The Importance of Christians and Churches Speaking Out About Cultural and Civil Problems

The Importance of Christians and Churches Speaking Out About Cultural and Civil Problems

There are not many churches and pastors who talk about cultural and social issues from the pulpit, topics such as the wars America has been involved in, the southern border crises, the evils of the LGBTQ agenda, the genocide Israel is committing in Gaza, etc. The only ones I know of in the USA besides the Christians in this interview are Chuck Baldwin of Liberty Fellowship in Montana, Michael Hoggard of Bethel Church, Missouri, Steven Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona, and John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, who defied the governor of California by disregarding the COVID-19 lockdown mandates. I’m sure there must be many others, but obviously, they are way too few because the churches in America have not had the effect on society today they used to have up to the 19th century.

The transcript and video below is an interview led by two leaders of an organization called, Our Country Our Choice (OCOC), Colonel (retired) Douglas Macgregor and Pastor Casey (that’s the only name given.) They discuss current events with a pastor, Gary Hamrick of Cornerstone Chapel. I deem them all to be solid Bible Believing Jesus Christ following Christians.

Transcript

Gary Hamrick: It’s unfortunate but a lot of times Christians today feel like they’re not supposed to get involved in politics in any way shape or form. The fact of the matter is the First Amendment was given to us to keep government out of the Church, not the Church out of the government. And so unfortunately too many Christians have been sitting on the sidelines, and a lot of pastors have been encouraging them to sit it out. The result is, that we have a country in which many of us are not liking the direction (it’s going).

And we always understand that in the big picture of things, of course, the enemy is at work. And the Bible tells us the world is going to get more corrupt and more evil as we get closer to the return of Christ. But, at the same time, the Church should be that restraining force against evil in our world. If we sit it out then evil will just run rampant.

That’s why Christians are supposed to be involved. Because why? Jesus told us to be salt and light! And salt and light means you penetrate the darkness as light, and you flavor the world as salt.

And so unfortunately too many Christians have been sitting it out, and too many pastors think that you shouldn’t get political. My response is, look, all these issues that we’re looking at today when everything from the whole transgender sexual identity confusion, the thing about same-sex marriage and abortion and all these issues, I mean, these are issues that the Bible speaks about. So when the government has gotten involved in these issues of life and liberty and sexuality, they’ve crossed into our lane. And so the Church needs to be engaged to be a voice of reason and a restraining force against evil in our world today.

So that’s my basic take on why Christians should be involved because there’s a mandate to be salt and sight and to not sit it out, to be a restraining force against evil in our world.

Pastor Casey: Fantastic! Well-spoken. In fact, God’s moral law does restrain evil. One of the things that we like to say here at OCOC is that the truth will set you free but you must speak. And so the truth will set you free, but when we speak God’s moral law, it has a restraining factor. Thou shalt not lie, and thou shalt not kill, those things that God has established from the very beginning. When we speak those things, it helps not only to restrain evil but to guide Christians. It also is a conviction factor.

When we talk about the Gospel, it brings the lost under conviction and they see that they are sinners in need of a savior. Tell us briefly about the Gospel before we move on to the next subject if you don’t mind.

Gary Hamrick: Well, the Gospel is central to what what we’re about. I mean, it’s the good news of Jesus Christ, putting your faith and trust in what Christ did for us.

The beautiful thing about Christianity is that it’s different from all other world religions. All other world religions put the burden on you to try to get up to God. Christianity tells us, the Gospel tells us, that God came down to us. And He took on flesh and died for our sins. And so our faith and trust are in Him as our Lord and Savior.

And that’s important to add to, and I’m glad you asked the question because sometimes I’ll get accused of, “You’re putting government above God.” Not at all. We believe the central message of Truth is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But at the same time, Martin Luther once said, “If you preach the Gospel in all aspects with the exception of the issues which deal specifically with your time, you are not preaching the Gospel at all.” Jesus is central to everything we’re about, and from Him, all other things flow.

Pastor Casey: Well said! Thank you very much. In regards to Christian participation in the Gospel, I think nothing else needs to be said. And now I’m really interested in how we can encourage perhaps a mindset towards these endless wars. You said on your website that you’re a News Junkie and I’m sure you’ve seen the colonel and his contributions, so you guys dialogue a little bit in regards to the two front wars that are going on and why and all of these things that us as Christians need to be educated on how we view these types of things to be able to help steer our country in the right direction.

Gary Hamrick: Well Colonel, I’m going to defer to you to answer that question first.

Col. Douglas Macgregor: Well, to go back a little bit, you know the whole point of the (US) Constitution if you read through the statements of the people that wrote it up, was to leave us in the maximum freedom possible. And that’s really the idea. The Constitution is all about what the government cannot do. It doesn’t say what we must do, it says this is what the government cannot do to you. And we forget that. And increasingly we’re dealing with people in Washington who are desperate to fundamentally change us. They want to change us by bringing in millions and millions of people whom we know nothing about, who are not coming to become Americans. That’s all nonsense. They’re coming to jump into the giant consumption machine and profit. We know that. And of course, our rule of law has been largely destroyed as a result of this sort of thing.

The issue is fundamentally this: The wars that we’ve been involved with, certainly since the Korean War, are almost universally things that we started. I’d say that perhaps the Perian Gulf Wars are one exception. We essentially responded to something that had happened in the region. Our goals were limited, and we went and then we left. All of the other wars have involved precipitating hostility for reasons removed from the interests of the American people because a small number of people in Washington made decisions that it was in our interest to do something without ever consulting us.

No one declares war. There are few if any debates anywhere about what we should or shouldn’t do. Everyone seems to be very anxious to bomb and sanction repeatedly. If we take Christianity seriously, I don’t think Jesus would tell us to sanction and bomb everyone into submission.

But I don’t hear enough from Christians about that. Why are they not standing up and questioning the wisdom and the conduct of these wars? How many people have we killed unnecessarily? How much have we destroyed unnecessarily? And at the same time, is this a distraction so that we pay no attention to what’s being done to us by our own government here at home? So why don’t you think about that and tell us what your views are?

Gary Hamrick: The debate I suppose is over America’s vital interests in the world and whether or not we should get involved in certain wars to protect those vital interests. And at times I’m a little fuzzy on what’s our vital interests. I don’t know, sometimes when I see us engaged in different wars, the one thing that troubles me is you mentioned the border.

The border is a huge crisis right now. And you’re right, it’s not people coming over necessarily to find a new beginning. I think a big concern for me at least is the potential for terrorism and and terrorist cells to be coming into the United States through a very porous southern border in particular. I just heard yesterday that even the northern border has more terrorists on the watch list. And so, we have to protect our borders.

By the way, God’s not opposed to borders. He kind of divided up the nation of Israel to the 12 tribes of Israel. And they had borders in which to live and the nations had borders. And so that’s pretty biblical.

I’ve been concerned with how much money are we sending to the war in Ukraine that could be put into protecting our own borders. So there does seem to be a conflict of how we’re spending our resources for some of these battles compared to what we need even to protect our own home front.

Col. Douglas Macgregor: Yeah, I agree. If I could just mention that the border crisis should be deemed as a war, and it is because it’s one-sided and we’re not coming to the forefront there. And so if we were taking it seriously, and we were to dispatch our military or our army over there, and put a stop to the cartels, to put a stop to all of the traffickings, to put a stop to all of the ridiculous rapes and child abductions, and this is a crisis and it’s definitely been ignored to a big extent. I would really love to see Christians say, “We’ve had enough. We’ve got to stand up for what’s right.”

Gary Hamrick: I just had a friend who went down to the southern border to personally eyewitness some things, and he said he saw three buses unload of military age-fighting Chinese men! Now, why are three busloads of military-age Chinese young men coming across our border? Not for good reasons, I guarantee you.

Col. Douglas Macgregor: That’s right. And by the way, a number of those are, I’m told, people that were actually sought in China for various criminal activities. Some of them were involved in the shadow banking industry with financial crime. This is a huge issue right now in China. They’re really going to town, so to say, against senior party members and bureaucrats who have cheated and stolen vast sums of money. And these are probably some of those people. That’s the biggest problem.

A friend of mine who is from El Salvador sent me an email last night and he wrote, “Don’t people understand that a lot of the men who are from Latin America who want to join the US military, I know where they’re from, they’re MS-13 (an international criminal gang)! They’re joining the Army or the Marines so they can get some experience, then get out and continue their criminal activities here with citizenship. This is a catastrophe for us. He pointed out that it has taken him six years to become an American citizen. So he was very upset about this whole thing.

I find people who have come here legally are among the most strident opponents of illegal immigration. And too many Americans are too busy watching the latest football game and following Taylor Swift’s affairs to pay attention to what’s really important. We have got to get their attention, and I don’t know what it’s going to take.

Well, would you stop for a second and tell us in your estimation what you think we could do? We’re an organization that is not satisfied with simply complaining, we want to take action. We want to cooperate with people, particularly with churches across the country. And by the way, we are not exclusively a religious organization. You don’t have to be a Christian per se to be a member of OCOC. We just regard those (Christian) values largely as essentially founding values of the country. I know it’s not popular to say that but that’s true. But the point is, how do we get more churches, more organizations, and people who are similarly minded as we are to join us? We welcome any suggestions you have in any context that you want to suggest to us after the program.

Gary Hamrick: I would be glad to share some of that with you. One of the things that I’m most concerned about is the lack of involvement of the local church in important civil and cultural issues, let alone governance. It’s because there’s silence in the pulpits! When pastors are not helping their people to become engaged in the issues of the day, they’re not going to see the need and importance of doing so.

(End of transcript)

The above are the most important points in the video, about half of it. Please listen to the entirety below.




Book Review: Crux Ansata— An Indictment Of The Roman Catholic Church, By H. G. Wells

Book Review: Crux Ansata— An Indictment Of The Roman Catholic Church, By H. G. Wells

This article is from a PDF file on LutheranLibrary.org. It was published by The Converted Catholic Magazine.

H. G. WELLS, world-known author and historian, gives us in this latest book his frank convictions about the meddling, reactionary policies of the Roman Catholic Church — from its first tie-up with the Emperor Constantine to its present unholy alliance with the Nazi-Fascist-Shinto Axis. He sums up his conclusions as follows:

“As this present world war goes on, and even if there is some sort of temporary half peace before it deepens into a tangle of minor wars, it will become plainer and plainer that it is no longer a geographically determined warfare of governments, nations and peoples, but the world-wide struggle of our species to release itself from the strangling octopus of the Catholic Church. Everywhere the Church extends its tentacles and fights to prolong the Martyrdom of Man.”

In his pointed style, Mr. Wells bluntly warns his countrymen in England in the following passage, which is even more applicable to the people of America:

“The over-confident liberalism of the early nineteenth century enfranchised this body of outlanders, believing it would in some mysterious manner play the game of mutual toleration which seemed so natural to the essentially skeptical and secular liberal mentality. Nothing of the sort ensued. Steadily, persistently, the Catholic Church has worked for the destruction of that very liberalism which restored it to political influence. Persecuting relentlessly where it was in the ascendant, and canting about individual liberty of conscience wherever it was faced by a modern organization of society, this mental cancer has spread itself back to destroy the health and hope of our modern world.”

Written in his usual striking and scholarly style, this latest work of the famous British author is like a breath of fresh air in a stuffy room, and should be welcome ventilation of a subject that is generally taboo to the people of America.

Download and read H.G. Wells’ Crux Ansata from a PDF file.




Main Points of the US Border Crisis – A Planned Foreign Invasion

Main Points of the US Border Crisis – A Planned Foreign Invasion

The article I transcribed on January 20, The US Border Crisis – A Planned Foreign Invasion is a long read, and that may discourage some people from reading it all. Because I consider what Doug Thornton has to say is vital for Americans to know, I compiled its main points in this post to make it only 1/10 of the length of the previous post.

For the record, I do not advocate acts of violence against government officials. I do not own a firearm, but neither do I live in America anymore. I’m not against getting a firearm if I live in an area of high crime. I believe one of the main reasons why America has not yet fallen into total tyranny is because of the Second Amendment of the Constitution, the right to bear arms. I believe if the government outlaws guns, only outlaws will have guns. And I can tell you for a fact, that this is the situation in Japan! Though the average Japanese citizen was disarmed long ago, the Japanese mafia – the Yakuza – have guns. They use them to shoot each other, rival gangs.

Doug Thornton is the host of a podcast called American Vendicta. He is also a retired US Marine and a former federal police officer who worked for the Department of Homeland Security for 10 years. He worked for the Federal Protective Service as the uniform law enforcement side of the federal government. Many times he went down to the border to assist units from Border Patrol and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) for their border operations. The following quotations are all from Mr. Thornton. I slightly rewrote some of the things he said to make them clearer.

  • The last 10 years we’ve had a million people yearly cross the border either illegally or coming through here and just slipping the system, then that’s easily 10 million people. But what we typically say is for every million we don’t catch. There are two to 3 million that get by. So if we take that estimate and then we flip it on its head, We’re easily in the last decade at 30 to 40 million people undocumented.
  • Many of them are multiple-time felons pedophiles, torturers, rapists, human traffickers, gun traffickers, terrorists, known cartels, and known gang affiliates like the MS 13 (an international criminal gang).
  • You also then have other problems like diseases that come across. But one of the things that seems to slip the mind of Congress, though they know, is the amount of terrorism that comes across the border, the amount of known terrorism that’s being found coming across the border that the FBI blatantly turns the other way.
  • One of the simple forms of having a definition for invasion is an untold amount of people being granted access into the country against the will of the people there to deteriorate the laws and the customs and procedures of the people. Now, after that, if you are in the legislative system or the executive branch you will fully allow that to happen, knowing that you’re bringing disease, crime, terrorism, and sex slave trafficking to include many children trafficked, not just into America, but from America, and then out of America, then you would be more defined as a traitor by that term.
  • You take these people from socialist communist countries and they’re men of fighting age. And they are bussed here. They didn’t walk. They did not walk here. They were bussed here. Who bussed them? George Soros.
  • The cartel is a Fortune 500 company. And we’ve known it. We’ve watched them. We monitor them. We observe them. They’ll send us sometimes at these border patrol checkpoint stations, they’ll send us an 18-wheeler filled with weed. You can smell it coming over the bridge. Then the dogs hit on it. And then we have a merry time tearing the truck apart. And it sucks us all in. And meanwhile, the truck full of fentanyl goes this way. Or a truck with a nuclear missile goes this way. We won’t know because we’re so busy with checking out the 18-wheeler filled with weed.
  • If Donald Trump doesn’t get re-elected, do you think the average person in America is going to sit back and not complain about it? And then from there, do you think there’s a small group of people who aren’t going to take up arms about it? January 6 was a precursor to what 2024 is. If you think of it as this, January 6 was planned in 2016. If that’s true. Then 2024 was planned in 2020 in 2021 with January 6. So I believe that they are planning and building up the pressure building in the pot for a violent reaction from the people.
  • And the Vatican plays a large part in it, Chris. You know this, we have NGOs, nongovernment organizations on the border that are helping affiliates, they’re trying to bring these people coming across the border, who are not all Christians. They’re bringing these people across the border and then they’re funneling them all over the United States.
  • You have entities like almost every Catholic Church, then to include the Red Cross that are all sponsored by the Vatican, and controlled by the Vatican. They are the main culprits and moving people. It’s always been a Catholic Church that shows up somewhere at midnight with a van when we got, a busload or two of the illegals. And then they come and pick them up and they drive them away because they are helping the government with re-purposing these people, bringing them to other places.
  • So if the government fails us, and they’re obviously failing us for a reason, I don’t care what Congressman comes out and grandstands for five minutes about how bad the border is. The majority of Republicans and Democrats are doing this.
  • And Canada has its bigger point to play in this as well. This is also happening in Canada. Most people don’t know this. You can take a flight from Mexico, direct flight into Canada, and then just walk right across the border.
  • Mass migrants aren’t going to South America to stay. They’re all being sent to America. It’s to destabilize. There can be no other reason except to destabilize the economy, rattle up the people, and destroy the inner workings of our government, especially by creating social disorder like crime.
  • The inevitable goal is the invasion of America. Why stage a war, why float across an invasion force of people? If I was a diabolical person and I wanted to take down America, this is what I would do. I would pay your politicians to allow my army to come across. And it’s so hard and too obvious to bring my army from Beijing and from St. Petersburg and Moscow over to Mexico, then we’ll just hire our friends in South America, who are all on our side, and we’ll send them up first. And that’ll be the initial force. All you need is an initial force of people.



The US Border Crisis – A Planned Foreign Invasion

The US Border Crisis – A Planned Foreign Invasion

This article is a transcription of an important interview with a former Homeland Security officer on Christian J. Pinto’s Noise of Thunder Radio program. It’s fairly recent, recorded on December 6, 2023. It contains everything the mainstream media is not telling us about America’s border crises. If you find something with more information about the sinister reasons behind the border crisis, please tell me in the comments section below.

If you live in mainland USA, I absolutely urge you to read this entire article! It has information that can save your life! Or if you don’t like to read, you can listen to the audio.


Okay, praise, Lord, you guys, and welcome. I’m Chris Pinto. This is Noise of Thunder Radio.

Doug Thornton is the host of a podcast called American Vendicta. He is also a retired US Marine and a former federal police officer. I’m going to dedicate most of the program to my interview with him talking about the issue of illegal immigration. Because this is something that’s happening every single day at unprecedented levels. And the remarkable thing when you hear his testimony, remember he was a federal police officer who used to work with the Department of Homeland Security.

For years he spent a lot of time down on the border. He knows what goes on down there. He saw it firsthand. But I ask him a number of questions and you’re going to hear his responses and he’s got a lot of powerful things to say. Not the least of which is that this problem of illegal immigration has gotten worse virtually every year that it’s like it never gets better. It only gets worse. And now the way it’s happening where they’re reporting five to eight million people, possibly more. I mean, nobody knows exactly what the number is. And these reports that it’s not just people coming from Mexico and these Latin American countries, but there’s also potentially hundreds of thousands of fighting age Middle Eastern men who were quite probably part of some Islamic extremist group that are coming into our country, part of some covert operation that they’re planning. That has been reported over and over and over again.

Dr. Ronald Cook told us this is the process of irredentism (immigration warfare). That’s what this is, immigration warfare. Roman style. Roman-style immigration warfare.

There is the Hejra. That’s the Islamic Jihad or immigration Jihad from the Islamic perspective. Irredentism is the Italian version, but it’s one that Rome really is expert at. And we’re watching it right now. We’re watching irredentism happen every single day. They’re bringing the illegals. Right now they’re using them to push people out of hotels and things. I mean, it’s just unbelievable. It’s just like what was going on five and ten years ago over in Europe. But now these same programs are happening here in the United States of America.

And so let’s welcome Doug to the program. Doug, great to have you on. Thanks for being here.

Doug Thornton: Chris, great being on with you, man.

Chris: So, did I get your bio reasonably correct? You’re a former US Marine, a former federal law enforcement officer. You worked with the department of Homeland Security. Can you explain that?

Doug: Yes, I worked for the Department of Homeland Security for 10 years. I worked for the Federal Protective Service as the uniform law enforcement side of the federal government.

For the last four or five years before I got out, I was on a special response team for the federal government. We were called the rapid protection force. We did things such as natural disasters, big riots, high-risk court cases protection and also many, many times we went down to the border to assist our sister units from Border Patrol and CBP (Customs and Border Protection) for their border operations.

So I spent quite a long time in Texas along the southern border going back and forth. And yeah, it’s a mess. It’s a mess down there.

Chris: Do you think the situation we’re seeing, all of these stories we’re seeing independent journalists down at the border and what they’re reporting the massive wave of illegals that are coming in. It seems like it is worse now than ever before. Do you think that’s true?

Doug: Every year it gets worse. If you take a rough estimation that for the last 10 years we’ve had a million people (yearly) cross the border either illegally or coming through here and just slipping the system, then that’s easily 10 million people. But what we typically say is for every million we don’t catch. There are two to 3 million that get by. So if we take that estimate and then we flip it on its head, We’re easily in the last decade at 30 to 40 million people undocumented, not counting people who came here legally and did it the legal way, but 30 to 40 million people undocumented. That’s my rough estimate. And there are plenty of border patrol agents who will say the same thing.

And you don’t know who they are. Many of them are multiple-time felons pedophiles, torturers, rapists, human traffickers, gun traffickers, terrorists, known cartels, and known gang affiliates like the MS 13 (an international criminal gang). And then you know that’s just for the most part from Latin America.

And then you have the other part. The other part is you have the Russians, you have the Chinese, you have people from the Middle East coming over here. Many people from Africa came over here in 2018.

Whenever we had a big border search, I was in the El Paso sector. And in one day, and in one hour, we had 3000 people show up where there were 20 guys working. So what can we do with that? Not very much. And there’s no backup. There’s really no assistance. The soft-side housing units that we have to store these people in are at the max capacity.

You also then have other problems like diseases that come across. But one of the things that seems to slip the mind of Congress, though they know, is the amount of terrorism that comes across the border, the amount of known terrorism that’s being found coming across the border that the FBI blatantly turns the other way.

I have my sources on the border. And I have been told that there have been multiple times a day, a week, where you will have men of fighting age in large groups, five, 10, 15, 20, in a group, and they will all be from the Middle East, and they will appear to look Hispanic, they’ll try to change their identity to look Hispanic. They’ll be caught. They’ll be documented. It’ll be turned over then to the FBI and the FBI will say, let them go and let them proceed into the interior so that we can monitor their movements.

Now, I don’t know about you, but one of the simple forms of having a definition for invasion is an untold amount of people being granted access into the country against the will of the people there to deteriorate the laws and the customs and procedures of the people. Now, after that, if you are in the legislative system or the executive branch you will fully allow that to happen, knowing that you’re bringing disease, crime, terrorism, and sex slave trafficking to include many children trafficked, not just into America, but from America, and then out of America, then you would be more defined as a traitor by that term. But yet, Chris, it’s not really talked about in mainstream media, and you know why? There’s a mockingbird project as to why. And I try to give a voice to law enforcement who doesn’t have it because they’re still working and they know what happens when they speak out.

Chris: What’s the view of most law enforcement in your experience? How do they view this? Do they see it as you say, we’re being betrayed, or what are their thoughts?

Doug: Most of them say that. Most of them say this is just ridiculous. A definition that I was given by a captain that I knew on Border Patrol, and this was in 2018, he said, that trying to defend the border is like trying to catch a waterfall with a paper bag. Just doesn’t make sense anymore. And, and that little analogy stuck with me. And when you have a million people coming across into Eagle Pass, Texas, which, small little country Texas towns, they can’t sustain these amounts of people.

So, when they get there, they’re temporarily housed, which means typically they’re temporarily housed underneath overpasses until buses get there. And then they’re bussed. And from there to where? It used to be when we would catch these people, we would put wristbands on them. We would tie the wristband and date the event, the amount of people we have at this one point in time. And then we take them to a processing center. We get all their information, and run their background checks. And then from there, they’re released. But that’s not even happening anymore. That’s not even happening. So we’re not even identifying who’s coming over here.

Now, I will say this, the procedure has always been if they’re Mexican, then they get put on a bus and sent right back over to Mexico. But no one else anymore. Not only to know if they’re doing that anymore. I’m sure they still are.

Chris: I want to backtrack here for a second. You started to mention the terrorist element. And you talked about that, how these guys are coming from the Middle East. They’re pretending to be Mexican. They’re changing their garments and whatever. Do you believe that there is a plan that is in motion because you think they’re sending people over here, these terror groups, Al Qaeda or ISIS or whoever?

Doug: Absolutely.

Chris: Another attack?

Doug: Yeah, absolutely. It’s eventually going to happen.

I have two stories for you. For one, I caught a Lebanese guy who was in a group of Hispanic people. He did everything he could to his hair, the way he groomed his eyebrows and his beard to look more Hispanic. He wore a soccer jersey. The problem is when we were giving them orders in Spanish, he wasn’t following them. He was just following the crowd and we started to pick up that behavior. And so, we kept telling them different things in Spanish and he wouldn’t follow exactly as everyone else was so I kind of got curious. And I have seen this before. So this is why I had experience with it. And I gave him some commands in simple Arabic. And I’ll be damned if he didn’t listen immediately. So put your hands up and turn around. Hey guys, watch this. Put your hands up. (In Arabic) Turn around. Hands up. And he did it! And so that’s when we got to talk to him. “Where you from?” He’s from Lebanon. “Why are you here? He just shrugged his shoulders. They’ll never give you the reason. Because you’ll never see the men, the women, the children, the elders. What we see, Chris, are large amounts of fighting-age men, 16 to 60, fighting-age men.

In 2018, when we were getting tasked by President Trump to go to the border, to go and assist border patrol, our agents briefed us on a piece of information. And it was one of the leaders from Iran. And I don’t know if it was the Ayatola but it was one of those guys. He’s sitting around a group of people. And he says, “The goal one day is eventually getting a young Jihadi into Mexico to the cartels, and from there into Juarez Mexico into a tunnel underneath Juarez into El Paso, where he can release a biological agent like either Rison or Antrax and kill hundreds of thousands of people.” And then everyone clapped and cheered, “Yay! What a great plan, sir.

We knew then that was happening. But 10 years prior to that, this has been happening. Infowars broke a story with Joe Biggs, who’s now a political prisoner. Many years ago, back in 2015, 2016, when I was still working in South Texas, they were fighting mosques along the border in Mexico. Well, now instead of mosques, you’re finding small Chinatowns that are popping up. And we’re finding Chinese pattern military rifles along the border now that the cartel are using. So there’s a buildup of something. And if you ask my honest opinion, it’s a buildup of everything. It’s not one group. It’s all the groups. It’s not just the Chinese and their fentanyl. It’s their people as well.

Now, we don’t see as high an influx of Russians, probably because Ukraine is more of a priority, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not being slipped in. But you do see a high amount of Venezuelans. You do see a high amount of Cubans.

Now, you take these people from socialist communist countries and they’re men of fighting age. And they are bussed here. They didn’t walk. They did not walk here. They were bussed here. Who bussed them? George Soros. In 2018, we were finding leaflets and $500 prepaid Visa cards by George Soros. And then we were finding leaflets from a former Texas politician, Beto O’Rourke, of how to get into the border and how to get past DHS, how to come up and talk to us. So if they have their affiliates from that political group in Mexico City and in, Panama and elsewhere in Central America, what else is there? Who else is there? And what can you get there? I mean, the tunnels alone, you can drive 18-wheelers through some of these tunnels. The Sinaloa cartel will go to the Sinaloa mines, the silver mines in the Sinaloa mountains. They’ll take miners and they’ll make the miners go and dig the mines and then they’ll kill them. And then they’ll go and grab the next group. And if they don’t do it, they’ll kill them. They’ll kill their family and they will do it.

Chris: Now, you’re talking about tunnels underground from Mexico into the United States?

Doug: Absolutely. From Texas to California.

Chris: So then, what do you think about President Trump’s idea of this wall along Mexico? Is the wall really going to have an impact? Even if they can complete it, if they’ve got these underground tunnels that are so huge, couldn’t they just take the migrants underground?

Doug: Well, that’s a yes and a no question. More of them are going to come by the Coyotes (a person who smuggles immigrants into America for a fee) across the land than going underground. That’s kind of like a special privileged kind of thing. But the wall was working. We saw the wall was working. My group was there whenever the first border wall projects started, my group was there and we were there while the walls were being built. They ended up not going with a wall that we wanted. The wall that we wanted looked like it could keep out of T-Rex. But instead, they went with these, slats in the walls so that they could see people in there. There are benefits to that. But would it have worked? It would have slowed them down. It would have created an obstacle. You know, you put a fence around your house to keep out the dogs and the crooks, but still, people can climb over. People are very ingenuitive. But it would have slowed down the average person.

