Dumb Cluck

                        THE DUMB CLUCK SOCIETY   

    Sometimes I get carried away with how the Holy Spirit tells me
stories to use in messages, and this is one time I chuckled myself
awake. Strange way to get messages, but it's nice not to always
hear bombs going off or the rattle of machine guns. I would really
rather not write the super serious messages about Christianity
because I am a person of humor. Before undergoing surgery, I was
in top form in the prep area. So much so that the nurses asked if I
could stay awhile to bring some cheer in serious situations. I really
had no choice because my surgery was scheduled and I certainly
didn't want to spend more time there. Now that I have digressed,
on to the information about the Dumb Cluck Society.

    I haven't heard this term much recently, but it used to be an old
stand-by for people describing totally idiotic explanations. It's more
interesting to know how and why the term came about. This is for
real, folks, from someone (me) who experienced the actual term.
No, it wasn't me. It is really a chicken. When I was in the military,
lots of my friends didn't believe some of my agricultural (farm)
stories. I had good grammar and diction which usually didn't
accompany a farmer. That was because of my work in the news
media, but they didn't know that. The real farm boys knew I was
the real deal, however, and frequently went along with some of my
embellished "rural stories" to the chagrin of the city guys. Again
I digress. I'm really writing about genuine, serious Christianity.
Remember, God counted humor among His many talents. After
all, He made you!

    Back on the farm in my early years, I experienced farm life to the
fullest. One of the things that was necessary that I hated was the
slaughtering of animals. I do not make a good Old Testament Jew
because I hate shedding blood. Until later years, I hunted and fished.
Shooting a pheasant was not distasteful, but it was a "clean" kill,
and virtually bloodless. Slaughtering fowls and animals was a vastly
different matter. There is always blood, and in beheading chickens,
there is the dropping of the axe. I don't know how the Muslims who
do the beheading sleep at night. I have now digressed three times,
so scripture has been imitated long enough, I'll explain the dumb
cluck and how the society was formed and then split into two
segments.
    
    In the "old" days, chickens were slaughtered by simply taking an
axe and chopping the head off at the neck. Sometimes there was an
unusual phenomenon when the chickens were killed. They didn't just
die; they actually could come off the chopping block and run around.
If you ever saw a beheaded chicken run around until it finally died,
you would understand the term. Because the headless chicken had
no eyes or ears, it couldn't see or hear anything. So, it just ran around
for a few minutes and then collapsed. There was no thought process
because it had no head, and it was as unsaved people are described
in scripture. Go to Matt. 13:11-15. These verses combine Christ's
teaching and Isaiah's prophecy given more than 750 years BEFORE
Christ. Can there be any doubt about these verses?

    Matt. 13:11-15. "He answered and said to them, 'Because it has been
given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to
them it has not been given. (Verse 12 here is the same as Matt. 25:29.
For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance;
but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.
Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see,
and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the
prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: Hearing you will hear and
shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the
hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing,
and their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts
and turn, So that I should heal them."'

    Now, I'm digressing yet a fourth time to ask you to compare the exact
wording of verse 12, "For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he
will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will
be taken from him." Christians, including pastors, explain this verse in
Matt. 25:29 as referring to money. You see this is wrong. Christ was 
talking about gifts of the spirit, and in both instances he meant the
gift or ability to understand. I know I'm pretty much a lone wolf with my
explanation, but Christ's words match Isaiah's perfectly, and Isaiah was
speaking about understanding, not money. A Christian's eyes should be
on the gifts of the Spirit, not money. No apology for this digression.

    Back to the headless chicken. It's very easy to compare the
description of the blind and deaf chicken with a person who lacks
understanding. And that, friends, takes us to the membership
qualifications in the Dumb Cluck Society. When people have a good
thing going, everyone wants to be a leader. The Dumb Cluck Society
is no different. There is constant contention among the members in
both branches, and the best way to describe this activity is to think
of brainless, no clue lies and blathering. I'll describe the two branches,
and you can decide who belongs where. This is not judging, which is
not biblical; it is intelligent consideration of facts and truth. 

