Requesting Prayer
First and foremost, I am asking for prayers for
Constance. She continues to run a low
grade fever which is well into its second week.
She believes this to be a reaction after receiving a Covid booster. I know right now she is feeling pretty lousy. Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated.
The Shaping of a New Economic Order
I had planned to write more in-depth about the following
articles. Unfortunately time does not
permit so I’ll let the articles speak for themselves.
Recently I noticed an article about microchip implants for
use for contactless
payments. Considering the geopolitical
realignment currently underway as well as the competition for who will redefine
the existing economic rules-based order, Windows Central’s statement comes more
into focus: “who
will govern this evolving global community and economy becomes relevant.
Especially since nonparticipants in this system would be unable to buy or sell
goods or services.”
A digital
Bretton Woods or something different?
Whichever way it goes I expect this contactless payment system will integrate
with a Social
Value Rewards System.
Former EU diplomat Alastair Crooke writes that the West’s expulsion of Russia from the SWIFT payment system was “an act of self-mutilation.”
"The current military operation
in Ukraine will, in due course, be relegated to the status of little more than
a footnote in global history, although the all-out financial war that has
erupted in Russia will be instrumental in shaping the coming new world
order."
"US hegemony over the
so-called “rules-based order” has been much more financial (rather than
military). That is, an order imposed by the US threat to 'sanction' any and all
offenders with a 'neutron bomb' of US Treasury bills...And on February 26, this
system began to die..."
"...They act only on
impulse. We know this because both the Fed and the ECB reported that they were
not consulted about the confiscation of gold or the expulsion of seven Russian
banks from the SWIFT financial clearing system. And they clarified that, if
consulted, they would have opposed both movements."
The International Institute for Middle
East and Balkan Studies writes the Ukraine war is a prelude to the
emergence of a new international order.
“It is important to emphasize
that this is not a traditional war, nor a conflict between two states over
disputed territory, nor a pre-election propaganda, but a war of an entirely
different kind. This war is a first step on the path to establishment of a new
order in international relations, that is a new division of spheres of
influence at the global level.”
“The developments in Ukraine
represent the beginning of the end of the existing world order…Put succinctly,
the current developments are a prelude to the emergence of a new international
order.”
The EU is flexing its muscle to dissuade China from siding with Russia. Meanwhile Russia and China profess to speak with “one voice.”
All of this is consistent with new age expectations that the forces of the old age would clash and from it would rise the new. But we know that’s not how things pan out.
1,283 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 1201 – 1283 of 1283Craig said: "Don't confuse X with facts in this regard. He has an agenda to follow."
My agenda is Jesus, truth and my own evolving opinions.
How many kids have to die before you will be willing to even discuss trying something, anything.... different? What's your number?
x
p.s. Facts? How about this?
Presence of Armed School Officials and Fatal and Nonfatal Gunshot Injuries During Mass School Shootings, United States, 1980-2019
February 16, 2022
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2776515
Excerpt: This study had some limitations. It is limited by its reliance on public data, lack of data on community characteristics, and inability to measure deterred shootings (nonevents). However, the data suggest no association between having an armed officer and deterrence of violence in these cases. An armed officer on the scene was the number one factor associated with increased casualties after the perpetrators’ use of assault rifles or submachine guns.
The well-documented weapons effect explains that the presence of a weapon increases aggression. Whenever firearms are present, there is room for error, and even highly trained officers get split-second decisions wrong. Prior research suggests that many school shooters are actively suicidal, intending to die in the act, so an armed officer may be an incentive rather than a deterrent. The majority of shooters who target schools are students of the school, calling into question the effectiveness of hardened security and active shooter drills. Instead, schools must invest in resources to prevent shootings before they occur.
What's SHOCKING is Rayb still posting JD Rucker lies when he knows he's gonna get called out.
This JD Rucker disinformtion titled "Shocking Pfizer Study Data Reveals 82% of Jabbed Pregnant Women Had Miscarriages, So They Stopped Counting" is just repackaged misinformation from long long ago when this same table 6 was discussed. This isn't newly released info because I think I debunked it last summer or fall already.
It's really easy...Pfizer ran a study over a set amount of time where they collected adverse events and analyzed numbers looking for signals something might be wrong with the vaccine. Within that study, there were 273 pregnant women who received the vaccine. During the course of the study, 23 or 25 experienced a miscarraige (8.5-9.25%) which is below the 10-15% numbers I believe are to be expected. Most miscarriages occur early in pregnancy. A miscarriage before the end of the study is a recorded event whereas a continuing pregancy is not an "event' at all so no recordable outcome ...yet. It's not that they refused to continue following these women, it just wasn't part of the study. The data set closed. I presume 8.5-9.2% were acceptable numbers and didn't provide any signal outside of normal.
Implying nefarious purposes by excluding the continuing pregancies from the numbers because they didn't miscarry before the data cutoff point is just a murderous lie. The data cutoff was Februry 28th 2021 and there were many observed women, some of whom were pregnant who got the vaccine btwn early December 2020 and February 2021 with no serious problem or negative "event" nor a baby...yet because babies just don't gestate that fast.
x
X,
Once again, you want to re-frame topics. The issue addressed here is the failure of the Police Chief to respond. (And this is not an uncommon problem.) The officers can only do their jobs when the police chiefs allow them. The Chief was in the way, and it seems to me some of that blood is on HIS hands.
But backing up, we need to address mental health. This is the common denominator in these kinds of shootings. Another is that in most cases the individuals are from single parent (mother) homes. Absent fathers--for a variety of reasons. That's a societal issue, fueled in part by bad legislation, to include no fault divorce and all that that entails.
There is no excuse for this guy being cleared to purchase firearms. He surely should not have passed the clearance. And this is a bureaucratic problem--one agency not talking to another. THAT needs to be addressed.
Firearms are vehicles for violence, they are not the cause.
What is your solution--you who claimed the NRA is a death cult? Gun control to the point of disarming all citizens?
"My agenda is Jesus, truth and my own evolving opinions."
Way too much you for Jesus to be seen and heard.
Excuse me, but you're a windbag with very pronounced pride coming through.
I'd say it's reversed, with the main point of your too many posts being your poorly sourced copied and pasted opinions, and frankly, little else.
"UPDATE ON CONSTANCE"
Just talked with Constance today (afternoon Sat 28th May USA time) and she is still trying to recover from illness.
GrantNZ,
Thanks for the update. I'm really dismayed that it is lingering so. I'll be praying for recovery--and soon.
Thanks GrantNZ.
We need to keep praying for her to recover completely.
Mental illness, yes, but the principalities and powers of darkness taking over more and more is why we are seeing more extremes every day.
America is tearing at the seams, we can easily see it is a very troubled time, but also, the world is getting readied for a great big showdown, the devil's beast system to get it's kickstart, is how this appears to me.
For where..when...Grace is spurned, Judgment must fall.
We are getting closer and closer..
2 Thessalonians 2:7-9
New King James Version
7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
Is the Restrainer the Archangel Michael currently holding back the flood demons that is waiting to descend, and Satan ready to enter into the man of sin, the son of perdition?
It feels like time for a hammer to fall--maybe I'm not the only one feeling this, seeing it this way?
The Uvalde incident is so distressing. It’s not too far from where I live.
Any time I hear of such mass shootings, I’m reminded of this 1987 song by Throwing Muses “Hate My Way”.
Throwing Muses "Hate My Way"
The writer (and singer, guitarist), Kristen Hersh, was having some mental health issues [at least partly] as a result of receiving a concussion from when she was struck by a car while on her bicycle. Sometime later came the San Isidro mass shooting incident, which she specifically mentions in the lyrics (Mr. Huberty had a gun in his head [hand?]). So, the stream-of-consciousness lyrics seem to flit between those of others whom she writes in the first person and [also as metaphor for?] her own mental state (then).
-----
I could be a smack freak
And hate society
I could hate God
And blame Dad
…I could be a neuro
And hate sweat
No
I hate my way
A boy was tangled in his bike forever
…Mr. Huberty
Had a gun in his head
So I sit up late in the morning
And ask myself again
How do they kill children?
And why do I wanna die?
They can no longer move
I can no longer be still
I hate my way
----
I feel sure writing and performing that was cathartic for her.
Woman with Pistol Stops Man Firing at Graduation Party Crowd with AR-15
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/05/27/alleged-attacker-with-an-ar-15-shot-dead-by-woman-with-pistol/
Excerpts from the link above:
An alleged attacker with an AR-15 was shot dead in Charleston, West Virginia, Wednesday night by a woman who was carrying a pistol for self-defense.