Now, in El Paso, I remember we saw probably a late 60s, maybe early 70s year woman climbing with a freakin’ ladder up one of these walls, and we’re like, “Don’t do it. Don’t do it.” And she jumped and broke both of her legs. So it causes all different types of injuries, which by the way, you paid for that surgery to fix her.

It is such a burden, not just on law enforcement and not just on the civilians on the border, the US civilians, but also our economic system is being destroyed by these people. Because right now, Chris, you and I have to pay something called taxes. You and I right now have to work for a living. God willing, we still can. There’ll be an hour and day when no man can work says Jesus. But these people don’t. They get a college degree. Kids go to school for free, free food, free house, free phone, free internet, free laptop, sometimes free vehicles, free public transportation. That is then given to them. They’re not in the greatest places ever. But now with Joe Biden’s new program, they’re going to start moving these people into vacant houses and suburbs.

Eventually, the American people are not going to put up with this anymore. One of my concerns is that when you push people into a corner, you are giving them two chances, two opportunities, to either capitulate and bow down and follow the masses, or to fight back with everything that you have so you never have to do this again or die trying. I think we’re coming to a point where that is going to be very applicable in the future.

Chris: You believe then that we are headed for a civil war?

Doug: Absolutely. Absolutely. Manufactured too, absolutely manufactured. You have such tribalism in America, and I’ve seen it being in law enforcement. You have a very, very hot-style form of people called liberals and Democrats. And then you have the regular conservatives who just want to be left alone. And eventually, these two groups are going to clash. You see these groups classing in 2020 at the riots. But then you have another problem. You have distrust in law enforcement, distrust in the government, and a distrust in the military. You also have a distrust in the economy, the economy’s tanking currently as we speak. And now they want to get rid of the US dollar and bring forth the digital dollar, which leads us into the whole Mark of the Beast and all that. The critical infrastructure for the Antichrist is being created right now.

These things, think of it as a pot boiling over effect. In order to get to that level where it is all about control, the 15-minute cities, your good behavior status online determines what you can buy, and what you can drive. can you fly? can you take a boat? Are you allowed outside of your house that day? And then the amount of monitoring that we have from the cell phones, the laptops, the cameras that are everywhere in every city now that report everything you do every keystroke is monitored every email, every text message is kept in a database somewhere in the NSA that any moment of time an intelligence agency can go grab it and then create a dossier on you and they already have most of your life.

You cannot look at this situation and says we don’t already live under a form of tyranny. We have an absolutely volunteer force, a government that we put these people into position for some reason. And then they won’t relinquish their own power, which is how they cheat in the elections.

If Donald Trump doesn’t get re-elected, do you think the average person in America is going to sit back and not complain about it? And then from there, do you think there’s a small group of people who aren’t going to take up arms about it? January 6 was a precursor to what 2024 is. If you think of it as this, January 6 was planned in 2016. If that’s true. Then 2024 was planned in 2020 in 2021 with January 6. So I believe that they are planning and building up the pressure building in the pot for a violent reaction from the people. That’s why you have things like the Patriot Act. That’s why Joe Biden along with the UN and other international forces are saying that we need to hamper free speech on the Internet. Well, that means you and I go away.

Then you have them coming out for the guns. They want to come out for your food. They will want to control all your movements. Remember Barack Obama said you don’t need an air conditioner, you don’t need a car when he went to Africa? They mean that stuff. And it’s all about a level of control. If they can stop your mobility, they can stop your defense ability, and then they can stop your ability to provide for yourself, well then, you have to rely upon the government. And if you have to rely upon the government for food, medical, shelter, retirement or your money, then you have to be a part of the System. And if you don’t want to be a part of the System, you don’t get to buy, sell, or trade. That’s why I’ve been saying, every bit of what we see is the buildup of the infrastructure of the Antichrist.

And the Vatican plays a large part in it, Chris. You know this, we have NGOs, nongovernment organizations on the border that are helping affiliates, they’re trying to bring these people coming across the border, who are not all Christians. They’re bringing these people across the border and then they’re funneling them all over the United States. Even to this day in the United States, we have slave factories, where you have people coming across the border by the cartel. And these are factories owned by the cartel. And they will bring these people and take them to these places. They’ll have a little apartment or house for them. And they will work for free to death in these places to make stuff. Just like they do in China. That’s happening here in America. And then you have the sex slave trafficking. I mean, I can go on and on. You can’t look at this and say we’re not in danger.

Chris: You mentioned the Vatican. If you would, talk about your knowledge of the role of the Catholic Church and the Vatican overall on this illegal immigration issue into our country from Mexico to the United States. What involvement do they have?

Doug: You have entities like almost every Catholic Church, then to include the Red Cross that are all sponsored by the Vatican, and controlled by the Vatican. They are the main culprits and moving people. It’s always been a Catholic Church that shows up somewhere at midnight with a van when we got, a busload or two of the illegals. And then they come and pick them up and they drive them away because they are helping the government with re-purposing these people, bringing them to other places.

In El Paso, there was a million-plus square foot warehouse in the industrial park, where the Red Cross was set up, and they had at least 10,000 beds in there for people right underneath your nose. You never knew it. I’ve been in that facility multiple times. I dropped people off at that facility multiple times. Because when we didn’t have the ability to put people in the soft side housing, the NGOs set up a new place. They’ll go to the industrial parks in your city, and if there’s a big 100,000 to 300 million square foot warehouse, they’ll set up in their temporary status for maybe a month or two, and they’ll house these people, and then they’ll close down shop, and they’ll open up somewhere else. And we monitor these things, we know where they’re happening at. By “we” I mean the government knows.

In El Paso, right in the heart of El Paso, there’s a no-go zone, where you had just a couple months ago, hundreds, I know because my guys were on the border and they were working this, you had hundreds of people that were roving the streets of El Paso in gangs of hundreds of men, teenagers and men harassing people, assaulting people, raping people, killing people, robbing people. And the Sacred Heart Church, which is on 602 South Oregon Street was right there the entire time. And that’s where these people would meet up. That’s where they would meet their handlers.

Chris: What is the Sacred Heart Church? That’s a Catholic Church?

Doug: That’s a Catholic Church. Yeah.

Chris: So is that a Jesuit church?

Doug: Yes it is. That is actually a Jesuit church.

Chris: Was there anything about the Jesuits in particular down at the border that you learned or that you have learned while monitoring the whole situation?

Doug: Just their involvement. The more you pay attention to these things, the more people pop up. And it’s not like they’re new, they’ve been there the whole time. But they obviously are controlling movements. And by movements I mean you have to – this is a huge logistical lift – you have to pay for the fuel. You have to get the buses, the vans, the drivers, either volunteer or they’re paid. And then you have to be meeting with border patrol at these pickup stations. And then from there, where are you taking them? Sometimes they take them halfway across the country and they just drop people off and they’ll come back and then take them to another spot. I don’t want to say it’s equal distribution across the country. Personally, I can’t prove this but me personally I think these people are being strategically located. Now, they go to all Democrat cities. El Paso is a Democrat city.

Chris: So you believe then, and I know this might even sound like sort of obvious kind of question, but you believe that this is all deliberate? Do you believe that these are poor refugees who are coming in because they’re destitute or something? Or do you believe that this is a planned invasion of the United States of America?

Doug: I would tell you both. I would tell you both. You know, one of the problems with Americans, and I saw this on the border, is you get this detachment from people. And you’re like, “Oh man, these people are just coming here to suck off of our system.” Well, many of these people are coming from war-torn countries, very poor countries, and they will risk anything to make a better life for themselves and their families. Well, that exclusively is for the families. But when you see hundreds of men and a ranger file, single, single line, walking up to the border. Who are you? Where did you come from? Do you not have work? Does your government not take care of you? What about your families? Who’s a father here? And, many of them, I believe, and I’ve talked to a few sources, I believe that many of them are either told or paid to come here. They’re given a temporary job. And they’re just here to wait for the inevitable day that they’re activated. That’s what I believe. And I know many law enforcement officers who believe that. And I know folks in the Pentagon who believe that. You cannot deny that.

What do you think would happen if two million American men showed up right now in Beijing? “We met in Japan, you knew we were there, and then we just took boats when it came over to mainland China. And we just decided, you know what, we’re going to stay here. Go get us a job government.” What do you think Beijing would say? “You’re invading us.” Not only that, we would not be allowed, right? But in America, where they are paid by the Chinese to ignore these things, it can happen. This is the problem with the lobbyists. Thirty-three or more known Republicans are lobbyists for China. That’s Republicans! You might as well count every Democrat. So is the problem then, Chris, China, Russia, all these countries coming across the border, is the problem the border? Or is the real problem seated somewhere in a house of authority, allowing it to happen, getting the intelligence briefings from law enforcement from intelligence communities, from the Pentagon saying, why are you doing this? Stop it. Why don’t you do something about it? Fund the border. How about you fund DHS? How about you hire more Border Patrol officers so that they can catch people? But at that point, if you then write the laws and then tell Border Patrol their new policy is not to catch, but just to document and release, and don’t even document, just monitor and watch them walk away. Then what is the point of having a border?

So if the government fails us, and they’re obviously failing us for a reason, I don’t care what Congressman comes out and grandstands for five minutes about how bad the border is. The majority of Republicans and Democrats are doing this. Then the problem is bestowed upon the governor of the States.

Texas took a very aggressive approach to it. And it worked. It’s been working. We have our own law enforcement involved in it. That’s a tough job, man. We are monitoring, patrolling and observing our own border. We’ve set up obstructions for our own border. And then the Biden administration sues us for setting these things up and says you need to remove them. And Greg Abbott gave them the middle finger salute and we haven’t removed anything. It would take California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas together in a Confederate of States to say we shall control the border and protect our civilians. And if you’re not going to protect your civilians, then the problem goes to your local government, your state government. And that means the problem has been we the people the entire time. That’s why I’m saying there you’re going to force people to do something that you know that they will do. And then it’ll be a hot got you catch 22. And then they’ll prosecute we the people. That’s the way I see this happening. And it’s this inevitable approach of a dog chasing its tail and every time it bites its tail gets mad at itself, Right? Eventually, we’re going to have to do something about it. But currently, if we’re not, we’re being invaded by disease, we’re being invaded by criminals, we’re being invaded by terrorists, and we’re being invaded and having our jobs going to other people.

Social Security in probably 10 years is not going to be there. That means you and I aren’t going to get social security. And many other benefits are going away. They’ve even said that they want to come after veterans benefits and I’m a US Marine veteran. They want to come after our benefits to help pay for not only Ukraine but also the people coming across the border. I could complain for weeks, for weeks, but nothing’s being done about it, Chris.

Chris: You mentioned people coming across the border and waiting for a special day. Are you talking about Middle Eastern-type guys coming across waiting for a special day? Can you elaborate on that more?

Doug: I think we need to broaden the horizon of the threat. The threat is communism. Most of the countries that we invaded that are Middle Eastern, did you know that those were communist countries or socialist countries? They all have this weird thing in common: Socialism, communism and authoritarianism. And by the way, all those countries now are BRICS (Association of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations alliances too. So I see this as a quasi BRICS nations invasion allowed by the US government.

And Canada has its bigger point to play in this as well. This is also happening in Canada. Most people don’t know this. You can take a flight from Mexico, direct flight into Canada, and then just walk right across the border.

So, I think the inevitable goal is the invasion of America. And then you cut up the Thanksgiving Turkey as you need to. Why stage a war, why float across an invasion force of people? If I was a diabolical person and I wanted to take down America, this is what I would do. I would pay your politicians to allow my army to come across. And it’s so hard and too obvious to bring my army from Beijing and from St. Petersburg and Moscow over to Mexico, then we’ll just hire our friends in South America, who are all on our side, and we’ll send them up first. And that’ll be the initial force. All you need is an initial force of people. And it takes these two or three things. If you were wise about this, you would cut the power, you would black out America. If you’re going to be very wise about this you would then take that invasionary force, and you would have them take over the border towns and the border patrol checkpoints. And then they would create a DMZ for themselves, a demilitarized zone, which would actually be just a militarized zone for the next group to come, and that would be a mechanized group. That mechanized group is the cartel. So with the cartel’s involvement, which is just as well established as the US military at this point, with the cartel’s involvement and then with all these other multiple countries that are here, you can cause a lot of damage. You can secure the southern border. And if America’s blacked out and we’re in World War Three status, you can probably bet that there are forces that are going to be rerouted into Mexico. And then they’re going to drive their tanks, their artillery and everyone else straight up north and to the southern border. And that’s just one of the beginning phases of a pincer attack. The same thing can happen from Canada and down to Mexico and up. And then eventually Russia meets on the East Coast and China on the West Coast and now America is surrounded.

I mean at that rate, this is one of the things that Dr Peter Vincent Pry (the Executive Director of Task Force on National and Homeland Security) warned about. Disease, famine, civil war, and then, just the brutality of not having law enforcement around anymore and no more power. America would be dead in a year and you can walk right in and take it. That’s what I think the future is if we don’t do anything about it. But what can you really do about it?

Chris: Wow! Doug, I think this has been great. Been very, very good.

Do you know of a document called, ” Strangers No Longer.” Do you know this document?

Doug: No, I do not.

Chris: It was engineered years ago between the Catholic bishops in America and the Catholic bishops in Mexico. The whole purpose of the document was to facilitate the idea of strangers no longer. We’re going to import all of these people from Mexico into America so that we’re no longer strangers. That’s the idea. It’s sort of the kind of humanitarian invasion.

Doug: It appears to be working.

Chris: It’s all about love and humanitarianism and embracing people who are different in this kind of thing.

Doug: Do you ever think that the Vatican is coordinating this with the United States government?

Chris: Oh, yeah, I totally believe they are. And I mean, I think that’s why they wanted Biden in the White House. Biden is a Jesuit. He goes to a Jesuit church. He’s been close to the order throughout his life. His family Bible is specifically a Jesuit Bible. And I think he has a long relationship with the order. His inaugural prayer was done by a Jesuit priest. And then there was an inaugural mass that was done by yet another Jesuit priest. And so he’s very, very close with the order. They run Georgetown University. That’s where they train the spies for the CIA. And yeah, so when you sent me some couple of months ago, that photo and you said your guys down there, they said, this is the church where all these illegals go. And I went and I looked it up. And it’s a Jesuit church. To me, it all fits together. It all makes sense. I think they are engaging in what Dr. Ronald Cook calls, irredentism, and that’s, the Italian word for immigration warfare.

Doug: Yep. So to me, this is very similar to the Arab Spring. During the Obama administration, we had the Arab Spring. We had people from Africa that fled – is the word that they use – up into Turkey and then from there into Europe. And then they spread all the way out to Scandinavia. And now I believe one of the cities in Sweden has the most hand grenade attacks upon any other city in America or in Europe. And I mean, we’re talking Sweden! Sweden? Right. Blond hair blue-eyed people and, yet apparently it was these immigrants who were now bringing in all the hand grenades.

London is now called Londonstan. In Germany, they were forcing elderly people out of their homes and out of their apartments to make way for migrants. And migrants is the political term. I call them invaders. It used to be, I think it was part of the eastern side of France where there are no-go zones. Last time I checked half of France is a no-go zone. Half of Britain is a no-go zone. And there are other places like this, and they all have something in common and it is Islam. It is Islam.

And then you have Greece and other parts of the areas around Greece that are now being invaded by African migrants by the thousands, thousands, some say tens of thousands, and they don’t know what to do with them, but they’re all men, teenagers to 60s. They’re all what you would call hyper-violent. And no one can really explain why they’re there. Why do they have a refugee status? But the government accepts them right then, but the people don’t. And so now you’re seeing, you’re seeing this conflict with the people and the migrants.

Chris: What do your guys say? Your federal law enforcement, and police agents who are observing this whole thing, what do they say about the Islamic element?

Doug: It’s still there. The threat is still there.

Chris: Do believe this is leading us to a future terror attack?

Doug: Absolutely. Absolutely. The Border Patrol said it. The Border Patrol themselves said that we are not going to be the ones responsible for a future terror attack. We catch the people. We turn them over to the FBI. The FBI says, let them in the country, and we don’t know why.

The thing that I fail to understand is who is the FBI to give the Border Patrol an order? And who are the politicians to give the Border Patrol an order? Herein lies the problem, much like what you and I were mentioning with the book Ordinary Men in Nazi Germany. The problem with law enforcement right now is we are taking orders from intelligence agencies and we’re taking orders from politicians that we know break the Constitution of their un-American, unpatriotic acts, and we know that they are socialist communists, they’re extremists, and yet we go along with it. Just following orders.

See, the Nuremberg problem, but that is eventually when the people get tired of it, they’re going to look at law enforcement and say, “You assisted in this. You knew it. You were dealing with it. You passed the intelligence along. You caught the bad guys. You processed the bad guys. You let the bad guys go. Why didn’t you do something about it?” Do you know why? Because they’ll say, “I was just following orders. What am I supposed to do about it?”

And there is a defense for that. The defense is unless law enforcement goes completely rogue and says, “We’re filling up the prisons. We’re filling up the jails. And then we’re going to take them on a bus and we’re taking them back to Mexico and we’re releasing them. Even if we tried to do that, that would depend on if Mexico took them. And then from there, they’re just going to gather back at the river and walk right back across.

Chris: I have a question for you. Maybe you can answer this. I’ve heard this for years and maybe you know something about it. But I was watching, I was reviewing footage, getting ready for this interview, and they were showing in one of the stories online all of these migrants that are being brought from Africa and they’re flying them in and all those other kinds of just crazy. And at one point, there was a woman who was stopped along the way. And she was not allowed to go to the next checkpoint in her flight travel. And they said because her records were not an order or something. And she said she was upset. And she said, “I’m so upset. I paid $10,000 for this trip. And now I’m not going to be able to complete my journey.”

I have heard for years that people coming up from Mexico are paying the coyotes five to eight to $10,000 in cash to be led across the border. When they do statistics for Americans, US citizens, and they ask Americans, “How easy would it be for you to come up with $1,000 in cash for an emergency?” 60% or more of Americans say that would be difficult. So my question is this, where are these desperate migrants getting $5,000 and $10,000 in cash if the situation for them is so bad in their home countries, where are they getting all this money that the average American apparently does not have in their bank account?

Doug: So when we see people from China, they have a little bit easier. They have things that they can sell. But some of these people are selling everything. The dog, the cat, the goldfish, the car, the home, the cattle. And then, ask yourself, how does someone from Africa meet with a Mexican cartel? How does someone from say Ethiopia which is on the eastern side of Africa, meet with a Mexican cartel member and then get smuggled into typically it’s South America and then brought up through Central America and then eventually into the Mexican cartels? So they’re not interacting with the Mexican cartels at that rate. They’re interacting with another entity that is shipping them by boat, not by plane typically, by boat to places like Peru or Chile or they’ll send them to Guatemala, some to Honduras. Typically from what we’ve seen is that they’re being funneled into South America, like Colombia. And then they go north. Most of that is funded by George Soros and American politicians and NGOs. So it’s an entire NGO set up to help people smuggle people. That’s called human trafficking. And to South America, Central America, and then up the board.

Now, when they get to Mexico, they have to get permission from the cartels. And it’s all too easy. They meet these people typically, in the center of Mexico or, from Mexico City, and they get sent up. A lot of times they are bussed in Greyhound buses, tourist buses! And then they’re sent into, one of the many different states along the border of Mexico. And from there, they’re dispersed. The cartel meets them right there at these bus stops. “Okay. You guys come over here.” The American NGOs set up way-stations for food, water, and cell phones, and give them money, which is all paid for typically by George Soros foundations. And then right there before you get to the border, let’s say it’s typically $8,000 a head. One coyote can collect $80,000 for a couple of hours of work. Four to five times a day. Lots of money. I don’t know how to do this math right off the top of my head. But let’s say a million people cross the border and each person paid $10,000 to get there. Do the math. That’s a lot of money the cartel is making.

The cartel is a Fortune 500 company. And we’ve known it. We’ve watched them. We monitor them. We observe them. They’ll send us sometimes at these border patrol checkpoint stations, they’ll send us an 18-wheeler filled with weed. Filled with weed. You can smell it coming over the bridge. Then the dogs hit on it. And then we have a merry time tearing the truck apart. And it sucks us all in. And meanwhile, the truck full of fentanyl goes this way. Or a truck with a nuclear missile goes this way. We won’t know because we’re so busy with this one thing. Or, the vehicles going south with weapons and ammunition and people and money. And then you have things coming north and coming south.

Chris: Let’s just address fentanyl very quickly. The reports that I’m reading, is it correct to say that they are disguising fentanyl to look like other drugs, and shipping it into our country to trick people into taking it so that they’ll take it and die?

Doug: Well, a lot of times fentanyl gets to the border. And then the cartel will create something else out of it so that looks like candy. And then it’s sent north.

Chris: Are they delivering it deliberately to kill people?

Doug: I mean, why not? You know it kills people. You know, it’s the most addictive drug out there next to pornography. It’s the most addictive thing on the streets. So, I mean, it’s killed a million people or more easily. It is currently killing a million people or more. And next year it’ll do it again. And then it’ll do it again.

Fentanyl comes from China. Only one place creates fentanyl, and that’s China. And your government knows that. Your Pentagon knows that. Your intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies know that. And no one says anything about it except you’ll see Matt Gaetz or maybe some other Republican who at least has a brain and will say, “We’re being killed and China’s the one doing it.” It takes more than just a Matt Gaetz or one or two other Republicans out there who actually have some sand to stand on to do anything about this.

But once again, go back to lobbyists. How many of them are bought and paid for? How many of them? Diane Feinstein finally just kicked the bucket. One of the biggest proponents of communist China in the American government was Diane Feinstein.

This is your government. All this could be stopped by your government. Trump wanted to put the troops on the border. Trump actually said at one point, “We’re going to take the next tour of duty and make it the southern border.” I don’t know why we haven’t.

Chris: Well, correct me if I’m wrong, brother, but the way I see it, Mexico, just by the numbers is the number one enemy of the United States of America. Just in terms of casualties and deaths. I mean, we lost 58,000 men in Vietnam. The illegals have killed hundreds of thousands of US citizens when you factor in the drug trade and all the crime that’s been committed. Is that accurate to say?

Doug: Absolutely. Trump was not lying when he said they’re literally sending us the scum of the earth. They really are, because the average man and woman and family units can’t make it here. And, by the UN standards, if you’re a refugee, you have to stop in the first country that, accepts the refugee status. That means Mexico. But they’re not. And we know that they’re not. And yet we allow them in. Look what Biden just allowed all the Cubans and Venezuelans over here. All the communists and socialists, as I like to say. And the majority of them are men of fighting age. This is eventually going to be part of a very, very big problem in America. A very big problem.

I think that even if you put the military on the border and built the border wall, you’ll slow the influx of people coming across for a while. But then we had to turn to the interior of the United States and deal with those people. And I will say it, deport them, deport them back to the country they came from. And every single criminal organization.

I worked for the federal Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Justice for a while. And I’m beyond at the rate of saying that, all of our prisons are at max capacity. We don’t have anywhere to put you. So if that’s the case, send them to Afghanistan, man. I don’t care where you send them. You know, you wanted to come here. Great. We’re going to parachute you off into the Sahara. Survive there. No one’s invading Africa. No one’s invading Iraq. No one’s invading Saudi Arabia. No one’s invading China. They’re not sending mass migrants of people to Russia or to Ukraine. Mass migrants aren’t going to South America to stay. They’re all being sent to America. It’s to destabilize. There can be no other reason except to destabilize the economy, rattle up the people, and destroy the inner workings of our government, especially by creating social disorder like crime.

And then what happens? What happens when the first shot across the world, or the first shot heard around the world and we get into World War Three with Russia and China? What do you think all those people here are going to do? You think they’re going to say, “Oh, we’re all Americans.” No! Most of them don’t like Americans. They want your country. They want your house, but they don’t like us for the most part. That’s going to be a problem and we’re going to have to deal with it.

And it’s going to be a problem that the government, our government knows will happen. And I believe is preparing along with the UN and NATO to move in on America and to seize control to re-stabilize America, just like we did with Iraq. We destabilized Iraq. We took out the power. We took out the people in charge and we killed the economy. And then we allowed warlords. Then we moved dozens of different nations, and militaries into Iraq to stabilize that nation. And we didn’t leave it for 20 years. That’s America’s future. That’s it. There can be no other reason for all of this.

Chris: All right. So can you sum up then your view, what should God-fearing Americans do? And can you give me a 60-second answer?

Doug: Yeah, oh absolutely. Worry about the oil in your lamp. That’s what I tell you to do. Worry about your relationship with God, preparing the stores of your house, so store up your beans, bowls, and band-aids, and get in good shape, because when the power goes out, you’re going to walk and most Americans don’t know what that means anymore. And building up relations with people around you and recreating a community around you. Most people don’t even know their neighbors anymore. Because when America breaks down, tribalism will be enacted again, and we’re going to look like the 13 colonies all over again. That’s how America began, and that’s how we’ll end up as little bitty colonies. And we’ll be out there trying to protect each other.

Suburbs will become their own cities, their own townships until we eventually re-knit the fabric of this country back together again. And only through, Chris, I dare say that only through getting on our knees together and praying to Abba Father to protect us, to keep the sin out of our land and out of your home, that’s the only way we will survive this, period.

You cannot raise up a 10 million man army to the border or the White House and defeat this enemy. Most of us can’t even stand together in the same church service because of all the different denominations. Do you think we’ll gather together? We won’t. We will gladly stand different apart from each other now. That is, I believe, the sinful nature of America has caused that, one of Satan’s many plots. But I believe everything that’s going on right now is going to be eventually to glorify God by his people because we’re going to be taken to a wilderness. And God exposes Himself to his people in the wilderness. Just most of us aren’t ready for that walk. Now that’s about it.

Chris: All right, so as Doug said, that is about it. That is the end of that interview with Doug Thornton. We’re very thankful that we had a chance to talk to him. But that is going to do it for us today. That is our show. We’ll stop it there. But we will be back next time as the Lord leads us until then. God bless you guys. I’m Chris Pinto and you’ve been listening to Noise of Thunder Radio.

(End of transcript.)

Dear visitor, if you found this article of value, please help make it go viral by sharing it with your friends and on social media. If enough Americans realize that the border invasion will result in the end of American liberties as we know it, they will cause the public officials they put in office to do something to stop it! We greatly outnumber the ungodly people who want to take away our God given liberties. They fear us, and especially so if you are a Bible believing born again child of God in the Lord Jesus Christ!

You can listen to the audio as well.




Five Things to Watch for in 2024

Five Things to Watch for in 2024

This article is a partial transcription of an audio on Christian J. Pinto’s Noise of Thunder Radio program.

My wife and I like to listen to Chris Pinto. He’s a solid Bible-believing Christian, a former Catholic like we were who is very knowledgeable about the Counter-Reformation and the evil-doings of the Jesuit Order. However, we don’t agree with him about his support of Israel in the latest Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza. Of course, any nation has a right to defend itself, but the way Israel is bombing Gaza indiscriminately, bombing hospitals and churches, killing media personnel, women and children, is not what I would call “self-defense.” I would call it war crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide. According to the testimonials of former IDF soldiers, the IDF purposely left that part of the border with Gaza unguarded so that Hamas would invade and do what they did so Israel could have the excuse to do what they are doing now!

In Chris Pinto’s 2004 documentary, Megiddo – The March to Armageddon (Adullam Films), he stated that the 1948 restoration of the State of Israel was the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. I sure don’t agree with him on that. All the prophecies of the restoration of Israel back to their homeland in the book of Ezekiel were fulfilled by King Cyrus telling the Jews they could return to their homeland if they wanted to. By the time of Christ, they were firmly settled back in the land God formerly gave them. In the documentary, I heard one Zionist preacher say, “If Israel is defeated by her enemies, you can throw your Bibles away!” Such a presumptuous and arrogant statement! It’s outrageous for any Christian to say that! What people should say when things don’t go the way they think the Bible says is: “My interpretation of Scripture must therefore be wrong! Does the Bible actually teach that doctrine? Or did I get it from some dispensational Christian Zionist preacher who got it from the Dallas Theological Seminary that got it from C.I. Scofield who got it from John Nelson Darby who got it from Edward Irving who got it from Jesuit Manuel Lacunza, a Roman Catholic who worked to undermine the Protestant Reformation? Yep, that’s where I got it from, not from the inerrant Word of God.”

