Archive for the 'Religion' Category

Psalm 19:7-14 (Read the whole Psalm to provide full context)

“7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.”

The Law of the Lord is divine, and final authority. The law of the Lord is so perfect that no man can keep the whole law. If any point is offended in the least, the entirety is broken. The brutal truth is that every man has violated the statutes in ordinance that God has given, your conscience bearing witness against you. It’s why most men won’t read the Holy Bible; it bothers them, and it should. But is that heartless, God pointing to His holiness and your need for Him, or is it merciful?

The law of God is often called a testimony, for its God’s testimony of His righteousness by evidence that we cannot attain unto the perfection that He demands by it. It’s His word to us, that we might finally be made free in Christ Jesus.

We are vile, but the fear of the Lord is clean and, indeed, cleansing. The law binds men over to the damnation of hell for sin. That’s how it saves; it does the necessary first work in our heart, convicting us of our need for a Saviour. For it’s well contended that no man who is not first in necessity will be saved; we’re too prideful and self-centered for that.

Jesus is the master instructor through the Holy Spirit, making the unlearned full of the knowledge of Him and giving wisdom through prayer and Bible study, perhaps with fasting. And He brings low the wise in their own conceit, destroying any who hold to life by other means than salvation through Jesus Christ.

The law makes the simple man wise, in it is the perfect knowledge of God to show us our iniquity, converting the soul of those who, calling upon Jesus Christ in their need, accept that the Lord is correct and that you’ve come short of the glory of God. In studying the law of God, men grow wise to the evil ways of the world, witnessing the power of God, for He is holy. “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” – Psalm 119:130. The law raises men to be ever more desirous of a life with Him. The law teaches men, in all points, the very essence of our nature, full of sin and unrighteousness, with evil thoughts and deeds. Without Christ, there is no fear of God before their eyes. It’s not by the rules, but by your inability to keep the whole law that you learn the work that God does in bringing you to completion; the Spirit of God remakes a man into the image of Christ.

The sanctimonious Christians are a sorry lot. Don’t listen to them; they sin just like you. Only God is perfect. The law was written that it might teach us of our sins, but Jesus Christ came preaching grace and truth. Our defiled, fallen nature under the weight of sin that abounds in the world, in admitting that the statutes of the Lord are convicting to the soul, we come to the knowledge of God’s perfect being; holy, righteous, and just is He.

“8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.”

Most read the law and get angry; it’s pure, convicting the conscience, disturbing the peace of the slumber in blindness to God that all those living in darkness suffer. Some claim they can keep its statutes to bring life. But those who hear the law, dying to self, rejoice that God has made a way to live in His grace and know that works and sacrifices He would not have; a broken and a contrite heart He will not despise.

“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” – Mark 8:35. The law rejoices the heart because we see a pathway to God through forgiveness in Jesus Christ. The law enlightens the eyes, the best part of which is that each man is taught by God in a peculiar way most fitting for his redemption. A unique and interesting conversion story lives in the resurrected heart of each saved sinner, and every testimony leads to the Christ of God our Saviour.

The law is divine in its quality, authentic to the receiver, constant in nature, and consistent in operation, showing the virtue and permanence of the true religion offered by the one and holy Creator.

If you allow, the law will break you to take the gentle yoke of the Lord Jesus, for He is a gracious and kind Master to all who submit. The fear of the Lord will cleanse the soul of the wicked, turning the vilest evildoer into a man seeking the integrity of God. You can be converted by faith to shine forth, for we are all made in the image of God.

“9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.”

The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous; you can’t hide from them, nor can you escape. God is the judge of good and evil; His trials must always find the truth, for He is truth, knows all truth, and nothing can be hidden from His eyes. The law of the LORD is perfect, the statutes of the LORD are straight, and the fear of the LORD is clean. It’s the fear of God that endures forever. When a man’s heart rejects his own corruption, and fears before the Almighty calling upon Christ, this can be the day of salvation so long sought, your soul entering into God’s love.

Believing that Jesus died for your sins, and He was buried, and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures: and you having a fear of the Almighty through faith in Jesus, your soul can be brought into an allegiance with the Almighty that endures forever, having forgiveness from sin today, and life in heaven forever.

“10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.”

The judgments of the Lord are true and amen, better than earthly treasure and sweet on the palette to them that love Him; “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” – Psalm 34:8.

To those who have trusted Christ, in the law are we warned to repent and seek Him always and in all things, for it is He that will never defect nor will He abandon us; treason is not His way; God has never broken a promise. Christ showed us this truth in His own perfect blood. “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” – Hebrews 13:5

Covet not the things of this world as silver, gold, and honey but be content with the love of Jesus Christ. What’s better than forgiveness from transgressions and the removal of the bondage of law through contentedness in Christ Jesus?

“11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward. 12 Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.”

By the law, His servant is warned that keeping faith with Jesus Christ and following His commands produces fruit. It’s nice to know that God provides all, but the rewards are His, for all things, good and right and holy, including the soul of the converted, will be gathered together in Christ, and He will glorify the Father. Seeing your errors, seek God for the cleansing of your soul in the blood of Christ, who is faithful to forgive you once for all; go and sin no more.

