Letters From Grandpa #555

• LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
• 555

Dearest grandchild,

I just discovered some ants on the kitchen table. I immediately put out some poison especially designed to kill ants. It tastes so good that they rush back to their nest and bring all their friends. Soon they will all be dead without ever understanding what killed them. This is what Satan does to us! Satan was kicked out of heaven because of the deadly sin of pride, yet he has made pride taste so delicious that we hurry to tell all our friends how wonderful pride is.

In 1999 President Bill Clinton declared June “Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.” During his presidency Barack Obama echoed this sentiment and proclaimed June to be “LGBT Pride Month.” Later, President Joe Biden further expanded the honor to “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) Pride Month.” Biden even went so far as to insult Jesus and proclaim Easter Sunday 2024 as the “Trans Day of Visibility”. Biden’s devotion to pride apparently caused him to disregard the long standing White House policy of banning religious symbols from the annual Easter Egg Role. The point is, all over the world LGBTQ+ people are celebrating “PRIDE” as though it is something to be “proud of.” In reality, pride is at the top of the list of the things that God hates (Proverbs 6:16-19).

In the 1930’s B.F. Skinner proposed the theory of operate conditioning. To prove his theory he developed the “Skinner Box” and used rats to prove his point. When the rats did what he wanted he rewarded them, and when they did not he punished them. The experiment seems to work with rats and he was able to consistently control their behavior. Rats, however, do not have pride. People do! God, for example, commands us to “repent” but the book of Revelation describes people seared by intense heat who refused to repent. They even gnawed their tongues in agony but still cursed God and refused to repent (Revelation 16:8-11). They were apparently victims of the deadly sin of pride!

Our little family moved to California in 1959. On May 2, 1960 a famous criminal named Caryl Chessman was put to death in the gas chamber at San Quentin. Unfortunately, his pride seemed to be the factor that prevented him from repenting. Time Magazine quoted him as saying: “It seemed to me just as it usually seems to my kind, that society was simply trying to strip or rip off my shield, that it was willing to do so ruthlessly, that it didn’t care about me personally, or the amount of humiliation or degradation it might inflict in the process. I stubbornly balked at being manipulated, regulated, or being compelled to conform blindly through fear or threat of punishment, however severe. Indeed, I came to question the validity of a society that appeared more concerned with imposing its will than in inspiring respect. There seemed to me something grossly wrong with this. ‘We’ll make you be good’, I was told, and I told myself nobody should, would, or could MAKE me do anything. And I proved it.”

• Louis Zamperini was also from California. He became a famous athlete who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics and even shook Hitler’s hand. As a soldier in W.W. II he survived multiple plane crashes, was lost at sea for months, and spent two years as a POW in a Japanese prison. He became famous for his resistance to Japanese torture. His book “Unbroken” was rated by Time Magazine as the
• 1 non-fiction book of 2010. The movie Unbroken came out in 2014. The point of the book and movie is that regardless of the torment and torture imposed upon him by the Japanese he remained “unbroken”.

The “good news” is that after the war his wife took him to a Billy Graham Crusade and he had the good sense to become “broken” and make a total and complete surrender to Jesus Christ. He went

on to be mentored by Billy Graham and devoted the rest of his life to helping at-risk youth. He even returned to Japan to personally forgive the men who tortured him. Louis died in 2014 at the age of 97.

Louis Zamperini is obviously a better example to follow than Caryl Chessman. Even better, of course, is the example of Jesus Himself. Jesus didn’t need to repent because He always did what His Heavenly Father wanted Him to do (Matthew 26:39; John 4:34; 5:30; 5:36; 6:38; 14:31; 17:4; etc.) Of course, Jesus will continue to do the will of the Father when He comes again! The Scriptures teach that some day Jesus will return “from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power.” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9)

At that time we are told that “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:10-11)

PLEASE DON’T BE PROUD! PLEASE REPENT OF YOUR SINS! PLEASE RECEIVE JESUS AS LORD! PLEASE DON’T BE A VICTIM OF PRIDE!

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce