. Bruce, 114; O’Brien, 139).
In addition to matters of eating and drinking, the apostle addresses calendric concerns. Certain unnamed people were apparently advocating dutiful observance of certain days, including religious festivals, New Moons, and Sabbaths. As with food and drink, the valuing of particular days has precursors and parallels in Judaism (Eze 45:17; in Paul, cf. Ro 14:5–6; Gal 4:10). Presumably the “philosophy” was prescribing certain religious activities in conjunction with these special days, perhaps with a promise that these observances would enhance congregants’ purity and spirituality. It is now impossible to know precisely who was seeking to pass judgment on the Colossians (“[Jewish—] Christian insiders” and/or “Hellenistic Jewish outsiders”?) and exactly what motivated them to act as self-appointed arbiters (Jewish regulations and/or theosophical asceticism?). The paucity of textual particulars results in interpretive uncertainties. While such ambiguity does not sate our curiosities, “biblical studies are not helped by being certain about the uncertain” (Brown, 596). Nonetheless, the following verse makes it clear that Paul perceived enforced regulations regarding diet and days to be both peripheral and passé.[10]
[1] Köstenberger, A. J. (2017). Colossians. In E. A. Blum & T. Wax (Eds.), CSB Study Bible: Notes (p. 1896). Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Col 2:16). Lexham Press.
[8] McKnight, S. (2018). The Letter to the Colossians (N. B. Stonehouse, F. F. Bruce, G. D. Fee, & J. B. Green, Eds.; pp. 263–268). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
[10] Still, T. D. (2006). Colossians. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Ephesians–Philemon (Revised Edition) (Vol. 12, pp. 316–317). Zondervan.
Affliction is one of God’s medicines. By it He often teaches lessons which would be learned in no other way. By it He often draws souls away from sin and the world, which would otherwise have perished everlastingly.
Health is a great blessing, but sanctified disease is a greater. Prosperity and worldly comfort, are what all naturally desire; but losses and crosses are far better for us, if they lead us to Christ. Thousands at the last day, will testify with David, “It is good for me that I have been afflicted.” (Psalm. 119:71.)
His servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their forehead. (Revelation 22:3-4)
Three choice blessings will be ours in the gloryland.
“His servants shall serve him.” No other lords shall oppress us, no other service shall distress us. We shall serve Jesus always, perfectly, without weariness, and without error. This is heaven to a saint: in all things to serve the Lord Christ and to be owned by Him as His servant is our soul’s high ambition for eternity.
“And they shall see his face.” This makes the service delightful: indeed, it is the present reward of service. We shall know our Lord, for we shall see Him as He is. To see the face of Jesus is the utmost favor that the most faithful servant of the Lord can ask. What more could Moses ask than-“Let me see thy face?”
“And his name shall be in their foreheads.” They gaze upon their Lord till His name is photographed upon their brows. They are acknowledged by Him, and they acknowledge Him. The secret mark of inward grace develops into the public sign-manual of confessed relationship.
O Lord, give us these three things in their beginnings here that we may possess them in their fullness in Thine own abode of bliss!
I thought the Christian life was going to be easier than this. Have these words ever entered your mind? Sometimes we come into the family of God thinking that our heavenly Father will fix all our problems and devote Himself to our happiness and comfort. However, that is not the reality portrayed in Scripture. Paul was a man whom the Lord used greatly, and yet his life was anything but easy.
In fact, at one point, the apostle thought his pain was too much to bear, and he begged God to remove it. There’s nothing wrong with asking the Lord to relieve our suffering, but what should our response be if He doesn’t? Paul probably had no idea that His experience would find its way into the Bible, to comfort and guide believers throughout the ages. The promise God gave him applies to us as well: “My grace is sufficient for you” (v. 9).
God’s grace could be defined as His provision for us at the point of our need. The problem is that sometimes it doesn’t seem as if the Lord truly is meeting our need. But He frequently sees deficiencies, outcomes, and complications that we don’t. His goals for us involve spiritual growth, the development of Christlike character, and strong faith. And trials play a vital role in achieving these.
The important issue is how we respond. If all you want is relief, you could descend into anger and doubt. But if your desire is to become the person God wants you to be, you’ll see each trial as an opportunity for Christ to display His character and strength in you.
“I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
Have you ever had a dream die? Something you wanted to accomplish in life but “life” got in the way? A desired friendship dissolved because of distance or misunderstanding? Marriage and family never became a reality? What you thought was the call of God never materialized?
