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How to Guide Your Children Through a World You Don’t Understand
“The world is changing all the time. In just a few short decades, it can feel like a completely different place. How can you guide your children through it?
The first step in helping your children navigate the negative influences of their world is accepting that you don’t know their world.
You can’t. It’s not possible.
Oh, sure, you might understand some of the individual parts of that world, and you might have a sense of how all those pieces fit together—but that doesn’t mean you understand what it’s like to be a young person in that world.
The only way to truly understand their world is to grow up in it—but you can’t do that. You grew up in a different world—one that doesn’t exist anymore.
The music is different. The books are different. The technologies are different. The slang is different. The means of communication are different. The political ideologies are different. The world events are different. The cultural and societal values are different. The fashions are different.
Even though you might recognize some elements from your own childhood, it doesn’t change the fact that your children are coming of age in their own unique sliver of human history—a cultural and sociopolitical stew that has never existed before and will never exist again in quite the same way.
In their world, you will always be an outsider and a visitor—and there’s nothing you can do to change it.
(It works the other way too. Your kids can read the books you read, listen to the music you loved, wear the clothes you wore—but they still won’t fully understand what it was like to grow up in your world.)
So, how on earth are you supposed to help them navigate their world?
The world isn’t as different as it seems
A dejected Solomon wrote, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, ‘See, this is new’? It has been already in the ages before us” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10, English Standard Version).
You’ve probably heard a more modern proverb that echoes those thoughts: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” The world has seen quite a few new things—but the underlying principles of human nature haven’t changed at all.
That’s the key to this whole puzzle. Your children might live in a world you don’t fully understand, but that “new world” is really just a coat of new paint. The structure underneath the paint hasn’t changed in 6,000 years—so no matter how many times the world gets repainted, the Word of God will always have the answers you need for guiding your children through it.
Here are four steps you as a parent can follow to help your children navigate a world you don’t completely understand:
1. Set the standards
Proverbs tells us, “Correct your children, and they will be wise; children out of control disgrace their mothers” (Proverbs 29:15, Contemporary English Version).
God expects parents to set clear standards for their children—and to hold their children accountable to those standards. A rule that can be ignored or trampled on, repeatedly and without consequence, is no rule at all.
But we don’t need to wonder what standards to enforce in our families. God laid them out clearly for us in His law—especially the 10 Commandments. Not long after repeating those commandments to Israel, Moses reiterated, “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).
The rules are still the same. Those words are still the ones God expects us to teach diligently to our children, sharing and discussing them at every opportunity.
(Of course, that requires us to be familiar with those words. See “How to Study the Bible” for help in that area.)
2. Set the example
But having the right rules is only part of the equation. Solomon wrote, “The righteous who walks in his integrity—blessed are his children after him!” (Proverbs 20:7, ESV).
The emphasis is on the walking. This isn’t a proverb about “the righteous who has the right set of standards but doesn’t do anything with them.” When we model the right way of living, walking in our integrity, our children are blessed after us—because they see the standards in action. They see that our beliefs aren’t just words we say, but things we do.
You won’t do a perfect job—which is important, because neither will they. What do they see when you fail? Do they see you repenting, making amends and trying again? Or do they see you getting frustrated, giving up, making excuses or hand-waving the failure away?
Just as the life of Jesus gives us all a template to follow (1 Peter 2:21), your life as a parent will serve as a template for your children. Whether you’re dealing with failure or success, be certain that the values you want to see them live by are the same ones you live by.
3. Take time to understand
It’s true that your children are growing up in a world where you’ll always be a visitor—but that doesn’t mean you have to be an oblivious visitor. You can (and should!) be making the effort to understand the elements of that world and how they all fit together.
Remember, your children don’t have to be looking for the world’s rottenness in order to find it—more often than not, it will find them. In order to shield our families against that rottenness, we need to be “as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16, New International Version), remaining vigilant against Satan’s potential schemes (2 Corinthians 2:11).
What apps are your children using? What are those apps capable of — whether good or bad? What books, shows and games are they reading, watching and playing—and what messages are they hearing in the process?
More than that, what’s important to them? What do they enjoy? What kinds of things do they love? What kinds of things do they hate?
4. Take time to discuss
The goal here isn’t to become a surveillance state snooping on every word and thought your children have. The goal is to be aware of the influences they’re being exposed to and of the preferences they’re forming—and then to talk about them.
