Last Thursday I did something that I haven’t done in a long time, I went to a concert. The location was in nearby Troy Montana. The Community Baptist Church there was sponsoring a free concert by a Christian rock band called “Disciple.”
I looked the group up on the Internet and found that the band was similar to ‘Seventh Day Slumber.” If this doesn’t help, then “Stryper” will get you close. The band is on the fringes of what I can handle on the rock/metal spectrum. I have heard “Wolves at the Gate,” and that group is beyond what I’m comfortable listening to. In my mind there is still a difference between singing and screaming.
Playable Concert Sample
My first challenge was finding the venue of the concert. I went to said Baptist church and found literally two people on the property. They were in a room that was visible from the parking lot. I looked around the church and found no one else. I decided to ask the fellows about the concert but as I approached the door, I heard them praying the pray about “Lord let me accept the things I cannot change…” In my mind I knew I had stumbled upon a 12-step meeting. Instead of asking for help, I opted to head for the exit. On the wall near the exit door was a Disciple poster and an autographed guitar.
I figured that the venue must be elsewhere in this town of 800 souls. I looked up the concert on Disciple’s website and found that the venue was not the church but a community building. I went to the listed address and found an empty building with no lights on. Then I looked up the venue by name and found yet a third address. This was the multipurpose/basketball arena for the local high school. I knew by the number of cars in and around the building that after three tries, I had finally found the correct location.
Booked with Disciple was a character named Ryan Ries. I’m not sure what Ryan was all about because by the time I found the location, his part was over. Per the Internet, Ryan has a group called the Whosoevers that works with youth.
From what I have heard, some folks have issues with Ryan’s approach to the gospel and whether he is orthodox in his theology. I was hoping to hear what he had to say but alas I was too late. I have seen one or two cars in my area with stickers about this group, so I know some of my neighbors support him.
Oh, in the midst of trying to find the third location, I got a call phone from one of our crack staff members in California filling me in on the results of California’s Super Tuesday vote. I had to end the call prematurely because I was entering the venue.
I found a very different set-up from what you might expect for a concert. I entered the building from the north side. On my left was the basketball backboard and net. Under them was a merchandise table selling t-shirts and CDs. On the right, were bleachers. The bleachers were pulled out so that folks count sit on them. Towards the front, just past center court, was an area with a computer and mixing board. This area was roped off.
The stage was erected under the opposite basketball backboard. A rope was stretched across the front of the stage about four feet back. Thus, people had the option to sit in the bleachers on one side of the arena with the band on their right or they could be standing on the basketball floor in any area not roped off. This allowed me to be about eight feet from the guitarist on the left side of the stage. I would estimate at least 450 were in attendance but it may have been as many as 600. Not bad for a town of 800 people.
Prior to the concert’s beginning, a multimedia presentation about the band was displayed. The multimedia presentation continued thru the concert. It made the concert seem like an immersive music video with many images flashed on the screen. Also, on the screen were most of the words of the songs as they were being sung. I found this helpful, especially since I had only heard one of their songs one time prior to this performance.
The band sang about eight songs and then the lead singer gave a talk about giving yourself to God. He was especially concerned with turning the hearts of the Prodigal Son. As the father of a Prodigal Son, I get this need as well as the emptiness you feel because one that you love has been snatched by the enemy. The difference of course is that God can turn the heart of the Prodigal, but I cannot.
He also spoke of the recent loss of his dad and the reality that once we’re gone, someone else gets to go thru all our stuff. Most of what we accumulate in our life has no value to anyone else. Stuff mostly gets trashed or donated and only a few things may be of interest to anyone else. This story was a challenge to store treasure in heaven and not trash on earth.
The band then played a few more songs and left the stage. As is often the case, they then returned for an encore of about four more songs.
When the band feigned the end on the concert, they went behind the stage. One of the band members found the Trojan head (the high school mascot) behind the stage and return for the encore wearing it for the first song.
The concert was really free, not even a “love offering” was taken. The only cost to me was the $32 that I spent on 3 CDs that I have yet to listen to.
Lastly, since crossing from Montana to Idaho moves me from Mountain to Pacific Time, I got home 20 minutes before I left Troy, driving the speed limit all the way.
Please note lyrics on screen in the background
Disciple seems like a decent group of guys trying to reach people with the Gospel as they understand it. I would go see them again but there’s no chance my wife will go with me. Oh, they do have a website that has acoustic versions of many of their songs available. Perhaps a mellower take on their music would at least let me share it with my bride.
The closest they get to the old California HQ in Elk Grove is Vacaville on March 16th.
Folks, frankly I’m tired of all the nonsense about this conflict. However, the two articles that I will dive into in mere moments are worth a look, if nothing else but to see that our way of looking at the world is very different from that of the people propelling this conflict. Our categories of thinking and reasoning in the West are not capable of understanding this conflict. We should abandon all hope of a rational understanding of this conflict and embrace the craziness as a foreign worldview.
Theory One
The first story is from World Net Daily. If you don’t understand the theological presuppositions of this website, then you might miss the point of what you are about to read. These guys are all-in on Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth—except for the part about it happening 40 years after Israel became a nation—which clearly never happened. They are Premillennial and Dispensational. As a result, they are very pro-Zionist. On occasion, these assumptions have a way of making them look foolish.
(Please note that just because these guys believe this stuff doesn’t mean that it can be found in the Bible because it can’t, but it is entertaining.)
Anyway…
While political experts worldwide pontificate on the war in Gaza, most have overlooked Hamas’ explicitly stated reason for its Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, revealed on Day 100 of the war.
Incredibly, according to the terror group’s military spokesman, it has to do with attempting to prevent the “ceremony of the Red Heifer” – a mysterious event of great meaning to both Jews and Christians.
“We look back 100 days to remember the educated, the complicit, and the incapacitated among the world powers governed by the law of the jungle, reminding them of an aggression that reached its peak against our path (Al-Quds) and Al-Aqsa, with the start of its actual temporal and spatial division, and the “bringing of red cows as an application of a detestable religious myth designed for aggression against the feelings of an entire nation in the heart of its Arab identity, and the path of its prophet (the Night Journey) and Ascension to heaven.
The red cows or heifer is related to the establishment of the mythical third temple in Jerusalem.
The “red cows” referred to by the Hamas leader were five red female calves brought to Israel in September 2022 by Boneh Israel, an organization that connects Christian lovers of Israel to the Holy Land, working under the auspices of the Temple Institute, an organization in Israel focusing on establishing the Third Temple.
Yep, some Jews and Christian folks like those at World Net Daily want to see the Jews build a new temple in Jerusalem and reestablish animal sacrifices. Talk about bringing on the old-time religion!
Obeida continued, focusing his ire on Israel for aspiring to build the prophesied Third Temple:
“We will not tire or falter in calling all the free people of the nation to rise to support their Aqsa and the path of their prophet, which the criminal Zionists are practically advancing towards destroying and establishing their temple. This is what we have chosen with our blood in Gaza for 100 days and for which the epic of October 7th was about.”
Zionists of both Jewish and Christian persuasions believe the mosque on the Temple Mount must be leveled and that it will be replaced with a Third Temple. Once this is constructed, they believe that animal sacrifices of the Old Testament will again commence.
