Who or What Are "the Rest"?

"But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord... But to the rest I say, not the Lord..." 1 Corinthians 7:10-16

Who or what are "the rest"? Does anybody actually know? If verses 10-11 are addressing the married, then "the rest" would logically mean anyone who is not married, right? But verses 12-16 continue speaking about husbands and wives. So what is meant by "to the rest"?

Paul just forbid divorce for married people in verses 10-11. So who are being addressed in verses 12-16 if not the married? If it is not talking to the married, then you really cannot claim that it is talking about an exception for divorce, can you? You could not do so anyway since verses 10-11 just prohibited it. Since Paul does not have a forked tongue and does not speak out both sides of his mouth, he quite obviously did not prohibit divorce in verses 10-11 and then give an exception in verses 12-16. Since the words in verses 10-11 are a direct command from the Lord Jesus, Paul certainly did not just turn around and willfully contradict His Lord and Saviour.

"The rest" could only refer to single people and widowers/widows, right? But then the rest of the passage is problematic since it goes on to speak of husbands and wives, which single people and widowers/widows do not have. The fact this passage continues speaking about husbands and wives is evidence that "to the rest" cannot possibly mean someone other than the married.

There is no group of people that what was said in verses 10-11 does not apply. If you are married, verses 10-11 apply. Verses 12-16 let us know that if we are married to an unbeliever and they are content to live with us, then we should continue to live with them. They may end up saved through us. If they want to leave, then we should let them leave so that there may be peace. If we try to force them to stay, our lives will be like the problematic spouse we read of in the book of Proverbs. This passage nowhere gives occasion to re-marry. If our spouse later becomes saved and wants to reconcile with us, how will they be able to do so if we are married to someone else?

People can try to rationalize their sin all they want, but God's Word is exceptionally clear. We do not want to accept it or obey it because we are rebellious and hard hearted, just as the Jews were. But the Lord Jesus calls us to a higher standard. We are called to be imitators of Him. If marriage is a picture of the Gospel, which it is, and if it is a picture of Jesus and His Bride, which it is, then do you honestly believe Jesus would allow for something that will deliberately mar that picture? Or would Jesus call us to something hard but extremely beneficial for our sanctification? I think you know the answer.

"To the rest" obviously and clearly cannot be referring to another group different from "to the married" because it continues addressing husbands and wives, who are "the married." "To the rest" more than likely means either as to the other part of your epistle, or as to the cases of the rest mentioned in your epistle. Based on the context of verses 12-16, we may infer that verses 10-11 are speaking to husbands and wives who are both believers. Then verses 12-16 address husbands and wives where one is yet an unbeliever.

In verse 25, Paul says, "Now concerning virgins," and then in verses 27-28 adds, "Are you bond to a wife? Do not seek to be released. Are you released from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But if you marry, you have not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned." There are three types of people mentioned in these two verses: the married, the widowers/widows, and the virgins.

How do we know that those who are "released" are widowers/widows? Because Romans 7:2-3 and 1 Corinthians 7:39 are extremely clear.

"For the married woman has been bound by law to her husband while he is living, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulterous. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man." Romans 7:2-3

"A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband has fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 7:39

People can try to explain these verses away all they want, or try to ignore them, but there is no mistaking what is being said. Romans 7:3 agrees with everything Jesus said in Matthew, Mark, and Luke; namely that re-marriage, except in the case of a dead spouse, constitutes adultery. The only way you are "released from a wife" is if she has died. Scripture provides no other legitimate release from the marriage covenant. Not in Matthew 5:32 or 19:9, and not in 1 Corinthians 7:15. Anyone who tells you any different is lying, whether ignorantly or deliberately; their teaching is in error.

I hate to do a shameful plug, but if you want to read a clear exposition and exegesis of every passage affecting the issue of marriage, divorce, and re-marriage, I encourage you to pick up a copy of my book The Bible on Divorce and Remarriage.

The Two Doors Riddle

In the movie The Labyrinth, Jennifer Connelly's character, Sarah, encounters two doors while attempting to rescue her little brother from the clutches of Jareth, a crystal-ball-juggling Goblin King. One leads to the castle, the other to certain death. She may ask only one question to only one guard in order to help her decipher which door is the correct one. Sounds simple enough, but there is a catch: one guard always tells the truth, and one always tells lies.

To solve the puzzle, you must ask one guard (it does not matter which one) which door the other guard would say leads out. Both guards will indicate the same door, which will be the door that does not lead out. Let's call the doors A (the safe door) and B (the unsafe door).

Scenario one:

The guard you ask is the one who lies. – If the guard you asked is the one who lies, then he will lead you astray by telling you (falsely) that the other guard (the truthful guard) will point you towards door B. This makes door A the safe bet.