Paul cautioned fathers, “Do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).
If your children feel heard and understood, they’re more likely to hear and understand.
It’s a difficult balance. They need to feel they can share things with you without being “provoked to wrath”— but at the same time, you’ll need to point them toward “the training and admonition of the Lord.” Keeping both of those lanes of dialogue open and flowing will take constant effort on your part—but the end result is a valuable line of communication with your children.
Your job is to provide the tools
You’ll never understand everything in your children’s world. And you won’t be there to help them make every decision in that world. More and more often as they mature, they’ll be flying solo—making their own decisions in their own world.
Those are the moments when the rubber meets the road. Solomon also said, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).
If you’re setting the right standards and the right example, and if you’re taking the time to understand and discuss their world with them, then you are giving your children everything they need to one day navigate the world without you.
Your kids know their world better than you ever will, and you can’t force them to stay on a path they’re not interested in walking. Eventually, the choice will be theirs, and they’ll walk where they want to walk.
The focus here is on the heart. Dragging them down the road—even when it’s the right road—isn’t going to accomplish much of anything.
But by spending time training them in the way they should go—that is, training their hearts—you’ll be equipping them for success. With God’s help, they’ll begin to see not just how to live this way of life, but why it matters. The godly wisdom and principles you share with them will be exactly the tools they need to navigate their world—no matter what the latest coat of paint makes it look like.” From: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/relationships/parenting/how-to-guide-your-children/?
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Whose Prayers Won’t God Hear?
Psalm 66:18
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.
“Does God hear the prayers of sinners? Yes and no.
Yes, our merciful God always loves us and works with us, and Jesus Christ even died for us “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8). We were all sinners (Romans 3:23), so if God did not hear our cries for forgiveness, there would be no human He would hear. After sinning, David prayed, “Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities” (Psalm 51:9). God heard that prayer.
But without repentance, as Isaiah wrote, “Your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).
Psalm 66:18 talks about sin “cherished” in the heart (New International Version). “If I have known it was there and encouraged it,” then God wouldn’t listen (Adam Clarke’s Commentary on Psalm 66:18).
To be assured God will hear and answer us, we must repent and work to root sin out of our heart with God’s help. See more about repentance in “How to Repent.” From: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/bible/blog/whose-prayers-wont-god-hear/?
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4 Hidden Dangers of Pork
“Among foods that inspire a cult-like following, pork often leads the pack, as evidenced by the 65% of Americans eager to name bacon the country’s national food.
Unfortunately, that popularity comes at a cost. Along with being the most commonly consumed meat in the world, pork may also be one of the most dangerous, carrying some important and under-discussed risks that any consumer should be aware of (1).
1. Hepatitis E
Thanks to the revival of nose-to-tail eating, offal has redeemed itself among health enthusiasts, especially liver, which is prized for its vitamin A content and massive mineral lineup.
But when it comes to pork, liver might be risky business.
In developed nations, pork liver is the top food-based transmitter of hepatitis E, a virus that infects 20 million people each year and can lead to acute illness (fever, fatigue, jaundice, vomiting, joint pain and stomach pain), enlarged liver and sometimes liver failure and death (2Trusted Source, 3Trusted Source).
Most hepatitis E cases are stealthily symptom-free, but pregnant women can experience violent reactions to the virus, including fulminant hepatitis (rapid-onset liver failure) and a high risk of both maternal and fetal mortality (4Trusted Source). In fact, mothers who get infected during their third trimester face a death rate of up to 25% (5Trusted Source).
In rare cases, hepatitis E infection can lead to myocarditis (an inflammatory heart disease), acute pancreatitis (painful inflammation of the pancreas), neurological problems (including Guillain-Barré syndrome and neuralgic amyotrophy), blood disorders and musculoskeletal problems, such as elevated creatine phosphokinase, indicating muscle damage, and multi-joint pain (in the form of polyarthralgia) (6, 7Trusted Source, 8Trusted Source).
People with compromised immune systems, including organ transplant recipients on immunosuppressive therapy and people with HIV, are more likely to suffer from these severe hepatitis E complications (9Trusted Source).
So, just how alarming are pork’s contamination stats? In America, about 1 out of every 10 store-bought pig livers tests positive for hepatitis E, which is slightly higher than the 1 in 15 rate in the Netherlands and 1 in 20 rate in the Czech Republic (10Trusted Source, 11Trusted Source). One study in Germany found that about 1 in 5 pork sausages were contaminated (12Trusted Source).
