The Truth Remains True — Pigs — Lot’s Wife — Flush It

Today is the day of salvation.  The Word of God declares a day when salvation will no longer be an option.  The window of opportunity is closing quickly.  Servants of the Lord Jesus Christ are called ambassadors (II Corinthians 5:20).  We are a badge of communication between two kingdoms: One, the carnal kingdom headed up by Satan, the little “g”-od of this world, versus Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.  These two kingdoms are preparing for a sudden clash and the consequences will be devastating, final, and eternal.

Jesus Christ will soon return for the children of faith.  The body of Christ will meet the King in the air.  But those who have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and chose to continue to live in their sins will be left behind without another chance of salvation.  The window of redemption will slam shut.  II Thessalonians 2:7-12, speaks of those who reject redemption and their lack of options immediately after the great taking up, commonly called the rapture:

7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

9  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

A somewhat commonly held belief is that these individuals who are left behind will be given a second chance.  To the contrary, they will be given “strong delusion.”

Those who are left behind will endure the terrible great tribulation period.  Billions will be destroyed by God’s horrific hand of judgment.  Then comes the total devastation of the prophesied battle of Armageddon, which destroys the world system as we know it.  Finally, those who rejected the cross of Christ will find themselves standing before an angry God at the White Throne Judgment.  They are cast into the Lake of Fire where they will be tormented for all eternity.  As ambassadors for the Kingdom of God, we are required to communicate this message to those shackled to Satan’s kingdom.

Are you ready to make your peace with God through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ the King of Glory?  Have you yet to be born again?  Would you like your sin and shame expunged from your record as though they never occurred?  Would you like peace and security?  Would you like today to be the best day of your life and tomorrow even better?  There’s still good news for you.  Today is your day of salvation.  Click onto “Further With Jesus” for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  Remember, the window will soon close.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

When God places His imprimatur on an issue, it behooves the wise to take heed.  The Bible is literally the owner’s manual for this life.  God, the Creator and Manufacturer of this existence, declares how all things began, how things went awry, and the solution to the carnal dilemma, as well as a ticket to paradise and a very sure promise of eternal life.  Despite certifiable inerrancy of this glorious owner’s manual, the Holy Bible, man continues to defy, deny, and die.

Presently GodSaidManSaid archives, in text and streaming audio, 432 feature articles that prove the veracity of the Word of God.  Every Thursday eve, God willing, it grows by one.  All subjects are MP3-downloadable and printable free of charge as long as they are freely given.  Welcome to GodSaidManSaid.

On this website there are numerous articles that address the three subjects we will update today.  At the end of each update we will link to the features for your perusal.  Just click and read or listen.  Keep in mind, God’s direction from the owner’s manual was written thousands of years ago before man and modern science began to understand the reason why.

GOD SAID, Leviticus 11:7-8:

7  And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.

8  Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.

MAN SAID: The Bible’s dietary laws are irrelevant teachings of old, archaic, religious superstition.  They have no place in an enlightened society.  Pork is good food—the other white meat.

Now THE RECORD.  The tremendous problems man is experiencing because of the consumption of swine’s flesh is listed at the end of this feature.  GodSaidManSaid most recently updated this subject in April 2009.  Two paragraphs in that feature bear repeating:

The following excerpts are lifted from the April 2009 issue of Scientific American under the title, “Healthy Growth for U.S. Farms:”

 Much has been made in recent years of MRSA, the antibiotic-resistant strain of Staphylococcus bacteria, and for good reason.  In 2005, the most recent year for which figures are available, about 95,000 MRSA infections caused the deaths of nearly 19,000 Americans.  The disease first incubated in hospitals – the killer bacterium is an inevitable evolutionary response to the widespread use of antibiotics – but has since found a home in locker rooms, prisons and child care facilities.  Now the bacteria have spread to the farm.