Dennis Butler was armed with an AR-15 and allegedly shot “at dozens of people attending a graduation party,” WCHSTV reported.
Police indicate a woman pulled a pistol and shot Butler, killing him.
Charleston Police Department Chief of Detectives Tony Hazelett said, “Instead of running from the threat, she engaged with the threat and saved several lives last night.”
Regarding gun violence (and all other types of violence):
Violence is a societal issue that resides deeply within the confines of our popular culture. It is celebrated in movies, TV programs, VIDEO games, some rock music, a lot of hip hop, rap, etc. Our youth is bombarded with never ending violent themes, and yet, hardly anyone speaks out about why this psychological pornography is not being regulated.
Violence is even expressed in our common, every day language. Have you ever noticed that people that use vulgarity typically use it in order to express anger? That is not surprising, because vulgarity really is verbal violence. To illustrate, look at the hate filled anger, punctuated by an onslaught of vulgarity against pro-lifers, conservatives, Christians, etc. during public protests. The anger is so intense, it's almost as if they are demon possessed (I'm sure in many cases, they are).
One more point; who can argue that the evil practice of abortion, the murder of children in the womb of their mothers, has not cheapened life? The message of abortion is that INNOCENT LIFE does not matter. The WILL of the person that got pregnant is what MATTERS. Abortion is narcism to the highest degree, and it is carried out as a violent act against innocent life. Many abortion advocates now even CELEBRATE the taking of a innocent lives. How sick is that?
Is it any wonder that violence is running rampant, when a society not only condones it, it is even entertained by it?
Without addressing the root cause of society's violence, this is going to continue.
Taking guns away from LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS is NOT the answer! Political despots fear a well-armed citizenry, so do criminals. Both of which have a lot in common.
One more quick point ...
I'll never forget the Virginia Tech mass shooting. Soon after the event, I watched videos on the internet and was outraged to see police officers, guns drawn, cowering behind trees and vehicles while students inside were being killed. Gun shots could be heard, and yet, the officers did nothing. NOTHING !
I felt the very same outrage regarding this latest incident. It's amazing, that it took an off duty Border Patrol agent, with NO body armor, armed with a borrowed shotgun, to BRAVELY put an end to this evil perp. All while the 'police' stood outside waiting for orders! If ever there was an order that needed to be disobeyed, this was it.
Why were these officers standing down? Why??
Who Is the Man Leading the COVID-19 / Great Reset Agenda?
Yuval Noah Harari
“History began when humans invented gods, and will end when humans become gods.”
– Yuval Noah Harari
(Yuval Noah Harari is often referred to as “the prophet.” He a the Israeli vegan, openly gay, pro-transhumanist who is obsessed with rejecting the God of his fathers and turning humans into gods. He is the lead advisor to Klaus Schwab and is praised by Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Silicon Valley, the New York Times, TED, Stanford, Harvard, the World Economic Forum, James Corden, Natalie Portman, etc.) According to World Economic Forum luminary and historian Yuval Noah Harari, the transition to “digital dictatorships” will have a “big watershed” moment once governments start using “surveillance under the skin.”
Is anybody around here familiar with this crackpot?
Anon @ 9:58 PM ...
I've seen some of his speeches. He is a Satanic monster that absolutely hates God. And yet, he's the philosophical driving force behind the 'Great Reset.' Klaus Schwab considers him his closest advisor, which tells you a lot about Klaus Schwab, and the thoroughly evil World Economic Forum. What's more, the Pope in Rome fully supports the WEF's Great Reset! (But let's keep our eye on Javier Solana ... the man that not 1 in 1,000 has ever even heard of).
Of course, Death Cult Leader Biden (and his ilk) is highly supportive of the WEF goals, as evidenced not only by his rhetoric, but by his actions. If they get their way, national sovereignty, along with individual freedoms, will completely disappear. That's one of the major reasons behind the destruction of sovereign borders. Without borders, nations disappear, as does law & order, which will lead to their planned chaos, leading to THEIR solutions that the fearful and desperate people will be more than happy to welcome.
IMO, we're being set up for a complete, global, economic collapse that will usher in the Satanic One World Government and One World Religion.
The Pharisees who killed Y'shua are found at the core of the most vile evil. They are always found helping to usher in the Satanic One World Government and One World Religion. AND, the Mark of the Beast monetary system. Beastly gang of vipers they are indeed.
Jewish Author of LGBT sex-ed book for children tells kids to distrust 'bigoted' religious parents
lifesitenews.com/news/author-of-lgbt-sex-ed-book-for-children-tells-kids-to-distrust-bigoted-religious-parents/
Note this Whore of Babylon is wearing her star of David.
Pfizer CEO: "By 2023, WE Will Reduce The Number Of People In The World That Cannot Afford Our Medicines By 50%" (Video)
thewashingtonstandard.com/pfizer-ceo-goes-further-than-criminal-bill-gates-by-2023-we-will-reduce-the-number-of-people-in-the-world-by-50-video/
How Many Times Are The Feds Going To Be Involved In Violent Incidents In America?
nationalfile.com/how-many-times-are-the-feds-going-to-be-involved-in-violent-incidents-in-america/
To RayB @ 7:58 PM
Re: These mass shootings: Why are police officers standing down???
___________________________________________________________________________________________
The answer is straight out of the evil Globalists' playbook...
Extra TIME is needed to create as high a death count as possible ('unfortunate collateral damage')... to HORRIFY the American people out of their complacent comfort zone... in order to cause OUTRAGE, where every man, woman and child in America starts DEMANDING immediate change... gun control LAWS with the running theme of: "How many MORE have to die before something is done about this?"
Lost in this raw emotion and 'logic' is the FACT that these mass shootings are being committed by a mentally ill person, or a brainwashed person (used as a disposable 'tool' by a radical group with a political goal and agenda to never let a good crisis = opportunity go to waste)... and that anyone willing to KILL as many people as possible, in as short a time as possible, is not interested in obeying anyone's LAWS (not God's or man's!!!). The result is that, of course the rest of us law abiding citizens WILL OBEY any new laws... which will end up leaving us defenseless against those who are out to CRUSH and control us.
BUT, according to a certain somebody, he/her says we should give Death Cult Leader Biden credit for the recent pro-life legislative victories ...
Biden White House condemns Oklahoma pro-life law, calls abortion a ‘fundamental right’
'The President believes that women have the fundamental right to make their own reproductive health choices,' press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Translation: 'The President believes that women have the fundamental right to murder their own babies in their womb.'
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/biden-press-secretary-condemns-oklahoma-pro-life-law-calls-abortion-a-fundamental-right/?utm_source=top_news&utm_campaign=usa
Regarding Yuval Noah Harari and the WEO
Constance's guess that the mark of the beast would involve a planet earth logo, was spot on.
And the logo also has three sixes in plain sight, where the outline of the earth intersects the three words.
The cat is out of the bag, folks
The three sixes are found in designs of various nations, and NGOs etc. Nothing new. Corporate America is rife with 'Eye of Horus' symbology.
The cat has been out of the bag for a long time. The problem is foolish and "stiff necked" people like dr X are on the side of the 'price of this world'. They are either willfully ignorant, or just under a Luciferic spell, and they like the 'feel' of that worldly anointing. It allows them to be polemics, feed their ego, and be their own 'little god'.
'prince of this world'
See if you can find anything more blatantly satanic than the EU poster: EUROPE MANY TONGUES ONE VOICE poster?
11 pentagrams, pyramids in the left side background, mechanical block figures instead of real human figures etc.
11 = 'spiritual awakening' - 'most intuitive of all angel numbers'
neweuropeans.net/file/europe-many-tongues-one-voice-parliament-building-tower-babel-babylonjpg
Minneapolis Intersection Renamed in Honor of George Floyd
thegatewaypundit.com/2022/05/minneapolis-intersection-renamed-honor-felon-george-floyd/
Floyd was a criminal dirt bag of gargantuan proportions. He was also a porn star. According to one article, his videos are still on porn sites. But if you're as dirty as dirt gets, you're a 'SUPERSTAR' in today's U.S.of A.
I read news from many alternative sites. One that I really like is runningfrombabylon.blogspot.com
It is run by a christian woman who goes by 'Garden Girl'
Check it out sometime.
'This is why we need the 2nd amendment!' West Virginia mystery woman is hailed as a hero for using legally-owned pistol to kill criminal armed with an AR-15-style rifle at a graduation party a day after Uvalde school shooting
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10865783/West-Virginia-woman-praised-using-pistol-shoot-dead-gunman-AR-15.html
Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul, 82 is arrested for midnight DUI Saturday in Napa Valley where they own a vineyard... while she was in Rhode Island
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10866015/Nancy-Pelosis-husband-arrested-DUI-Napa.html
WHO STARTED YOUR CHURCH?