“13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.”

The error of our way is that of sin leading to eternal death, none more damaging than those done in secret. That hidden in darkness will be brought to light; God sees your sin, and nothing is disguised from His eyes. And the lawlessness made in presumption, as though you alone declare right from wrong, are the sins of self-righteousness. You are a sinner; God is righteous; His law, His word, and His command are perfect. No man can attain by his own doing; you need the love of God and forgiveness for your sin found only in Jesus Christ. Then will you have a life lived in service of the good for Him, upright, not guilty in the day of great judgment.

The depth of your offenses can’t withhold the enormity of compassion and pardon of God, who loves you. No sin is bigger than God’s grace! Jesus tasted death for every man that you might find mercy by the grace of His eternal gift, which is life everlasting with God Almighty.

The Lord is my strength and my Redeemer.

Confess to Christ that you’re a sinner, and seek, with a contrite spirit, His redemption by faith in the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead. Let the words of your mouth and the confession of your soul to God be your meditation unto salvation. God raised Christ from the dead; no deadness of heart and soul cannot be forgiven and raised by Him to new life. Call upon His holy name, come earnestly into the throneroom of His mercy seeking to be made a son of God.

Jesus is the Redeemer; finally, turn yourself to God, asking for salvation. The law of God has found you guilty but points to your redemption in the love of Jesus Christ, which will make you whole.

“14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.”

Bluff: It doesn’t exist because men are sinners. We know your time is precious. This video is well worth your study.

Here’s a thumbnail of the video as I reviewed it: You must, and you will have a government; however authoritarian or individual, all groups have governing norms by which they operate to achieve common objectives. There are only two government forms; That given by God or one of the many that man has created. The great thing about God’s law-word and His Kingdom is it’s fully scalable from the individual to family, small business, church group, or team. And God’s law-word, as well taught in the video, is the best source to begin building an autonomous parallel trade and governance system, not only within your group but among otherwise separate Christian groups.

This is an important study for Christians and extends to those who don’t consider themselves Christians but already have mutually overlapping connections, agreements, and goals with Christ’s people. Watch the whole thing.

Here at TCJ, we’ve taught the principles Pastor Weaver outlines, but we refer to a national or American Christian perspective.

Surprising no one, The New York Times published one of the most insulting commentaries I’ve ever witnessed, directed mainly at Christian gun owners.  It’s a guest commentary written by Peter Manseau, who claims to have published elsewhere, but I’ve never read any of this books, nor will I considering the lack of scholarship displayed here.  We’ll start, lift some commentary out, and I’ll make remarks along the way.

Is our gun problem a God problem?

The AR-15-style rifle used in the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last month was made by an arms manufacturer that regards selling weapons as part of its Christian mission. In a state where Gov. Greg Abbott declared, six months after an earlier massacre, “The problem is not guns; it’s hearts without God,” the gun’s provenance challenged pious suggestions that declining religiosity might bear some of the blame.

That this paragraph made it through editing is amazing.  Provenance is “the chronology of ownership, custody or location of a historical object.”  In the following paragraphs he takes aim at Daniel Defense and the religious beliefs of Marty Daniel, but no editor worth his salt would have let this paragraph go unmodified.  Presumably the writer is trying to link Daniel’s views with the gun he built, but that case cannot possibly be demonstrated.  I know plenty of irreligious men who own AR-15s, and many more who work on them.

Daniel Defense, the Georgia company whose gun enabled the slaughter at Robb Elementary School, presents its corporate identity in explicitly religious terms. At the time of the shooting, the company’s social media presence included an image of a toddler with a rifle in his lap above the text of Proverbs 22:6 (“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it”). For Easter, it posted a photograph of a gun and a cross resting on scriptural passages recounting the Resurrection.

So Marty Daniel is a Christian.  What of it?  What does that bring to bear on the case he’s trying to prove?

While some might suggest a Christian firearms company is a contradiction in terms, Daniel Defense is hardly alone. According to a Public Religion Research Institute study, evangelicals have a higher rate of gun ownership than other religious groups. Across the country, they account for a significant share not only of the demand but of the supply.

So now the writer has expanded the sweep of his analysis and is targeting all evangelicals.

In Florida, Spike’s Tactical (“the finest AR-15s on the planet”) makes a line of Crusader weapons adorned with a quote from the Psalms. Missouri-based CMMG (“the leading manufacturer of AR15 rifles, components and small parts”) advertises its employees’ “commitment to meet each and every morning to pray for God’s wisdom in managing the enormous responsibility that comes with this business.” And in Colorado, Cornerstone Arms explains that it is so named because “Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our business, our family and our lives” and the “Second Amendment to our Constitution is the cornerstone of the freedom we enjoy as American citizens.”

For many American Christians, Jesus, guns and the Constitution are stitched together as durably as a Kevlar vest.

