Jesuit Pope Steers Flock Into New World Religion

When this Jesuit genocidal pogrom supporter took the throne, we knew this guy was going to be a doozy. And he has peeled away from the previous pack of popes fast. After Benny Dicked Us got his marching orders and was quarantined in some hermetically sealed apartment free from prosecution, Pope Frankie went bonkers setting new precedents and getting his billions of followers used to marching to “larger tent” orders in their robotic religious paradigm.

Just look at this latest, which would have easily driven the “faithful” crazy in an earlier era. But hey, he’s the voice of god, so what’s to question?

Pope Says Church Should Stop Obsessing Over Gays, Abortion

Pope Francis said the Catholic Church shouldn’t be “obsessed” with preaching about abortion, gay marriage and contraception and should instead try to reach out to a broader congregation.

“It is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time,” Francis told the Catholic publication, La Civilta Cattolica. “We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the Church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel.”

Francis, the first non-European pope in more than 1,200 years, distinguished himself from the start of his papacy by speaking out in favor of the world’s poor. In the first six months of his papacy he’s also made overtures to other faiths and attempted to root out corruption in the Vatican Bank.

“He is getting back to the real values,” Veronica Chambers, 68, a practising Catholic who lives in Los Angeles said in a telephone interview. “Those of us who have any brains, us modern Catholics who need it, want it, will welcome this message.”

His comments marks a contrast with that of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who struck a more conservative tone on sexuality and was criticized for not doing enough to root out sexual abuse in the clergy.

The Church should be “the home of all,” Francis said in the 12,000-word interview conducted in August at his quarters in the Vatican guest house, which he chose over the rich papal apartments of his predecessors. [Source]

The Church As “The Home of All”?

Of course they’ve been evangelizing forever but this has a new bent. We knew he’d be an activist with his Jesuit background and our globalist state of being funneled into a new world order, but he’s moving very quickly and setting a completely different tone, and a radical new direction.

How? Simply check the fairly sizable goal. “Home of all.”

With an estimated 2.2 billion Christians on the planet and over half of these maneuverable followers remote-controlled Catholics, they are bound to be a major focus of control for the ruling psychopaths. Is it any wonder then that a “progressive” program pushing Jesuit should lead the charge into promoting the acceptance of a new world religion, using “tolerance” and “acceptance” as its platform?

Isn’t that the ongoing meme we’re witnessing? All while they actually exacerbate the opposite, pitting everyone against each other while preaching otherwise to push their program? Unity under their centralized control. Pretty clever these demonic entities.

The NWO Religion Gets Birthed By Default

What is their objective? One world everything. Militarily, their coming imposed digital currency, surveillance subjugation, control and exploitation of the masses, and a “unified” belief system? All under the guise of “no more differences – we are here to save you from all of that” – after having caused it, of course.

Problem, reaction, solution… on its grandest scale.

The religious part will be a tough one, as they know how deeply entrenched “believers” are. They have to be won over in a whole other way, or manipulated to kill each other off. Such is the Christian vs. Muslim meme being perpetrated now.

Very effective, and they’re at it big time and getting away with literal murder with this one.

It’s Time to Wake Up

Just another sign of the slumber party being perpetrated on beautiful, living humanity. We, the real people, are awake and aware of this crap and are cocked and ready to release anything and everything we can to dissipate their darkness. We have the tools of empowerment,the love, the right motives and the heart to do exactly what needs to be done at the right time.

So fuck you, controllers. You are virtually sleeping pawns in the very real game of life; so why don’t you wake the hell up and champion your own kind instead of the designs of the destroying matrix? What is your problem? Fear and insecurity? Just wait untill the real forces get through with you.

You’ll know we were right then. But too late.

Why not wake up now? Especially anyone under their control. I invite you.

That’s my message.

Source:  Zen Gardner  |  Just Wondering

Falling Stars, Damnable Heresy, And The Spirit of Evolution

“Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” (1 John 2:22).

“And the fifth angel sounded the trumpet, and I saw a star fall from heaven upon the earth, and there was given to him the key of the bottomless pit.” (Rev. 9:1)

In his Concise Commentary Matthew Henry identifies falling stars as tepid, indecisive, weak or apostate clergy who,

“Having ceased to be a minister of Christ, he who is represented by this star becomes the minister of the devil; and lets loose the powers of hell against the churches of Christ.”

John identifies antichrists, in this case clergy who serve the devil rather than Christ, sequentially.  First, like Bultmann, Teilhard de Chardin, Robert Funk, Paul Tillich, and John Shelby Spong, they specifically deny the living, personal Holy Trinity in favor of Gnostic pagan, immanent or Eastern pantheist conceptions.   Though God the Father Almighty in three Persons upholds the souls of men and maintains life and creation, His substance is not within nature (space-time dimension) as pantheism maintains, but outside of it.  Sinful men live within nature and are burdened by time and mortality; God is not.

Second, the specific denial of the Father logically negates Jesus the Christ, the Word who was in the beginning (John 1), was with God, and is God from the creation of all things (1 John 1).  In a pre-incarnate theophany, Jesus is the Angel who spoke “mouth to mouth” to Moses (Num. 12:6-9; John 9:20) and at sundry times and in many ways “spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, last of all…” (Hebrews 1:1)  Jesus the Christ is the incarnate Son of God who is the life and light of men, who by His shed blood on the Cross died for the remission of all sins and bestowed the privilege of adoption on all who put their faith in Him. Therefore, to deny the Holy Father is to logically deny the deity of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, hence,

“…every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist . . . and even now already is it in the world” (1 John 4:3).

According to Peter (2 Peter 2:1), falling stars will work among the faithful, teaching damnable heresies that deny the Lord, cause the fall of men into unbelief, and bring destruction upon themselves:

“The natural parents of modern unbelief turn out to have been the guardians of belief.”  Many thinking people came at last “to realize that it was religion, not science or social change that gave birth to unbelief.  Having made God more and more like man—intellectually, morally, emotionally—the shapers of religion made it feasible to abandon God, to believe simply in man.” (James Turner of the University of Michigan in “American Babylon,” Richard John Neuhaus, p. 95)

Falling Stars and Damnable Heresy

Almost thirty years ago, two well-respected social science scholars, William Sims Bainbridge and Rodney Stark found themselves alarmed by what they saw as a rising tide of irrationalism, superstition and occultism—channeling cults, spirit familiars, necromancers, Wiccans, Satanists, Luciferians, goddess worshippers, ‘gay’ shamans, Hermetic magicians and other occult madness at every level of society, particularly within the most influential— Hollywood, academia and the highest corridors of political power.

Like many scientists, they were equally concerned by Christian opposition to naturalistic evolution.  As is common in the science community, they assumed the cause of these social pathologies was somehow due to fundamentalism, their term for authentic Christian theism as opposed to liberalized Christianity.  Yet to their credit, the research they undertook to discover the cause was conducted both scientifically and with great integrity.  What they found was so startling it caused them to re-evaluate their attitude toward authentic Christian theism.  Their findings led them to say:

“It would be a mistake to conclude that fundamentalists oppose all science (when in reality they but oppose) a single theory (that) directly contradicts the bible. But it would be an equally great mistake to conclude that religious liberals and the irreligious possess superior minds of great rationality, to see them as modern personalities who have no need of the supernatural or any propensity to believe unscientific superstitions. On the contrary…they are much more likely to accept the new superstitions. It is the fundamentalists who appear most virtuous according to scientific standards when we examine the cults and pseudo-sciences proliferating in our society today.” (“Superstitions, Old and New,” The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. IV, No. 4; summer, 1980)

In more detail they observed that authentic ‘born again’ Christians are far less likely to accept cults and pseudoscientific beliefs while the irreligious and liberalized Christians (i.e., progressive Catholics, Protestant emergent, NAR, word faith, prosperity gospel) are open to unscientific notions.  In fact, these two groups are most disposed toward occultism.

As Bainbridge and Stark admitted, evolution directly contradicts the Bible, beginning with the Genesis account of creation ex nihilo.  This means that evolution is the antithesis of the Genesis account. For this reason, discerning Christians refuse to submit to the evolutionary thinking that has swept Western and American society.  Nor do they accept the evolutionary theism brought into the whole body of the Church by weak, tepid, indecisive, or apostate clergy.

Over eighty years ago, Rev. C. Leopold Clarke wrote that priests who embrace evolution (evolutionary theists) are apostates from the ‘Truth as it is in Jesus.’ (1 John2:2)  Rev. Clarke, a lecturer at a London Bible college, discerned that evolution is the antithesis to the Revelation of God in the Deity of Jesus Christ, thus it is the greatest and most active agent of moral and spiritual disintegration:

“It is a battering-ram of unbelief—a sapping and mining operation that intends to blow Religion sky-high.  The one thing which the human mind demands in its conception of God, is that, being Almighty, He works sovereignly and miraculously—and this is the thing with which Evolution dispenses….Already a tremendous effect, on a wide scale has been produced by the impact of this teaching—an effect which can only be likened to the…collapse of foundations…” (Evolution and the Break-Up of Christendom, Philip Bell, creation.com, Nov. 27, 2012)

The faith of the Christian Church and of the average Christian has had, and still has, its foundation as much in the literal and historic meaning of Genesis, the book of beginnings revealed ‘mouth to mouth’ by the Angel to Moses, as in that of the person and deity of Jesus Christ.  But how horrible a travesty of the sacred office of the Christian Ministry to see church leaders more eager to be abreast of the times, than earnestly contending for the Faith once delivered unto the saints (Jude 1:3).  It is high time, said Rev. Clarke, that the Church,

“…. separated herself from the humiliating entanglement attending her desire to be thought up to date…What, after all, have custodians of Divine Revelation to do making terms with speculative Biology, which has….no message of comfort or help to the soul?” (ibid)

The primary tactic employed by priests eager to accommodate themselves and the Church to modern science and evolutionary thinking is predictable.  It is the argument that evolution is entirely compatible with the Bible when we see Genesis, especially the first three chapters, in a non-literal, non-historical context.  This is the argument embraced and advanced by mega-church pastor Timothy J. Keller.

With a position paper Keller published with the theistic evolutionary organization Bio Logos he joined the ranks of falling stars (Catholic and Protestant priests) stretching back to the Renaissance.  Their slippery-slide into apostasy began when they gave into the temptation to embrace a non-literal, non-historical view of Genesis.  (A response to Timothy Keller’s ‘Creation, Evolution and Christian Laypeople,” Lita Cosner, Sept. 9, 2010,creation.com)

This is not a heresy unique to modern times.  The early Church Fathers dealt with this damnable heresy as well, counting it among the heretical tendencies of the Origenists.  Fourth-century Fathers such as John Chrysostom, Basil the Great and Ephraim the Syrian, all of whom wrote commentaries on Genesis, specifically warned against treating Genesis as an unhistorical myth or allegory.  John Chrysostom strongly warned against paying heed to these heretics,

“…let us stop up our hearing against them, and let us believe the Divine Scripture, and following what is written in it, let us strive to preserve in our souls sound dogmas.” (Genesis, Creation, and Early Man, Fr. Seraphim Rose, p. 31)

As St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote, higher theological, spiritual meaning is founded upon humble, simple faith in the literal and historic meaning of Genesis and one cannot apprehend rightly the Scriptures without believing in the historical reality of the events and people they describe. (ibid, Seraphim Rose, p. 40)

In the integral worldview teachings of the Fathers, neither the literal nor historical meaning of the Revelations of the pre-incarnate Jesus, the Angel who spoke to Moses, can be regarded as expendable.  There are at least four critically important reasons why.  First, to reduce the Revelation of God to allegory and myth is to contradict and usurp the authority of God, ultimately deny the deity of Jesus Christ; twist, distort, add to and subtract from the entire Bible and finally, to imperil the salvation of believers.

Scenarios commonly proposed by modern Origenists posit a cleverly disguised pantheist/immanent nature deity subject to the space-time dimension and forces of evolution. But as noted previously, it is sinful man who carries the burden of time, not God.  This is a crucial point, for when evolutionary theists add millions and billions of zeros (time) to God they have transferred their own limitations onto Him.  They have ‘limited’ God and made Him over in their own image. This is not only idolatrous but satanic.

Additionally, evolution inverts creation.  In place of God’s good creation from which men fell there is an evolutionary escalator starting at the bottom with matter, then progressing upward toward life, then up and through the life and death of millions of evolved creatures that preceded humans by millions of years until at long last an apish humanoid emerges into which a deity that is always in a state of becoming (evolving) places a soul.

Evolution amputates the entire historical precedent from the Gospel and makes Jesus Christ unnecessary as the atheist Frank Zindler enthusiastically points out:

“The most devastating thing that biology did to Christianity was the discovery of biological evolution.  Now that we know that Adam and Eve never were real people the central myth of Christianity is destroyed.  If there never was an Adam and Eve, there never was an original sin.  If there never was an original sin there is no need of salvation.  If there is no need of salvation there is no need of a saviour.  And I submit that puts Jesus…into the ranks of the unemployed.  I think evolution absolutely is the death knell of Christianity.” (“Atheism vs. Christianity,” 1996, Lita Cosner, creation.com, June 13, 2013)

None of this was lost on Darwin’s bulldog, Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1985).  Huxley was thoroughly familiar with the Bible, thus he understood that if Genesis is not the authoritative Word of God, is not historical and literal despite its’ symbolic and poetic elements, then the entirety of Scripture becomes a collection of fairytales resulting in tragic downward spiraling consequences as the Catholic Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation makes clear in part:

“By denying the historical truth of the first chapters of Genesis, theistic evolutionism has fostered a preoccupation with natural causes almost to the exclusion of supernatural ones.  By denying the several supernatural creative acts of God in Genesis, and by downplaying the importance of the supernatural activity of Satan, theistic evolutionists slip into a naturalistic mentality which seeks to explain everything in terms of natural causes.  Once this mentality takes hold, it is easy for men to regard the concept of spiritual warfare as a holdover from the days of primitive superstition.  Diabolical activity is reduced to material or psychological causes.  The devil and his demons come to be seen as irrelevant.  Soon ‘hell’ joins the devil and his demons in the category of antiquated concepts.  And the theistic evolutionist easily makes the fatal mistake of thinking that he has nothing more to fear from the devil and his angels.  According to Fr. Gabriele Amorth, the chief exorcist of Rome, there is a tremendous increase in diabolical activity and influence in the formerly Christian world.  And yet most of the bishops of Europe no longer believe in the existence of evil spirits….To the Fathers of the Church who believed in the truth of Genesis, this would be incredible.  But in view of the almost universal acceptance of theistic evolution, it is hardly surprising.” (The Difference it makes: The Importance of the Traditional Doctrine of Creation, Hugh Owen, kolbecenter.org)

Huxley had ‘zero’ respect for modern Origenists and received enormous pleasure from heaping piles of hot coals and burning contempt upon them, thereby exposing their shallow-reasoning, hypocrisy, timidity, fear of non-acceptance, and unfaithfulness.  With sarcasm dripping from his words he quipped,

“I am fairly at a loss to comprehend how any one, for a moment, can doubt that Christian theology must stand or fall with the historical trustworthiness of the Jewish Scriptures. The very conception of the Messiah, or Christ, is inextricably interwoven with Jewish history; the identification of Jesus of Nazareth with that Messiah rests upon the interpretation of passages of the Hebrew Scriptures which have no evidential value unless they possess the historical character assigned to them. If the covenant with Abraham was not made; if circumcision and sacrifices were not ordained by Jahveh; if the “ten words” were not written by God’s hand on the stone tables; if Abraham is more or less a mythical hero, such as Theseus; the story of the Deluge a fiction; that of the Fall a legend; and that of the creation the dream of a seer; if all these definite and detailed narratives of apparently real events have no more value as history than have the stories of the regal period of Rome—what is to be said about the Messianic doctrine, which is so much less clearly enunciated? And what about the authority of the writers of the books of the New Testament, who, on this theory, have not merely accepted flimsy fictions for solid truths, but have built the very foundations of Christian dogma upon legendary quicksands?” (Darwin’s Bulldog—Thomas Huxley, Russell Grigg, creation.com, Oct. 14, 2008)

Pouring more contempt on them he asked,

“When Jesus spoke, as of a matter of fact, that “the Flood came and destroyed them all,” did he believe that the Deluge really took place, or not? It seems to me that, as the narrative mentions Noah’s wife, and his sons’ wives, there is good scriptural warranty for the statement that the antediluvians married and were given in marriage; and I should have thought that their eating and drinking might be assumed by the firmest believer in the literal truth of the story. Moreover, I venture to ask what sort of value, as an illustration of God’s methods of dealing with sin, has an account of an event that never happened? If no Flood swept the careless people away, how is the warning of more worth than the cry of “Wolf” when there is no wolf? If Jonah’s three days’ residence in the whale is not an “admitted reality,” how could it “warrant belief” in the “coming resurrection?” … Suppose that a Conservative orator warns his hearers to beware of great political and social changes, lest they end, as in France, in the domination of a Robespierre; what becomes, not only of his argument, but of his veracity, if he, personally, does not believe that Robespierre existed and did the deeds attributed to him?” (ibid)

Concerning Matthew 19:5:

“If divine authority is not here claimed for the twenty-fourth verse of the second chapter of Genesis, what is the value of language? And again, I ask, if one may play fast and loose with the story of the Fall as a “type” or “allegory,” what becomes of the foundation of Pauline theology?” (ibid)

And concerning Cor. 15:21-22:

“If Adam may be held to be no more real a personage than Prometheus, and if the story of the Fall is merely an instructive “type,” comparable to the profound Promethean mythus, what value has Paul’s dialectic?” (ibid)

After much thought, C.S. Lewis concluded that evolution is the central, most radical lie at the center of a vast network of lies within which modern Westerners are entangled while Rev. Clarke identifies the central lie as the Gospel of another Spirit. The fiendish aim of this Spirit is to help men lose God, not find Him, and by contradicting the Divine Redeemer, compromising Priests are serving this Spirit and its’ diabolical purposes.  To contradict the Divine Redeemer is the very essence of unfaithfulness, and that it should be done while reverence is professed,

“…. is an illustration of the intellectual and moral topsy-turvydom of Modernism…’He whom God hath sent speaketh the Words of God,’ claimed Christ of Himself (John 3:34), and no assumption of error can hold water in the face of that declaration, without blasphemy.”

Evolutionary theists are serving the devil, therefore “no considerations of Christian charity, of tolerance, of policy, can exonerate Christian leaders or Churches who fail to condemn and to sever themselves from compromising, cowardly, shilly-shallying priests”—the falling stars who “challenge the Divine Authority of Jesus Christ.” (ibid)

The rebuttals, warnings and counsels of the Fathers against listening to Origenists (and their modern evolutionary counterparts) indicates that the spirit of antichrist operating through modern rationalistic criticism of the Revelation of God is not a heresy unique to our times but was inveighed against by early Church Fathers.

From the scholarly writings of the Eastern Orthodox priest, Fr. Seraphim Rose, to the incisive analysis, rebuttals and warnings of the Catholic Kolbe Center, creation.com, Creation Research Institute, Rev. Clarke, and many other stalwart defenders of the faith once delivered, all are a clear, compelling call to the whole body of the Church to hold fast to the traditional doctrine of creation as it was handed down from the Apostles, for as God spoke and Jesus is the Living Word incarnate, it is incumbent upon the faithful to submit their wills to the Divine Will and Authority of God rather than to the damnable heresy proffered by falling stars eager to embrace naturalistic science and the devil’s antithesis— evolution.  But if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord,

“…you have your choice: choose this day that which pleases you, whom you would rather serve….but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

Worshipping The Serpent “Within” In Our Age of Apostasy

In the classic work, “Earth’s Earliest Ages” English theologian G.H. Pember (1837-1910) examines the role of satanic forces in the first destruction of earth under God’s judgment and compares them to the explosion of spiritism (open intercourse with evil spirits), ancient Egyptian Hermetic magic, Theosophy, Buddhism, reincarnation, karma, the Mysteries, astrology and mesmeric healings sweeping across Christendom.  

It was during the Renaissance that many influential Christians at the highest levels of Church and society had returned to the occult Wisdom Teachings that originated in ancient Egypt with Hermes Trismegistus.  In his own time, Pember observes that ancient occult traditions are no longer veiled in mystery but boldly presented by the powerful occult brotherhood as the fruit of modern science, especially evolutionary philosophy, which  the brotherhood assert was included in the instructions given,

 “…to the initiates of the Hermetic, Orphic, Eleusinian, and Cabbalistic mysteries, and were familiar to Chaldean Magi, Egyptian Priests, Hindu Occultists, Essenes, Therapeutae Gnostics, and Theurgic Neo-Platonists.” (Pember, pp.243-244) 

 In the impeccably researched “Scientific Analysis of the Writings of Alice A. Bailey and their Applications,” Robert A. Hermann Ph.D. affirms Pembers claim with respect to the occult origins of the evolutionary science so widespread in our time.   Herrmann traces modern evolutionary thinking–which has infiltrated the whole body of the Church–back to 1750 and the Spanish-French occultist the Martine’s de Pasqually (1715?-1779) whose biological conception predates Darwin’s theory and held that an adept spiritually evolves into higher and higher forms on various evolutionary levels.  (raherrmann.com)

Pember knows that occult teachings are grounded in knowledge received from evil spirits, thus he particularly connects evolutionary philosophy to spiritism.   This teaching said Pember, made the world ready for the deeper teachings of the Brotherhood (fallen angels):

 “…..the Brotherhood decided that the time had come to communicate with it, and openly influence its religion and philosophy. They have, however, become so etherealized by their practices that they are unable to endure contact with coarse human nature; it was, therefore, necessary to employ intermediaries.  The first person known to have been chosen for this purpose was a Madame Blavatsky.”  (pp. 243-246)

 In affirmation, Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson, the politically influential co-authors of “Spiritual Politics: Changing the World from the Inside Out,” admit that their book is based on the Ageless Wisdom teachings preserved by occultists since the Egyptian pantheon (27^th-30^th centuries B.C) and handed down over the ages to modern occultists in the time of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and on into our own time:

 “For centuries, the Ageless Wisdom in the West was shielded from an unprepared public…. The unveiled truths were handed down only orally by individual teachers to tested disciples or by certain religious groups and secret societies, such as the Cabbalists, Druids, Essenes, Sufis, Knights Templar, Rosicrucian’s, Freemasons, and others who carefully guarded the teachings down through the centuries. A study of these secret societies would reveal powerful influences on the history of nations….”  (Spiritual Politics, McLaughlin, Davidson from “Reinventing Jesus Christ: The New Gospel,”Warren Smith, crossroad.to)

 Beginning with the work of the Brotherhood and/or Masters acting through Blavatsky, Ageless Wisdom has succeeded in over-spreading W. Europe and America and made deep inroads into the whole body of the Church over the last one hundred years. Blavatsky’s important book, ‘The Secret Doctrine’ (1888) paved the way by synthesizing,

 “…..Christian, Jewish, and Islamic mysticism with the Eastern teachings of Hinduism, Taoism, and Buddhism, showing their common roots and comparing their sacred texts….”

 The next development came through the teachings of Alice Bailey, an apostate Evangelical:

“…. In 1919 Bailey was contacted by a Tibetan master, Djwhal Khul, who asked her to write a series of books with him telepathically that would continue Blavatsky’s work. Over a period of thirty years, Bailey received eighteen books from him on the nature of the cosmos and the human being, outlining principles for individual spiritual growth and humanity’s next evolutionary steps. In 1923 Bailey founded Lucis Trust [originally called Lucifer Publishing, ed.] to bring the teachings in her books to the public. A year later she began the Arcane School. The books were written to apply to several levels of consciousness at once and thus can be read by both beginners and advanced students. Her works have been especially helpful to the two of us in our own spiritual growth and have provided much of the inspiration for Spiritual Politics.”

Central to ancient Egyptian and modern Hermetic orders such as the Order of the Golden Dawn, Theosophy and New Age is ophiolatry (worship of serpents/Lucifer) and the theme of a pantheon of nine Sun Gods or with modern orders, an occult Hierarchy of nine evolved Brothers or Masters: god-men who have finished their cycles of reincarnation and material evolution but have chosen to remain here on the earth (Gaia) to serve people in their own conscious evolution as well as guide Gaia’s spiritual evolution:

“(The solar deity Kneph was pictured as a serpent in a fiery circle and Osiris) was essentially identical with Kneph…The worship of Isis, the moon-goddess, was equally entwined with ophiolatry.  Her emblem was the horned viper…The Egyptians often represented Isis and Osiris together, as two serpents.”  (The Cult of the All-Seeing Eye, Robert Keith Spenser, p. 35)

Depending on who they are speaking to, the nine Masters variously call themselves the Brotherhood, Space Brothers, Ascended Masters, the ancient Ennead of Egypt (the nine Sun Gods), Nine Principles of God, the Deep Space Nine, the Group, Sirians and Council of Nine.  Today there is a vast and growing network of channelers purporting to receive messages from the Nine and still others calling themselves Light Workers who claim to have presented briefings from the Group five times at the United Nations.  

Another important theme connecting all ancient and modern Hermetic Orders and Mystery religions is the Sirius star system.  From the time of the Egyptians, Sumerians and Babylonians occult teachings have invariably attributed to Sirius a special status in connection with Isis (Sirius A), Osiris (Sirius B), astrology, Hermeticism, the Mysteries, secret initiations, conceptions of transmigration, reincarnation, astral plane travels and other forms of occult evolutionary philosophy.

Hermetic Mystery schools and orders teach that Sirius is the divine “sun behind the sun” that is both the true source of the sun’s energy which keeps the physical world alive, as well as the divine substance that keeps the spiritual world alive.  Whereas the sun illuminates the physical world, which is considered to be an illusion, Sirius is the “real light,” the Great Dragon, Cosmic Serpent, Chaos, Abraxas, Star Maker, Ground of Being, or Essence of material phenomena, meaning that the material universe exists only as a grand illusion or mental construction as it does for example in the mind of Brahman:

 “Brahman is real, the world is unreal.” (swamij.com/mahavakyas) 

 The two most important figures associated with Hermetic Theosophy, Madame Blavatsky and Alice Bailey, considered Sirius to be the source of mystical serpent power: the seething energies of Lucifer that exert a spiritual influence over the entire Sephiroth or cosmic tree of life and therefore directly link with every great religion of antiquity because these energies extend into the psyche of mankind.

Bailey taught that Sirius is the “Great White Lodge” and believed it to be the spiritual home of the “Spiritual Hierarchy.” For this reason she considered Sirius as the star of initiation:

 “This is the great star of initiation because our Hierarchy (an expression of the second aspect of divinity) is under the supervision or spiritual magnetic control of the Hierarchy of Sirius. These are the major controlling influences whereby the cosmic Christ works upon the Christ principle in the solar system, in the planet, in man and in the lower forms of life expression. It is esoterically called the “brilliant star of sensitivity.”   (The Mysterious Connection Between Sirius and Human History, vigilantcitizen.com, Dec. 12, 2012)

Baily also taught that Luciferian energy emanating from Sirius is the energy of thought: a mind force that reaches the solar system from a distant cosmic center via Sirius. Sirius acts as the transmitter,

 “…or the focalising centre, whence emanate those influences which produce self-consciousness in man.”  (ibid)

 The Hermetic Way of the Dragon

The Hermetic way of psychic power and self-salvation is the antithesis of the Way of Jesus Christ God Incarnate (Romans3:24; 6:23; 10:9-10; Eph. 1:7; 2:8-9) and began with a mysterious man known as Hermes Trismegistus.  

The ancients identified Hermes with Mercury and Anubis (brother to Osiris).   His emblem, the caduceus, was a talismanic serpent representing the power of Mercury as a Sun-god. Speculations abound on exactly when and where Hermes lived.  Some modern New Age occultists believe he was a contemporary of Noah in the pre-flood world which they call Atlantis.  Others believe he lived in ancient Egypt during the time of Moses.  

In “Biographa Antiqua” the English occultist Frances Barret writes that Hermes “communicated the sum of the Abyss, and divine knowledge to all posterity.” The word “Abyss” refers to ancient and modern pantheist and/or panentheist conceptions such as the Watery Abyss, Divine One Substance, Primordial Matter, or with Hermes, the Universal Life personified by the Great Serpent or Dragon from whose body and wings stream illuminating serpent power, or with Bailey, ‘those influences which produce self-consciousness in man.’

 Bailey is expressing the Hermetic principle which speaks of the correlation between the substance of the Great Serpent and the mind of man expressed in the world famous magic formula: “As above, so below.”

The substance (body) and seething powers of the Great Dragon or Serpent are symbolized by the Oroboros, a powerful occult symbol also known as the Sephiroth, great chain of being, cosmic tree of life, and with Darwin the tree of life. The Oroboros ‘above’ corresponds to a number of different evolutionary levels and realms comprising the habitation of all supernatural entities and various heavens and hells such as the Black Lodge.  Thus the substance of the Great Dragon’s body  with its supposed multiple dimensions and life and thought-giving serpent energies not only powers the Divine Substance above but reaches down into the psyche, capturing the imagination, stunting and befouling the conscience, causing evolutionary change, and conferring psychic powers and divinity (you can be as God).

The Luciferian Manly P. Hall (1901-1990) concurs.  According to Manly, Hermetic Freemasonry is an occult science of the soul,

 “…a divine symbolic language perpetuating (by) certain concrete symbols the sacred mysteries of the ancients.”  When a Masonry adept has learned the “mystery of his Craft (then the) seething energies of Lucifer are in his hands and before he may step onward and upward, he must prove his ability to properly apply energy.”  (New World Order: The Ancient Plan of Secret Societies, William T. Still, p. 30) 

The foundation of Hermes occult way is forbidden knowledge revealed to him during self-induced trance and/or meditation states resulting in altered states of consciousness that opened his mind to contact with the Great Dragon:

 “Meditation is the doorway between worlds….the pathway between dimensions.” (The Layman’s Guide to Enlightenment,Celeste G. Graham, 1980, p. 13) 

 The Dragon revealed to Hermes that his own nature is divine, meaning that God and psychic power is “within.”   The Divine Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus relates Hermes mystical encounter with the Great Dragon who called itself Poimandres, the Mind of the Universe that is within Hermes. (themystica.com) 

 Upon transforming itself into a glorious being of Light the Dragon proceeded to enlighten Hermes with the forbidden knowledge that over time found its’ way into Christendom during the Renaissance giving birth to an array of Secret Societies as well as to pantheist theological liberalism and its’ primary doctrine evolution, William James theory of the subconscious, the demon-haunted Carl Jung’s transpersonal and depth psychology, occult New Age, Phillip Pullman’s dark Gnosticism, Mind Science, New Thought, the Alpha Course, Silva Method, Word of Faith, Positive Imaging, Visualization/Dreaming, and the multi-million dollar best-sellers “A Course in Miracles” and “The Secret.”  The common denominator of these societies, theories, books and techniques is “God and psychic power is within:”

 “People go through their whole lives chasing everything in the material world, and they fail to discover the greatest treasure of all, which is within them.  Shut your eyes to the outside world.  Direct your thoughts and words inside of you.  The Master within you is the key to all the treasures in the world.” (Rhonda Byrne, “The Secret Daily Teachings”)

 “Since the unconscious is God all along, we may further define the goal of spiritual growth to be the attainment of godhood by the conscious self.”  (A Different Drum, M. Scott Peck)

 “….all is mind and…everything is governed by law (thus man) can create, or have created for him from his own thinking.  He can create such a strong mental atmosphere of success that its power of attraction will be irresistible.  He can send his thoughts throughout the world and have it bring back to him whatever he wants.” (Creative Mind and Success, Ernest Holmes, New Thought practitioner)

 “Your unconscious mind (has a) power that turns wishes into realities when the wishes are strong enough.” (“Positive Imaging,” Norman Vincent Peale, 1982, p. 77)

 Word Faith teacher Kenneth Copeland tells people to visualize any image,

 “…that you get down inside you that is so vivid when you close your eyes you see it, it’ll come to pass.  When God came at the Tower of Babel, He said, ‘Anything they can imagine, they can do.” (Inner Image of the Covenant, side 2, Copeland)

 Yonggi Cho similarly teaches that through visualizing and dreaming you will,

 “….incubate that which we want God to do for us….If you have not visualized clearly in your heart exactly what you hope for, it cannot become a reality to you…”  (The Fourth Dimension, Vol. 1, Yonggi Cho, 1979, 9-35, vol. 2, 18-33)

Believing the Lie

 “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.” (2 Thessalonians 2:11)

 In “The Spiritist Fallacy,” a penetrating analysis of the Hermetic Theosophy, Buddhism and Spiritism that emerged out of the Renaissance taking hold of the minds of modernist priests and intellectuals, the highly respected French traditionalist metaphysician Rene Guenon (1886-1951) describes deluded “enlightened” theologians and intellectuals as those who cannot speak of the devil,

 “….without a smile of disdain, or an even more contemptuous shrug of the shoulders.” (p. 252)

Their smug contempt is due to the fact that they believed the spiritist lie that Lucifer is not the devil but rather the “light-bearer.”  After all, if evolution is true, as enlightened sophisticates believe, then there was no fall, hence man is not fallen and Lucifer is not the devil but the first free-thinker, the emancipator of man and the angel of evolution.  Modern sophisticates even go so far as to call him ‘the Great Creative Intelligence.’  Thus they invoke Lucifer and perform his cult, but in fact these people,

 “…though in fact Satanists, are only unconsciously so, for they are mistaken as to the nature of the entity to whom they address their worship….It goes without saying that these ‘enlightened’ priests are all plainly modernists and that the spirit animating them is strangely similar to that affirmed in these lines.” (p. 254)

 With respect to “modern” spiritist doctrine Guenon notes its’ peculiar agreement with the esoteric religion of the Brahmins:

 “Now this….has been taught to lower grade initiates in Himalayan temples for perhaps more than a thousand years!  This similarity is curious at the very least, and one can say without paradox that spiritism is only esoteric Brahmanism in broad daylight.”  (p. 41)

Guenon also argues that every “modern” conception that notably disfigures the living God as evolution does is Satanic, and in this sense, all theories of a limited God and of an immanent (pantheist) God who evolves must be placed in the front rank.

Turning to the theories of William James (1842-1910), the father of American psychology, Guenon describes them as examples of unconscious Satanism for two reasons.   First, James theory of “religious experience” as a manifestation of the“subconscious” by which man communicates with the pantheist Divine “within” is only one step away from “condoning the practices of spiritism” with the further consequences of conferring on evil spirits an eminently religious character and being initiated into experiences of the psychic and spirit realm. Initiation involves one in something far beyond the conscious control of the human will, thus once a person has been initiated their spirit/soul is open to bondage, harassment and madness.

 Second, the notion that the subconscious puts man in contact with the Divine “within” puts God,

 “…in the inferior states of being, in feris in the literal sense of this expression.  This then is a properly ‘infernal’ doctrine, a reversal of universal order, which is precisely what we call ‘Satanism.’  Guenon adds, “The devil is not only terrible, he is often grotesque…” (pp. 258-262)

 Building off of James serpent-animated theories, the demon-haunted psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875-1961) taught that the psyche (spirit/soul) consists of two main systems:  a personal unconscious and a deeper more significant layer which he called the collective unconscious with archetypes.  

 Jung’s system incorporates Hermetic magic, biological and spiritual theories of evolution, reincarnation, pantheist conceptions of a Gnostic pleroma (divine substance) and various other occult doctrines and psycho-spiritual technologies from around the world.

Jung delved deeply into the occult, practiced necromancy and had daily contact with familiar spirits which he called archetypes because he believed they were manifestations of powers innate in the collective unconscious (substance of the Great Dragon).  