Perhaps we should not be surprised.  Modern factory farms keep so many animals in such a small space that the animals must be given low doses of antibiotics to shield them from the fetid conditions.  The drug-resistant bacteria that emerge have now entered our food supply.  The first study to investigate farm-bred MRSA in the U.S.—amazingly, the Food and Drug Administration has shown little interest in testing the nation’s livestock for this disease—recently found that 49 percent of pigs and 45 percent of pig workers in the survey harbored the bacteria.  Unfortunately, these infections can spread.  According to a report published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, MRSA from animals is now thought to be responsible for more than 20 percent of all human MRSA cases in the Netherlands.  [End of quote]

Do you think the Creator of all might have some insights on what is good for consumption?  [End of quote]

The following information is from the January 2009 issue of Nature under the heading, “Ebola outbreak has experts rooting for answers:”

When the Ebola Reston virus was discovered in pigs in the Philippines last year, it marked the virus’s first known foray of a potential threat to human health. 

Last week, a joint mission of 22 international health and veterinary experts returned from investigating the outbreak with more questions than answers about the virus’s pathology and epidemiology.

The Ebola Reston virus was first discovered, in 1989, in crab-eating macaques imported to the United States from the Philippines.  Since then, the virus has killed most infected monkeys, yet had no effect on the 25 people that it infected – unlike three of the four other strains of Ebola, which kill between 25% and 90% of the humans they infect.

Because few people come into close contact with primates in the Philippines, the risk of catching Ebola Reston in this way is relatively low.  By contrast, the appearance of the virus in an important livestock species was unexpected and worrying, says Pierre Rollin, an Ebola expert at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, who was part of the mission to the Philippines.  “We never thought that pigs could be infected,” he says.

Once inside the pig, it may be possible for the virus to mutate into a version that is deadly to humans, as the avian influenza virus is thought to have done.  “And we still don’t know what it might do to someone who is immunocompromised by HIV or by drugs,” Rollin adds.

But there seems to be little threat to human health from the current form of the virus.  It is destroyed by cooking, and there is no evidence of symptoms in pig handlers, who will soon be tested to find out if they have developed antibodies to the virus.  [End of quote]

Review the following subjects:

• Swine -- The Other White Meat

• Swine -- The Other White Meat (Update)

• Breaking News -- Honey, Breast-Feeding, Circumcision, Pork

• Who Killed All The People?

• The Amazing Word of God -- Updates -- Circumcision, Pigs, Church, Breast-Feeding

GOD SAID, Genesis 19:15-17; 24-26:

15  And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

16  And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.

17  And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

24  Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;

25  And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.

26  But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

MAN SAID: Foolishness!

Now THE RECORD.  The following short paragraphs are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Lot’s Wife:”

 One of the ancient world’s most noted and quoted historians, Joseph ben Matthias, more commonly known as Flavius Josephus, was a Jew born at the approximate time of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Josephus was the son of a priestly family and could lay claim to the lineage of King David through his mother’s heritage.  He was a Jewish General in the Jewish revolt against Rome where he was also taken prisoner.  He was later commissioned by Rome to write a history of the Jewish people.  This is his record of Lot’s wife:

But Lot’s wife continually turning back to view the city as she went from it, and being too nicely inquisitive what would become of it, although God had forbidden her to do so, was changed into a pillar of salt; for I have seen it, and it remains at this day.

Well recorded in history was Clement, a Roman general and contemporary of Jesephus, who said that he also saw Lot’s wife, who was turned into a pillar of salt.  In the next century, the Roman orator Irenaeus attested to the existence of Lot’s wife and commented with awe on how it had endured so long with all its members intact.

Today, on the Jordan Valley Road, on the way to Eilat, you can look and see a large, ominous pillar of salt that resembles a cloaked woman looking back to where Sodom and Gommorah once thrived…a place called the Vale of Siddim.  The ancient Phoenician priest, Sanchuniathon, wrote of this place and said, “The Vale of Sidimus sank and became a lake, always evaporating and containing no fish, a symbol of vengeance and of death for the transgressor.” This “cloaked lady” overlooking the Vale of Siddim is known by the Bedouins of today as “Lot’s Wife.”  [End of quote]

The following excerpts are from a May/June 2009 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.  The title of the feature is “How Lot’s Wife Became a Pillar of Salt:”

An extraordinary pillar of salt at the southern end of the Dead Sea—it is 65 feet high!—can easily be seen as having a human form, especially when approached from the north.  Long identified as Lot’s Wife, this salt pillar may perhaps be taken as the remains of the woman who looked back by those who interpret the Holy Words literally.  [End of quote]

(It should be noted that the author of this feature is not a literalist.)