France’s traditional figatellu, a pig liver sausage that’s often consumed raw, is a confirmed hepatitis E carrier (13Trusted Source). In fact, in regions of France where raw or rare pork is a common delicacy, over half the local population shows evidence of hepatitis E infection (14Trusted Source).
Japan, too, is facing rising hepatitis E concerns as pork gains popularity (15Trusted Source). And in the UK? Hepatitis E shows up in pork sausages, in pork liver and at pork slaughterhouses, indicating the potential for widespread exposure among pork consumers (16Trusted Source).
It might be tempting to blame the hepatitis E epidemic on commercial farming practices, but in the case of the pig, wilder doesn’t mean safer. Hunted boars, too, are frequent hepatitis E carriers, capable of passing on the virus to game-eating humans (17Trusted Source, 18Trusted Source).
Apart from total pork abstinence, the best way to slash hepatitis E risk is in the kitchen. This stubborn virus can survive the temperatures of rare-cooked meat, making high heat the best weapon against infection (19Trusted Source). For virus deactivation, cooking pork products for at least 20 minutes to an internal temperature of 71°C (160°F) seems to do the trick (20).
However, fat can protect hepatitis viruses from heat destruction, so fattier cuts of pork might need extra time or toastier temperatures (21Trusted Source).
SUMMARY: Pork products, particularly liver, frequently carry hepatitis E, which can cause severe complications and even death in vulnerable populations. Thorough cooking is necessary to deactivate the virus.
2. Multiple Sclerosis
One of the most surprising risks associated with pork — one that’s received remarkably little airtime — is multiple sclerosis (MS), a devastating autoimmune condition involving the central nervous system.
The robust link between pork and MS has been known at least since the 1980s, when researchers analyzed the relationship between per capita pork consumption and MS across dozens of countries (22Trusted Source).
While pork-averse nations like Israel and India were nearly spared from MS’s degenerative grips, more liberal consumers, such as West Germany and Denmark, faced sky-high rates.
In fact, when all countries were considered, pork intake and MS showed a whopping correlation of 0.87 (p<0.001), which is much higher and more significant than the relationship between MS and fat intake (0.63, p<0.01), MS and total meat intake (0.61, p<0.01) and MS and beef consumption (no significant relationship).
For perspective, a similar study of diabetes and per capita sugar intake found a correlation of just under 0.60 (p<0.001) when analyzing 165 countries (23Trusted Source).
As with all epidemiological findings, the correlation between pork consumption and MS can’t prove that one causes the other (or even that, within MS-stricken countries, the most enthusiastic pork consumers were the most diseased). But as it turns out, the evidence vault goes much deeper.
Earlier, a study of inhabitants of the Orkney and Shetland Islands of Scotland, a region teeming with unusual delicacies, including seabird eggs, raw milk and undercooked meat, found only one dietary association with MS — consumption of “potted head,” a dish made from boiled pig’s brain (24Trusted Source).
Among Shetland residents, a significantly higher proportion of MS patients had consumed potted head in their youth, compared to healthy, age and sex-matched controls (25).
This is particularly relevant because — per other research — MS that strikes in adulthood might stem from environmental exposures during adolescence (26).
The potential for pig brain to trigger nerve-related autoimmunity isn’t just an observational hunch, either. Between 2007 and 2009, a cluster of 24 pork plant workers mysteriously fell ill with progressive inflammatory neuropathy, which is characterized by MS-like symptoms such as fatigue, numbness, tingling and pain (27Trusted Source, 28Trusted Source).
The source of the outbreak? So-called “pig brain mist” — tiny particles of brain tissue blasted into the air during carcass processing (29Trusted Source).
When workers inhaled these tissue particles, their immune systems, per standard protocol, formed antibodies against the foreign porcine antigens.
But those antigens happened to bear an uncanny resemblance to certain neural proteins in humans. And the result was a biological calamity: confused about who to fight, the workers’ immune systems launched a guns-blazing attack on their own nerve tissue (30Trusted Source, 31Trusted Source).
Although the resulting autoimmunity wasn’t identical to multiple sclerosis, that same process of molecular mimicry, where foreign antigens and self-antigens are similar enough to trigger an autoimmune response, has been implicated in the pathogenesis of MS (32Trusted Source, 33Trusted Source).
