THE AIDS EPIDEMIC

SCRIPTURE

Ex. 34:11-17 - (Groves are alters to Asherah; homosexuality practiced there.)

Le. 18:22 - (Homosexuality is an abomination to God.)

De. 7:3-5 - (You shall utterly destroy Asherah groves and alters.)

De. 12:2-3 - (Destroy obelisks (symbols) and alters with fire.)

Jdg. 3:7 - (Israel serving Baal and Ashtaroth; perverted sex in worship.)

I Ki. 14:14-18 - (Captivity for making Asherim (symbol of Asherah) phallic sign.)

I Ki. 14:24-24 - (Sodomites (male cult prostitutes) did all abominations of Baal.)

I Ki. 18 - (Showdown between 400 prophets of Baal and Elijah; Baal lost.)

II Ki. 17:10 - (Back to Asherah again.)

II Ki. 18:4 - (Hezekiah destroys the groves and high places.)

II Ki. 23:4-24 - (Josiah destroys all houses of male cult prostitutes.)

II Ch. 14:2-5 - (Asa destroys idolatrous obelisks, Phallic symbols, and alters.)

II Ch. 24:18 - (Back to Asherim and idols; wrath of God falls on them.)

II Ch. 31:1 - (Same as II Ki. 18.)

II Ch. 33:1-11 - (Manasseh - back to the groves and astrology.)

II Ch. 34 1-10 - (Same as II Ki. 23.)

Isa. 17:8 - (Do not look to Adonis nor respect idols, groves or images.)

Isa. 27:9 - (Iniquity cleansed by destroying every thing of idol worship.)

Jer. 17:2 - (Children earnestly remember the idols, not God.)

Mic. 5:9-15 - (God will destroy all false worship.)

Ro. 1:21-32 - (Idol worship and immoral sex - death; traits of homosexuals.)

II Cor. 6:9-10 - (Homosexuals and Satan worshipers will not be in heaven.)

DEFINITION OF SODOMY (Unger's Bible Dictionary) - "Sodomite - Gen. 19:5 and Romans 1:27, men consecrated to the unnatural vice of Sodom as a religious rite. The dreadful consecration was to the Greek Astarte (Asherah - male, Ashtaroth - female). Term was applied to the emasculated priests of Cybele. Sodomite, Deut. 23:17-18, sodomy was forbidden. Verse 18, the price of a dog is a figurative expression used to denote the gains of a sodomite (qadish). From the dog, like the way in which he debases himself. Rev. 22:15, unclean called dogs." Webster's - "sodomy, n. any sexual intercourse regarded as abnormal, as between persons of the same sex, especially males, or between a person and an animal."

HOMOSEXUALS TO PARENTS (Gay Community News) - "We shall sodomize your sons, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams and vulgar lies. We shall seduce them in your schools, in your dormitories, in your gymnasiums, in your locker rooms, in your sports arenas, in your seminaries, in your truck stops, in your all-male clubs, in your houses of Congress, wherever men are with men together. Your sons shall become our minions and do our bidding. They will be recast in our image. They will come to crave and adore us.

All laws banning homosexual activity will be revoked. If you dare cry faggot, fairy, queer at us, we will stab you in your cowardly hearts. All churches who condemn us will be closed. Our only gods are handsome young men.

We shall be victorious because we are fueled with the ferocious bitterness of the oppressed. We too are capable of firing guns and manning the barricades of ultimate revolution."

SODOMY IN THE TEMPLE - (The Matthew Henry Commentary) - "II Ki. 23 - Josiah's Reformation. In chapter 22 Josiah began his reign at age 8. He sought to repair the house of the Lord. In its repair, a book of the law was found and read to Josiah. Because Josiah repented at the reading of the words and began to restore the worship of the true God, God promised him that he would go to his grave in peace. This is what was found in and around the temple.

Verses 4-14 - an account of such a reformation as we have not met with in all the history of the kings of Judah, such through riddance made of all the abominable things and such foundations laid of a glorious good work. The generality of the people, after all, hated to be reformed.