Christians support this idea because they believe that a third Temple is necessary to usure in the return of Jesus and institute Armageddon. Oh, these Christians believe that most Jews living in Israel will be killed as a result of all this and then somehow those remaining will acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah.
Here is more …
Islamists do indeed perceive the five red cows from Texas as a dire threat. Arab-language media covered Obeida’s speech extensively, focusing on the red heifers. Both Cairo24 and Al Jazeera reported on the speech, emphasizing that the heifers had been acquired and brought to Israel by evangelical Christians.
After the announcement of the arrival of the cows last year, Hamas reacted almost immediately, warning that the potential Jewish ritual posed a threat to Al Aqsa. This warning came during the Jewish high holidays. Arab-language media, including the “Al Manar” channel, which is closely associated with Hezbollah, are reporting on the intention of the Temple organizations to make a sacrifice on the Temple Mount. The Hamas journal Al–Rassala published an article claiming that the slogan “Al Aqsa is in Danger” is no longer sufficient because the Israelis are already working on manifesting the Temple rituals that would “Judaize the holy mosques.”
For Christians holding to a premillennial view of eschatology, even just one red heifer arriving in Jerusalem means the Rapture is imminent. They believe a Third Temple will be built during the End Times, at which point all the other prophesied events will follow.
The fact that Israel is a clearly secular nation and not one established on the basis of the Old Testament’s Laws doesn’t move the needle in this discussion.
Theory 2
Theory Two is one based on the idea that Israel is not bound to uphold the Ten Commandments.
Theory Two is a mixture of things unrelated to Theory One but interesting in its own right.
In a startling reappraisal of the situation in Israel, former U.S. Ambassador Chas Freeman described the official narrative of the October 7 attacks on Israel as a “cover story for genocide” – backed by “hard line pro-Israel American leaders.”
Speaking on December 26 to behavior analyst Thomas Karat of SaltCube Analytics, he described the Israeli reaction to the October 7 assault which triggered the Gaza invasion. Speaking of the assault which triggered the Gaza invasion, he said:
The Israeli response is essentially to conduct a genocide in Gaza. They are attempting to expel or murder all the Palestinians there. This is a crime against humanity under international law, but Israel justifies it with a cover story, which is that it is going after Hamas.
The mainstream media tells us that the war in Gaza was triggered by the slaughter of Israeli citizens attending a music festival, by the Islamic militia Hamas. Instead, it appears many Israelis were killed by their own army, following a secretive government doctrine known as “The Hannibal Directive.”
Freeman points out how Israel’s war in Gaza began with a lie.
Reflecting extensive research by independent journalist Max Blumenthal, Freeman refers to the “outlandish music festival… taking place beside a concentration camp” at which over a thousand Israelis lost their lives.
“The people who were killed there were largely killed, it appears, by hellfire missiles and by other undisciplined fire by Israeli forces”
Citing extensive Israeli sources, Blumenthal was accused by an Israeli journalist from Ha’Aretz of spreading a “conspiracy theory” – about the fact that the Israeli army bombed Israeli houses and even its own military base with tank shells and missiles fired from Apache helicopters.
Whilst Hamas did indeed kill Israeli civilians during its military action, a month later, Ha’aretz confirmed the Grayzone report as true, admitting that it was Israeli action which killed many of its own people. It should also be understood that most Israelis of fighting age, in civilian clothes or not, were considered by Hamas to be combatants because they are almost all reservists or otherwise in the Israeli military as required by law.
The reason for this action is said to be the secretive “Hannibal Directive,” which dictates that Israelis taken captive should be killed by the military rather than left in the hands of Palestinian militants.
An Israeli helicopter pilot quoted by Ha’aretz supported the charge Israelis had been murdered by their own army according to this Israeli government doctrine.
Freeman claims the Hannibal Directive led to most of the deaths on the day, as it dictates, “rather than get into bargaining over a hostage exchange, you should just kill the Israeli hostages along with their captors. And that was also a factor here.”
Freeman recalls earlier remarks of now Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying
“I think his exact statement was he hoped for a war which would provide an excuse for the final removal of all Palestinians from the land of Israel as claimed by Israel.”
Freeman reminds listeners that Israel is unique for two reasons: “It has no borders” – a startling claim evidenced in the Israeli press here – and it is led by Netanyahu’s Likud Party whose “charter calls for Israel to extend from the river to the sea.”
This phrase, which is now mistakenly charged as some sort of Palestinian endorsement of genocide, was in fact quite the opposite. It is a Zionist endorsement of genocide against Palestinians.
Conclusion
Folks, I find it interesting that both of these theories or explanations of the current war are probably true but likely incomplete reasons for what we are seeing.
Yes, I personally know Jews that are all-in on a Third Temple and believe it will happen someday. That Christian Zionists are supporting this too is not surprising. However, this has nothing to do with Biblical prophecy or the Return of Christ.
On October 7th, did Israeli forces fire on their own so they would not be taken as hostages? I think this is possible. That Israel would negotiate with Hamas on the issue of hostages is unusual and not how their government used to operate. Israel has been provoking Palestinian people for many years and systematically pushing them out of areas that they once occupied.
That Benjamin Netanyahu’s political party slogan is “from the river to the sea” is hysterical to me when said slogan is widely reported in the United States as being anti-Semitic. Guess Jews can say it with impunity but not anybody else.
I really hadn’t planned on getting into this fray until I read an article by Michael Brown. Brown gets it so wrong that I felt compelled to chime in. Below are quotes from Brown’s article on World Net Daily unless otherwise noted.
What did commentator Candace Owens mean when she posted that “Christ is King” in the midst of a very public dispute with her Daily Wire employer Ben Shapiro? I’m not going to enter into the details of that dispute, other than to say I agree with Shapiro’s concerns.
Here, I want to focus on Owens posting the words “Christ is King” on X (formerly Twitter).
In a previous post, she quoted the words of Jesus that “you cannot serve both God and money,” causing many to wonder if this was a dig on Jewish people, who are allegedly money hungry.
I was going to block quote Mr. Brown but decided to take this one section at a time.
OK so here is the first break with my position, Brown agrees with Ben Shapiro. Shapiro is all in on Israel’s war with Hamas and has even defended Israel’s use of nuclear weapons and genocide in the name of self-defense.
Mr. Brown’s article is on a website run by Christians that hold to a Premillennial view of eschatology. Their view is that the current nation of Israel is a rebirth of the Old Testament nation by that name and that modern-day Israel is prophetically necessary to usher in the Return of Jesus Christ. This is hooey. The biblical nation of Israel ceased to exist in 70 AD. The Jews of today (with few exceptions) are not ethnically related to the Jews of 2,000 years ago. Furthermore, Jews need to come to God just the way the rest of us do, through His son, Jesus the Christ.
For those wondering what could be wrong with proclaiming “Christ is King,” the unfortunate reality is that this beautiful, biblically based truth has been hijacked by elements of the extreme religious right, often with antisemitic implications.