 Much of Jung’s psychological insight was acquired from his familiar spirits, particularly Philemon and Basilides.  Philemon appeared to Jung in a grotesque humanoid body with wings and the head of a horned bull. At first Jung thought his spirit familiars were manifestations of his own psyche, but toward the end of his life he realized with horror that Philemon, Basilides, and the many other spirit entities that were a common feature of his life were in fact highly intelligent hostile beings independent of human consciousness.   Speaking of Philemon, Jung said:

 “Philemon represented a force which was not myself…..I held conversations with him, and he said things which I had not consciously thought.    For I observed clearly that it was he who spoke, not I….Psychologically, Philemon represented superior insight.  He was a mysterious figure to me.   At times he seemed to me quite real, as if he were a living personality.  I went walking up and down the garden with him, and to me he was what the Indians call a guru.”  (Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Carl Jung, p. 183, cited from PsychoHeresy: C.G. Jung’s Legacy to the Church, PsychoHeresy Awareness Ministries)

 Jung uses the name Abraxas to describe the impersonal Gnostic pleroma  (substance of the Great Dragon) out of which mind and then other mental powers emerged.  The word Abraxas is found in esoteric Gnostic texts such as the “Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit” and also in the Greek “Magical Papyri.”

 In 1916 Jung received further revelations from his demon familiars, this time by way of automatic writing as he recorded a Gnostic treatise called “The Seven Sermons to the Dead.”   Labeled a core text in depth psychology the treatise describes Abraxas as a “God” higher than the living, personal Holy God in Three Persons that combines all opposites into a single androgynous Being. 

As with all Ageless Wisdom teachings, underlying Jung’s demon-derived “transpersonal and depth psychology” is the Hermetic correlation of the substance of Abraxas (collective unconscious and archetypes) with the personal unconscious of man, hence, “As above, so below.”  

 According to the Apostle Paul fallen angels cast down from heaven together with demons are dispersed in a multitude throughout the whole expanse of sky (Eph. 2:2; 6:12).  This means that William James ‘subconscious’ and Jung’s ‘collective unconscious’ with its archetypes are actually the expanse of sky under the heavens which supposedly connects the substance of the Great Dragon to the psyche of man. Thus to “go within” the “subconscious” (James) or “personal unconscious” (Jung) so as to channel the Divine “within,” is to perform the cult of Satan which opens the spirit/soul to contact with powers and principalities and their chief, the devil.    

Though there are increasing numbers of psychologists and psychiatrists who now affirm their belief in evil spirits and their ability to harass, influence and possess human beings, the majority are still heavily influenced by Jung’s demon-derived theories, thus they insist that what they call “paranormal experiences”are perhaps hallucinations caused by the innate powers of human imagination or representations of interplay between the left and right hemispheres of the brain and/or the therapeutic release of unconscious repressions.

 Unlike most modern psychiatrists and psychologists, Nanci Des Gerlaise, a Cree Native American woman raised on a Metis settlement, needs no convincing. Almost from birth her life consisted of occult bondage and terrifying demonic harassment until she found deliverance through Jesus Christ.

 Nanci knows without the least bit of doubt that demons exist and can even take the shape of animals, birds and other more frightening creatures.   She knows that medicine men still engage in symbolic baby sacrifices to Satan in return for more spiritual power.   She knows because her own father offered her to Satan.  Her life then belonged to the devil and became filled night and day with all kinds of evil: 

“This is what happened to me and one reason why I had such a struggle when I became a Christian.   Satan still claimed ownership of me.  The tug of war first started when I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior….He set me free from occult bondages and demonic harassment….Christianity (is) God’s way of salvation.  Colossians 1:12-14 made perfect sense to me…” (Muddy Waters, Gerlaise, pp. 51, 79-80)

 Nanci’s book, “Muddy Waters” is far more than a biography.  It is a clear and compelling warning to all Christians living in sin, apostatizing churches, practitioners of occult psycho-spiritual technologies, advocates for interfaith/interspirituality and spiritual formation (occult techniques dressed in Christian motifs) that forces of darkness really do exist and will make your life a living nightmare of disembodied voices, terrifying encounters with demonic entities, thoughts of suicide and murder, and even possession.

 “Now the Spirit manifestly saith, that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error, and doctrines of devils.” 1 Tim. 4:1

 From the time of Hermes, ancient and modern occult pagan adepts have been employing a variety of occult psycho-spiritual techniques to “go within” in search of psychic powers and immortality:    

 “…..I can be saved only by becoming one with the universe.  Thereby, too, my deepest ‘pantheist’ aspirations.  It was especially the image of God which Teilhard saw in need of urgent redefinition.   Modern man has not yet found the God he can adore, A God commensurate to the newly discovered dimensions of the universe.” (Towards a New Mysticism, Teilhard de Chardin and Eastern Religions, Ursula King, p. 172)

The corollary to our age of lawless Christians and spreading apostasy is an explosive revival of ancient Hermetic spiritism.  A major reason is that modern psychology allegedly provides us with a “scientific” explanation that ascribes whatever frightening entities encountered while on brain-altering substances or through centering, yogic trance, visualizing and dreaming or other occult techniques to archetypal images from the collective unconscious.

The common thread running through all of this is the diabolical mind of the serpent, the same fallen angel who tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden with the words, “Ye shall be as Gods” (Gen. 3:5) but now seduces with the words, “go within.”

Business of Evangelism Religion

Theologians preach that religion is based upon faith, while economists depict that the world runs on money. Many confess that ministries repeatedly lose their way, while no one really disputes churches operate as business enterprises. The actual purpose of such churches varies with different dominations, but organized religion frequently functions more like a “PC” soapbox than a congregation of moral values. Often, it is all about the money, because they operate their worldly business, even if they profess to be a spiritual mission. The vast temple empires of modern day evangelism ignore the bible verse that talks about “we are in the world, but not of the world”.

Joining the ranks of the Political Toadies and a Broken Down System, warn of the results from their secular endeavors.

“The moral majority back in the heyday of Farwell and Robertson promoted a pro American viewpoint. Thirty-five years later, the gospel message of moral character is silent. Only the promoters of fundraising appeals and the accountant’s 501 C3 filings are preached from most pulpits. The Pharisees that populate the secular congregations are eager to send their heretical voices to lobby on K Street.”

Since medieval times, expansive tracts of property were under the control of clergy. Today the difference is that institutional churches are in decline, while resourceful organizations that are in the marketing trade of pitching a religion, are building grand enterprises.

Back in 1987 that great defender of traditional values, Time Magazine wrote in Religion: Enterprising Evangelism about a trend that has over grown in the last twenty-six years.

“Televangelism is a special kind of big business. In less than two decades, the vocation of preaching the Word of God via video has grown from hardscrabble beginnings into far-flung real estate and broadcast empires with assets ranging in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In almost every instance, those holdings are dominated by a single dynamic individual who decides how the money will be spent and who strives, above all, to keep vital donations flowing from the faithful.”

Buying salvation with indulgences updated for the electronic age. Back when the Catholic Church was the universal way of selling the passage key into heaven, raising money was a full time business. Guess Luther, Calvin and Knox missed the renaissance version of the Infomercial.

In Bloomberg’s Business Week, writing about a different tribe, How the Mormons Make Money, we get a sense that Jews have real competition in the synagogue business.

“It’s perhaps unsurprising that Mormonism, an indigenous American religion, would also adopt the country’s secular faith in money. What is remarkable is how varied the church’s business interests are and that so little is known about its financial interests. Although a former Mormon bishop is about to receive the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, and despite a recent public-relations campaign aimed at combating the perception that it is “secretive,” the LDS Church remains tight-lipped about its holdings. It offers little financial transparency even to its members, who are required to tithe 10 percent of their income to gain access to Mormon temples.”

Applying the term evangelism to the Jewish tradition may seem to be a misplaced association. However, any discussion about the business of religion needs to include this mindset.

Eric Simon in Money, Money, Money is most blunt in his viewpoint.

“Judaism is very realistic about money and business. It knows that much of our daily lives are involved with money. And so, just like waking up, just like eating, and just like speaking, there is a religious way to act with money, a religious way to do business. In fact, the largest of the four sections in the classic text of halacha, the Shukhan Arukh [Code of Jewish Law, by Rabbi Yosef Caro], is about business. To go even further, the Talmud tells us that the first question we will be asked at the Heavenly Court will be: “Did you conduct your business affairs in a fair manner?”

The bottom line is this: to be religious Jews, we are not supposed to isolate ourselves on a mountaintop and meditate, nor are we to take vows of poverty — rather, we are supposed to get out into the world, interact with it, and elevate the mundane.”

This is a stark departure from the Christian convention. Yet, how many Dispensational Sermonizers seem to have more in common with Talmudic Rabbis, than the Franciscan tradition of the current Pope? If the “winning or revival of personal commitments to Christ” is the primary definition for evangelism, the second meaning – militant or crusading zeal – seems to be the prevailing motivation in the pursuit of spreading the gospel in the business of religion.

The essay, Where are the Clerics?, reflects upon the nature of religious congregations compliance with the requirements of government, effectively licensing, their operation.

“For more than thirty years, a consistent slide in religious leadership has taken over the institutional Churches in America. Once upon a time, their mission was preaching the gospel. Today the assignment is to get and keep tax-exempt status. The holy grail is an IRS 501 (c) (3) non-profit tax exempt corporation. Incorporation, of any kind, accepts the rule of the State, over an organization. Why in the world (certainly not a requirement of heaven) would an assembly of believers consider themselves a ‘trust’ of the government?”

Most are familiar with Ephesians 6:12 – For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]. Nevertheless, the darkness blinds the evangelists who focus upon building crystal cathedrals or apocalyptic enterprises. What is next, the prospect of paying for the Ted Haggard app for your smart phone?Passing the plate during church services might not appeal to everyone much less tithing ten percent. Although, funding ministries is a continual challenge, the true business of religion is the saving of souls. Just maybe, the critical question at the pearly gates has nothing to do with money.

My Brother, My Enemy

Brothers are supposed to be allies; they are supposed to be friends. This is true for spiritual brothers as well as physical brothers. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes, brothers become enemies.

Think about it: in our War for Independence, brother fought against brother. How many Christians sided with the British Crown and raised voice and bayonet against their brothers in Christ who stood for American liberty and independence? More than we can possibly count. How many Christians were among the British troops that participated in the Boston Massacre? How many Christians were among the British troops that participated in the raid on Lexington and Concord? How many Christians were among the British troops that participated in the assault against the colonists (many of whom were Christians) on Bunker Hill?

The same thing happened in the War for Southern Independence. How many Christian men in the North took up arms against their spiritual brethren in the South for basically the same reason that Christian Tories took up arms against colonial patriots years before: to forbid them from declaring independence. Too many to count. How many Christians were among the troops that invaded Virginia and assaulted the citizens of that State (a sizeable percentage of whom were believers) in the First Battle of Manassas? Again, too many to count.

As an aside, I find it more than interesting that great spiritual revivals broke out among the Confederate Army throughout the War for Southern Independence in much the same way that they had erupted among the Colonial Army during our Revolutionary War. One could make the argument (and I do) that it is the thirst and fight for liberty and independence that almost always coincides with great spiritual awakenings. Therefore, I am absolutely convinced that there will be no more spiritual awakenings in this country without a subsequent thirst and fight for liberty and independence, because “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (II Cor. 3:17) Turn that verse around and it says, “Where liberty is, there is the Spirit of the Lord.” The antithesis of the verse would read, “Where there is no liberty, there is no Spirit of the Lord.”

Think about what happened in Germany during the rise of the Third Reich. The vast majority of Christian pastors and churchmen turned against their freedom-loving brethren in the Confessing Church and helped Hitler’s henchmen and stormtroopers to persecute, imprison, and even murder fellow followers of Christ. The historical record indicates that 95% of the pastors and churches of Germany supported Hitler and openly opposed Christian freedomists such as Martin Niemoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Niemoller and hundreds of others wound up fleeing Germany, while Bonhoeffer and hundreds of others were executed by the Reich.

How is it that so many professing Christians can be so blind to the divine principles of liberty? How is it that they can be so quick to turn against their brethren who choose to stand and fight for those divine principles of liberty? I believe the answer is because, 1) they are truly ignorant of the divine principles of liberty, and/or, 2) they are statists at heart.

1) They are ignorant of the divine principles of liberty

Without courageous preachers and teachers expounding, explaining, exegeting, extrapolating, and elucidating the Biblical Natural Law principles of liberty, Christians (as with anyone else) become quickly dulled and unschooled in liberty principles. The great examples of Abram, Gideon, Samson, David, Daniel, the three Hebrew children, John the Baptist, Simon Peter, etc., are spiritualized away without the principles behind those acts of faith and resistance being the least bit taught, and without any practical application to the modern day. This kind of preaching leaves men totally ignorant and unprepared to understand and deal with modern acts of tyranny when they occur. And this is exactly what is happening in the pulpits and churches of modern America. But it gets even worse than that.

Not only are Christian ministers deliberately not teaching the divine principles of liberty, they are aggressively misinforming their congregations with erroneous teachings of Scripture relative to freedom principles. And nowhere is this more evident than in the way the vast majority of ministers are teaching Romans 13. This brings me to the second point.

2) They are statists at heart

Let’s face it: the fallacious “obey-the-government-no-matter-what” interpretation of Romans 13 is one of the biggest allies any would-be tyrant has. This was perhaps Adolf Hitler’s favorite passage of Scripture. He instructed his propaganda ministry to prepare sermons and Bible lessons for Germany’s churches emphasizing this misinterpretation of Romans 13. Accordingly, the vast majority of Germany’s Christians compliantly submitted to Hitler’s authority, specifically because they had been taught in church that Romans 13 instructed them to do so. They literally believed that by obeying Hitler, they were obeying God. They truly believed that Hitler (the state) stood in the place of God per Romans 13. All over America today, pastors and churches share this identical belief.

Readers should know that I recently co-authored a book (with my son) to show the true teaching of Romans 13–and all Scripture–regarding submission to government. It is called, “Romans 13: The True Meaning of Submission.” For more information, or to order, go here:

In reality, the vast majority of America’s pastors, TV preachers, radio preachers, ministers, evangelists, etc., are promoting the Hitlerian philosophy that the state stands in the place of God and must be obeyed without question or hesitation. They believe that anyone (Christian or otherwise) who dares to resist the state is doing a disservice to God and should be punished. And with the clever enticement of the 501c3 non-profit corporation status that most churches submit to today, they have become, either wittingly or unwittingly, the sheepish slaves of the state.

Look at how many Christians believe that whistleblower Eric Snowden is a traitor and enemy of America. Instead of realizing that what our own federal government is doing by creating this Orwellian surveillance society is blatantly and overtly unconstitutional, illegal, and immoral–and that every church in America should be sounding the clarion call repudiating this unlawful activity–instead, America’s churches are blaring the call of compliance and non-resistance to unlawful government, even to the point of calling for the death of the man who simply tried to warn the American citizenry to the evil machinations of their own federal government. I am convinced that many of these Christian statists would applaud the imprisonment and execution of the likes of the great Christian theologian and freedomist Dietrich Bonhoeffer all over again.

Ladies and gentlemen, the chasm between freedomists and statists is widening. It is pitting brother against brother; husband against wife; father against son; mother against daughter; friend against friend; and Christian against Christian. In much the same way that the great struggles for liberty have divided brethren in the past, so, too, it is happening today. And the chasm is only going to widen further in the months and years to come.

And mark this down: as the chasm widens, there will be no room for neutrality. Everyone, and I mean everyone, will have to pick a side. We either believe and understand the divine principles of liberty and are ready and willing to fight and defend those principles, or we support the tyrant’s position that the state stands in the place of God and must be obeyed at all costs.

This is why it is so important for Christians to leave these churches that promote the damnable doctrine of unlimited submission to the state; and I mean right now. Pastors who continue to preach this fallacious doctrine of unlimited submission to the state are facilitating the destruction of liberty in America. They are helping to put shackles around the necks of our children and grandchildren.

I realize that there are many sincere Christians out there who believe that all their pastor and church must do is preach the Gospel, win souls, etc., and America will be healed. They are sincerely mistaken.

Over the last 60 years in America, we have seen an explosion of Christian witness–an explosion unparalleled in church history. There are over 300,000 churches in this country. For the most part, Baptists faithfully preach Baptist doctrine; Methodists faithfully preach Methodist doctrine; Lutherans faithfully preach Lutheran doctrine; Presbyterians faithfully preach Presbyterian doctrine, etc. Yes, I realize there are schisms and disagreements internally among Christian denominations. And, yes, I realize that some Christians reading this will retort that if everybody else’s church was as “true” as is their church, America’s problems would be solved. Again, they are wrong.

Over these past 60 years, we have seen more Gospel preaching, more Gospel literature, more Christian colleges, universities and seminaries, more Christian TV and radio ministries, more youth retreats, couples retreats, marriage retreats, Sunday Schools, missions organizations, evangelism programs, ad infinitum, than at any time in church history. And, while many of these institutions and organizations will differ on the nuances of secondary doctrine, for the most part, they have shown fidelity to the Great Commission. With all of this Christian witness, one would think that we would be in the Millennium by now (and, yes, I realize that some Christians think we are). So, why is America teetering on the brink of despotism?

During this same period of time, America has plummeted morally, socially, culturally, politically, and, yes, spiritually. Why? The “salt” has lost its savour and is being cast out, and trodden under foot of men. (Matt. 5:13) Christian pastors and churches are no longer fighting against the decay and decomposition of our country–including against that political and spiritual bacteria that are eating away at the fundamental principles of liberty upon which America was built. As a result, our nation’s freedoms are being systematically and rapidly expunged.

For all intents and purposes, freedom and liberty are entering a modern-day Dark Ages. And just as in the ancient days of Middle Eastern and European persecutions and inquisitions, those Christians who stand for liberty today are being ostracized, marginalized, and demonized–by their own brethren. More and more, the same man who is my brother is also my enemy.

