Daniel

Confusion of Faces

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Millennial Studies

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 9

Track: 164

Dictation Name: RR128E9

Date: 1960s-1970s

The ninth chapter of Daniel, “Confusion of Faces;” Daniel 9, “Confusion of Faces.”

“1In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;

2 In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

4 And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.

7 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.

8 O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;

10 Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.

11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.

12 And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.

13 As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.

14 Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.

15 And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.

17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.

18 O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.

19 O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.

20 And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God;

21 Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.

22 And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.

23 At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy.

25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.

27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

The prophet Jeremiah well before the Fall of Jerusalem had prophesied the captivity and had declared that for seventy years, the people should be in captivity in Babylon. This seventy year period was in punishment for their sins. And the rest, the Sabbath that they had not given to the land, God would give to the land for seventy years. Sixty-nine years had passed. And now, Daniel, having studied as his prayer indicates, not only the words of Moses, in Deuteronomy, but also the prophecy of Jeremiah, knew that the period of seventy years was near to an end, but instead of rejoicing, he knew there was cause for grief. The captivity had not brought repentance.

The condition of the people should be one of shame, of confusion of faces as they faced their sins, past and present. But instead, it was one of confidence of faces because the people had passed from their apostasy and their syncretism prior to the Fall of Jerusalem to a condition of Phariseeism. Phariseeism and Talmudism was borne during the Babylonian captivity.

When the captivity began, the people instead of thinking after the first shock, of their sins and of the judgment of God upon themselves, instead began to think of their superiority to the people round about them. They would look at the peoples round about them and say these people are depraved. They’re guilty of every kind of perversion imaginable and we’re so much superior to them morally. After all, all we do is indulge in a little fornication and adultery now and then. So we are morally superior to them. And these people indulge in high-handed theft, but we’ve just done a little bit of chiseling here and there and our theft has been a minor sort of thing. We are morally superior to these people.

And so the more they saw the Babylonian and other peoples round about them, the more confirmed they became in their self-righteousness. And Phariseeism was born. They did not compare themselves to the true standard, the Word of God. Had they done so, it would have been obvious to them that they were indeed sinners, that in them there was no good thing, but instead they took as their standard the depravity of the people round about them, and naturally, they came out very well.

This is a frame of mind that is very commonplace today. I have heard many a person justify themselves by comparing themselves to some clergyman or to some other church members. I have heard them vindicate themselves by saying, well, if my priest or if my minister can do this or that sort of thing and get away with this or that kind of conduct, I certainly am a lot better than they are and I have a place in the sight of God, assuredly. Or else they compare themselves with the conduct of the Congolese, or the conduct of almost anyone around them and in terms of this, they see themselves as a very morally superior people. But God never gives us the right to justify ourselves or to vindicate ourselves in terms of such a standard, but only to compare ourselves to His perfect righteousness in terms of which there is none righteous, no not one, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Phariseeism is the natural state of unregenerate sinful man. It has been said repeatedly by prison chaplains that every prisoner justifies himself and feels that he is moral because he always feels there is someone in the prison more depraved than himself. And every criminal similarly vindicates himself, and every prostitute looks to some other prostitute as the epitome of depravity and feels that she is moral by comparison. This is the natural Phariseeism of the human heart.

This was the spiritual condition of Israel and Judah in captivity. Phariseeism. And in terms of this Phariseeism, they were justifying themselves and feeling very confident in relationship to God, but Daniel knew the depravity of the people, and so as he faced the end of the seventy years, he saw no hope for his people, and so he prayed, saying, to us belongeth confusion of faces. They deserved only more judgment. And so, according to all Thy righteousness, oh Lord, he prayed, I beseech Thee, let Thine anger and Thy fury be turned away from Thy city, Jerusalem. And he prayed for the Lord’s sake, for His name’s sake, would this be done, for we do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousness, but for Thy great mercies.