Apparently for Brown, when a person says, “Jesus is Lord” or “Christ is King,” they are being antisemitic. Brown seems to believe the Dispensational view that Jews can come to God without believe in Jesus. Sorry dude but that is not in accord with Scripture. If there is any way to God without going through Jesus, then Jesus died in vain and thus our faith is null and void.
“That chant is now a calling card of Nick Fuentes and America First – a podcast, conference and community within the broader white Christian nationalist movement. It also happens to be a core proclamation of Christians through the centuries.
This paragraph is a train wreck of mashed-up stuff. I will try to unpack this a little bit.
First, who cares about this Nick Fuentes guy. I looked him up on the Internet and the first hits I got were websites attacking Nick Fuentes such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). These guys hate Christians and anyone on the right side of the political aisle. As a high-profile Christian on social media, if you’re not on their bad list then I doubt you stand for the right things.
Fuentes once had dinner with Donald Trump and Kanye West. Fuentes has a group called America First Foundation. It was founded in 2020. Four years after Trump was elected on a platform of America First.
America First Foundation’s purpose is:
Our country is having a crisis of faith. We’ve lost faith in God, in our institutions, and in our destiny as a people. This absence has left the foundational pillars of America in ruins. Immigration has spiraled into a mass invasion, eroding our identity as Americans. Our cities, once shining achievements of our prosperous civilization, are now symbols of decline and decay. Our people have been taught to hate themselves and their ancestors, all the while being encouraged to embrace degeneracy and sin.
Our forefathers created this nation with their blood, sweat, and tears. Their struggle produced a country rooted in Christ, family, and virtue. Following in their footsteps, we aim to restore those lost values while building a happy, healthy, and prosperous future. Much like our ancestors, we strive to create a home with dignity and reverence for God.
While we take inspiration from the past, our movement is focused on the future as we plot a new course for America in the decades and even centuries to come. We are tapping into the creativity of our nation’s young Christian men, born and raised in a technologically rich, but spiritually poor era. It is these visionaries who will remake the American character, grounding it in Christian virtue and societal excellence. America First is carving a path forward that is truly revolutionary. With your continued help and support, this movement can actualize its vision for the future, forging a new version of America, worthy of our posterity.
We live in an era of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). These are direct attacks on Christianity, Christian Culture (Western Culture), and American Values. Was America ever a perfect country? Nope. But the Left is openly tearing down the last vestiges of what America once was in the names of socialism, communism, and a bunch of other _isms. Mr. Brown thinks pushing back against the Liberal onslaught of evil by me or Fuentes or Candice Owens or whoever is wrong. Why? I guess things are supposed to get worse and worse until Jesus returns. Many in his camp hold to this perverse view that to oppose evil is to delay the return of Christ.
Also, where and how did Fuentes get ownership of the slogan “America First”? I thought to love one’s country was called patriotism. If God put you in a particular country, then to love your country is to agree with God that His purpose in placing you in a particular place and time is good.
Brown then starts in with rhetoric about the white Christian nationalist movement. What a loaded term. I guess white people can’t have a voice in today’s America? At least that is what Mr. Brown seems to imply. The Liberal message is clear, if you are white, you have no voice. Shut-up because all that is wrong is your fault. If you’re a Christian, ditto. It’s all your fault so shut up. If you’re for America, then you are racist so shut up. However, being for war in Ukraine or Israel at the expense of the US is OK? Supporting marriage as between a man and woman is racist and hateful but gay or trans whatever is honorable? These messages in our culture today are symptoms of great evil and rot in our nation.
Oh, my other thought is when did Fuentes become a name for a white guy? Thought that was a Hispanic name. Then again, the “Proud Boys” were led by a Hispanic guy but somehow, they are white supremacists anyway. Seems like white is a very malleable category. Mr. Brown seems to think the best position for white folks is grabbing their ankles and says, “Please sir, may I have some more.”
“When I say ‘Christ is King,’ I mean something very different from what Fuentes means. While there is a long history of Christian support for violent racism – even using that very same language – a proper theological understanding of ‘Christ is King’ ought to compel us to live at peace with our neighbors.”
Mr. Brown, who doesn’t want to live at peace with their neighbor?
Last I checked, Kanye West was a black guy that loved Jesus. He was with Fuentes who claims to love Jesus at the dinner with Trump who also claims to love Jesus. If he was as racist as you imply, why would he choose to hang out with a black guy?
Kanye West
Oh, by-the-way, loving Jesus is the way to racial harmony and the solution in the Middle East wars.
I didn’t see anywhere that Fuentes is advocating for armed conflict or violence or race wars. To say Christians, have a long history of racism and violence is very provocative and demonstrably untrue, at least in terms of a body count.
More people died in the 20th Century as a result of beliefs underpinned by Darwin and his survival of the fittest than in all the religious wars in the history of the world. Darwin is the basis of humanism, eugenics, communism, and socialism. The body counts of abortion, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and others could be close to a billion souls lost in the last century. It is estimated that 3.5 million people died as a result of all religious wars in the history of the planet. Clearly, no comparison.
Furthermore, more people are in slavery today than ever in the history of the planet but because we can get electric cars and iPhones cheaper, we look the other way. Fuentes is opposed to tyranny and slavery, but Mr. Brown says Fuentes is a bad guy? Seems like Brown is setting up a Fuentes as a strawman so he can beat him like a pinata? Then Brown is challenging Candice Owens to agree with him or else. Oh, yea. Candice Owens is black, or at least looks to be nonwhite to me, so how is she throwing in with white Christian nationalists? I think Mr. Brown is very confused.
This last part is most instructive.
But without a doubt, there is a growing minority that connects “America first” with the proclamation of “Christ is King” in a way that perverts the very meaning of those Jesus-exalting words.
Yes, Jesus is King and will always be King. He was born a King, died a King, reigns in heaven as King, and will return as King – in fact, as King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16). For myself, as Jewish follower of Jesus, I unashamedly proclaim Him as the Messianic King and the Savior and Lord of all. And yes, in His name and authority we are called to go and make disciples of the nations (Matthew 28:18-20).
But to use “Christ is King” as a political slogan, especially one with racist and antisemitic overtones, is to bring disgrace on that holy and beautiful name.
At the end of his article, Brown finally exposes the defect of his theology. Jesus is just the Savior of your soul. For him, all this Jesus stuff is just spiritual. It has no earthly application. Brown cherry picks the Great Commission as the totality of the mission of the Christian Church because Jesus reigns only in Heaven.
Brown is the one denying Scripture. Clearly, he doesn’t understand the meaning of the Ascension of Christ or His Kingdom. Jesus is sitting on the Right hand of the Father ruling the nations now. Jesus will continue to rule until all nations submit to His Lordship. Brown is blinded by the Dispensational presuppositions that he is trying to impose on the Bible. Sorry Mr. Brown but they aren’t there.
Christian Nationalists want biblical values to be the values of our country, not secular humanism or socialism or communism. God has blessed us as a nation to the extent that we honor and obey His Law. We are currently under God’s judgement for disobeying Him. Christians, including Christian nationalists, want limited government and the freedom to worship God. They want God welcome into the public square not cancelled from it along with His followers. The basis of our Republic was once the Ten Commandments and needs to be again.