All that being said, we like Chris Pinto’s take on everything else.

Transcript

Okay, praise the Lord you guys and welcome. I’m Chris Pinto. This is Noise of Thunder Radio.

Today on the show we are going to talk about five things to watch for in 2024. If you are an American, if you’re a member of Western civilization, and I would argue if you are a God-fearing Bible-believing Christian, these are things you should watch for in 2024.

Now, why do I think this is important? Well, I think it’s very important because society and the Western world and our country, the United States of America, if people are not aware of the danger, the rising danger that we are in the middle of right now, then you’re just not paying attention, whoever you are, you’re not paying attention. And it’s why we have to pay attention to things like what happened to the countries of Western Europe during World War II.

I’ve mentioned on this program before, that one of my favorite foreign films is called KATYN, about the Katyn Forest Massacre based on actual events. It was a history I grew up hearing about from my grandfather Ziggy, Zygman Zadarowski, who I’ve talked about on the program before, who was a World War II veteran. His country, Poland, was turned upside down, practically overnight. There was a peace treaty declared by Hitler with Neville Chamberlain and so on. And so everybody’s declaring, “Hey, we’re all going to be at peace. Everything’s going to be great!”

And then the invasion of Poland happened sometime afterward. And Poland, the people of Poland, were turned upside down overnight. And when you watch the beginning of that film, Katyn, you just watched the first five or ten minutes of it. And you’ve got all these civilians wearing ordinary clothing, just running. And they’re carrying suitcases and bags, and they’ve got their young children. And why? Because their country’s been invaded by the Nazis on one side and by the Communists on the other, the Soviets. And everything changed very, very quickly.

There’s another film that was done not long ago by Angelina Jolie, called “First They Killed My Father” about the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. I would recommend watching the first 15 minutes of that film because you see a family there at the beginning. And again, this is all based on a true story, based on a book written by a woman who was a young girl when all of this happened to her country. At the very beginning, you see a Cambodian family, but they are very Westernized. That’s obvious that they were Westernized because of the way that they dress, the things that they’re doing are very much like what goes on in the West. And then what happens is very rapidly, suddenly, everything changes. These guys with guns come riding in, and they’re having a celebration briefly, and then right after them comes the Khmer Rouge, the Communists. And they were there, of course, for the killing fields of Cambodia. But everything changes in a moment. Everything’s turned upside down. And they’re told, pack your bags, get your things. Everybody’s got to clear out of the city in 10 minutes. I mean, it’s very fast.

And you see it at the very beginning when the Khmer Rouge come in, one of the first things they do is gather everybody’s guns. Everybody’s firearms. They disarm everybody. And of course, you’re wondering as an American, if you’re an American, you’re watching this happen and you’re thinking, “Why didn’t anybody resist these guys? Why didn’t anybody try to fight back or whatever?” But for whatever reason, they did not. They allowed themselves to be disarmed. They allowed themselves to be rounded up and then taken on a forced march and everything went downhill from that point onward.

So what’s happening in our country right now with things like this massive flood of illegals coming into our country? I mean, this is unheard of. It’s unprecedented. What’s happening? We’ve never had anything like this happen in our history, where there’s a massive flood of illegal criminals jumping the border. Meanwhile, we’ve got politicians like Nikki Haley, who claims she’s some kind of Republican and some kind of a patriot, but she’s saying it’s wrong to call them criminals because supposedly they’re just coming here for a better life. That is what we’re told, even though the guys that work down there will tell you in a hot minute that most of those coming across the border are fighting-age men. They’re not necessarily women and children. Very, very few women and children, mostly fighting-age men, and thousands, who knows how many thousands, of Islamic jihadi are crossing the border.

All right, so these are not in any particular order. The five things to watch for in 2024.

Number 1: The After effects of illegal immigration

But since we’ve already introduced the idea, I’m going to say number one is the aftereffects of illegal immigration. And it’s already started. We’ve been hearing stories, but here’s one of the latest. This is published on a number of different websites. I’m just going to read a few lines from the Geller report, Pamela Geller’s website, where it says New York City students are forced to go remote as the city houses migrants in schools. So in New York City, they are now putting the kids out of their public schools. Kids can’t go in the schools now because they are making room for the illegal immigrants. We’ve already heard stories about them doing this at the hotels. People can’t check into the hotel because they’re putting all these illegal migrants into the hotels. The government is doing it at taxpayer expense.

All right, so here’s just a part of this story.

Quote, “Students at a Brooklyn high school were kicked out of the classroom to make room for nearly 2000 migrants who were evacuated from a controversial tent shelter due to a monster storm closing in on the Big Apple.”

And then you’ve got people complaining about it. People are saying things like, “They’re not vetted. A lot of them have criminal records and backgrounds and we don’t even know.” The people in New York are obviously very concerned about this. And this is going to reach a breaking point at some point. I think New Yorkers are going to decide that they’ve had enough.

This massive inflow of illegals is just going to make things worse. And we’ve got repeated warnings from people who work on the border, people like Doug Thornton, who I interviewed, many of you heard that interview. If you haven’t heard it go to our website at noiseofthunderradio.com and look in the archives back a couple of shows and you can listen to it. Very, very important interview. But they’ve been warning that there will likely be another 9-11 type event. This is what the guys down on the border are saying, the guys who I think are loyal patriots. They’re warning because they’re watching thousands upon thousands of illegals who are coming from the Middle East, who are Muslims, who are Islamists, rushing into our country, unvetted. And they believe that these guys have an agenda. It’s just a matter of time. That’s why it is important to pay attention to, at a variety of levels, the aftereffects of illegal immigration.

Now, I want to play very quickly and then we’re going to move on to the number two issue. Right now we’re talking about illegal immigration. I want to play this audio. This is from Joe Biden. This is Joe Biden even before he became president, before he was installed in the White House, talking about the massive flood of immigrants into our country. Listen.

“Folks like me who were Caucasian of European descent, for the first time in 2017 will be an absolute minority in the United States of America. Absolute minority. Fewer than 50% of the people in America from then on will be white European stock. That’s not a bad thing. That’s a source of our strength.”

So that again was a video featuring Joe Biden. This is back when Biden was vice president. This was in 2015. It’s a C-SPAN video.

And sitting right next to Biden, of course, is another Jesuit, Mayorkas. If you don’t know that Mayorkas is a Jesuit, yes, he is also a Jesuit. And what they’re doing is we’re going to show you in our new film, American Jesuits, which yes, folks, we are still pushing and working to get this project completed. But the information is so important. It is impacting what is going on in our country right now. This massive flood of immigrants into our country. This is part of the Vatican’s plan has been for more than a hundred years. And we’re going to show it to you. And it’s happening right now. We’re sitting here watching the fulfillment of what we were warned about back in the 1800s.

Number 2: The rise of Islam in Europe and North America

Number two, we’re going to say the rise of Islam in Europe and North America. And this, I think, is a very good segue because Islam and immigration, both legal and illegal immigration into the West, is something that is becoming an increasing problem.

I want to play now some audio. This is from FBI director Christopher Ray. Christopher Ray, let’s go to the person who’s seen as the senior source in our government on this. And this is Christopher Ray with the FBI warning about the potential for Islamic terror attacks on American soil. Listen.

“The reality is that the terrorism threat has been elevated throughout 2023, but the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the United States to a whole other level. But it’s not just Hamas. As the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, the Iranians, for instance, have directly or by hiring criminals mounted assassination attempts against dissidents and high-ranking current and former U.S. government officials, including right here on American soil, the cyber targeting of American interests and critical infrastructure that we already see conducted by Iran and non-state actors alike, we can expect to get worse if the conflict expands as will the threat of kinetic attacks.

Al-Qaeda issued its most specific call to attack the United States in the last five years. ISIS urged its followers to target Jewish communities in the United States and Europe. Hezbollah has publicly expressed its support for Hamas and threatened to attack U.S. interests in the Middle East. Here in the United States, our most immediate concern is that violent extremists, individuals or small groups will draw inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks against Americans going about their daily lives.”

All right, so again, that is and was Christopher Ray, director of the FBI. So that’s about as official as a warning can get. But of course, that warning does not really come from him. It does. But it’s something that loyal American patriots who are boots on the ground, who were eyes and ears down at the Mexican border and have been down there for years, this is something they’ve been warning about for years.

So that is certainly an important issue. The rise of Islam in Europe and North America. Now that’s really a warning for North America and the United States in particular.

(Station break)

The documentary film, American Jesuits, is going to be very, very powerful, especially for people who know nothing about the Jesuits, they’ll be able to have a very solid understanding of why the order is a danger both past and present. Because we bring things current. We bring things so current. And I’m going to talk more about this, but Vivek Ramaswami, we’ve just learned Ramaswami is a Jesuit. But yes, he’s Jesuit-educated. And we’ll talk more about that as the show goes on. But anyway, we are going to show people why this is an important issue, why the Jesuits and the counter-reformation are important in our world today and why we as Christians living in America need to harken to the warnings from scripture, of wolves and sheep’s clothing, and two, the many, many warnings of our ancestors for the past 200 years warning us about the Society of Jesus, the so-called Society of Jesus, the Jesuit order.

Okay, so number two on our list is the rise of Islam in Europe and North America. In Europe, if you go to the RARE Foundation, R-A-I-R foundation.com, they’ve got a series of articles right now warning. There is a series of articles about thousands of German women raped by refugees since 2015. This is just in Germany. Now, we’ve talked about the rape gangs in England in the UK over the past 20 years. Reportedly, have assaulted and violated more than a million English girls, 11, 12, 13 year old girls over the past 20 years. And that number is now much worse. But they’re saying that in Germany, two gang rapes happen per day against the women in Germany, two per day. You have in France on New Year’s Eve, a disabled woman was violently beaten and raped in an elevator. That’s one of the stories.

Another story is, weaponized prayer, Islamic displays of territorial dominance. Whenever you see those images of hundreds and sometimes thousands of Muslims bowing down in prayer in a public place, they go into cities like Paris, London, Rome, etc. where this article says, people have observed a uniquely Islamic display of dominance over the local population. This display has a veneer of religious observance as people are clearly engaged in Islamic prayer. However, since there are always mosques available or private spaces within which these observances could be done, one has to conclude that the purpose is clearly other than mere observance of Islamic prayer requirements.

So in other words, what they’re saying is that the Muslims will deliberately go into public places where people normally are walking up and down the road and this kind of thing. And they will block everything with their Islamic prayer because it’s one of the ways. It’s kind of a form of intimidation and psychological warfare to say basically Islam is taking over. That’s why they do it. And they’re doing it in these cities all over Europe. Do you know that these Islamic street prayers are actually a confrontation and a statement? The Muslims are asserting their supremacy implicitly demanding that everyone else who wants to pass along the street has to accommodate them. This is a manifestation of the old Islamic dictum that quote, “Islam must dominate and not be dominated.” Now, there’s no question that this is happening. There’s no question that it is that you’ve got millions of Muslims now in the United Kingdom and they are pursuing more and more acts of aggression so that Islam will eventually dominate England in the whole UK.

Number 3: World War III

Okay, so that’s two. Number three, in my opinion, World War Three, is kind of odd, you would think that would either be number one or number five, right? But we’re just going to, we’re going to make it number three, World War Three, the situation with Ukraine, Russia, and Israel. Notice what’s happening, you have all of these conflicts and these entanglements where the United States is being blamed by Russia for our support of Ukraine. And now we’re being blamed by the Islamic element out there because of our support of Israel, the state of Israel.

Number 4: The resurgence of COVID-19

Okay, so number four, the resurgence of COVID-19, the resurgence of COVID-19. There are repeated warnings that they are going to try to bring back mask mandates, that they’re going to try to bring back lockdowns and all this other kind of stuff. Illegal immigration should inform every American, of the fact that they brought in millions and millions of unvetted, untested people that they know are going to have various viruses and things like that. And the fact that they’ve exercised no caution at all about this should be everything that we need to know that an attempt, a future attempt at some kind of lockdown and social distancing and this kind of thing is all just a show. It’s a sham. It’s, about power and control.

If they were really concerned about the spread of viruses and this kind of thing, they would never allow millions and millions of unvetted people to come running across our border. They just would not allow it. But that’s what should tell us that among many other indicators.

But yes, the resurgence of COVID-19, it is entirely possible that there will be COVID 2.0 and they’re going to attempt to impose some kind of COVID tyranny. Now, we were warned about this last year that this was going to happen. And we didn’t really see much of anything happen in the months that followed. We were warned that in the fall, beginning in the fall in November, December, here just a few months ago, that this was going to happen and it didn’t happen. I think there is a lot of pushback and I think that Americans and freedom-loving people all over the world should continue to push back in a, you know, peaceful, protesting, exercising the First Amendment to the full extent so that the powers that be understand that society is not going to cooperate with all this lockdown stuff. And, if enough people are sounding the alarm and making noise, then it’s very likely that these globalist powers will back down because they are somewhat pragmatic, I believe.

Of course, I believe the chief counselors are Jesuits. We’re going to show you that in the new film because we’re going to have a whole section on COVID-19 and the Jesuit order because the connections are undeniable, undeniable. But the Jesuits are very pragmatic, very pragmatic. So they’ll back down. That doesn’t mean that they’re going to quit. Don’t misunderstand. It doesn’t mean that they’re going to quit in terms of their globalist ambitions, but they’ll sort of back off a bit because they don’t want to push the envelope too far. That’s what I think. I could be wrong. We’ll have to wait and see. But yes, it’s definitely something to look out for. The continued corruption of the medical industry for the purpose of using the medical industry for medical warfare against the people in our country, which I honestly believe is what’s going on. Medical warfare, biowarfare, they’re calling the vaccine a bioweapon. You’ve got people, a very official people calling the COVID vaccine a bioweapon.

So we’ve got to pay attention to this and be on the lookout in 2024. It’ll be very interesting to see if more COVID tyranny rears its ugly head.

Number 5: The 2024 presidential race

Now, the number five issue. That was the number four resurgence of COVID-19. Number five, the big issue is going to be the 2024 presidential race.

For the office of the president of the United States of America, there’s no question that’s going to become, I believe, I think, unless something catastrophic something or other that happens. I think the presidential race with everything going on with President Trump, everything going on with Joe Biden and all these candidates.

Nikki Haley is getting a lot of attention, but we think Nikki Haley is a globalist. We do not believe she is a true conservative Republican. And we think she’s a globalist. And then you have Vivek Ramaswami, Ramaswami, who’s getting a lot of attention, a lot of the conservatives seem to like him. And we’ve had a friend, in fact, Steve Matthews from the Trinity Foundation, who appears in our new film, forward to me, a story about Ramaswami that he graduated from St. Xavier High School. And what he is, St. Xavier High School won’t remove Vivek Ramaswami from the Board of Trustees. He’s not only a graduate, this is a Jesuit-run private high school in Cincinnati, or in the Cincinnati region, it says, won’t remove the presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswami from its Board of Trustees. The board’s chairman said Wednesday. Apparently, his conservative comments are considered controversial. Some of the St. Xavier High School alumni are calling for the school to oust Ramaswami from its 25-member board of trustees. So, bear in mind, he’s not just a graduate of this Jesuit high school. He’s not just an alumnus. He is a member of its Board of Trustees. So, he’s, again, this is a more solid Jesuit connection. Lots of people graduate from their schools. Not all of them have this kind of close association. And of course, Ramaswami is a Hindu, and he has a Hindu view of Jesus, which quite frankly is perfectly acceptable with the Jesuit order because it all fits in with what they wrote and communicated in Vatican Council II.

Do I think Ramaswami would make a good president? He might be better than Joe Biden, but I still would not want to see him in the White House. He has a very clear Jesuit connection. He’s being supported on the conservative side of things. I think he is a, you know, it’s, it’s kind of like the order is trying to control both sides of the argument. Some people say the same thing about President Trump because Trump went to Fordham University. He did not graduate from Fordham. He was only there for two years, and he left and went to a different university. I’ve never thought that President Trump was, quote, a Jesuit. I’ve never seen him that way. I don’t think he really represents the Jesuit agenda. The only thing that the main, well, the two main things with President Trump that are troubling for me is one, the fact that he gives any support to LGBT politically. That’s one, and two, his support for the vaccine. And he continues to support the vaccine. Now the one possible, you know, upside of all of that is that he has also called in his campaign.

For an investigation into the health of children in particular, you’ve got so many kids being diagnosed with autism and these other conditions and a lot of people are pointing to the vaccine industry and the medical industry overall. If there is a second Trump administration and they do a sincere investigation into the medical industry, that would be a very needed and I think positive thing. And I say, if, quote, unquote, if we’ll have to wait and see what happens and just pray for the Lord’s help and guidance for our country and our people in the days ahead.

I wanted to play a brief clip here as we round this out. So that’s all five issues. The five things to watch for, in my opinion, in 2024. Illegal immigration, the rise of Islam, World War Three, the resurgence of COVID-19 and number five, the 2024 presidential race, all of that will be forthcoming in 2024.

Also, Simon Roch I should mention, even though I didn’t play this part of his interview, he goes out of his way to tell us that his organization is an exclusively Christian organization, that they are Christians, and they do not seek to have non-Christians come and join with them or anything like that. They are very boldly, unapologetically Christian in their worldview and in their approach to everything they’re doing, praise the Lord!

Christians need to become more partisan for Christianity and not allow the globalist influence to convince you that you’re supposed to be defending atheism and Islam and all of these other alternative beliefs. We’re really not called to defend the non-Christian beliefs of the world. Remember, the commandment of God, according to the Apostle Paul, is that God commands that all men everywhere repent and turn away from the idols of the world and put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Indeed, as Peter said, He is Lord of all.

We are not called to tell everybody else who has an alternative belief that their belief is somehow or other equally valid or anything like that. No, we are called to communicate the Word of God and God’s command that all men everywhere repent and put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord.




The US Federal Reserve System Changed the Definition of Money

The US Federal Reserve System Changed the Definition of Money

This is a transcription of a talk by Kirk Elliott, Ph.D., the founder of Sovereign Advisors, a consulting firm that helps investors with wealth management.

The “Federal Reserve” or FED as it’s called, is a misnomer. It’s not a part of the American federal government, and there’s no reserve. Its a private monopoly on money creation granted by the U.S. Government. It’s a corporation of banking cartels. To learn more about that, please read The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin.

Transcript

Before I can give a solution, I have to kind of show where we’re headed and how quickly, because they have mapped out the timeline now. It’s not us. And it’s here. And it’s right now.

Central bank digital currency has the ability to cut you off from buying or selling if your ideology doesn’t match up with theirs! These are their words, not mine. This started in August of 2019.

So Federal Reserve docket OP – 1670. What is it? What does it say? I’m going to read it exactly so I don’t misquote it.

“The main economic attributes of a technically effective currency rests on three functions: as a unit of account, a store of value and as a medium of exchange.”

That’s what money actually is. So you have something you can trade back and forth with each other. It has a store value and a medium of exchange.

But, they added a fourth definition of money at the Federal Reserve. And that is the fourth definition of money as a means of social control.

It has nothing to do with fixing the System. In their own words, “Money is a means of social control.”

If you really wanted to control a person, you cut them off from buying or selling, their ability to live. Now you control that person. Now you’ve got a whole world, or in America, 330 million economic slaves. Right?

On Nov. 8th 2019, a patent was filed 62-758430. Who did this? Visa! The credit card company. What is their patent? Basically, it talks about how in this patent, they want to change money from paper to digital money. And every new digital currency that’s created, they’re going to take out a paper currency unit. Why? Because you can’t track private paper money. You can go to a farmer’s market. You can go anywhere. Nobody knows that you’re spending money if you use paper. But they can track everything if it’s digital. So to bring in a digital system, they have to get rid of the old. They’re getting rid of their private-based currency.

Now, it goes a little bit further. March 23, 2020, HR 6321. Okay, Maxine Waters is responsible for this one. So financial protections and assistance for Americans, consumers, states, businesses, and vulnerable populations act. And this is what this is called. So what is it? It’s direct stimulus payments for families, for renters. It’s a social credit score for universal basic income!

Now, what is required for that? Number one, a digital dollar. Number two, a digital dollar wallet. Number three, a member bank that will actually accept digital dollars. So here’s the thing. If you want to receive the government stimulus, you have to have a digital dollar. There is no other option.

Now extend that out a little bit further. If you want social security, well, they’ve already passed a bill that says if you want stimulus, what about social security? What about government pensions? What about any kind of government payment for retirement, anything? If you want it, you have to be part of that Beast System. And it’s already.

As I read through the Bible as a kid and as an adult, it’s like, how in the world could this Antichrist and the Mark of the Beast happen? People knew that it was coming. So in this sense, it’s like, oh, it clicked, it makes sense. Even Christians, if they say, “I don’t get my retirement? I don’t get any payments unless I take the system? Well, I guess I might as well take the system,” right?

I believe that it is the Book of Revelation actually happening. Yeah, I mean, if it looks like a duck, smells like a duck, walks like a duck, it’s probably a duck, right? And these are in their own words, the ability to cut you off from buying or selling if they don’t like your ideology. I don’t know what else it is.

So then, here’s when the rubber hits the road. March 6, 2022, executive order 14067. Biden penned it. Basically, that says, we’re going to have central bank digital currency in America. March 29th, 2022, they start to talk about the ideology. Dr. Pippa Malmgren at the World Government Forum in Abu Dhabi. What did she say? She said, “Programmable money is the core of central bank digital currency.” Programmable! Meaning, if we don’t like you, we can flip the switch so you can’t actually have your money. That’s what programmable money means.

Then you go to March of 2023, the United Nations, our common agenda policy brief, right? So here’s where the UN General Secretary says, “I propose that the General Assembly provide the Secretary-General and the United Nations system with a standing authority to convene an operationalized, automatically in an emergency, platform, in the event of a future complex global shock of sufficient scale severity and reach.”

They’re telling you we’re going to use a crisis to do this. So what was that first crisis? COVID. What’s the second crisis? Bank failure. What’s the third crisis? Is it something worse than going on a health scare? A war? A war. I mean, so here’s where they tell us. They tell us what could trigger it. I’m not making stuff up. I just read what they say.

So, you go to the next paragraph in this agenda policy brief, what could trigger the emergency authority? A major climatic event, a future pandemic risk, a global digital connectivity disruption, a major event in outer space, and a generic unforeseen risk like a solar flare.

So here’s what it says at the end of it. It also states that while the emergency authority would have an initial finite lifespan, the UN could be able to extend it indefinitely.




Freedom And The Protestant Ethic

Freedom And The Protestant Ethic

This article is from a PDF file on LutheranLibrary.org. It was published by The Converted Catholic Magazine. I think many Americans today don’t realize the liberties they enjoy today came from Bible believing Protestant Christians.

ROMAN CATHOLICS are not aware that the great fundamental principles of American freedom — equal rights in a free State, equal privileges in a free church, and equal opportunities in a free school — are the heritage of Protestantism.

Rev. Dr. Alfred G. Walton, speaking in the Baptist Church of the Redeemer, Brooklyn, N. Y., stressed this fact as follows:

“The founding of the American Colonies was an outgrowth of the spirit of the Protestant movement which began in the sixteenth century. The Pilgrims and the Puritans who settled in New England laid the foundations of a new freedom and a new government, the spirit of which was rooted in the religious freedom which they sought. Out of that conception came the ideal of democratic government. Protestantism exalted the individual and the individual’s right to think for himself and to act for himself.
“Standing for self-government in the Church as over against the government of the State or ecclesiastical authority, there developed the idea of self-government in other fields.
“The whole life of America has been built around this ideal of freedom. It has elaborated itself in a multitude of ways, in freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press and freedom of conscience… Whenever we acknowledge any form of freedom, we are sharing in the heritage of the Protestant movement.”



Japanese Doctors Warn About the Side Effects of the COVID-19 Vaccines

Japanese Doctors Warn About the Side Effects of the COVID-19 Vaccines

This is a transcript of a press conference called by Japanese physicians. Throughout the decades when I lived in Japan, it’s been my observation that most Japanese are honest people and are not easily deceived by the media. When they encounter difficulties, they’ll do an honest investigation of the problem and won’t be easily swayed by others.

Transcript

We are the General Incorporated Association of the Vaccine Injuries Study Group. We now have this press conference to report on the results of our study since its establishment. My name is Takeguchi, and I will be moderating the conference.

First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to express my condolences to those who have passed away due to health issues after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Furthermore, I extend my best wishes to those who have suffered health issues and those who are currently struggling with symptoms.

(Next speaker)

A systematic review of the literature has revealed some surprising facts. Thousands of papers have reported side effects after vaccination, which affect every organ without exception, ranging from ophthalmology (the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders) to general medicine, to psychiatry. We have compiled this information into a paper that was published yesterday.

These documents have been preliminarily investigated by a group of volunteer physicians. They saw how many cases have been reported by Japanese academic societies. This kind of reporting on drug side effects or the like is unprecedented.

As my specialty is cancer, chemotherapy drugs are plagued with side effects, but the patterns are known and predetermined. The patterns of side effects caused by this (COVID-19) vaccine are not determined. They can occur throughout the body. Multiple diseases can occur simultaneously. Doctors have never seen such a thing. This is the candid opinion of the medical profession.

Japanese doctors are also trying hard, but they face various obstructions. There’s this sentiment of ‘Why report something like vaccine damage?’ There are interferences in reporting. Such actions themselves hinder academic freedom, and in some academic departments, censorship is taking place such as in conference presentations and publications of academic papers. This is happening globally. Some journals are effectively practicing censorship.

We are working on a paper that is expected to be published soon. Once published, we will be able to report in detail. For example, the age-adjusted mortality rate for leukemia has increased, and there are significant findings of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and so on. We will share the relevant information with everyone as we advise and request the government on how to proceed.

Next, Prof. Yasufumi Murakami, the director in charge of the testing method development working group, will explain the progress of the test development and future outlook.

Prof. Yasufumi Murakami: Thank you, everyone. One thing I want to say initially is that it is clear how the adverse effects occur, which is still having many
victims today. I believe the vaccine should be stopped immediately.

The mechanism by which adverse effects occur is well understood; the spike [protein] is toxic. It’s very clear what happens when you administer a toxic gene to a human. Another point is that the Lipid nanoparticles, they are also toxic.

The major problem is that we are injecting two toxic substances into people, one of which is that human cells are producing spike proteins. Since the immune system will attack this, it causes very violent reactions. Some cases occur within one or two weeks after injection, but there are also many cases that appear after one or two years.

Additionally, there is indeed such a thing as good and bad antibodies in humans, and an antibody called IgG4 actually suppresses immunity. Usually with vaccines, if an IgG4 antibody is induced, it is considered a failure. However, with the current messenger-type vaccines, a significant amount of IgG4 is being induced. When this happens, it plays tricks on various immune functions. Therefore, we want to thoroughly investigate what ratio of Japanese people are experiencing this. We aim to carefully examine what level of IgG4 reacts with the spike protein that is present in each individual.

Of course, the problem is, we already understand these factors. Vaccines that have failed are still being administered, and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare recognizes these failed vaccines. So I would like to stop them immediately, but even though I speak out against the vaccine in various places, they don’t stop administering them at all. So we will clearly present evidence and publish it in articles one by one.

New speaker: So, we are working with Dr. Fukushima to create this database, and so far, about 201 types of diseases and 3,071 papers on side effects have been reported. It is unprecedented in human history for a single vaccine to have this much literature out on it. With this, we plan to present it to the nation and the Japanese government in the form of solid science that no one can dispute.