Scenario two:

The guard you asked is the one who tells the truth. – If the guard you ask is the one who tells the truth, he will tell you (honestly) that the other guard (the lying guard) will point you towards door B. This makes door A the safe bet.

In both cases, the outcome is the same. To stay alive, you must walk through the opposite door you have been told.

The point of my sharing this is to point out the current temperature of the Western world right now. I'll give you three examples. (1.) All news media outlets call each other "Fake News." Certain ones are telling the truth while others are lying. (2.) Concerning this COVID hysteria, certain doctors, scientists and experts are telling the truth while other doctors, scientists and experts are lying. (3.) Various people are calling other people racists, fascists, anti-science, etc., etc., etc. Certain ones are telling the truth while others are lying, projecting what is actually true of themselves upon their opponents.

The situation with the above three examples is the same as facing the two doors. You may not be able to ask a single question in order to determine which is which, but with a little intelligence, wisdom, and discernment, you should be able to figure it out. If you cannot, then you might want to consider that you are probably one of the stupid people that Dietrich Bonhoeffer refers to (see previous post). If you want to believe lies in order to make yourself feel comfortable in life, then best of luck to you.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

The following excerpt comes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, taken from a circular letter, addressing many topics, written to three friends and co-workers in the conspiracy against Hitler, on the tenth anniversary of Hitler’s accession to the chancellorship of Germany:

"Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion in that it leaves behind in human beings at least a sense of unease. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed- in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical – and when facts are irrefutable they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack. For that reason, greater caution is called for than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous.

"If we want to know how to get the better of stupidity, we must seek to understand its nature. This much is certain, that it is in essence not an intellectual defect but a human one. There are human beings who are of remarkably agile intellect yet stupid, and others who are intellectually quite dull yet anything but stupid. We discover this to our surprise in particular situations. The impression one gains is not so much that stupidity is a congenital defect, but that, under certain circumstances, people are made stupid or that they allow this to happen to them. We note further that people who have isolated themselves from others or who live in solitude manifest this defect less frequently than individuals or groups of people inclined or condemned to sociability. And so it would seem that stupidity is perhaps less a psychological than a sociological problem. It is a particular form of the impact of historical circumstances on human beings, a psychological concomitant of certain external conditions. Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or of a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity. It would even seem that this is virtually a sociological-psychological law. The power of the one needs the stupidity of the other. The process at work here is not that particular human capacities, for instance, the intellect, suddenly atrophy or fail. Instead, it seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their inner independence, and, more or less consciously, give up establishing an autonomous position toward the emerging circumstances. The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with a person, but with slogans, catchwords and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.

"Yet at this very point it becomes quite clear that only an act of liberation, not instruction, can overcome stupidity. Here we must come to terms with the fact that in most cases a genuine internal liberation becomes possible only when external liberation has preceded it. Until then we must abandon all attempts to convince the stupid person. This state of affairs explains why in such circumstances our attempts to know what ‘the people’ really think are in vain and why, under these circumstances, this question is so irrelevant for the person who is thinking and acting responsibly. The word of the Bible that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom declares that the internal liberation of human beings to live the responsible life before God is the only genuine way to overcome stupidity.

"But these thoughts about stupidity also offer consolation in that they utterly forbid us to consider the majority of people to be stupid in every circumstance. It really will depend on whether those in power expect more from people’s stupidity than from their inner independence and wisdom."

Stupidity is not an intellectual defect but a moral one. As Bonhoeffer points out, "There are human beings who are of remarkably agile intellect yet stupid, and others who are intellectually quite dull yet anything but stupid." The stupidity we are witnessing among Millennials, Snowflakes, Social Justice Warriors, and Liberals/Progressives is due mostly to their moral bankruptcy. They have no moral compass. They deny science and nature and claim there are more than two genders/sexes. They deny reality and think men can be women and women can be men. They lie to themselves daily and demand that the majority aid them in their lies by placating to their delusions. This stupidity cannot be reasoned with because it rejects reason as “bigoted.” These stupid individuals are more dangerous than any Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, etc. Evil we can fight against. Against stupidity we are defenceless.

"I'm a liberal professor and my liberal students terrify me. I have intentionally adjusted my teaching as the political winds have shifted.... hurting a student's feelings, even in the course of instruction that is absolutely appropriate and respectful, can now get a teacher into serious trouble." —Edward Schlosser

"The tyranny of the minority is infinitely more odious and intolerable and more to be feared than that of the majority." —President William McKinley

Social Justice Warrior Snowflakes are engaged in the Oppression Olympics (also known as Victimology Poker), a competition of victimhood using identity politics and intersectionality ("I am a Queer Fat Muslim Disabled Transgendered Black Feminist"). These anti-intellectual know-nothing half-wit useful idiots exhibit a form of Collective Munchausen Syndrome (a psychiatric disorder where an individual feigns a medical condition to garner sympathy).