Stand Fast In Liberty

People are strange creatures. And sometimes Christians are the strangest. One would think that people who experience freedom in Christ would be the first ones to desire and defend the entire gamut of liberty. One would think that Paul’s words would deeply resonate with Christian folks: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage.” (Galatians 5:1 KJV)

Unfortunately, many Christians today are as much in bondage as anyone outside of Christ. They are in bondage to tradition, ceremony, liturgy, etc. It is no hyperbole to say that they are as enslaved as were the Pharisees of old.

I recently reread Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography. It has been awhile since I last read it and needed to be reminded of the old sage’s counsel. In his memoirs, he recalled how he had been invited to attend a Presbyterian church on the invitation of the parson whom he had befriended. He said he attended the church for five consecutive Sundays. He stopped attending after the fifth Sunday. The two reasons he gave were 1) the preacher had a very dry and boring delivery, and 2) the preacher was trying to make everybody good Presbyterians and not good citizens.

I believe Franklin’s observation could be made regarding a sizeable percentage of the pastors and churches in America today–regardless of denomination. Baptist preachers want everyone to be good Baptists; Pentecostal preachers want everyone to be good Pentecostals; Methodist preachers want everyone to be good Methodists; Lutheran preachers want everyone to be good Lutherans, etc. And if one does not subscribe to the traditions and tenets propounded in these churches, he or she is relegated to infidel status. But where do you find pastors and churches trying to make good citizens out of people? That’s why one will find judgmentalism and Phariseeism rampant in most churches today. As long as one has the form, little else matters.

Not only is good citizenship not taught in most churches; it is actually lampooned and denigrated. They teach that because the Scripture says we are citizens of Heaven, we have little or no responsibility to our country, State, town, etc. Of course, that doesn’t take them away from the mall or the television set when their favorite ball team is playing or the lake or the golf course.

But not only are so many of today’s pastors and churches enslaved to denominationalism, they are also enslaved to incorporationism. That might not be a real word, but it is a real truth.

Nowhere in Scripture is the church seen as a denomination or corporation. It is not even described as an organization. Yet, ask the average so-called Christian today, and they will tell you unless a church has a denomination, a building, and an incorporation status, it is not a church. I have actually heard professing Christians say that if a church did not have the IRS 501c3 government incorporation status, it was not a real church. Can you imagine that? Unless the church is not officially approved and sanctioned by the state, it is not a real church.

But what were churches before 1954, when then-Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson introduced and successfully passed the 501c3 government corporation law in the United States? Think of it: over 1900 years of Church history, and there was never any such thing as a church being incorporated by the government; but since 1954, if a church does not have the 501c3 government corporation status, it is not a real church? Holy Cow, Margaret!

Ladies and gentlemen, the churches in the Book of Acts were not government corporations; the early churches that followed the apostles were not government corporations; the independent churches of the Dark Ages were not government corporations. The Reformation churches were not government corporations; the Pilgrim churches were not government corporations; the colonial churches were not government corporations; and the independent churches in oppressed countries today are not government corporations.

The Church can have only one Head, and it is not the government. It is Christ! To put the Lord’s Church into a place of subjugation and submission to the state is nothing short of heresy and blasphemy. And by accepting the 501c3 government corporation status, that is exactly what these modern pastors and churches in America are committing.

As a result, pastors and churches are afraid to do anything that might offend the IRS or jeopardize their tax-exempt incorporation status. This has left the Church in America impotent and silent. And, yes, I know, for some pastors it doesn’t take anything as monstrous as the IRS to keep them quiet; the threat of offending the donor base is all the intimidation many pastors need. Geez!

My study of history teaches me that when God’s people sought true independence and freedom, a spiritual awakening usually accompanied such a movement. The Church in Acts refused to be controlled or intimidated by Judaism; the Reformation Church refused to be controlled or intimidated by Romanism; the Pilgrim Church refused to be controlled or intimidated by European statism; the colonial church refused to be controlled or intimidated by British imperialism; the Confessing Church in Germany refused to be controlled or intimidated by Nazism; the true Church in China today refuses to be controlled or intimidated by communism, etc.

But what are most churches doing in America today? They are being controlled and intimidated by incorporationism–specifically, the 501c3 section of the Internal Revenue Code of the IRS.

However, all over America, Christians by the thousands are seeking deliverance from government bondage. They are tired of waiting for recalcitrant and apathetic pastors to take a stand, and they are leaving the 501c3 government-controlled churches by untold thousands. Many of them are seeking independent churches, while others are starting their own home churches. I know, because many of these folks write to tell me that they are gathering in living rooms, community centers, VFW halls, American Legion halls, etc., to watch our service at Liberty Fellowship each Sunday afternoon at 2:30pm Mountain Time.

To watch my messages live online, go to:

Liberty Fellowship Live Stream

And if you want to watch my archived messages online, go here:

Archived Video Sermons

In fact, my message last Sunday deals at length with what I am talking about in this column today. Be prepared though: I preached for 1:45. Can you imagine? And people didn’t leave or even squirm. Even teenagers and little children sat and listened intently. Beyond that, I was interrupted several times with enthusiastic applause by a very positive and appreciative audience. Imagine that! Oh! And when I finished, no one came up and wanted to talk sports. Try that in these government-controlled 501c3 churches today.

I fully realize that there are some very courageous preachers out there who are pastoring 501c3 churches. I pastored one myself for over 30 years. For me, getting out meant relocating 2600 miles away to the Flathead Valley of Montana. Obviously, not everyone can do that. I also realize that trying to take a church out of the clutches of the 501c3 tentacles of the IRS is like trying to get out of the Mafia. Maybe harder. But I also know that the Christian migration toward freedom and independence has already begun. And there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. This is God’s doing.

The Church is the Lord’s Bride, and He will not allow His bride to sleep in a whorish bed forever. Just as has been the case throughout history, God is calling His bride out of the bondage of government submission and servitude into the glorious light and liberty of Christ.

It will not be very much longer until there will be only two types of churches in America: the official, state-controlled churches that are sleeping with Lucifer and the true churches of Christ that are basking in the liberty of the Gospel. Christians will not be able to stay neutral.

As I said, the exodus has already begun.

And, while I may not live to see it, I am convinced that as the call for liberty continues to swell in the minds and hearts of both Christians and non-Christians alike, God will send an accompanying spiritual awakening to this country; or at least, to regions within this country. It is inevitable. And, again, while I may not live to see the fruition of this awakening, I am also convinced that what we did by moving to Montana–and what the people of Liberty Fellowship are doing here–and what liberty-minded people are doing all over this country, is at the “tip of the spear” of a freedom fight that will truly change the course of history.

Dear Christian, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage.” God will never send an awakening to those who are content to sleep in servitude.

Are Palestinians In Lebanon Choosing Kalashnikovs Over College?

They are 67 new families, or about 400 Palestinian refugees displaced from Syria, residing in 60 recently erected tents set up as an emergency ‘gathering’ near the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp adjacent to the city of Sidon in southern Lebanon.  In all, there are approximately 75,000 thousand Palestinians in Lebanon who have fled from Syria over the past 28 months.

Additional Palestinians arrive every week and sometimes meet former neighbors from Yarmouk and other Syrian Palestinian camps at the Masnaa Lebanon-Syria border crossing. The new arrivals are often grimaced to happen upon their countrymen who are returning to take their chances facing death in Syria including dodging the snipers and bombings targeting Yarmouk and elsewhere. The reasons the returnees give for returning to Syria focus on the appalling humanitarian conditions in Lebanon for Palestinians as well as the nearly 780,000 other refugees here from Syria.

Palestinians forced into Lebanon from Syria soon learn, if they were not aware previously, that all Palestinians refugees in Lebanon are barred by law from the most elementary civil rights to work and to own a home.  More than 50 professions open to Palestinians in Syria and in every other country, including occupied Palestine, are forbidden here. Two examples of jobs Palestinians can do  and  are doing in Lebanon when they arrive from Syria include scavenging through the rotting filth at Saida Garbage Mountain and other Lebanese government public garbage dumps to find something worth a few Lebanese Lira (LL) to help their loved ones survive. No, nearly impossible to secure work permit, is even required so they need not fear arrest by the Lebanese authorities who irregularly round up Palestinian violators of this country’s  no work for Palestinian refugees ban.

The same, “no work permit required” reality  is true of another profession which critics accuse the “Government” of Lebanon and its competing politicians of approving instead of allowing even one currently banned legitimate job to those whose lives are at risk and who are desperately in need of livelihood.

That profession which is open to every Palestinian today in Lebanon willing to consider it, is ‘hired gun’.

While both the major political grouping in Lebanon will deny they do it but will accuse the other, the fact of the matter is that both continue to discreetly recruit Palestinians to fight their personal battles on the cheap. It is unfortunately the case that some Palestinians, sweltering in the squalid, fetid camps in Lebanon, discriminated against in public institutions of higher learning, and barred from internationally mandated elementary civil rights, are seeking jobs as militiamen. This against the admonitions and sage counsel of the older generation of PLO fighters, now mainly retired, that the Syrian civil war is not theirs and that Palestinian involvement will not advance Return to Palestine and reclaiming stolen homes and land, by one minute or by one inch.

The choice for many Palestinian young men in Lebanon has come down to guns or education.  By force of Lebanese law and under threat of prison for violators, Palestinians are denied the elementary civil rights to work in more than 50 professions and are barred by a 2001 racist law from them or their families, more than six decades living as refugees in Lebanon, from even owning a home. Among Palestinian youth, unemployment rates hover around 70%, while refugee students are also discriminated against in admission to Lebanese state institutions of higher education, including the relatively low-tuition fees at Lebanese University. This makes it difficult for young Palestinians in Lebanon to pursue higher education after graduating from UNWRA schools and passing the Baccalaureate II exam. Being barred from most jobs, it is very difficult to come up with even modest sums for tuition payments.

Against this backdrop of flagrant state sponsored discrimination, if one were to offer un-employed young camp resident, say $ 200 per month, an AK-47 with plenty of ammo, and free cigarettes, the odds are good that you just might have yourself a militiaman. Those journalists and observers who spent much of the summer of 2011 in Libya saw a similar phenomenon and now it’s also the case in Syria.  In Lebanon, it is resurgent from the 1975-90 civil war days.  The gun for hire resource is being exploited across the political spectrum here among many of the same confessions and political parties that ignited this country’s massively destructive civil war more than three decades ago.

Today, some Palestinians are being  paid to fight for certain factions  whether from the North of Lebanon at Tripoli and Akkar, to  Beirut and various contentious areas such as Tariq al-Jdideh, Sabra, Cola, and down south in Saida during recent clashes that saw 16 Lebanese army killed and twice that number from the supporters of Salafist activist Ahmad Asir.  Despite denials from some sources, there were a few Palestinians who fought for Asir and some Palestinians joined other militia including the Hezbollah organized “Resistance Brigades’ and the Lebanese army in fighting against Asir’s forces.  An investigation in supposedly underway of the army’s conduct and the involvement of political parties from both the March 14anti-Assad sects and elements of the March 8^th pro-Assad groups regarding recruitment of Palestinian youngsters.

President Mahmoud Abbas repeatedly warned Palestinians in Lebanon during his 72 hour visit to Lebanon last week to reject these offers and not to be drawn into the Syrian conflict despite the ‘market place maneuverings’ going on here from various armed confessions. What he meant is that as most of the Lebanese sects are frantically arming and seeking gunmen and weapons, that Palestinian s must refuse to be exploited once again and that they must reject any involvement in a military conflict that contravenes their communities wishes and their national interest. He lectured a gathering of PLO factions at a Palestine Embassy event that this terrible error was the case during the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil wars. For that involvement, Palestinians in Lebanon continue to pay a very heavy price from certain factions here that rather see Lebanon’s economy continue to decline than allow Palestinians to work and help build the local economy as they have done in countless other countries which granted them the right to work and the opportunity to invest in the economy with their technical competence and business skills.

As one Palestinian academic pointed out last week to this observer, “While President Abbas assured Lebanese politicians that Palestinian factions did not want to join the Syrian civil war, he also chastised Lebanon’s government in private for not pressuring various factions, most with representatives in Parliament, to stop recruiting and enticing the hapless, desperate for work refugees, forced into Lebanon against their will.

PA President Abbas also repeated the PLO’s willingness to turn the refugee camps weapons over to the government.  He did this with a straight face but surely he knows well that despite the regular scapegoating of Palestinians refugees in Lebanon and the danger they are said by some to pose because some have access to light arms, as everyone in Lebanon does, the truth of the matter is that the Lebanese political groups, even the most open about their hatred of Palestinians in Lebanon, do not want the state to collect or receive as gifts the arms in the Palestinian camps and gatherings, however many there they in fact are.  The reason is that if the Palestinians had no weapons at all in the camp, it would make it awkward for some politicians to use the fear of a return to the early 1970’s and the potential danger of a Palestinian uprising for sects political advantage.  Truth told, there is no realistic fear, unless provoked, from Palestinians arms. They are exaggerated as is the number of salafist factions inside camps. Yet without the right to work, some Palestinians will doubtless be seduced into becoming hired guns for scarce cash to feed their families.

Hiring young men as gunmen in Lebanon is also impliedly condoned by silence on this problem from various polarized and politicized religious leaders.  Some of Lebanon’s religious personalities, too often, wearing pious faces and donning prelatical ‘Pope-wannabe’, if sometimes comical, outfits, and often sporting fingers ringed with gold and precious jewels, intone their gospels according to St. Mark, or his equivalents, about human dignity and being our brother’s keeper,  and often referencing  “ our blood-veins support for Palestine and the Right of Return.” While simultaneously standing in Janus-faced opposition to the elementary internationally mandated right to work for Palestinians in Lebanon.

When a Palestinian is arrested for carrying a weapon, it’s often front-page news but also usually exaggerated or later shown to be inaccurate.  What is more surprising is that more Palestinians are not in the streets, motivated by the Arab Spring and Islamic Awakening, demanding the civil right to work. Yet signs are starting to appear of a pending and overdue intifada in Lebanon demanding this universally recognized right of every refugee to be able to seek work to sustain oneself and family.

Rumors abound these tense days in many part of Lebanon, as if to say, “I told you didn’t I? The Palestinians are the source of most of Lebanon’s problems!” (or the Zionists, or the Saudis, EU, Iranians, Syrians, other Lebanese sects or the Americans, or just about anyone except, this countries deeply destructive confessional system and the Lebanese who profit from this, to date, failed state. Too many Lebanese politicians reject granting rights to Palestinian refugees while they seek to gain personal, regional and international benefits from playing the “Palestinian card”. Meanwhile, dangerous temperature and pressure levels are building in the huge Presto cookers that are Lebanon’s camps.

On a brighter note, arriving with a late news item of 7/18/13, are the just released results of the General Science (SG) and Life Science (SV) secondary school official exam results known as the Baccalaureate II exam results. Preliminary analysis suggests that despite all their hardships, Palestinian and Syrian refugees have done well on the required exams.

One Palestinian mother from Yarmouk camp in Damascus, now among the 700 Palestinian refugee families temporarily here from Syria, and squeezed into the already overflowing Shatila camp explained to this observer as she proudly displayed this week’s announcement of her children’s academic success.  She beamed that even with little electricity in her family hovel, polluted drinking water, no fresh air and not much food this past year, her daughter’s and son’s success in passing ‘the BACC II” made her forget her family’s misery.

So it is that the doors are cracked open for higher education, if Palestinian refugees in Lebanon can come up with tuition, sometimes fairly modest by western standards but beyond the means of a majority of camp families.  The good news that there will be places in Lebanon’s institutions of higher learning this fall semester, assuming that these youngsters, desperate to be allowed to work at the same jobs that every other foreigner in granted on arriving to Lebanon, do not heed the sirens calls of various sects here, singing seductive songs of quick cash in exchange for carrying a gun.

On April 19, 2013 at the Shatila Camp Youth Center,  exactly 30 years to the week following the death of American journalist, Janet Lee Stevens here in Beirut, and recalling times during the 1982 Israeli aggression that rained American bombs of various types down on the civilian population, and still  hearing Janet’s voice telling young Palestinian defenders, during the 75-day Zionist siege, “ Once the fighting ends you must, every one of you, return to school, whether to study quantum physics or literature or whatever interests you.  Higher education is what will hasten your return to Palestine.  Education is your greatest resource and your most potent weapon.”

Speaking at the Shatila Scholarship Award event, one American, paying tribute to Janet as a mediator and advocate for Palestine, and addressing the tuition grant recipients, sought to encourage these future Palestinian leaders:

 “An education is forever and its purpose is to enjoy a more productive lifetime while seeking to fulfill all of what each of us is capable as we give back to our respective communities. Staying in school here in Lebanon where we are all guests, just for the time being, and pursuing knowledge and practical skills is a quintessential and noble  act and commitment of Resistance against oppression and occupation – anywhere. 

Education cannot be ethnically cleansed, stolen, tortured, jailed, uprooted, bulldozed, massacred, murdered, bombed or burned down. Rather, staying in school and pursuing ones dream is what your cherished for-bearers, who were forced from their homes and lands into Lebanon and trekked from Palestine- approximately 130,000- in the summer and fall of 1948, would want for you, and expect of you.

 Education is a Saladinian Resistance toward liberating, six decades after the Nakba, those still under occupation in Palestine.  And to help achieve for refugees in the diaspora, their inalienable full Right of Return.” 

When and how do we put an end to this outrage which is an urgent humanitarian imperative shared by every one of us?

We end it immediately.

We do it by Lebanon’s parliament, taking 90 minutes of its time, which is all that would be required, and grant these youngsters the most elementary civil right to work which will also enable them to pursue their dreams of higher education.

And by international support.

This can be facilitated by international pressure. One telephone call from Washington, Riyadh, or Tehran, to local political allies, can get the job done in just over an hour without further procrastination.