The pillar of salt known as Lot’s Wife is located on Mt. Sedom near the southwestern shore of the Dead Sea.  The present Hebrew pronunciation for Sedom is “Sodom.”  Of course, Lot and his family were fleeing the wicked city of Sodom.  The feature article continues:

Moreover, we can now even date the creation of the salt pillar—to about 4,000 years ago, or 2000 BC.  And an astounding aspect of its creation is that it appeared quite suddenly—right around the time traditionally attributed to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

THE WOMAN ON THE HILL.  Because Lot’s Wife is perched on the slope of an ever-rising mountain of salt, the pillar is also rising relative to ground level as the base of the mountain recedes.  Frumkin found that Lot’s Wife rises approximately 0.3 inches per year, meaning that when the monument first appeared 4,000 years ago, it would have been 100 feet lower down the slope than it is now.  Back then, the stone would have been more directly visible to passing travelers and its odd, human-like form no doubt stirred the ancient imagination.  [End of quote]

Review the following subjects:

Lot's Wife

Sodom and Gomorrah

GOD SAID, Deuteronomy 23:12-14:

12  Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad:

13  And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee:

14  For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.

MAN SAID: Flush it.

Now THE RECORD.  The problems of flushing raw sewage into the waterways and the treated water coming out of wastewater treatment plants have an enormous, and often deadly, downside.  The problems are huge, even in America, where wastewater treatment plants handle the vast majority of raw sewage issues.  Following are just a few short paragraphs from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Man Said Flush It:”

Pollution microbiologist Joan B. Rose, at the University of South Florida, is clearing up the confusion over the source of fecal (dung) viruses tainting coastal waters and some shellfish.  The article in Science News discussing her work is titled, “Viruses—Just a Flush Away.”  It is said that 90% of the Florida waters tested showed a presence of fecal viruses, usually at low concentrations.  The germs have been linked to gastroenteritis and also to flu-like symptoms, earaches and heart disease.  Imagine, human viruses flushed into the water and passed through the kitchen spigot.

In June 2000, an article in U.S. News & World Report titled, “The Sickening Sewer Crisis,” said each year an estimated 400,000 American basements experience the backup of raw sewage and municipal sanitary sewers overflow 40,000 times dumping potential deadly pathogens into our streets, waterways, and beaches.  In just eight months San Diego reported raw sewage spillage of 34 million gallons and the small town of Fort Pierce, Florida, reported spillage of eight million gallons.  Guess what follows the sewage?  Rats—big, disease-laden rats. 

The following statement is from an article in Science News titled, “When Sewage is Recycled for Drinking:”

More than two dozen major utilities release so much wastewater effluent into drinking water supplies when natural waterways are low, that the treated sewage makes up more than 50 percent of the water.  Although most of this treated water meets federal standards, the report notes that regulators scout for less than the full spectrum of toxicants now present in that water.  As a result, the report argues, recycling sewage for drinking water should be “an option of last resort” – and when it is selected, more stringent regulations should be applied.  [End of quote]

The following excerpt is from Scientific American, January 2009:

Four in 10 people have no access to any latrine, toilet, bucket or box.  They defecate in narrow alleyways, in forests, by train tracks.  The disease toll of this human excrement is astounding, killing more people worldwide than any other single cause.  Modern sanitation, where it exists, has added 20 years to the average human life.  But population growth in the First World has taxed sanitation systems: 90 percent of the globe’s sewage ends up untreated in oceans, rivers and lakes.  [End of quote]

Review the following subjects:

Man Said Flush It

Smell

Who Killed All the People?

The Word of God is true and righteous altogether.  When God gives instructions wise men and women say, “Amen.”

GOD SAID.  MAN SAID.  Now you have THE RECORD.

References:

Authorized King James Version

Book review, Scientific American, January 2009, p106

Cyranoski, D., “Ebola outbreak has experts looking for answers,” Nature, January 2009, p364

Frumkin, A., “How Lot’s Wife became a pillar of salt,” Biblical Archaeology Review, pp38-44

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