• Calvary Chapel, 1965: Chuck Smith
• Mormon church, 1830: Joseph Smith
• Disciples of Christ, 1809: Thomas Campbell
• Baptist church, 1609: John Smyth
• Presbyterian church, 1560: John Knox
• Calvinist church, 1536: John Calvin
• Lutheran church, 1517: Martin Luther
• Eastern Orthodox church, 1054: Eastern Patriarchs
• Catholic Church, 33: Jesus Christ
Imagine the Protestant reaction to news that the pope authorized a translation of the Bible that added words and altered the contents to make Scripture appear to support Catholic theology. Protestant apologists would be dancing in the streets because they would finally have objective proof that the Catholic Church believes it is superior to the written word of God.
Better still—what if Catholicism’s very origin could be traced to such actions? The news would likely be the last topic anti-Catholic bloggers ever posted, for their services would no longer be needed.
Incredibly, something very close to such a scenario actually happened in the Church’s history—but it was a rebellious monk, not an unfaithful pope, who committed the acts. His name was Martin Luther.
As is well known, the two foundational Protestant doctrines are those of sola scriptura (Scripture alone) and sola fide (faith alone). The importance of these doctrinal innovations is seen in their labels as, respectively, the formal and material causes of the Reformation. Sola scriptura is the methodological doctrine of the Reformation, for Protestantism is said to be founded on Scripture alone (as opposed to religious tradition). Sola fide, the idea that salvation is by faith alone (apart from good works) is the primary doctrinal teaching to come out of sola scriptura.
Protestantism’s principal founder, Martin Luther, is famous for claiming that if this “doctrine of justification is lost, the whole of Christian doctrine is lost.” He also challenged the authority of the Church by saying,
Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.
The problem, though, with asserting sola fide based on sola scriptura is that the idea that justification is by faith alone is not only not stated in Scripture—it directly contradicts what Scripture states.
James 2:24 is the only verse in the Bible that uses the phrase “faith alone”—and it says that people are “justified by works and not by faith alone.” This is one reason why Martin Luther wanted the epistle of James removed from the Bible. Luther himself admitted that sola fide contradicts James—even claiming, “I do not regard it as the writing of an apostle.” In the pre-1530 version of his Preface to the Epistles of St. James, Luther held that James “is flatly against St. Paul and all the rest of Scripture in ascribing justification to works. . . . He mangles the scriptures and thereby opposes Paul and all Scripture.”
Luther then issued the following challenge: “To him who can make these two agree I will give my doctor’s cap, and I am willing to be called a fool.”
Thus, instead of adjusting his theology to fit Scripture, Luther’s solution was to relegate the book of James to the canonical cheap seats, declaring flatly in his Preface: “I will not have him in my Bible to be numbered among the true chief books.” Indeed, Luther’s advice was that they “should throw the epistle of James out of this school, for it doesn’t amount to much.” And of course, Luther famously declared James to be an “epistle of straw.”
Romans 3:28 was the closest verse in Scripture that seemed to prove Luther’s novel idea concerning justification. However, it lacked the all-important word alone that would have makes Luther’s sola doctrine true. Once again, though, rather than adjust his theology, Luther adjusted the Bible. In his translation of Romans, Luther added the word alone to verse 3:28 (making it say “man is justified by faith alone apart from the deeds of the law”) in order to make it appear that he had biblical support.
When challenged about this rather transparent translational bias, Luther responded: “If your papist wants to make so much fuss about the word sola [alone] tell him this, ‘Dr. Martin Luther will have it so, and says that a papist and an ass are the same thing.’”
It seems, then, that Luther himself was guilty of doing the very thing he accused the Catholic Church of doing: elevating his theology above the Bible. In his attempt to justify (pun intended) his doctrine of sola fide, Luther both mistranslated the content of, and modified the canon of, Scripture—the one authority he claimed to stand upon while rebelling against the Church’s teaching.
Ironically, then, sola fide turns out to be a good argument against sola scriptura and vice-versa. For if sola scriptura allows one to hold to a doctrine that verbally contradicts Scripture and that requires both additions and subtractions to Scripture in order to appear scriptural, then anyone (including the Church) can claim agreement with sola scriptura.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Gospel According to St Matthew Chapter 25
The parable of the ten virgins and of the talents. The description of the last judgment.
[1] Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like to ten virgins, who taking their lamps went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. [2] And five of them were foolish, and five wise. [3] But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them: [4] But the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps. [5] And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept.
[6] And at midnight there was a cry made: Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye forth to meet him. [7] Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. [8] And the foolish said to the wise: Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out. [9] The wise answered, saying: Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. [10] Now whilst they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they that were ready, went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut.
[11] But at last come also the other virgins, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us. [12] But he answering said: Amen I say to you, I know you not. [13] Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour. [14] For even as a man going into a far country, called his servants, and delivered to them his goods; [15] And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to every one according to his proper ability: and immediately he took his journey.
[16] And he that had received the five talents, went his way, and traded with the same, and gained other five. [17] And in like manner he that had received the two, gained other two. [18] But he that had received the one, going his way digged into the earth, and hid his lord's money. [19] But after a long time the lord of those servants came, and reckoned with them. [20] And he that had received the five talents coming, brought other five talents, saying: Lord, thou didst deliver to me five talents, behold I have gained other five over and above.
[21] His lord said to him: Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. [22] And he also that had received the two talents came and said: Lord, thou deliveredst two talents to me: behold I have gained other two. [23] His lord said to him: Well done, good and faithful servant: because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. [24] But he that had received the one talent, came and said: Lord, I know that thou art a hard man; thou reapest where thou hast not sown, and gatherest where thou hast not strewed. [25] And being afraid I went and hid thy talent in the earth: behold here thou hast that which is thine.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Gospel According to St Matthew Chapter 25
[26] And his lord answering, said to him: Wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed: [27] Thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with usury. [28] Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents. [29] For to every one that hath shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away. [30] And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
[31] And when the Son of man shall come in his majesty, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit upon the seat of his majesty. [32] And all nations shall be gathered together before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: [33] And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. [34] Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. [35] For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in:
[36] Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me. [37] Then shall the just answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, and fed thee; thirsty, and gave thee drink? [38] And when did we see thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and covered thee? [39] Or when did we see thee sick or in prison, and came to thee? [40] And the king answering, shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me.
[41] Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. [42] For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me not to drink. [43] I was a stranger, and you took me not in: naked, and you covered me not: sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. [44] Then they also shall answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to thee? [45] Then he shall answer them, saying: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to me.
[46] And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Epistle of St James Chapter 2
Against respect of persons. The danger of transgressing one point of the law. Faith is dead without works.
[1] My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with respect of persons. [2] For if there shall come into your assembly a man having a golden ring, in fine apparel, and there shall come in also a poor man in mean attire, [3] And you have respect to him that is clothed with the fine apparel, and shall say to him: Sit thou here well; but say to the poor man: Stand thou there, or sit under my footstool: [4] Do you not judge within yourselves, and are become judges of unjust thoughts? [5] Hearken, my dearest brethren: hath not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him?
[1] "With respect of persons": The meaning is, that in matters relating to faith, the administering of the sacraments, and other spiritual functions in God's church, there should be no respect of persons; but that the souls of the poor should be as much regarded as those of the rich. See Deut. 1. 17.
[6] But you have dishonoured the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you by might? and do not they draw you before the judgment seats? [7] Do not they blaspheme the good name that is invoked upon you? [8] If then you fulfill the royal law, according to the scriptures, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; you do well. [9] But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin, being reproved by the law as transgressors. [10] And whosoever shall keep the whole law, but offend in one point, is become guilty of all.