In the next slide you will find diseases of the heart, kidney, thyroid, diabetes, liver, skin, eyes, blood, nerves, systemic diseases, brain, and lungs, diseases across all medical fields have been reported as Prof. Fukushima states. The characteristic of the side effects of this vaccine is that they occur simultaneously within entire families.

As for the data, when diseases such as those of the heart, kidney, endocrine, and liver occur simultaneously with the range in which they occur, a tremendous number of papers are reported with many pages.

New speaker: Mental disorders, psychiatric symptoms, depression, mania, and anxiety, came up in abundance. It’s endless. It’s about understanding why this is happening. That’s why, actually, with broader keywords, for example, not just COVID-19 vaccines but also SARS-CoV-2, messenger RNA vaccines, and the like, when you separate it out into various keywords, more and more results come up. So this is just a part of it. Even with what Dr. Inoue introduced earlier, it’s just a part of what has been done with the PubMed database. There are things that won’t be caught by PubMed. So like “Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)”, it’s not caught, next slide.

However, there are such peer-reviewed papers out there from Dr. Montagnier who discovered HIV and received the Nobel Prize. It’s a persuasive paper. But it disappeared. He was cautious from the beginning.

About the spike protein sequence, within the genes, you know, he was warning that if there’s a prion-like (pathogenic type of misfolded protein) sequence, it could be very dangerous. Many scientists were warning about it. I too said it could be hazardous because of the possibility of prions. I discussed it with prion experts.

So, if you inject the vaccine into the muscle, it will be taken up by the surrounding cells. People who know nothing about medicine and biology don’t think about such specific things, which is why they say it’s an mRNA vaccine. However, if you know biology and medicine, such specific things don’t happen. That is what we call off-target. Out of control beyond the target. It doesn’t know where to go. If it goes into the bloodstream, it goes to the brain, liver, and kidneys. What if it went everywhere? That’s something people don’t think about. This off-target problem hasn’t been solved.

And even if that is solved, there are still many problems. Because these nanoparticles, which were inflammatory earlier, are environmental issues, especially plastic nanoparticles, which are the world’s number one problem. They enter the brain. However, those who don’t know anything say, “It’s plastic, so it won’t be digested, so it’s okay to eat.” They pretend to know, but it doesn’t get digested. The person has no idea how toxic organic substances are attached to the surface of those plastic nanoparticles. So, with fragments of such knowledge, they exaggerate things and think they can go with this. They say, “I know! This is good!” So, honestly, they need to go back and redo from middle school biology to high school and university entrance exams.

As I mentioned earlier, medicine is still immature. Basically, we don’t understand much about the principles of life. Now, this kind of thing has happened, so, turning adversity into fortune, we should learn again here what happens instead of saying, “Go for it, go for it” with the vaccines. Well, it’s like, ignorance is bliss. That’s what this world is about. Taking vaccines has become a kind of faith. Vaccines centers, they’re like a weird cult. They’re now basically fallen into an infinite hell.

Simply thinking that things can be understood with fragments of knowledge is a mistake.

(End of transcript.)

If you are Japanese or understand the Japanese language, click here to listen to the press conference.




False Doctrines from the SDA Church on Social Media

False Doctrines from the SDA Church on Social Media
Colossians 2:16  Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

I admire my Seventh Day Adventist friends for their love for God’s Word and obedience to what they believe God’s Word is telling them to do, but as far as Sabbath day observance goes, the bottom line for me is the New Testament does not teach it! In Acts chapter 15 when the Apostles disputed whether the Gentiles needed to keep the Laws of Moses or not, the conclusion was they needed to keep only four precepts:

Acts 15:20  But that we write unto them, that they abstain from
(1) pollutions of idols,
(2) and from fornication,
(3) and from things strangled,
(4) and from blood.

Notice Sabbath day observance is not one of them!

I saw this meme on Facebook and I want to tell my readers why it’s not true.

Catholic Quote

First of all, nowhere in the Bible does it call the Sabbath a day of worship! What does the Bible say? It says:

Leviticus 23:3  Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.

The Sabbath was a day of rest and not specifically designated as a day of worship! In the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, there are 8 verses with the words Sabbath and rest. The word worship is not in any of them. And it’s certainly not the “day of the sun” as the meme claims. SDAs even call believers meeting together on Sunday the “Mark of the Beast!” Christians meeting together on Sunday was a tradition that started in Jerusalem according to Acts 20:7, way before the Church of Rome was founded!

“Sabbath observance, not trust in Christ alone for complete forgiveness of sins and eternal life, is to be the dividing line between the saved and the lost in the end time.” – Ellen G. White

That is rank heresy! It tells me she has no idea of the true Gospel of Christ! Ellen White promoted a works religion. Her statement is totally against the core meaning of the Gospel.

I don’t judge my SDA friends for feeling it necessary to observe the Sabbath, and I do think it is important to take at least one day a week off to rest, pray, and have more time to study God’s Word, but the New Testament does not tell me that day of rest must Saturday.

I get the following from Leo Lehmann’s Converted Catholic Magazine.

The Council of Laodicea in 343 (way before the Bishop of Rome claimed to be the Vicar of Christ) , under the Emperor Constantine’s dictate, decreed as follows:

“Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honor, and, as Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day.” The following should be noted:

  • The “observance” of Sunday, the first day of the week, was customary among the early Christians, as may be seen from Acts 20:7.
    Acts 20:7  And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.
  • Opposition to Judaism was the chief reason for the change.
  • Salvation under the New Testament dispensation is by faith in Christ’s all-sufficient work of redemption, not by observance of days, forms and ceremonies.
  • Our aim is to present facts of objective truth, and to leave it to each one to act on them according to his conscience under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.



Hurt and Bitterness–By Bill Gothard

Hurt and Bitterness–By Bill Gothard

William W. Gothard Jr. (born November 2, 1934) is an American Christian minister, speaker, and writer, and the founder of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), an independent fundamentalist Christian organization. His conservative teachings encourage Bible memorization, large families, homeschooling, aversion to debt, familial patriarchy, the submission of wives to husbands, and modest attire.At the height of Gothard’s popularity during the 1970s, his Basic Youth Conflicts seminar was regularly filling auditoriums throughout the United States and beyond with attendance figures as large as ten thousand and more for a one-week seminar. (from Wikipedia)

I attended Bill Gothard’s Basic Youth Conflicts seminar when I served in the USAF when stationed in Sacramento, CA., circa 1972. I probably didn’t get as much out of it as I should have because I felt I was forced to attend the seminar by the Navigator leadership, the non-denominational Christian fellowship that led me to Christ. I didn’t always agree with what Bill Gothard was teaching. I was deceived then by Pentecostal pastors who told me I didn’t need to study the Bible as much as the Navigators told me to study it or memorize so many Scriptures as the Navigators encouraged me to memorize. The Pentecostals told me all I needed was the infilling of the Holy Spirit. This supposed shortcut to spirituality was in direct contradiction to what the Navigators were telling me, namely, there is no shortcut! I rejected the Navigator’s view of how to grow spiritually the time, but guess what? After a couple of decades of the school of hard knocks, I learned the Navigators and Bill Gothard were right. It was only through decades of Bible study, Scripture memorization, listening to the right people, experience, and guidance of the Holy Spirit that I came to know I know today.

The Scripture that comes to mind about this subject is what Jesus told His disciples.

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. – John 6:63

The Lord blessed Bill Gothard with good health. At the time of this post, he’s 89 years old.

Hurt has got to be one of our major problems today. You can get hurt so badly that you cut yourself off from feeling altogether. I’ve met girls who’ve said, “Hey, I’ve been hurt too many times. I’m never going to love anybody again. Forget it.” So you get hard and cynical. That’s one way people deal with pain–they just withdraw themselves so that they won’t be hurt again. But when you come to Jesus, God heals your heart and He takes the cynicism out of your life. You can once again open your heart to others and love again.

Even Christians can get hurt. It’s not wrong to be hurt, but the way you deal with your hurt makes all the difference in the World. Being hurt is a big enough problem in itself, but if that hurt is not handled in the right way, bitterness will set in. In the end it is bitterness, not “being hurt,” that will destroy you.

RECOGNIZING BITTERNESS

It is really not that complicated to recognize bitterness. Let’s think of some of the characteristics of an extremely bitter person:

1. They show a lack of concern for others. A bitter person cares very little about anybody else.
2. They’re sensitive and touchy. For instance, if a bitter person walks into a room where two other people are talking, and those people get quieter as he walks in, the bitter person thinks, “They’re talking about me.”
3. They become very possessive with just a few friends, and rarely ever have any really close friends. They also have an unnatural fear of losing their friends.
4. They tend to avoid meeting new people.
5. They show little or no gratitude at all.
6. They will usually speak words of empty flattery or harsh criticism.
7. They hold grudges against people, often for a long time. They find it extremely difficult to forgive.
8. They often have a stubborn or sulking attitude.
9. They are usually unwilling to share or help anybody.
10. They end up experiencing mood extremes–very high and happy one minute, and the next thing you know, they’re so low they can reach up and touch bottom.

(Editor’s note: Although these symptoms often indicate bitternesses, they can also result from other causes as well.)

BITTERNESS: THE SEED OF HELL

One of the bad things about bitterness is that it doesn’t stop. It keeps getting worse. It may only start as a little seed of hurt, but then it grows and festers into a very dangerous thing. Many people can be hurt by one person’s bitterness. (See    Heb.12:15 .)

THE “FILING CABINET OF YOUR MIND”

In bitterness, you focus on what that “horrible person” has done to you. You make a filing cabinet with their name on it, saying, “Rotten Things This Person Has Done To Me.” Now this is a big filing cabinet, and every time that person does even the smallest thing that hurts or bothers you, you file it in with the rest of the hurts. Usually we have more than one filing cabinet.

One of the causes of continual or persistent bitterness is that we try to balance out the guilt with blame. We say, “Well, I’m wrong, but they’re worse. I have a good reason to be bitter. You don’t know what they did to me!” That’s how we try to ease our conscience.

Many people use bitterness for revenge. That’s why we hold on to it sometimes. “I’ll show you, and you’re really going to be sorry.” But who is sorry first? You’re the one who’s killing yourself! You are not only hurt spiritually and emotionally, but physically as well. Bitterness and resentment often bring on all sorts of medical problems, such as ulcers and high blood pressure. People who carry deep bitterness around can’t even enjoy a great meal. They sit down to eat, but all they can think of is the person who hurt them–they might as well be eating cardboard.

GETTING OUT OF THE BITTERNESS TRAP

The Lord’s Prayer says, “God, You forgive me the way I forgive others.” The thing that causes hurt to develop into bitterness is failing to respond to the help God can give at that time of being hurt. To forgive someone doesn’t mean pretending you’re not hurt. That isn’t Christianity–that’s insanity. You need to be honest with yourself and admit that you’ve really been hurt. But how do we overcome our hurts? Here are some basic steps.

Pray, and ask God to forgive you for your bitterness and unforgiving spirit. This is not a complicated thing, but it may be costly. You may need a bit of time on your own. Take time to actually write a list of how you have hurt God and others, and let the Lord break you. Ask God’s forgiveness for these things one by one.–And when you get finished, take the list and rip it up. It’s a good feeling. Burn it if you like.

Destroy your files. Remember that list of things that others have done to hurt you? Open the filing cabinets of your mind, take out all the files, and get rid of them. Tear up your list and burn it. You must release it all to God. Forgiveness is opening the filing cabinet before God and clearing the debts. “I’m not going to hold this against them anymore. I’m not even going to keep a record of it.” No record. That’s what God does with you. Do you want Him to remember and recall all the debts He has cleared you of? Of course not, so you do the same. The Bible says, “For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”– Mat.6:14,15 . It’s a choice you must make in response to God’s offer of forgiveness to you. What will you do?




Bitterness: Weeding Out the Poisonous Root

Bitterness: Weeding Out the Poisonous Root

–BY Jim Henry

I read this article long ago some in the 1980s. It helped me greatly to overcome the grudges and bitterness I used to have toward various people for their perceived wrongs against me. If you have bitterness in your heart toward anyone, I urge you to read it! When I was bitter toward a person, it was like a spiritual acid in my soul. I learned over time to forgive others as Christ has forgiven me. I’ve realized how sinful I have been in the past in my attitudes words and deeds toward some people, and knowing that humbles me greatly. I can say now by God’s grace I’m free from the past and have my eyes only on the present and future, praise God!

I’m not sure who the author of this article, Jim Henry is. There’s a Baptist pastor by that name. It could be him.

Bitterness is that hateful, spiteful sourness in the heart that creeps in when you have been, or think you have been, maliciously wronged. I looked up the word in a dictionary, and it was defined as a sharpness affecting the taste, the feelings, or the mind. It comes from an old English word that meant “sharpness to the taste.”

If you’ve ever had a difficult experience with someone who made you mad, and you resented it, held on to it–you know how bad it tasted spiritually, and in your mind it raised hateful feelings and thoughts. That is bitterness, and God’s Word has something to say about it.

RECOGNIZING BITTERNESS

How does bitterness show itself?–In at least three ways.

One kind of bitterness is directed against God. You can become bitter against God in the loss of a loved one, when a friend swindles you out of money, when the boss passes you over for a promotion you really deserved and gives it to someone else, or when your husband walks off and leaves you for another woman.

You are angry, and you say, “Lord, if You love me so much, why did this happen? If You answer prayer, why didn’t You answer mine? Either You are not powerful enough, or You didn’t care enough. Either way, I am angry with You!”

A second kind of bitterness is against other people. It can be there in a child who decides to rebel against his parents, to run away from home because he believes they are unfair to him. It can be there in a wife who says, “I’ll have a nervous breakdown if my husband keeps treating me like this, and I’ll get even with him.”

It might be a person who says, “OK, if I forgive them for what they did to me, that wouldn’t be fair. They don’t deserve to be forgiven. I’m going to carry this a little longer and maybe somehow along the way they’ll see what it has done to me, and something will happen to them.”

You and I cannot afford the luxury of holding on to bitterness and resentment against others, because it only becomes the root of other problems.

Your bitterness can also be directed against yourself, and show itself in an inability to forgive yourself, even though God has forgiven you. You carry that load until you say, “I deserved it, but I’m strong enough to take it, and I’ll just carry this thing and deal with it myself.” Self-centered pride latches onto your heart and you refuse the forgiveness of God and others.

This can also cause you to live in self-pity. You say, “OK, I deserve this. God’s trying to punish me. I shouldn’t have done this or that, and now I deserve what I’m getting, and I’m just going to have to be a martyr and carry it.” So you trudge along in life nursing bitter resentment and a grudge against God or someone else. You carry it until you make life miserable for yourself and everyone around you. Why? Because you never dealt with your bitterness. The Bible says, “Watch out for such bitterness!” (“Look diligently”– Heb.12:15 .)

BITTERNESS BEGINS UNSEEN

Not only am I to “look diligently” for bitterness, but because it may be unseen, I may not be aware of it; and being unaware of it, I may be especially liable to its danger.

Look what the Scripture says: “See to it that no one misses the grace of God, that no bitter root grows up…” Now, where is a root? Usually under the ground. You don’t see it, but it’s there. I have some weeds in my yard, growing through everything–even bricks! There are roots down there somewhere. They cause weeds to grow, whether there’s shade or sunshine–I can’t get rid of them. I don’t see the roots, but the evidence is everywhere.

Bitterness can be an unseen enemy, growing like a tumor in your mind and in your spirit. The Bible says we should look out for it. Just because we don’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there.

Bitterness is the unharvested fruit of anger, and in time it will show itself. As    Numbers 32:23    says, “Be sure that your sin will find you out.”

BITTERNESS SPRINGS UP & CAUSES TROUBLE

The Bible warns that the root of bitterness will spring up, and when it does, what does it do? Cause good things to happen? No! Cause joy? No! Cause love? No! Cause peace? No! “See to it…that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble!”

Bitterness, improperly handled, causes trouble–and it does so in at least two ways.

First, it causes physical problems. In his book “None of These Diseases,” S. I. McMillan says, “Anger, unhandled, will show itself in at least 50 diseases.”

Dr. Norman Wright, a professor of psychology at Biola University and a Christian writer, agrees with McMillan. God has constructed us, says Dr. Wright, with a tube about 30 feet long that begins at our throat and runs to our rectum (the alimentary canal). That long tube, disturbed by bitterness and anger, produces things like colitis, diarrhea and ulcers. (Editor’s note: Of course, such ailments often result from many other causes besides bitterness or anger.) When we are angry and do not handle it properly, there are physical consequences.

Bitterness can also show itself in our mental condition. Bitterness is really displaced anger. We can be angry at other things, other people and other objects, not knowing it comes from bitterness. All our energy and mind are set in an anger-mode, and we’re affected mentally. There is no joy, no creativity, no positive power flowing through our lives because there is resentment there.

We are also affected spiritually when bitterness is not resolved. How? By an inability to accept God’s Love. It can cause you to doubt your relationship to God. Ray Burke has written a book called Anger–Diffusing the Bomb, and in it he says that each time he dealt with those who doubted God’s Love for them, somewhere along the line he discovered they harbored bitterness against God, themselves, or someone else. When this bitterness was dealt with and resolved, their ability to accept God’s Love and forgiveness returned.

HOW DO WE OVERCOME BITTERNESS?

The good news is that anyone can overcome a bitter spirit. God encourages us to deal with it. He says in    Ephesians 4:31 , “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger…”

The Bible is so practical and clear that if we take what God teaches us about overcoming bitterness and apply it, we can be free of the bondage of bitterness.

BITTERNESS TOWARD GOD

Begin by dealing with any bitterness toward God. The following steps may help.

First, trust God’s wisdom. This doesn’t mean you should believe that everything that happens on Earth is good. Sin is in the World. Satan is still the prince of the air. Yet I must believe that God allows things to happen that He may not like, and which we may not like. But in His wisdom, somewhere down the line, God will turn it around for good for His children, according to His promise in    Romans 8:28 .

Second, I have to ask God what He’s trying to teach me through this. The Bible says we’re the disciples of Jesus. What is a disciple?–A learner. The Bible says the Father is the teacher, and we are disciples. We are learners. The experiences of life are teaching experiences. Sometimes we are so anxious to get to our destination that we forget how much joy can be ours along the way. When bitterness comes and you are tempted to be angry with God, ask Him what He is trying to teach you.

Third, apply one of God’s promises to your situation.

Fourth, reject self-pity. Have you ever been a victim of the “Poor Me Syndrome”? Perhaps you know someone else who always seems to be saying, “Poor me, just look what’s happened to me.” No one likes being around such a sad-sack for very long, because it’s no fun. So don’t get into that syndrome.

Fifth, put time into proper perspective. Every difficult experience you may be dealing with now, circumstances that tend to make you angry and bitter, will in time pass away.

Sixth, be quick to give thanks. I’ve learned a little chorus recently, and I start singing it almost from the time I wake up in the morning: “It’s amazing what praising can do.” The song goes:

It doesn’t matter when things go wrong,
Jesus fills my heart with a song.
It’s amazing what praising can do.

You can’t be bitter against God and praise Him at the same time. You can’t be blessing Him while you’re also shaking your fist at Him. So the Bible says, “In all things, give thanks.”– 1Th.5:18 . Learn to give thanks unto the Lord and praise His Name, and it’s really amazing what praising can do.

BITTERNESS TOWARD YOURSELF

Many times we get angry with ourselves. It shows up in many forms–we feel rejected, we wallow in self-pity, and our self-image is poor.

It may be because of some sin or failure of yesteryear, something that, if we had it to do all over again, we wouldn’t do for a million dollars; but we did do it, and we’re having trouble forgiving ourselves.

How do I deal with that?

I begin by confessing my sin to the Lord, and believing His promise: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”– 1Jn.1:9 . Then once I know God has forgiven me, I can forgive myself.

BITTERNESS TOWARD OTHERS

How do you deal with bitterness against others? One thing you must do is to keep your anger temporary. In    Ephesians 4:26    God tells us we should not let the sun go down on our anger. If you’re mad at somebody today, you should get it settled before the sun goes down. If it goes down and you don’t deal with it, it will simmer all night, and tomorrow there’s a good chance you’ll be twice as angry and bitter about it as you are today. Washington Irving said that a tart temper is the only thing that doesn’t mellow with age. So deal with your anger before the sun goes down. Keep a short account.

Another crucial area is the tongue. The Bible reminds us that though the tongue is a little instrument, it causes a lot of problems. You can’t get into trouble for something you didn’t say. That’s why it’s so often best to mentally stamp “N.C.” on things you hear or observe. Do you know what that is? “No Comment.” You can keep out of trouble that way. Watch your words. A sharp tongue is a tool that grows keener with use. Watch it.

We can also pursue peace. “Make every effort to live in peace with all men.”– Heb.12:14 . “Seek peace and pursue it.”– 1Pet.3:11 . We must chase after peace, like a dog after a fox! Go for it! In    Philippians 4:5    we are commanded, “Let your gentleness be evident to all.” Be gentle–not to most people, or to some, but to all of them. Live gently. Pursue peace.

Also, if you know someone is harboring anger, hurt or bitterness towards you because of some wrongdoing on your part, you can take the positive step of initiating reconciliation. In    Matthew 5:23-24 , Jesus says that if you come to Him with your offering in hand, and then remember that a brother has something against you, leave your offering, go to your brother, and make your offering after you’re reconciled with your brother. So the Lord not only tells us to go to others when we’re bitter or unforgiving towards them, but He covers both angles and also tells us to go to those who are bitter or angry towards us.

There’s something else: Forgive and forget. How can you forget something negative that’s stuck in your mind? The Bible says God remembers our sins no more. So how can God forget something when He is omniscient? How can He know everything and still forget? Here’s the secret: When you forgive and forget, the forgetting means that you, like God, don’t hold that wrongdoing to the offender’s account. God forgets the charge against us; He remembers it no more. Oh, He knows about it, just as you do, but He will never bring it up again. That’s what we are to do. Don’t fish in the pond of history. Leave it there.

Sometimes we are like the man who came running into the office of a marriage counsellor. “Sir, you’ve got to do something about my wife. Hurry! She’s historical, she’s historical!” The counselor said, “Now, wait a minute. You mean she’s hysterical.” He said, “No! She’s historical! She’s bringing up everything from the past!”

Some people can go back and reel off in chronological order everything that a person has done against them during their entire relationship. If you forgive a person, forget their offenses and never bring them up again. Don’t dwell in the past and don’t let the past dwell in you.

Robert E. Lee, after the Civil War, visited a home in Kentucky. The lady of the house pointed to a limbless, battered tree trunk standing on the front lawn, and said, “Before the Union army came through here, that was a beautiful, magnificent magnolia tree. Then they blasted it with their artillery, and that’s all that’s left. What do you think about that?”

She expected the general to sympathize with her and criticize the Union Army. But instead, he looked at her and said one sentence: “Cut it down and forget it.”

HOW ABOUT YOU?

Do you have some trees of bitterness standing in your life? Bitterness toward God? Toward others? Toward yourself? Cut them down and forget them.

Resolve to deal with your bitter spirit. “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”– Eph.4:31-32 .




The Excellency of Christ Part III By Jonathan Edwards

The Excellency of Christ Part III By Jonathan Edwards

Continued from part II.

I would now show how the aforesaid teaching is of benefit to us, in that

A) it gives us insight into the names of Christ in Scripture,
B) it encourages us to accept him as our Savior,
C) it encourages us to accept him as our Friend.

A) From this doctrine we may learn one reason why Christ is called by such a variety of names, and held forth under such a variety of representations, in Scripture. It is the better to signify and exhibit to us that variety of excellencies that meet together and are conjoined in him. Many appellations are mentioned together in one verse Isaiah 9:6.

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

It shows a wonderful conjunction of excellencies, that the same person should be a Son, born and given, and yet be the everlasting Father, without beginning or end, that he should be a Child, and yet be he whose name is Counsellor, and the mighty God; and well may his name, in whom such things are conjoined, be called wonderful.

By reason of the same wonderful conjunction, Christ is represented by a great variety of sensible things, that are on some account excellent. Thus in some places he is called a Sun, as Mal. 4:2, in others a Star, Numb. 24:17. And he is especially represented by the Morning star, as being that which excels all other stars in brightness, and is the forerunner of the day, Rev. 22:16. And, as in our text, he is compared to a lion in one verse, and a lamb in the next, so sometimes he is compared to a roe or young hart, another creature most diverse from a lion. So in some places he is called a rock, in others he is compared to a pearl. In some places he is called a man of war, and the Captain of our Salvation, in other places he is represented as a bridegroom. In the second chapter of Canticles, the first verse, he is compared to a rose and a lily, that are sweet and beautiful flowers; in the next verse but one, he is compared to a tree bearing sweet fruit. In Isaiah 53:2 he is called a Root out of a dry ground; but elsewhere, instead of that, he is called the Tree of Life, that grows (not in a dry or barren ground, but) ” in the midst of the paradise of God.” Rev. 2:7.

B) Let the consideration of this wonderful meeting of diverse excellencies in Christ induce you to accept of him, and close with him as your Savior. As all manner of excellencies meet in him, so there are concurring in him all manner of arguments and motives, to move you to choose him for your Savior, and every thing that tends to encourage poor sinners to come and put their trust in him: his fullness and all-sufficiency as a Savior gloriously appear in that variety of excellencies that has been spoken of. Fallen man is in a state of exceeding great misery, and is helpless in it; he is a poor weak creature, like an infant cast out in its blood in the day that it is born. But Christ is the lion of the tribe of Judah; he is strong, though we are weak; he hath prevailed to do that for us which no creature else could do. Fallen man is a mean despicable creature, a contemptible worm; but Christ, who has undertaken for us, is infinitely honorable and worthy. Fallen man is polluted, but Christ is infinitely holy; fallen man is hateful, but Christ is infinitely lovely; fallen man is the object of God’s indignation, but Christ is infinitely dear to him. We have dreadfully provoked God, but Christ has performed that righteousness which is infinitely precious in God’s eyes.

And here is not only infinite strength and infinite worthiness, but infinite condescension, and love and mercy, as great as power and dignity. If you are a poor, distressed sinner, whose heart is ready to sink for fear that God never will have mercy on you, you need not be afraid to go to Christ, for fear that he is either unable or unwilling to help you. Here is a strong foundation, and an inexhaustible treasure, to answer the necessities of your poor soul, and here is infinite grace and gentleness to invite and embolden a poor, unworthy, fearful soul to come to it. If Christ accepts of you, you need not fear but that you will be safe, for he is a strong Lion for your defense. And if you come, you need not fear but that you shall be accepted; for he is like a Lamb to all that come to him, and receives then with infinite grace and tenderness. It is true he has awful majesty, he is the great God, and infinitely high above you; but there is this to encourage and embolden the poor sinner, that Christ is man as well as God; he is a creature, as well as the Creator, and he is the most humble and lowly in heart of any creature in heaven or earth. This may well make the poor unworthy creature bold in coming to him. You need not hesitate one moment; but may run to him, and cast yourself upon him. You will certainly be graciously and meekly received by him. Though he is a lion, he will only be a lion to your enemies, but he will be a lamb to you. It could not have been conceived, had it not been so in the person of Christ, that there could have been so much in any Savior, that is inviting and tending to encourage sinners to trust in him. Whatever your circumstances are, you need not be afraid to come to such a Savior as this. Be you never so wicked a creature, here is worthiness enough; be you never so poor, and mean, and ignorant a creature, there is no danger of being despised, for though he be so much greater than you, he is also immensely more humble than you. Any one of you that is a father or mother, will not despise one of your own children that comes to you in distress: much less danger is there of Christ’s despising you, if you in your heart come to him.

Here let me a little expostulate with the poor, burdened, distressed soul.