Some folks believe that they should actively work to oppose evil in our society and make our laws and values a reflection of God’s Revelation. In short, transform the culture. Some of us are having a healthy discussion as to whether we should use the model of St. Patrick or St. Boniface. We are working to answer the question of Francis Schaeffer, “How should we then live?”
Meanwhile Mr. Brown wants to sit it out and hope the Rapture happens, so we won’t reap what we’ve sewn. Sorry but Jesus ain’t coming back in your lifetime or that of your grandchildren so what now? If all you want to do is wait around for a third temple or some other nonsense, wake up. Scofield was wrong. Hal Lindsey was wrong. You are wrong. Matthew 24 was fulfilled 2,000 years ago.
Some of us hope to leave the world a better and more righteous place than we found it. We must try but the results are God’s not ours.
Ben Shapiro demands that Israel’s interests supersede those of the United States. If you dare to disagree then he starts calling folks racists. Sorry but I and many others dissent. I think the US should stay out of this war.
Meanwhile, Brown only wants us to be involved due to heretical theology. Brown wants us all in for Israel because he thinks we need to bless Israel to be blessed. (Zionism is a part of his dispensational/premillennial theology.) Sorry, but the New Testament Church is true Israel not the folks using that name today that live in Palestine or whatever you want to call Judea in this day and age.
Candice Owens is right that Christ is King. The problem is that our fellow Americans no longer believe that. This is not a race issue, it’s a heart issue. Until Christians live as Christ commanded seven days a week, don’t expect things to get any better. For Mr. Brown to essentially call Candice Owens a white Christian nationalist is beyond laughable.
2,000 years ago, Nero played the fiddle as Rome burned. Yesterday, the Pope set Rome ablaze again. The difference is that this time the blaze was set by the fires of hell as the Pope scrapped the Scriptures and replaced them with the doctrine of demons.
No, I’m not exaggerating.
Having an atheist for a Pope is an offense, in and of itself, but when he doesn’t even fake a belief in cultural Christianity, all that’s left is balls-to-the-wall humanism. This guy is into Liberation Theology which is just baptized communism. He uses the vocabulary of the Church but only as a disguise for his secular agenda.
Let’s recap the Pope’s actions since this summer.
First, the Pope made belief in global warming (climate change) an official doctrine of the Catholic Church.
Pope Francis pulled no punches in his latest papal proclamation, calling out world leaders — who for decades have failed to protect the planet and its most vulnerable people — and spurring the world’s most powerful to take decisive action on climate change.
“Our responses have not been adequate,” Francis wrote in Laudate Deum, published Oct. 4. As a result, he warned, “The impact of climate change will increasingly prejudice the lives and families of many. … We will feel its effects in … healthcare, sources of employment, access to resources, housing, forced migrations.”
He lambasted, too, the capitalistic appeal of unproven technology — easy fixes to the climate crisis — that fail to address the hard work of phasing out fossil fuels and ending global deforestation: “To suppose that all problems in the future will be solved by new technical interventions is a form of homicidal pragmatism,” he wrote bluntly.
Last time I checked, God was in charge of the creation, including our planet. It is more than hubris to say man can control the climate. Such an assertion is to remove God from the throne and elevate man as his own “god”. This goes way beyond the Dominion Mandate or mankind being made stewards of God.
Second, he has allowed “gay marriage” in the Church.
Using weasel words, the Pope has not condemned German priests from conducting same sex marriages. He has said it is up to individual priests whether they wish to do this. Jesus said a house divided cannot stand, either Truth is universal, or it ceases to be true.
The Vatican holds that marriage is an indissoluble union between man and woman. As a result, it has long opposed gay marriage. But Francis has voiced support for civil laws extending legal benefits to same-sex spouses, and Catholic priests in parts of Europe have been blessing same-sex unions without Vatican censure.
Francis’ response to the cardinals, however, marks a reversal from the Vatican’s current official position. In an explanatory note in 2021, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said that the church could not bless gay unions because “God cannot bless sin”.
In his new letter, Francis reiterated that matrimony is a union between a man and a woman. But responding to the cardinals’ question about homosexual unions and blessings, he said “pastoral charity” required patience and understanding, and priests could not become judges “who only deny, reject and exclude”.
In other words, the pope does not call for a full embrace of Germany’s approach to blessing same-sex unions. He instead talks about how such blessings might sometimes be an appropriate expression of pastoral charity.
The position that Francis has taken on same-sex “blessings” is the exact same that the Archbishop of Berlin, Heiner Koch, has expressed recently. Koch left it to any individual priest to decide whether they want to “bless” homosexual couples, citing statements by Francis and his new doctrine chief, Cardinal Victor Fernandez, as justification.
Francis surely knows that he cannot change immutable Church doctrine and still be recognized as a legitimate Catholic pope. Instead, with his toleration (and promotion) of sinful acts, like the reception of Communion for unrepentant adulterers (“divorced and civilly remarried”) and same-sex “blessings,” he is changing the practice, preventing many who live in a state of objective mortal sin to see their errors and repent.
Third, yesterday the Pope opened the Roman Church to transsexuals.
This action again is couched in weasel words, but the doors are wide open for unrepentant people to join the Church. In essence, the Roman Church has abolished sin and nullified the death of Christ as a cruel and meaningless cosmic joke.
The Vatican released a document Wednesday affirming that individuals suffering from gender-identity disorders are allowed to be baptized or be named as godparents under specific circumstances.
The document is an official response to a dubia submitted by Brazilian Bishop Giuseppe Negri of Santo Amaro seeking guidance on the issue. It was propagated by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and signed by Pope Francis.
However, in a somewhat ambiguous clarification, the guidance specifies that in order for individuals with gender-identity afflictions to be baptized, it must not cause “scandal” or “disorientation.”
This same stipulation applied to their eligibility to act as godparents or witness marriages, according to the Vatican.
Father Brian Graebe, a priest with the Archdiocese of New York … told Fox News Digital that the Vatican’s guidance is not contradictory to church teaching, but possibly “deficient.”
“There’s nothing in the document that contradicts church teachings. My reaction to it when I read it yesterday was that it’s deficient. The problem isn’t so much in what it says as in what it leaves unsaid,” Graebe said.
He continued, “What I was disappointed not to see in the document was affirmation that in the right of baptism itself, whatever name the person has, we call it a Christian name [or] their baptismal name […] what we must affirm is that the correct biological pronouns are to be used.”
Roman Catholic Cardinal Cardinal Müller responded to the Pope’s declaration this way:
It is confusing and harmful when the Magisterium relies on the terminology of a nihilistic and atheistic anthropology and thus seems to lend its untruthful content the status of a legitimate theological opinion in the Church.
Transhumanism in all its variations is a diabolical fiction and a sin against the personal dignity of human beings, even if in the form of transsexualism and terminologically spruced up as “self-determined gender reassignment.” The doctrine and practice of the Roman Church clearly prescribes: “The harlot, the fornicating man, the one who mutilates himself, and anyone else who does something that is not spoken of (1 Cor 6:6-20) should be rejected [from the catechumenate and baptism]” (Traditio Apostolica 16).
