A letter from Glen

[Lou Newton]

I got this email from Glen this morning:

Glen B Smith <[email protected]> To lou newton




Today at 3:06 AM


This is the only world I knew.

It seems I am the only person remembering some things. WW II is over. Our fathers, uncles, older cousins, and even some grandfathers return after doing their duty fighting. These were men of whom Tom Brokaw described as the greatest generation. For me the greatest generation was what seemed ordinary and common. Men were not just dads; they were heroes – leaders, head of the family, strong, self-reliant, trustworthy, and wise. My fondest memories are sitting in my fathers lap, fiddling with his tough big fingers, as he read stories from Outdoor Life or read from the Bible story book. This is the only world I knew.

However, the innocence of childhood fades as the years pass into the rebellious teenage years of knowing it all and invincibility. The last of the 1950’s and all the sixties into the early seventies were a time American teenagers found the greatest generation less than perfect. These giants of childhood, giants of battle, and giants of serving were not as great as our expectations. While still giants they were flawed and not always perfect. It was as if it was easier to make a big deal over one smudge on a glass window than to notice a dirty window obscuring ones vision. My generation thought we could do better since all we needed to do was clean the smudgy spot on the window – and we knew how to do that better than our fathers. We were sure of it!

Accordingly, and regretfully, we labeled the greatest generation as hypocrites because they were short of being without fault. And because we knew how to run the world better than they, we turned our backs on their wisdom because they were hypocrites – fully expecting we would reach utopia.

It seems I am the only person remembering that the greatest generation was labeled by my generation as hypocrites. We are yet to apply that label to President Obama, Hillary Clinton or her husband, and George W. Bush. Why? There faults are many – not just a mere smudge on the window. To be a publicly labeled a hypocrite one must stand for something and come close to being that some thing - but in practice to fall short of ones own expectations or presentation. People of the generations since and before the “greatest” have far too many ethical contradictions ever to be seen as hypocritical.

When I was a youngster, I believed in high ideas and held high expectations. When I didn’t live up to my presentation some one always called me ahypocrite. It has been decades since I’ve been labeled a hypocrite. Maybe, just maybe, my window is too dirty!

The old scribe

A partial list of the many political scandals may be found at the links below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_political_scandals_in_the_United_S tates#Executive_Branch

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Hilary+Clinton+scandals+

[Baruch]

Dear Glen,

Thank you for writing this. I mourned deeply as I read it. This people has lost touch with a very important era, and disposed a valuable legacy. More importantly, it has lost touch with God who has been very generous and favorable toward it.

A generation who abandons God will look for something to worship. We are made to worship, all men worship something, and wanderers worship "gods they knew not, new gods that came newly up, whom their fathers feared not".

The damage of war appears to have caused a rift, a disassociation. Psychology would call it a disassociative disorder and blame the trauma of war. I think there is some truth to this, from a humanist perspective, but it is a symptom: it merely describes the manifestation. The war was already taking place in the spiritual realm, which is where the soulish art of psychology necessarily fails.

The nation's soul was indeed injured in the war: the individual souls of a people are joined in a spirit. But what spirit?

The souls joined in the Holy Spirit, in fellowship with God our Father, are promised His superior healing. There is hope in a continuation in the children and grandchildren, because a kind begets his own kind. The eternal seed sows life in perpetuity.

The souls not joined in the Holy Spirit would receive inferior healing, if any healing at all. The children and grandchildren suffer the same, without the grace and mercy of our Lord. They are adrift, wanderers, easily led by their base nature, readily embracing new gods de jure.

If we go further back, to a time when God placed Israel in a new land, in an arrangement to prove if the people would obey His commandments which were given to their fathers, we may see a familiar formula:


Judges 3 - KJV
1 Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan;
2 Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof;
3 Namely, five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baalhermon unto the entering in of Hamath.
4 And they were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.
5 And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites:
6 And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.

This passage suggests many things to me.

God advises us to learn warfare, stay fit, and keep (guard, protect, preserve) his commandments.

If we get lazy and neglect His commandments, we know in general that there are consequences. For forgetting the past which our fathers preserve and pass down to us, and not honoring those valuable things and making them our own, and not maintaining and defending our borders, and not preserving these valuable things and passing on their reality to our children, the consequences are dire.

If we learn only peace, and grow fat, then we are not prepared for war, neither physically, soulishly, or spiritually. We will get injured. The nature and severity of our injuries is determined by our fitness and our armor, our weapons of warfare.

