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"Although all Israel was assembled together against [the Benjamites in Judges 20] without any dissension or rebellion as though they were all one man, yet they never obtained the victory against their enemies until they humbled themselves before God by fastings and prayers and asked pardon for their sins and placed their pride and their glory in the dust (Judg. 20:26).
"And then, when they had wholly rejected their own power and might and had placed all their trust in God instead of in their great multitude and in their horses and weapons and gave Him all the glory, they learned by experience that He is not without good reason called the Lord of Hosts. For, though they had a righteous cause, and though God was with them and they had every advantage—even according to worldly standards—yet God desired to humble them. For He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (1 Pet. 5:5; Jas. 4:6).
Now the Israelites were so prideful before they humbled themselves that it seemed to them that they could swallow their enemies whole and do whatever they wanted with them.
Therefore God willed to show them that victory lies neither in force of
arms nor in the multitude of men,
nor even in a righteous cause,
but in Him alone. For we can indeed take a cause which is righteous before God and make it a wicked one by our guilt and sins and by what we add of ourselves."
Pierre Viret (1510 – 1571), Swiss Reformed theologian, evangelist and Protestant reformer
Over the years, I have become convinced sunlight is one of the most essential nutrients for the body. Unfortunately, since no one has a financial interest in promoting sunlight (and it hence has no lobbyists), almost everything we hear instead focuses on why it’s terrible for us. For example, dermatology transformed itself from one of the least desirable specialties in medicine into one of the highest paying ones by rebranding its members as cancer fighters, which required scaring everyone senseless about the sun (while omitting that a lack of sunlight is what causes fatal skin cancers). Despite the billions now spent each year on skin cancer, the total death rate from it remains almost entirely unchanged (all of which is discussed here).
A similar story has played out with the light inside our homes. In 2022, the federal government effectively banned the incandescent bulb on the grounds most of its output is “wasted” as infrared, even though a rapidly growing body of research ...
Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His godly ones.
Psalm 116:15
Rod Dreher asks, "I don’t understand why the government doesn’t deploy the army and shoot rioters until they stop. Philippe Lemoine, a Frenchman, says it’s not that simple."
Excerpt:
"We have let things rot for so long that, at this point, relying primarily on force to restore order would require a degree of violence far greater than what people realize and what is politically feasible.
It's possible to contain a riot using only moderate force when the number of police officers is high relative to the number of rioters, but when riots are so widespread and involve so many people because you have allowed this kind of things to happen for so long, that's just not possible and you have to use extreme violence to make up for the lack of manpower.
I know people on the Internet will say that it doesn't matter and that we should just do it, but the reality is that most of the people in charge are not prepared to use that kind of force and neither would most ordinary people if they saw ...