[10] "Guilty of all;": That is, he becomes a transgressor of the law in such a manner, that the observing of all other points will not avail him to salvation; for he despises the lawgiver, and breaks through the great and general commandment of charity, even by one mortal sin. For all the precepts of the law are to be considered as one total and entire law, and as it were a chain of precepts, where, by breaking one link of this chain, the whole chain is broken, or the integrity of the law consisting of a collection of precepts. A sinner, therefore, by a grievous offence against any one precept, incurs eternal punishment; yet the punishment in hell shall be greater for those who have been greater sinners, as a greater reward shall be for those in heaven who have lived with greater sanctity and perfection.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Epistle of St James Chapter 2
[11] For he that said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, said also, Thou shalt not kill. Now if thou do not commit adultery, but shalt kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. [12] So speak ye, and so do, as being to be judged by the law of liberty. [13] For judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy. And mercy exalteth itself above judgment. [14] What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but hath not works? Shall faith be able to save him? [15] And if a brother or sister be naked, and want daily food:
[16] And one of you say to them: Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; yet give them not those things that are necessary for the body, what shall it profit? [17] So faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself. [18] But some man will say: Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without works; and I will shew thee, by works, my faith. [19] Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well: the devils also believe and tremble. [20] But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
[21] Was not Abraham our father justified by works, offering up Isaac his son upon the altar? [22] Seest thou, that faith did co-operate with his works; and by works faith was made perfect? [23] And the scripture was fulfilled, saying: Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him to justice, and he was called the friend of God. [24] Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by faith only? [25] And in like manner also Rahab the harlot, was not she justified by works, receiving the messengers, and sending them out another way?
[26] For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also faith without works is dead.
Why do we call priests “Father” when Jesus said not to call anyone on earth “father”?
This question refers to Jesus’ teaching found in the gospel of St. Matthew, when He said, “Do not call anyone on earth your father. Only one is your father, the One in heaven” (Matthew 23:9). Taken literally, we would have to wonder why we do use this title “Father” when Jesus seems to forbid it. First, we must remember the context of the passage. Jesus was addressing the hypocrisy of the scribes and the Pharisees– the learned religious leaders of Judaism. Our Lord castigated them for not providing good example; for creating onerous spiritual burdens for others with their various rules and regulations; for being haughty in exercising their office; and for promoting themselves by looking for places of honor, seeking marks of respect, and wearing ostentatious symbols. Basically, the scribes and the Pharisees had forgotten that they were called to serve the Lord and those entrusted to their care with humility and a generous spirit.
Given that context, Jesus said not to call anyone on earth by the title “Rabbi,” “Father,” or “Teacher,” in the sense of arrogating to oneself an authority which rests with God and of forgetting the responsibility of the title. Yes, as Jesus said, only the heavenly Father is the true Father, and the Messiah, the true teacher and rabbi. Nevertheless, we do use these titles in our common parlance: We call those who instruct us and others “teacher”; our male parent, “father”; and Jewish religious leaders, “rabbi.” Especially in a religious sense, those who serve the Lord and represent His authority, as a teacher, parent, and especially a priest, must be mindful of exercising it diligently, humbly, and courageously. To use this authority for self-aggrandizement is pure hypocrisy. Jesus said at the end of this passage, “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, but whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.”
Since the earliest times of our Church, we have used the title “Father” for religious leaders. Bishops, who are the shepherds of the local Church community and the authentic teachers of the faith, were given the title “Father.” Actually, until about the year 400, a bishop was called “papa” for Father; this title was then restricted solely to addressing the Bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter, and in English was rendered “Pope.” In an early form of his rule, St. Benedict (d. c. 547) designated the title to spiritual confessors, since they were the guardians of souls. Moreover, the word abbot, denoting the leader in faith of the monastic community, is derived from the word abba, the Aramaic Hebrew word for father, but in the very familiar sense of “daddy.” Later, in the Middle Ages, the term “father” was used to address the mendicant friars– like the Franciscans and Dominicans– since by their preaching, teaching, and charitable works they cared for the spiritual and physical needs of all of God’s children. In more modern times, the heads of male religious communities or even those who participate in ecumenical councils, such as Vatican II, are given the title “father.” In the English speaking world, addressing all priests as “Father” has become customary.
On a more personal note, the title for me is very humbling. As a priest, “Father” reminds me that I am entrusted with a grave responsibility by our Lord– His faithful people. Just as a father must nourish, instruct, challenge, correct, forgive, listen, and sustain his children, so must a priest do the same for his spiritual children. The priest must meet the spiritual needs of those entrusted to his care, providing them with the nourishment of our Lord through the sacraments. He must preach the gospel with fervor and conviction in accord with the mind of the Church, challenging all to continue on that path of conversion which leads to holiness. He must correct those who have erred but with mercy and compassion. In the same spirit as the father with his prodigal son, the priest must reconcile sinners who have gone astray but seek a way back to God. As a father listens to his child, so must a priest listen to his spiritual children, providing counsel and consolation. A priest must also be mindful of the “physical” needs of his flock– food, housing, clothing, and education. While priests may be celibate, the words of our Lord to His apostles ring true: “I give you my word, there is not one who has given up home, brothers or sisters, mother or father, children or property, for me and for the gospel who will not receive in this present age a hundred times as many homes, brothers and sisters, mothers, children and property– and persecution besides– and in the age to come, everlasting life” (Mark 10:29-30). All of us must pray for our priests, especially those that serve in our own parishes, that by God’s grace they may strive to fulfill the responsibility of being “Father.”
Let’s discuss the idea of calling priests “father.” In Matthew 23:9, when Jesus says, “And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven,” does Jesus mean that literally or is he just driving home a point using strong terminology? I would say it’s the latter. Catholics are criticized for this because Catholics call priests “father.”
When Jesus said to “call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven,” he is using an expression that has deep roots in the Hebrew Scriptures. To “call” someone by a “name” in the Hebrew tradition meant something closer to “identifying the essence” of a person. For example, when the prophet Isaiah says of the Messiah that “his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,” he certainly does not mean that those titles will be commonly used as names of the Messiah by his contemporaries. None of Jesus’ contemporaries, not even the Apostles themselves, called him those things. Rather, the “name” here means the essence, and Isaiah is describing the nature of the Messiah, who will be, in his very nature, the “Mighty God” who shares the essence of the “Wonderful Counselor” (the Holy Spirit) and the “Everlasting Father” (God the Father).
So, in this Hebrew tradition, when Jesus says, “Call no one on earth your father,” he means, “Recognize no one on earth as your father in his essence for by nature and by essence, there is only one Father, that is, God the Father.” In a very real sense, all other fathers, even one’s own biological father, are imitation fathers, because God is the true Father who begets children in a way that only He, as God, can. When you were conceived, God created your soul de novo, “new,” and ex nihilo, “from nothing.” That is true fatherhood!
Your biological father did not create anything de novo or ex nihilo. Your biological father contributed to your body in a physical process that was wondrously fashioned by God, but nonetheless completely natural and according to physical laws. In a very real sense, your physical father is only a father by analogy, that is, human fatherhood is similar to true fatherhood, which God alone exercises. Another way to look at it is that we can call our biological fathers “Father” only because God is our true Father. All paternity is an imitation of the paternity of God the Father, as St. Paul says: “I bow my knees before the Father, from whom all fatherhood [Greek patria] in heaven and on earth is named” (Eph 3:14–15, my translation).
Likewise, ministerial priests are like God the Father, who begets in a spiritual and supernatural way. As some theologians have pointed out, the ministerial priest is more like God the Father than a biological father is. When a ministerial priest baptizes a baby, he’s bringing about new spiritual life. Through the Word and the Spirit he is “birthing” a soul, moving it from death into life. This is more like how God creates a soul than like biological procreation. True fatherhood is spiritual in its essence. So, when Jesus says, “call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven,” he is emphasizing that all true paternity is in God the Father, and all human paternity is only an imitation of divine paternity.
Nonetheless, both Jesus and the Apostles continue to call men “fathers” in their teaching and conversation. In Luke 16:24, for example, Jesus tells a parable in which he refers to Israel’s great ancestor as “Father Abraham.” Likewise, St. Paul, in his Letter to the Romans, refers to Abraham as the “father of all . . . who believe” (Rom 4:11). A few verses later, St. Paul again calls Abraham the “father of us all” (Rom 4:16). In his Letter to the Philippians, St. Paul says that Timothy, “as a son with a father . . . has served with me in the gospel” (Phil 2:22). In his First Letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul says, “For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (1 Cor 4:15). This is particularly significant because he is claiming a spiritual role of fatherhood for himself.
The most interesting, perhaps, of all these examples, is in 1 John, where the Apostle says: “I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the Evil One. I write to you, children, because you know the Father” (1 John 2:13–14).
Now, most commentators, going all the way back to the Church Fathers, don’t think that St. John is speaking to woodenly literal groups here, as if “fathers” means all those and only those men in the congregation who have biological children, and “young men” means all the males of the congregation between fifteen and twenty-five, and “children” refers to the youngsters up to age fourteen.
No, the context begs for these terms to be understood as categories of spiritual maturity and/or role in the church community. Even Protestant commentators will acknowledge that “fathers” probably corresponds to the presbyters or “elders” (Greek presbuteroi) of the congregation; the “young men” refer to those Christians who had completed initiation, that is, who had completed basic catechesis and were growing deeper in their faith; and “children” were recent converts receiving formation or in other words, the catechumens.