Madeleine L’ Engle writes, “Until I can mourn the loss of a dream I cannot be comforted enough to have vision for a fresh one.” Many North Americans are not comfortable with mourning. We feel it is appropriate to weep at the loss of a loved one, but when the weeping goes on for what we believe is “too long,” we counsel the individual to “get over it,” face reality, or any number of other equally comfortless bromides.
The Bible describes several people who lost their dreams: Naomi turned bitter when her dream of husband and family dissolved; Job’s wealth, health and family evaporated and he had many questions of God; Hannah waited “too long” for a child; after Jesus’ death, two of his friends walked sadly to the town of Emmaus and said, “we had hoped that He was the one.”
Since it is God’s great pleasure to give us new dreams and fresh hopes, perhaps it’s time to sit quietly in His presence, mourn the loss of our dream, then listen to the still, small voice of the Giver of Dreams for the better things He has planned.
Father, weeping isn’t comfortable and often isn’t socially acceptable, but thank you for knowing and understanding my tears and loss. Help me to feel your care, then move on to seek your new dreams for my life.
Lives Sacrificed On The Altar Of Scientific Progress: New Research Seeks To Create Synthetic Human Life “And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them” (Genesis 11:6). These chilling words from the account of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11 came to mind regarding this summary of a news article reporting on horrific new research out of Israel that created “‘complete’ models of human embryos” in the lab. These scientists, by disregarding the value of human life, have decided that “nothing will now be impossible” as they try to create synthetic human life.
Netanyahu to meet Elon Musk on Monday Prime Minister’s office confirms the two will meet to discuss artificial intelligence technology prior to Netanyahu’s arrival at the UN General Assembly in New York where he is to meet with Biden
I’ll break Israel’s strongest’: Anti-Israel fighter challenges, Israeli fighter answers Khamzat Chimaev, a Chenchen Mixed Martial Arts fighter who competes in the UFC, took to social media on Thursday to express his support for Palestinian Muslims and make threats against Jewish Israelis. The fighter added, “Give me the strongest man in Israel, I will break him.” A short time later, Israeli UFC fighter Natan Levy answered the Chechen fighter’s antisemitic challenge.
Russia hunts for Ukrainian warplanes used in Crimea strikes Kyiv said on Friday a Russian drone attack overnight on a region that hosts a Ukrainian military airfield showed Moscow was searching for warplanes involved in strikes this week on Russian-occupied Crimea.
DESPITE RUSSIAN WAR: Tens of thousands of Jews from around world head to Ukraine for Rosh Hashana Ukrainian warnings that the Rosh Hashana visitors cannot be properly protected fall on deaf ears. Tens of thousands of Jewish pilgrims from around the world are heading to a Hasidic pilgrimage site in Uman, Ukraine, despite the country’s ongoing war with Russia and subsequent warnings that their safety cannot be assured.
Is Syria on the verge of collapse? – analysis The country’s southern province of al-Suwayda’, whose population primarily comes from the Druze minority, is currently witnessing protests on an unprecedented scale.
Prophecies differently interpreted Mainstream Jewry, alongside Gentile Christians and Messianic Jewish Yeshua-believers, jointly believe in the fulfillment of prophecies found in the Tanakh, so called the Old Testament. However, as distinct communities, they disagree about the interpretation of a large number of those prophecies. The root reason for the interpretive differences lies in the fact that historical Judaism rejects the New Testament.
UN wants to ‘massively ramp up’ efforts against climate ‘misinformation’: spokeswoman In a speech to this summer’s Nobel Prize Summit, highlighted on X this week by podcaster Kyle Becker, Fleming said the UN has “teamed up with the platforms to elevate reliable information around COVID and climate, to amplify trusted messengers, and we have quite an army of them out there who want to take on content and promote it within their followings,
Thousands Buried in Mass Graves After Libya Flood, Death Toll Could Rise to 20,000 Thousands of people have been buried in mass graves in the city of Derna, Libyan officials said Thursday, as search teams continue to search the ruins left by devastating floods. Up to 20,000 people are feared dead, a toll that could largely have been avoided, according to the U.N.
Libyans call for inquiry as fury grows over death toll from catastrophic floods Libya’s attorney general has been asked by senior politicians to launch an urgent inquiry into the catastrophic floods that have killed tens of thousands of people, including into allegations local officials imposed a curfew on the night Storm Daniel struck.