I. What abundance of wickedness there was, and had been, in Judah and Jerusalem.

1. Even in house of the Lord, that sacred temple which Solomon built and dedicated to the honor and for the worship of the God of Israel, there were found vessels, all manner of utensils, for the worship of Baal, and of the groves (Astaroth), and of all the host of heaven (astrology). V. 4, Though Josiah had suppressed the worship of idols, yet the utensils made for that worship were all carefully preserved, even in the temple itself.

2. Just at the entering in of the house of the Lord was a stable for horses kept for a religious use; they were holy horses, given to the sun (v. 11), as if he needed them who rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race (Ps. 19.5), making their religion to conform to the poetical fictions of the chariot of the sun. Some say that those horses were to be led forth in pomp every morning to meet the rising sun, others that the worshipers of the sun road out to adore the rising sun; it would seem that they drew the chariots of the sun, which the people worshiped.

3. Hard by the house of the Lord there were houses of the sodomites, where all manner of lewdness and filthiness, even that which is most unnatural, was practiced, and under the pretence of religion too, in honor of their impure deities. Those that dishonor their God were justly left to dishonor themselves, Romans 1:24, etc. There were woman that wove hangings for the grove (These groves were not groves of trees but groves of poles (obelisks or phallic symbols), V. 7, tents which encompassed the image of Venus, where the worshipers committed all manner of lewdness, and this in the House of the Lord.

4. There were many idolatrous alters found (v. 12), some in the palace, on top of the upper chamber of Ahaz. The roofs of their homes being flat, they made them their high places, and set up alters upon them. (Jer. 19:13; Zeph. 1:5), domestic alters.

5. There was Tophet, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, very near Jerusalem, where the image of Molach (that God of unnatural cruelty, as others were of unnatural uncleanness) was kept, to which some sacrificed their children, burning them in the fire, others dedicated them, making them to pass through the fire (v. 10), laboring in the fire, Hab. 2:13. It is supposed to have been called Tophet from toph, a drum, because they beat the drums at the burning of the children, that their shrieks might not be heard.

6. There were high places before Jerusalem which Solomon had built, v. 13. There were high places all the kingdom over, from Geba to Beer-sheba (v. 8), and high places at the gates, in the entering in of the gate of the governor.

7. There were idolatrous priests that officiated at all those alters (v. 5), Chemarin, black men, or that were black. See Zeph. 1:4. Those that sacrificed to Osiris or wept for Tammuz (Ezek. 8:14), or that worshiped the infernal deities, put on black garments as mourners.

8. There were conjurers and wizards, and such as dwelt with familiar spirits, v. 24.

II. What a full destruction good Josiah made of all those relics of idolatry.

1. He ordered Hilkiah, and all the other priests to clear the temple. Away with all the vessels that were made for Baal. They must all be burnt, and the ashes of them carried to Bethal. That place had been the common source of idolatry, for there was set one of the calves.

2. The idolatrous priests were all put down. Those of them that were not of the house of Aaron, or had sacrificed to Baal or other false gods, he put to death, according to the law, v. 20. He slew them upon their own alters, the most acceptable offering that had ever been offered on them. Those that were descendants from Aaron, and yet had burnt incense in the high places, but to the true God only, he forbade ever to approach the alter of the Lord; but he allowed them to eat of the unleaven bread among their brethren, with whom they were to reside, that unleaven bread (heavy and unpleasant thought it was), was better than they deserved, and that would serve to keep them alive.

3. All the images were broken to pieces and burnt. The images of the grove (v .6) some goddess or other was reduced to ashes, and the ashes cast upon the graves of the common people (v. 6,) the common burying place of the city. By law a ceremonial uncleanness was contracted by the touch of a grave, so that by casting them there he declared them most impure. He filled the places of the groves with the bones of men; as he carried the ashes of the images to the graves, to mingle them with men's dead bones, so he carried dead men's bones to the places where the images had been, and put them in the room of them, that, both ways, idolatry might be rendered loathsome, and the people kept both from the dust of the images and from the ruins of the places where they had been worshipped.