While he was praying, the angel Gabriel appeared and touched him and spoke to him, addressing him as one greatly beloved of God, to speak to him concerning the things which should come to pass. And what Gabriel said was indeed, Jerusalem and all Judea and Israel deserved the judgment of God, but not at this time, because God has His purposes yet to fulfill in and through them, so there are seventy sevens before this time. Seventy weeks, it is translated in the King James, but literally, it reads seventy sevens, seven being the fullness, the number of fullness, and seventy sevens compounding fullness. Seventy sevens are determined upon they people and upon the city. To finish the translation, to bring their transgression, their wickedness to its full before there is the totality of judgment, until it is made desolate, even until the consummation and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Gabriel’s answer declares therefor that the transgression is restrained and the judgment is restrained. The purpose of this restraining of the due judgment upon Israel and Judah has as its motive to make an end of sin, that is, to bring about the atonement through the blood of Jesus Christ, and remove sins from the sight of God, by making reconciliation. Its purpose, moreover, is to bring in everlasting righteousness, to anoint the Most Holy (that is, Christ), and to seal up the vision and the prophecy (that is, to bring about the end of the Old Testament revelation).

Now this period is spoken of as seventy sevens and it is divided by Gabriel into three periods. Seven sevens we are told in verses 25-27, from the permission to return to Jerusalem to the completed temple, to the completion of the work of Ezra and Nehemiah. The second period is sixty-two sevens, from the rebuilding of Jerusalem to the Messiah. And then a single seven from the beginning of the life and the work of the Messiah, who shall be cut off in the midst of the seven, to the overspreading of abominations and the destruction of the temple and the sacrifice and the oblation, the Fall of Jerusalem. In the Jewish-Roman War of 66-70 A.D.

In the course of these verses, we are told first the messiah shall be put to death. Second, that the people of a prince shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and its end thereof shall be like a flood. This of course occurred under Titus Vespasianus in the Jewish-Roman War. Prior to this, the messiah shall confirm or cause to prevail, a covenant with many—with multitudes—that is, with those apart from Israel, as well as those within Israel. It shall reach out to the many, to the multitudes, to the nations and the temple, the sacrifice and oblation, will be destroyed both religiously and judiciously, because the temple becomes an abomination once Christ’s sacrifice has been made. Thus Daniel is told that indeed, Israel and Judah are finished. But in the providence of God, they shall be permitted to last until Christ comes and His work is done. But after that, they shall be done away with and the everlasting Kingdom of Christ shall make itself felt. The Gospel shall be proclaimed unto all nations.

Now, the Word of God spoken to Daniel in this chapter is also the Word of God spoken unto every generation. And it is especially appropriate for our time, because the sin whereof Daniel wept in his prayer is the sin of our day. So commonly now we hear the United States vindicated by many citizens not in terms of the Law of God, but in terms of Phariseeism, self-righteousness, and people will say of course God intends to use the United States, and God is not going to judge the United States because look how much better we are than the Communists, the Red Chinese, the Congolese. We are so far superior to all these nations. We are certainly pleasing to God.

That we are far superior to these nations is clear, but that we are pleasing to God is certainly not clear when we have despised His Word and His Law. And God says to whom much is given, from him much shall be required. And we have fallen short of our responsibilities. We have despised and transgressed them and therefore to us belongs confusion of face because we have transgressed the Word of God. We have sinned. We have done wickedly as a people.

Moreover, this chapter makes known the sovereign purpose of God, in that God, having created Heaven and Earth is the wise master architect. He knows the end from the beginning, and Jesus Christ declares Himself to be the Alpha and the Omega, the A to Z of all existence, the beginning and the end, He which is and which was and which is to come; the Almighty. God is the master architect, has planned and designed all things, and unlike human architects, there are no loose ends in His construction, no left-overs, no materials that are in a scrap heap in the end. Everything has its place and moves in terms of its determined purpose, so that He can speak of not a sparrow falling but your Father in Heaven knows it, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not ye therefore. And this God requires obedience. He requires faith. He requires humility before Him, rather than self-righteousness.