The first person recorded as addressing Christian presbyters (priests) as “fathers” turns out to be one of chief Apostles, and he does so in the very pages of the Scriptures themselves.
The Demonic Cruelty of John Calvin in his Murder of Michael Servetus.
"Nec cum istis, nec cum illis, in omnibus consentio, out dissentio. Omnes mihi videtur habere parte veritatis, et partem erroris, et quilibet alterius errorem displicit et nemo suum videt." (Dialogorum de Trinitate, 1532)
"It is an abuse to condemn to death those who are wrong in their interpretation of the Scriptures. Such penalty must only be imposed to murderers." (Letter to Aecolampadious, Calvini, op. VIII, 862)
On October 26 of 1553, the Council issued its judgement against Servetus ordering him to be burnt alive in the hill of Champel. The judgment stated that Servetus was guilty for having printed "twenty-three or twenty-four" years ago a book (“De Trinitatis Erroribus”) that contained blasphemies against the Trinity and for having corrupted Christians and spread his antitrinitarian heresy in a later work (“Christianismi Restitutio”). Furthermore, the judgment condemned Servetus for opposing the baptism of infants. It must be noted that the Genevan judges appear to have intentionally erred in the qualification of the charges against Servetus. From the records of the trial and the reasoning of the judgment it cannot be inferred that the crime of which Servetus was being accused had been committed in the territory of Geneva.
Applying the most elementary principles of Criminal Law, the judges should have acquitted Servetus, or simply found him guilty of attempting to commit that crime and, consequently, they should have applied a less rigorous penalty such as banishment. Finally, it is also surprising that Servetus’ request to have his case brought before the Council of the Two Hundred (a body in charge of legislating in Geneva and of electing the 25 members of the Small Council) was ignored by the Genevan magistrates. This decision of the judges, along with their refusal to allow Servetus to be assisted by a lawyer, is another example of the irregularities that vitiated the process against Servetus and demonstrate the scarce legal rigor of the Genevan court, most likely due to the strong influence that Calvin exerted upon the judges.
On October 27, 1553 Servetus was led to the hill of Champel. His body was tied up to a stake with an iron chain and his neck held with a heavy cord. The executioners placed on his head a straw crown sprinkled with sulfur. As usual in these types of executions, a copy of his “Christianismi Restitutio” was placed underneath his feet.
The execution lasted more than two hours because of the green firewood used by the executioners. Until the very last moment, the Genevan reformers tried to convince Servetus to abjure his doctrines. But all was in vain, Servetus, in spite of the severe and cruel imprisonment he had been subject to remained faithful to his doctrines, not because of stubbornness but because of conviction. Calvin condemned him, but History, sometimes the most effective court of appeal, soon acquitted him. His moral integrity during the process and finally before the pyre was not overlooked in his time. The heroic death of Servetus led other humanists to raise their voices against Calvin and in favor of the freedom of thought. But the example of Servetus was felt beyond his time. It seeded the germ of an intense and deep debate on freedom of religion and conscience that was further developed by some philosophers of the XVIII century and which would finally inspire the democratization processes that took place in Western societies during the XIX and XX centuries.
When Jacques Gruet, a theologian with differing views, placed a letter in Calvin’s pulpit calling him a hypocrite, he was arrested, tortured for a month and beheaded on July 26, 1547. Gruet's own theological book was later found and burned along with his house while his wife was thrown out into the street to watch.
Michael Servetus, a Spaniard, physician, scientist and Bible scholar, suffered a worse fate. He was Calvin's longtime acquaintance who resisted the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. However, he angered Calvin by returning a copy of Calvin's Institutes with critical comments in the margins. So what did Calvin do? You can read his resolution from a personal letter he wrote to a friend:
“Servetus offers to come hither, if it be agreeable to me. But I am unwilling to pledge my word for his safety, for if he shall come, I shall never permit him to depart alive, provided my authority be of any avail.” - Letter to Farel, 13 February 1546
The next time Servetus attended Calvin's Sunday preaching service on a visit, Calvin had him arrested and charged with heresy. The 38 official charges included rejection of the Trinity and infant baptism. The city magistrates condemned him to death. Calvin pleaded for Servetus to be beheaded instead of the more brutal method of burning at the stake, but to no avail. Some people see Calvin’s compassion in pursuing a more humane method of death, but ultimately he supported killing Servetus and all such heretics.
Picture
Dr. Paul Penley (left) holding a 1575 print of Calvin's Institutes at a Seminary library in Cluj, Romania. Thanks Istvan!
On October 27, 1553, green wood was used for the fire so Servetus would be slowly baked alive from the feet upward. For 30 minutes he screamed for mercy and prayed to Jesus as the fire worked its way up his body to burn the theology book strapped to his chest as a symbol of his heresy. Calvin summarized the execution this way:
“Servetus . . . suffered the penalty due to his heresies, but was it by my will? Certainly his arrogance destroyed him not less than his impiety. And what crime was it of mine if our Council, at my exhortation, indeed, but in conformity with the opinion of several Churches, took vengeance on his execrable blasphemies?” - Calvin
How could such torture be condoned? In November 1552 the Geneva Council declared Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion to be a "holy doctrine which no man might speak against." Disagreeing with Calvin’s view of God was a violation warranting the death penalty according to the way John Calvin interpreted Leviticus 24:16. The Geneva city council records describe one verdict where a man who publicly protested against John Calvin’s doctrine of predestination was flogged at all the city’s main intersections and then expelled (“The Minutes Book of the Geneva City Council, 1541-59,” translated by Stefan Zweig, Erasmus: The Right to Heresy). You did not get to disagree with Calvin in this town.
Serial Child Murderer John Calvin
https://etb-history-theology.blogspot.com/2012/03/execution-of-child-and-adulterers-in.html
Martin Luther The Rabid Antisemite.
“Set fire to their synagogues or schools,” Martin Luther recommended in On the Jews and Their Lies. Jewish houses should “be razed and destroyed,” and Jewish “prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, [should] be taken from them.” In addition, “their rabbis [should] be forbidden to teach on pain of loss of life and limb.” Still, this wasn’t enough.
Luther also urged that “safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews,” and that “all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them.” What Jews could do was to have “a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade” put into their hands so “young, strong Jews and Jewesses” could “earn their bread in the sweat of their brow.”
Luther was “one of the ‘church fathers’ of anti-Semitism.” More seriously, Luther’s attacks have been seen as paving the way for Hitler
So much for Protestant's claims for Sola Scriptura (Which is not Biblically back up anyway).
Calvin despised and dismissed Hebrews and went completely against Holy Scripture in its entirety.
In John Calvin’s magnum opus, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, he presents a view of man that is very much like Luther’s but contrary to what we find in the pages of Sacred Scripture. Calvin used texts such as Genesis 6:5—“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”—and Romans 3:10ff—“None is righteous, no not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong; no one does good, not even one ”—to prove that man is utterly depraved through the fall of Adam and Eve.
Calvin’s conclusion from these texts and others was to say, “The will is so utterly vitiated and corrupted in every part as to produce nothing but evil” (Institutes, bk. II, ch. II, para. 26).
What say we?
The context of the texts Calvin used actually demonstrates the opposite of his claim. For example, if we read forward just four verses in Genesis 6, we find: “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. . . . Noah was a righteous [“just”] man, blameless in his generation” (Gen. 6:8-9). While we Catholics agree that God’s grace or “favor” was essential for Noah to be truly “just” before God, nevertheless Noah was truly just, according to the text.
As far as the quote from Romans is concerned, the greater context of the entire epistle must be understood. One of the central themes of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans is the fact that it is through “the goodness of God” that we are led to repent (cf. Romans 2:4), to be justified (Romans 5:1-2), and persevere in the faith (cf. Romans 11:22). It is solely because of God’s grace that we become truly just:
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God (Rom. 5:1-2).
Further,
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death . . . in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Rom. 8:2,4).
Notice the emphasis on the fact that man is made truly just so much so that he can fulfill “the just requirement of the law.” It doesn’t get any more just, or righteous, than that!
Thus, Romans 3:10ff simply does not teach total depravity in a Calvinist sense. It cannot when the context is understood.
Moreover, if we examine the verses where St. Paul paints his picture of the wicked who have “turned aside” and “done wrong,” we find he actually quotes Psalm 14:3. The next two verses of this Psalm explain who these “evil ones” are:
Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon the Lord? There they shall be in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous.
The Psalmist clearly refers to both evildoers and the righteous.
