![\"Sanitized](\"http:\/\/www.all-creatures.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/lambleft.jpg\")
<\/a>A Sermon Delivered to
\nThe Compassion Internet Church<\/p>\n
31 May 2015<\/p>\n
Frank L. Hoffman, Pastor<\/p>\n
Scripture References:<\/p>\n
Deuteronomy 25:4
\nProverbs 12:10
\nMatthew 21:42-43
\nLuke 13:18-21<\/p>\n
Sanitized violence destroys peace, because society considers some forms of violence and killing to be acceptable.<\/p>\n
And as long as any society sanitizes violence of any kind in any way, they will never have true peace.<\/p>\n
On a more personal level, sanitized violence also hardens hearts and souls, because in order to cause another living being, whether human or other animal, to suffer and die, a person must first lose empathy for that being, and this causes people to fall short of the kingdom of God, for there is no suffering or human caused death in the heavenly will of God.<\/p>\n
Think about what Jesus told the ungodly chief priests and Pharisees in Matthew 21:42-43\u2026<\/p>\n
42. Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures,<\/p>\n
‘The stone which the builders rejected,
\nThis became the chief corner stone;
\nThis came about from the Lord,
\nAnd it is marvelous in our eyes’?<\/p>\n
43. “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it.
\nNASB<\/p>\n
Jesus is the chief corner stone whom people reject when they follow the ways of this corrupt and evil world instead of living in the heavenly will of God.<\/p>\n
Anyone who deliberately causes the suffering or death of another living being, or supports those who do with their money, is not producing the fruit of the kingdom of God; in fact, they are producing the fruit of the devil.<\/p>\n
Jesus also gave us some other examples of the kingdom of God in Luke 13:18-21\u2026<\/p>\n
18. Therefore He was saying, “What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it?<\/p>\n
The problem with most people is that they cannot visualize the kingdom of God either spiritually or in their own minds, for their hearts and souls are filled with the sanitized violence and corrupt ways of this world that destroys peace.<\/p>\n
So Jesus answers His own questions to help people understand.<\/p>\n
19. “It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden; and it grew and became a tree; and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”<\/p>\n
If we allow the wonderful creations of God, which include all humans and animals as well as the plants and seeds to mature and grow as God intended, and we really and truly care about them and observe in our hearts and souls what is taking place, then we begin to see into the kingdom of God.<\/p>\n
We not only see a seed growing into a tree, but we also see that animals also can love one another, just as we are supposed to do, and they raise and care for their families just as we are supposed to do.<\/p>\n
According to God\u2019s heavenly will, we are all to live like this and reject the sanitized violence in this world.<\/p>\n
And to help us further understand, Jesus gives us another example.<\/p>\n
20. And again He said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?<\/p>\n
21. “It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of meal, until it was all leavened.”
\nNASB<\/p>\n
The leaven in this example can be either the sins or the sanitized violence of this world, which permeates us until we are unfit for the kingdom of heaven, or it can represent the fruit of the Spirit and the heavenly unconditional love of God which changes us into true peacemaking children of God who are fit for the kingdom of God.<\/p>\n
We can choose to be either one, but not both, for there is no place in the kingdom of God for the sanitized violence and other corrupt ways of this world.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s look at a few examples:<\/p>\n
For many years we have been seeing ads featuring a tuna promoting the sale of tuna fish, which to us is nothing but sanitized violence, for fish suffer horribly from fear and pain and are suffocated to death.<\/p>\n
No fish wants to suffer and die for our food.<\/p>\n
And, just this past week, we saw a news article about 10 people being hospitalized and another 30 sick with salmonella poisoning from eating raw tuna in sushi.<\/p>\n
We believe such illnesses are a form of revenge upon the human race for eating animal products, because from the beginning God created only plant foods for us to eat (Genesis 1:29-30), for it wasn\u2019t until humans disobeyed God and began to eat animals that these and other similar illnesses became a plague upon our human society.<\/p>\n
If people rejected sanitized violence and returned to eating the plant foods God originally intended for us to eat, we wouldn\u2019t have these food-borne illnesses.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s look at another example.<\/p>\n
We have seen a lot of ads for pork products with smiling and dancing pigs, which is very similar to the kind of sanitized violence we discussed about the tuna industry; but unlike the tuna industry, the pork industry slaughters mostly baby pigs at about six months of age.<\/p>\n
Baby pigs want to stay with their mothers and the mothers want their babies close to them, but pig farmers steal the babies away from their mothers.<\/p>\n
In addition, they cut the tails and trim the teeth of the babies and the male babies are castrated, all of which is done without any pain killers or anesthesia; in other words, they torture the babies.<\/p>\n
They also torture the mothers by keeping them in \u201ccrates\u201d that are so small that the pigs cannot turn around.<\/p>\n
This is the kind of cruel exploitation that the pig farmers try to hide from the general public through the use of the sanitized violence they use in their \u201ccute\u201d advertisements.<\/p>\n
Humans would most likely cringe at even the thought of eating their own six month old baby, or even their neighbor\u2019s baby; but what about eating someone else\u2019s baby that they didn\u2019t know?<\/p>\n
Would that be acceptable?<\/p>\n
Most of you are probably saying, \u201cNo\u201d, but that is exactly what every person is doing who eats a pork product, for they are eating someone else\u2019s six month old baby whom they don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
Think about something else, such as what we are told in Deuteronomy 25:4\u2026<\/p>\n
4. “You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.
\nNASB<\/p>\n
In other words, if people are going to use animals to work for them, they are not to hinder that animal from having the other freedoms that God gave the animals to enjoy.<\/p>\n
However, pig farmers are so ungodly that they keep the mother pigs in small crates, and rape them to artificially inseminate them so they will have more babies; they deprive the pigs of everything God wanted them to have.<\/p>\n
In Proverbs 12:10, the Lord tells us what He thinks of such people\u2026<\/p>\n
10. A righteous man has regard for the life of his beast,
\nBut the compassion of the wicked is cruel.
\nNASB<\/p>\n
The pig farmers, by this definition, are wicked and cruel, which means that they are serving the devil of the corrupt and evil world instead of our heavenly Father.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s look at our final example of how sanitized violence destroys peace on earth.<\/p>\n
We probably all have seen ads depicting contented cows, happy cows, laughing cows, and talking cows all promoting the sale of dairy products, but when we really learn about what happens on commercial dairy farms, it is hard to imagine that any cow is happy or wants to promote the sale of the milk intended to feed her baby.<\/p>\n
Think of how you would feel if your baby was taken away from you when he or she was only two days old; that\u2019s a horrible thought isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
Well, that is exactly what happens on commercial dairy farms; and to make matters even worse, the male babies are deprived of good nutrition and killed at a young age for veal.<\/p>\n
And, the baby cows are mostly destined to suffer like their mothers with forced pregnancies and excess milk production until they are totally spent and sent to slaughter for burger meat when they are only 20-25% of the age that God intended them to live.<\/p>\n
We believe that this is how the dairy industry has sanitized violence and destroys peace for both humans and animals.<\/p>\n
And, in our opinion, this applies to all other exploiters of animals, and the people who support them with their money by buying their products of suffering and death, for their money is saying, \u201cCause more suffering and death.\u201d<\/p>\n
They have all sanitized violence by ignoring or trying to cover up the truth.<\/p>\n
Sanitized violence has no place in the lives of true believers or in the kingdom of heaven.<\/p>\n
We are to be the peacemaking children of God who live in the heavenly will of God, who do everything in their power to free creation from its present corruption.<\/p>\n
Amen.<\/p>\n
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