The Trumpet Herald

Giving the trumpet a certain sound

October 2010

Major flood in Pakistan

Major flooding has hit the country of Pakistan compounding the suffering of a people who have experienced deadly religiously and politically motivated strife for years.

More than four million Pakistanis have been made homeless by nearly three weeks of floods, the United Nations said on Thursday, making the critical task of securing greater amounts of aid more urgent.

Eight million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and many may not care where they get it.

The floods began washing away villages and destroying roads and bridges just after the government had made progress in stabilizing the country through offensives against Taliban (“U.S, Pakistan warn of militant plots over floods,” www.news.yahoo.com, Aug. 19, 2010).

The flooding has impacted about one-third of the country and ruined crops over more than 1.6 million acres according to news reports.

Inspired commentary

We don’t know how much more disaster will come, but inspiration indicates it will come. We are called upon to prepare for heaven.

In the last scenes of this earth’s history war will rage. There will be pestilence, plague and famine. The waters of the deep will overflow their boundaries. Property and life will be destroyed by fire and flood. We should be preparing for the mansions that Christ has gone to prepare for them that love Him (Maranatha, p. 174).

Gay Lutheran Pastors accepted

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Seven pastors who work in the San Francisco Bay area and were barred from serving in the nation’s largest Lutheran group because of a policy that required gay clergy to be celibate are being welcomed into the denomination. . . .

The group is among the first gay, bisexual or transgender Lutheran pastors to be reinstated or added to the rolls of the ELCA since the organization voted last year to lift the policy requiring celibacy.

Churches can now hire noncelibate gay clergy who are in committed relationships (“Gay Lutheran pastors to join church roster,” www.apnews.myway.com, Jul. 24, 1010).

One of the pastors accepted at the “glorious and festive festive ceremony” is reported to be both transgender and lesbian. Another of the accepted pastors approvingly noted that “The church is respecting our family, our partners, the choices we’re making.”

Inspired commentary

Many who read the Bible’s injunctions against homosexuality note with sadness the accommodation to such practices by elevating such persons who claim the name of “Christian” to leadership positions. The event seems to be indicative of a moral decay in society.

But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts (Jude 17, 18).

Physicist dismisses God as Creator

Stephen Hawking, described at Britain’s most famous physicist, suggests in a recently-published book that God is no longer needed to explain the universe or life.

Citing the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun, he said: “That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions - the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass - far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings.”

He adds: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.

“It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”

“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist (“Stephen Hawking: God did not create Universe,” www.bbc.co.uk, Sept. 2, 2010).

The notion of “spontaneous creation” seems a little like the time-worn theory of “spontaneous generation.”

Spontaneous generation or Equivocal generation is an obsolete theory regarding the origin of life from inanimate matter, which held that this process was a commonplace and everyday occurrence, as distinguished from univocal generation, or reproduction from parent(s). The theory was synthesized by Aristotle, who compiled and expanded the work of prior natural philosophers and the various ancient explanations of the appearance of organisms; it held sway for two millennia (“Spontaneous generation,” www.wikipedia.com, as of Sept. 6, 2010).

Inspired commentary

Many times the Bible messages differentiate the God of the Bible from other objects of worship by declaring that the real God’s credentials were in part, His creatorship.

And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters (Revelation 14:6, 7).

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it ((Exodus 20:11).

Defending California Proposition 8

The state of California does not need to defend its voter-approved marriage definition, a state appellate court decided this past week (“Calif. Court: State Does Not Need to Defend Prop. 8,” www.christianpost.com, Sept. 6, 2010).

California voters passed a state constitutional amendment to define marriage as only between a man and a woman. Opponents then sued to get the amendment overturned. A District Court judge ruled that the amendment (ballot proposition 8) was unconstitutional. The California attorney general and governor have declined to appeal the District Court decision.

Supporters of proposition 8 sued the governor and attorney general to get them to defend the voter’s majority decision. Now a court has decided that the attorney general and governor do not need to defend the position of the voters against the ruling of the District Court judge. The question of whether or not the voters have legal standing to appeal the District Court ruling is yet to be decided.

The result of the vote on Prop. 8 could be nullified by the courts and the elected officials.

Inspired Commentary

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, [and] unholy, (2 Tim. 3:1, 2).