If we learn only peace, we will not maintain and defend our borders. The enemy may come in and out at will. We may live peaceably among the enemy, and come to think of him as a neighbor, friend, and ally rather than keep him in the proper perspective as a stranger among us. We may take his daughters as wives, and give our daughters to his sons, and join with him and be seduced by his gods.

When a people is seduced by the enemy's gods, it has lost all discernment. The spirits at work teach doctrines that are not sound. The result is confusion, one of those things that God abhors.

Confusion is fertile soil for delusion. The deluded call evil good, and good evil; they put darkness for light, and light for darkness; they put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. Woe unto them! The deluded change the truth of God into a lie.

Many are newly trying to recover from our great loss, which seems to have precipitated with WWII. It's encouraging to see this renewed interest in the foundation that made us strong, and not merely an academic interest. But it is an endeavor, perhaps as audacious as the first time we threw off the chains of tyranny, that truly needs God, the author of our liberty, at the helm. So many who have good intentions want His good fruits but reject Him, which is folly.

[Lou Newton]

Barry I thank you for that post. It reminded me of this song I heard tonight.

I had not heard this song before tonight. I was helping a man fix his pickup that he needs for work. They wanted $3000 to fix it. So we are fixing it ourselves. We do not have many of the special tools that re required to do the job.

We listened to this song quite a number of times.

Please start the video and then go to another window while you listen, so you can not see the video and focus of the words.

We all have wandered and now our whole nation is wandering. We can only hope and pray that many will meet The Lord Jesus who is that Man that was faithful to God and now sits at His right hand:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0G2X0Zpgfw

The Wanderer Lyrics

from The Essential Johnny Cash


I went out walking through the streets paved with gold
Lifted some stones, saw the skin and bones
Of a city without a soul
I went out walking under an atomic sky
Where the ground won't turn and the rain it burns
Like the tears when I said goodbye
Yeah, I went with nothing
Nothing but the thought of you
I went wandering
I went drifting through the capitals of tin
Where men can't walk or freely talk
And sons turn their fathers in
I stopped outside a church house where the citizens like to sit
They say they want the kingdom
But they don't want God in it
I went out riding, down that ol' eight lane
I passed by a thousand signs
Looking for my own name
I went with nothing
But the thought you'd be there too
Looking for you
I went out there in search of experience
To taste and to touch and to feel's as much
As a man can before he repents
I went out searching, looking for one good man
A spirit who would not bend or break
Who could sit at his father's right hand
I went out walking with a bible and a gun
The word of God lay heavy on my heart
I was sure, I was the one
Now Jesus, don't you wait up, Jesus, I'll be home soon
Yeah, I went out for the papers
Told her I'd be back by noon
Yeah, I left with nothing
But the thought you'd be there too
Looking for you
Yeah, I left with nothing
Nothing but the thought of you
I went wandering




Read more: Johnny Cash - The Wanderer Lyrics | MetroLyrics

[Lou Newton]

I got this reply from Glen:
Glen B Smith <[email protected]> To lou newton




Today at 12:52 AM

Thanks for posting.
I think for a accurate evaluation of our generation
it is necessary to understand how we thought about the greatest generation.
The label we gave them, hypocrites, was our justification for our disrespect for their world.

[Baruch]

Lou, thank you for The Wanderer and posting the lyrics. There is Biblical depth in that poet's words.

[Baruch]

I think for a accurate evaluation of our generation
it is necessary to understand how we thought about the greatest generation.
The label we gave them, hypocrites, was our justification for our disrespect for their world.

Glen, thank you for clarifying. It is a keen insight.

I was just a kid in grade school when that social upheaval was happening, so thank you for exposing a hidden dimension of my youth.

I can see this device of the enemy is working overtime now. There are more labels than you can shake a stick at, used to neatly categorize and dismiss an entire person's or group's concerns. A Dutch psychologist from that 50's called it "labelomania" and connected it with tyranny and mass delusion. It is effectively social democracy, aka social justice. It's fundamentally a spirit of rebellion (which assessment seems to be widely supported by those who recollect the 50's-70's period). Note that even if the USA were a formal Social Democracy, it would be an environment that fosters rebellion. Today we have allowed this kind of thinking to take deep root not only in our society, but in our government which supports the social whims of the outspoken that serve its agenda.

I say that not to get far off topic, though. Just providing a framework for discussion.

Once the label is established on a premise that seems right, and received in the mind of a people, socially it has the force of law. The label for this today is "meme". This is a form of commerce, packaging and advertising and consumerism of ideas and ideologies. (Think: the book of Revelation, buying and selling, and who is not permitted to participate in their commerce. If we don't speak and do like a child of the world we are cut off. I don't think this interpretation is overly dramatic.)