Therefore, as we face the judgments that God pronounced upon Israel and upon Judah, we must recognize that they were, humanly speaking, in the right. They were superior to all peoples round about them. But God never took man as a standard, but His Law. And we too are far superior to the nations of the world today. But the Congolese are not our standard, but the Word of God. And we need to be in prayer even as Daniel was that God might be merciful unto us as a nation and as a people, that instead of confidence of face to us belongs confusion of faces and that we need to lead this people in repentance, in humility and in prayer for the mercies of Almighty God, presenting our supplications, not for our righteousnesses, but for His great mercies.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that of Thy great mercy, Thou hast called us as individuals and as a people unto Thee. We thank Thee that Thou art a God who doest forgive, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And we thank Thee our Father, that in Jesus Christ we have been removed from judgment to grace, from wrath to mercy. And we pray, our Father that Thou wouldst renew us as a people, as a nation and move us from self-righteousness to Thy righteousness, from wrath to mercy. Oh Lord, our God, give unto us as a people a repentant heart. Grant that we seek after Thy face and Thy Word, that by Thy Spirit we turn to Thy Law and become again a godly people. Make of us, our Father, a force for reconstruction, that this nation may be re-established upon Thy Word and in Thy grace and that the kingdoms of this world might become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Are there any questions now?

[Audience] What was the nature of {?} emperor {?} of Daniel’s time {?}

[Rushdoony] I don’t recall what Josephus had to say, but by and large Daniel was a neglected book. It was a very unpopular book. They moved it out of the books of the prophets and put it with the writings because they did not like what it had to say about their future. And to this day, the Book of Daniel is a book that Jewish scholars prefer to bypass. It simply is not to their taste in that it set aside Israel and Judah and put Christ foremost, and for them, the nation had to come first. And of course this attitude came to its climax in the words of the high priests. It is better for this one man, Jesus Christ, to die than for the nation to perish.

[Audience] What, who was {?} Who made the {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, I’m familiar with the attitude of some people who are very hostile to the Book of Esther, but the Canon, of course, was formed by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. God who had given His Word also preserved it and guided the men who dealt with it.

The Book of Esther, far from being a nationalistic book, as some would see it, is basically an affirmation of the absolute sovereignty of God. Now, the Book of Esther [tape interruption] … The Book of Esther, far from being a nationalistic book, as some would see it, is basically an affirmation of the absolute sovereignty of God. Now, the Book of Esther makes a point of never mentioning the name of God. It uses circumlocution when it would be simple and logical to mention God. Why? Well, the position of the people at that time was one where it seemed to them as though God were the great unknown, the hidden one. God seemed very remote. The days of miracles were far gone. And here they were a scattered people in a work-a-day business world and where was God in all of this? Well in this book we see a girl who is placed in a harem, in a situation of utter helplessness and her uncle is in a position of helplessness, and yet, to use the words of the hymn, ‘standeth God behind the shadows keeping watch upon His own.’ And you see the absolute, the total providence of God whereby everything, a chance conversation overheard, the sleeplessness of a monarch—everything, God uses, and the absolute and sure hand of God makes everything to work together for good for them that love Him, to them who are the called according to His purpose.

So it is a magnificent book and we need to see it in terms of exactly what its point is—the absolute sovereignty and predestination of God.

Another question? Yes…

[Audience] I noticed that, the more {?} I remember {?}

[Rushdoony] Could you speak a little louder?

[Audience] The more {?} was this reasonable {?}

[Rushdoony] There’s no harm in it. If there’s something that people who have gone before have done that has contributed to us, there is no harm in remembering it. So, various forms of memorial days are appropriate, it just depends on what we are commemorating.

Yes, another question…

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience] Are we to understand that {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience] Not necessarily… {?}

[Rushdoony] Right.

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Right. The term Israel refers to those who are within the covenant so that we are today the true Israel of God. And a point that is made by Paul in Galatians is that the prophecies apply not to the physical seed of Abraham, not to the many who were borne of him, but to the One, Jesus Christ, so that only those who are members of Christ in the Old Testament and those now in the Gospel Age who are members of Christ through faith are the Israel of God and have any part in the promises of God.

So that the Book of Esther has a very personal message to us because it is a reassurance that if God will take care of an Esther, He will take care of us, that we have this certain and sure providence of God.

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] It’s a very moving one. H-hm.