“We are in business, we believe, to be a supporter of the Gospel,” Daniel Defense’s founder, Marty Daniel, told Breitbart News in 2017. “And, therefore, a supporter of the Second Amendment.”

He is on the outside looking in.  Most of my readers would say that the constitution (and thus the 2A) only matters the extent to which is comports with Biblical law.  The foundation of our rights is to be found in the Holy Writ, and our philosophical pre-commitments are to the Lord of the universe and His law, not a piece of paper.  The piece of paper is a covenant and contract, null and void upon unfaithfulness.  You don’t have to be a Christian to understand my point of logic.  If the writer is targeting Christians, he’s gotten it exactly backwards.  The constitution isn’t infallible and wasn’t written by God.  Christians don’t turn to the constitution to ascertain rightness and wrongness in their lives.

Entwining faith and firearms this way has a long history. It encompasses the so-called muscular Christianity movement that began in England in the 19th century with a focus on physical fitness as a path to spiritual strength and that in America made exemplars of pastors roaming the frontier armed with Bibles and six-shooters.

More than a hundred years ago, this trope was already so well established that a popular silent western from 1912, “The Two Gun Sermon,” told the story of a minister assigned to a rough-and-tumble outpost; when ruffians menace him, he holds them at gunpoint until they listen to him preach. The film’s message is one with which 21st-century Christian gun enthusiasts would probably agree: Sometimes guns are necessary for the Lord’s work.

It is easy to miss, but this melding of evangelism and the right to bear arms is a step beyond the “natural rights” argument for gun ownership, which holds that self-defense is a law of nature required to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are often said to be God-given in the sense of being taken for granted, and they are enshrined as such in the Declaration of Independence. As interpreted by many evangelicals, the distant deistic “creator” Thomas Jefferson credited with endowing such rights has become a specific, biblical deity who apparently takes an active interest in the availability of assault rifles.

He has now turned to an irrelevant English movement and a movie to prove his point.  But here he misses so badly that it’s going to take a few moments to sus this out.

If he was a scholar he would have first turned to OT law, where the right of being armed is founded in the Pentateuch.  As I’ve observed so many times before, John Calvin discusses this aspect of the ten commandments and makes it clear that defense of life is not only allowed, but required as a good work by the Godly man.

We do not need to prove that when a good thing is commanded, the evil thing that conflicts with it is forbidden.  There is no one who doesn’t concede this.  That the opposite duties are enjoined when evil things are forbidden will also be willingly admitted in common judgment.  Indeed, it is commonplace that when virtues are commended, their opposing vices are condemned.  But we demand something more than what these phrases commonly signify.  For by the virtue of contrary to the vice, men usually mean abstinence from that vice.  We say that the virtue goes beyond this to contrary duties and deeds.  Therefore in this commandment, “You shall not kill,” men’s common sense will see only that we must abstain from wronging anyone or desiring to do so.  Besides this, it contains, I say, the requirement that we give our neighbor’s life all the help we can … the purpose of the commandment always discloses to us whatever it there enjoins or forbids us to do” (Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 1, Book 2, Chapter viii, Part 9).

Calvin has here expressed the Biblical position.  “Thou shall not kill” also means “Thou shall protect life.”  This is of course at least partially why Jesus himself commanded his disciples to sell their robes and buy a sword.  He won’t have His followers being defenseless against the onslaught of ne’er-do-wells.  Any loss of life, trials or tribulations, will be by His hand, in His timing, for purposes that He knows, not by anyone else.

But here it’s important not to miss one of the main points of the command in Luke 22:36 like so many do.  Quite literally, He is commanding the purchase of weapons in spite of strictures against ownership and carry of said weapons at the time.  He is commanding His followers to be law-breakers for the sake of self defense.

… for some evidence, see Digest 48.6.1: collecting weapons ‘beyond those customary for hunting or for a journey by land or sea’ is forbidden; 48.6.3.1 forbids a man ‘of full age’ appearing in public with a weapon (telum) (references and translation are from Mommsen 1985). See also Mommsen 1899: 564 n. 2; 657-58 n. 1; and Linderski 2007: 102-103 (though he cites only Mommsen). Other laws from the same context of the Digest sometimes cited in this regard are not as worthwhile for my purposes because they seem to be forbidding the possession of weapons with criminal intent. But for the outright forbidding of being armed while in public in Rome, see Cicero’s letter to his brother relating an incident in Rome in which a man, who is apparently falsely accused of plotting an assassination, is nonetheless arrested merely for having confessed to having been armed with a dagger while in the city: To Atticus, Letter 44 (II.24). See also Cicero, Philippics 5.6 (§17). Finally we may cite a letter that Synesius of Cyrene wrote to his brother, probably sometime around the year 400 ce. The brother had apparently questioned the legality of Synesius having his household produce weapons to defend themselves against marauding bands. Synesius points out that there are no Roman legions anywhere near for protection, but he seems reluctantly to admit that he is engaged in an illegal act (Letter 107; for English trans., see Fitzgerald 1926).