The pastoral motive that urges us to treat those who sin against the Sixth and Ninth Commandment of the Decalogue as “gently and compassionately” as possible is praiseworthy only as long as the pastor does not, like a bad doctor, deceive his patient about the seriousness of his illness …
Summary
Sorry but the Pope’s declarations are a bunch of verbal diarrhea. Either trans folks are in or out. Biblically, they can only be welcome into the Church following repentance. Please note that, concerning homosexuals and transgender people, that the Pope requires NO repentance. People dead in their trespasses and sin are being allowed into the Church without repentance and regeneration. This relegates the Church from being a hospital for sinners into just another club for the unregenerate.
Biblically we should welcome all people to our services but only upon repentance of sin and an expression of faith in Christ (followed by baptism or confirmation) should people be allowed membership into the Body of Christ.
The Roman Catholic Church has many doctrinal things that I disagree with, but the Roman Church has maintained more fidelity to some parts of the faith than their Protestant brethren. For instance, there would be no Pro-life movement anywhere without faithful Catholics leading the charge. The Roman Church has been a voice on issues of human sexuality and preserving the meaning of what it means to be created in God’s image better than any other part of the Church. By and large, Protestant Church bodies have either been silent on such issues or embraced the Satanic spirit of our age, repudiating the faith once delivered to the saints.
This Pope is nullifying the Genesis model of God creating male and female and taking his flock outside the boundaries of the historic Creeds. Thus, the leadership of the Roman Church has discarded the last vestiges of orthodoxy and instead is now preaching another gospel.
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
2 Corinthians 11:3-4
The Roman Church is faced with something not seen since the beginning of the Reformation, should the faithful part from its Roman leaders or stay in spite of the false teaching. This Pope is betting that tradition wins over doctrine. Sadly, he is likely to win that bet.
Last night was allegedly a bad night for Republicans as the status quo was maintained in most elections held yesterday. Today a plethora of folks on Fox News are blaming Donald Trump for these losses. Sorry but I don’t get that at all.
First the Fox article:
MIAMI – A dismal night for Republicans on Election Day 2023 is giving some of former President Donald Trump’s rivals fresh ammunition to target the commanding front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination.
The disappointing results — which included Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear winning re-election in red-state Kentucky; Democrats winning total control of the state legislature in Virginia, expanding their legislative majorities in New Jersey and winning a state Supreme Court seat in battleground Pennsylvania; and the convincing victory in Ohio of a referendum that enshrined abortion rights in the state’s constitution — follow similar results in the 2022 midterm elections, when an expected red wave never materialized.
“Last night was a sweeping loss for republicans. It was eerily similar to last November, when the anticipated ‘red wave’ never came,” James Uthmeier, who manages Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign, said in a social media post.
I don’t know why there would be a “red wave” in the first place. Folks may be dissatisfied with Democrats and their lack of leadership, but can anybody tell me what the Republican alternative is?
Truth is that there isn’t one.
Instead, the typical Republican campaign is, “vote for me ‘cause I’m not a Democrat”.
Per Fox News, Donald Trump is somehow to blame for this? Why? Trump, as far as I can tell, is staying out of most of these contests. Oh, he might hand out a few endorsements but actively campaigning and spending money for state races is not his thing. Frankly I wish Trump would spend lots of money on candidates that say they agree with him but so far that has not happened. Trump seems to be the living embodiment of the motto “an army of one”.
On the Internet, I did see one guy in Pennsylvania say he didn’t vote because it doesn’t fix anything and there was also an article that electronic voting machines in that state were changing votes cast for Republicans in yesterday’s election. No surprise there.
I do get that people don’t trust that we have fair elections, and we also know that to challenge that reality is to be cancelled both online and in real life.
If Republicans want to fix anything, tackling fair elections would be something. But since the Country Club, Establishment, and Swamp Creatures Elites would then have to be on the same side as Trump, this will never happen. Again, it is a demographic reality that Trump was/is/will be the last Republican President in the history of this Republic. What do you think all the unfettered immigration across the Southern border is about? They want millions of dependent people in the country that will vote the right way.
The goal is to make all of the United States into California. (Governor Gavin Newsom has turned all of California into San Francisco and now wants all the other states to be like San Francisco too.) Democrats want to destroy the United States and make it into a socialist, multicultural, humanistic, cesspool. Sadly, they are emboldened by seeing their goal within sight.
Meanwhile, depending on the specific issue, Republicans vacillate between being “Democrat Lite” or looking the other way in fear of yet another circular firing squad. They have a bad habit of avoiding doing anything that will actually benefit our country or doing “the right thing”. Frankly, as a group, Republicans are a pathetic lot.
The words of Ed Hernandez keep coming to mind. He used to say something like, “There’s the stupid party and the evil party. Which are you?” That saying may not be originally from him, but it continues to rattle around in my head when I think about partisan politics.
The real cure to what ails us is spiritual not political. I just wish the Republicans would buy us enough time for the spiritual part to kick in. Right now, it’s the wrath of God 24/7. Sadly, too many frogs are enjoying the sauna as they boil and enjoy the “new normal”. Meanwhile, we get to watch the West burn to the ground. Somehow though we don’t care as long as we have our version of bread and circuses.
He will break any bond ’cause the other man’s always wrong
It’s a handy excuse for his crimes
from “Everybody Loves a Holy War” Mark Heard (1982)
There are two million more Evangelical Christians in the United States supporting Israel than there are Jews in the USA.
Whether folks support Israel or not, is not my point. Instead, I wish to dwell on the reasons why. The short version is these Christians are wanting the Jews to go to Israel so most of them can be killed! This is disgusting but true.
Many Jews know this but keep quiet about it because if they say something then they will be cancelled. Please note that such cancelling occurred before “Cancel Culture” was even a thing. Case in point:
At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Mark Alan Siegel, who served as the chairman of Florida’s Palm Beach County Democratic Party, told an interviewer the following about what he thought of Christian and Jewish relationships:
The Christians just want us to be there so we can be slaughtered and converted and bring on the second coming of Jesus Christ. The worst possible allies for the Jewish state are the fundamentalist Christians who want Jews to die and convert so they can bring on the second coming of their Lord. It is a false friendship. They are seeking their own ends and not ours. I don’t believe the fundamentalists urging a greater Israel are friends of the Jewish state.
It wasn’t too long before the video of the interview went viral and Mr. Siegel was forced out of his position. Where did Mr. Siegel get such crazy ideas? It’s a prevalent view among dispensational prophecy writers.
Gary DeMar does a good job ripping this strange brand of theology apart on his blogs and podcasts, but like a monster in a B-movie, this heresy just won’t die. In fact, people that promote it, and are constantly wrong in their predictions, make lots of money off promoting these views.
In part they base their nonsense on twisting verses like this passage in Zechariah.
And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.
Zechariah 13:8-9
Based on passages like the verses above, Evangelicals that believe this passage speaks of a future event want Jews to go to Israel so 2/3 will die and the remainder will believe in Jesus. Evangelicals believe this will usher in the Return of Christ and that Jesus will then reign on earth for a thousand years. This view of the Bible’s end times was first popularized in the 1820’s and ‘30s. On the basis of this teaching, Christians were calling for a Zionist movement long before the Jews ever did so.