These and other passages from Romans tell us that Christ came to make us just, not that there are absolutely none who are just. We must stress again that it is because of the justice of Christ communicated to the faithful that their actions and, indeed, they themselves are truly made just. But they indeed are truly made just.
Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does right (Gr., ho poion tein dikaiousunein—“the one doing justice”) is righteous (Gr., dikaios estin—“is just”) as he is righteous (Gr., kathos ekeinos dikaios estin—“as he is just”).
Scripture couldn’t be clearer that the faithful are made truly just in their being and in their actions through the grace of Christ.
The problem magnified
More grave problems arise when we begin to follow the path Calvin lays for us with his first principle. Even when considering the unregenerate, Calvin is wrong about total depravity, because Scripture tells us even those outside of the law can “do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts” (Rom. 2:14-15).
Though Catholics agree with Calvinists that grace is necessary even for those who are ignorant of the law in order for them to be just before God—in other words, this text is not saying these pagans can be justified apart from grace—the text does infer that nature is not totally depraved, because man can clearly act justly on a natural level and by nature.
But an even more grave error comes to the fore when we consider his notion of the depravity of the just.
“Depravity of the just?” Yes. That was not a typo. According to John Calvin, even those who have been justified by Christ “cannot perform one work which, if judged on its own merits, is not deserving of condemnation” (Institutes, bk. III, ch. 9, para. 9). What a far cry this is from “he that acts justly is just” (I John 3:7) or the plain words of the Psalmist, who uses similar words as found in Genesis with regard to Abraham being justified by faith: “[Abraham] believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6). In the Psalms we read: “Then Phineas stood up and interposed, and the plague was stayed. And that has been reckoned to him as righteousness from generation to generation” (Ps. 106:30-31).
Clearly, Phineas was justified by his works and not only by faith. In other words, Phineas’s works are truly “just as he is just,” to use the words of I John 3:7.
There are a multitude of biblical texts that come to mind at this point, but here are only three:
“For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned”? (Matt. 12:37).
“By works a man is justified and not by faith alone” (Jas. 2:24).
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:13-14).
These texts do not even come close to saying all of these works were “worthy of condemnation.” They say just the opposite!
We should be clear here: All “good works” man performs that contribute to his salvation are first and foremost God’s gifts, which, along with his cooperation, truly make him just and worthy to “walk with [Christ] in white; for [he is] worthy” (Rev. 3:4) by God’s grace and mercy. But we cannot escape the biblical fact that these works are truly just and they are truly the fruit of the just man himself.
Understanding the strange
When John Calvin says man is utterly dependent upon God for every single just thought in his mind (cf. Institutes, bk. II, ch. II, para. 27), Catholics will happily agree. And they would be correct: We do agree. However, appearances can be deceiving, because there is meaning beneath those words that Catholics cannot agree with.
With Calvin, there is no sense of grace aiding and empowering our wills as St. Augustine taught and the Catholic Church teaches. For Calvin, being “dependent upon God” means our free cooperation or free will has no part to play. God does not merely empower our wills; he operates them.
In the end, this may well be the most disturbing idea stemming from Calvin’s notion of total depravity: Man is essentially God’s puppet, a notion that led to Calvin attributing both the good and the evil actions of man to God.
And mind you, Calvin rejects and ridicules the Catholic notion of God merely permitting evil and working all things together for good. In his words:
Hence a distinction has been invented between doing and permitting, because to many it seemed altogether inexplicable how Satan and all the wicked are so under the hand and authority of God, that he directs their malice to whatever end he pleases” (Institutes, bk. I, ch. XVIII, para. 1).
Evildoers do not commit acts of depravity in spite of the command of God, but because of the command of God, according to Calvin (ibid., para. 4)!
Isaiah 45:7 and Amos 3:6 are used to teach that there is no evil that occurs that is not “impelled” by God’s positive command (ibid., para. 2).
God is the author of all those things that, according to these objectors, happen only by his inactive permission. He testifies that he creates light and darkness, forms good and evil (Is. [45:7]); that no evil happens which he hath not done (Amos [3:6]) (ibid., para. 3).
As Catholics we understand, as St. Paul teaches, “[S]ince they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct” (Rom. 1:28). This means God may well remove grace that is rejected. He may also hold back grace as well, but this is, as St. Augustine said, God’s “just judgment.”
But according to Calvin’s unbiblical teaching, God does not give grace in the first place and then “impels” men to act sinfully. As quoted above, according to Calvin, God causes evil. And we are not talking about physical evil here; we are talking about moral evil. That is categorically absurd! God cannot “do” or “impel” moral evil because he is infinitely and absolutely good.
God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:8, Numbers 23:19); “he cannot deny himself” (2 Tim. 2:13) or act contrary to his nature. If God’s nature is one of love and pure being, it is absurd to say that he can “do” evil, which is by nature a lack of some perfection that ought to be present in a given nature. In fact, James 1:13 tells us that God not only cannot cause this kind of evil, he cannot even tempt anyone with evil. That is contrary to his nature.
The bottom line
When Isaiah 45:7 and Amos 3:6 say God “creates evil” and “does evil,” this must be seen only in a sense in which it does not contradict God’s nature and what is clearly revealed to us about God in Scripture. God can directly cause physical evil, such as the ten plagues he released against Egypt in Exodus. But this was an act of justice, which was morally upright and justified.
We can also say that God permits evil in view of the fact that he chose to create us with freedom. But even there, God permits evil only in view of his promise to bring good out of that evil, as is most profoundly demonstrated through the greatest evil in the history of the world: the Crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through this greatest evil God brings about the greatest good: the redemption of the world. God did not kill Christ, nor did he “impel” anyone to kill Christ.
But by virtue of his omnipotence, he brings good out of the evil acts committed.
So, I trust St. Paul (not Protestants' perverse twisting of his writings and their meanings based on the Antisemitic cold blooded murderers and liars, John Calvin and Martin Luther), as well as St. James and St. Matthew!
By their FRUITS shall ye know them!
How can Catholics claim “works” are necessary for salvation for Christians who have reached the age of accountability when Romans 3:28 says:
For we hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law.
Romans 4:5 says:
And to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.
And Ephesians 2:8-9 says:
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God — not because of works, lest any man should boast.
On the surface, these texts may sound problematic, but once we examine their respective contexts, the problems go away rather quickly. First, let’s take a look at the context surrounding Romans 3:28. St. Paul had already made very clear in Romans 2:6-7 that good works are necessary for eternal life, at least in one sense:
For [God] will render to every man according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life…
One of the problems in Rome St. Paul was dealing with was a very prominent heresy known to us today as the “Judaizer” heresy. Those attached to this sect taught belief in Christ and obedience to the New Covenant was not enough to be saved. One had to keep the Law of Moses, especially circumcision, in order to merit heaven.
The problem with this teaching, of course, is, among other things, according to Hebrews 7:11-12, the old law has passed away in Christ:
Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further needtwould there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchiz’edek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well.
According to this text, the law of Moses had passed away with the advent of Christ. Moreover, according to St. Paul, Christians are under the new law, or “the law of Christ,” not the old.
To those outside the law I became as one outside the law — not being without law toward God but under the law of Christ — that I might win those outside the law (I Cor. 9:21).
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).
This is not to say that we have now exchanged one list of rules for another and if we follow a list of rules, apart from grace, we can be saved. Absolutely not! Following the letter of the law, even the new law, cannot save because as St. Paul says in II Cor. 3:6:
[God] has qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life.
We are bound to follow “the law of Christ” as St. Paul said in I Cor. 9:21, but we must understand that we are saved by grace through the instruments of faith and obedience. That obedience includes keeping the Ten Commandments, but the keeping of the commandments is an instrument—a necessary instrument—through which the grace of God flows and keeps us in Christ, the principle of reward for us. Thus, we have to keep the commandments to be saved, but we understand it is only through grace that we can do so.
At any rate, there is a great description of what was happening in the early church with these “Judaizers” in Acts 15:1-2:
But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brethren, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.
Notice the emphasis on “circumcision” and the law of Moses? St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans is steeped in responses to the positions of these same “Judaizers.” It becomes obvious St. Paul has them in mind when he says in Romans 2:28-29:
For he is not a real Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal…
It is very interesting to note that this same St. Paul would tell us that the true “circumcision of Christ” is New Covenant baptism in Colossians 2:11-12.
At any rate, it is in the context of dealing with the “Judaizers” that St. Paul says we are “justified by faith apart from the works of law.” He did not eliminate works as necessary for salvation in any sense. He specified the works of law because these were the very works without which the Judaizers were claiming a person “cannot be saved.”