They also exhibit Ostrich Parasitic Syndrome: "This disorder causes a person to reject realities that are otherwise as clear as the existence of gravity. Sufferers of Ostrich Parasitic Syndrome do not believe their lying eyes. They construct an alternate reality known as Unicornia. In such a world, science, reason, rules of causality, evidentiary thresholds, a near-infinite amount of data, data analytic procedures, inferential statistics, the epistemological rules inherent to the scientific method, rules of logic, historical patterns, daily patterns, and common sense are all rejected. Instead, the delusional ramblings of an Ostrich Parasitic Syndrome sufferer are rooted in illusory correlations, non-existent causal links, and feel-good progressive platitudes. Ostrich Logic is always delivered via an air of haughty moral superiority."

These hive-mind drones need an echo chamber in order to feel validated and to validate their obviously blatant stupidity. They are triggered by empirical statements and label them as "bigoted." Opposing viewpoints constitute a form of "violence" from which these fragile little creatures require protection. These losers are nothing more than a pack of wild dogs who will turn on their less pure members in an instant. They always need someone to fight, even if it is from within their own ranks.

"The further a society drifts away from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." —George Orwell

Because of the truth I write about marriage, family, sexuality, gender, etc., these keyboard vigilante clowns attempt to threaten me with their idle threats "and I just LOLOLOLOL emojis for days." They attempt to call me a "culture vulture," which is just another ignorant made up term to go along with "anti-vaxx," "homophobe," "transphobe," "Islamophobe," etc. I am so sorry that you are choked and I am not. Your mental psychosis and delusional fantasies will not dictate my life and worldview. Perhaps you should be locked inside a padded room where you can talk to pink unicorns and pretend you are a fictional manga character as much as you want.

Social Justice Warrior Snowflakes are a walking talking virus of intellectual dishonesty and intellectual sterility, regularly committing moral and intellectual suicide. They are the sad commentary on, and an indictment to, the human race. They are literally walking punch lines.

I am just saying what the silent majority are afraid to say for fear of the ignorant labels these pathetic clowns will attempt to label them. They can toss whatever imaginary labels they want to come up with at me, "but words will never hurt me." If I say it, I mean it; I will not back down from declaring the truth, regardless of whether anyone wants to hear it or not. It does nobody no good to placate to their delusions and be complicit with their lies.

"Never confuse education with intelligence. You can have a PhD and still be an idiot." —Richard Feynman

People who are academically accomplished believe that their academic achievement removes them from susceptibility to media brainwash and propaganda when, historically, the opposite is true; they are the most susceptible. Behind every human atrocity was an academic institution that was convinced of its own virtue.

Experts, or "experts," are not immune from poor judgment and faulty reasoning. Professor Gad Saad once visited a physician because he was suffering recurring bouts of bronchitis. As he sat in his office, the physician was chain smoking. Gad asked him if he thought it was a good idea while treating an asthmatic patient suffering from bronchitis. The physician laughed it off.

We are seeing this kind of poor judgment and faulty reasoning on a monumental scale right now. Doctors and nurses are injecting people with these experimental mRNA gene therapy medical devices falsely called "vaccines" (in order to sneak them under Public Health exemptions), and when the patient comes back with an injury, the doctors and nurses are denying it and saying that it has nothing to do with the "vaccine" (effectively gaslighting these people).

What happened to doctors and nurses who asked for a history? Who asked what changed in your diet recently? Who asked what changed in your life recently? The only thing to have changed in these people's lives is having been injected, but magically the things happening to them have nothing to do with that. This is Ostrich Parasitic Syndrome at its finest, committed by our "experts." Having credentials does not mean you have credibility.

"Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it." —George R. R. Martin

"The easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists." —Isaac Asimov

"The human brain can protect us from seeing and feeling what it believes may be too uncomfortable for us to tolerate. It can lead us to deny, defend, minimize, or rationalize away something that doesn't fit our worldview." —Bandy X. Lee

Perhaps the science denying anti-science crowd out there (like Crime Minister Justin Trudeau) would like to remind themselves of some things that Professor Richard Feynman had to say:

"Science is the organized skepticism in the reliability of expert opinion."

"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts."

"Don't pay attention to 'authorities' [i.e., "experts"], think for yourself."

Feynman also said, "I would rather have questions that can't be answered, than answers that can't be questioned." Yet what is the narrative we are hearing from the Covidian Jonestown Kool-aid-guzzling Cult concerning COVID-19 and these so-called "vaccines"?

"You can't question the science!"

I am sorry?

When "Follow the science!" and “Trust the science!” meets “You cannot question the science!", science has met religion. The science is never "settled." Questioning science is science. That is the whole point of the scientific method. People should be able to reproduce your work to verify the results. There is zero "science" connected with these injections!