State of Emergency declared in Maine ahead of Hurricane Lee Governor Janet Mills has declared a State of Emergency in preparation for Hurricane Lee. Hurricane Lee is expected to bring high winds, heavy rains and rough surf throughout Maine and the rest of New England.
Significant westerly wind event triggers severe weather warnings, New Zealand Over the weekend of September 16 – 17, 2023, New Zealand’s MetService forecasts an intense westerly wind event across the South Island and the southern half of the North Island. This anticipated event could be more disruptive than yesterday’s strong winds, which resulted in power outages in Wairarapa.
Lee forecast to start impacting New England today As per the National Hurricane Center’s latest advisory at 12:00 UTC (8:00 AM AST) on September 15, 2023, Hurricane Lee, currently over the western Atlantic Ocean, is anticipated to bring tropical storm conditions across parts of coastal New England by this afternoon.
Study reveals first case of MEWDS linked to COVID-19 vaccination and subsequent infection …According to the study, published in the Journal of Ophthalmic Inflammation and Infection, a 28-year-old woman with 20-20 vision in her right eye has experienced dark blind spots, phantom light flashes and deterioration of vision to 20-50 just two days after getting her second dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.
X ID Verification Goes Live X, formerly known as Twitter, has launched its ID verification feature on the platform’s web version. Premium users can now verify their identities on the platform using a government-issued ID.
Experts estimate over 20 million are already Dead due to COVID-19 vaccination & over 2 billion are Severely Injured Peeling back the layers of deception and obfuscation reveals a shocking truth that may not be all that shocking to our informed readers: Covid-19 “vaccines” are injuring and killing far more people than the government is letting on. Estimates compiled from pieced-together data suggest that as many as 20 million people worldwide have died so far from the shots, while another 2.2 billion have suffered injuries – and we are only just getting started.
Pfizer mistakenly proves original COVID Vaccine destroys the Immune System after publishing Study for new Omicron Jab We have been sold an antivaccine as a vaccine. Official Government and Pfizer statistics prove that the “old” Pfizer COVID injection destroys the immune system at a rate greater than 1% per day. Now, the newly published study for Pfizer’s new bivalent COVID vaccine, to combat both the original strain and Omicron, prove the old Covid-19 vaccine had a minus-44% negative efficacy after just 30 days. The same study also, unfortunately, proves the destruction of the immune system is only going to get worse, not better.
MARK ALEXANDER If the last civil measure to correct Democrat corruption of our Constitution is the ballot box, but your vote no longer counts, then what?
QUOTES Lack of Self-Awareness Awards “Impeachment is a serious thing. It’s not something that should be a bargaining chip … and it will just bring down this institution even further if this is the road they go down.” —Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) “I think the [Biden] impeachment inquiry is absurd. The American people want us to do something that will make their lives better, not go off on these chases and witch hunts.” —Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) Circling the Wagons “This is an essentially evidence-free impeachment and it is purely politically motivated by [Kevin] McCarthy and Donald Trump.” —Adam Schiff “There are no charges against Joe Biden, and they want to impeach the guy. That’s obviously coming from Donald Trump. … If Donald Trump were not demanding impeachment, does anybody think this would be going on?” —Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) “The purpose of what [Republicans] are doing is a politically motivated, far-right, extreme series of attacks on the president and his family that are not rooted in the truth. And I think that what we can do and what the independent press can do is to hold them accountable for those lies over and over again.” —White House Counsel’s Office spokesman Ian Sams “House Democrats will defend President Biden today. We will defend President Biden tomorrow. We will defend President Biden next week. We will defend President Biden next month. We will defend President Biden next year. We will defend President Biden until the very end.” —House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) Non Compos Mentis “I don’t know quite why, but they just knew they wanted to impeach me. And now, the best I can tell, they want to impeach me because they want to shut down the government. So look, look, I got a job to do. Everybody always asked about impeachment. I get up every day, not a joke, not focused on impeachment. I’ve got a job to do. I’ve got to deal with the issues that affect the American people every single solitary day.” —Joe Biden Baghdad Bob “Republicans in Congress … have spent all year investigating the president. That’s what they have spent all year doing, and have turned up with no evidence — none — that he did anything wrong.” —White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Grand Delusions “You’ve heard us talk about Bidenomics and how we believe [it] has turned the economy around.” —Karine Jean-Pierre “House Democrats are fighting to make life better for everyday Americans. More money, more time, more freedom.” —Hakeem Jeffries “I strongly support President Biden. He has an incredible track record of success and accomplishments on behalf of the American people.” —Hakeem Jeffries “Our administration … continues to focus on raising pay and lowering costs for workers and middle-class