Jesus knew the law, and the potential legal troubles He was exposing His disciples to by issuing this command, and yet, that didn’t stop Him.  So going back to the law of Moses, to the command of Christ, and then on to the Crusades which were primarily defensive in nature, the history of armed self defense isn’t traced back to an English movement a few years ago or a silly movie.  It’s in the very nature of the beliefs.

But then the writer can’t stop at merely misunderstanding the subject he purports to analyze.  He then decides to expand his (ill-fated) analysis to insults.  “As interpreted by many evangelicals, the distant deistic “creator” Thomas Jefferson credited with endowing such rights has become a specific, biblical deity who apparently takes an active interest in the availability of assault rifles.”

Christianity has always been about a specific, living being who loves us and redeems us and commands us, not about a distant deity who once interacted with His creation.  If he means that the second amendment would have been written differently if Jefferson was not a deist, that point is unproven at best and misguided and simply historically incorrect at worst.  Jefferson wasn’t responsible for the second amendment.  Maddison wrote the text, but the entirety of the colonies insisted on it, most of the Southern colonies being Presbyterian.  It’s too much to discuss in the present context, but in English circles they knew the basis for the war of independence and called it “The Presbyterian Rebellion.”

Why does this subtle shift in the meaning of “God given” matter? It’s important to understand that for the manufacturer of the Uvalde killer’s rifle, and many others in the business, selling weapons is at once a patriotic and a religious act. For those who hold them to be sacred in this way, the meaning of firearms proceeds from their place at the intersection of American and Christian identities. Proposing limits on what kinds of guns they should be able to buy — or how, when, where and why they can carry them — is akin to proposing limits on who they are and what they should revere.

He’s just making things up now.  Ownership and bearing of arms, if a God-given right, doesn’t depend in the least on where one lives or what system of government obtains.  It didn’t in the case of the Armenian Christians who were slaughtered in the deserts of Turkey by the Muslims, it didn’t to the Christians targeted by Idi Amin of Uganda, and it didn’t to the Russians and Ukrainians starved by Stalin.  He wants a scary boogieman to blame, but the intersection of Christians and America has nothing to do with it except in his imagination.

Since then, despite being debunked by data showing that firearms are more likely to injure their owners or their owners’ families than safeguard them, the protection offered by good guys with guns has emerged as an article of faith, supported with anecdotal evidence passed around like legends of the saints.

I vow never to use that word, debunked.  It has become the wordy-word of progressives trying to prove something wrong and who have run out of ideas.  Guns are only unsafe to those who do not treat them with respect and obey all the rules of gun safety.

As the historian Daniel K. Williams has noted, “Gun rights advocacy is not an intrinsic feature of every brand of evangelicalism.” While recent surveys find that four in 10 white evangelicals own guns, the majority do not, and other denominational affiliations offer examples of religious participation discouraging a fixation on firearms. It is possible that the less one sees oneself as an itinerant loner in a hostile world, like the armed preacher in a silent western, the less one is likely to look to guns as a source of salvation.

Nonetheless, the ways Christian ideas may be contributing to a gun culture that abets our epidemic of mass shootings by helping to keep the nation well armed should inspire reflection. None of the recent mass shootings had explicitly religious motivations, but the religious contexts of our seemingly eternal problem with gun violence — its history, its theology, its myths — are too important to ignore.

Mass shootings are, in a way, assaults on the idea of community itself. They occur where there are people gathered — for entertainment, for learning, for shopping, for worship — in the spaces we create together. Some believe that such attacks are the fault of armed individuals alone and can be addressed only through armed individual response. Others believe they occur within the framework of what we collectively allow and must have communal solutions.

After blaming Christians for mass shootings, he has finally, at long last, divulged his own philosophical pre-commitments, or religion.  He is a collectivist, and says that the solutions to problems are to be found in the collective.

What he doesn’t mention is that in the twentieth century alone there were over 212,000,000 mass murders by governments across the globe.  The writer doesn’t explain how his collectivist solutions would be better than ours, nor do I believe he can.

The New York Times has paid for another loser commentary that wanders and fails to stay on point, refuses to interact with the real scholarship of its intended target, insults a large constituency of Americans, and considers neither the history of the subject nor the failures of its own solutions.

Is it any wonder that they’re constantly begging for money?

“22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” – Matthew 6:22-23

Keeping one’s gaze steadily on one fixed object it becomes easier to maintain balance. The eye is the light of the body; if you have a single purpose, and that purpose is good in the sight of God, your whole being will be full of light. There’s something to be said for having one purpose. The goal we focus on is what we become, or what we persevere to attain is what gets done.

People who are very focused on a goal don’t play defense, and they don’t get involved in whack-a-mole. Some spend all day going from one thing to another, only to accomplish very little. Multitasking is overrated.

But these verses really aren’t about self-help; they are about righteousness and evil: your eye narrowly set toward holy God that you may be light and love for those around you. Or, sadly, choosing the evil, seeking to serve the masters of this world, even yourself.

If your light is darkness, it’s no light at all. People whose light is out, devoid of the love of God, attract all manner of evil men. The darkness of the soul gathers with other darkness; no good will ever attain from a congregation of the wicked.