If not, to add to its other problems, Lebanon may face a civil right intifada– ignited by continued repression.

In the words of the angelic Miss Hiba of Ein el Hilweh camp, now 19 years old and three years after her defiant declaration in 2010 to those who sneered at her that she should get married at age 16, and with her beauty, could demand a handsome dowry for her impoverished family, and forget about college:  “There is no other choice than success with the civil rights goal of every Palestinian in Lebanon to seek a job and to pursue education as we peacefully intensify our struggle to Return to our stolen and still occupied country, Palestine. “

Today, Hiba continues the good fight as she completes next year, her degree in engineering.  She insists she will need this knowledge when she returns to her family’s occupied home near Safed.

Ear Tickling, Entertainment, And Irrelevant Exposition

At some point, one has to wonder why America’s churches are the largest block of irrelevant, impotent, and insignificant institutions in the entire country. And make no mistake about it: when it comes to influencing societal conditions, culture, and the political philosophy of the nation, for all intents and purposes, they ARE irrelevant, impotent, and insignificant.

Think about it: according to the latest available statistics, over 75% of America’s adults classify themselves as Christians. That’s over 159 million people. Over 43% of America’s adults attend the more than 300,000 churches regularly. That’s over 90 million people. Yes, both of these statistics are WAY DOWN from just a few years ago, but those statistics still represent a HUGE block of the American population. So why do these Christians and churches have so very little influence in America’s society, culture, and politics? Asking it bluntly, why is America going to hell in a handbasket with all of these churches dotting the landscape?

There is no mistaking the fact that from before the American Revolution, after the American Revolution, throughout the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries, and through the first half of the Twentieth Century, the American Church was a major voice and influence in virtually every facet and sphere of American society. However, with the exception of a temporary resurgence in the 1980s, the influence of the Church in the last half of the Twentieth Century and continuing now into the Twenty First Century is nada. Zilch.

For all intents and purposes, the activist arm of conservative churches, the Religious Right, Christian Coalition, Moral Majority, call it what you will, is clinically dead. It is not comatose; it is dead. When it comes to influencing the culture and politics of the nation, the modern Church is dead. Pastors are dead. Denominations are dead. Christian schools and universities are dead.

Think of it: 159 million Christians, 90 million churchgoers, and 300,000 churches cannot effectively influence even the smallest change of direction in America’s society, culture, and political philosophy. America is in a societal, economic, and political tailspin, and the Church sits irrelevant and impotent. And don’t forget: we are not talking about an enslaved, oppressed country such as communist China where millions of Christians are forced at gunpoint to submit to the machinations of the state.

While it is true that the underground church in China (the REAL church in China) is seeing great growth, without a revolution such as America experienced in the late 1700s, Chinese Christians will never be able to effect societal and political change in that country. And, of course, the communist government in China has all but guaranteed that such a revolution will not take place by completely disarming the citizenry.

In America, we are talking about a nation in which citizens (including Christians) are able to lobby, redress government, protest, rally, organize opposition, speak, vote, form PACs, march, petition, etc. Christians are as free to influence their societies and governments as are any other group of people in the United States. Furthermore, name the other group in this country that can boast 75% of the population who identify with it in name or 43% of the population who regularly attend its public meetings? What would the country look like if the ACLU could boast these numbers? Or the SPLC? Or labor unions?

Labor unions comprise only 11% of the adult workforce. The ACLU membership is reported to be about 500,000. And, of course, the people who belong to the SPLC could fit in a phone booth. By comparison, these groups comprise a miniscule percentage of the population as opposed to America’s churches, yet their influence is exponentially greater. So, what has happened?

The great Nineteenth Century revivalist and major contributor to America’s Second Great Awakening, Charles Finney, said this: “Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics. God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we love and pray for, unless the Church will take right ground. Politics are a part of a religion in such a country as this, and Christians (and citizens) must do their duty to the country as a part of their duty to God. It seems sometimes as if the foundations of the nation are becoming rotten, and Christians seem to act as if they think God does not see what they do in politics.”

Finney also said, “If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discernment, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in Christianity, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it.”

It is no hyperbole to say that, on the whole, the American Church has been mostly ineffective since immediately after World War II. The Church sat mute when God was expelled from America’s public life in the 1960s. It sat mute when the government gave license to the premeditated murder of preborn babies in the 1970s. And today it continues to sit mute in the face of a burgeoning police state. There seems to be virtually no abridgment of liberty, no national scandal, or no threat against our constitutional form of government egregious enough to warrant an outcry from America’s pastors and churches.

For the most part, today’s pastors are not prophets and watchmen; they are cheerleaders and CEOs. Our churches are not “the pillar and ground of the truth” (I Timothy 3:15 KJV); they are centers of social interaction, recreation, and feel-good indoctrination. Preachers are not reprovers, rebukers, and exhorters (II Timothy 4:2); they are ear-ticklers, entertainers, and expositors of irrelevance.

Let me ask you: what good does it do to teach the stories of Daniel and the lions’ den, and the three Hebrew children in the burning fiery furnace, and Esther, and John the Baptist, and Elijah, and Simon Peter saying, “We must obey God rather than men,” and Samson, and Gideon, etc., ad infinitum, if you are not going to apply those stories to the practical, day-to-day events we are experiencing now? What good does it do to preach expository messages on the Bible if one does not make those messages relevant to the times and circumstances in which we live? Yet, ear-tickling, entertainment, and irrelevant exposition seem to be what the modern church in America excels in. The result: ineffective, impotent, weak, unprepared, and sheepish Christians.

Yes, I know there are many churches and Christian ministries that are doing admirable work. We need homeless shelters, food banks, pregnancy resource centers, addiction ministries, etc. We most definitely need pastors and churches to preach the Gospel of Christ. We need missionary outreach. But we also need pastors and churches to teach the Biblical Natural Law principles of liberty and to prepare their congregations to guard and defend our freedom.

I tell you the truth: Christians in persecuted lands are not enamored with entertainment, recreation, and irrelevant Bible exposition. You don’t have to bring in some big-name rock band to entice them to fellowship. You don’t have to give their teenagers a big gymnasium. You don’t have to give their young adults coffee shops and espresso machines. You don’t have to shy away from criticisms of tyrannical government. And you certainly are not going to score any points with your fallacious “obey-the-government-no-matter-what” interpretation of Romans 13.

The time is soon coming in this country when it is going to “rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45 KJV) Mark it down, Christian: when persecution and tribulation comes to America (and it has already begun), you and your family will NOT be exempt. When a jetliner falls out of the sky, everyone in it (Christian or not) goes down with the plane. And when a nation falls, everyone in it (Christian or not) goes down with the country.

The church was not created to teach Christian sugars how to recreate on a playground, but to teach Christian soldiers how to fight on a battlefield.

So many of our Christian brothers and sisters seem to be literally enslaved or addicted to some form of church formality. They need a certain music fix, or entertainment fix, or teaching fix, or liturgical fix, or a hundred other fixes. They demand a certain delivery, a certain style, or a certain personality. They intend to do nothing with what they hear, but it makes them feel good hearing it. The carnality, rancor, envy, and meanness inside the church is equal to, or superior to, that which is outside the church. Many Christian businessmen are just as greedy, just as dishonest, and just as duplicitous as businessmen professing no faith. Many deacons and church officers are just as untruthful and cowardly as anyone in the outside world.

What have all of these Sunday School lessons done for us? What have all of these pacifist expositional messages done for us? What have all of these gymnasiums, youth programs, self-esteem classes, and counseling centers done for us? Pastors and churches have been teaching all forms of Bible prophecy for decades. Generations of Christians have come and gone arguing over the nuances of Eschatology. What good has it done us? While we have been playing, partying, prancing, promoting, pouting, pontificating, patronizing, and philosophizing, a fire has been burning the foundations of our country; and we have not lifted a pail of water to help extinguish the inferno.

Truly did the Lord Jesus say, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” (Matthew 5:13 KJV)

The word “savour” here means “saltiness.” Salt is a preservative that retards decay and ruination. God has sprinkled “salt” in the form of Christian people all over the country. We are here to be a preservative and protection against rot and ruin. But when Christians lose their saltiness, Jesus said, they are “good for nothing” and are destined to be “trodden under foot of men.” That is a word description of tyranny and oppression. Can anyone say Jackboot?

Unfortunately, many pastors and churches today are “good for nothing.” They have lost their saltiness; they no longer preserve and protect. And, ladies and gentlemen, the Jackboots have gotten out the shoe polish as we speak.

It doesn’t matter that America has 300,000 churches, 90 million people attending those churches, and 159 million people calling themselves Christians unless those churches and Christians are actively and tenaciously preserving and protecting the foundations and pillars upon which both the church and the country are built.

As God pruned Gideon’s army down from 32,000 to 300, so, too, God may need to prune the Church in America. Let the majority of churches rot on the vine; let them intoxicate themselves on the opiate of entertainment and feelgoodism; let the hirelings in the pulpit lust after ease and social acceptance; let the willfully blind bask in their ignorance; and let the sheepish servants in the sanctuary lick the hands of their oppressors.

Those who choose to fight with Gideon’s army, leave these fancy churches, which are nothing more than ornate tombs, and run to the sound of battle! Gideon’s captains are strategically placed all around the mountains. Join them! God has never needed a majority to prevail; He never will.

The great Christian patriot and “Father of the American Revolution,” Sam Adams, said, “It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in the people’s minds.”

Let the majority of churches be irrelevant, impotent, and insignificant. Even now, God is raising up unconventional fellowships. A fire for liberty churches is ablaze in the hearts of millions of Americans. The establishment churches are dead; shake off the dust of your feet and move on. Already, we have over 700 patriot pastors and churches that appear on our Black Regiment web page. There may be one near you.

See the list of patriot pastors and churches here:

The Black Regiment

If you can’t find a patriot pastor near you, consider watching our service live at Liberty Fellowship each Sunday afternoon at approximately 2:30pm Mountain Time. Watch us here:

Live Stream

If you cannot watch the service live, you can watch my archived messages at:

Video Sermons

A majority of pastors, churches, and Christians may be irrelevant, impotent, and insignificant; but you and I don’t have to be. Already, God is resurrecting Gideon’s army. Will you join us?

What Would Jesus Have You Do?

No question, we are a culture that loves to be entertained.  Even churches have caught on to the public’s desire for 24/7 entertainment. As a consequence, a large number of evangelical churches are now driven by a need to fulfill this desire in their congregants.  And what better way to pack the house in ginormous auditoriums than to offer a 90 minute stage show enhanced with state-of-the-art sound, lighting and video systems.

Lights, camera, action!

To boost the mood for the Praise and Worship segment of the service, a large number of churches feature a worship leader and several backup singers accompanied by a live band.  I’ve been in services where the Praise Band could be the opening act for Switchfoot!

To help spice up worship, a team of want-to-be actors treat the audience to a short skit that ties in with the message (sermon). As the lights dim and the actors scurry off stage, a hip cool pastor wearing skinny jeans, a logo T-shirt, and a five o’clock shadow ambles out to preach the “new” Good News.  Hip cool pastors aren’t your average run of the mill ministers.  Some of these guys are genuine entertainers loaded with talent!  They’re bona fide performers.  True showmen.  And some of them are comics!  In fact, most hip cool pastors could walk off the church stage onto a Las Vegas stage and feel right at home.  No really, they’re that good!

By in large, hip cool pastors’ main aim is to see that the folks find God, because once they find Him, they’ll find themselves and then…drum roll please….they’ll find their real “purpose” in life!

Now, I’m not attacking Church entertainment per say.  I’m simply pointing out that in an effort to grow their churches many ministers adopt worldly methods such as the church growth model, a consumer oriented marketing strategy developed to attract the unchurched.  And let’s be honest.  For some pastors it’s not about saving souls, it’s about becoming the CEO of a thriving “megachurch.”  Trying to attract large numbers of people, some pastors go way overboard.  The end result is that the house of God has become like the world.

Warning: Adopting secular marketing techniques has risks.  Often the Gospel becomes compromised when we adapt it to the culture.
 
Hellywood’s Influence On The Church

Many people are movie-goers…TV-viewers…music lovers…concert-attendees…sports fans…game enthusiasts…computer junkies and users of all sorts of other high tech gadgets.  Those who profess Christ and hold to the authority of the scriptures are among those addicted to this kind of entertainment.  To feed their entertainment addiction there are also what we deem “Doubting Thomases” who attend Sunday servicesprincipally for the entertainment value.

That Christians enjoy the same sort of entertainment as those who walk in darkness is revealing.

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (I John 1:5-7)

In this day and age it’s rare to find a movie or TV program that’s fit for Christian consumption.  Hedonism, sexual explicitness and perversion, violence, occult themes and vile language aside, very few movies refrain from abusing God’s holy Name.

Have you ever noticed that Hollywood’s elite go out of their way not to offend ethnic groups, homosexuals, environmentalists, abortion providers, radical feminists, illegal immigrants, even Muslim terrorists? Yet evangelical Christians, Catholics and Mormons—especially those with conservative values—are all fair game.

It’s an undisputed fact that the entertainment industry is made up of liberals.  Why should this matter to Christians?  I answered this question in my column Sexually Transmitted Diseases Are A Result of Liberalism:

For most liberals right is wrong and wrong is right. Good is bad and bad is good. Normal is abnormal and abnormal is normal. Whatever advances their cause is what counts. “We must remember that liberalism is not just a system of bad ideas. It is a religion with its priests, creeds, confessions, and dogmas. Liberals worship the system, their church. They gladly sacrifice themselves and anyone else, friend or foe, who gets in the way of the cause. They are more religious than most Christians. They are more dedicated than most Christians.” (Liberal’s Are Evil, Wrong and Nuts!)

In the liberal’s way of thinking pretty much anything goes. Liberals view themselves as tolerant of the behaviors of others. They’re broad-minded. Generous. Untraditional. Unorthodox. Progressive.(Source)

Most Hollywood liberals don’t try to hide their disdain for conservatives — especially if they happen to be conservative Christians!  And liberals don’t try to hide their blatant disrespect for the Lord Jesus Christ and for any of His followers who hold to biblical values.

So with this in mind, why do a large number of Christians tolerate Tinseltown’s deliberate abuse?  Moreover, why do we cower when we’re labeled hateful, bigoted, mean-spirited, homophobic and worse? And why do we lay down our hard earned money at theater box offices when those in the entertainment industry (the same folks who make big bucks off of us) do not give a hoot that they’re dishonoring God’s Name?

While I’m on the subject of disrespect, I must mention that in churches all across America a number of pastors–especially younger pastors—have sunk to the level of using crude language and R-rated stories to “make a theological point.” Would profane pastors deliver a sermon laced with rough language to a church packed to the rafters with God’s holy elect angels?  Of course not!  Which makes one wonder, where are the deacons and elders – the so-called Church leadership?  Why do they fail to roundly rebuke profane pastors?  And when did the Church become Comedy Central?

Consider this also.  Many professing Christians use God’s Name in vain and think nothing of it.  For instance, you hear Christians utter “Oh G–!” and “Oh my G–!” all the time.  How has it escaped them that they’re in violation of the 1st Commandment?  The Bible explicitly says:

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain (Exodus 20:7).

Clearly, anyone who misuses the Name of the LORD will be held accountable.

Returning to Tinseltown, people who work in entertainment expose young and old alike to gratuitous violence and vile language in films…DVDs…TV…music, especially gangsta rap and grunge! Even pornography, including child pornography, is pushed on society in a myriad of ways through the marvels of modern technology. TV networks have dropped the few remaining standards of decency for prime time telecasts. Those who happen to be TV fans know full well that producers/writers/actors/reality stars relish pushing the envelope. And when someone crosses the line, as is often the case, the FCC looks the other way!

Welcome to the anything goes world of moral relativism, where pretty much nothing is off limits anymore and nothing is sacred – including God’s Name.

What’s In A Name?

God’s Name is special.  His Name carries His personal identity.  So why are followers of Jesus Christ not incensed when they hear someone misusing His Name whether it’s in a movie, on TV, or from the lips of one of your friends or business associates?

Look at it this way, Christian:  If someone close to you, say a parent, spouse or child, is called a vile name for no good reason, you’d come to his or her defense, wouldn’t you?

Of course you would!

So the next time someone drags God’s Name through the mud in your presence, why not turn to the person and say something like: “I’m a Christian, so I’m offended when you take God’s Name in vain.”

Many Christians will spend two hours viewing a movie that’s peppered with language so profane that they readily admit they wouldn’t dream of inviting Jesus to watch with them — because they know perfectly well He’d turn down the invite!

Some believers I know offer some of the most flimsy excuses for putting up with hearing God’s Name misused. For example, when it comes to seeing a movie that tickles their fancy they deem using the Lord’s name in vain acceptable if it’s not overused.

Whenever I broach this subject, I receive a slew of emails from so-called believers providing me with excuses for their viewing habits. The top 4 are:

1) We are under grace not under the law; therefore we mustn’t maintain a pharisaic attitude.
2) The Holy Spirit hasn’t convicted me.
3) Christians can do what is right in their own minds.
4) It doesn’t bother me.

Clearly, some Christian moviegoers think they’re excused from the moral example God has set forth for His people. Those who fall into this category should consider this: Hollywood is using your hard earned money (God’s money) to mock your Savior and to advance a morally bankrupt ideology.

Consider, also, that leftist entertainers use the money they rake in to further an anti-Christian agenda which includes removing all mention of God from the public square; abortion on demand; normalizing every sort of sexual perversion; advancing same-sex “marriage”; and environmental extremism.

What does this tell you about biblical discernment?

What it says to this writer is that far too many followers of the Lord Jesus Christ hold a worldview that is more aligned with Secular Humanism than with biblical Christianity.

The sad fact is that many believers participate in a number of things that the Bible deems inappropriate, immoral, and even toxic to the soul.

Do God’s people’s viewing and listening habits really matter all that much to Him?  I mean, we’re under grace not under law, right?  Listen to the words of the Lord Jesus in Matthew 6:22-23:

The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be filled with darkness.