4. All the wicked houses were suppressed, those nests of impiety that harbored idolaters, the houses of the sodomites, v. 7. The high places were in like manner broken down and levelled with the ground v. 8. Tophet, which contrary to other places of idolatry, was in a valley, whereas they were on hills or high places, was likewise defiled (v. 10), was made the burying place of the city. Concerning this we have a whole sermon, Jer. 19. where it is said, they shall bury in Tophet, and the whole city is threatened to be made like Tophet.

5. The horses that had been given to the sun were taken away and put to common use, and the chariots of the sun he burnt with fire.

6. The workers with familiar spirits and the wizards were put away."

COMMENTS - We have often wondered why it is so difficult for people who have been into sexual sin and drugs to hold their deliverance. Just recently a young man and I were discussing this problem; we both realized at the same time that both of these actions were part of Satan worship. Drugs are used in the practice of sorcery. Many young people on drugs see and communicate with spirits. Pharmaceutical comes from a Greek word pharmakon, to practice witchcraft, or use medicine or poison. Since the first use of mind drugs was to communicate with spirits, it is an act of worship. People are spirits, which have a souls and a bodies. Each person's spirit is to control his mind. When a person takes a mind altering drug, he gives his mind over to the control of some other spirit; the other spirit is a demon.

Since perverted sex is used to worship evil gods, demons come into the person's body and are very difficult to keep out after being cast out. All of the pagan cults were worshipers of demons and served their gods by partaking of impure sex.

If we have been trained to worship in some manner as a very young person, it is very hard for us to give up these wrong ways of worship. This is because demons come into us when we do acts of worship that are incorrect and they have no intention of giving up their home. In the last generation, we have witnessed the attacks of Satin beginning earlier and earlier. It is his desire to get the very young children to commit some sexual sin which carries a curse. There are curses which go on for as long as ten generations, such as sex with family members, those near kin to you, playing with animals sexually, rape and homosexuality, etc.

This portion of scripture, Romans 1:21-32, shows the descent of man as they turn away from God, for it says they knew Him. As you hear these verses check them for accuracy as to what you see in the homosexuals you know. If you are one look at yourself honestly.

V21. Because when they knew and recognized Him as God, they did not honor and glorify Him as God, or give Him thanks. But instead they become futile (worthless, ineffectual and vain) and godless in their thinking - with vain imagining, foolish reasonings and stupid speculations - and their senseless minds were darkened. 22. Claiming to be wise, they become fools - professing to be smart, they made simpletons of themselves. 23. And by them the glory and majesty and excellence of the immortal God were exchanged for and represented by images, resembling mortal man and birds and beasts and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave the up in the lusts of their (own) hearts to sexual impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, abandoning them to the degrading power of sin. 25. Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen - so be it (Jer. 2:11.) 26. For this reason God gave them over to and abandoned them to vile affections and degrading passions. For their woman exchanged their natural function for an unnatural one; 27. And the men also turned from natural relations with women and were set ablaze (burned out, consumed) with lust with one another, men committing shameful acts with men and suffering in their own bodies and personalities the inevitable consequences and penalty of their wrong doing and going astray, which was (their) fitting retribution. 28. And so, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve of Him or consider Him worth the knowing, God gave them over to a base and condemned mind to do those things not proper or decent but loathsome; 29. Until they were filled - permeated and saturated - with every kind of unrighteousness, iniquity, grasping and covetous greed, and malice. (They were) full of envy and jealousy, murder, ill-will and cruel ways. (They were) secret backbiters and gossipers. 30. Slanders, hateful to and hating God, full of insolence, arrogance and boasting; inventors of new forms of evil, disobedient and undutiful to parents. 31. (They were) without understanding, covenant breakers, conscienceless and faithless, heartless and loveless (and) merciless. 32. Though they are fully aware of God's righteous decree that those who do such thongs deserve to die, they not only do them themselves but approve and applaud others who practice them.