The ability to discern both good and evil, the spirit of truth or the lies that permeate everything, comes from reading the Holy Bible. (Hebrews 5:14). Holy God sets the standard of right and wrong. Men who don’t read the Bible live in half darkness, relying upon only the conscience to guide them. All men are sinners; the conscience is faulty, so corrupt that you’ll even end up lying to yourself, making excuses for right and wrong.

Your country is being destroyed; the foundational standard that God has set in His word is ignored and removed. The light of God is being extinguished in civil society. And it’s no accident; the rulers of darkness hate God and the Bible; seeking to justify their evil deeds, they hate the truth of right and wrong.

God is the Light of the world; His word is the foundation of truth for the knowledge of sin and righteousness. Fill your eye with the light of God, separate yourself from the evil, and seek the good. A man controls only one thing; his own choices. Everybody wants to point out the sins of others, but reviving your nation starts with your own heart first.

Behold, what glorious things God has done for us.

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” – Genesis 3:15

Genesis 3:15 is one of the most important Bible verses. It lays out, at the beginning, thousands of years of coming history for mankind that now sits fulfilled in Christ. It also explains the thousands of years-long spiritual war that’s been raging on earth from the start. But it points to the first eschatological event that would set the pattern at the end of the age and for the ages to come.

The seed of the woman would be Christ the King, who crushed the head of the serpent. Christ spoiled principalities and powers in three realms; the prince and power of this world, the devil, and the religions of men were set down when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and the kings of this world have been made the footstool of God’s own Son.

Many miss the implications of the resurrection. If God raised Christ from the dead, then the domain of death and hell is forever imperiled; having been conquered, the devil is a defeated foe.

And the kings and powers of this world mock God daily, seeking control and lusting to subjugate all the world, but neither is it theirs. For when the seventh trumpet sounded, “…The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” – Revelation 11:15. But we do not read Revelation 11:15 alone, chapter 10 and specifically verses 6 and 7 explain that there should be time no longer.

God permits evil in judgment, but today’s evil men take it upon their own cleverness, declaring themselves masters of the universe while most people marvel in awe at the beast’s system. But that God allows them, they would have no power over us at all. Christians need to stop wondering in their heart after the beastly system because in doing this, they lend authority to the dragon where none need be given. Stop surrendering your power, which comes from Christ, to the servants of the devil.

The glory of our present age is also the problem of these last days. In John 5:24-25 Jesus says that we believers are already residing in eternal life, having passed from death unto life, “…The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.”

Having the Spirit of Christ, we remain stuck between two ages. We’re in the last days, but in the ages to come, we will be resurrected and be like Christ in the new heaven and earth, our home. We are stuck in this vile body yet seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. Jesus says in John 6:54 that we are spiritually resurrected, awaiting the last day and resurrection to be like Christ.

Christ is the firstfruits of the resurrection, but not the last, for all those in Christ shall rise on the final day; death and hell will be fully and finally defeated forever. Two verses are essential to explain this reality.

“And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” – Ephesians 2:6

“Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” – Philippians 3:21

While we’re here, in the Kingdom of God that now is, we serve God in anticipation of the return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the saints, and the final judgment.

This present age is not the end, and you that have questions, you that have served the evil of our day, you that are resigned to the sin of these end days, take heart, you believe in God; believe in Jesus Christ.

“9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: 11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” – Colossians 2:9-15

Verse 13 says: “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses”

And you, adulterers and whoremongers, thieves and cheats, living in vanity, puffed up, full of self-will and pride, murderers and drunks, drug dealers, cheats, crooks, those that have prostituted themselves, and all liars, for who among us hasn’t told a lie, sinners one and all: you who are dead in your trespasses and sins; Christ died for you and rose again on the third day, forgiving your sins and all your trespasses!

“11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: 12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.”

The token of the flesh could never save and was only a symbol of obedience to the submission of the heart in faith to Christ, that would come unto you in the fullness of time; that time is now. Putting off the sins of transgression by the faith of Christ Jesus, having believed in the power of God to renew your dead soul to life; we’re buried with Jesus in baptism, raised again in a new Spirit by the operation of God in salvation who is the only power to create life, and life anew in the resurrection by His Spirit that now is, and the coming regeneration on the last day.

Every regulation and every commandment of God has been broken, and none have kept the whole law save Christ. But every one of those was blotted out in the blood of Christ. Jesus’ blood stained the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. Every decree of transgression was blotted out by His blood, as though the law had never existed and therefore could not have been broken; no more condemnation, no guilt, no more shame. The parchment of law is now drenched in Christ’s blood and soaked through to illegible; who can read it to make an accusation against you? Christ didn’t just pay your debt; He obliterated the law as though there had been no sin to commit and no law to break! And took your sin and nailed it to His cross!