Of course, unlike pig brain mist, hot dogs and ham aren’t literally inhaled (teenage boys notwithstanding). Could pork still transmit problematic substances through ingestion? The answer is a speculative yes. For one, certain bacteria, particularly Acinetobacter, are involved in molecular mimicry with myelin, the nerve-sheathing substance that becomes damaged in MS (34, 35Trusted Source).
Although the role of pigs as Acinetobacter carriers hasn’t been exhaustively studied, the bacteria has been found in pig feces, on pig farms and in bacon, pork salami and ham, where it serves as a spoilage organism (36Trusted Source, 37Trusted Source, 38, 39). If pork acts as a vehicle for Acinetobacter transmission (or in any way increases the risk of human infection), a link with MS would make sense.
Two, pigs may be silent and under-studied carriers of prions, misfolded proteins that drive neurodegenerative disorders like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (the human version of mad cow) and Kuru (found among cannibal societies) (40Trusted Source).
Some researchers suggest MS itself could be a prion disease, one that targets oligodendrocytes, the cells that produce myelin (41Trusted Source). And since prions — and their associated diseases— are transmitted by consuming infected nerve tissue, it’s possible that prion-harboring pork products could be one link in the MS chain (42Trusted Source).
SUMMARY: A causative role of pork in MS is far from a closed case, but the unusually strong epidemiological patterns, biological plausibility and documented experiences make further research imperative.
3. Liver Cancer and Cirrhosis
Liver problems tend to trail closely on the heels of some predictable risk factors, namely hepatitis B and C infection, exposure to aflatoxin (a carcinogen produced by mold) and excessive alcohol intake (43, 44, 45).
But buried in the scientific literature is another potential scourge of liver health — pork.
For decades, pork consumption has faithfully echoed liver cancer and cirrhosis rates around the world. In multi-country analyses, the correlation between pork and cirrhosis mortality clocked in at 0.40 (p<0.05) using 1965 data, 0.89 (p<0.01) using mid-1970s data, 0.68 (p=0.003) using 1996 data and 0.83 (p=0.000) using 2003 data (46Trusted Source, 47Trusted Source).
In those same analyses, among the 10 Canadian provinces, pork bore a correlation of 0.60 (p<0.01) with death from liver cirrhosis, while alcohol, perhaps due to an overall low intake, showed no significant link.
And in statistical models incorporating known perils for the liver (alcohol consumption, hepatitis B infection and hepatitis C infection), pork remained independently associated with liver disease, suggesting the association isn’t just due to pork piggybacking, as the case may be, on a different causative agent (48Trusted Source).
Beef, by contrast, remained liver-neutral or protective in these studies.
One of the biggest dietary sources of nitrosamines is processed pork, which, along with being a frequent visitor to the frying pan, typically contains nitrites and nitrates as curing agents. (Vegetables are also rich in naturally occurring nitrates, but their antioxidant content and dearth of protein help thwart the process of N-nitrosation, preventing them from becoming cancer-causing agents (62Trusted Source).
Significant levels of nitrosamines have been found in pork liver pâté, bacon, sausage, ham and other cured meats (63, 64Trusted Source, 65Trusted Source). The fatty portion of pork products, in particular, tends to accumulate much higher levels of nitrosamines than the lean bits, making bacon a particularly abundant source (66Trusted Source).
The presence of fat can also turn vitamin C into a nitrosamine promoter instead of a nitrosamine inhibitor, so pairing pork with veggies might not confer much protection (67Trusted Source).
Although much of the nitrosamine-liver cancer research has focused on rodents, where certain nitrosamines produce liver injury with remarkable ease, the effect appears in humans as well (68Trusted Source, 69Trusted Source). In fact, some researchers suggest humans may be even more sensitive to nitrosamines than mice and rats (70Trusted Source).
In Thailand, for instance, nitrosamines have been strongly linked to liver cancer in areas where other risk factors are low (71). A 2010 analysis of the NIH-AARP cohort found red meat (including pork), processed meat (including processed pork), nitrates and nitrites to be positively associated with chronic liver disease. Rubber workers, occupationally exposed to nitrosamines, have faced extremely high rates of non-alcohol-related liver disease and cancer (72Trusted Source).