Yes…

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] A very good point. Now, what is the essence of Satan? Most people assume that the essence of Satanism is sins. For example, Billy Graham said some years ago it is the devil’s work to encourage gambling, drunkenness, and other such things. I think this is nonsense. Satan doesn’t need to encourage anyone to that. Men have sufficient proneness to that. What is the work of Satan?

Well, the temptation of Satan was, ye shall be as god, knowing (that is, determining for yourself) what is good and evil, every man his own god, every man his own source of judgment. And Satan appears therefore in what we call Existentialism. He appears in what our Lord described as Phariseeism, self-righteousness, a righteous which is not derived of God but of one’s self. You become the arbiter of you own righteousness, and this is Phariseeism. You set your standard. And it’s very easy for me you see to be righteous if I take the Congolese as my standard. I’m very superior if a cannibal is my standard. I can relax. And this is in essence what you are doing. You are making yourself the arbiter of what is good and evil and you define the cannibal as evil and yourself as good; your whole problem is solved.

So that self-righteousness is at the heart of Satanism. And we find always that Satan appears to tempt people away from God’s Law to establish their own law. Yeah, hath God said? Why pay attention to what God says? Build your own paradise on earth, in terms of your own law, so that the temptation of Satan today is not so much on skid row, as among our intellectuals. And there’s more Satanism in the pulpit today than there is at the Santa Anita Racetrack.

Yes…

[Audience] Can I tell you that {?} … The Peace Corps …. {?}

So anyway, I just had to {?} that, and earlier {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience] But you can’t do that on a regular basis... {?}

[Rushdoony] Well, he went over there as a Pharisee. He was so confident in his righteousness and he had so much to give to these people who are so far beneath him. But they don’t like him. They are Pharisees themselves and they look down on others, and to have someone look down on them, they resent.

Now, some of the Peace Corps members catch on to this. Most of them don’t. They are not welcome in the countries where they go. They are detested by and large because they resent these people who feel they are superior. They resent it.

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] It isn’t just the poverty as compared with the affluence of the Peace Corps workers because they have a great deal of wealth in their own midst. There are some very, very wealthy native Ethiopians. It’s the clash of rival Phariseeisms.

One of the greatest monuments of course to Phariseeism is the modern state because the modern state today is the epitome of Phariseeism—self-righteousness, salvation by works. Incidentally, for this attitude of Satan, encouraging self-righteousness, there’s been one outstanding study of that some years ago. Sir Robert Anderson, The Silence of God, a work written about seventy years, or sixty years ago. The Silence of God by Sir Robert Anderson, in which he (I think) clearer than anyone else dealt with the significance of Satan in his relationship to self-righteousness, to Phariseeism.

He examines every word dealing with Satan in the scriptures and gives an excellent presentation of his position.

Yes…

[Audience] One of the {?} one of the … {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes. Now, Phariseeism is salvation by works, and foreign aid is a program of salvation by works supplied to all nations. We are going to save the Vietnamese and the Congolese and everybody else by works, by foreign aid; so it is Phariseeism.

Yes…

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] This is common with children because children are sinners by nature and the basic sin of man is the satanic temptation to be as God, so we are prone to self-righteousness. Instead of comparing ourselves to God’s standard, we have our own standard and we look at others and we say this, if we can get by on this low level, we’re better than that we’re good. And of course the hippies, what they do is to accept the whole Existentialist premise. There is no law outside of man. Man is his own god and whatever man says is righteous is righteous and they proclaim themselves to be righteous. It’s that simple.

Yes…

[Audience] {?} what would you say about {?}, the Book of Mormon?

[Rushdoony] The Book of Mormon? Well, the Book of Mormon is obvious nonsense. It was supposedly dug up by Joseph Smith with several witnesses. All the witnesses later renounced it and admitted they’d just been paid to do this, to make this statement, so that no one of the witnesses except Joseph Smith persisted in affirming its veracity. Moreover, the Book of Mormon, as it was first published was first published as a novel, a story and then later turned into revelation. There were so many errors that over the years it’s been revised repeatedly. There’ve been approximately 2,000 or more changes in the Book of Mormon from the first printing. The first printing included among other things, a statement by someone supposedly in the 6th century B.C. who quoted Shakespeare. This is one of the things they had to leave out in later editions. But the Book of Mormon basically, and Mormonism is a kind of Shintoism and ancestor-worship. It is not a belief in one God, but that everyone is a god. So it’s an epitome of the satanic temptation, ye shall be as gods. This is the essence. There is no god in Mormonism, just many gods, or men who have ascended on the scale of being. It is a satanic religion.