“14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross”

Jesus stated plainly on the cross (John 19:30) that “it is finished.” the law has been fully satisfied. He took the law out of the way that was contrary to us and nailed it to His cross. What statute, where, show us the law? There is only the blotted-out ledger nailed with Christ to the cross, forgotten; God sees your sins no more but only by faith in the final sacrifice, the blood of His own Son shed for you. No more fear, no more accusation, no more dread of death and hell; the accuser’s head has been crushed; the law completed in Christ; we cry Abba Father in a brand new, wholly unique, New Covenant that stands forever and ever. Amen.

Why do you seek the law? In what profit is the pursuit of this world’s kingdoms? For what purpose is the all pomp and ceremony of the many religions? What are these weak and fruitless endeavors of men when God wants to recreate you in the image of His own Son?

“And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”

Jesus Christ has made an open show of the foolishness of this world, and not as though God did this in pride. But in love, by His abundant grace, did He offer the pure and sinless blood of His Son to crush the devil and complete the law, making an open show against the religions and kingdoms of this world: God declaring that He is life, and life eternal, Creator and proprietor of all that is. He brings glory to Himself by your acknowledgment in surrender to Him entering into the Kingdom of God. Don’t wait; accept the operation of God by faith in Jesus Christ to bring you life everlasting in the promised hope of standing with Him, an heir to the Kingdom of Heaven. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” – Colossians 2:9. Jesus, in His triumph, is the head of all things, and you must be completed in Him.

“But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” – Revelation 10:7

If Genesis 3:15 is the start, Revelation 10 and, specifically, verse 7 are equally important, signaling the finish and a noteworthy pivot in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. As all the profits had declared the coming Christ, and the law was only a shadow of the future King and a picture of true worship in heaven before the throne of God; the mystery of God that He would gather all things that are in heaven and in earth together in Christ is accomplished. Jesus Christ has risen from the grave, the mystery now fully revealed and completed; at the seventh trump, Jesus Christ, having blotted out the ordinances, triumphant over sin and death, ended the Old Covenant by its obliteration in the destruction of the temple.

By accepting Christ, you acknowledge by covenant that there is no other power over you. This is a prominent sticking point for many; they know in their heart that God is true, but we are rebellious by nature. Please don’t exchange the temporary for God’s eternity; it’s a bad trade. In Revelation 10:6, the angel states that there should be time no longer, and for you, the time of other kings and kingdoms must be no longer; there is a better law, a better empire, and a perfect King. You can live in the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This article is good in that much of it is accurate. It’s refreshing to see that some ‘get it.’ These concerns are here in America too. One thing the article lacks, although implied in the problem, is concrete solutions, so they have been provided here at TCJ.

The problem has not been other religions converting those in the UK, but of the British leaving the Church out of a seeming lack of commitment. Most church leaders understand this dynamic, and many mainline denominational churches have attempted to liberalize and become more “relevant” to modern society. This liberalization has invariably meant moving away from previously accepted Church doctrine based on scripture. In doing so, these denominations have brought the opposite results of what they sought.

Note carefully that it’s not the congregation’s lack of commitment that is causing them to wander, but church leadership’s lack of commitment to correct doctrine in truth. Casual observers appear around the edges of a church, coming and going, but those in Christ Jesus are inherently attracted to sound teaching coupled with worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), for God seeks such a people.

The Church is rather easy to define. It’s strange indeed that so many struggle with it. The Book of John is written to unbelievers so that they might be saved and come to know Christ. There’s no better place to look for the fundamental and elementary foundations of the Christian faith than Christ’s own words recorded by the disciple John.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:” – John 10:27

“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” – John 14:15

The Church are those who hear Christ and demonstrably love Him by the keeping of His word (following Him): seeking the lost and loving each other, which are the fruits of the Christian life, along with prayer drawing closer to God and faithful bible study that you might learn to teach the next generations of Him.

“Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” – John 15:8

“By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” – John 13:35

Real Christians are doers of the word of God, not idle observers of ceremony.

For those maturing in Christ, the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 7 are very helpful on this topic:

14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. 15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” – Matthew 7:14-18

Jesus says it’s impossible for a good tree to bring forth evil fruit. Now, men make mistakes, but when confronted with the truth of fundamental Christian doctrine and faith, the evil will flee (or demand you leave), but the righteous shall stand forth in repentance restored by the truth, knowing their own faith in Jesus Christ will make them whole.

And, again, we’re warning of church incorporation, which is Cosmic Treason against God and a root of the problem, which tends toward bad leadership.

Back to the linked article:

American leaders need to pay attention, as the dynamic is playing out throughout Christianity in the West: As the percentage of Christians in the West has declined, Christian influence on society and culture has declined, and as a result, society has become more morally ambiguous. Families break apart or never form and children are left without moral guidance. The growing and scripturally faithful churches offer the anchor and moral clarity people seek at this time. Those attending scripturally faithful churches are not coddled with whimsically morphing values, as has happened in too many of the declining churches. Christians are exhorted to commit to counter-cultural “biblical” moral standards which don’t change.

In regaining biblical Christianity, the Church will grow and society will benefit from the salt and light the Church is called to provide.