Do nitrosamines prove a chain of causation between pork, liver-harming compounds and liver disease? The evidence is currently too patchy to make that claim, but the risk is plausible enough to justify limiting nitrosamine-containing (or nitrosamine-producing) pork products, including bacon, ham, hot dogs and sausages made with sodium nitrite or potassium nitrate.
SUMMARY: Strong epidemiological links exist between pork consumption and liver disease. If these links reflect cause and effect, one culprit might be N-nitroso compounds, which are found abundantly in processed pork products cooked at high temperatures.
4. Yersinia
For years, pork’s precautionary motto was “well-done or bust,” a consequence of fears about trichinosis, a type of roundworm infection that ravaged pork consumers throughout much of the 20th century (73).
Thanks to changes in feeding practices, farm hygiene and quality control, pig-borne trichinosis has dropped off the radar, inviting pink pork back onto the menu.
But pork’s relaxed heat rules may have opened the doors for a different type of infection — yersiniosis, which is caused by Yersinia bacteria. In the US alone, Yersinia causes 35 deaths and almost 117,000 cases of food poisoning each year (74Trusted Source). Its chief entry route for humans? Undercooked pork.
Yersiniosis’s acute symptoms are rough enough — fever, pain, bloody diarrhea — but its long-term consequences are what should really ring alarm bells. Victims of Yersinia poisoning face a 47-times higher risk of reactive arthritis, a type of inflammatory joint disease triggered by infection (75).
Even children become post-Yersinia arthritis targets, sometimes requiring chemical synovectomy (the injection of osmic acid into a troubled joint) to relieve persistent pain (76, 77).
And in the less-common instances where Yersinia doesn’t bring the typical feverish, diarrheic unpleasantries? Reactive arthritis can develop even when the original infection was asymptomatic, leaving some victims unaware that their arthritis is a consequence of food-borne illness (78).
Although reactive arthritis usually subsides on its own over time, Yersinia victims remain at higher risk of chronic joint problems, including ankylosing spondylitis, sacroiliitis, tenosynovitis and rheumatoid arthritis, for years on end (79Trusted Source, 80Trusted Source, 81).
Some evidence suggests that Yersinia can lead to neurological complications (82). Infected individuals with iron overload may be at higher risk of multiple liver abscesses, potentially leading to death (83Trusted Source, 84Trusted Source, 85Trusted Source). And among people who are genetically susceptible, anterior uveitis, inflammation of the eye’s iris, is also more likely following a bout of Yersinia (86Trusted Source, 87Trusted Source).
Lastly, via molecular mimicry, Yersinia infection could also raise the risk of Graves’ disease, an autoimmune condition characterized by excessive thyroid hormone production (88Trusted Source, 89Trusted Source).
The solution? Bring on the heat. The majority of pork products (69% of tested samples, according to a Consumer Reports analysis) are contaminated with Yersinia bacteria, and the only way to safeguard against infection is through proper cooking. An internal temperature of at least 145°F for whole pork and 160°F for ground pork is necessary to decimate any lingering pathogen.
SUMMARY: Undercooked pork can transmit Yersinia bacteria, causing short-term illness and raising the risk of reactive arthritis, chronic joint conditions, Graves’ disease and other complications.
In Conclusion
So, should health-savvy omnivores scrap pork from the menu?
The jury’s still out. For two of pork’s problems — hepatitis E and Yersinia — aggressive cooking and safe handling are enough to minimize the risk. And due to a shortage of controlled, pork-centric research capable of establishing causation, pork’s other red flags spring from epidemiology — a field rife with confounders and unjustified confidence.
Worse, many diet-and-disease studies lump pork together with other types of red meat, diluting whatever associations might exist with pork alone.
These issues make it hard to isolate the health effects of pig-derived products and determine the safety of their consumption.
That being said, caution is probably warranted. The sheer magnitude, consistency and mechanistic plausibility of pork’s connection with several serious diseases make the chances of a true risk more likely.
Until further research is available, you might want to think twice about going hog-wild on pork. From: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/is-pork-bad
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Another Trusted Source
If you’re at all familiar with the Bible, you probably remember that in it God specifically instructed His people not to eat pork and shellfish. Many people are surprised to find this out, but in the Old Testament God warned us that the pig was an unclean animal. Why? Because the pig is a scavenger and not meant for human consumption. (Check out Leviticus 11.)