families.” —Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg “How we go forward has to be in a way that unifies America … and nobody is better [at] that than Joe Biden, the most emphatic — a visionary, a knowledgeable person with great judgment, a strategic thinker.” —Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “I’m very inspired by the master class of the last two and a half years. And I mean it — I mean, master class in terms of delivering results. And those results are demonstrable.” —California Governor Gavin Newsom “The Republicans are a one-trick pony talking about the president’s age. That’s all they talk about. … But we have to go out and talk about the accomplishments just as much as they talk about lies and misdirection and red herrings. We have to be solely focused on what not only this president and vice president but what this Congress has done, the Democratic Senate and the Democratic House when we had it. And I think that that’s going to prove to be a winning formula once again for all Democrats and for President Biden and … Vice President Harris.” —Biden campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond “About the president’s age — voters will see his vigor. Voters will see his accomplishments.” —Cedric Richmond “President Biden has done a terrific job on the economy. … The truth is Joe Biden has a terrific story to tell on the economy.” —Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-CA) “I think the American people, most of all, want a leader who actually gets things done, and that is what Joe Biden has accomplished.” —Kamala Harris “We see that the work that this president is doing, the economic policies that he’s put forward, is actually helping.” —Karine Jean-Pierre The BIG Lies “The buying power of your paycheck is going up.” —Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jared Bernstein “The U.S. economy is in solid shape, with real GDP growth supported by strong consumer spending that is itself supported by a strong labor market delivering wage gains, accounting for inflation.” —Jared Bernstein “There is no blocking of [oil and gas] production in the United States.” —Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm “There is no direct evidence that President Biden was involved in any way, shape, or form in Hunter Biden’s business dealings.” —Congressman Dan Goldman (D-NY) “Ground Zero in New York — I remember standing there the next day and looking at the building. I felt like I was looking through the gates of hell.” —Joe Biden, who was in Washington, DC, on September 12, 2001 “I taught at the University of Pennsylvania for four years and I used to teach political theory.” —Joe Biden “Within that broken immigration system, we are challenged by an unprecedented level of displacement in the western hemisphere of historic proportions. We have responded with a model approach that has proven to work, which is to build lawful pathways for individuals to arrive in a safe and orderly way, and to deliver consequences for those who don’t meet them.” —DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “Overall, we are seeing progress, but we’re not gonna have a constant. There are gonna be fluctuations. That is normal, just like the weather fluctuates.” —Kamala Harris vis-à-vis illegal immigration We’re Shocked — Shocked! “I don’t wanna contain China.” —Joe Biden Hot Air “The only existential threat humanity faces — even more frightening than a nuclear war — is global warming.” —Joe Biden “The Indian looks at John Wayne and points to the Union soldier and says, ‘He’s a lying, dog-faced pony soldier!’ Well, there’s a lot of lying, dog-faced pony soldiers out there about global warming.” —Joe Biden Authoritarianism “If there’s an emergency — and I’ve declared an emergency for a temporary amount of time — I can invoke additional powers. No constitutional right, in my view, including my oath, is intended to be absolute.” —New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, who banned the carrying of guns in Albuquerque for 30 days “It’s not for police to tell me what’s constitutional or not. They haven’t supported … one gun violence effort in the state of New Mexico. … These are NRA talking points about their rights and not about anybody else’s. And it’s not a ban. It’s a temporary pause so that we can make this community safer.” —Michelle Lujan Grisham Braying Jenny “In the District of Columbia a few years back, DC said, ‘We just wanna basically ban carrying guns’ — and good for DC. They said it was gonna bring down gun violence, and they were right. And then an extremist United States Supreme Court said: ‘Nope. We’re not gonna let you do it.'” —Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) Pot Calling the Kettle Black “It’s a good moment to go to the country with this bigger argument about the Republican Party … as the largest anti-democratic force on the planet.” —MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace Race Bait “Those same words that you heard in terms of wanting segregation post-Brown v. Board of Education, those same words you hear today. I was kind of gobsmacked when I was talking to [the] Southern Poverty Law Center, and they showed me the same words, ‘choice,’ ‘parental rights’ — an attempt to divide parents versus teachers. [At] that point, it was white parents versus other parents, but it’s the same kind of words.” —American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten Belly Laughs of the Week “I don’t think people give her enough credit. … People don’t understand — [Kamala Harris is] politically astute. Why would she be vice president if she were not?” —Nancy Pelosi “The president has a lot to be proud of and a lot to run on. He’s delivered some of the most consequential achievements and economic progress in generations.” —Ian Sams For more insightful quotes, see our Short Cuts.