Yes….

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, Paganism had, and all non-Christian philosophies, had a cyclical view of history, that is, history endlessly repeated itself, the eternal recurrence, so that there was no progress in history, just the same thing over and over and over again. Now Solomon deals with this in Ecclesiastes, and it’s one of the things he expounds then condemns. But this was the universal view of history in the ancient world.

The Biblical view of history is that instead of a meaningless cycle, endlessly repeating itself, it begins with a creative act of God and it moves in terms of His predetermined purpose to a determined goal. Now, let’s see—what was the other thing?

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Oh, the….

[Audience] {?}

[Rushdoony] Well, ah, no, it isn’t, not necessarily. The conspiratorial view of history has grown up predominantly in the Christian Era. And it is a kind of almost anti-Christian belief. It accepts the view that history is moving toward a determined end, but the conspiratorial view, instead of believing it is God’s determined end, it is Satan’s determined end, so that what the people who hold to the conspiratorial view of history say, is that Satan and his cohorts (which may be the Jews, which may be the International Money Conspiracy, which may be any one of a number of things), all plotting behind the scenes in a manipulated, every detail of history so that everything happens, happens in fulfillment of their plans. So you see, they have become worshipers of Satan. They believe that Satan governs history.

Now, the Christian cannot accept this because:

1.      God determines history.

2.      There are conspirators. Psalm 2 says, why do the heathen, or more literally, why do the heathen nations rage, or take counsel, or even translated, conspire together against the Lord and His anointed?

So the Bible says there is a conspiracy against God. There is a satanic conspiracy. But they conspire or they take counsel together in vain, for He that sitteth on the circle of the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. So the Bible says, yes, there is a satanic conspiracy, but it’s so futile God laughs; and the Christian should share in God’s laughter. He should say, of course they’re conspiring, but all they get is frustration.

So these are the different perspectives of history. Basically, the cyclical versus the Christian, which modern scholars, instead of calling Christian, call ‘linear’. They don’t want to use the word biblical or Christian. And then, the conspiratorial as a kind of heretical satanic version of the Christian.

Yes…

[Audience] {?} …. These two philosophies are… {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes. So much of what is called patriotic and Conservative today is Humanism, and therefore basically anti-Christian. It is at one with Marxism in its basic priority that it gives to man.

Our time is just about over, but I’d like to, before we adjourn, call your attention to The American Psychologist for May, 1967. There are a couple of articles of interest. The more restrained one is by a lawyer, Paul {?}, “Is the Law Ready for Human Experimentation?” But the other, written by a psychologist, is titled, “What Price Privacy?” And it denies that anyone has a right to privacy. And it makes this statement, which sums up a good deal of what it affirms. “The closed door on most households is not so much a guardian of privacy as a symptom of prudery, a barrier between the generations, an obstacle to fluent sex education, a reinforcement of guilt and repression.” In other words, marital relations should be public in order to educate the symptom of prudery, and it lead, it goes on to say later, to the alienation of the deviate. The article continues to say, “When the right to privacy is invoked, I find it appropriate to examine the motives of those who would withhold information.” In other words, there’s something wrong with you if you feel you have any right to privacy. And its concluding sentence, “Honest minds should be an open window.” In other words, there is no right of privacy; total Communism in every respect, in other words. And anyone who holds to any such right of privacy of course is guilty of prudery or is a deviate of some sort. Now, I thought the article was shocking enough, but I was amazed to find in someone that some are actually practicing this sort of thing, that they feel that the education of their children requires this kind of thing that the article calls for, which gives us a very graphic illustration of what our culture is becoming.

Well, with that, we stand adjourned.