This portion of scripture describes homosexuals exactly. There are two ways to save yourself from this kind of life: (1) Never not even once engage in homosexuality. (2) If you have engaged in homosexuality, you may sincerely repent of you sin acknowledging you guilt, believe Jesus' promise that all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved from their sins and forgive all people who have ever done you any wrong. Recognize the attempts homosexual spirits in people will try to get you into it again. Determine that you will fight the good fight of faith and never allow yourself even the appearance of that sin. Change any wrong behavior patterns, repent of wrong thoughts and correct them according to the Bible. Change your body movements and action from effeminate to manly or if you are female to feminine.

HERALD OF HOPE - "When the disciples asked the Lord what would be the sign of His coming again, He replied by giving them a number of signs, and one of them was pestilence's (Luke 21:11). This 20th century has seen some devastating epidemics, or pestilence's. The flu epidemic of 1918-19 has been estimated to have accounted for 10,000,000 lives. The cancer scourge still continues to take its toll of human life throughout the world.

Now the world is faced with an epidemic, which according to one authority will make previous epidemics such as typhus, smallpox or even the black death 'look very pale by comparison.' Time magazine says concerning the bubonic plague of the 14th century, 'by the time the epidemic subsided a few years later, at least a quarter to a third of all Europeans - perhaps 25 million - had perished.'

Then adds the Time article, 'Today's plague is a very different beast. AIDS works its way through a population slowly, over a period of years and even decades. It also tends to kill slowly, laying waste the immune system so that patients fall prey to a debilitating succession of infections. Yet as the AIDS death toll climbs and statisticians project its probable course into the next decade, comparisons with history's greatest killers begin to make sense. If we can't make progress, we face the dreadful prospect of a worldwide death toll in the tens of millions a decade from now.'

So far the worst hit countries are in Central and East Africa. According to the Times in another article, 'In Uganda the number of AIDS victims is doubling every four to six months.' Says Dr. Samuel Okware, the Ministry of Health official in charge of Uganda's AIDS prevention program, 'In the year 2000, one in every two sexually active adults will be infected.'

Leading researchers believe at least 50,000 people have already died of AIDS in Africa, and unless a treatment and vaccine are found, a million and a half more may succumb over the next decade. The first cases of AIDS arose among African prostitutes in the late 1970's. At about the same time, it first appeared among Americans and Haitians. The disease has now spread to some thirty African countries.

Few seem to recognize this tragedy as the judgment of God upon sin. The thrust of public opinion and effort is how to beat the disease, but there seems little effort to remove the real cause, illicit sex. God is doing what He said He would do. Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge (Heb. 13:4).

And homosexuality will reap its own consequences as Paul tells us For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature, and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their list one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly; and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet (Rom. 1:26-27).

AIDS may be a very terrible disease, but is it any more terrible than the sin that caused it? There seems to be some thought that the present scare may lead to a return to continence and monogamy, the only safe ground. This however, seems impossible while the present immodesty and sexual license prevail.

One of the most serious factors confronting those attempting to control the disease is the indifference of some. Time mentions a case in point, 'A frank lecture last year to a group of medical students at the University of Zambia on the dangers was greeted with jeers and derision.'

While the world may be terrorized by the present scare, the Christian can look up and see in it a further sign that the Lord is coming.

Pray for repentance on the part of those whose sinful life-style is contributing to the spread of AIDS. Pray for the mercy of God to preserve innocent people from the plague. Pray for protection of those who reach out to minister in Christ's Name to victims of the plague."