The Church of Jesus Christ is for believers; it’s not a mixed multitude. Regaining biblical Christianity for a small group of believers either means tossing out unrepentant sinners, including false leaders, or standing up a new fundamental core group that can demand adherence to the teachings of Christ and the removal of sin from their midst. Keep in mind; the Church is not a building.

“…strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life…”

Source.

While the sacrament of communion or the Eucharist — which is present in many Christian denominations and involves consuming bread and wine in remembrance or exaltation of the body and blood of Jesus Christ — has shifted in presentation and delivery over the centuries, most contemporary churches have similar systems.

Parishioners may be called to the pulpit to receive bread or a wafer from a church leader and to drink from a common cup of wine or — in the case of some more conservative denominations — grape juice. Alternatively, deacons may pass around a tray of wafers or small hunks of bread, followed by small disposable cups of juice. This is a common enough approach that most religious goods stores carry specific communion trays with slots for 1-ounce cups.

However, in the age of megachurches — as well as that of a global pandemic, which caused many churches to reconsider the sharing of bread and use of a common cup — an alternative delivery system for the Eucharist has increased in popularity in recent years. And it’s something of a booming business.

These days, when attendees enter Southeast, they’re guided to a row of long tables filled with small, plastic two-packs of wafers and juice. These aren’t a new product, but they have been primarily used to deliver the sacrament to individuals who are hospitalized or otherwise infirm, or when worshiping outside the walls of a physical church. When indicated by leadership from the pulpit, worshipers serve themselves and eventually dispose of the cups and wrappers in the large recycling cans that are now stationed outside the sanctuary doors.

You can read Kenneth Gentry’s book on wine for yourself.  Nothing irks me more than Christians who think they’re holier than God.  In the time in which the NT was written, refrigeration didn’t exist.  Any grape juice quickly turned into wine.  And if you want to somehow figure out an engineering solution to that dilemma (refrigeration didn’t exist until Carrier), you have to deal with Deuteronomy 14:26-27, and tell me how the term “strong drink” can be interpreted in any fashion than one which can make you inebriated if abused.  And just to be sure not to neglect those among us who rely on tithes, Moses makes sure we invite our local pastor when consuming wine.

Look, I’m not trying to tell you what to do with your life, nor do I have strong opinions about the modern practice of using pre-packaged do-dads for communion.  But Jesus instituted His supper with wine and unleavened bread, and that’s the way it should be taken.  To say that conservative churches sometimes use grape juice means only that they are in slavery to the temperance movement created by do-gooder social gospel ladies in northern churches.

I recall a lecture by R.C. Sproul once in which a student asked him why we couldn’t take the Lord’s Supper with crackers and coke.  Sproul screamed, “Because Jesus didn’t institute it with crackers and coke.  He used wine and unleavened bread.”

People are starting to learn that the Great Reset and Agenda 2030 under the New World Order are real, yet they still blame the “elected” puppets in Washington. Yes, they intend to starve you, freeze you, and reduce the world population by 90 percent. Believe that they mean what they say and prepare.

The New Order is not operating under the same basic well-intending heart toward improving the state of mankind that “normies” are. That premise is wrong because folks can’t see evil, won’t call sin what it is, sin, and refuse to recognize that genocide is what they intend. It’s the “normies” biggest blindspot, thinking that those in power actually care about your well-being the same way you care about others.

TPTB are not stupid; they’re evil. Or technically, they are evil and therefore appear to be stupid to the gullible, who scoff, denying that the devil is real. Evil is willful, ordered, cunning, and subtle and operates a global system with its own domain, the kingdom of death and hell (Revelation 6:8, 20:14).

People’s inability to “get it” will cause them to be continuously strung along, always looking for governmental policy decisions or a newly elected savior to rescue them and their families, never understanding that the US Government is an arm of the Global Order. Please accept this truth and prepare; globally, elections are being manipulated.

The US, for the first time, is importing more agricultural products than exporting. Here are just a few things to keep in mind. Note cascading effects:

Shortage of diesel fuel, thus high cost

Gas and diesel refinery capacity limitations

Refineries shutting down as upgrades and compliance are too costly due to regulation

Fuel shortages for large-scale farming operations

Antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals shortages, including Tamiflu / we wonder if there are agricultural animal antibiotic shortages as well?

Butter and milk shortages

Baby formula shortages are ongoing

Concrete and other building supplies

Coal plants are being shut down, and hydroelectric dams are being demolished.

Four dams near the California-Oregon border will be demolished. The hydroelectric dams blocked poor little fish from swimming to their ancestral homeland, er, homewaters. “Build Back Better” doesn’t include any actual building back.

The cost of running electricity to rural areas will begin to be unsustainable, driving people into urban centers where they can be controlled. The day is soon coming when raising a family outside the urban areas will be illegal. They won’t ban it outright, but without power, water, and sewer, child protective services and other armies of petty, well-paid do-gooders will force you to live as they prescribe. Moving everyone into controlled urban population zones is a stated goal.

The dams produce less than 2% of PacifiCorp’s power generation — enough to power about 70,000 homes — when they are running at full capacity, said Bob Gravely, spokesperson for the utility. But they often run at a far lower capacity because of low water in the river and other issues, and the agreement that paved the way for Thursday’s vote was ultimately a business decision, he said.