A “good eye” should be fixed on the Person who made our eyes!

Would Jesus Invite His followers To A Service Such As This?

At the beginning of this article, I discussed churches that have gone astray and, in an effort to “keep people coming,” focus largely on creating a “fun” and “relevant” environment that will draw the seeker in. To that end, hip cool pastors dumb down their sermons in an effort not to offend anyone, church doctrines are disregarded, the gospel is glossed over, worldly music is the norm—some of it with unbiblical lyrics!  Sadly, when people raise holy hands to the God they say they adore, their demonstration of praise and worship comes, not from the heart; it’s merely inspired by the music–especially if it has a good beat.

What Would Jesus Have You Do?

First of all, there’s no perfect church.  In choosing one, a good rule of thumb is to see that you’re in a Bible teaching church that holds to the authority of Scripture. If your current pastor gives a “feel good” message that includes a few Scripture verses with good stories and applications but has no biblical basis, consider shopping for a church with solid Bible teaching.  In other words, find a church where, for the most part, the pastor teaches one verse at a time and rightly divides the word of truth.  (2 Tim. 2:15)

When it comes to entertainment, the professing Christian need only ask:  Would I invite Jesus to sit down next to me during a movie or TV program or while I browse the Net…email…text…comment or “like” something on Facebook?  Would I want my Lord to hear the music stored on my iPod?  Would I offer Him the best-selling book I just finished reading? As I glance through a magazine would it make me a tad uncomfortable to have Jesus looking over my shoulder?  If the answer to any of the above is in the negative, then hightail it out of the theater…turn off the TV…log off the computer…delete the music…close the book!

What Does John Hagee Really Want?

John Hagee, and many other evangelical preachers, constantly beat the war drums. Without ceasing, they encourage America’s political leaders to wage non-stop wars of aggression–especially in the Middle East. They constantly trumpet America’s unconstitutional interventions in the Middle East with terms not unlike those used by militant Muslims. Hagee’s pro-war fanaticism is so extreme one must wonder how much he is being paid by the Israeli lobby. My guess is it’s a bunch.

Much of this Christian war fever is due to a convoluted interpretation of Scripture–especially prophetic Scripture. While I will leave most of this discussion for another day, let me simply say that whatever God plans to do in regard to the reestablishment of the Davidic Kingdom, it has precious little to do with the atheistic, apostate government currently headquartered in Tel Aviv. And Hagee, himself, teaches apostasy when he declares that Jewish people today have a special covenant with God and do not need to come to faith in Jesus Christ in order to be saved, and when he says that Jesus never even claimed to be Christ (Messiah).

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” (John 14:6 KJV) Now, either Jesus or John Hagee told the truth. I’ll take the word of Jesus. Plus, Mr. Hagee apparently forgot Simon Peter’s confession, which Jesus said was due to a revelation from God the Father, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16KJV)

So, what is it that Hagee and the rest really want? Perpetual war? Total genocide? A global New World Order with the likes of G.W. Bush or Barack Obama at the helm? What do they really want? Do they really have such an inflated view of themselves that they truly believe that they are going to manipulate what God does or doesn’t do regarding the fulfillment of end time events? Is God their servant? Is God Israel’s servant? Is God America’s servant? Balderdash! God is no man’s (or country’s) servant.

I wonder what these warmonger-preachers think about all the “blowback” from these illegal and immoral wars of aggression that G.W. Bush (and now Barack Obama) has led us into. Not only are these wars provoking people all over the world against us and doing more to recruit volunteers for militant extremists in the Middle East than anything Al Qaeda could do on their own, they are having catastrophic results on missionary work.

Now think this through: these warmongering evangelicals beat the war drums; they encourage the young men from their churches to go off and fight these “holy” wars; they work tirelessly to elect pro-war politicians; and they twist Old Testament Scripture to fit these modern crusades. Then, the politicians whom the warmongers helped elect send the US military to invade, bomb, and kill hundreds of thousands of people, the vast majority of whom are innocent people. After which, these same warmonger-preachers get up in their pulpits and cry and weep about how we need to send missionaries to preach the Gospel to the same people they just got done trying to annihilate.

Exactly who is it that the missionaries are supposed to reach? The ones lucky enough to escape death and destruction from US bombers and drone attacks, I guess. And exactly what is the message our missionaries are supposed to deliver? “I’m from America, and I’m here to tell you about the love of God.” Oh, that is going to play really well with the loved ones of those family members we just destroyed.

I’ve had so many missionaries tell me how difficult it is for them to try to minister to people around the world today; and the chief reason is the bully reputation that America has built over the past several decades.

Furthermore, do these warmongering evangelicals really want to deal with the fact that we now have over 23 veterans and active-duty military personnel committing suicide EVERY DAY? That equates to more fighting men dying from self-inflicted wounds than from wounds received in the wars they are asked to fight. This is a first in US history. Is John Hagee interested in why so many of our fighting men are killing themselves?

Just recently, an Iraq War veteran killed himself and left a sad and compelling suicide-letter explaining why he ended his life. The letter was posted with the family’s permission. This young soldier was engaged in over 400 combat missions as a machine-gunner in the turret of a Humvee.  He was also involved in the interrogation of countless Iraqis. In the letter, the soldier said, “The simple truth is this: During my first deployment, I was made to participate in things, the enormity of which is hard to describe. War crimes, crimes against humanity. Though I did not participate willingly, and made what I thought was my best effort to stop these events, there are some things that a person simply can not come back from. I take some pride in that, actually, as to move on in life after being part of such a thing would be the mark of a sociopath in my mind. These things go far beyond what most are even aware of.

“To force me to do these things and then participate in the ensuing coverup is more than any government has the right to demand. Then, the same government has turned around and abandoned me. They offer no help, and actively block the pursuit of gaining outside help via their corrupt agents at the DEA. Any blame rests with them.”

The distraught soldier went on to say, “Is it any wonder then that the latest figures show 22 veterans killing themselves each day? That is more veterans than children killed at Sandy Hook, every single day. Where are the huge policy initiatives? Why isn’t the president standing with those families at the state of the union? Perhaps because we were not killed by a single lunatic, but rather by his own system of dehumanization, neglect, and indifference.

“It leaves us to where all we have to look forward to is constant pain, misery, poverty, and dishonor. I assure you that, when the numbers do finally drop, it will merely be because those who were pushed the farthest are all already dead.

“And for what? Bush’s religious lunacy? Cheney’s ever growing fortune and that of his corporate friends? Is this what we destroy lives for?”

See the report and the soldier’s complete suicide-letter at:

Iraq Vet Kills Himself After Being Ordereed To Commit War Crimes

What was the soldier’s lament? He was forced to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was forced by the government to cover up these crimes. His government abandoned him in his hour of need. His pain and guilt was more than he could bear. The soldier’s own words were that his was “Not suicide, but a mercy killing.”

Mr. Hagee and the rest of you warmongering evangelicals out there, is this soldier’s suicide (and the suicides of over 23 active-duty and military veterans every day) what you had in mind when you beat the drums for America’s undeclared, unconstitutional wars of aggression? This young soldier saw the reality of these wars up close and personal–and he didn’t like what he saw. And don’t try to brush this off by saying it’s always been this way. No it hasn’t! We didn’t have suicides like this during World War I or World War II. Whatever the politics back then was or wasn’t, those were lawfully declared wars in which our men knew what they were fighting for. They went in; they fought; they came home.

The war we are fighting in the Middle East is now America’s longest war, and there is no end in sight. Bush and Obama have made perpetual war an official US policy. In addition, this “War on Terror” has transformed the American people from citizens into suspects–every last one of us. Military drones by the tens of thousands are, or soon will be, flying over the skies of America. The American citizenry is being spied on relentlessly. Two super spy centers are currently being built: one in southern Utah and one near San Antonio, Texas. These super spy centers are designed primarily to spy on the American people. Liberties once protected by the Constitution and Bill of Rights are now publicly and blatantly abused. And evangelicals such as John Hagee say nary a word of protest. Instead, they continue to support and promote this so-called “War on Terror.” At what cost, Mr. Hagee? At what cost?

Hundreds of thousands of innocents are being killed; animosity against the United States is growing exponentially; in an effort to keep our country at war, our economy is being overburdened and overtaxed to the point of no return; in the name of the “War on Terror,” America is on the verge of becoming a giant police state; we are inciting China and Russia into nuclear war; and America’s military veterans are killing themselves more frequently than are enemy bullets. Is this what you want, Mr. Hagee? Is this really what you want?

Brazil Burning: The Story of An Illusion Gone Sour

Protests in Brazil indicate what goes way, way beyond a cheap bus fare.

When, in late 2010, Dilma Rousseff was elected President after eight years of the impossibly popular Lula, a national narrative was already ingrained, stressing that Brazil was not the “country of the future” anymore; the future had arrived, and this was a global power in the making.

This was a country on overdrive – from securing the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics to a more imposing role as part of the BRICS group of emerging powers.

Not unlike China, Brazil was breathlessly exploiting natural resources – from its hinterland to parts of Africa – while betting heavily on large agribusiness mostly supplying, you guess it, China.

But above all Brazil fascinated the world by incarnating this political UFO; a benign, inclusive giant, on top of it benefitting from a lavish accumulation of soft power (music, football, beautiful beaches, beautiful women, endless partying).

The country was finally enjoying the benefits of a quarter of a century of participative democracy – and self-satisfied that for the past ten years Lula’s extensive social inclusion policies had lifted arguably 40 million Brazilians to middle class status. Racial discrimination at least had been tackled, with instances of the Brazilian version of affirmative action.

Yet this breakneck capitalist dream masked serious cracks. Locally there may be euphoria for becoming the sixth or seventh world economy, but still social exclusion was far from gone. Brazil remained one the most (deadly) unequal nations in the world, peppered with retrograde landowning oligarchies and some of the most rapacious, arrogant and ignorant elites on the planet – inevitable by-products of ghastly Portuguese colonialism.

And then, once again, corruption raised its Hydra-like head. Here’s a first parallel with Turkey. In Brazil as in Turkey, participative democracy was co-opted, ignored or forcefully diluted among an orgy of “mega-projects” generating dubious profits for a select few. In Turkey it revolves around the ruling party AKP’s collusion with business interests in the “redevelopment” of Istanbul; in Brazil around public funds for the hosting of the World Cup and the Olympics. 

The new capitalist dream could not mask that the quality of life in Brazil’s big cities seemed to be on a downward spiral; and that racism – especially in the police – never went away while the demonization of peasant and Native Brazilian leaders was rampant; after all they were obstructing the way of powerful agribusiness interests and the “mega-projects” craze.

What can a poor boy do

There’s no Turkey Spring – as there’s no Brazilian Spring. This isn’t Tunisia and Egypt. Both Turkey and Brazil are democracies – although Prime Minister Erdogan has clearly embarked on a polarizing strategy and an authoritarian drive. What links Turkey and Brazil is that irreversible pent-up resentment against institutional politics (and corruption) may be catalyzed by a relatively minor event.

In Turkey it was the destruction of Gezi park; in Brazil the ten-cent hike in public bus fares was the proverbial straw that broke the (white) elephant’s back. In both cases the institutional response was tear gas and rubber bullets. In Turkey the popular backlash spread to a few cities. In Brazil it went nationwide.

This goes way, way beyond a cheap bus ride – although the public transport scene in Brazil’s big cities would star in Dante’s ninth circle of hell. A manual worker, a student, a maid usually spend up to four hours a day back-and-forth in appalling conditions. And these are private transport rackets controlled by a small group of businessmen embedded with local politicians, who they obviously own.

Arguably the nationwide, mostly peaceful protests have scored a victory – as nine cities have decided to cancel the bus fare hike. But that’s just the beginning.

The mantra is true; Brazilians pay developed world taxes and in return get sub-Saharan Africa quality of service (no offense to Africa). The notion of “value for money” is non-existent. It gets even worse as the economic miracle is over. That magical “growth” was less than 1% in 2012, and only 0.6% in the first quarter of 2013. The immensely bloated state bureaucracy, the immensely appalling public infrastructure, virtually no investment in education as teachers barely get paid $300 a month, non-stop political corruption scandals, not to mention as many homicides a year as narco-purgatory Mexico – none of this is going away by magic.

Football passion apart – and this is a nation where everyone is either an expert footballer or an experienced coach – the vast majority of the population is very much aware the current Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup are monster FIFA rackets. As a columnist for the Brazilian arm of ESPN has coined it, “the Cup is theirs, but we pay the bills.”

Public opinion is very much aware the Feds played hardball to get the “mega-events” to Brazil and then promised rivers of “social” benefits in terms of services and urban development. None of that happened. Thus the collective feeling that “we’ve been robbed” – all over again, as anyone with a digital made in China calculator can compare this multi-billion dollar orgy of public funds for FIFA with pathetically little investment in health, education, transportation and social welfare. A banner in the Sao Paulo protests said it all;“Your son is ill? Take him to the arena.”

Remember “Standing Man”

The neo-liberal gospel preached by the Washington consensus only values economic “growth” measured in GDP numbers. This is immensely misleading; it does not take into account everything from rising expectations for more participative democracy to abysmal inequality levels, as well as the despair of those trying to just survive (as in the orgy of expanded credit in Brazil leaving people to pay annual interest rates of over 200% on their credit cards).

So it takes a few uprooted trees in Istanbul and a more expensive shitty bus ride in Sao Paulo to hurl citizens of the “emerging markets” into the streets. No wonder the Brazilian protests left politicians – and “analysts” - perplexed and speechless. After all, once again this was people power – fueled by social media – against the 1%, not that dissimilar from protests in Spain, Portugal and Greece.

Unlike Erdogan in Turkey – who branded Twitter “a menace” and wants to criminalize social networking – to her credit Rousseff seems to have listened to the digital (and street) noise, saying on Tuesday that Brazil “woke up stronger” because of the protests.

The Brazilian protests are horizontal. Non-partisan; beyond party politics. No clear leaders. It’s a sort of Occupy Brazil – with a cross-section of high-school and college students, poor workers who struggle to pay their bus fare, vast swathes of the tax-swamped middle class who cannot afford private health insurance, even homeless people, who after all already live in the streets. Essentially, they want more democracy, less corruption, and to be respected as citizens, getting at least some value for their money in terms of public services.

The die is cast. Once again, it’s people power vs. institutional politics. Remember “Standing Man” in Taksim Square. The time to take a stand is now.

Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia.

Obedience: The Foundation of Revival

I was converted in the early 1960s through the ministry of. Bruce Larson who headed Faith at Work founded by Rev. Sam Shoemaker Shoemaker was heavily influenced by Frank Buchman’s Oxford Groups which were Humanistic, Evangelical, and Arminian.

For twenty-five years my family and I attended Charismatic churches and followed “Spirit filled” ministers.  We were members of a Charismatic Presbyterian Church that was spawned by a larger church of the same denomination.  Cultic sisters from Orleans on Cape Cod brought their ministry to this new church and we visited their home and sisterhood several times.  New Christians seldom understand the danger of cults.

For almost a decade we attended a Charismatic Methodist Church pastured by a Princeton Graduate who, pained by a lack of church growth, attended a Charismatic home group, received the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit”, forsook the Calvinist roots of his alma mater and was rewarded by full pews.  He claimed “the Baptism” freed him to preach a more attractive gospel.

His was a small country church when we began to attend. We watched it grow from less than three score to over a hundred in each of two services.  It was a simple white colonial style structure with a small, narrow lobby and doors at the entrance to each pew.  There was no choir but both the minister and his wife were talented musicians. She could coax angelic cords from the piano and during the collections played popular praise songs softly sung by the audience; an ineffable, heart breaking ambience often filled the sanctuary.

The minister surrounded himself with talented and loyal lay people and along with the attractive Sundayservice conducted an extensive counseling ministry.

His sermons were edifying and the service was emotionally fulfilling; though there was vague talk of obedience, God’s Commandments were omitted and the ministry was humanistic.

We attended for almost ten years and finally concluded that the fruit of behavioral change was missing and with great disappointment we stopped attending.

There were other newly formed Charismatic churches in the area and this church became one of a group that hosted an ever changing procession of Charismatic thrill seekers.  There was fierce competition both within and without.

From the beginning Bob Mumford was a leader in the worldwide Charismatic revival.   In the late 1960s we attended his services at Rev. John Poole’s church in Philadelphia.  There was much talk about the anointing of the Holy Spirit and these services had the same aura as the Connecticut Church; a healing peaceful calm pervaded the service, the church and the surrounding area.

It seemed to us that the entire monolithic Charismatic Movement, though authentic in many ways, created lots of excitement but failed to produce an effective cohesive Christian laity.  In the late 1980s I wrote a letter the Bob Mumford at Life Changers contending that in response to a massive Christian revival the Charismatic Movement had failed to produce the behavioral fruit that God demands and could therefore be under God’s judgment.  Though I had supported his ministry Rev. Mumford did not answer my letter.

I was aware of the Shepherding Movement and knew people who were involved.  However, I had not joined and was unaware that severe criticism had forced Rev. Mumford and four other Christian ministers to recant on some of their previously held positions.  The Shepherding Movement was an attempt to create human accountability in the church.  It was an incipient cult and though accountability is still a serious problem its demise was a blessing.

The theology of cults is often superior to mainline Christian churches.  However, cults invariably seek to cloister and control.  The cult supersedes the family and destroys God’s basic unit of government by dividing and destroying its structure.

The Reformation dealt with several evil doctrines and practices in the Catholic Church but it failed in maintaining a cohesive Christian voice. The heretical theology of Jacob Arminiius found fertile ground and set the stage for the profanity of Dispensationalism which has denuded the Protestant Church. Arminianism got a foot in the door and Dispensationalism cut the heart out of Christianity.

Heretical theologies have produced great revivals with impressive numbers of Christian converts but they rarely produce social transformation.  Christians should adore, praise, and seek God and the blessing of His Holy Spirit but pietistic serendipities are ancillary to obeying God’s Commandments.