SURGEON GENERAL'S REPORT ON ACQUIRED IMMUNE DEFICIENCY SYNDROME

- "This is a report from the Surgeon General of the US Public health Service to the people of the United States on AIDS. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is an epidemic that has already killed thousands of people, mostly young, productive Americans. In addition to illness, disability, and death, AIDS had brought fear to the hearts of most Americans - fear of disease and fear of the unknown. Initial reporting of AIDS occurred in the United States, but AIDS and the spread of the AIDS virus is an international problem. This report focuses on prevention that could be applied in all countries.

Excerpts

1. AIDS is caused by a virus.

2. There is presently no cure for AIDS.

3. AIDS virus invades the blood stream.

4. Some people remain apparently well after infection with the AIDS virus.

5. ARC, AIDS-Related Complex, is a condition caused by the AIDS virus in which the patient tests positive for AIDS infection.

6. Only a qualified health professional can diagnose AIDS.

7. The AIDS virus may also attack the nervous system and cause delayed damage to the brain.

8. The number of people estimated to be infected with the AIDS virus in the United States is about 1.5 million. All of these individuals are assumed to be capable of spreading the virus sexually (heterosexually or homosexually) or by sharing needles and syringes or other implements for intravenous drug use. Of these, an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 will come down with ARC. It is difficult to predict the number who will develop ARC or AIDS because symptoms sometimes take as long as nine years to show up. With our present knowledge, scientists predict that 20 to 30 percent of those infected with the AIDS virus will develop an illness that fits an accepted definition of AIDS within five years. The number of persons known to have AIDS in the United States to date is over 25,000; of these, about half have died of the disease. Since there is no cure, the others are expected to also eventually die from their disease.

9. The majority of infected antibody-positive individuals who carry the AIDS virus show no disease symptoms and may not come down with the disease for many years, if ever.

10. There is no risk from casual contact.

11. Only health workers who had accidentally stuck themselves with a needle were exposed to the AIDS virus.

12. Control of certain behaviors can stop further spread of AIDS.

13. At risk are homosexual, heterosexual, black, white, male, female and children.

14. Men who have sexual relations with other men are especially at risk. Infection results from a sexual relationship with an infected person.

15. The risk of infection increases according to the number of sexual partners one has, male or female.

16. A person acquires the virus during sexual contact with an infected person's blood or semen and possibly vaginal secretions.

17. Couples who maintain mutually faithful monogamous relationships (a continuing sexual partner) are protected from AIDS through sexual transmission.

18. You can protect yourself from infection. If you have been involved in any of the high risk activities, you should have a blood test. If you or your partner are at risk, you must use a condom during intercourse to protect each other. Avoid mouth contact with the penis, vagina or rectum (oral sex is sodomy before God). Avoid all sexual activities which could cause cuts or tears in the linings of the vagina or penis. Single teen-age girls and boys, by saying NO to sex and drugs, can avoid AIDS which can kill them! Do not have sex with prostitutes.

19. Drug abusers who inject drugs into their veins are another population group at high risk and with high rates of infection by the AIDS virus.

20. Some persons with hemophilia (a blood clotting disorder that makes them subject to bleeding) have been infected with the AIDS virus either through blood transfusion or the use of blood products that help their blood to clot.

21. Currently all blood donors are initially screened and blood is not accepted from high risk individuals.

22. The mother can infect the unborn child.

23. AIDS affects certain groups of the population. Homosexual and bisexual males who have had sexual contact with other homosexual or bisexual males as well as those who 'shoot' street drugs are at greatest risk of exposure, infection and eventual death. Sexual partners of these high risk individuals are at risk, as well as any children born to women who carry the virus. Heterosexual persons are increasingly at risk.

24. You cannot get AIDS from casual social contact. Casual social contact should not be confused with casual sexual contact which is a major cause of the spread of the AIDS virus.

25. You cannot get AIDS by donating blood.

26. Because antibodies do not form immediately after exposure to the virus, a newly infected person may unknowingly donate blood after becoming infected but before his/her antibody test becomes positive.

27. None of the identified cases of AIDS in the United States are known or are suspected to have been transmitted from one child to another in school, day care, or foster care settings.