1. What are you afraid of, that you dare not venture your soul upon Christ? Are you afraid that he cannot save you, that he is not strong enough to conquer the enemies of your soul? But how can you desire one stronger than ” the almighty God”? as Christ is called, Isa. 9:6. Is there need of greater than infinite strength? Are you afraid that he will not be willing to stoop so low as to take any gracious notice of you? But then, look on him, as he stood in the ring of soldiers, exposing his blessed face to be buffeted and spit upon by them! Behold him bound with his back uncovered to those that smote him! And behold him hanging on the cross! Do you think that he that had condescension enough to stoop to these things, and that for his crucifiers, will be unwilling to accept of you, if you come to him? Or, are you afraid that if he does accept you, that God the Father will not accept of him for you? But consider, will God reject his own Son, in whom his infinite delight is, and has been, from all eternity, and who is so united to him, that if he should reject him he would reject himself?

2. What is there that you can desire should be in a Savior, that is not in Christ? Or, wherein should you desire a Savior should be otherwise than Christ is? What excellency is there wanting? What is there that is great or good; what is there that is venerable or winning; what is there that is adorable or endearing; or, what can you think of that would be encouraging, which is not to be found in the person of Christ? Would you have your Savior to be great and honorable, because you are not willing to be beholden to a mean person? And, is not Christ a person honorable enough to be worthy that you should be dependent on him? Is he not a person high enough to be appointed to so honorable a work as your salvation? Would you not only have a Savior of high degree, but would you have him, notwithstanding his exaltation and dignity, to be made also of low degree, that he might have experience of afflictions and trials, that he might learn by the things that he has suffered, to pity them that suffer and are tempted? And has not Christ been made low enough for you? and has he not suffered enough? Would you not only have him possess experience of the afflictions you now suffer, but also of that amazing wrath that you fear hereafter, that he may know how to pity those that are in danger, and afraid of it? This Christ has had experience of, which experience gave him a greater sense of it, a thousand times, than you have, or any man living has. Would you have your Savior to be one who is near to God, that so his mediation might be prevalent with him? And can you desire him to be nearer to God than Christ is, who is his only-begotten Son, of the same essence with the Father? And would you not only have him near to God, but also near to you, that you may have free access to him? And would you have him nearer to you than to be in the same nature, united to you by a spiritual union, so close as to be fitly represented by the union of the wife to the husband, of the branch to the vine, of the member to the head; yea, so as to be one spirit? For so he will be united to you, if you accept of him. Would you have a Savior that has given some great and extraordinary testimony of mercy and love to sinners, by something that he has done, as well as by what he says? And can you think or conceive of greater things than Christ has done? Was it not a great thing for him, who was God, to take upon him human nature: to be not only God, but man thenceforward to all eternity? But would you look upon suffering for sinners to be a yet greater testimony of love to sinners, than merely doing, though it be ever so extraordinary a thing that he has done? And would you desire that a Savior should suffer more than Christ has suffered for sinners? What is there wanting, or what would you add if you could, to make him more fit to be your Savior?

But further, to induce you to accept of Christ as your Savior, consider two things particularly.

3. How much Christ appears as the Lamb of God in his invitations to you to come to him and trust in him. With what sweet grace and kindness does he, from time to time, call and invite you, as Prov. 8:4. ” Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men.” And Isaiah 55:1-3 ” Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat– yea come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price.” How gracious is he here in inviting every one that thirsts, and in so repeating his invitation over and over, ” Come ye to the waters, come, buy and eat – – yea come!” Mark the excellency of that entertainment which he invites you to accept of; ” Come, buy wine and milk!” your poverty, having nothing to pay for it, shall be no objection, ” Come, he that hath no money, come without money, and without price!” What gracious arguments and expostulations he uses with you! ” Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” As much as to say, It is altogether needless for you to continue laboring and toiling for that which can never serve your turn, seeking rest in the world, and in your own righteousness — I have made abundant provision for you, of that which is really good, and will fully satisfy your desires, and answer your end, and I stand ready to accept of you: you need not be afraid; If you will come to me, I will engage to see all your wants supplied, and you made a happy creature. As he promises in the third verse, ” Incline your ear, and come unto me: Hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” And so Prov. 9 at the beginning. How gracious and sweet is the invitation there! ” Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither;” let you be never so poor, ignorant, and blind a creature, you shall be welcome. And in the following words Christ sets forth the provision that he has made for you, ” Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled.” You are in a poor famishing state, and have nothing wherewith to feed your perishing soul; you have been seeking something, but yet remain destitute. Hearken, how Christ calls you to eat of his bread, and to drink of the wine that he hath mingled! And how much like a lamb does Christ appear in Matt. 9:28 30. ” Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” O thou poor distressed soul! whoever thou art, consider that Christ mentions thy very case when he calls to them who labor and are heavy laden! How he repeatedly promises you rest if you come to him! In the 28th verse he says, ” I will give you rest.” And in the 29th verse, ” Ye shall find rest to your souls.” This is what you want. This is the thing you have been so long in vain seeking after. O how sweet would rest be to you, if you could but obtain it! Come to Christ, and you shall obtain it. And hear how Christ, to encourage you, represents himself as a lamb! He tells you, that he is meek and lowly in heart, and are you afraid to come to such a one! And again, Rev. 3:20. ” Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and I will sup with him and he with me.” Christ condescends not only to call you to him, but he comes to you; he comes to your door, and there knocks. He might send an officer and seize you as a rebel and vile malefactor, but instead of that, he comes and knocks at your door, and seeks that you would receive him into your house, as your Friend and Savior. And he not only knocks at your door, but he stands there waiting, while you are backward and unwilling. And not only so, but he makes promises what he will do for you, if you will admit him, what privileges he will admit you to; he will sup with you, and you with him. And again, Rev. 22:16,17. ” I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth, say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely.” How does Christ here graciously set before you his own winning attractive excellency! And how does he condescend to declare to you not only his own invitation, but the invitation of the Spirit and the bride, if by any means he might encourage you to come! And how does he invite every one that will, that they may ” take of the water of life freely,” that they may take it as a free gift, however precious it be, and though it be the Water of life.

4. If you do come to Christ, he will appear as a Lion, in his glorious power and dominion, to defend you. All those excellencies of his, in which he appears as a lion, shall be yours, and shall be employed for you in your defense, for your safety, and to promote your glory, he will be as a lion to fight against your enemies. He that touches you, or offends you, will provoke his wrath, as he that stirs up a lion. Unless your enemies can conquer this Lion, they shall not be able to destroy or hurt you; unless they are stronger than he, they shall not be able to hinder your happiness. Isaiah 31:4. ” For thus hath the Lord spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them; so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.”

C) Let what has been said be improved to induce you to love the Lord Jesus Christ, and choose him for your friend and portion. As there is such an admirable meeting of diverse excellencies in Christ, so there is every thing in him to render him worthy of your love and choice, and to win and engage it. Whatsoever there is or can be desirable in a friend, is in Christ, and that to the highest degree that can be desired.

Would you choose for a friend a person of great dignity? It is a thing taking with men to have those for their friends who are much above them; because they look upon themselves honored by the friendship of such. Thus, how taking would it be with an inferior maid to be the object of the dear love of some great and excellent prince. But Christ is infinitely above you, and above all the princes of the earth; for he is the King of kings. So honorable a person as this offers himself to you, in the nearest and dearest friendship.

And would you choose to have a friend not only great but good? In Christ infinite greatness and infinite goodness meet together, and receive lustre and glory one from another. His greatness is rendered lovely by his goodness. The greater any one is without goodness, so much the greater evil; but when infinite goodness is joined with greatness, it renders it a glorious and adorable greatness. So, on the other hand, his infinite goodness receives lustre from his greatness. He that is of great understanding and ability, and is withal of a good and excellent disposition, is deservedly more esteemed than a lower and lesser being with the same kind inclination and good will. Indeed goodness is excellent in whatever subject it be found; it is beauty and excellency itself, and renders all excellent that are possessed of it; and yet most excellent when joined with greatness. The very same excellent qualities of gold render the body in which they are inherent more precious, and of greater value, when joined with greater than when with lesser dimensions. And how glorious is the sight, to see him who is the great Creator and supreme Lord of heaven and earth, full of condescension, tender pity and mercy, towards the mean and unworthy! His almighty power, and infinite majesty and self- sufficiency, render his exceeding love and grace the more surprising And how do his condescension and compassion endear his majesty, power, and dominion, and render those attributes pleasant, that would otherwise be only terrible! Would you not desire that your friend, though great and honorable, should be of such condescension and grace, and so to have the way opened to free access to him, that his exaltation above you might not hinder your free enjoyment of his friendship? — And would you choose not only that the infinite greatness and majesty of your friend should be, as it were, mollified and sweetened with condescension and grace; but would you also desire to have your friend brought nearer to you? Would you choose a friend far above you, and yet as it were upon a level with you too? Though it be taking with men to have a near and dear friend of superior dignity, yet there is also an inclination in them to have their friend a sharer with them in circumstances. Thus is Christ. Though he be the great God, yet he has, as it were, brought himself down to be upon a level with you, so as to become man as you are that he might not only be your Lord, but your brother, and that he might be the more fit to be a companion for such a worm of the dust. This is one end of Christ’s taking upon him man’s nature, that his people might be under advantages for a more familiar converse with him than the infinite distance of the divine nature would allow of. And upon this account the church longed for Christ’s incarnation, Cant. 8:1. ” O that thou wert my brother that sucked the breast of my mother! when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee, yea, I should not be despised.” One design of God in the gospel is to bring us to make God the object of our undivided respect, that he may engross our regard every way, that whatever natural inclination there is in our souls, he may be the centre of it; that God may be all in all. But there is an inclination in the creature, not only to the adoration of a Lord and Sovereign, but to complacence in some one as a friend, to love and delight in some one that may be conversed with as a companion. And virtue and holiness do not destroy or weaken this inclination of our nature. But so hath God contrived in the affair of our redemption, that a divine person may be the object even of this inclination of our nature. And in order hereto, such a one is come down to us, and has taken our nature, and is become one of us, and calls himself our friend, brother, and companion. Psalm 122:8. ” For my brethren and companions’ sake, will I now say, Peace be within thee.”

But is it not enough in order to invite and encourage you to free access to a friend so great and high, that he is one of infinite condescending grace, and also has taken your own nature, and is become man? But would you, further to embolden and win you, have him a man of wonderful meekness and humility? Why, such a one is Christ! He is not only become man for you, but far the meekest and most humble of all men, the greatest instance of these sweet virtues that ever was, or will be. And besides these, he has all other human excellencies in the highest perfection. These, indeed, are no proper addition to his divine excellencies. Christ has no more excellency in his person, since his incarnation, than he had before; for divine excellency is infinite, and cannot be added to. Yet his human excellencies are additional manifestations of his glory and excellency to us, and are additional recommendations of him to our esteem and love, who are of finite comprehension. Though his human excellencies are but communications and reflections of his divine, and though this light, as reflected, falls infinitely short of the divine fountain of light in its immediate glory; yet the reflection shines not without its proper advantages, as presented to our view and affection. The glory of Christ in the qualifications of his human nature, appears to us in excellencies that are of our own kind, and are exercised in our own way and manner, and so, in some respect, are peculiarly fitted to invite our acquaintance and draw our affection. The glory of Christ as it appears in his divinity, though far brighter, more dazzles our eyes, and exceeds the strength of our sight or our comprehension; but, as it shines in the human excellencies of Christ, it is brought more to a level with our conceptions, and suitableness to our nature and manner, yet retaining a semblance of the same divine beauty, and a savor of the same divine sweetness. But as both divine and human excellencies meet together in Christ, they set off and recommend each other to us. It tends to endear the divine majesty and holiness of Christ to us, that these are attributes of one in our nature, one of us, who is become our brother, and is the meekest and humblest of men. It encourages us to look upon these divine perfections, however high and great; since we have some near concern in and liberty freely to enjoy them. And on the other hand, how much more glorious and surprising do the meekness, the humility, obedience, resignation, and other human excellencies of Christ appear, when we consider that they are in so great a person, as the eternal Son of God, the Lord of heaven and earth!

By your choosing Christ for your friend and portion, you will obtain these two infinite benefits.

5. Christ will give himself to you, with all those various excellencies that meet in him, to your full and everlasting enjoyment. He will ever after treat you as his dear friend; and you shall ere long be where he is, and shall behold his glory, and dwell with him, in most free and intimate communion and enjoyment.

When the saints get to heaven, they shall not merely see Christ, and have to do with him as subjects and servants with a glorious and gracious Lord and Sovereign, but Christ will entertain them as friends and brethren. This we may learn from the manner of Christ’s conversing with his disciples here on earth: though he was their Sovereign Lord, and did not refuse, but required, their supreme respect and adoration, yet he did not treat them as earthly sovereigns are wont to do their subjects. He did not keep them at an aweful distance, but all along conversed with them with the most friendly familiarity, as a father amongst a company of children, yea, as with brethren. So he did with the twelve, and so he did with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. He told his disciples, that he did not call them servants, but friends, and we read of one of them that leaned on his bosom: and doubtless he will not treat his disciples with less freedom and endearment in heaven. He will not keep them at a greater distance for his being in a state of exaltation; but he will rather take them into a state of exaltation with him. This will be the improvement Christ will make of his own glory, to make his beloved friends partakers with him, to glorify them in his glory, as he says to his Father, John 17:22, 23. ” And the glory which thou hast given me, have I given them, that they may be one, even as we are one I in them” etc. We are to consider, that though Christ is greatly exalted, yet he is exalted, not as a private person for himself only, but as his people’s head; he is exalted in their name, and upon their account, as the first fruits, and as representing the whole harvest. He is not exalted that he may be at a greater distance from them, but that they may be exalted with him. The exaltation and honor of the head is not to make a greater distance between the head and the members, but the members have the same relation and union with the head they had before, and are honored with the head; and instead of the distance being greater, the union shall be nearer and more perfect. When believers get to heaven, Christ will conform them to himself, as he is set down in his Father’s throne, so they shall sit down with him on his throne, and shall in their measure be made like him.

When Christ was going to heaven, he comforted his disciples with the thought, that after a while, he would come again and take them to himself, that they might be with him. And we are not to suppose that when the disciples got to heaven, they found him keeping a greater distance than he used to do. No, doubtless, be embraced them as friends, and welcomed them to his and their Father’s house, and to his and their glory. They who had been his friends in this world, who had been together with him here, and had together partaken of sorrows and troubles, are now welcomed by him to rest, and to partake of glory with him. He took them and led them into his chambers, and showed them all his glory; as he prayed, John 17:24. ” Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me, that they may behold the glory which thou hast given me.” And he led them to his living fountains of waters, and made them partake of his delights, as he prays John 17:13. ” That my joy may be fulfilled in themselves,” and set them down with him at his table in his kingdom, and made them partake with him of his dainties, according to his promise, Luke 22:30, and led them into his banqueting house, and made them to drink new wine with him in the kingdom of his heavenly Father, as he foretold them when he instituted the Lord’s supper, Matt. 26:29.

Yea the saints’ conversation with Christ in heaven shall not only be as intimate, and their access to him as free, as of the disciples on earth, but in many respects much more so; for in heaven, that vital union shall be perfect, which is exceeding imperfect here. While the saints are in this world, there are great remains of sin and darkness to separate or disunite them from Christ, which shall then all be removed. This is not a time for that full acquaintance, and those glorious manifestations of love, which Christ designs for his people hereafter; which seems to be signified by his speech to Mary Magdalene, when ready to embrace him, when she met him after his resurrection; John 20:17. ” Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father.”

When the saints shall see Christ’s glory and exaltation in heaven, it will indeed possess their hearts with the greater admiration and adoring respect, but it will not awe them into any separation, but will serve only to heighten their surprise and joy, when they find Christ condescending to admit them to such intimate access, and so freely and fully communicating himself to them. So that if we choose Christ for our friend and portion, we shall hereafter be so received to him, that there shall be nothing to hinder the fullest enjoyment of him, to the satisfying the utmost cravings of our souls. We may take our full swing at gratifying our spiritual appetite after these holy pleasures. Christ will then say, as in Cant. 5:1. ” Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly O beloved.” And this shall be our entertainment to all eternity! There shall never be any end of this happiness, or any thing to interrupt our enjoyment of it, or in the least to molest us in it!

6. By your being united to Christ, you will have a more glorious union with and enjoyment of God the Father, than otherwise could be. For hereby the saints’ relation to God becomes much nearer; they are the children of God in a higher manner than otherwise could be. For, being members of God’s own Son, they are in a sort partakers of his relation to the Father: they are not only sons of God by regeneration, but by a kind of communion in the sonship of the eternal Son. This seems to be intended, Gal. 4:4-6. ” God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that are under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” The church is the daughter of God not only as he hath begotten her by his word and Spirit but as she is the spouse of his eternal Son.

So we being members of the Son, are partakers in our measure of the Father’s love to the Son, and complacence in him. John 17:23. ” I in them, and thou in me, — Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me.” And ver. 26. ” That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them.” And chap. 16:27. ” The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.” So we shall, according to our capacities, be partakers of the Son’s enjoyment of God, and have his joy fulfilled in ourselves, John 17:13. And by this means we shall come to an immensely higher, more intimate and full enjoyment of God, than otherwise could have been. For there is doubtless an infinite intimacy between the Father and the Son which is expressed by his being in the bosom of the Father. And saints being in him, shall, in their measure and manner, partake with him in it, and of the blessedness of it.

And thus is the affair of our redemption ordered, that thereby we are brought to an immensely more exalted kind of union with God, and enjoyment of him, both the Father and the Son, than otherwise could have been. For Christ being united to the human nature, we have advantage for a more free and full enjoyment of him, than we could have had if he had remained only in the divine nature. So again, we being united to a divine person, as his members, can have a more intimate union and intercourse with God the Father, who is only in the divine nature, than otherwise could be. Christ, who is a divine person, by taking on him our nature, descends from the infinite distance and height above us, and is brought nigh to us; whereby we have advantage for the full enjoyment of him. And, on the other hand, we, by being in Christ a divine person, do as it were ascend up to God, through the infinite distance, and have hereby advantage for the full enjoyment of him also.

This was the design of Christ, that he, and his Father, and his people, might all be united in one. John 17:21 23. ” That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee — that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.” Christ has brought it to pass, that those whom the Father has given him should be brought into the household of God, that he and his Father, and his people, should be as one society, one family; that the church should be as it were admitted into the society of the blessed Trinity.




The Rod of Asclepius – The Symbol of Medicine – Exposed!

The Rod of Asclepius – The Symbol of Medicine – Exposed!

This article is by my friend Brian Klunder who sent me PDF files. I converted it to web format to make it easy to read from a small screen.

And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. – Revelation 18:23

In Greek mythology, the Rod of Asclepius is a serpent-entwined rod wielded by the Greek god Asclepius, a deity associated with healing and medicine. In modern times, it is the predominant symbol for medicine and health care. – Wikipedia

We are told that the snake is a symbol of medicine…BUT WHY?

Rod Of Asclepius Symbol Of Medicine

Does it represent the brass serpent of Moses in the desert? Not a chance!

Here’s the short version. The Lord gave the people a serpent to look upon for healing and as usual they turned it into an idol (snake worship) until it was destroyed 700 years later in 700 BC (2nd Kings 18:4). But it was too late. The enemy turned the idol into the cult of Asclepius around 460 BC invading Greece, Rome and Europe.

Rod Of Asclepius Symbol Of Medicine

So where did the snake symbols come from?

In order to understand, we must enter the world of Greek mythology; A collection of myths belonging to a religious culture.

The Rod Asclepius

Greek God Asclepius

TEMPLE OF ASCLEPIUS

Temple Of Asclepius

This is where the sick would come for healing. It was known as the “Seat of Satan” in Pergamus, Revelation 2:13

Asclepius was referred to as “Saviour Asclepius” in the temple. The temple floor would be covered in what they believed to be healing snakes in honor of the god. This theme prevailed as new temples were founded throughout the classical world.

Hygeia, the daughter and assistant of Asclepius

Hygeia

Do you notice the snake drinking from the bowl of wisdom?

The bowl of Hygeia is the most widely recognized international symbol of the pharmacy industry.

The serpent drinking from the bowl of wisdom represents the deceptive character of Satan deceiving people today.

Baphomet God Of Two Genders

CADUCEUS 3500 BC:

This was the staff of the god…Hermes, father of Hermaphrodite, [both sex organs]

In Greek mythology and in the occultic world, the caduceus has nothing to do with health or medicine.

So why has modern medicine adopted the symbol? It’s only purpose was for magic and to protect thieves and merchants.

It is the spirit behind the deletion of the genders that’s so prevalent in our society today.

Are you connecting the dots?

Jesus Vs Asclepius

Did you know when Christians began their battle against the pagan gods for the souls of mankind, Asclepius was the leading deity in the struggle between the dying world of the pagans and the rising world of the Christians?

[“Edelstien and Edelstein” – Asclepius, A Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies) Stone Masons were beheaded for refusing to make statues to Asclepius. Christians were burned alive in Pergamum for refusing to sacrifice to the gods.

Early Christian Martyrs refused to worship the Cult of Asclepius in the times of Diocletian.

ASCLEPIUS: “THE COUNTERFEIT JESUS”

The Old Testament prophesied that a Saviour would come healing the sick and raising the dead. Satan, who opposes everything God does, preempted the arrival of the Messiah by sending Asclepius as a counterfeit god of medicine.

As Justin Martyr said (1st century Christian apologist), “And when he (the devil) brings forth Asclepius as the raiser of the dead and healer of other diseases, may I not say that in this matter likewise he has imitated the prophecies of Christ.”

Eusebius, the “father of church history”, called Asclepius, “The god who does not cure souls but destroys them. The one who draws men away from their true Saviour.”

Greek Drachma

World Health Organization Pandemic

Let’s meet the father of the modern pharmaceutical industry (Toxicology/Pharmacology). Ever wonder why there are so many metals in vaccines? I sure have and here is why:

Paracelsus was an occultist, alchemist and astrologer (1500’s) who theorized it was the planetary alignment that was the reason for your ill health. But hey, no worries! His toxic metals potion blend will do the trick! But just ignore the Alzheimer’s disease, Dementia, Autism and all the other heavy metal diseases that are a result of his venomous blend.

Poison Laden Vaccines

Did you know the original Hippocratic oath that doctors made was to Asclepius?

The early church forefathers clearly saw Satan’s deceiving hand at work. Do you?

LET’S DO A QUICK RECAP OF WHAT WE LEARNED AND ANSWER THE ORIGINAL QUESTION OF: WHY SNAKES?

Obviously, it’s symbolism, Right? But allow me to expand what that really means. Imagine running for your life in the dead of night, trying to escape a murderous gang, and you stumble upon two houses.

Church Next To House Of Devils

Without a moments hesitation you ran into the house with the cross, right?

But why?

Because that symbol marked ownership. You recognized the spirit behind the symbol controlled the territory you were about to enter.

BUT DOES THE BIBLE HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT – SATANIC SYMBOLS?

Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. – Acts 7:43

Note:The so called “Star of David” on the Israeli flag is actually the star of the pagan god Remphan! How many Christians or Jews know that? Ref: The Star of David? Or the Star of Remphan! And also: The ‘Star of David’ Is A Satanic Hexagram

As Christians, we can all agree that the modern day abortion industry is just Molech worship repackaged. Children are being sacrificed for comfort and prosperity. But doesn’t an aborted baby being sacrificed for the lie of promising health and protection fall into that same definition of aborted fetal cells for vaccines argument? Of course it does! Think Christian! Do we partake in the sacrifice of a murdered baby for our benefit? Do we “do evil so that good may come?” What has the Lord to say about this?

And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.
– Leviticus 20:3

My friends, if all the nations are deceived by the pharmaceutical industry {Revelation 18:23} then should we not struggle and work through this scripture? Could it be, we also have defiled our sanctuary by participating? And is ignorance a worthy defense, when we stand before the throne?

Let’s explore the answers through the lens of God – SHALL WE?

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DID YOU KNOW?

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(That’s all for now until Brian sends more!)




The Excellency of Christ Part II By Jonathan Edwards

The Excellency of Christ Part II By Jonathan Edwards

Continued from part I.

Having thus shown wherein there is an admirable conjunction of excellencies in Jesus Christ, I now proceed,

Secondly, To show how this admirable conjunction of excellencies appears in Christ’s acts, [namely:]

A) in his taking of human nature,
B) in his earthly life,
C) in his sacrificial death,
D) in his exaltation in heaven,
E) in his final subduing of all evil when he returns in glory.]

A) It appears in what Christ did in taking on him our nature.

In this act, his infinite condescension wonderfully appeared, That he who was God should become man; that the word should be made flesh, and should take on him a nature infinitely below his original nature! And it appears yet more remarkably in the low circumstances of his incarnation: he was conceived in the womb of a poor young woman, whose poverty appeared in this, when she came to offer sacrifices of her purification, she brought what was allowed of in the law only in case of poverty, as Luke 2:24. ”

According to what Is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle- doves, or two young pigeons.” This was allowed only in case the person was so poor that she was not able to offer a lamb. Lev. 12:8. And though his infinite condescension thus appeared in the manner of his incarnation, yet his divine dignity also appeared in it; for though he was conceived in the womb of a poor virgin, yet he was conceived there by the power of the Holy Ghost. And his divine dignity also appeared in the holiness of his conception and birth. Though he was conceived in the womb of one of the corrupt race of mankind, yet he was conceived and born without sin; as the angel said to the blessed Virgin,

Luke 1:35. ” The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.”

His infinite condescension marvelously appeared in the manner of his birth. He was brought forth in a stable because there was no room for them in the inn. The inn was taken up by others, that were looked upon as persons of greater account. The Blessed Virgin, being poor and despised, was turned or shut out. Though she was in such necessitous circumstances, yet those that counted themselves her betters would not give place to her; and therefore, in the time of her travail, she was forced to betake herself to a stable; and when the child was born, it was wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger. There Christ lay a little infant, and there he eminently appeared as a lamb.

But yet this feeble infant, born thus in a stable, and laid in a manger, was born to conquer and triumph over Satan, that roaring lion. He came to subdue the mighty powers of darkness, and make a show of them openly, and so to restore peace on earth, and to manifest God’s good-will towards men, and to bring glory to God in the highest, according as the end of his birth was declared by the joyful songs of the glorious hosts of angels appearing to the shepherds at the same time that the infant lay in the manger; whereby his divine dignity was manifested.

B) This admirable conjunction of excellencies appears in the acts and various passages of Christ’s life.

Though Christ dwelt in mean outward circumstances, whereby his condescension and humility especially appeared, and his majesty was veiled; yet his divine divinity and glory did in many of his acts shine through the veil, and it illustriously appeared, that he was not only the Son of man, but the great God.

Thus, in the circumstances of his infancy, his outward meanness appeared; yet there was something then to show forth his divine dignity, in the wise men’s being stirred up to come from the east to give honor to him their being led by a miraculous star, and coming and falling down and worshipping him, and presenting him with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. His humility and meekness wonderfully appeared in his subjection to his mother and reputed father when he was a child. Herein he appeared as a lamb. But his divine glory broke forth and shone when, at twelve years old, he disputed with doctors in the temple. In that he appeared, in some measure, as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

And so, after he entered on his public ministry, his marvellous humility and meekness was manifested in his choosing to appear in such mean outward circumstances; and in being contented in them, when he was so poor that he had not where to lay his head, and depended on the charity of some of his followers for his subsistence, as appears by Luke 8. at the beginning. How meek, condescending, and familiar his treatment of his disciples; his discourses with them, treating them as a father his children, yea, as friends and companions. How patient, bearing such affliction and reproach, and so many injuries from the scribes and Pharisees, and others. In these things he appeared as a Lamb.

And yet he at the same time did in many ways show forth his divine majesty and glory, particularly in the miracles he wrought, which were evidently divine works, and manifested omnipotent power, and so declared him to be the Lion of the tribe of Judah. His wonderful and miraculous works plainly showed him to be the God of nature; in that it appeared by them that he had all nature in his hands, and could lay an arrest upon it, and stop and change its course as he pleased. In healing the sick, and opening the eyes of the blind, and unstopping the ears of the deaf, and healing the lame, he showed that he was the God that framed the eye, and created the ear, and was the author of the frame of man’s body. By the dead’s rising at his command, it appeared that he was the author and fountain of life, and that

“God the Lord, to whom belong the issues from death.”