When the essential theological maxim of obedience is missing there is a strong tendency to exert human control.  Cay and Judy from the Community of Jesus http://www.communityofjesus.org/ demanded obedience from the students at a School in Canada and from the families that joined the Community.  They suffered law suits and disaffections.

The Methodist Minister in Connecticut was successful in controlling a small cadre and a number of persons that received his counsel but his ministry failed to produce social change agents.

The problem is theological.  Christians are commanded not to lord it over one another. (Matthew 20, Mark 10)  Our leaders are supposed to be servants.  The Biblical system of government begins with the family and members of the family are to obey the Father.  All Christians are enjoined to obey God’s Commandments.  Peace and order come from obedience to God’s Law not from the opinions and whims of sinful men.

The father is expected to be a servant leader who while leading his family is also a servant to it.

Our Savior’s ministry attracted many followers.  He healed the sick and set the captives free.  But when He went to the Cross the crowds disappeared.  Few preachers will confront the moneychangers in the temple or personally confront the humanist leaders of our time. Jesus sought to do the Will of His Father.  If contemporary Christians would do the same our nation would be growing in peace and prosperity.

The gaping hole in the theology of Dispensational Evangelical and Charismatic churches causes them to seek control over their congregations.  The minister of the Charismatic Methodist set himself up as arbiter through counseling.  The Shepherding movement sought accountability through obedience to other human beings.  Cultic leaders set themselves up as gods to be followed and obeyed.  Pietistic churches fail to teach the primary theme of God’s entire Word.  The Bible demands obedience to God’s Commandments when God’s people obey His Law the blessings God promises are there for all to see and His powerful earth changing army can easily defeat the forces of Satan.

God seeks to be praised and adored but his primary desire is to be obeyed.

The Ideological War For Freedom Is Over

It Lost…

“Wherever private property disappears, man’s liberty is gone.  Man is placed completely at the mercy of the state.  Wherever private ownership is weakened, man’s liberty is weakened also.  There is an essential relationship between liberty and property.”  R. J. Rushdoony

The Heritage Foundation provides an excellent summary of property rights.  They describe a rating of 100 this way: “Private property is guaranteed by the government. The court system enforces contracts efficiently and quickly. The justice system punishes those who unlawfully confiscate private property. There is no corruption or expropriation.”  At 50, “The court system is inefficient and subject to delays. Corruption may be present, and the judiciary may be influenced by other branches of government. Expropriation is possible but rare.”  At 0, “Private property is outlawed, and all property belongs to the state. People do not have the right to sue others and do not have access to the courts. Corruption is endemic.

In 1995 world property rights were rated at 56.  In 2013 they are rated at 43, a reduction of over 20 percent. (See the graph in the Heritage Link below.)

Though freedom is tending down throughout the world it remains highest in Western nations and lowest in the Third World. 

The Heritage link rates the United States of America tenth behind Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Canada, Chile, Mauritius, and Denmark.  

Click here for the Heritage Foundation Property Rights link.

The U. S. Government now owns over 50 percent of the nation’s land and the incremental incursion of United Nation’s Agenda 21 continues to add to the coffer.  On Michael Shaw’s “Freedom Advocates”page he writes, “Agenda 21 seeks to transform America while eliminating the middle class. It plans to reach these goals on several fronts: by restructuring agriculture, creating broad wildlife corridors void of human activity, determining where and how people live, controlling human reproduction and human movement, constraining and controlling energy consumption and water use—in short, by eliminating private property.”

“The institution of private property makes possible three things essential to our liberty:  It encourages productive activity, allowing us to turn our ideas into actions and to realize the benefits of those actions. It allows us to engage in voluntary trade with others, multiplying the benefits of individual action a thousand-fold.  It enables us to safeguard and develop our resources responsibly and to secure peace and prosperity as a result. To appreciate the importance of private property in your own life, you need only to consider the significance of these two facts:  Private property represents everything you obtain through productive effort or voluntary trade.  Its essence is your right to determine its use”

The right to private property is being eroded in the United States and around the world.  World government seeks to exert absolute control; treating people like herds of cattle to be used as labor on the world plantation.  Like a bee hive the world will be filled with worker bees whose sole task is to provide an opulent leisure for the ruling class.  National pride will give way to a multicultural social order with intermarriages blurring racial identities. Only the Nation of Israel will remain intact.  Other nations and races are destined to become worker bees indistinguishable from one another.  This is the plan.  It is the logic behind the deliberate dumbing down of America and the massive push for multicultural integration. It is the impetus for the destruction of Christianity with its emphasis on the individual. The plan is diabolical, a direct download from Satan himself.

The snake of humanism is very prolific when it invades a society rationality disappears and as humans stray farther and farther from their Creator, foolishness grows with exponential rapidity.

We live with and have accepted an increasing number of social insanities: Our president who may be Constitutionally ineligible has been elected to a second term; our government has enslaved its citizens with a national debt of $16 trillion dollars which amounts to over $50 thousand per citizen; in direct defiance of the natural order we are training women to fight against men in defense of our nation and sanctioning homosexual marriage; the hallowed halls of our educational institutions have accepted the weakening results of multiculturalism as a desirable goal;  our citizens have been convinced that relatively weak and militarily insignificant nations in the Arab world are a danger to us; with text book insanity Americans continue to participate in a political system that is progressively enslaving them; and while all this subterfuge goes on our government supports an international court that prosecutes crimes against humanity while they are the biggest perpetrator.

Most Americans harbor a lackadaisical confidence that things will improve.  They ignore the world debt crisis and fail to consider that ultimately the lenders will call on the citizens of the United States to pay the debt their government has accumulated. Think of the austerity required for an American family of four to pay off a debt of $200,000.00.  That figure is quickly rising as our politicians continue to use the public credit card.  The debtor is a slave to the lender and the United States of America is a plantation populated by slaves whose willful ignorance allows them to go about their daily tasks as if all were well. 

The One True God is at odds with the new world order; it seeks to tyrannize us while He seeks to free us through obedience to His Commandments.  When God and His Law are forsaken despotism is inevitable.  We were not created to govern ourselves and since we have failed to encode this truth we are experiencing the results of our failure.

Partisan politics warned us about the dictatorial nature of the Obama Administration but the erstwhile Bush cabal was equally malignant.  Changing political partoes is useless. We have long ago lost control of our government and our opinions no longer matter.   Congress persons and senators vote the will of the money powers and the money powers reward them with re-election.

In Boston and Watertown, Massachusetts local, state, and federal authorities deployed a frightening array of coordinated force to apprehend two young men they described as terrorists.  Acting as judge and jury they violated the legal rights of the suspects and encroached on property rights by invading homes and restricting the movement of their occupants.  The entire operation resembled aiming a howitzer at a house fly.

The citizens of the United States of America have been put on notice that neither they nor their properties can claim protections from the unrestrained power of those that rule them.

Several times I have written that Americans need to repent from theirs and their father’s wicked ways. This admonition has fallen on deaf ears and some have advised me that I should stop writing about it because it will never happen.

In a recent email from American Vision Dr. Joel McDurmon wrote that “a corrupt government is the product of a corrupt people”. He quoted H. L. Mencken, “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what They want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” and went on to contend that God often punishes a wicked populace by exposing them to their own sins. “Thus do the politically deluded live in a denial which dismisses even God’s Word in favor of the assertion of human wisdom.  So often do men shelter their pet political beliefs from even divine criticism.  So often do men deny God’s Word to advance their own desires. So often do men rest on false assurances built on their own godless dreams.  And just as often do societies weather and decay from the blights of human vanity.”   Read here.

America and its people have supported illegal aggression and encouraged murderous wars.  We have pride fully maintained our national superiority and encouraged the use of weapons of mass destruction. We have supported our government in the role of a deity and now, since we have granted it that role, it has begun reflecting it in action.  We have winked at sin, dallied in its fringes, and taken an occasional bath.  Dishonest measurements have been accepted for decades; our buildings are constructed with dishonest two-by-fours that are actually only one and a half by three and three quarters.  Now even our Pound Cakes weigh only fourteen ounces.  Dishonesty has permeated our culture!  Our media uses lies, gross omissions, and misrepresentations in reporting the news and our government regularly distorts facts and figures.  While all this defiance of God continues our churches disregard their proper function by seeking peace and respectability.  Abortion is a horrendous sin but it is only one sin; our cancerous pride covers scores of others.

One of my nieces is married to a lawyer.  He employs a logical mind that makes conversation interesting.  He is a Democrat who supports Obama and believes he is doing a reasonably good job.  His approach to life is pragmatic, he considers himself moral, and understands that there is room for disagreement.  We did not set parameters for our talk but I believe he would agree with Democrat Harry Reid that government is inherently good and with Libertarian Jacob Hornberger that it should be constrained by natural law.

Natural law alone would never have created the freedom and order the United States of America has enjoyed.  It was Christianity and the Laws God gave to Moses that buttressed a secular government and made our nation great. Though not always pronounced it was almost universally supported even by many whose personal beliefs were different.  Pragmatism is a pagan procedure that allows compromise with evil and the end to justify the means.  Freedom is always endangered by pragmatism.

Because we are no longer a righteous nation we are quickly losing our freedom. The longer we linger in secular humanism the greater the constraints.  Private property was flagrantly invaded in Watertown, Massachusetts. When tyrants are successful in exercising inordinate power they will continue to do so.

We no longer have private property in America.  The internet is devoid of privacy with everything subject to the prying eyes and ears of big brother.  Private homes are no longer sanctuaries but can now be invaded by heavily armed, jack booted government troops who can kill with impunity.  Public safety trumps individual rights leaving citizens without privacy or even the right to occupy of their own property. 

Life is no longer restrained by absolutes.  Power prevails and the full force of the United States military can be used to enforce the whims of those that wield it.

When we forsake God’s Law we subject ourselves to the whims of human power!

Human Liberty Is Doomed

Any discussion on liberty presupposes an understanding of human nature. Today, the utter confusion and distorted mindset of humankind, relegates animal instincts, as the premier motivation for salacious existence. The criteria for a cordial civilization have long been “consigned to the dustbins of history“. Standards for civil and moral conduct are debased by a global disintegration to achieve the ‘good’ for the hunt of acting ‘nice’. Polite and pleasant facades are no substitute for truth and meaning. Yet, the heights of evil transactions seem to be hailed routinely, as the only achievement that power hungry sociopaths aspire to impose on the rest of the planet. Never-ending conflict is inherent in the human condition, while the state of liberty is unusual and resides within the character of the ethical spirit.

The spread of international humanism as a social value-system is fundamentally hedonistic. The pretence of caring about humanity by adopting a regulatory anatomical structure of benign coercion has relegated individual dignity to the graves of a universal cemetery. At every turn in the propaganda evangelism cycle, the media masters preach a gospel of fake tolerance and respect, while implementing policies and dictates, based upon hate and oppression.

The confessedly exposed religion of their belief is in a hegemonic demon of worldwide enslavement. The defect in the progressive creed requires the extermination of individualistic sovereignty. The whole, as long as it conforms to the orthodox version of subjugation, requires every unique person, to obey the community master of social welfare.

According to the Barack Hussein Obama II epithet, the epistle of his self-indulgence lecture is offered up as a path to worldly happiness. Mere mortals need to sacrifice their integrity to a demon deity, upon an altar of desolation and abandonment. The devil of state adoration demands mandatory veneration.

Hell on earth is the inevitable result from the elimination of personal liberty. The foundation of civilization rests upon the free will of each mortal and the cement of society is the ability of every person to make independent decisions and accept responsibility for their actions. The principles of the Christian gospel, the sacred heritage of the worth in each person and the traditional values of the golden rule are immutable and indisputable. Even so, the collectivist culture rejects the very core cornerstone that has provided the only intermittent sanctuary from the pillaging of the barbarians.

Even an eastern establishment agent like The Atlantic has to admit the evident in the article, There’s No Room for Civil Liberties in Obama’s Inauguration View of America. Wendy Kaminer uses the erroneous illusion of a difference in a partisan political ideology. “The authoritarian right and egalitarian left meet in the middle on at least one issue: Neither side values the rights of the individual.” Stating the obvious, there is no manifest departure within the communalist system that hates any citizen objections to the supremacy of the State. Ms. Kaminer continues:

“Civil libertarians have been cataloguing and futilely litigating the gross abuses of post-9/11 era for years. They include, but are probably not limited to, summary detention and torture; the prosecution of whistleblowers; surveillance of peaceful protesters; the criminalization of journalism and peaceful human-rights activism; extensive blacklisting that would have been the envy of Joe McCarthy; and secrecy about a shadow legal system that makes the president’s “we the people” trope seem less inspirational than sarcastic.

Precisely because civil libertarians have focused on these abuses, they’re old news — which means that progressives reveling in Obama’s speech can’t claim ignorance of them. When they applaud the president’s “muscular liberalism,” without qualification, they’re effectively applauding his strong-arm security state.

When Obama praised collective action in his address, he wasn’t praising efforts by individuals to organize against government abuses. He was praising organized support for government programs.”

Conversely, concluding that the state is the ultimate enemy of the individual, missing the true lesson of the human experience. The addiction to authoritarian discipline is not motivated primarily out of a fear of reprisals, but more often stems from a desire to belong to a social order. The dread of being labeled an outsider and a social misfit creates more self-imposed compliance, with an acceptable politically correct stance, than the threat of fines or incarceration.

The artificial disposition of public or even interpersonal discourse, illustrates the extent and length people go to avoid asking the most profound questions, much less an attempt to discover answers for social issues. The lack of meaningful dialogue is symptomatic of a terminal disease that strips away the flesh from the bone of a cadaver, awaiting a funeral.

The essence of a reasoned relationship with another person or an entire society must be founded upon a mutual respect and common interest. How can a solitary national bear loyalty to a government that tramples inherent rights, which are ordained by God at birth, not delegated by government fiat?

With the unholy alliance of the corporatist/state fascist economy, the model of a system of psychopathic delusion becomes the official reality. People relish in their self-induced mental illness and celebrate their diminished capacity from accepting their subservient and docile role. Liberty cannot survive when citizenry willingly surrender.

Mark Tapscott makes the case that Individual liberty cannot survive a republic of civic dunces.

“As with so much else, James Madison captures the profoundly serious implications of raising a generation politically crippled by its gross civic ignorance in a single concise statement about the difference between Europe and America: “In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set the example … of charters of power granted by liberty.”

If you don’t grasp how Madison’s simple equation makes all the difference in the world in how this country is governed, then you probably don’t understand why liberals and conservatives disagree on just about everything.”

The Obama administration is engaged in the Europeanization of America. Note this transition removes the historic race, ethnic and cultural differences, that created the vibrant civilization, which produced Western thought and social institutions. In its place, a new world order of an ecumenical hierarchy of globalist plutocrats, running a technological prison planet of apes, is in the making.

No liberty exists for anthropoids! Ironically, “the Forbidden Zone was once a paradise. Your breed made a desert of it, ages ago”, applies to the authoritarians that would be King Kong in domain of Dr. Zaius. When George Taylor laments, “YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! OH, DAMN YOU! GODDAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!’; the fans of the POTUS dictatorship, whoever is in office at the time, deserves their oblivion.Is it so difficult to see the destructive conversion going on in a country that once understood the purpose of the American Revolution? The preachers from the pulpits of press conferences want you to believe that their pronouncements are from on high. The fools, who extend them credibility in the face of official tyranny, much less their acquiescence and submission, are endorsing treason.

Liberty must be defended, not with superior firepower, but with eternal determination. Since the lack of willpower is the critical problem, what would it take to motivate the lethargic minions to take real affirmative action? Pray tell the squeamish dare not get involved. Just the mere thought of offending your overlords, is far too audacious, in a feeble attempt to practice personal self-respect.

The village of the damned is as close as your adjacent neighborhood. Living a life of liberty is too intrepid of a concept for most registered party voters. As the evidence mounts that, the dictatorship of the proletariat is not confined solely to Marxist regimes, but is eminently thriving in the land of the former brave and bold.

The Madisonian framework model of federalism and separation of powers is long dead. Even the appearance of Liberty in public institutions is scorned upon as an affront to the supremacy of state authority. Individual autonomy and specific actions is the principle purpose of the genuine patriot, while the last refuge of the scoundrel is the pledge of allegiance to the admiralty flag.

Since the decline of the original Republic, the chronicle into totalitarianism is nearly complete. Now the gatekeepers of the oligarchy look and act like Dr. Zaius. When he admits that he has always known that human civilization existed long before apes ruled the planet, he really is saying that the nation was once lead by representatives of sovereign individuals and is now ruled by egomaniac tyrants that like to whip their knuckle dragging serfs.The reason the country is doomed lies squarely upon the shoulders of the docile. With the criminalization of society, the faint-hearted demand harsher penalties for anyone, who defies the slave state. Do not just blame the elites sitting on high for all the ills of our national plight. The little people, gaming the system, bear the scarlet letter of shame for their lust of government adoration. As long as the rebellion of courage remains in a stage of limbo, the cowardly primates of Amerika will obey their orders.

Going Against God “Just For Fun”

Today we’re hearing a lot about Spiritism or Spiritualism, not to be confused with spiritual or spirituality, as in “I’m not religious, I’m spiritual,” or “I’m into spirituality.”  The term Spiritism has replaced what was once called animism and other religious practices involving the invocation of spiritual beings.

Some religions meld Spiritualism with Christianity.  For example, a blend of Christian and African folk beliefs that originated in Brazil is now practiced in the U.S.   Spiritualism is much the same as Spiritism only it has adopted Christian rites and prayers.  People visiting Spiritualistic services can be misled into thinking they’re Christian churches.  The problem is Christianity cannot be melded with any other religion or practice.

One of the major tenets of Spiritism is reincarnation.  The classic form of reincarnation originated in India in the 9th century BC.  Reincarnation has become a hot topic in our post-modern culture.