28. There are no known cases of AIDS transmission by insects, such as mosquitoes.

29. Dogs, cats and domestic animals are not a source of infection from AIDS virus.

30. Although the AIDS virus has been found in tears and saliva, no instance of transmission from these body fluids has been reported.

31. AIDS comes from sexual contacts with infected persons, and from the sharing of syringes and needles.

32. Live virus vaccines could activate disease and be potentially life- threatening to those who are AIDS virus carriers.

33. Although AIDS is still a mysterious disease in many ways, our scientists have learned a great deal about it.

34. We still do not know why the AIDS virus is not destroyed by man's immune system.

35. AIDS no longer is the concern of any one segment of society; it is the concern of us all. No American's life is in danger if he/she or their sexual partners do not engage in high risk sexual behavior, or use shared needles or syringes to inject illicit drugs into the body.

36. People who engage in high risk sexual behavior or who shoot drugs are risking infection with the AIDS virus, and are risking their lives and the lives of others, including their unborn children.

37. We cannot yet know the full impact of AIDS on our society. From a clinical point of view, there may be new manifestations of AIDS - for example, mental disturbances due to the infection of the brain by the AIDS virus in carriers of the virus. From a social point of view, it may bring to an end the free- wheeling sexual life-style which has been called the sexual revolution. Economically, the care of AIDS patients will put a tremendous strain on our already overburdened and costly health care delivery system.

38. The most certain way to avoid getting the AIDS virus and to control the AIDS epidemic in the United States is for individuals to avoid promiscuous sexual practices, to maintain mutual faithful monogamous sexual relationships and to avoid injecting illicit drugs.

39. AIDS is bound to produce profound changes in our society, changes that will affect us all.

40. Information and education are the only weapons against AIDS.

41. The changes in our society will be economic and political, and will affect our social institutions, our educational practices, and our health care.

42. Be prepared; learn as much about AIDS as you can.

43. It is likely that cases of AIDS will appear far and wide.

44. There are special educational concerns for adolescents and the illiterate.

45. The high risk should get a blood test.

46. Some people afflicted with AIDS will feel a sense of anger and others a sense of guilt.

47. Current public health practice is to protect the privacy of the individual infected with the AIDS virus and to maintain the strictest confidentiality concerning his/her health records.

48. Insure enforcement of public health regulation of such practices as ear piercing and tattooing to prevent transmission of AIDS virus.

49. Conduct AIDS education programs for police, firemen, correctional institution workers and emergency medical personnel for dealing with AIDS victims and the public.

50. Insure that institutions catering to children or adults who soil themselves or their surroundings with urine, stool and vomitus have adequate equipment for cleanup and disposal, and have policies to insure the practice of good hygiene.

51. Schools will have special problems in the future.

52. Education concerning AIDS must start at the lowest grade possible as part of any health and hygienic program.

53. Because of the right to special education of the handicapped and the mentally retarded, school boards and higher authorities will have to provide guidelines for the management of such children on a case-by-case basis.

54. Labor and management can do much to prepare for AIDS so that misinformation is kept to a minimum.

55. Offices, factories and other work sites should have a plan in operation for education of the work force and accommodation of AIDS or ARC patients before the first such case appears at the work site.

56. The health care system in many places will be overburdened as it is now in urban areas with large numbers of AIDS patients.

57. Our society will also face an additional burden as we better understand the mental health implications of infection by the AIDS virus.

58. Controversial issues are compulsory blood testing, quarantine and identification of AIDS carriers by some visible sign.

59. Compulsory blood testing of individuals is not necessary and could give a false sense of security to the individual recently exposed to the AIDS virus. The only time that some form of quarantine might be indicated is in a situation where an individual carrying the AIDS virus knowingly and willingly continues to expose others through sexual contact or sharing drug equipment. AIDS should not be used as an excuse to discriminate against any group or individual. AIDS must and will be treated as a disease that can infect anyone.