    First, we'll look at the Polled branch of the Dumb Cluck Society. This
branch is by far the largest because it includes most people in the world.
There is a good sized number in the United States, as well, but they have
been placed in this branch by members of the other branch. These are
people who are considered intellectually unable to handle education
or who choose not to be enlightened. There is a great deal of racism
involved in placing people in this branch. These people are just simply
known as "dumb." They do not understand Christianity, at least in the
eyes of the other branch. You could say this is the branch of the
common man. Polled refers to the head and voting.

    Now to the elite branch of the Dumb Cluck Society. This is the location
of the upper crust professing Christian world. There are some highly
educated people in this branch and many who must have bought their
college degrees in the Dollar Stores. The former talk and write a great
deal, which is mildly irritating. The latter don't write much except through
a ghost writer or plagiarizing. They do talk excessively, and frequently in
a very loud voice. These are very irritating and create major problems,
often with no factual foundation and usually reflecting an opinion of how
they believe things should be. 

     How do we separate these people, and how do we assess their
actual Christian commitment. We have what they say and how they
follow Christ's teaching to consider before making a decision to believe
what they tell us, or to recognize their membership in the Dumb Cluck
Society. As always, you can tell a real Christian by their knowledge and
use of scripture. We now have among us those who deny the Old 
Testament has any meaning today. There are those who use single
verses of scripture to make a point or who say all of Christ's words are
no longer valid. Flee from these pretenders before they get your money
and support. A low IQ doesn't mean a person can't be saved, so be
careful about placing them in this branch. You don't have to have a high
IQ or money to be saved. 

    The elite branch poses a problem, especially among the wealthy or
those very highly educated. Some people get so much education they
get confused over man's ability compared to God's. I have a friend who's
an engineer who thinks scientists will develop something superior to
milk. He apparently thinks God gave us an inferior product. He attends
church regularly, is a deacon and teaches Sunday School. He obviously
has a problem understanding God's supreme superiority, but otherwise
accepts the basic foundation of Christianity. Then, there are highly
intelligent people who spend time researching how to prove Christ
wasn't really the Son of God, or He was married and went to Egypt,
or wasn't born of a virgin, or he was not bodily resurrected, or he did
not perform miracles, etc. Finally, we get to those who have wealth, and
believe their great intelligence (NOT) brought them wealth, and God only
endorsed their effort. The answer to every problem is money, and there's
never enough.

    Let's make an intelligence decision on how we determine the sincerity
of a person's commitment to Christ. It only takes a few answers to give
us the salvation standing of a person. It's not opinion, if you count just
these few answers:
Do you believe in the virgin birth of Christ, that the holy Spirit impregnated
the virgin Mary?
Do you believe Christ is the Son of God, sent to earth by the Father to offer
eternal life to anyone who commits?
Do you think Christ was just a man, a special teacher or prophet?
Do you believe in miracles?
Do you believe Christ died on the cross?
Do you believe He gave His spirit willingly to God? (It wasn't taken)
Do you believe He bodily rose from death to later ascend to heaven?
Do you believe angels opened the tomb?
Do you believe the Roman guards allowed the body to be stolen?
Do you know where His body was taken or where it is now?
Do you know why the disciples didn't recognize him right away?
Do you know how doubting Thomas could find the nail wounds if
the body wasn't really Christ's?
That should be enough for a genuine Christian to make a decision.

    I'm closing this message by nominating a Cluck of Time. This person
actually tore pages out of a bible so he could "rewrite" the four gospels.
He wrote his version of scripture, partly because he thought American
Indians were too dumb to learn normally. You know what he thought of
blacks, although he sired children with a black slave. He did not believe
in miracles and removed all from the gospels. He believed Christ was just
a man. He removed the story of the resurrection. These FACTS are all
recorded in many biographies of the man, who was brilliant in many
fields and very wealthy. He was one of the founding fathers of the United
States and wrote the Declaration of Independence. That Declaration
includes his statement that all men are created equal. He owned and
used slaves. Was he a liar? Was he a genuine Christian? Don't believe
me--call up Thomas Jefferson on the internet and look at the many
books by biographers, historians and his own writing. And this is
why, friends, they didn't found a Christian nation.

Rev. Walbear