(Zionism is related to Jewish people returning to the biblical lands of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and reconstituting a Jewish State.)
Since A.D. 70, only one guy got close to killing 2/3 of the Jews and setting up a thousand-year kingdom on earth. He was an obscure dude in 1930’s Germany. Funny that this never moved the needle on people rethinking this idea.
On a recent blog post, Gary DeMar, quoted Dwight Wilson’s Armageddon Now! (1977) when Wilson wrote on page 94:
Another comment regarding the general European anti-Semitism depicted these developments as part of the on-going plan of God for the nation; they were “Foregleams of Israel’s Tribulation.” Premillennialists were anticipating the Great Tribulation, “the time of Jacob’s trouble.” Therefore, they predicted, “The next scene in Israel’s history may be summed up in three words: purification through tribulation.” It was clear that although this purification was part of the curse, God did not intend that Christians should participate in it. Clear, also, was the implication that He did intend for the Germans to participate in it (in spite of the fact that it would bring them punishment) . . . and that any moral outcry against Germany would have been in opposition to God’s will. In such a fatalistic system, to oppose Hitler was to oppose God.
In the aftermath of World War II, a Jewish state was setup in Palestine. Yep, that was the name of the place prior to 1948. Evangelicals see the modern state of Israel as the fulfillment or potential fulfillment of biblical prophecy. In order to arrive at this conclusion, they just have to ignore about 2,600 years of history. Evangelicals skip the Babylonian Captivity, the return to the Land, the Roman Empire, the destruction of Jerusalem and a number of other events. This allows them to cherry pick passages that are fulfilled and recast them as future events. Instead of letting the Bible interpret the Bible, they end up with prophecies about Cobra helicopters, rocket launchers, nuclear weapons, Marks of the Beast, SkyNet, and other stuff that somehow can only exist in modern times.
It is a logical fallacy to equate of the modern nation calling itself Israel with the ancient one. This confusion muddies up the water. Modern Israel is a secular state, not one governed by the Law given to Moses.
Modern Jews are not governed by the Old Testament, they are governed by the traditions handed down from the Pharisees, the Talmud. You know, the rules created by the hypocrites that Jesus repeatedly savaged and called dens of vipers, whitewashed sepulchers, and the Synagogue of Satan.
Per the New Testament, the promises to Israel are found in the Christian Church. As Gary DeMar notes elsewhere, the original Christian Church was exclusively Jewish for at least a decade. It is only because of the unfruitful branches being cut from the vine that believing Gentiles could be grafted into the body of Christ.
Are we to believe that one last-days generation will be grafted into the olive tree mentioned by the Apostle Paul in Romans 11 after 2000 years, and that’s what Paul means when he wrote that “all Israel will be saved”? Is that what Paul was describing in Romans 11:26? Absolutely not.
Israelites were being grafted into the body of Christ in Paul’s day, by the tens of thousands! It’s called “the remnant”: “There has also come to be AT THE PRESENT TIME [Paul’s time] a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.” Consider the TIMING and the CONTEXT:
I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? Far from it! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? “Lord, THEY HAVE KILLED YOUR PROPHETS, THEY HAVE TORN DOWN YOUR ALTARS, AND I ALONE AM LEFT, AND THEY ARE SEEKING MY LIFE.” But what is the divine response to him? “I HAVE KEPT for Myself SEVEN THOUSAND MEN WHO HAVE NOT BOWED THE KNEE TO BAAL.” In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, since otherwise grace is no longer grace.
Romans 11: 1-6 (NASB)
DeMar is not alone in his views of biblical prophecy being fulfilled as past events.
Concerning Zionism, I found an interesting article chronicling Zionism and the relationship between Evangelicals and the Jews. I highly recommend that you read it.
Most Jews in America vote for Democrats so why do Republicans in such large numbers stand with Israel? This article will answer this question and many others. The article was written in 2019 but still holds up well in its presentation.
If we get involved in the current war in Israel, it will be because of bad theology.
We don’t do many book reviews on the website but this one deserves some attention. This book is primarily written by a man for men, to help them be better men, fathers, and leaders of their families. The author pulls no punches, and everyone gets a poke in the nose at some point through this book. Frankly, I wish it had a few more footnotes in it because it assumes that you know it’s references to pop culture, history, theology, and other areas of life. While this can make a good book in this present moment, it will age terribly.
Author Andew Isker
I would also recommend “How the Irish Saved Civilization” as background to some comments made by the author. Ironically, I doubt he has ever read the book. St. Patrick often evangelized Ireland by going to a city and creating a Christian community on the outskirts of a city that showed the difference that being a Christian could make to the way we live our lives. It sounds like this idea was picked up a few years ago in a book the author does reference, The Benedict Option. The author of the Boniface Option rejects the idea of retreat into Christian Communities (ghettos in the eyes of some) and instead advocates that we actively fight against the Trashworld.
The Boniface Option uses a few terms repeatedly, one being “Trashworld. From page xi:
“The society we have is already an anti-human one. It is already one designed to remove from you all that made life meaningful and fulfilling. It has torn you from people and place. It is designed to make you isolated, lonely, and, above all else, totally docile.”
“I use the term Trashworld to describe this dystopian society.”
Another concept mentioned in various ways is references to homosexuality. The homosexual attitude is described on pages xii and xiii as living only for now, following the basest urges, and no thought for the future.
“The gayness of “fake and gay” is not merely some schoolyard slur. There is deep meaning to this, too. The homosexual is not just a sexual deviant. His very nature and the very center of his identity is a man whose urges take precedence over all else.”
“For the homosexual, insatiable desires must be pursued even knowing it will cost him his life. In economic terms, he is the ultimate high-time-preference man. He only lives in the present. There is no thought for the future.”
“In short, the homosexual is both the apex consumer and the easiest personality to manipulate and lord over… the gayness of Trashworld is our rulers’ social engineering of the population to create the exact same ethos of the homosexual in everyone, regardless of their sexual tastes. They want you to be spiritually homosexual whether or not they can make you actually homosexual. They want everyone uprooted and alone.”
The third term permeating this book is “bugman”. Bugman is described as one stripped away from family, people, and place and made “a willing vessel for the religion and culture of the globo-homo world order.”
Once stripped of their identity, children then go to college and “… are presented with a Pleasure Island where hedonism and sexual exploration are the carrot to the stick of ideological cajoling by leftist, anti-Christian faculty.”
After college, people are just bugs in the hive.
The book is in two halves, first the idols of Trashworld and then transforming Trashworld.
The author describes his realization of Trashworld on pages 30 and 31. Below are some parts of that story.
“I remember the day I realized I was living in Trashworld. I once took my wife on a date to a restaurant in a hip retail and entertainment development in an affluent suburb of a large American city. Full of trendy bars and restaurants and complete with tiny, absurdly overpriced studio apartments above them. The place was filled with twenty- and thirty-somethings … What I did remember about this place was that there was not a single child anywhere. Not only not at the particular restaurant, but anywhere in that entire development. The place was designed specifically for childless people… It was designed for a spiritually homosexual people, for whom life is a matter of consuming fleeting pleasures… I will never forget how overcome I was with melancholy upon the realization that this place, this lifestyle could only be achieved when built upon a mountain of tens of millions of dead babies… the murder of children, the abandonment of all sexual mores, and the destruction of the household is dedicated: so that you can live on Pleasure island without ever turning into a donkey.”