From what do you think precisely the label "hypocrites" was formed? I wonder if you'd care to flesh that out a bit. If not, that is okay: I appreciate the insight I have gotten thus far. I'm very interested because the devil seemed exceptionally bold and powerful immediately after WWII and the three decades that followed. Our society is certainly in what psychology calls "mass delusion", and when I read about and was convinced that our society is in the throes of mass delusion of course I could not help but relate that to the Bible; and now connected to what emerged post-WWII.

[Steve Hollander]

Glen, thank you for clarifying. It is a keen insight.

I was just a kid in grade school when that social upheaval was happening, so thank you for exposing a hidden dimension of my youth.

I can see this device of the enemy is working overtime now. There are more labels than you can shake a stick at, used to neatly categorize and dismiss an entire person's or group's concerns. A Dutch psychologist from that 50's called it &quot;labelomania&quot; and connected it with tyranny and mass delusion. It is effectively social democracy, aka social justice. It's fundamentally a spirit of rebellion (which assessment seems to be widely supported by those who recollect the 50's-70's period). Note that even if the USA were a formal Social Democracy, it would be an environment that fosters rebellion. Today we have allowed this kind of thinking to take deep root not only in our society, but in our government which supports the social whims of the outspoken that serve its agenda.

I say that not to get far off topic, though. Just providing a framework for discussion.

Once the label is established on a premise that seems right, and received in the mind of a people, socially it has the force of law. The label for this today is &quot;meme&quot;. This is a form of commerce, packaging and advertising and consumerism of ideas and ideologies. (Think: the book of Revelation, buying and selling, and who is not permitted to participate in their commerce. If we don't speak and do like a child of the world we are cut off. I don't think this interpretation is overly dramatic.)

From what do you think precisely the label &quot;hypocrites&quot; was formed? I wonder if you'd care to flesh that out a bit. If not, that is okay: I appreciate the insight I have gotten thus far. I'm very interested because the devil seemed exceptionally bold and powerful immediately after WWII and the three decades that followed. Our society is certainly in what psychology calls &quot;mass delusion&quot;, and when I read about and was convinced that our society is in the throes of mass delusion of course I could not help but relate that to the Bible; and now connected to what emerged post-WWII.

Hi Barry,
I have to say that you write so well and I really enjoy your posts. Blessings ..... Steve

[Baruch]

Hi Barry,
I have to say that you write so well and I really enjoy your posts. Blessings ..... Steve

Thank you so much for your encouragement, Steve. I make an effort, but that is only a tiny part of it. The old man would drink in praise. But the new man knows all good things are gifts from above. Jesus gave me life, intellect, a desire to read and write, a hunger for truth and a way to use them to honor Him. It's on account of His longsuffering that I sit here today able to write after so many years of selfish wandering, abusing His gifts and tempting God. It's on account of His grace that I'm here on this forum to share in His wonder alongside my brethren. What a blessing.

[Steve Hollander]

"What a blessing."

Yes you have been a blessing to the forum and to me, so please keep yielding to the spirit and encouraging us all to do the same. When I see someone acting holier than I do, it makes me want to be more holy. When I am reminded of my sinfulness by seeing someone that resists temptation and avoids sin better than me;(that would be most everyone), it makes me jealous and desire to be less sinful and remorseful of my sinfulness. I pray for deliverance from my wretched self and I thank God that my Lord Jesus has overcome all sin and mine included.
But still we are trapped in these jars of clay and ever hopeful of the deliverance that awaits us if we make it. Blessings ..... Steve

[Lou Newton]

"What a blessing."

Yes you have been a blessing to the forum and to me, so please keep yielding to the spirit and encouraging us all to do the same. When I see someone acting holier than I do, it makes me want to be more holy. When I am reminded of my sinfulness by seeing someone that resists temptation and avoids sin better than me;(that would be most everyone), it makes me jealous and desire to be less sinful and remorseful of my sinfulness. I pray for deliverance from my wretched self and I thank God that my Lord Jesus has overcome all sin and mine included.
But still we are trapped in these jars of clay and ever hopeful of the deliverance that awaits us if we make it. Blessings ..... Steve

Amen to that Steve.

1 Cor 4
Treasures in Jars of Clay

1 Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.
2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
5 For we do not preach ourselves,but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.
6For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;
9 persecuted,but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

[Steve Hollander]

Amen to that as well Lou. It is comforting to know that my failures mean nothing compared to Christ's success. He has overcome. I am ever hopeful. ..... Steve