You can continue to be an anti-science science denying clown, calling long-established evidence-based scientific data "conspiracy theory," or you can face the facts and accept that your immune system is far superior — better, stronger, and longer lasting — than anything a legitimate vaccine has to offer.

"If it’s consensus, it ISN'T science. If it’s science, it ISN'T consensus. Period. Consensus is invoked only in situations where THE SCIENCE IS NOT SOLID." —Michael Crichton

"Peer-review" amounts to a hill of dung; it is worthless and useless and amounts to "consensus." You get a bunch of like-minded fools to agree with your erroneous and far-fetched imaginations and then attempt to label it as "science." Whenever people invoke "consensus" or "peer-review," I know not to take them serious as they obviously don't have a clue what in the world they are talking about.

"In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." —Galileo Galilei

So much of what is called "scientific research" today is riddled with conflict of interest. We are living in an era of "Scientism." We are being told to "Follow the science," but when evidence-based scientific data is presented, it is ignored, denied, and/or rejected entirely.

"SCIENCE:

If you don't make mistakes, you're doing it wrong.

If you don't correct those mistakes, you're really doing it wrong.

If you can't accept you're mistaken, you're not doing it at all." —Richard Feynman

This scamdemic was planned! Intelligent people understand this. Only cowards living in fear and stupid people believe the disinformation propaganda being spread like wildfire. Feel free to watch this short 5-minute video clip on Bonhoeffer's Theory of Stupidity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww47bR86wSc

"To find yourself, think for yourself." —Socrates

"When all think alike, no one is thinking very much." —Walter Lippmann

"Great minds think alike but weak minds seldom vary." —Unknown

"Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so." —Bertrand Russell

"What luck for rules that men do not think." —Adolf Hitler

"We are discreet sheep; we wait to see hot the drove is going, and then go with the drove." —Mark Twain

"If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing." —Anatole France [Jacques Anatole Thibault]

"Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." —Mark Twain

"Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses." —Plato

"The difference between genius and stupidity is; genius has its limits." —Albert Einstein

"Only two things are infinite; the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." —Albert Einstein

"The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity." —Harlan Ellison

"There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, andit has a longer shelf life." —Frank Zappa

"We have enough youth. How about a Fountain of Smart?" —Unknown

The World Has Gone Mad

When you have the chief reporter on the beat of COVID for The New York Times talking about how questioning or pursuing the question of the lab leak is "racist," the world has gone mad.

When people believe a "vaccine" is effective at protecting you, but the rest of the world needs to get it too in order for yours to work, the world has gone mad.

When long established evidence-based science is ignored, denied, and rejected by science denying anti-science clowns who keep yelling, "Follow the science," the world has gone mad.

When the superiority of your immune system is ignored, denied, and rejected, claiming some injection will "help boost" it, when that has never been the case in the past, the world has gone mad.

When doctors no longer ask for a history - what changed in your diet or life, and claim that your injuries cannot possibly be due to the COVID injections (despite being the only thing different in your life), the world has gone mad.

When you ask Covidian Jonestown Kool-aid-guzzling Cult members simple logical questions and the blank look on their face suggests "Cannot Compute. Computing Error," the world has gone mad.

When certain doctors, scientists and experts in their fields are doing their jobs and presenting evidence-based scientific data, and being silenced, ignored, smeared, and attacked, while other doctors, scientists and experts in their fields are doing no work at all but merely spewing ignorant subjective opinion, and being gobbled up without question, the world has gone mad.

When you are not able to say out loud and in public that there are differences between men and women, the world has gone mad.

When you are not able to say out loud and in public that a man is not and will never be a woman and that a woman is not and will never be a man, the world has gone mad.

When you are not able to say out loud and in public that a human being is not and will never be some other species, or some fictional character, the world has gone mad.

When you are not able to say out loud and in public that certain people are not and will never be an age other than what they are or an ethnicity other than what they are, the world has gone mad.

When we are not allowed to acknowledge that burning is burning, looting is looting, rioting is rioting, vandalism is vandalism, and that they are bad, the world has gone made.

When we are not allowed to acknowledge that silence is not violence, but violence is violence, the world has gone mad.

When, in the name of "progress," young school children as young as kindergarten are being separated in public schools because of their ethnicity, and that is called "progress" rather than segregation, the world has gone mad.

When you are not allowed to have intellectual dialogues, discussions, debates, and disagreements, because some Snowflake's feelings might get hurt, the world has gone mad.

When we care more about some sad Snowflake's perceived feelings than we do about actual truth, the world has gone mad.

When the criteria for hiring someone is based on a minority status rather than qualifications, merit, and individuality, the world has gone mad.