Objection!
At this point our Protestant friends may point out that Romans 4:5 does not specify “works of law.” It simply says, “to him who does not work, but believes…” And even more, what do you do with Romans 7:6-7 where St. Paul uses the ninth and tenth commandments as his example of “the law” that has passed away and cannot save? This is talking about “the Ten Commandments!” Would the Catholic Church say the Ten Commandments have passed away with the advent of Christ?
But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
How do we respond? First, it is true that St. Paul does not say works of law in Romans 4:5. But the context makes it very clear that St. Paul was referring to circumcision in particular and the same “works of law” he was referring to in Romans 3:28. Romans 3:28 down to Romans 4:5 represents one continuous thought in answering the Judaizers and their insistence upon circumcision and keeping the Old Covenant in order to be saved.
When it comes to Romans 7:6-7, we need to go a bit deeper in our response. St. Paul does use the ninth and tenth commandments as examples of “law” that cannot save us. St. Paul is using the example of the “Judaizers” to teach all of us a deeper truth about the nature of justification and works. The works that justify us (as we saw in Romans 2:6-7) are works done in Christ. When the “Judaizers” were insisting a return to the Old Covenant was necessary for salvation, they were, in essence, saying Christ and the New Covenant are not enough. And in so doing, they were ipso facto rejecting Jesus Christ and the New Covenant.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.” The “Judaizers” were attempting to be justified apart from Christ. St. Paul’s main emphasis is that we can only perform salvific acts in Christ! If we are not “in Christ”, even our outwardly “righteous deeds” will never and can never merit eternal life.
In other words, the law, whether old or new, cannot save us apart from the grace of Christ. In fact, St. Paul goes beyond declaring the keeping of the law alone cannot save us. He even says, in I Cor. 13:3:
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Sola Gratia
The truth is, it is the grace of Christ alone that saves us by our cooperating with that grace in fulfilling the “law of Christ.” This is precisely what St. Paul teaches in Galatians 3:2-3, 5:2-6. And take note how he writes concerning these same “Judaizers:”
Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh… (5:2) Now I Paul say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness (Gr. dikaiosune—justification). For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love.
Notice St. Paul’s emphasis on our being in grace and our working through the Spirit and in Christ in order to remain in Christ. Back in Romans, St. Paul said very similarly.
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2)
In Romans 6:16, St. Paul goes on to tell us that after baptism (cf. Romans 6:3-4) obedience to Christ (that means good works!) leads us to justification while sin (that means bad works!) will lead us to death:
Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death (Gr.—eis thanaton, “unto death”), or of obedience, which leads to righteousness (Gr.—eis dikaiosunen—unto justification).
Notice: St. Paul makes it very clear. Obedience leads to justification and eternal life while sin leads to eternal death (see also Romans 6:23). Thus, St. Paul’s emphasis is not just on works, but works done in and through the power of Christ. In Romans 8:1-14, St. Paul tells us in no uncertain terms that we must be in Christ and continuing to live our lives in Christ in order to do works that please God.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus… who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit… and those who are in the flesh cannot please God… So, then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh – for if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.
The key, again, is to remember St. Paul is emphasizing our continuing in Christ, or, in his grace or “kindness.” In Romans 11:22, he says it this way:
Note then the kindness and severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off.
Just so no one would get the wrong idea of what St. Paul was saying, it seems, he put it plain and simple in Galatians 5:19-21 and 6:7-9. There is no way we can get “justification by faith alone” that excludes works as necessary for justification in any and every sense if we read these texts carefully. St. Paul makes clear that if Christians allow themselves to be dominated by their “flesh,” or lower nature, they will not make it to heaven.
Now the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God… (6:7) Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption (eternal death); but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.
Here St. Paul teaches that through good works, or continuing to “sow to the Spirit,” we will be rewarded with eternal life, but only if we persevere.
Works in Ephesians 2:8-9:
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God – not because of works, lest any man should boast.
Once again, context is going to be key. In verses 4-6 St. Paul had just said:
But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ… and raised us up with him…
Here St. Paul is talking about the initial grace of salvation or justification by which we Christians were raised from death unto life. The Catholic Church teaches in agreement with Scripture that this initial grace of salvation is entirely and absolutely unmerited.
My heavens, the Catholic Church baptizes babies! What more could she do to demonstrate this truth! What kind of works could a newborn baby have done to merit anything?
However, once that baby grows up and reaches the age of accountability, he must begin to “work out [his] own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in [him], both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13). Or, as St. Paul says in Ephesians 2:10—the very next verse after Eph. 2:8-9:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
St. Paul is in no way eliminating works in any sense, to be necessary for salvation; he is simply pointing out what the Catholic Church has taught for 2,000 years: there is nothing anyone can do before they enter into Christ that can justify them. But once a person enters into Christ… it’s a whole new ballgame (see Phil. 4:13; Rom. 2:6-7; Gal. 6:7-9, etc.).
In the final analysis, I believe the text that is about as plain as any text could be concerning works and justification is James 2:24—that is, it is about as plain as can be in telling us both that “faith alone” is insufficient for our justification, and that “works” are indeed necessary. Are we justified by faith? Certainly! By faith alone? No way! It’s both faith and works, according to Scripture.
You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
Jesus says it similarly. Are we saved by faith in Jesus? Certainly! John 11:25:
I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
Are we saved by faith alone? No way! As we saw before, in Matthew 19:16-19, Jesus himself said to a rich young man who had asked him what he needed to do to have eternal life:
… If you would enter life, keep the commandments… You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Or, how about Matthew 12:36-37? Here, Jesus says:
I tell you, on the day of judgment men will render account for every careless word they utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
That sounds like there is more to this justification thing than faith alone.
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Be Christlike and charitable, love is above all else, first to God, then to your fellow human being (yes, that includes little Mexican children, who are strangers, Ray Racist Bigotted B.). (see Matt 25). You show me your faith without works and I'll show you my faith by my works.
It is not sufficient to pass someone in need and offer only prayer when there is so much more one could offer.
Remember the good Samaritan.
That cant be X at 10:05 PM. X is not Christlike and charitable.
We are to be kind to 'strangers'. However the 'strangers' in the bible were probably a very small minority, and likely of a kindred ethnicity. NOT an invading army largely taking over large segments of a nation!
My cousin, from my home town of Grand Rapids Michigan, got her teaching degree and went to teach in a small border town in Texas. She taught there for roughly 25 years, until one day she called my mother in the mid 80's, and told her she was moving back to Grand Rapids because she feared for her life. She said she had often heard gunshots over the years, but now the bullets were hitting her house! So yah, the 'mexicans' are just lovely!
I agree in that I don't think the Bible teaches or shows mindless charity. For instance, the early church took in a great many widows and orphans. But in Timothy 5 you see an effort to think it through, set reasonable limits, and not to overwhelm the church. Families are urged to take responsibility for their own widowed kin. Young widows are urged to re-marry. The widows who receive church charity are to be of good reputation.
12:57 PM
J, Yes, Compassion and good stewardship go hand in hand.
What the American people have a right to know...
Many of these mass shooting suspects are trained by MK Ultra.
The Parkland, Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz (back in February, 2018) is just one example.
MKUltra is essentially a code name given to a program of experiments on human subjects... at times illegal, designed and undertaken by the United States Central Intelligence Agency.
https://thegoldwater.com/news/18913-Parkland-Shooting-Nikolas-Cruz-FBI-Failures-Fake-News-Gun-Control-and-MK-Ultra
_______________________________________________________________________________________
MK Ultra: Nikolas Cruz heard 'demons' instructing him during the shooting.
MK-ULTRA or the “CIA’s mind control program” — was the code name given to experiments on human subjects, designed and undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Latest videos subscribe that it’s not the first time that a mass shooter has reported hearing voices shortly before and during a massacre.
https://newspunch.com/mkultra-nikolas-cruz-demons-shooting/
________________________________________________________________________________________
Was The Florida School Shooting Part Of The CIA’s MK Ultra Program?
https://thewashingtonstandard.com/florida-school-shooting-part-cias-mk-ultra-program/
Anonymous @ 10:07 AM ...
Outlandish, unsubstantiated, tin-foil hat, wild-eyed conspiracy theories that have no place on Constance's blog! You really need to be more responsible ... uh ...
oh wait ... uh ... I just read this:
Buffalo, NY Mass Shooter Had Been Coached by Former FBI Agent
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/buffalo-ny-mass-shooter-had-been-coached-by-former-fbi-agent/
PS: Regardless, I still 'think' that the very same government that has protected the right to kill babies for almost 50 years would never, ever do such a thing ... because they are good, righteous and God-fearing folks that never do any harm and never ever overthrow foreign governments, nor do they ever go to war for reasons other than what they say and 9/11 really, really happened exactly as they said and EXPERIMENTAL 'vaccines' are really good for you, and etc., etc. So there.