“… if Satan were to design a society where every lust and every sinful desire could be freely pursued, and men would then feel the maximum possible misery, how much different from our society would it look?” page 36.
And yes, this book does take some serious swipes at conservatives. Here’s some excerpts from pages 67 and 68.
“You will need the faint-hearted, conflict-averse conservatives who are ostensibly on your side …”
“… much force is needed to get conservatives to see that the idols that they rightly detest are downstream from the idols they are comfortable with.”
“Conservatism is progressivism driving the speed limit.”
“If you are not asking questions that will outrage conservatives from time to time, even if you think you are a radical, you are actually going the speed limit … and still going the wrong way.”
Andrew Isker dismantles those who think the Second Amendment is their refuge with one question, if the SWAT teams comes knocking on your door, who in your friend’s list can you call that will show up to defend you?
Again, this book is directed to men to start acting like men. Ladies, you are also welcome to read the book but just know that you will get your toes stepped on also. The topics are provocative and intended to be. I think part 2 of the book could be fleshed out more but it’s a great read at just over 160 pages.
Yep, it’s my turn to opine on this issue. Let me preface what follows with this comment, the very fact that transgenderism is even an issue in our society is an indictment on how far gone we are as a people. If reading what follows makes you angry, don’t get mad at me, I’m just the messenger. Get mad at the people preying on others by deceiving them into participating in maiming and mutilating the weaker among us.
My first observation is that transgenderism is not a valid issue among Atheists. Atheists have no room in a worldview built on “survival of the fittest” for those that do not reproduce and thus improve the gene pool. For the atheist, homosexuality and transgenderism are a burden on continuing the species and diverting resources in unproductive ways to unproductive members. Given this, it is logical and necessary for China, North Korea, and Cuba to imprison or execute such people.
Furthermore, a consistent atheist does not acknowledge the value of the life of a homosexual or transgender person. The life of an individual does not have value except as measured by what they do to benefit the group. Any person claiming that an individual life has significance or value is stealing that value from a biblical worldview—usually without attribution.
This brings up my second point. While there have always been a few people in society that have been homosexual, this has always been a tiny fraction of the population; however, the modern push to convert people to homosexual or transgender lifestyles is part of a conscience effort on the part of Marxist/humanist people to eradicate Christianity from the public square. Eradicating Western Culture and White Privilege are phrases for the same thing, tearing down Christ and the influence of His followers.
As noted previously, atheists and Christians both have a disdain for the current transgender movement. Atheists may hope that abolishing Christianity will promote a society based on science and knowledge, but the opposite is happening; the abolition of Christianity has resulted in a proliferation of various forms of neo-paganism, witchcraft, Satanism, and other false religions as well as a populace that will fall for just about anything they are told, Covid-19 being the easiest illustration. Without belief in ultimate Truth, our culture now thinks the notion that “everyone has their own truth” is a valid idea instead of a bald-faced lie and a really weak logical fallacy.
We spent a few years on Covid, then about nine months on Ukraine, and now the fad is transgenderism. Tens of thousands of people are destroyed by each fleeting idea that fascinates pop culture but sooner or later, it will lose its shock-value and then the slayers of all that is good will move on to something else. Meanwhile those harmed are ignored and discarded; left to fend for themselves.
Another way of stating this is that the sheep need to be continually agitated and scattered. With the coordination of the mainstream media and big tech the attack of the wolves has gotten much faster and more coordinated.
The Bible is clear that God made mankind male and female; as I quoted above, Satan is responsible the false notion of other genders. The Bible also says that sexual roles are to happen within a marriage relationship. One of the purposes of marriage is procreation. The Bible takes a dim view on sexual relationships that occur outside of marriage. Scripture repeatedly condemns homosexual relationships. Enough other people have written on this that I won’t waste space repeating what has already been made clear.
God made male and female. He made you the gender that you are when you were born. The notion that gender is a choice is false; with only one exception, gender selection abortion. In this case, the parents make the choice, usually to terminate female babies in utero. As stated in other posts, abortion is in fact mentioned in the Bible and condemned in the strongest terms.
The idea that you can select or change your gender is false. The best you can hope for is to mutilate your body to the point that folks can’t tell by looking at you. Sorry, but this level of deception is still deception. The irony being that you are trying to deceive yourself.
Transgender folks are saying by their actions that God is wrong, stupid, and incapable of knowing what He is doing; in essence you are calling God a fool and a liar by saying that he made you incorrectly, and it’s up to you to fix His mess. This hubris is setting yourself up as god—knowing good from evil. Aren’t those words first spoken by a reptile in The Garden?
This brings us back to the quote that I started with, “Satan Respects Pronouns.” This is just another lie from the father of lies. The ease with which the idea of transgenderism has gained traction in our society is horrifying.
Warning: The following post contains mature content and is not for the under 18 crowd.
The wife and I have been prepping to exit California for freedom. As part of the process, we have been selling a few potentially valuable items on eBay. I am liquidating some old computer parts as part of the purge of material goods.
One item that I possess is a vintage Duke Nukem video card. Originally it also came with a game and belt buckle.
As far as I know, the game is vaporware—we have no idea where it might be—however, the belt buckle was recently encountered but we couldn’t remember where. In an effort to find it, I searched a few drawers in my son’s room that still have things from the previous occupant—his brother. Some stuff he inherited from his brother still lives in this particular dresser.
I looked in the top drawer, just a bunch of old school notebooks. The second drawer had more miscellaneous papers and junk. About what I would expect from a teenage boy. The next drawer was disturbing. It contained stuff that I would expect for sale in your local Adam and Eve store—not that I have ever been in one, just speculating. Drawer four was the shaving kit that he got from his grandparents a few years ago. It felt very light and stuffed with paper. I was thinking, in the last few years I thought he had used this so why is it still full of paper? I opened it just to see. (I don’t like trash in drawers and was going to purge the paper to make more room in the drawer … or so I thought.) After it was unzipped, my first reaction was “oh crap” and the second was to call his mother into the room.
I found a small vial with a prescription label on it and a shaving kit crammed full of syringes. I didn’t recognize the medicine but knew immediately what it was. I also recognized the address of the place writing the prescription as being the address of Planned Parenthood. As a prolife person, I know where enemy HQ is located.
My wife looked up the drug name on the Internet and sadly, I was right. My only biological son was taking drugs to become female. This was a week ago. More has come to light in the last few days.
On Friday, I arranged for some one-on-one time with him. He said he was not attracted to males or females. I tried to tell him that many of his feelings were normal for a teen and had nothing to do with changing gender but part of growing up. Whoever was filling his head with lies had done a good job of conditioning (grooming) him. Later he also told me that he rejected the Resurrection of Christ as being an historical event.
Talk about grade A hypocrisy and heaping divine judgment upon yourself. He has taken Communion at every opportunity since he was born and recites the Lord’s Prayer and the Historic Creeds every Sunday. He is also on the worship team at school.
No wonder he is a mess. Never double dawg dare God to place his judgment on you.