There are a whole host of beliefs about reincarnation.  The most widely touted belief  is that upon death one’s spirit exits the body in search of another body to inhabit. Believing in reincarnation gives hope for continuing one’s existence in further lives to work off one’s karma.  Karma is broadly defined as the consequences of one’s actions.

Ask professing Christians as they flow through the doors of a Sunday worship service if they believe in reincarnation, some will give you a cavalier “Yes,” as if it’s no big deal for believers to mix Christianity with mystical beliefs.  However, believing in reincarnation is a very big deal for the serious Christian.  For example, reincarnation is a central tenet within Hinduism, not Christianity!

The thing Christians need to come to terms with is that belief in reincarnation goes against what the Bible teaches regarding the soul’s final judgment by a holy God.  What Jesus Christ clearly taught is that unrepentant sinners are condemned to an eternity in hell.  Jesus never mentioned reincarnation – not once!

Hebrews 9:27 reveals what occurs when human beings die:

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.

Listen to what Paul says happens when we die:

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.(2 Cor. 5:8)

It is imperative that serious Christians view mysticism as evil.  When Paul came face to face with the Jewish mystic Elymas, he charged him with being a child of the devil and an enemy of righteousness. Moreover, he accused the mystic of perverting the right ways of the Lord.  (Acts 13:10)  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Paul caused him to go blind.  Not only did he put out the sorcerer’s eyes, he also put him out of a job! When it came to confronting evil, Paul never backed down, never hesitated, wavered or vacillated.  He had all the subtlety of a sledgehammer when it came to evildoers.

God forbids any sort of participation in paganism for our own protection.  His reason is simple: its roots are steeped in pagan idolatry and drug use.  The occult world is an open door to Satan’s world.  Those who enter find themselves on a quest for ‘hidden wisdom’ or ‘deeper truth.’  And, not surprisingly, the sought after ‘hidden wisdom’ is not meant for everyone, it’s meant for a select few such as New Age disciples and gurus.

We call those who possess supernatural power (power’s what it’s all about) shamans, witchdoctors, clairvoyants, trance channelers, spiritists, and the list goes on.  So, how does a spiritist go about getting in contact with the spirit world?  By receiving radiation, frequencies or vibrations from the dead.  “Communication from the spirit world manifests itself in psychical phenomena (e.g., telepathy, clairvoyance, trance speaking, and apparitions) and in physical phenomena (e.g., levitation, automatic writing, and poltergeist and ectoplasmic activities).” (Source)

The Bible tells us that it is God who instigates communication, not man.  Generally the Lord will use angels as His envoys to humans.  We know very little about angels, either the elect or the fallen.  However, the scriptures inform us that on occasion the Lord sent a holy elect angel to Earth to deliver messages. And He also sent angles to minister to people, to protect them, and also to execute His judgment.  The angels have one purpose: to glorify God’s holy Name and to carry out His will.

There are also fallen angels – the rebellious ones!  The most notorious of the lot is Lucifer aka Satan.  The Bible refers to the fallen angels as demons, spirits of darkness and evil spirits.  The ones that rebelled against God fell from grace.  Consequently, they were hurled out of heaven, lock stock and barrel.  Bible expositor John MacArthur elucidates what happened next:

At that point, Satan gained the rulership of the world, and the term world took on a third meaning: the evil system opposed to God that now dominates this planet. The system that Satan began will continue to develop up to the time period known as the Great Tribulation.

As I have made clear, Christianity and Spiritism have nothing in common whatsoever.  I mean, think about it. Can you trust God and Satan at the same time?  Here’s what Paul said:

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the uncleanthing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Cor. 6:14-18)

Satan is known as the “father of lies.”  Even those who are guided by an “inner voice” can be deceived, warns occultist Nicholas Weeks:

Channels such as [Alice] Bailey are sincere and convinced that their inner voices and visions are real Masters. Unhappily, sincerity is no protection from delusion. In 1884 Master KH wrote to a psychic of that time, giving an explanation for the befuddling of a channel or seer. ‘Since you have scarcely learned the elements of self-control, in psychism, you must suffer bad consequences. You draw to yourself the nearest and strongest influences “often evil” and absorb them, and are psychically stifled or narcotised by them. The airs become peopled with resuscitated phantoms. They give you false tokens, misleading revelations, deceptive images. Your vivid creative fancy evokes illusive Gurus and chelas [disciples], and puts into their mouths words coined the instant before in the mint of your mind, unknown to yourself. The false appear as real, as the true, and you have no exact method of detection since you are yet prone to force your communications to agree with your preconceptions. (Source)

And to think, many Christians are now engaged in magical mystical practices such as contemplative prayer that can give the practitioner misleading revelations and deceptive images, where the false may appear real.  (See a column I wrote on contemplative prayer here.)

Keep in mind that the spirits that speak through the mouths of the willing are demons.  People who get themselves into a mind-altering trance with the purpose being to channel a benevolent spirit may end up becoming demon possessed!  Granted, some channelers are really nothing more than convincing actors who write the script as they go along.  These are the charlatans who do it for money or fame – or both.  However, there are many dupes that allow their bodies to be used by spirit entities that use the occasion to spew anti-Christian propaganda!

The Bible tells us to, “Prove [test] all things; hold fast that which is good.” (1 John 4:1). We’re also told to flee (run like a maniac) from the devil who “walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) Now, picture a lion hiding in the brush to pounce on an unsuspecting wildebeest.  The devil’s like the hungry lion, only he’s waiting to pounce on Christ’s sheep!  Unfortunately many Christians fail to obey God’s command to resist the devil, which is one of the reasons Christianity’s in the sorry state it’s in today.

Far too many followers of Jesus Christ are unaware that our Lord quite literally detests all forms of sorcery. There are no exceptions!  Sorry to be a wet blanket, but even astrology is banned.  And it doesn’t matter if it’s done “just for fun.”  One cannot be a Presbyterian on Sunday and a spiritist the other six days of the week.

This brings me to two blogs I stumbled on.  Both male bloggers declare their love for Christ and state that the Bible is the standard by which they live their lives.  One studies apologetics; the other is a youth pastor.  They both have their Zodiac signs on display.  That way if you land on aspiring apologist’s blog, you’ll know that he’s a Gemini; likewise, if you land on youth pastor’s blog, you’ll discover that he’s a Virgo.  One can only assume that these young men have not yet read Leviticus 19:26, Deuteronomy 18:9-12, Exodus 22:18 and other similar passages where God commands His people to steer clear of sorcery.  And yet these so-called Bible believers find time to read up on astrology?

Christians who are confronted with an evil practice must lace up their trusty running shoes and high tail it out of there, pronto!  Keep away from horoscopes (astrology), numerology, séances, tarot cards, tealeaves, palm reading, crystal balls, talking boards, omens or signs.  Moreover, do not get involved in wizardry, witchcraft, the study of Kabbalah, nature religion (Wicca), and the practice of yoga (its sole purpose is purely spiritual). Believers must flee from any and all pagan customs and practices.  Those who are currently involved in any of the above must bring it to an end today!

Since dabbling in sorcery is a sin against God, repentance is of paramount importance.  So if you’ve been dabbling, repent! And never return to any sort of evil practice — even if it’s “just for fun.”

Bear in mind that the demonic powers operating in the realm of the occult are very real.  These spirits are stronger and more dangerous than people realize.  The Bible warns us to “regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.” (Lev. 19:31).

The Apostle Paul understood all too well that evil forces are ever present in the “heavenlies.” Hence, he admonished followers of Christ to wear the “armor of God” to protect against familiar spirits that prey on gullible humans.  He even gave specific instructions to the Church in Ephesus:

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: (Ephesians 6:1-12).

Christian — take Paul’s instructions to heart and daily put on the full armor of God to protect against the rulers of the darkness of this world.

Recommended:

The Old Serpent and the Slacker—an allegory on the “Armor of God” By Marsha West
Are You Armed for Battle? By Marsha West
Occult – On Solid Rock Resources
Angels – On Solid Rock Resources
New Age Movement – On Solid Rock Resources
Contemplative Prayer – On Solid Rock Resources
Christian Yoga? – On Solid Rock Resources

Christians Mystically Encountering God

For a couple of decades there has been a big push by numerous evangelical leaders to incorporate pagan practices into the visible Church. These unbiblical practices have their origins in Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, likewise the New Age movement. Roman Catholic Trappist Monks fully embraced Eastern religion’s pagan practices. Through the writings of Thomas Merton, Basil Pennington, William Menninger and Thomas Keating these practices have been introduced into mainline Protestant churches as well as independent, nondenominational, charismatic and Pentecostal churches.

Those who wish to develop a more meaningful prayer life are urged by popular evangelicals such as Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, Rick Warren, John Ortberg, Ruth Haley Barton and Tony Campolo, just to name a few, to undertake a mystical prayer practice called The Silence.

How does one achieve The Silence? By practicing eastern-style mantra meditation aka Transcendental Meditation (TM).

What is the goal of TM? To gain “ultimate knowledge of God by a direct experience that bypasses the mind.”

What must one do to attain this sort of mind-altering experience? Settle into a quiet comfortable place and with eyes closed repeat a word or phrase from Scripture over and over until the thinking process shuts down to the point of silence…..and, low and behold, the practitioner will allegedly have an encounter with God in the spirit realm.

Our final goal is ‘union with God,’ which is a pure relationship where we see ‘nothing.’ (Source)

Wow. Sounds a bit New Age, doesn’t it? No doubt about it! And because it is New Age, why, pray tell, do shepherds of the flock not have a problem pushing this sort of practice on their sheep?

Contemplative prayerUndoubtedly many Christians have never heard of The Silence. Be that as it may, terms such as ; centering prayer; lectio divina; Divine presence; sacred word; transformation/transforming union; listening prayer; soaking prayer; and breath prayer may ring a bell. But it matters not what term we use; what matters is that to pray The Silence is unbiblical.

Former New Ager Marcia Montenegro wrote an in depth essay on Contemplative Prayer (CP) entitled “Contemplating Contemplative Prayer: Is It Really Prayer?” Marcia warns us that,

The influence of Buddhism and Hinduism on Contemplative Prayer … is apparent. Words such as “detachment,” “transformation,” “emptiness,” “enlightenment” and “awakening” swim in and out of the waters of these books. The use of such terms certainly mandates a closer inspection of what is being taught, despite the fact that contemplative prayer is presented as Christian practice.

Themes that one finds echoed in the CP movement include the notions that true prayer is: silent, beyond words, beyond thought, does away with the “false self,” triggers transformation of consciousness, and is an awakening. Suggested techniques often include breathing exercises, visualization, repetition of a word or phrase, and detachment from thinking. (Source)

Evangelical pastor Gary Gilley also tells us what to watch out for:

[C]ontemplative prayer is not the same as prayer defined biblically; “sacred reading” (also called lectio divina) of Scripture is not the same as Bible study; meditation (mystically encountering God) is not the same as knowing God and so forth. Many of the same terms are used, but as the classical liberals, and the more recent emergents, are fond of doing, they take our terms, including biblical ones, and give them new definitions and twists. (Source)

Spiritual Disciplines

Paul wrote, “Train yourself for godliness” (1 Tim. 4:7). This sort of training promotes Christlikeness. The ESV translates “train” as “discipline.” To “train yourself for godliness” means a call to holy living. It also means hard work. According to the John MacArthur Study Bible study notes, “train” is an athletic term “denoting the rigorous, self-sacrificing exercise an athlete undergoes. Spiritual self-discipline is the path to godly living.” Training such as this has been termed “spiritual exercises” or “spiritual disciplines.” As a result of “spiritual disciplines” many Christians now practice Contemplative Prayer. Many CP practitioners believe that they’re receiving direct revelations from God. “From years of studying mystics of all stripes,” says Ken Silva, “I can tell you their perceived revelations then trump the texts of Holy Scripture for them. In other words, rather than testing these experiences by God’s Word, now these (CP) practitioners … are instead using their feelings to interpret the Bible through what they think God is saying. I’m telling you, the tragic fact is, the mainstream of professing Christendom is rapidly devolving into all kinds of silly superstitions.” (Source)
Gospel Coalition’s D.A. Carson explains the spiritual disciplines thusly:

Nowadays spiritual disciplines may include Bible reading, meditation, worship, giving away money, fasting, solitude, fellowship, deeds of service, evangelism, almsgiving, creation care, journaling, missionary work, and more. It may include vows of celibacy, self-flagellation, and chanting mantras. In popular usage, some of these so-called spiritual disciplines are entirely divorced from any specific doctrine whatsoever, Christian or otherwise: they are merely a matter of technique. That is why people sometimes say, “For your doctrine, by all means commit yourselves to evangelical confessionalism. But when it comes to the spiritual disciplines, turn to Catholicism or perhaps Buddhism.” What is universally presupposed by the expression “spiritual discipline” is that such disciplines are intended to increase our spirituality. From a Christian perspective, however, it is simply not possible to increase one’s spirituality without possessing the Holy Spirit and submitting to his transforming instruction and power. Techniques are never neutral. They are invariably loaded with theological presuppositions, often unrecognized. (emphasis added) (Source)

As I said above, many Christians feel like something is missing from their prayer life and they long to “connect with God” in a more meaningful way. So they’ll do just about anything to “cultivate intimacy with God,” including unbiblical meditation. The irony is that they’ll attempt to defend an unbiblical practice by quoting Scripture. Take for example Joshua 1:8:

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Some Christians will argue that Joshua 1:8 shows that God approves of this mind emptying type of meditation. Wrong! The text is instructing us to meditate on God’s Word, not to empty our minds.
I’ll explain biblical mediation in a moment. But first let’s look at how Webster’s defines meditation:

The words Ponder, Meditate, Muse, and Ruminate are synonyms and mean to consider or examine attentively or deliberately. PONDER implies a careful weighing of a problem or, often, prolonged inconclusive thinking about a matter; MEDITATE implies a definite focusing of one’s thoughts on something as to understand it deeply; muse suggests a more or less focused daydreaming as in remembrance; RUMINATE implies going over the same matter in one’s thoughts again and again but suggests little of either purposive thinking or rapt absorption.

Now let’s look at Psalm 119 to see what the Bible teaches on meditation:

I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. (119:15).

Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. (119:23)

Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works. (119:27)

My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes. (119:48)

See also: 119:78, 119:97, 119:99,119:148.

The Apostle Paul says the following:

Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things. (2Tim 2:7)

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think [mediated] on these things. (Phil 4:8)

Could the Almighty have made the meaning of meditation any clearer? God has also made it abundantly clear that He forbids His people to indulge in any form of pagan idolatry. So practicing mystical mantra meditation is going against God! This alone should be enough to scare individuals away from this type of approach to prayer.

When it comes to pagan practices God leaves no room for doubt: Do it and die spiritually…even physically, as in King Saul’s case.

Yoga Meditation

Over the years I have dealt with “Christian yoga” in several of my columns. So I’ll briefly touch on it here for the simple reason that a large number of Christ followers have wholeheartedly embraced the Buddhist practice of yoga. Even churches offer yoga classes with a Christian spin on it! Not surprisingly, enterprising Christians head up successful yoga businesses such as “Holy Yoga,” “PraiseMoves and “Yahweh Yoga” (YY) just to name a few. YY’s website promises to “increase the kingdom of Jesus Christ by establishing, providing and maintaining a Christian yoga studio and teaching academy that honors God in all business and ministry endeavors. Yahweh Yoga seeks to…empower men and women to de-stress, to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ and to improve their mind, body and spirit…”

It’s not a stretch to say that the language used to promote YY comes right out of the New Age handbook.

Here’s the bottom line. So-called Christian yoga has nothing in common with authentic Christianity. In fact, the Bible warns:

For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. (Eph 5:8-11)

In one of my columns entitled Can A Pagan Practice Be “Christianized” I drew attention to the fact that:

Yoga is being marketed to mainline churches with the assurance of creating stress reduction, developing self-confidence, and improving concentration. It is also marketed to business and industry, athletes, senior citizens, students, teens and adolescents. Because of our fast paced life-style, who wouldn’t want to reduce stress? This is why yoga classes have become so popular.

Now here’s the main reason Christians should avoid yoga. Christian apologists John Ankerberg and John Weldon maintain that, “The basic premise of yoga theory is the fundamental unity of all existence: God, man, and all of creation are ultimately one divine reality.” To explain the basic premise, the authors quote from an editorial in the Yoga Journal:

“We are all aware that yoga means ‘union’ and that the practice of yoga unites body, breath, and mind, lower and higher energy centers and, ultimately self and God, or higher Self. But more broadly, yoga directs our attention to the unity or oneness that underlies our fragmented experiences and equally fragmented world. Family, friends, the Druze guerrilla in Lebanon, the great whale migrating north — all share the same essential [divine] nature.”

This quote alone should raise concerns among Christians but when looked at in light of Bible expositor John MacArthur’s comments extracted from a CNN Primetime interview where he was asked “Should Christians practice yoga,” it ought to be completely clear that Christians should not participate:

John MacArthur…wondered why Christians would want to “borrow a term that is part of a false religion” (that clashes with historic orthodox Christianity). MacArthur contends that Christians shouldn’t put themselves in weird physical positions, empty their minds, focus on him or herself, and try to find the “god within” as a way to relieve stress. “This is practicing a false religion,” he said rather pointedly. Then he boldly shared the gospel. He said in order to have a whole and complete life, Christians must go to the Word of God, to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, “The idea of Christianity is to fill your mind with biblical truth and focus on the God which is above you.”

We can be thankful that there are a few Christian leaders in America who are willing to stand up for the truth.

In conclusion, “Christian mysticism” has emerged from false religious systems. But instead of fleeing from magical mystical practices, scores of Christians have embraced them! The brethren must be warned that Scripture strictly forbids uniting with pagans and apostates. Moreover, those who profess Christ must be admonished not to participate in Contemplative Prayer or any sort of mantra meditation for the reason that spiritual harm can result from it.

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