“It’s just the next step in evolution. I’m serious,” Larry Page, the Google co-founder, said.
An engineer from Silicon Valley, California, the home to some of the latest and cutting edge technologies in the world, has said that they and others who are working on artificial intelligence are “creating God,” this all-knowing, all-powerful machine that can do it all for mankind that cuts like a double-edged sword.
Nick Bilton for Vanity Fair explored these tech engineers research to understand the process, and one researcher told him plainly:
We’re creating God. We’re creating conscious machines.
One AI engineer working on large language models (LLMs) recently told Bilton
Bilton wrote in his piece that AI has been touted as being able to ‘solve all of the world’s problems or destroy every single human on the planet in the snap of a finger—or both. Machines that will potentially answer all of our unanswerable questions: Are we alone in the universe? What is consciousness? Why are we here?’
Bilton added, ‘Thinking machines that could cure cancer and allow us to live until we’re 150 years old. Maybe even 200. Machines that, some estimate, could take over up to 30 percent of all jobs within the next decade, from stock traders to truck drivers to accountants and telemarketers, lawyers, bookkeepers, and all things creative: actors, writers, musicians, painters. Something that will go to war for us—and likely against us.’
In a span of just six months Bilton highlights just some of the things AI has transformed and openly accomplished in the world today, such as LLMs learning to “write stories in the style of Ernest Hemingway or Bugs Bunny or the King James Bible while you’re drunk with peanut butter stuck in your mouth;” or things like making highly customizable pornography, to voiceovers and music covers, to AI therapists or emulating dead relatives to keep the memories lively; and people are even “discussing using AI to create entirely new species of animals (yes, that’s real) or viruses (also real). Or exploring human characteristics, such as creating a breed of super soldiers who are stronger and have less empathy, all through AI-based genetic engineering,” Bilton writes.
It excites me and worries me in equal proportions. The upsides for this are enormous, maybe these systems find cures for diseases, and solutions to problems like poverty and climate change, and those are enormous upsides.
The downsides are humans that are displaced from leading the way, or in the worst case, extinguished entirely, [which] is terrifying.
David Chalmers, a professor of philosophy and neural science at NYU, said
Larry Page, the famed computer scientist and entrepreneur who co-founded Google, also said that the AI is on course (very soon) to reach artificial general intelligence (AGI), creating “superintelligent machines” that will simply just simply be rid of us living folk, adding that this is only the next step in human evolution.
It’s just the next step in evolution. I’m serious.
Page told Bilton’s friend during a conversation
Elon Musk has also confirmed that chaps like Page really are trying to recreate an AI God. “My perception was that Larry was not taking AI safety seriously enough. He really seems to want digital superintelligence, basically digital God, if you will, as soon as possible,” Musk said on Fox News earlier this year.
Nate Soares, executive director of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, a nonprofit focused on identifying and managing potential existential risks from AGI, chastised Page’s reckless ambitions:
If Larry Page said, ‘I’m going to obliterate the planet with a nuke and nuking the entire planet is just the natural order of things and so we shouldn’t mourn it,’ we would all say, ‘What the f***, that’s a terrible idea!’
Moreover, a political lobbyist consultant told Bilton in a statement: “All of the people leading the development of AI right now are completely disingenuous in public. They are all just in a race to be the first to build AGI and are either oblivious to the consequences of what could go wrong or they just don’t care.”
Simply put, the general consensus and open goals of the “leaders in Silicon Valley seem to think it’s time that we should outsource all of that time and thinking to their AIs.”
Furthermore, May Habib, who, as the cofounder and CEO of Writer – an AI start-up that helps people at companies write with the same style and voice – is still critical of the technology, blasting it for not having basically zero diversity and “no women in AI.” She did note, however, this whole craze centers around one driving principle:
You look around AI today and everyone is a generative AI capitalist. The way they sell, what they build, their vision for the future, is that it’s all about money.