For those of you not up on your Bible verses, this one is speaking of partaking in Holy Communion. The reference to sleep in these verses means physical death.
For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
I Corinthians 11:29-30
Oh, I did follow-up on his problem with the Resurrection. I read all four accounts of Easter morning to him. After consulting his cell phone, he responded that it wasn’t true because there were slight variations in the details given of the event by the four Gospel writers. My response was that if you had four different people, on four different corners, observing the same traffic wreck, they would agree on the big details but would recall slightly different ones. It was the same way in the gospels; some authors were eyewitnesses and others were written based on interviews with eyewitnesses.
I offered him information if he wished to research it, some of which I had given him several years ago, but of course he declined. This was just a bumper sticker excuse because he has never done any actual research on the issue. It’s easier in the Internet age to believe something that affirms your presuppositions, than to intellectually engage in any issue. (Plus, he lacks the life experience to know truth from error when dealing with such questions.)
Once my wife came home, I fired up the movie The Case for Christ on Amazon.
My son sat on the couch dithering with his phone for the whole movie. About halfway through it, this exact topic comes up. The argument against the Resurrection was almost verbatim what he had said while my response was almost the same as what the movie gave. On this at least, Holy Spirit one, dumb as dirt kid, zero.
Two days later at church, he still recited the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed but did not go to Communion. As I understand it, he thought I was stupid for crying all the way up to the front of the church, taking Communion, and then returning to my seat still weeping. He’s too self-absorbed to know that I was crying over him and not for the first or last time. He has excommunicated himself and I was crying because this was a visible sign that that he rejected the faith and is under the judgment of God.
I Corinthians 5:5 comes to mind but may not be the best reference.
To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
I wonder if he will repent or perish in his sin.
It’s even worse than all this but I must leave a few cards in my hand un-played, at least on this forum.
My wife wonders if we had banned the Internet years ago if this would have happened and sadly my answer is yes. Covid made everyone get the Internet. That genie was out of the bottle with or without any past action on our part.
Secondly, this trans mania is a marketing campaign by Planned Parenthood as the demons that control that organization regrouped after the overthrow of Roe. They are Satan’s most loyal servants. Planned Parenthood exists only to maim and kill those made in the image of God. Trans crap is their new mission field to destroy those that missed destruction in the womb. A one third kill rate is just unacceptable in the era of surgical and chemical abortion.
Lastly, I did look up the vow that my wife and I made before God when our son was baptized. We did teach him the Creed, Lord’s Prayer, Ten Commandments, and everything necessary to know the Christian Faith. I still remember the joy I felt the first time I heard him recite the Lord’s Prayer in Church. I cried that day too. But tears of joy not grief as I am now.
PS: Many years ago, I angered a family member when I wrote about other people that lost their children to “the world”. My point in writing that blog was to say that I hope I do better. Clearly using that metric, I have failed more than them all. I just want my son back.
Blogger note:At this point I consider myself barely catholic, I have been lied too so much about the Catholic Church priest abuse scandal.
About a week ago I was watching my nightly local news program, I was killing time before bed yet what I saw caused nightmares. A very somber Northern CA Bishop Jaime Soto was giving an interview about how the diocese (ruling group for an area of churches) is out of insurance money to pay liability claims arising from the sex abuse scandal. They will be needing to monetize (sell) assets and liquidate funds to cover costs. This interview was in response to a change in the law regarding the statute of limitations regarding the church sex abuse scandal.
The Statute of Limitations (SOL) has to do with how far back you can go to bring claims against someone/corporation. Typically the time frame is about 3-5 years. This is to prevent lawsuits decades later/after the perpetrator is dead. Note: If any sexual abuse happened to a victim under the age of 18 there is no statute, the suit can be brought forward at any time.
The legislative change to throw out the statute of limitations only applies to the Catholic Church, not the Mormon Church or any other religious order, even though they are having their own sex scandals. This failed to surprise me, this state, and our current governor are hostile to religion, even more so after the overturning of Roe V. Wade. This is his turn to exact revenge. He won. The diocese of Northern California will likely be filing for bankruptcy. I hear San Francisco, and San Diego are even further toward filing BK.
The dirty little secret is the Bishop and his team were all aware of this change, yet failed to alert any of the congregation. (Typically, the bishop instructs the priest, who in turn give a sermon/homily on the subject.) They did nothing, head in the ground ostrich style. I guess they prayed the issue would resolve itself, now the flood gates are open and the lawsuits have been flying. I hear ads on the radio on my way to work, and have heard folks saying there are commercials airing on the tv. You know the ones, “If you have been a victim, call Dewey, Screwum, and Howe…”.
Bigger problem: most of these new lawsuits are against priests who have fled the country, or have passed away. This makes the claims impossible to defend. (Not that you would want to anyway.) I will quote the famous McDonald’s quality control manager Chris Appleton “this number of injuries was insufficient to cause the company to evaluate its practices.” That’s corporate speak for its easier to pay a lawsuit then to change your practice. The Catholic Church is finding out this same lesson. Lawsuits are flying and now the church will be put on trial (figuratively and via the media) about their practices.
What the Catholic Church hierarchy doesn’t want to hear is the truth. They keep whistling past the graveyard. I can tell you the first mistake the church made was “covering up the abuse.” It appears to me the accused were moved to different churches, then shuffled again, and if it got to be too large a problem moved to a different state/diocese entirely. The public school system has a term for this its called “passing the trash”; in essence you trade one set of problems for another in hope the accused never gets formally caught. Another ploy they tried was the “Father so and so will spend the remainder of his life in silent meditation/prayer for his sins to be forgiven. Notice the accused were never fired (defrocked) and still were allowed to preach. This shows a lack of institutional control. When you prove time and again you cannot handle the issue internally, eventually the government takes over. Rarely do they actually help.
The issue continued to grow and gain steam. This was initially blamed on a couple of rogue priests taking advantage of the flock, instead the problem grew exponentially. We were told time and again the issue is small, and resolved. Turns out there are not just priests and bishops, but cardinals also under scrutiny. Meaning the issue goes almost the whole way to the top, it’s a generation of folks looking the other way. SAD!
The dirty little secret is the flock is about to see just how mismanaged the church is, this time at the diocese level. We hear all the time about assets owned by the church, be it buildings, land, schools, money etc, and how it’s protected from certain uses. They call this “restricted money” we will see just how restricted it was/is. It’s all going to come out folks. As Warren Buffett once said “only when the tide goes out do you learn who is swimming naked.” We as Catholics are in for a rude awakening.
My solution? Actually it’s not difficult.
Any priest accused should be turned over to the local authorities, and suspended from clergy immediately. Let the legal process actually play out. The accused can defend themselves, the church may still be on the hook, but it starts a healing process. No more hiding behind the collar. Purge!
Allow priests to marry. They have to keep the family/other issues out of church business, but it is time. The old guard won’t like it, but the secret is the old guard hates that most priests in the USA are English as a second language types.
Recruit folks from here. I know it sounds bad or racist, but when you recruit folks from war torn/drug infested/crime ridden area’s, you get what you get. Sadly that’s a lot of folks who flee just for an opportunity.