By his walking on the sea in a storm, when the waves were raised, he showed himself to be that God spoken of in Job 9:8. ” That treadeth on the waves of the sea.” By his stilling the storm, and calming the rage of the sea, by his powerful command, saying, ” Peace, be still,” he showed that he has the command of the universe, and that he is that God who brings things to pass by the word of his power, who speaks and it is done, who commands and it stands fast;

Psalm 115:7. ” Who stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves.”

And Psalm 107:29.

” That maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.”

And Psalm 139:8.

” O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee, or to thy faithfulness round about thee? Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.”

Christ, by casting out devils, remarkably appeared as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and showed that he was stronger than the roaring lion, that seizes whom he may devour. He commanded them to come out, and they were forced to obey. They were terribly afraid of him; they fall down before him, and beseech him not so torment them. He forces a whole legion of them to forsake their hold, by his powerful word; and they could not so much as enter into the swine without his leave. He showed the glory of his omniscience, by telling the thoughts of men; as we have often an account. Herein he appeared to be that God spoken of, Amos 4:13.

” That declareth unto man what is his thought.”

Thus, in the midst of his meanness and humiliation, his divine glory appeared in his miracles, John 2:11.

” This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory.”

And though Christ ordinarily appeared without outward glory, and in great obscurity, yet at a certain time he threw off the veil, and appeared in his divine majesty, so far as it could be outwardly manifested to men in this frail state, when he was transfigured in the mount. The apostle Peter, 2 Pet. 1:16,17. was an

” eye-witness of his majesty, when he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; which voice that came from heaven they heard, when they were with him in the holy mount.”

And at the same time that Christ was wont to appear in such meekness, condescension, and humility, in his familiar discourses with his disciples, appearing therein as the Lamb of God; he was also wont to appear as The Lion of the tribe of Judah, with divine authority and majesty, in his so sharply rebuking the scribes and Pharisees, and other hypocrites.

C) This admirable conjunction of excellencies remarkably appears in his offering up himself a sacrifice for sinners in his last sufferings.

As this was the greatest thing in all the works of redemption, the greatest act of Christ in that work; so in this act especially does there appear that admirable conjunction of excellencies that has been spoken of. Christ never so much appeared as a lamb, as when he was slain:

” He came like a lamb to the slaughter,” Isaiah 53:7.

Then he was offered up to God as a lamb without blemish, and without spot: then especially did he appear to be the anti-type of the lamb of the passover:

1 Cor 5:7. ” Christ our Passover sacrificed for us.”

And yet in that act he did in an especial manner appear as the Lion of the tribe of Judah; yea, in this above all other acts, in many respects, as may appear in the following things.

8. Then was Christ in the greatest degree of his humiliation, and yet by that, above all other things, his divine glory appears.

Christ’s humiliation was great, in being born in such a low condition, of a poor virgin, and in a stable. His humiliation was great, in being subject to Joseph the carpenter, and Mary his mother, and afterwards living in poverty, so as not to have where to lay his head; and in suffering such manifold and bitter reproaches as he suffered, while he went about preaching and working miracles. But his humiliation was never so great as it was, in his last sufferings, beginning with his agony in the garden, till he expired on the cross. Never was he subject to such ignominy as then, never did he suffer so much pain in his body, or so much sorrow in his soul; never was he in so great an exercise of his condescension, humility, meekness, and patience, as he was in these last sufferings; never was his divine glory and majesty covered with so thick and dark a veil; never did he so empty himself and make himself of no reputation, as at this time.

And yet, never was his divine glory so manifested, by any act of his, as in yielding himself up to these sufferings. When the fruit of it came to appear, and the mystery and ends of it to be unfolded in its issue, then did the glory of it appear, then did it appear as the most glorious act of Christ that ever he exercised towards the creature. This act of his is celebrated by the angels and hosts of heaven with peculiar praises, as that which is above all others glorious, as you may see in the context, (Revelation 5:9-12)

” And they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.”

9. He never in any act gave so great a manifestation of love to God, and yet never so manifested his love to those that were enemies to God, as in that act.

Christ never did any thing whereby his love to the Father was so eminently manifested, as in his laying down his life, under such inexpressible sufferings, in obedience to his command and for the vindication of the honor of his authority and majesty; nor did ever any mere creature give such a testimony of love to God as that was.

And yet this was the greatest expression of his love to sinful men who were enemies to God; Rom. 5:10. ” When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, by the death of his Son.” The greatness of Christ’s love to such, appears in nothing so much as in its being dying love. That blood of Christ which fell in great drops to the ground, in his agony, was shed from love to God’s enemies, and his own. That shame and spitting, that torment of body, and that exceeding sorrow, even unto death, which he endured in his soul, was what he underwent from love to rebels against God to save them from hell, and to purchase for them eternal glory. Never did Christ so eminently show his regard to God’s honor, as in offering up himself a victim to Justice. And yet in this above all, he manifested his love to them who dishonored God, so as to bring such guilt on themselves, that nothing less than his blood could atone for it.

10. Christ never so eminently appeared for divine justice, and yet never suffered so much from divine Justice, as when he offered up himself a sacrifice for our sins.

In Christ’s great sufferings did his infinite regard to the honor of God’s justice distinguishingly appear, for it was from regard to that that he thus humbled himself.

And yet in these sufferings, Christ was the target of the vindictive expressions of that very justice of God. Revenging justice then spent all its force upon him, on account of our guilt; which made him sweat blood, and cry out upon the cross, and probably rent his vitals–broke his heart, the fountain of blood, or some other blood vessels–and by the violent fermentation turned his blood to water. For the blood and water that issued out of his side, when pierced by the spear, seems to have been extravasated blood, and so there might be a kind of literal fulfilment of Psalm 22:14.

” I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels.”

And this was the way and means by which Christ stood up for the honor of God’s justice, namely, by thus suffering its terrible executions. For when he had undertaken for sinners, and had substituted himself in their room, divine justice could have its due honor no other way than by his suffering its revenges.

In this the diverse excellencies that met in the person of Christ appeared, namely, his infinite regard to God’s justice, and such love to those that have exposed themselves to it, as induced him thus to yield himself a sacrifice to it.

11. Christ’s holiness never so illustriously shone forth as it did in his last sufferings, and yet he never was to such a degree treated as guilty.

Christ’s holiness never had such a trial as it had then, and therefore never had so great a manifestation. When it was tried in this furnace it came forth as gold, or as silver purified seven times. His holiness then above all appeared in his steadfast pursuit of the honor of God, and in his obedience to him. For his yielding himself unto death was transcendently the greatest act of obedience that ever was paid to God by any one since the foundation of the world.

And yet then Christ was in the greatest degree treated as a wicked person would have been. He was apprehended and bound as a malefactor. His accusers represented him as a most wicked wretch. In his sufferings before his crucifixion, he was treated as if he had been the worst and vilest of mankind, and then, he was put to a kind of death, that none but the worst sort of malefactors were wont to suffer, those that were most abject in their persons, and guilty of the blackest crimes. And he suffered as though guilty from God himself, by reason of our guilt imputed to him; for he who knew no sin, was made sin for us; he was made subject to wrath, as if he had been sinful himself. He was made a curse for us.

Christ never so greatly manifested his hatred of sin, as against God, as in his dying to take away the dishonor that sin had done to God; and yet never was he to such a degree subject to the terrible effects of God’s hatred of sin, and wrath against it, as he was then. in this appears those diverse excellencies meeting in Christ, namely, love to God, and grace to sinners.

12. He never was so dealt with, as unworthy, as in his last sufferings, and yet it is chiefly on account of them that he is accounted worthy.

He was therein dealt with as if he had not been worthy to live: they cry out, ” Away with him! away with him! Crucify him.” John 19:15. And they prefer Barabbas before him. And he suffered from the Father, as one whose demerits were infinite, by reason of our demerits that were laid upon him.

And yet it was especially by that act of his subjecting himself to those sufferings that he merited, and on the account of which chiefly he was accounted worthy of the glory of his exaltation. Philip. 2:8, 9. ” He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death; wherefore God hath highly exalted him.” And we see that it is on this account chiefly, that he is extolled as worthy by saints and angels in the context: ” Worthy,” say they, ” is the Lamb that was slain.” This shows an admirable conjunction in him of infinite dignity, and infinite condescension and love to the infinitely unworthy.

13. Christ in his last sufferings suffered most extremely from those towards whom he was then manifesting his greatest act of love.

He never suffered so much from his Father, (though not from any hatred to him, but from hatred to our sins,) for he then forsook him, or took away the comforts of his presence; and then ” it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and put him to grief.” as Isaiah 53:10. And yet he never gave so great a manifestation of love to God as then, as has been already observed.

So Christ never suffered so much from the hands of men as he did then; and yet never was in so high an exercise of love to men. He never was so ill treated by his disciples; who were so unconcerned about his sufferings, that they .would not watch with him one hour, in his agony; and when he was apprehended, all forsook him and fled, except Peter, who denied him with oaths and curses. And yet then he was suffering, shedding his blood, and pouring out his soul unto death for them. Yea, he probably was then shedding his blood for some of them that shed his blood, for whom he prayed while they were crucifying him; and who were probably afterwards brought home to Christ by Peter’s preaching. (Compare Luke 23:34. Acts 2:23,36,37,41. and chap. 3:17. and chap. 4.) This shows an admirable meeting of justice and grace in the redemption of Christ.

14. It was in Christ’s last sufferings, above all, that he was delivered up to the power of his enemies; and yet by these, above all, he obtained victory over his enemies.

Christ never was so in his enemies’ hands, as in the time of his last sufferings. They sought his life before; but from time to time they were restrained, and Christ escaped out of their hands, and this reason is given for it, that his time was not yet come. But now they were suffered to work their will upon him, he was in a great degree delivered up to the malice and cruelty of both wicked men and devils. And therefore when Christ’s enemies came to apprehend him, he says to them, Luke 22:53. ” When I was daily with you in the temple ye stretched forth no hand against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”

And yet it was principally by means of those sufferings that he conquered and overthrew his enemies. Christ never so effectually bruised Satan’s head, as when Satan bruised his heel. The weapon with which Christ warred against the devil, and obtained a most complete victory and glorious triumph over him, was the cross, the instrument and weapon with which he thought he had overthrown Christ, and brought on him shameful destruction.

Col. 2:14,15. ” Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances,–nailing it to his cross: and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”

In his last sufferings, Christ sapped the very foundations of Satan’s kingdom, he conquered his enemies in their own territories, and beat them with their own weapons as David cut off Goliath’s head with his own sword. The devil had, as it were, swallowed up Christ, as the whale did Jonah– but it was deadly poison to him, he gave him a mortal wound in his own bowels. He was soon sick of his morsel, and was forced to do by him as the whale did by Jonah. To this day he is heart-sick of what he then swallowed as his prey. In those sufferings of Christ was laid the foundation of all that glorious victory he has already obtained over Satan, in the overthrow of his heathenish kingdom in the Roman empire, and all the success the gospel has had since; and also of all his future and still more glorious victory that is to be obtained in the earth. Thus Samson’s riddle is most eminently fulfilled, Judges 14:14.

” Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.”

And thus the true Samson does more towards the destruction of his enemies at his death than in his life, in yielding up himself to death, he pulls down the temple of Dagon, and destroys many thousands of his enemies, even while they are making themselves sport in his sufferings–and so he whose type was the ark, pulls down Dagon, and breaks off his head and hands in his own temple, even while he is brought in there as Dagon’s captive. (1 Samuel 5:1-4)

Thus Christ appeared at the same time, and in the same act, as both a lion and a lamb. He appeared as a lamb in the hands of his cruel enemies; as a lamb in the paws, and between the devouring jaws, of a roaring lion; yea, he was a lamb actually slain by this lion: and yet at the same time, as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, he conquers and triumphs over Satan; destroying his own destroyer; as Samson did the lion that roared upon him, when he rent him as he would a kid. And in nothing has Christ appeared so much as a lion, in glorious strength destroying his enemies, as when he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter. In his greatest weakness he was most strong; and when he suffered most from his enemies, he brought the greatest confusion on his enemies.

Thus this admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies was manifest in Christ, in his offering up himself to God in his last sufferings.

D) It is still manifest in his acts, in his present state of exaltation in heaven. Indeed, in his exalted state, he most eminently appears in manifestation of those excellencies, on the account of which he is compared to a lion; but still he appears as a lamb; Rev. 14:1. ” And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on mount Sion”; as in his state of humiliation he chiefly appeared as a lamb, and yet did not appear without manifestation of his divine majesty and power, as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Though Christ be now at the right-hand of God, exalted as King of heaven, and Lord of the universe; yet as he still is in the human nature, he still excels in humility. Though the man Christ Jesus be the highest of all creatures in heaven, yet he as much excels them all in humility as he doth in glory and dignity, for none sees so much of the distance between God and him as he does. And though he now appears in such glorious majesty and dominion in heaven, yet he appears as a lamb in his condescending, mild, and sweet treatment of his saints there, for he is a Lamb still, even amidst the throne of his exaltation, and he that is the Shepherd of the whole flock is himself a Lamb, and goes before them in heaven as such. Rev. 7:17. ” For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” Though in heaven every knee bows to him, and though the angels fall down before him adoring him, yet he treats his saints with infinite condescension, mildness, and endearment. And in his acts towards the saints on earth, he still appears as a lamb, manifesting exceeding love and tenderness in his intercession for them, as one that has had experience of affliction and temptation. He has not forgot what these things are, nor has he forgot how to pity those that are subject to them. And he still manifests his lamb-like excellencies, in his dealings with his saints on earth, in admirable forbearance, love, gentleness, and compassion. Behold him instructing, supplying, supporting, and comforting them; often coming to them, and manifesting himself to them by his Spirit, that he may sup with them, and they with him. Behold him admitting them to sweet communion, enabling them with boldness and confidence to come to him, and solacing their hearts. And in heaven Christ still appears, as it were, with the marks of his wounds upon him, and so appears as a Lamb as it had been slain, as he was represented in vision to St John, in the text, when he appeared to open the book sealed with seven seals, which is part of the glory of his exaltation.

E) And lastly, this admirable conjunction of excellencies will be manifest in Christ’s acts at the last judgment.

He then, above all other times, will appear as the Lion of the tribe of Judah in infinite greatness and majesty, when he shall come in the glory of his Father, with all the holy angels, and the earth shall tremble before him, and the hills shall melt. This is he (Rev. 20:11.)

” that shall sit on a great white throne, before whose face the earth and heaven shall flee away.”

He will then appear in the most dreadful and amazing manner to the wicked. The devils tremble at the thought of that appearance, and when it shall be, the kings, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains. and the mighty men, and every bond-man and every free-man, shall hide themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains, and shall cry to the mountains and rocks to fall on them, to hide them from the face and wrath of the Lamb. And none can declare or conceive of the amazing manifestations of wrath in which he will then appear towards these, or the trembling and astonishment the shrieking and gnashing of teeth, with which they shall stand before his judgment-seat, and receive the terrible sentence of his wrath.

And yet he will at the same time appear as a Lamb to his saints; he will receive them as friends and brethren, treating them with infinite mildness and love. There shall be nothing in him terrible to them, but towards them he will clothe himself wholly with sweetness and endearment. The church shall be then admitted to him as his bride; that shall be her wedding-day. The saints shall all be sweetly invited to come with him to inherit the kingdom, and reign in it with him to all eternity.

Continued in part III.




The History of the Counter-Reformation in a Nutshell

The History of the Counter-Reformation in a Nutshell

A friend asked me to write about the Counter-Reformation as succinctly as possible because he wanted to add pictures to the text. Most of the materials in this article have been compiled from other articles on this website.

Let’s start off with definitions:

The Protestant Reformation

The 16th-century movement that was started by Martin Luther. Entire European nations protested against the abuses of the Roman Catholic church, endeavored to reform it, refused to continue to submit to the Pope, and sought to base their Christian beliefs and worship of God solely on what the Bible teaches, and not on Roman church traditions.

The Counter-Reformation

The Roman Catholic Church’s reaction to the Protestant Reformation and its efforts to undo it.

A brief history behind the two movements

Martin Luther

Martin Luther (10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymn writer, professor, and Augustinian friar. He was the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation.

Luther turned to the prophecies of the “little horn” of Daniel 7:8, the “man of sin” of II Thessalonians 2:3, and “the beast” of Revelation 13. He saw the truth and said to himself, “Why, these prophecies apply to the Roman Catholic Church!”

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted on the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany, a statement of 95 points called the Ninety-five Theses, which protested against the sale of indulgences by the Church. According to Catholic doctrine, an “indulgence” is a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for forgiven sins. Luther wrote the sale of indulgences is an unbiblical practice that only enriches the Vatican and does nothing for the soul. Because of the invention of the printing press by Gutenberg in the previous century, the Ninety-five Theses was reprinted and distributed to all the nations of Europe. The kings and princes of the nations who agreed with Luther subsequently left the Roman Catholic Church, and this resulted in a substantial loss of income for the Vatican! Catholic nations are usually poorer than Protestant ones because of the sale of indulgences and paying the Church money for other fruitless unbiblical practices such as masses for the dead.

Besides identifying the prophecies of the Antichrist as the office of the papacy, Luther also discovered that salvation is only through faith in Jesus Christ and not through works or the Catholic sacraments as the Church of Rome insists. He discovered the truth of Romans 1:17 that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ alone.

 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

At the risk of losing his life, Martin Luther preached publicly and in print to an astonished people that Papal Rome was indeed the Antichrist of Bible prophecy.

Because of this dual message of salvation solely through faith in Jesus Christ apart from works, and of Papal Rome being the Antichrist, hundreds of thousands of people in Europe and in England left the Catholic Church!

The leader of the Counter-Reformation, Ignatius Loyola

On August 15, 1534, Ignatius Loyola founded a secretive Catholic order called the Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits. The Jesuits have a dark history of intrigue and sedition. Jesuit priests have been known throughout history as the most wicked political arm of the Roman Catholic Church.

A quote from Napoleon Bonaparte about the Jesuits:

The Jesuits are a MILITARY organization, not a religious order. Their chief is a general of an army, not the mere father abbot of a monastery. And the aim of this organization is power – power in its most despotic exercise – absolute power, universal power, power to control the world by the volition of a single man. Jesuitism is the most absolute of despotisms – and at the same time the greatest and most enormous of abuses.

Ignatius Loyola pledged loyalty to the Pope and worked for the destruction of the Bible-based faith of the Protestants.

Planning the Counter-Reformation at the Council of Trent

In 1545, the Catholic Church convened one of its most famous councils in history, which took place north of Rome in a city called Trent. It continued for three sessions ending in 1563. One of the main purposes of this Council was for Catholics to plan a counterattack against Martin Luther and the Protestants. Thus the Council of Trent became a center for Rome’s Counter-Reformation.

Up to this point, Rome’s main method of attack had been largely frontal—the open burning of Bibles and of heretics. Yet this warfare only confirmed in the minds of Protestants the conviction that Papal Rome was indeed the Beast that would “make war with the saints” (Revelation 13:7). Therefore a new tactic was needed, something less obvious.

Francisco Ribera’s false interpretation of the Daniel 9:27 and the 70th Week of Daniel

At the Council of Trent, the Jesuits were commissioned by the Pope to develop a new interpretation of Scripture that would counteract the Protestant application of the Bible’s Antichrist prophecies to the Roman Catholic Church. Francisco Ribera (1537-1591), a brilliant Jesuit priest and doctor of theology from Spain, repudiated the idea that the Antichrist was the Papacy. He set forth Antichrist as a man who would not appear until the very end of the age. Circa 1585, Ribera called the “he” of Daniel 9:27 the Antichrist who would make a treaty with the Jews and people of Israel at the beginning of the 7 years before the return of Christ. At the time, to a man all the Protestants interpreted Daniel 9:27 and the 70th Week of Daniel fulfilled by Jesus Christ and His disciples from 27 AD to 34 AD, the preaching of the Gospel to the Jews which confirmed the Covenant that God made with Abraham, the Covenant of grace through faith.

Galatians 3:6  Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

Galatians 3:13,14  Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Ribera also applied all of Revelation but the earliest chapters to the end-time rather than to the history of the true Bible-based Church. The Antichrist would be a single evil person who would be received by the Jews and would rebuild the Temple the Romans destroyed in 70 AD. Ribera denied the Protestant Scriptural Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2) as seated in the church of God—asserted by Augustine, Jerome, Luther and many reformers. He set on an infidel Antichrist, outside the church of God. The result of Ribera’s work was a twisting and maligning of prophetic truth.

Protestants of the time rejected Ribera’s interpretation of Daniel 9:27, the 70th Week of Daniel, 2 Thessalonians 2 and the Book of Revelation. It took four more centuries and the work of more Jesuits for Ribera’s false interpretations of prophecy to become absorbed into Protestant eschatology. This resulted in most Protestants today no longer thinking of the office of the papacy as the seat of the Antichrist. And the ironic thing is, traditional Catholics actually know better than most Protestant Christians about it! They are so shocked at the things Pope Francis is saying and doing, for example, having prayer sessions with Buddhists, Hindus, and other pagan religions, and blessing individuals in homosexual relations. As a result, many of them do look at Pope Francis as the Antichrist!!! There are YouTubes made by Catholics who call Francis an antipope.

Robert Bellarmine

Following close behind Francisco Ribera was another brilliant Jesuit scholar, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) of Rome. Between 1581 and 1593, Cardinal Bellarmine published his “Polemic Lectures Concerning the Disputed Points of the Christian Belief Against the Heretics of This Time.” In these lectures, he agreed with Ribera that the Antichrist is a single individual who would not rule until the very end of time. Through the work of these two tricky Jesuit scholars, a new school of eschatological thought was formed. Francisco Ribera has been called the Father of Futurism. Cardinal Bellarmine promoted Ribera’s Futurism further.

Manuel De Lacunza

Manuel De Lacunza, S.J. (Society of Jesus) (July 19, 1731 – June 18, 1801) was a Jesuit priest who used the pseudonym Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra in his main work on the interpretation of the prophecies of the Bible, which was entitled The Coming of the Messiah in Majesty and Glory. He picked up and promoted Francesco Ribera’s and Robert Bellarmine’s doctrines which also included the false teaching of a secret pre-tribulation rapture of the Church before the Antichrist’s seven-year covenant with the Jews.

Edward Irving

Edward Irving (1792-1834) was a Scottish clergyman. He contended that Manuel De Lacunza’s book was the work of a converted Jew. Irving knew Spanish and translated The Coming of the Messiah in Majesty and Glory into English. This influenced John Nelson Darby.

S. R. Maitland

Ribera’s futurist interpretation rocked not only the Protestant church but also the Catholic church, so the Pope ordered it buried in the archives out of sight. Unfortunately, over 200 years later a librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury by the name of S. R. Maitland (1792-1866) was appointed to be the Keeper of the Manuscripts at Lambeth Palace, in London, England. In his duties, Dr. Maitland came across Francisco Ribera’s futurist/rapture teaching and he had it republished for the sake of interest in early 1826 with follow-ups in 1829 and 1830. This was spurred along with the Oxford Tracts that were published in 1833 to try and de-protestantize the Church of England.

John Nelson Darby

John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), was an Anglo-Irish Bible teacher, one of the influential figures among the original Plymouth Brethren. Some sources say Darby was a Satanist, Freemason, and agent of the Rothschild-owned British East India Company. Darby’s family owned Leap Castle, renowned as the most sinister and occultic castle in Ireland’s history.

Darby is known as the “Father of Dispensationalism.” Dispensationalism is a big bag of false doctrines including an end-time-only Antichrist who will arise 7 years before the coming of Christ, the false pre-tribulation rapture, the rebuilding of a Third Temple in the last 7 years as a fulfillment of prophecy (no such prophecy in Scriptures), a distinction between the Church and the people of Israel which eventually resulted in the false interpretation of Genesis 12:3 claiming it’s refers to blessing the Jews and Israel and not the Church, the people of God through faith in Christ Jesus. This resulted in the Christian Zionist movement and the support of the modern State of Israel no matter what it does, even when the Israeli government murders innocent Palestinians, women and children as it is doing today.

Cyrus I. Scofield and the Scofield Reference Bible

Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (August 19, 1843 – July 24, 1921) was an American theologian, minister, and writer whose best-selling annotated Bible popularized futurism and dispensationalism among fundamentalist Christians.

World Zionist leaders initiated a program to change America and its religious orientation. One of the tools used to accomplish this goal was an obscure and malleable Civil War veteran named Cyrus I. Scofield. A much larger tool was a venerable, world-respected European book publisher–The Oxford University Press.

The scheme was to alter the Christian view of Zionism by creating and promoting a pro-Zionist subculture within Christianity. Scofield’s role was to re-write the King James Version of the Bible by inserting Zionist-friendly notes in the margins, between verses and chapters, and on the bottoms of the pages. The Oxford University Press used Scofield, a pastor by then, as the Editor, probably because it needed such a man for a front. The revised bible was called the Scofield Reference Bible, and with limitless advertising and promotion, it became a best-selling “bible” in America and has remained so for 90 years.

Scofield, of course, got all his dispensational and futurist doctrines from John Nelson Darby. He immersed himself in Darby’s teachings.

The Dallas Theological Seminary

Lewis Sperry Chafer, in 1924, founded the Dallas Theological Seminary. Almost all radio preachers have gone there. Almost all prophecy writers have gone there. It was established to promote dispensationalism. John Walvoord, Charles Ryrie, and Dwight Pentecost were among the names of people who were professors there. Later on, Hal Lindsey who wrote The Late Great Planet Earth was a graduate of there, Chuck Swindoll more recently was chancellor there at Dallas. It’s hard to find a person who ever writes or speaks on prophecy who didn’t ever go to Dallas Theological Seminary, or at least read commentators by those who did. Scofield’s Reference Bible was of course promoted by the Dallas Theological Seminary. How many are knowingly promoting false doctrines of the Jesuit Counter-Reformation?

In conclusion

All of Europe, formerly Protestant England, Scotland, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have been taken over by the Catholic Counter-Reformation. If you were wondering why your country is falling apart morally, spiritually, and economically, with an increase in crime and mental illness such as men thinking they are women, this is why. This may drive more conservatives away from liberal Protestant churches into conservative Catholic churches. This is the goal of the Counter-Reformation.

I believe the Jesuits behind all the problems in the world today which include false ideologies called “wokeness”, the LGBTQ agenda, the US southern border crises, wars, etc. etc.

What do you think about all this? Comments are welcome below in the comments section.




The Excellency of Christ Part I By Jonathan Edwards

The Excellency of Christ Part I By Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703 – March 22, 1758) was an American revivalist preacher, philosopher, and Congregationalist theologian. He was also the 3rd President of Princeton University! (Source: Wikipedia.)

Preachers in the 18th century really knew how to teach from the Bible. They didn’t add their own biases or agendas to the Bible. They just taught what the Bible says. This was when Protestantism was still strong in America before the Jesuits were able to derail it like today.

I really liked this message by Jonathan Edwards and hope you do too.

And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain.– Rev. 5:5-6

Introduction

The visions and revelations the apostle John had of the future events of God’s providence, are here introduced with a vision of the book of God’s decrees, by which those events were fore-ordained. This is represented (Revelation 5:1) as a book in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, ” written within and on the back side, and sealed with seven seals.” Books, in the form in which they were wont of old to be made, were broad leaves of parchment or paper, or something of that nature, joined together at one edge, and so rolled up together, and then sealed, or some way fastened together, to prevent their unfolding and opening. Hence we read of the roll of a book Jer. 36:2. It seems to have been such a book that John had a vision of here; and therefore it is said to be ” written within and on the back side,” i. e. on the inside pages, and also on one of the outside pages, namely, that which it was rolled in, in rolling the book up together. And it is said to be ” sealed with seven seals,” to signify that what was written in it was perfectly hidden and secret; or that God’s decrees of future events are sealed, and shut up from all possibility of being discovered by creatures, till God is pleased to make them known. We find that seven is often used in Scripture as the number of perfection, to signify the superlative or most perfect degree of anything, which probably arose from this, that on the seventh day God beheld the works of creation finished, and rested and rejoiced in them, as being complete and perfect.