Uvalde massacre was a PLANNED STAND DOWN operation – law enforcement saved their own children while parents were pepper-sprayed and handcuffed
https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-05-27-uvalde-massacre-was-a-planned-stand-down-operation.html
In celebration of LBGTQABCXYZ+ Pride Month ...
Woman who is sexually attracted to planes wants to marry toy Boeing
(And WHY NOT? Love is Love)
"A woman in love with a plane insists her desire is not a flight of fancy.
Sarah Rodo, 23, even refers to the Boeing 737 as her boyfriend.
She flies on the aircraft as often as possible and has 50 replica models of the plane at home.
Sarah calls the Boeing Dicki and hopes to wed one day, even though it is illegal in Germany."
https://nypost.com/2022/05/31/woman-sexually-attracted-to-planes-wants-to-marry-toy-boeing/
“It’s not the gun!” – Virginia Lt. Gov Winsome Sears tells the truth about mass shootings
Here’s a portion of what she said:
“We have fathers who aren’t home. We have emasculated our men. Our children are at stake. You notice that these shooters, they have had family problems. The Parkland shooter – 37 times police were called to his home. It’s not the gun.”
https://therightscoop.com/its-not-the-gun-virginia-lt-gov-tells-the-truth-about-mass-shootings/
Yes, RayB @ 10:35 AM... our government would 'never do such a thing' UNLESS they needed a crisis equals opportunity to take our guns (under the pretext of keeping America 'safe for the good of ALL').
IF in fact China is planning to invade our country (possibly in time to disrupt the November elections???)... we need to be disarmed NOW ~ especially in Texas where every man, woman, child, dog and cat has a gun.
The PLANNED-demic of the past 2 years was just a trial run for controlling the masses... and it 'worked so well' (for the globalists that is). Everyone stayed in their houses, quivering like little bunnies, afraid to go out without their masks... even though it has never been proven that the masks were 'protecting' us, as we were breathing in and out that same STALE air. (But hey, let's not let LOGIC enter the picture.)
May God help us all...
How convenient is the 'timing' of this shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas... just 6 months before the November elections... where the globalists are hoping that there will be so much OUTRAGE over 'the gun control issue' that Texans will have a sudden 'shift' in their thinking... and elect a liberal Democrat instead of a conservative Republican as their Governor... and help transition Texas from a 'red' state to a 'blue' state.
Lots of 'crisis = opportunity' moments here in the state of Texas.
Talk about your psych op...
Monkeypox release is PSYCHOLOGICAL TERRORISM to keep humanity paralyzed with fear!!!
https://www.brighteon.com/c3253e5f-c654-4b02-b401-2a26f0526f6e
I always wondered about the connection of the DNA swab to 5G...
https://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2022/05/this-is-what-the-dna-swab-collection-swabs-and-5g-is-for-3773363.html
Vaccine and Pharmaceutical WITCHCRAFT and How Evil Laboratory Warlocks “Conjure” the Deadly Concoctions (It's SORCERY)
From the article:
"Pharmaceutical medications are made using potent, venomous toxins and peptides from snakes, scorpions, spiders and cone snails that target and cripple human systems
Occult potions and poisons are nothing new."
"In ancient Greece, “pharmakon” was the root word for our modern “pharmacy,” where magical stews and potions were brewed in large cauldrons. There was much crossover between “magic” and religion, just as we see the evil lab concoctions that make up “vaccines” and prescription medications form the new “religion” that all Western medicine is “safe and effective,” though it’s just the opposite – dangerous and deadly."
https://uncanceled.news/vaccine-and-pharmaceutical-witchcraft-and-how-evil-laboratory-warlocks-conjure-the-deadly-concoctions/
RayB at 10:43 pm
Perhaps Robert’s Republican Supreme Court will make that legal here too.
X
P.S. - anyone not in favor of making it 21 years old before you can buy any gun except a hunting bolt action rifle or shotgun (buckshot)? Simple token effort that may have helped prevent several of the recent shootings. Parental liability too. Screw the commies in the NRA, they fight for the gun manufacturers…not people.
Elon Musk claims something 'very strange' is happening to his Twitter feed as his 'tweets & replies' were not loading for some users
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10871917/Elon-Musk-claims-strange-happening-Twitter-feed.html
I am in favor of a new law where you have to be 71 years old to be a Democrat... then, when you have reached that age of WISDOM... you won't want to.
Large gap from 4:07 PM Tuesday????
I successfully posted a comment around 9:30 AM , and it disappeared in a few minutes????
Democrats pick and choose which tragedies to milk for their anti-gun agenda based on how much political leverage fire arm deaths grant them.
thefederalist.com/2022/05/31/you-can-always-discern-democrats-gun-control-goals-based-on-which-tragedies-they-exploit/
ADL Data on Right-wing-Extremist Violence is a Fraud
redvoicemedia.com/video/2022/05/bombshell-adl-caught-falsifying-statistics-to-frame-white-americans-video/
Senator: Southern US Border Resembles A "War Zone"
zerohege.com/political/senator-southern-us-border-resembles-war-zone
(this post didn't go through on Monday due to the word "pro$titute)
Not much time...traveling, but a quick cut and paste from Charles Spurgeon for our Protestant hating roman catholic friend as we pray for his salvation and turning away from her for Him. -X
C. H. Spurgeon on Baptist perpetuity: "We believe that the Baptists are the original Christians. We did not commence our existence at the reformation, we were reformers before Luther or Calvin were born; we never came from the Church of Rome, for we were never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves. We have always existed from the very days of Christ, and our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel underground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents. Persecuted alike by Romanists and Protestants of almost every sect, yet there has never existed a Government holding Baptist principles which persecuted others; nor I believe any body of Baptists ever held it to be right to put the consciences of others under the control of man. We have ever been ready to suffer, as our martyrologies will prove, but we are not ready to accept any help from the State, to pro$titute the purity of the Bride of Christ to any alliance with the government, and we will never make the Church, although the Queen, the despot over the consciences of men". (From The New Park Street Pulpit, Vol.VII, Page 225).
"History has hitherto been written by our enemies, who never would have kept a single fact about us upon the record if they could have helped it, and yet it leaks out every now and then that certain poor people called Anabaptists were brought up for condemnation. From the days of Henry II to those of Elizabeth we hear of certain unhappy heretics who were hated of all men for the truth's sake which was in them. We read of poor men and women, with their garments cut short, turned out into the fields to perish in the cold, and anon of others who were burnt at Newington for the crime of Anabaptism. Long before your Protestants were known of, these horrible Anabaptists, as they were unjustly called, were protesting for the 'one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.' No sooner did the visible church begin to depart from the gospel than these men arose to keep fast by the good old way. The priests and monks wished for peace and slumber, but there was always a Baptist or a Lollard tickling men's ears with holy Scriptures, and calling their attention to the errors of the times. They were a poor persecuted tribe. The halter was thought to be too good for them. At times ill-written history would have us think that they died out, so well had the wolf done his work on the sheep. Yet here we are, blessed and multiplied; and Newington sees other scenes from Sabbath to Sabbath.
As I think of your numbers and efforts, I can only say in wonder - what a growth! As I think of the multitudes of our brethren in America, I may well say, What hath God wrought! Our history forbids discouragement." (From the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 1881, Vol. 27, page 249.)
http://www.reformedreader.org/spurgeononperpetuity.htm
More Evidence Reveals Wuhan Experiments On Monkey-pox Before Virus Struck
thegatewaypundit.com/2022/06/evidence-reveals-wuhan-experiments-monkeypox-virus-struck/
I found this interesting, because the call for an American "Jubilee" is just in time for the Queen's Jubilee and Build Back Better. On June 18 a "Poor Peoples' Campaign" will come to Washington, DC to march and assemble to "fully address the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, and the denial of health care, militarism, and the war economy and the false moral narrative of religious nationalism."
America Needs a Jubilee
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/06/01/america-needs-jubilee
12:48 PM at J,
Oh great. More 'false hopes' ..just what everyone needs....
Good thing my eyes are looking unto Jesus, and not the varied circuses and clown shows, all pretending they care, or worse yet...think they have the solutions.
Only God has those.
I've been ill since April. I'm thankful for Rich of Medford's brilliant assistance during this trying time. Pleased pray for my recovery and strenthening!'
Constance
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