When we think of virtue, the association invariably falls to the human. This presentation from Rodney Paris and myself promotes God as the ultimate virtue, and any virtue we have comes from Him.
True virtue begins with God. During an eon wherein humans are idolized, virtue starts and finishes with man's will. But how powerful, truly, is man's will?
George Bernard Shaw said, "Virtue is insufficient temptation." In other words, human virtue is simply goodness untested. It is said that every man has his price. Likewise, every man who claims himself "virtuous" fondles the illusion of indestructibility. Push him one degree beyond his already limited "willpower," however, and that man's virtue vanishes like a straw house in a
hurricane.
Pure virtue is an illusion. One could make the case that pure virtue is that which sits, like Job, in a pile of its own weakness. The case can be made (and here, it is) that the realization of the weakness of one's flesh is the only human virtue that survives trial. (Trial births it.) Self-demolishment is the only state in which human virtue survives and thrives. Such virtue can
only come from God.
This realization of the weakness of flesh must eventually come to everyone. When it does, the only reliable virtue (the only true virtue) become's God's.
Thanks to Rodney Paris for rescuing this priceless audio from a pile of cassette tapes in a Canton, Ohio storage unit (this one was recorded in June of 2000) and enhancing it for a modern audience with video and text frames.
Thanks to all who have supported this work over the years. I am indebted to you, and so are all the souls who have benefitted from this work since October of 1993. The show must go on—and it does. And this is thanks to you.
From the edge of the bottom of the Floridan peninsula, with appreciation,
—Martin