When John saw this book, he tells us, he

” saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.”

And that he wept much, because

” no man was found worthy to open and read the book, neither to look thereon.”

And then tells us how his tears were dried up, namely, that

” one of the elders said unto him, “Weep not, Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed”

etc. as in the text. Though no man nor angel, nor any mere creature, was found either able to loose the seals, or worthy to be admitted to the privilege of reading the book, yet this was declared, for the comfort of this beloved disciple, that Christ was found both able and worthy. And we have an account in the succeeding chapters how he actually did it, opening the seals in order, first one, and then another, revealing what God had decreed should come to pass hereafter. And we have an account in this chapter, of his coming and taking the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne, and of the joyful praises that were sung to him in heaven and earth on that occasion.

Many things might be observed in the words of the text; but it is to my present purpose only to take notice of the two distinct appellations here given to Christ.

1. He is called a Lion. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He seems to be called the Lion of the tribe of Judah, in allusion to what Jacob said in his blessing of the tribe on his death-bed; who, when he came to bless Judah, compares him to a lion, Gen. 49:9.

” Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?”

And also to the standard of the camp of Judah in the wilderness on which was displayed a lion, according to the ancient tradition of the Jews. It is much on account of the valiant acts of David that the tribe of Judah, of which David was, is in Jacob’s prophetical blessing compared to a lion; but more especially with an eye to Jesus Christ, who also was of that tribe, and was descended of David, and is in our text called ” the Root of David“; and therefore Christ is here called ” the Lion of the tribe of Judah.”

2. He is called a Lamb. John was told of a Lion that had prevailed to open the book, and probably expected to see a lion in his vision; but while he is expecting, behold a Lamb appears to open the book, an exceeding diverse kind of creature from a lion. A lion is a devourer, one that is wont to make terrible slaughter of others; and no creature more easily falls a prey to him than a lamb. And Christ is here represented not only as a Lamb, a creature very liable to be slain, but a ” Lamb as it had been slain,” that is, with the marks of its deadly wounds appearing on it.

That which I would observe from the words, for the subject of my present discourse, is this, namely —

There is an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Jesus Christ.

The lion and the lamb, though very diverse kinds of creatures, yet have each their peculiar excellencies. The lion excels in strength, and in the majesty of his appearance and voice: the lamb excels in meekness and patience, besides the excellent nature of the creature as good for food, and yielding that which is fit for our clothing and being suitable to be offered in sacrifice to God. But we see that Christ is in the text compared to both, because the diverse excellencies of both wonderfully meet in him, — In handling this subject I would

First, Show wherein there is an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Christ.

Second, Show how this admirable conjunction of excellencies appear in Christ’s acts.

Third, make application.

Part One

First, I would show wherein there is an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies in Jesus Christ. which appears in three things:

A) There is a conjunction of such excellencies in Christ, as, in our manner of conceiving, are very diverse one from another.

B) There is in him a conjunction of such really diverse excellencies, as otherwise would have seemed to us utterly incompatible in the same subject.

C) Such diverse excellencies are exercised in him towards men that otherwise would have seemed impossible to be exercised towards the same object.

A) There is a conjunction of such excellencies in Christ as, in our manner of conceiving, are very diverse one from another. Such are the various divine perfections and excellencies that Christ is possessed of. Christ is a divine person, and therefore has all the attributes of God. The difference between these is chiefly relative, and in our manner of conceiving them. And those which, in this sense, are most diverse, meet in the person of Christ. I shall mention two instances.

1. There do meet in Jesus Christ infinite highness and infinite condescension. Christ, as he is God, is infinitely great and high above all. He is higher than the kings of the earth; for he is King of kings, and Lord of lords. He is higher than the heavens, and higher than the highest angels of heaven. So great is he, that all men, all kings and princes, are as worms of the dust before him; all nations are as the drop of the bucket, and the light dust of the balance; yea, and angels themselves are as nothing before him. He is so high, that he is infinitely above any need of us; above our reach, that we cannot be profitable to him; and above our conceptions, that we cannot comprehend him. Prov. 30:4 ” What is his name, and what is his Son’s name, if thou canst tell?” Our understandings, if we stretch them never so far, cannot reach up to his divine glory. Job 11:8 ” It is high as heaven, what canst thou do?” Christ is the Creator and great Possessor of heaven and earth. He is sovereign Lord of all. He rules over the whole universe, and doth whatsoever pleaseth him. His knowledge is without bound. His wisdom is perfect, and what none can circumvent. His power is infinite, and none can resist Him. His riches are immense and inexhaustible. His majesty is infinitely awful.

And yet he is one of infinite condescension. None are so low or inferior, but Christ’s condescension is sufficient to take a gracious notice of them. He condescends not only to the angels, humbling himself to behold the things that are done in heaven, but he also condescends to such poor creatures as men; and that not only so as to take notice of princes and great men, but of those that are of meanest rank and degree, ” the poor of the world,” James 2:5. Such as are commonly despised by their fellow creatures, Christ does not despise. I Cor. 1:28 ” Base things of the world, and things that are despised, hath God chosen.” Christ condescends to take notice of beggars Luke 16:22 and people of the most despised nations. In Christ Jesus is neither ” Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free” (Col. 3:11). He that is thus high condescends to take a gracious notice of little children Matt. 19:14. ” Suffer little children to come unto me.” Yea, which is more, his condescension is sufficient to take a gracious notice of the most unworthy, sinful creatures, those that have no good deservings, and those that have infinite ill deservings.

Yea, so great is his condescension, that it is not only sufficient to take some gracious notice of such as these, but sufficient for every thing that is an act of condescension. His condescension is great enough to become their friend, to become their companion, to unite their souls to him in spiritual marriage. It is enough to take their nature upon him, to become one of them, that he may be one with them. Yea, it is great enough to abase himself yet lower for them, even to expose himself to shame and spitting; yea, to yield up himself to an ignominious death for them. And what act of condescension can be conceived of greater? Yet such an act as this, has his condescension yielded to, for those that are so low and mean, despicable and unworthy!

Such a conjunction of infinite highness and low condescension, in the same person, is admirable. We see, by manifold instances, what a tendency a high station has in men, to make them to be of a quite contrary disposition. If one worm be a little exalted above another, by having more dust, or a bigger dunghill, how much does he make of himself! What a distance does he keep from those that are below him! And a little condescension is what he expects should be made much of, and greatly acknowledged. Christ condescends to wash our feet; but how would great men, (or rather the bigger worms,) account themselves debased by acts of far less condescension!

2. There meet in Jesus Christ, infinite justice and infinite grace.

As Christ is a divine person, he is infinitely holy and just, hating sin, and disposed to execute condign punishment for sin. He is the Judge of the world, and the infinitely just Judge of it, and will not at all acquit the wicked, or by any means clear the guilty.

And yet he is infinitely gracious and merciful. Though his justice be so strict with respect to all sin, and every breach of the law, yet he has grace sufficient for every sinner, and even the chief of sinners. And it is not only sufficient for the most unworthy to show them mercy, and bestow some good upon them, but to bestow the greatest good; yea, it is sufficient to bestow all good upon them, and to do all things for them. There is no benefit or blessing that they can receive, so great but the grace of Christ is sufficient to bestow it on the greatest sinner that ever lived. And not only so, but so great is his grace, that nothing is too much as the means of this good. It is sufficient not only to do great things, but also to suffer in order to do it, and not only to suffer, but to suffer most extremely even unto death, the most terrible of natural evils; and not only death, but the most ignominious and tormenting, and every way the most terrible that men could inflict; yea, and greater sufferings than men could inflict, who could only torment the body. He had sufferings in his soul, that were the more immediate fruits of the wrath of God against the sins of those he undertakes for.

B) There do meet in the person of Christ such really diverse excellencies, which otherwise would have been thought utterly incompatible in the same subject; such as are conjoined in no other person whatever, either divine, human, or angelical; and such as neither men nor angels would ever have imagined could have met together in the same person, had it not been seen in the person of Christ. I would give some instances.

1. In the person of Christ do meet together infinite glory and lowest humility. Infinite glory, and the virtue of humility, meet in no other person but Christ. They meet in no created person; for no created person has infinite glory, and they meet in no other divine person but Christ. For though the divine nature be infinitely abhorrent to pride, yet humility is not properly predicable of God the Father, and the Holy Ghost, that exist only in the divine nature; because it is a proper excellency only of a created nature; for it consists radically in a sense of a comparative lowness and littleness before God, or the great distance between God and the subject of this virtue; but it would be a contradiction to suppose any such thing in God.

But in Jesus Christ, who is both God and man, those two diverse excellencies are sweetly united. He is a person infinitely exalted in glory and dignity. Phil. 2:6. ” Being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” There is equal honor due to him with the Father. John 5:23. ” That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.” God himself says to him, ” thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever,” Heb. 1:8. And there is the same supreme respect and divine worship paid to him by the angels of heaven, as to God the Father, ver. 6. ” Let all the angels of God worship him.”
But however he is thus above all, yet he is lowest of all in humility. There never was so great an instance of this virtue among either men or angels, as Jesus. None ever was so sensible of the distance between God and him, or had a heart so lowly before God, as the man Christ Jesus. Matt. 11:29. What a wonderful spirit of humility appeared in him, when he was here upon earth, in all his behavior! In his contentment in his mean outward condition, contentedly living in the family of Joseph the carpenter, and Mary his mother, for thirty years together, and afterwards choosing outward meanness, poverty, and contempt, rather than earthly greatness; in his washing his disciples’ feet, and in all his speeches and deportment towards them; in his cheerfully sustaining the form of a servant through his whole life, and submitting to such immense humiliation at death!

2. In the person of Christ do meet together infinite majesty and transcendent meekness. These again are two qualifications that meet together in no other person but Christ. Meekness, properly so called, is a virtue proper only to the creature: we scarcely ever find meekness mentioned as a divine attribute in Scripture; at least not in the New Testament; for thereby seems to be signified, a calmness and quietness of spirit, arising from humility in mutable beings that are naturally liable to be put into a ruffle by the assaults of a tempestuous and injurious world. But Christ, being both God and man, hath both infinite majesty and superlative meekness.

Christ was a person of infinite majesty. It is he that is spoken of, Psalm 45:3. ” Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty.” It is he that is mighty, that rideth on the heavens, and his excellency on the sky. It is he that is terrible out of his holy places; who is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea: before whom a fire goeth, and burneth up his enemies round about; at whose presence the earth quakes, and the hills melt; who sitteth on the circle of the earth, and all the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers, who rebukes the sea, and maketh it dry and drieth up the rivers, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, from whose presence, and from the glory of whose power, the wicked shall be punished with everlasting destruction; who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, who hath heaven for his throne, and the earth for his footstool, and is the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and of whose dominion there is no end. And yet he was the most marvellous instance of meekness, and humble quietness of spirit, that ever was; agreeable to the prophecies of him, Matthew 21:4f ” All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.” And, agreeable to what Christ declares of himself, Matt. 11:29. ” I am meek and lowly in heart.” And agreeable to what was manifest in his behavior: for there never was such an instance seen on earth, of a meek behavior, under injuries and reproaches, and towards enemies; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. He had a wonderful spirit of forgiveness, was ready to forgive his worst enemies, and prayed for them with fervent and effectual prayers. With what meekness did he appear in the ring of soldiers that were contemning and mocking him; he was silent, and opened not his mouth, but went as a lamb to the slaughter. Thus is Christ a Lion in majesty and a Lamb in meekness.

3. There meet in the person of Christ the deepest reverence towards God and equality with God. Christ, when on earth, appeared full of holy reverence towards the Father. He paid the most reverential worship to him, praying to him with postures of reverence. Thus we read of his ” kneeling down and praying,” Luke 22:41. This became Christ, as one who had taken on him the human nature, but at the same time he existed in the divine nature; whereby his person was in all respects equal to the person of the Father. God the Father hath no attribute or perfection that the Son hath not, in equal degree, and equal glory. These things meet in no other person but Jesus Christ.

4. There are conjoined in the person of Christ infinite worthiness of good, and the greatest patience under sufferings of evil.

He was perfectly innocent,and deserved no suffering. He deserved nothing from God by any guilt of his own, and he deserved no ill from men. Yea, he was not only harmless and undeserving of suffering, but he was infinitely worthy; worthy of the infinite love of the Father, worthy of infinite and eternal happiness, and infinitely worthy of all possible esteem, love, and service from all men.
And yet he was perfectly patient under the greatest sufferings that ever were endured in this world. Heb. 12:2. ” He endured the cross, despising the shame.” He suffered not from his Father for his faults, but ours; and he suffered from men not for his faults but for those things on account of which he was infinitely worthy of their love and honor, which made his patience the more wonderful and the more glorious. 1 Pet. 2:20, ” For what glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently, but if when ye do well. and suffer for it, ye take it patiently; this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” There is no such conjunction of innocence, worthiness, and patience under sufferings, as in the person of Christ.

5. In the person of Christ are conjoined an exceeding spirit of obedience, with supreme dominion over heaven and earth.

Christ is the Lord of all things in two respects: he is so, as God-man and Mediator, and thus his dominion is appointed, and given him of the Father. Having it by delegation from God, he is as it were the Father’s vicegerent. But he is Lord of all things in another respect, namely, as he is (by his original nature) God; and so he is by natural right the Lord of all, and supreme over all as much as the Father. Thus, he has dominion over the world, not by delegation, but in his own right. He is not an under God, as the Arians (People who believe that Christ was created by the Father before time.) suppose, but to all intents and purposes supreme God.
And yet in the same person is found the greatest spirit of obedience to the commands and laws of God that ever was in the universe; which was manifest in his obedience here in this world. John 14:31 ” As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.”- – John 15:10. ” Even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” The greatness of his obedience appears in its perfection, and in his obeying commands of such exceeding difficulty. Never any one received commands from God of such difficulty, and that were so great a trial of obedience, as Jesus Christ. One of God’s commands to him was, that he should yield himself to those dreadful sufferings that he underwent. See John 10:18. ” No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.” ” This commandment received I of my Father.” And Christ was thoroughly obedient to this command of God. Heb. 5:8. ” Though he were a Son, yet he learned obedience by the things that he suffered.” Philip. 2:8. ” He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Never was there such an instance of obedience in man or angel as this, though he was at the same time supreme Lord of both angels and men.

6. In the person of Christ are conjoined absolute sovereignty and perfect resignation. This is another unparalleled conjunction.

Christ, as he is God, is the absolute sovereign of the world, the sovereign disposer of all events. The decrees of God are all his sovereign decrees; and the work of creation, and all God’s works of providence, are his sovereign works. It is he that worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will. Col 1:16f. ” By him, and through him, and to him, are all things.” John 5:17. ” The Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Matt. 8:3. ” I will, be thou clean.” But yet Christ was the most wonderful instance of resignation that ever appeared in the world. He was absolutely and perfectly resigned when he had a near and immediate prospect of his terrible sufferings, and the dreadful cup that he was to drink. The idea and expectation of this made his soul exceeding sorrowful even unto death, and put him into such an agony, that his sweat was as it were great drops or clots of blood, falling down to the ground. But in such circumstances he was wholly resigned to the will of God. Matt 26:39. ” O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt”. Verse 42. ” O my Father, if this cup may not pass from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.”

7. In Christ do meet together self-sufficiency, and an entire trust and reliance on God, which is another conjunction peculiar to the person of Christ.

As he is a divine person, he is self-sufficient, standing in need of nothing. All creatures are dependent on him, but he is dependent on none, but is absolutely independent. His proceeding from the Father, in his eternal generation, argues no proper dependence on the will of the Father; for that proceeding was natural and necessary, and not arbitrary.
But yet Christ entirely trusted in God: — his enemies say that of him, ” He trusted in God that he would deliver him,” Matt. 27:43. And the apostle testifies, I Pet. 2:23. ” That he committed himself God.”

C) Such diverse excellencies are expressed in him towards men, that otherwise would have seemed impossible to be exercised towards the same object; as particularly these three, justice, mercy, and truth. The same that are mentioned in Psalm 85:10. ” Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”

The strict justice of God, and even his revenging justice, and that against the sins of men, never was so gloriously manifested. as in Christ. He manifested an infinite regard to the attribute of God’s justice, in that, when he had a mind to save sinners, he was willing to undergo such extreme sufferings, rather than that their salvation should be to the injury of the honor of that attribute. And as he is the Judge of the world, he doth himself exercise strict justice, he will not clear the guilty, nor at all acquit the wicked in judgment.

Yet how wonderfully is infinite mercy towards sinners displayed in him! And what glorious and ineffable grace and love have been and are exercised by him, towards sinful men! Though he be the just Judge of a sinful world, yet he is also the Savior of the world. Though he be a consuming fire to sin, yet he is the light and life of sinners. Rom. 3:25. ” Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”

So the immutable truth of God, in the threatenings of his law against the sins of men, was never so manifested as it is in Jesus Christ, for there never was any other so great a trial of the unalterableness of the truth of God in those threatenings, as when sin came to be imputed to his own Son. And then in Christ has been seen already an actual complete accomplishment of those threatenings, which never has been nor will be seen in any other instance; because the eternity that will be taken up in fulfilling those threatenings on others, never will be finished. Christ manifested an infinite regard to this truth of God in his sufferings. And, in his judging the world, he makes the covenant of works, that contains those dreadful threatenings, his rule of judgement. He will see to it, that it is not infringed in the least jot or tittle: he will do nothing contrary to the threatenings of the law, and their complete fulfilment. And yet in him we have many great and precious promises, promises of perfect deliverance from the penalty of the law. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. And in him are all the promises of God yea, and Amen.

Continued in part II




What is “The Covenant” of the Book of Daniel?

What is “The Covenant” of the Book of Daniel?

The Covenant of Daniel 9:27!

“And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, …- – Galatians 3:17a

The words “the covenant” occur 106 times in 102 verses in 63 chapters and 25 books of the King James Version of the Bible.

The word “the” is a definite article that is used to denote a proper noun. Therefore in every case “the covenant” is used in Scripture, it is referring to something specific.

Did you know that of all of the occurrences of “the covenant”, there is only one single verse of Scripture where “the covenant” is clearly referring to something other than has to do with a covenant between the Lord and man?

Jeremiah 34:10 Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go.

It is clear from verse 8 of Jeremiah 34 that this particular covenant was one that was between King Zedekiah and his people.

Jeremiah 34:8 This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them;

In the Book of Daniel, the phrase “the covenant” appears twice in Daniel 9 and twice in Daniel 11.

Daniel 9:4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

Daniel 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Daniel 11:22 And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.

Daniel 11:32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.

Daniel 9:4 is clearly referring to the Covenant God made with Abraham. I submit to you therefore, that verse 27 and the two verses in Daniel 11 are also referring to the Covenant God made with Abraham!!

Why do evangelicals today call the “he” of Daniel 9:27 the Antichrist and three of the four occurrences of “the covenant” in the Book of Daniel as something a future Antichrist makes when 102 occurrences of 106 occurrences of “the covenant” in the Bible are clearly talking about a covenant God made with man? No less than 96% of all occurrences of “the covenant” unquestionably refer to the covenant God made with man! I therefore submit to you that except for Jeremiah 34:10, in all instances of “the covenant,” it is something to do with God and man and not an Endtime deal the Antichrist makes with the Jews!

Calling the “he” of Daniel 9:27 a future antichrist is a false interpretation that entered into Protestant theology in the early 19th century! It’s a Jesuit doctrine that John Nelson Darby got from Edward Irving who got it from a Catholic Jesuit priest! I cover this in detail in https://jamesjpn.net/basic-bible/eschatology/the-70th-week-of-daniel-delusion

Modern Bible translations do not translate Daniel 9:27 correctly. The translators were all biased with Darby’s interpretation of that verse. They read into the text something that isn’t there. Reading into the text one’s own opinions and biases is called eisegesis. Eisegesis is the process of interpreting the text in such a way as to introduce one’s presuppositions, agendas or biases. It is commonly referred to as reading into the text. It’s a no-no for a translator to do that!

I know something about translating text. It was my job for 11 years in Japan to check Japanese translations from English. Often the Japanese translator didn’t correctly understand the English and translated it to something that sounded good but was wrong.

Now, if you know the author of the text personally, the chances of you getting the translation correct are much higher! When my friend Yoko asked me to translate Japanese text for her into English, sometimes she used words that if translated literally would make no sense to a native English speaker. Because I knew what she meant, I used different words. And she always agreed with me it was best to use those words. I believe the King James Version translators were all men of God who knew the Author of the Bible text. I can’t say that for every modern Bible translator.

The New International Version uses the indefinite article before covenant, “a covenant.”

The New Living Translation is even worse. It says “make a treaty” instead of “confirm the covenant”. Can you see the vast difference in meaning between the two?

The New King James uses the indefinite article, “a covenant” which implies something yet unknown.

The English Standard Version says, “make a strong covenant.”

The New American Standard Bible says, “make a firm covenant.”

In other words, modern translations, by using the word “make” rather than “confirm” indicate the event has yet to come in the future rather than been fulfilled in the past. Can you therefore see why the King James Version is important? And the Geneva Bible which is earlier than the KJV is also a good translation and correctly translates Daniel 9:27: And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:

Below is the list of all occurrences of the covenant. The bold italics is to show how the verse is referring to a covenant God made with man. I counted five covenants: The Covenant with Noah, the Mosaic Covenant, the Covenant of the priesthood, the Covenant God made with King David, and the Abrahamic Covenant of grace which we are now under.

Genesis 9:12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:

Genesis 9:17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.

Genesis 17:11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

Exodus 24:7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.

Exodus 24:8 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.

Exodus 34:28 And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Leviticus 2:13 And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.

Leviticus 26:45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.

Numbers 10:33 And they departed from the mount of the LORD three days’ journey: and the ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them in the three days’ journey, to search out a resting place for them.

Numbers 14:44 But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.

Numbers 25:13 And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.

Deuteronomy 4:23 Take heed unto yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, which the LORD thy God hath forbidden thee.

Deuteronomy 4:31 (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

Deuteronomy 7:12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers:

Deuteronomy 9:9 When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:

Deuteronomy 9:11 And it came to pass at the end of forty days and forty nights, that the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant.

Deuteronomy 9:15 So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.

Deuteronomy 10:8 At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister unto him, and to bless in his name, unto this day.

Deuteronomy 29:1 These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.

Deuteronomy 29:21 And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law:

Deuteronomy 29:25 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:

Deuteronomy 31:9 And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and unto all the elders of Israel.

Deuteronomy 31:25 That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying,

Deuteronomy 31:26 Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.

Joshua 3:3 And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it.

Joshua 3:6 And Joshua spake unto the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.

Joshua 3:8 And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan.

Joshua 3:11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan.

Joshua 3:14 And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people;

Joshua 3:17 And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.

Joshua 4:7 Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.

Joshua 4:9 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.

Joshua 4:18 And it came to pass, when the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD were come up out of the midst of Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up unto the dry land, that the waters of Jordan returned unto their place, and flowed over all his banks, as they did before.

Joshua 6:6 And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said unto them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD.

Joshua 6:8 And it came to pass, when Joshua had spoken unto the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns passed on before the LORD, and blew with the trumpets: and the ark of the covenant of the LORD followed them.

Joshua 7:15 And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.

Joshua 8:33 And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, as well the stranger, as he that was born among them; half of them over against mount Gerizim, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel.

Joshua 23:16 When ye have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you.

Judges 20:27 And the children of Israel enquired of the LORD, (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

1 Samuel 4:3 And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the LORD smitten us to day before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.

1 Samuel 4:4 So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

1 Samuel 4:5 And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again.

2 Samuel 15:24 And lo Zadok also, and all the Levites were with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God: and they set down the ark of God; and Abiathar went up, until all the people had done passing out of the city.

1 Kings 3:15 And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.

1 Kings 6:19 And the oracle he prepared in the house within, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

1 Kings 8:1 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion.

1 Kings 8:6 And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto his place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims.

1 Kings 8:21 And I have set there a place for the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.

2 Kings 17:38 And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods.

2 Kings 23:2 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD.

2 Kings 23:3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.

1 Chronicles 15:25 So David, and the elders of Israel, and the captains over thousands, went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the house of Obed–edom with joy.

1 Chronicles 15:26 And it came to pass, when God helped the Levites that bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, that they offered seven bullocks and seven rams.

1 Chronicles 15:28 Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, and with sound of the cornet, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, making a noise with psalteries and harps.

1 Chronicles 15:29 And it came to pass, as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came to the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looking out at a window saw king David dancing and playing: and she despised him in her heart.

1 Chronicles 16:6 Benaiah also and Jahaziel the priests with trumpets continually before the ark of the covenant of God.

1 Chronicles 16:16 Even of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac;

1 Chronicles 16:37 So he left there before the ark of the covenant of the LORD Asaph and his brethren, to minister before the ark continually, as every day’s work required:

1 Chronicles 17:1 Now it came to pass, as David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, Lo, I dwell in an house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD remaineth under curtains.

1 Chronicles 22:19 Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the LORD.

1 Chronicles 28:2 Then David the king stood up upon his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people: As for me, I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and for the footstool of our God, and had made ready for the building:

1 Chronicles 28:18 And for the altar of incense refined gold by weight; and gold for the pattern of the chariot of the cherubims, that spread out their wings, and covered the ark of the covenant of the LORD.

2 Chronicles 5:2 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion.

2 Chronicles 5:7 And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto his place, to the oracle of the house, into the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubims:

2 Chronicles 6:11 And in it have I put the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, that he made with the children of Israel.

2 Chronicles 21:7 Howbeit the LORD would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and as he promised to give a light to him and to his sons for ever.

2 Chronicles 34:30 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD.

2 Chronicles 34:31 And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.

2 Chronicles 34:32 And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

Nehemiah 13:29 Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites.

Psalms 74:20 Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.

Psalms 78:10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

Psalms 89:39 Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant: thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.

Proverbs 2:17 Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.

Isaiah 33:8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.

Isaiah 54:10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.

Jeremiah 3:16 And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.

Jeremiah 22:9 Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.

Jeremiah 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

Jeremiah 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jeremiah 34:10 Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go.

Jeremiah 34:18 And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof,

Ezekiel 16:59 For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant.

Ezekiel 17:15 But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? shall he escape that doeth such things? or shall he break the covenant, and be delivered?

Ezekiel 17:18 Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand, and hath done all these things, he shall not escape.

Ezekiel 20:37 And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant:

Daniel 9:4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;

Daniel 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Daniel 11:22 And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.

Daniel 11:32 And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.

Hosea 6:7 But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.

Malachi 2:8 But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

Malachi 2:10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?

Malachi 3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

Acts 3:25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.

Acts 7:8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.

Galatians 3:17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

Hebrews 8:9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

Hebrews 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

Hebrews 9:4 Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;

Hebrews 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

Hebrews 10:29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?




MIT Professor Comes to Know the Author of All Knowledge

MIT Professor Comes to Know the Author of All Knowledge

Rosalind Wright Picard (born May 17, 1962) is an American scholar and inventor who is Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT, founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab, and co-founder of the startups Affectiva and Empatica. — From Wikipedia.

I love reading testimonials of smart people who come to know Christ as Lord and Savior! I found the above meme on Facebook and looked up Dr. Picard’s salvation testimony. I found it on Christianity Today dot com.