Leviticus 11:1-8
New King James Version, Foods Permitted and Forbidden
“11 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘These are the animals which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth:
3 Among the animals, whatever divides the hoof, having cloven hooves and chewing the cud—that you may eat.
4 Nevertheless these you shall not eat among those that chew the cud or those that have cloven hooves: the camel, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is [a]unclean to you;
5 the [b]rock hyrax, (rock badger/rabbit) because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is [c]unclean to you;
6 the hare, because it chews the cud but does not have cloven hooves, is unclean to you;
7 and the swine, though it divides the hoof, having cloven hooves, yet does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.
8 Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch. They are unclean to you.”
Rabbits and hares are forbidden because they eat their own poop to recycle the nutrients!
Pigs, (swine) because they eat poop, garbage and dead things so their fat is toxic.
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The meat and fat of a pig absorbs toxins like a sponge
“According to studies cited in the WHO report, for every 50 grams of processed meat someone eats per day — the equivalent of a little more than a single hot dog — your risk of colorectal cancer goes up by 18%.
And here are some more reasons why you should think twice about eating pork…
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A pig is a real garbage gut. It will eat anything including urine, excrement, dirt, decaying animal flesh, maggots, or decaying vegetables. They will even eat the cancerous growths off other pigs or animals.
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The meat and fat of a pig absorbs toxins like a sponge. Their meat can be 30 times more toxic than beef or venison.
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When eating beef or venison, it takes 8 to 9 hours to digest the meat so what little toxins are in the meat are slowly put into our system and can be filtered by the liver. But when pork is eaten, it takes only 4 hours to digest the meat. We thus get a much higher level of toxins within a shorter time.
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Unlike other mammals, a pig does not sweat or perspire. Perspiration is a means by which toxins are removed from the body. Since a pig does not sweat, the toxins remain within its body and in the meat.
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Pigs and swine are so poisonous that you can hardly kill them with strychnine or other poisons. Farmers will often pen up pigs within a rattlesnake nest because the pigs will eat the snakes, and if bitten they will not be harmed by the venom.
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When a pig is butchered, worms and insects take to its flesh sooner and faster than to other animal’s flesh. In a few days the swine flesh is full of worms.
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Swine and pigs have over a dozen parasites within them, such as tapeworms, flukes, worms, and trichinae. There is no safe temperature at which pork can be cooked to ensure that all these parasites, their cysts, and eggs will be killed.
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Pig meat has twice as much fat as beef. A three-ounce T-bone steak contains 8.5 grams of fat; a three-ounce pork chop contains 18 grams of fat. A three-ounce beef rib has 11.1 grams of fat; a three-ounce pork spare rib has 23.2 grams of fat.
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Cows have a complex digestive system, having four stomachs. It thus takes over 24 hours to digest their vegetarian diet causing its food to be purified of toxins. In contrast, the swine’s one stomach takes only about four hours to digest its foul diet, turning its toxic food into flesh.
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The swine carries about 30 diseases which can be easily passed to humans. This is why God commanded that we are not even to touch their carcass. (Leviticus 11:8).
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The trichinae worm of the swine is microscopically small, and once ingested can lodge itself in our intestines, muscles, spinal cord or the brain. This results in the disease trichinosis. The symptoms are sometimes lacking, but when present they are mistaken for other diseases, such as typhoid, arthritis, rheumatism, gastritis, MS, meningitis, gall bladder trouble, or acute alcoholism.”
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Sadly, a significant number of readers will respond very negatively to this article.
Why? Because they absolutely love pork and they do not want to give it up. From: https://www.silverdoctors.com/gold/gold-news/yes-the-scientific-evidence-says-that-eating-pork-does-cause-cancer/
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Deuteronomy 28:58-59
58 "If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE Lord YOUR GOD, 59 then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues--great and prolonged plagues--and serious and prolonged sicknesses.”
Our LORD and Father was telling us something there!
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A distraught woman sits on rubble of a building in southern Turkey that was destroyed by the earthquakes of Feb. 6, 2023 (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra). 
The Bible and history prove this simple statement: A world without God leads to suffering, tragedy and death.
Jack Le Roux/Unsplash
“In what is often called the Lord's Prayer, Jesus told us to pray for God's Kingdom to come. Why? What does it mean to say "Your kingdom come"?
“What is the Millennium?