Bilton additionally wrote:
In 1965 the statistician I.J. Good, when envisioning what the world would look like once we created ultraintelligent machines, said that the second machines became smarter than people, there would “unquestionably be an intelligence explosion” as machines quickly created smarter machines, and that “the intelligence of man would be left far behind.” We’d likely understand what they were doing in the same way our pets understand the words of a book we read aloud.
“Thus,” Good wrote, “the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make.”
Howbeit the geeks working on this are relentless in creating their new God that will bring prosperity to all. Sam Altman, the co-founder of Open-AI and founder of Worldcoin, is, according to Bilton, “a god. An AI messiah. He’s fawned over in news articles. Doted on in interviews.”
Hunter Biden’s indictment on gun charges may be just the start of legal troubles that could become an increasing threat to President Biden’s reelection bid.
Renowned conservative philosopher and economist Thomas Sowell joined “Life, Liberty & Levin” as its first guest of its new two-day-per-week airing to discuss his own personal pivot from Marxism as a youth to a conservative as he grew older.
Host Mark Levin described the rise of Marxist thought in America, particularly from college campuses and younger voters, asking Sowell how he reckoned with that same line of thought as he began to analyze what he was being told.
“I think there’s a very simple explanation that as of the time I became a Marxist: I didn’t know as much as I knew,” Sowell said.
“After several years of study and observing things going on and, facts carried a lot of weight with me, and when the facts kept going in the wrong way, I realized that this (Marxism) was not going to do what it claimed it was going to do.”
Sowell added that one of the reasons the social justice movement can be so attractive is that in theory it all sounds great and positive.
“It’s only after you study history that you find out just how bad, how horribly it actually turned out,” he went on.
Sowell said the proverbial social justice warriors and contemporary Marxists and leftists presume that if someone does not reach the same heights, economically or otherwise, as someone else, then they have been wronged by someone else along their life journey.
“And that’s an incredible assumption — that human beings have such enormous control over all of their own fates, individually or collectively,” he said.
“When I think back over my life – and I’m sure other people can do the same in their lives — there are times that a particular person appeared on the scene and changed the whole trajectory of my life. And it’s happened more than once, and I’m sure it’s happened in the lives of many other people.”
“There’s nobody out there who has all the incredible amount of knowledge required to take over making other people’s decisions for them.”
Born in 1930, Sowell told Salon in a 2000 interview he followed Marxism into his 20s.
The renowned conservative thinker said at the time that in the summer of 1960, he was interning for the federal government and took notice of how employment levels among Puerto Rico sugar industry workers dropped as minimum wage levels rose.
He said one explanation could be that the rise in wages were “pricing people out of their jobs,” while he added that the trade unions and politicians preferred to blame the dynamic on Caribbean hurricanes damaging cane fields.
Sowell said that situation made him think more about bureaucratic incentives rather than the goal of any particular legislation.
Former Assistant Treasury Secretary Monica Crowley discusses the Hunter Biden indictment, Democrats unconvinced of a Biden/Harris 2024 ticket, and possible alternatives. #foxnews
Should funding be reduced, or increased? Former U.S. Ambassador Jim Gilmore believes Republicans who want to back out of helping Ukraine at this critical juncture are “not conservative” and they are serving “the interest of the Russians” and endangering “the interests and safety and security of the United States of America.”
“We passed tax increases on the ultra-wealthy in 2021 with sunsets, which should have been permanent increases for them to sustainably raise revenue,” Sen. Julia Salazar (D-Brooklyn) told The Post. ”
The voice of God is the Word of God in the text of the Bible; and we must always go by what the text itself says, and not what we may feel it could mean. However, because of years of Bible studies where people sit around discussing “what does this verse mean to you” many in the visible church have forgotten: No prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. (2 Peter 1:20) — Ken Silva
Just over a year later, the report – which was quietly released by CDC and subsequently suppressed by the mainstream media – revealed that nearly half a million children and young adults have now died since the injections were approved for use on most children.
Over 118,000 of those deaths are suspected to be DIRECTLY linked to the Covid vaccines’ side effects.
Despite the staggering death toll revealed in the report, it has been met with deafening silence from the mainstream media.
The latest data from the CDC has just been published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OEC).
The OEC is an intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries and it hosts a wealth of data on excess deaths, including data from the CDC that isn’t easily available to the American people.
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