God’s Word says in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29:

26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

When I first read these Scriptures after I got saved after hearing the true Gospel in 1971, I was thrilled to pieces! I was one of those “foolish things of the world” who did not do well academically in school. (But now everything I hated to study in class I continually seek to know more of, especially history and writing skills.) I knew from reading the Word that God had a plan for my life but had no idea at the time what it was. I only knew God wanted me to share the Gospel with my friends and fellow co-workers. I used to feel intimidated in the presence of highly academic people, but now just the knowledge of the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis and the knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ of the New Testament is far more valuable to me than any university degree.

Rosalind Picard must be very much loved by the Lord to be chosen among those who were wise after the flesh. I personally know one more, my friend Dr. John Gideon Hartnett of Bible Science Forum..

Dr. Rosalind Picard’s testimony

As early as grade school, when I was a voracious reader and a straight-A student, I identified with being smart. And I believed smart people didn’t need religion. As a result, I declared myself an atheist and dismissed people who believed in God as uneducated.

In high school, I led a classroom debate team arguing for a godless form of evolution, confident my side would win because “this was science.” When the class voted and awarded victory to the creation side, I was dumbstruck. Most people didn’t understand science, I figured—either that, or they were unduly swayed by the most popular girl in class. She had a swimming pool in her backyard and threw fun parties.

Dr. Rosalind Picard

MIT Professor Dr. Rosalind Picard

At the time, I babysat to earn money. One of my favorite families was a young couple; both the husband (a doctor) and the wife were really sharp. One night, after paying me, they invited me to church. I was stunned—people this smart actually went to church? When Sunday morning came around, I told them I had a stomachache. They invited me again the following week, but once more I came down with another phantom stomachache. The more they persisted, the more I struggled to invent convincing excuses. (You try faking an illness to a doctor.)

Just a Phase?

Eventually, the couple tried a different tack. “You know,” they said, “going to church is not what matters most. What matters is what you believe. Have you read the Bible?” I figured that if I wanted to be an educated person, I needed to read the best-selling book of all time. The doctor suggested starting with Proverbs, reading one chapter daily for a month. When I first opened the Bible—this was the King James Version—I expected to find phony miracles, made-up creatures, and assorted gobbledygook. To my surprise, Proverbs was full of wisdom. I had to pause while reading and think.

I quietly bought a modern translation called The Way and read through the entire Bible. While I never heard actual voices or anything to justify summoning a neurologist, I felt this strange sense of being spoken to. It was disturbing yet oddly attractive. I began wondering whether there really might be a God.

I decided to work my way through the Bible again, thinking that perhaps my experience was common for first-time readers. This time I would step back and read it more carefully, the better to debunk it. I also vowed to learn more about the Bible’s origins and to study other religions. Maybe, I thought, my culture—in which most people were Christians or Jews—was conditioning me to find Christianity attractive.

A favorite Jewish teacher at my high school ran a “gifted” program that let me devote one class each semester to whatever I wanted. I studied Buddhism, Hinduism, and several other faiths. I visited temples, synagogues, mosques, and other holy places.

More than anything, I wanted to get past this “religion” phase, because I knew I didn’t want religion. But despite my wishes, an internal battle raged. Part of me was increasingly eager to spend time with the God of the Bible, but an irritated voice inside me insisted I would be happy again once I moved on.

There were two passages I found especially troubling: Matthew 10:33 (“But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.”) and Matthew 12:30 (“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”). I resented what felt like an unwelcome ultimatum. I didn’t want to believe in God, but I still felt a peculiar sense of love and presence I couldn’t ignore.

During my freshman year in college, I reconnected with a friend I had met at a summer honors program. He was a straight-A student and a star on both the basketball court and football field—I had never known anyone so smart and athletic. He helped me with difficult physics homework, and then he invited me to his church. This time, I felt fine.

The sermon prompted many questions. I started to raise my hand while the pastor spoke before realizing that everyone else was sitting quietly. I nudged my friend: “Can we ask questions?” He hushed me. How do we learn if we can’t ask? After the sermon I tried getting answers, but people mostly wanted to socialize. I started coming to Sunday School classes because the teachers let me ask questions. I also kept reading.

One Sunday, the pastor talked about the difference between believing there is a God and following God. I knew Jesus claimed to be “the way” to God, but I had been trying to avoid anything Jesus-related—I couldn’t help hearing his name with the word freak attached. But the pastor got my attention when he asked, “Who is Lord of your life?” He discussed what happens when “you, a human being, put yourself on that throne.”

I was intrigued: I was the captain of my ship, but was it possible that God would actually be willing to lead me? From there, I came to a deeper understanding of what it meant to have a relationship with God through faith in Jesus. It seemed silly to pray about this—after all, I still had doubts about God’s existence. But in the spirit of Pascal’s wager, I decided to run an experiment, believing I had much to gain but very little to lose.

After praying, “Jesus Christ, I ask you to be Lord of my life,” my world changed dramatically, as if a flat, black-and-white existence suddenly turned full-color and three-dimensional. But I lost nothing of my urge to seek new knowledge. In fact, I felt emboldened to ask even tougher questions about how the world works. I felt joy and freedom—but also a heightened sense of responsibility and challenge.

Learning and Exploring

Have you ever tried to assemble something mechanical, and it only kind of works? Maybe the wheels spin, but not smoothly. Then you realize you were missing a piece. When you finally put it together correctly, it works beautifully. This is how it felt when I handed my life over to God: I thought it had worked fine before, but after it was “fixed,” it worked exponentially better. That’s not to say nothing bad ever happened to me—far from it. But in all things, good and bad, I could count on God’s guidance, comfort, and protection.

Today, I am a professor at the top university (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in my field. I have incredible colleagues who have helped translate my lab research into difference-making products—including a smart watch that helps caregivers save the lives of people with epilepsy. I work closely with people whose lives are filled with medical struggles, people whose children are not healthy. I do not have adequate answers to explain all their suffering. But I know there is a God of unfathomable greatness and love who freely enters into relationship with all who confess their sins and call upon his name.

I once thought I was too smart to believe in God. Now I know I was an arrogant fool who snubbed the greatest Mind in the cosmos—the Author of all science, mathematics, art, and everything else there is to know. Today I walk humbly, having received the most undeserved grace. I walk with joy, alongside the most amazing Companion anyone could ask for, filled with desire to keep learning and exploring.




The Bondage Of Doing

The Bondage Of Doing

This article is from a PDF file on LutheranLibrary.org. It was published by The Converted Catholic Magazine. The author, Leo Herbert Lehmann, is a former Roman Catholic priest.

ROMAN CATHOLIC TEACHING rests upon the principle that eternal salvation depends upon the works performed by the hands of its priests. This principle is expressed by the phrase, ex opere operato (literally, “because of the work that is worked”), coined by the theologians in Rome to convey the belief that the grace of salvation can be made to flow into the souls of men only through the works performed upon them by validly ordained priests of the Roman Catholic Church.

They have another phrase to complement this: ex opere operantis (“because of the work of the worker”), which means that the individual must also earn his salvation by works of penance and mortification as commanded by the Church. But these works of the individual are of no avail without the works that are worked upon him by the priest. Both of these kinds of works, however, are contradictory of the new and living way of salvation as clearly set forth in the New Testament:

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” (Titus 3:5).

Of prime importance, therefore, to the young priest setting out from the seminary to begin his ministry are his anointed and consecrated hands. Many hundreds of newly-ordained priests, with the oil of ordination scarcely dry on their hands, enter each year on the active work of the Roman Catholic priesthood in the United States. Pious men and devout women and young girls love to kiss these freshly-anointed hands. For they believe that these hands will carry the body of Jesus Christ to countless thousands of the faithful, and that they will be the actual instruments for the signing away, by absolution in confession, the crimes of men against God and the many mortal sins committed against the laws of the Roman Catholic Church. In Latin countries of Europe and South America, the customary mode of saluting a priest is by kissing the palms of his hands.

With these hands is poured the water of baptism over the heads of infants, without which there is no possibility of salvation at all. These hands are likewise the instruments which will apply the oil of last anointing to the sin-stained senses of dying bodies, an action which is believed to take effect on the soul even after consciousness has fled. The motions of these hands raised in blessing over material objects, chase out the power of evil which is held to be inherent in all matter, after which such objects become sacred and holy things. To employ such objects — medals, scapulars, rosary beads etc. — thereafter for other than spiritual uses is considered desecration. It is by these hands that the devil is exorcised from infants after they are born.

But Roman Catholic priests no longer claim to possess in their hands the power of healing sickness and disease, although it was definitely said by Christ: “They shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall be healed.” Relics of saints from Italy are now applied instead to the bodies of the believing faithful in the hope that they will be cured of their infirmities.

The intricacies of theology, philosophy and the art of preaching count much less in the work of a priest than his anointed hands. A young man may receive ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood who is intellectually deficient, but not so one who is lacking one joint of either thumb or two joints of an index finger. Personal sanctity is of lesser importance than the left eye, called “the canonical eye,” the lack of which constitutes an impediment to ordination, since it would render difficult the reading of the prayers from the mass book which is placed at his left side on the altar. As regards the productive efficiency of the works he performs with his hands, the personal beliefs or morals of a priest do not matter at all, as long as he performs the operations correctly and has the intention of doing what the Church has instructed him to do. It is a necessary fundamental rule of Roman Catholic soteriology that the efficacy of the manipulations of a priest’s hands is no way impaired by unbelief or immoral conduct of the priest in his own private life.

Unless he has specially qualified for a teaching position, the young priest beginning his ministry has a very hazy knowledge of what the theology that was taught him in the seminary is all about. A small book called a ritual detailed instructions of the manner in which he must perform the various actions deemed essential for the valid administration of the sacraments and other ceremonial acts. The “Church” is his covering and final argument in every doctrinal difficulty presented to him. “The Church,” he will answer, “has so decreed it, so you must obey or be damned.” The law of the Church and his tabloid ritual book constitute his entire equipment. His usefulness as a priest is limited to what his hands are endowed to accomplish.

A priest’s help to the dying (which many Protestant ministers in America seem to envy) is not due to any personal contact from himself, but to the psychological comfort induced in the dying person by the contact of the act of oil applied by the priest to his lips, nose, hands, feet and other parts of his body. His preaching is mostly about brick and mortar for buildings, and the necessary dollars to cover payment of mortgages, along with frequent appeals to increase attendance at devotions and novenas to the Little Flower, Saint Anthony or Saint Anne.

But the priest cannot be altogether blamed for this. His economic support, his dignity, and his position as mediator between the people and God have been made dependent upon the belief of the people in the magic of external objects — shrines, blest candles, medals, beads, relics and such like. Were he to exert himself to prepare inspiring sermons to raise the people’s minds to grasp the true teachings of Jesus Christ, of what use then would it be for him to exhort the people to drop their dimes and dollars into church boxes to light little colored lamps before magical shrines of the Sacred Heart and the Little Flower? Were he to take the trouble to explain the real meaning and message of Calvary, how then could he demand a price for the favor of celebrating the sacrifice of the mass for those who can afford to pay more than others for it? If he were to preach the self- development of supernatural power and spiritual insight, how could he then command unquestioned submission to a pope in Rome as the sole medium of all things spiritual?

If Roman Catholic priests were to extol the virtues of true education and intellectual progress, how could they honestly clamor Sunday after Sunday for the dollars of their poor parishioners to build bigger and better parochial schools? For in these Catholic schools education must be in strict accord with the Church’s dogmatic teaching, which consists in stuffing the child’s mind with mere one-sided knowledge — the doctored metaphysics that are essential to protect the authoritarian system of the Catholic Church. The first duty of a Roman Catholic priest is to keep his people in ‘simplicity of faith.’ In order to do so he is obliged to leave them in ignorance of facts.

Often the priest himself is confused about many things that he is obliged to preach to the people. One of these is the power he is supposed to have to forgive sins in confession. Does or does not the act of absolution which he pronounces over sinners in the confession box take away their sins? No priest can give a clear, definite answer to this question. He was taught that he has the power of forgiving sins, which was transmitted to him by the authority of the Church in Rome. But he has no clear understanding of the extent and limitations of this supposed power. The people who come to him for forgiveness, on the other hand, have no doubt about their belief that pardon for their sins depends entirely on the will and judgment of the absolving priest. But this is not strictly true. For, in theory at least, Roman Catholic theologians admit that sins can, in some cases, be forgiven without absolution of a priest.

The whole difficulty, of course, centers around the absurdity that sins can be forgiven week after week in the same way as you pay off your debts to your grocer, after which you can begin again to contract further debts. The Jesuit theologians have made it more difficult still by distinguishing between different kinds of contrition or sorrow for sin. One kind they call ‘perfect’ contrition, the other ‘imperfect’ contrition, for which they have coined a special word attrition. A person who has only this attrition for his sins is said to be sorry for them, not because his sins have offended God, but because he is afraid he will go to hell unless he obtains forgiveness of them from the priest.

It can easily be seen that this is fear, not sorrow or true repentance. For it means that if there were no hell, such a person would not be sorry at all for having sinned, and would keep on sinning all the time with impunity. But according to Roman Catholic teaching, if a person with this feeling of mere attrition for his sins confesses them to a priest, then his sins are washed away as soon as the priest makes the sign of the cross over the sinner’s head and pronounces the prescribed formula of absolution. But not all together. Immediate danger of going to hell only is removed, but there remains an unknown amount of guilt which must be expiated for, either in this life by penances, or in the next life by burning in purgatory.

It is taught that, in rare instances, sins can be forgiven without the absolution of a priest. There are two conditions attached to this supposition: if the person is dying and a priest is not available, and if the sinner can work up ‘perfect’ contrition. Furthermore, if such a person recovers he is obliged to go and confess his sins, already pardoned, to a priest as soon as he can find one. If not, then in some mysterious way that no one can explain, his sins come back. In fact, if he fails to do so, another sin is added, namely, one of grave disobedience to the law of the Church.

It is entirely unscriptural that ‘attrition’ is sufficient to obtain forgiveness of sins. In the Christian dispensation, “the blood of Jesus Christ alone cleanses from all sin.” This is obtained by true repentance, metanoia, a change of heart, and is a complete and perfect pardon. Confessing to a priest to obtain his forgiveness is the pagan, pre-Christian way. But it serves to enhance the power of the priest to whom the people trust for pardon of their sins before they die.

This teaching explains the anxiety of Roman Catholics to make sure they will have the priest when they come to die, and it is for this reason that we see pictures in newspapers of .priests rushing dramatically into burning buildings, or to the scene of automobile smash-ups, to reach the burned and mangled bodies of the victims before they expire. The people firmly believe that the priest alone has the power to give them a ticket to heaven, even though it leads through the flames of an excruciating purgatory. To know that “he had the priest” at the end, relieves the anxiety of many a Catholic mother’s heart about the salvation of a wayward son, even if he dies in the electric chair.

Parents and friends of those killed in automobile wrecks and airplane crashes are consoled to hear that a priest was in the locality, even some distance away. I once knew a Catholic mother whose son was killed in a plane crash, and who was broken-hearted at first because there was no priest present to absolve him. But her sorrow disappeared afterward when a priest wrote to tell her that he had seen the accident from a passing train and had made the sign of absolution in the air to forgive the sins of those in the plane.

In practice, however, it is made the rule that only by the absolution of a priest can a sinner be pardoned from his sins and saved from eternal punishment in hell. Priests make it known that generally speaking it is almost impossible to work up ‘perfect’ contrition for sin, for perfect sorrow is equal to perfect love of God, something that only heroic saints can have. In this way, the obligation to come to confession is stressed. To clinch the argument, they will quote verse 22 of the 20th chapter of the Gospel of John (Catholic version): “Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them, and whose sins you shall retain they are retained.”

This verse of Scripture, they tell their people, makes it plain that only priests of the Roman Catholic Church have the power to forgive and to refuse to forgive sins. They do not explain that Jesus Christ said this to both apostles and disciples, among whom were some women. Neither do they explain the context, in which Christ mentioned two distinct ‘missions,’ one, His mission from the Father — which was to die upon the cross to forgive the sins of the world, and which only He could do — and the other, the commission to his apostles and disciples to go forth and preach the Gospel message that sins have been remitted by His finished work on Calvary. Protestant ministers carry out this commission to remit sins, but in the correct sense that they declare that sins are forgiven, and that sinners are saved, “to the uttermost,” by this redeeming work of Jesus Christ. For who can forgive sins but God alone?

This matter of the forgiveness of sins has been made so confusing in Catholic Church teaching that the bewildered young priest soon ceases to argue how it is done. He takes it for granted that all he has to do is to make the sign of the cross and pronounce the prescribed formula over the heads of the thousands of sinners who kneel down before him in the confession box. Some priests become very careless about it and ask no questions of their penitents. Others require that every detail of sins confessed must be explained to them, and that it depends upon the judgment of the priest whether or not the sinner can be pardoned. They are especially severe on women who try to conceal the details of their marital relations with their husbands in the matter of birth control.

The word ‘confession’ and ‘going to confession’ are ill-advised and no substitute for true repentance for sin. The former implies merely the telling of sins and the number of times committed to a priest in order words of absolution. The whole process is in no way spiritually directive and has little psychological value.

An action of the priest’s hands of even greater importance is the pouring of the water of baptism over the heads of infants. If this action is not properly performed the infant will be cast out of the sight of God for all eternity — even if he grows up and professes full faith in Jesus Christ. No other sacrament of the Catholic Church is of any avail to a person who was not properly baptized in the beginning. The three essential words which the priest must be sure to say while pouring the water are: Ego te baptizo. Woe to the child if the priest, by inadvertence or a slip of the tongue, should say the formula for confession, Ego te absolvo, which is so much alike and which he repeats many thousands of times. Should this mistake occur, the entire act of baptism would be invalidated, and the child would be a Christian in name only. The unconscious antics of the baby, the sudden contact of cold water on its head, the embarrassing, but perfectly natural accidents that happen to newborn babies at unexpected moments, may conspire to unsteady the hand of the priest while pouring the water or divert his mind from the correct word formula. This pouring of the water of baptism is made so essential for the attainment of heaven, that exact instructions and suitable instruments are provided to perform this action upon a fetus still in its mother’s womb, if it appears likely that it may die before issue.

An infant, because born of natural intercourse, is regarded by the Roman Catholic theologians as possessed by the devil after it comes from its mother’s womb. The priest’s first task, therefore, is to cast out this unclean spirit from the child before baptism. To this end he uses the most powerful exorcisms accompanied by the sprinkling of holy water and repeated signs of the cross. He puts salt (previously exorcised) into the infant’s mouth, wets the infant’s lips, ears and nostrils with spittle from his own mouth, rubs oil on its chest and back. Directly addressing the devil which is believed to be in the child, the priest commands him as follows: “Depart, thou accursed devil (maledicte diabole) from this servant of God.”

Rosary beads, scapulars, medals, chalices and mass vestments must likewise be cleansed from the evil which is supposed to be inherent in them as natural and material objects. After being thus exorcised they are looked upon as holy objects to be handled with reverence and used exclusively for acts of worship. It is a sin for a layman to touch the chalice used by the priest at mass. It thus comes about that Catholics believe that such objects, after being blessed by a priest, possess a magical charm and are able to ward off the power of the devil and to protect from accidents their person and property. Blest medals of Saint Christopher are pinned to automobiles (even by some Protestants) in the belief that by so doing cars and their occupants will be protected from wrecks. But insurance companies allow no rebate on insurance premiums for cars that carry one of these blest medals of Saint Christopher.

Priests personally have little faith in relics of the saints, medals, beads, scapulars and statues, even though it is part of their work to exorcise the evil from them and to recommend their use to the pious faithful. Priests who have been to Rome for any length of time lose reverence for such things because of the shameless traffic carried on there in bits of bones and all kinds of pious objects. Rome is a vast graveyard of skulls and bones of supposed saints. In some churches the lamps and ornamentations around the walls are fashioned from bones of departed holy people. In Rome are two heads of Saint Paul, a slipper of Saint Joseph, the girdle of the Virgin Mary, and what is said to be milk from her breasts.

All this ritualistic maneuvering has been invented by the Roman theologians to fit in with their basic teaching that salvation can only be gained by “the works that are worked” by a priest. The grace of salvation is taught as something that can be ‘poured’ into people’s souls through the specially devised channels of the seven sacraments. These in turn are supposed to act as conduits from the great reservoir of grace over which the pope in Rome has sole monopoly. This engineering of external unrealities, to act with magical force to produce a spiritual effect, runs through the entire system of Roman Catholic theology. The works of a priest’s hands must be accepted both as a matter of belief as well as of organization and practice.

But of such is not the power of the kingdom of heaven.




The Movers and Shakers of this World

The Movers and Shakers of this World

Vatican city

This is a re-post of a 2014 article. It still applies in my opinion.

The original title of this article is: The Real Powers Behind President Barack Obama By Karen Hudes

From Karen Hudes Facebook page:

Barack Obama is truly not the President of the United States. He is not a powerful person at all. Rather, he is a front man for more powerful entities that hide in the shadows.

The real power in the world is not the United States, Russia, or even China. It is Rome. The Roman Catholic Church (Vatican) is the single most powerful force in the world.  

However, the Vatican has been under the control of it’s largest all-male order, the Jesuits. The Jesuits were created in 1534 to serve as the “counter-reformation” — the arm of the Church that would help to fight the Muslims and the Protestant Reformers. However, they fought with espionage. The Jesuits were expelled from at least 83 countries and cities for subversion, espionage, treason, and other such things. Samuel Morse said that the Jesuits were the foot soldiers in the Holy Alliance (Europe and the Vatican) plan to destroy the United States (Congress of Vienna). Marquis Lafayette stated that the Jesuits were behind most of the wars in Europe, and that they would be the ones to take liberty from the United States.

Adolfo Nicolas

Adolfo Nicolas

The head of the Jesuit Order is Adolfo Nicholas. His title is Superior General of the Jesuits. The use of the rank “general” is because the Jesuits are, in reality, a military organization.

Nicholas, as the Jesuit General, is the most powerful man in the world. He ultimately issues the commands that are administered by drones like Obama.

The Jesuit General is nicknamed “The Black Pope” because he always wears black robes. Pope Francis is, thus, the “White Pope”.

Directly under the Jesuit General is Fr. James E. Grummer, S.J. — one of the five Jesuit priests who serve as direct “assistants” to the Jesuit General. Grummer is his American assistant, and controls the US Jesuit Conference. He is the controller of every American Jesuit university and every American Jesuit Provincial. The New York Provincial has the most contact with Grummer (as the top provincial).

Under Grummer is the President of the US Jesuit Conference, Fr. Thomas H. Smolich, S.J., who was the Jesuit Provincial of California during the reign of Governor Arnold Schwarznegger. Smolich was the power behind Arnold during these years. Smolich is a key force behind the planned Sino-Soviet-Muslim invasion, which the Jesuit Order is planning to use to bring down the United States. He is also actively involved in the orchestration of the Chinese-Mexican invasion.

Under Smolich is Fr. David S. Ciancimino, S.J., the Jesuit Provincial of New York. He is the top Jesuit Provinical in the United States, as New York is the capital of the Jesuit Order’s power (that’s why it was chosen as the staging area for 9/11). Here, Ciancimino (and the Jesuits beneath him) control Wall Street, the NYSE, and the Federal Reserve Bank. Ciancimino controls Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the most powerful Roman Catholic official in the United States who is not a Jesuit. Ciancimino is an occultist, as are many other top Jesuits.

Directly under Ciancimino is Fr. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., who is the President of Fordham University — the Jesuit college of New York, and the Jesuits’ military stronghold there. It is through McShane that the Jesuits (led by Ciancimino in New York) control Archbishop Timothy Dolan. He has become known as the “penholder” for Dolan. He wears a decorative necklace that features an equilateral triangle, a Masonic symnol of the Risen Horus.

Pope Francis, the Vicar of Christ

Under the control of these powerful Jesuits is Pope Francis, the Vicar of Christ (Horus) and the current Roman Papal Caesar. He represents Osiris in mystery-school/occult mythology.

Below Pope Francis is the Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York. Dolan is the “American Pope” and the “Archbishop of the Capital of the World”. He heads the American branches of the Knights of Malta and Knights of Columbus. He is a likely occultist and the controller of American Freemasonry, the CFR, the ADL (B’nai B’rith), the Pentagon, and the intelligence community.

Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J. is the President Emeritus of Fordham University and the man directly under Egan. He is a Knight of Malta and has presided over CFR meetings as Egan’s operative. He is an adviser to David Rockefeller (Knight of Malta), Henry Kissinger (Knight of Malta), and Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York. He is, thus, the Jesuit who directly controls the city mayor. He is also the Jesuit who controls the Rockefeller-Kissinger apparatus, of which the CFR is a key part.

O’Hare is a devoted Zionist who supports the State of Israel, which was created in 1948 by the United Nations (UN) — a creation of the Archbishop of New York’s Council on Foreign relations). It was Archbishop Francis Spellman of New York who solicited votes at the UN for Israel. Spellman played a key role in Israel’s founding. The founder of Zionism was Theodor Herzl, who had frequent meetings with the Pope and had once planned to lead the jewish people in a “mass conversion” to Roman Catholicism. The true designers, financiers, and promoters of Zionism are the Rothschilds, who Encyclopedia Judaica describes as “guardians of the papal treasure”. That’s right — the Rothschilds are the banking agents of the Papacy. The State of Israel is just the revived Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and it’s under the Vatican’s thumb.

Below O’Hare is John J. DeGioa, the President of Georgetown University. DeGioa is also a Knight of Malta and a member of the CFR. He is one of the over-seers of the State of Israel.

Below DeGioa, we find Richard N. Haas — the Chairman of the CFR. Haas is ultimately simply a lowly agent of Archbishop Egan. Haas is a Jewish Labor Zionist and oversees the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). These Jewish Zionists are mainly just Papal Court jewish people.

Below Haas is Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was a member of the CFR, Bilderberg Group, and Trilateral Commission. Brzezinski had co-founded the Trilateral Commission. He was a Knight of Malta, as was the other founder of the Trilateral Commission – David Rockefeller. Brzezinski is a Polish Roman Catholic and an adviser to Georgetown University.

Brzezinski was Soetoro’s professor at Columbia University, and recruited him for presidential grooming. Are we beginning to see the big picture?

Once Brzezinski created “presidential candidate” Obama, his campaign was financed and promoted by the multi-billionaire behind hundreds of organizations on the “political left” — George Soros. Soros was a high-ranking CFR member and a member of the Carlyle Group, an international corporation that served as a front for the Vatican. Soros, a Hungarian jewish, was a strong socialist-communist (like Brzezinski). Like Haas, Brzezinski was a Papal Court jewish and a Labor Zionist. He is also a Freemason. He is a friend of Rupert Murdoch. Soros is a major stockholder in Halliburton.

Murdoch is the protector of Obama, controlling his opposition. Murdoch was knighted by the Pope in 1998 for making large contributions to the Roman Catholic Church. He has said that his corporation – News Corp – is “just like the Jesuits” while speaking at Georgetown University. Murdoch is a member of the CFR.

Joseph R. Biden is the Vice President, and is directly under the Vatican’s big-wheel operatives (Soros and Murdoch). He is Roman Catholic and has been honored at two Jesuit universities. His son is a Jesuit volunteer and a lobbyist for a Jesuit university he attended.

Under the guidance of Biden, we find Barack Obama, a 32nd Degree Freemason who has been trained in Romanism.


Webmaster note:The text of this article is slightly edited from the original. I only changed the name of the current Pope from Benedict XVI to Francis. I got it from http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/12/the-real-powers-behind-president-barack-obama-by-karen-hudes-2861806.html and changed one image and added one more.

Who is Karen Hudes?

“Karen Hudes studied law at Yale Law School and economics at the University of Amsterdam. She worked in the US Export Import Bank of the US from 1980-1985 and in the Legal Department of the World Bank from 1986-2007. She established the Non Governmental Organization Committee of the International Law Section of the American Bar Association and the Committee on Multilateralism and the Accountability of International Organizations of the American Branch of the International Law Association. ” – From Karen Hudes’ website at http://kahudes.net/