PacifiCorp would have had to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in fish ladders, fish screens and other conservation upgrades under environmental regulations that were not in place when the aging dams were first built. But with the deal approved Thursday, the utility’s cost is capped at $200 million, with another $250 million from a California voter-approved water bond.

“We’re closing coal plants and building wind farms and it all just has to add up in the end. It’s not a one-to-one,” he said of the coming dam demolition. “You can make up that power by the way you operate the rest of your facilities or having energy efficiency savings so your customers are using less.”

Just use less, freezing and starving, or move to Portland or San Francisco, where everything will be fine?

Reading the article, we note how “aggrieved” parties are manipulated by the communist Democrats and Republicans to drive the agenda 2030 plan. Fish and rivers have more rights than you. The notion that the US government suddenly cares about some fish or the Indians it genocided is ludicrous, and everybody knows it.

Writers, serious men and women, have got to stop blaming these actions on Democrats and Biden. We have the very best minds and writers on our side, but frankly, when they blame a political party, they sound ill-informed at best or, worse, like government propagandists for the Republican arm of the Globalist-run communist regime. And stop using the wrong words. The TPTB are not stupid, crazy, or insane. The correct term is evil, and their actions are sin.

2030 is seven years away!

H/T Survival Blog and Instapundit

“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.” – Revelation 7:9-12

The point of Thanksgiving is to give thanks unto the Lord our God. The angels do it, and so do all creatures that know Him.

There’s plenty for which to be thankful. Be grateful foremost that your eternal station is set, your name written in the Lamb’s book of life, Christ having died for your sins and risen again indeed; being kept by the power of God through faith, no man is able to pluck you out of the Father’s hand. Faithful and True is His name. Doubtless, there is no more precious act of forgiveness than the mercy our Lord has granted; give all blessing and glory in praise of thanksgiving to our God.

You have been forgiven of your sin and saved from hell, have you not? There’s no better day than today, Thanksgiving 2022, to seek Jesus Christ, asking forgiveness and the mercy of His grace: “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” – Matthew 7:14

Though judgment lies at the door and hard times may yet prevail, for all we know, His hand of mercy is stretched out still. In all that’s coming, a great upheaval, do not charge God foolishly. He is trustworthy. His judgments are true and amen; He does not err. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes; blessed be the name of the Lord.

Be thankful you’re not a communist, for miserable is he. Government is his king, and a mean little lout is his duty, eternal flames his final station. Communists hate Christians; indeed, the primary reason for this hatred is the war of the spirits that rages in the unseen, for theirs knows we win in the end. But the communist is most pathetic and hateful full of jealousy and envy, desiring to drive all into misery; that is the true equality they seek, their meager and tormented spirit pulling you, clawing at you, drawing you down to a pitiful state with them. Communism is the idea writ large that misery loves company.

The Christian has quite the opposite outlook of the communist; for this, too, be most thankful to God Almighty by Christ Jesus. The fruit of the Spirit of God is in us, love and joy, gentleness and goodness, peace and longsuffering with a sound mind in faith, knowing heaven awaits for the resurrected to new life in Christ Jesus. All these things the devil and his agents seek to remove, but they can’t: and for this, be thankful to our God through Jesus Christ all the more.

“The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.” – Exodus 15:2-3

Trust in the arm of the Lord, for He is a man of war. Prepare your hearts a fit habitation for His Spirit in praise and worship. Pray for victory; the battles of men are won first in the counsels of heaven; His power in honor upon the throne declares it.

And at the last, what better day ahead than before the seat of the Almighty singing praises of thanksgiving, for ours is the only wise God. It is Christ, our King and Saviour, who is able to keep you from falling to present you with a gracious heart to God; in Christ exists all acclaim, power and wisdom and majesty are His. Amen.

“And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” – Revelation 5:13

The days of pansies, sissies, and mediocre men are upon us. God fights for us, and God fights with us, but what the New Religion has rejected is that God fights through us. This last requires our active participation in the battle.

“It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law.” – Psalms 119:126

Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
Forward into battle see His banners go!

Refrain
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.

At the sign of triumph Satan’s host doth flee;
On then, Christian soldiers, on to victory!
Hell’s foundations quiver at the shout of praise;
Brothers lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.

Refrain
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.

Like a mighty army moves the church of God;
Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod.
We are not divided, all one body we,
One in hope and doctrine, one in charity.

Refrain
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.

What the saints established that I hold for true.
What the saints believed, that I believe too.
Long as earth endureth, men the faith will hold,
Kingdoms, nations, empires, in destruction rolled.

Refrain
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.

Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,
But the church of Jesus constant will remain.
Gates of hell can never gainst that church prevail;
We have Christ’s own promise, and that cannot fail.

Refrain
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.

Onward then, ye people, join our happy throng,
Blend with ours your voices in the triumph song.
Glory, laud and honor unto Christ the King,
This through countless ages men and angels sing.

Refrain
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before…