I remember when the Lord showed me that the wicked are taken away in their iniquity.

“36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. 37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” – Mathew 24:36-42

Who was taken away (verse 39) by the flood, the wicked or the righteous? When the Lord returns, who shall be taken away and who shall be left behind (verses 40 and 41)?

Not growing up in a church or under the teaching of the Rapture Theory, although adding great difficulty to navigating life, has been a huge blessing to understanding the truth of God’s word. After being saved by Christ, then seeking out a group of believers with whom to worship, the rapture and dispensational teachings were always troubling. The Spirit of God would not let me be led into that doctrine. As the Lord grew me in the knowledge and understanding of these things, I began thinking at times that a great many who say they are believers are not saved, and some, unknowingly of themselves, even worship the devil, thinking they know the one true and holy God, they do not.

This video with Pastor John Weaver is a lot of information to show in a single sitting, but its far-ranging exposition is excellent and perhaps better for its brevity than a multipart explanation.

We think this section in Matthew relates to the first-century judgment (Most think it’s about His physical bodily return). Still, when viewed parabolically and referenced with 2 Peter, as Pastor Weaver shows in the video, it’s clear that when the Lord returns, the damned are reckoned first, taken away in their iniquity. We who are left behind will admire and worship, in awe, our just King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Though we have a spiritual type of the final kingdom now, this would fit very well with the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21:1-7) in final form.

While eschatology is interesting, what’s of paramount import is that you know – that you know – the Master’s voice (John 10:27) from among the cacophony of sirens. Are you ready for His return?

Source.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WMBF) – South Carolina joined 24 other states demanding banks and credit card companies stop tracking, or monitoring, firearms purchased using credit cards.

The coalition alerted the chief executive officers of three major credit card companies that the recent adoption of the Merchant Category Code for the processing of firearms purchases from gun stores is “potentially a violation of consumer protection and antitrust laws.”

In the letter to the CEOs of American Express, Mastercard, and Visa, the attorneys general say the monitoring and tracking of firearms purchases creates a “list of gun buyers” and creates the obvious risk that law-abiding consumers’ information will be obtained and misused by those who oppose Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights.

“Why would banks and credit card companies need a separate code to process gun purchases, if not to possibly track and monitor people who buy them?” Wilson asked.

The following states joined: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming, West Virginia.

To read the letter, click here.

I like the SC AG.  In other decisions as well he’s been in the 2A corner.  But I’d like to see more states sign on.  Where is Florida?  Where is Idaho?  Where is Nebraska?

North Carolina isn’t on the list because of the communist AG.

This all may be a bit overdone in my opinion.  Drop a BCG in and run the gun.  If you have problems, note that and get another BCG.  Well made guns will work right.

I like Battle Arms Development BCGs and Radian Raptor charging handles.  The two taken together make the parts feel like glass.

But not all BCGs are created equal.

GOA.

Here are the TEN gun control provisions hidden in the FY 2023 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations bill:

1. Massive ATF Budget Increase to Facilitate Biden’s Pistol Ban
2. Gun Registration Funding
3. Gun Confiscation Law Funding
4. Financial Benefits for Families of Deceased ATF Agents Killed or Injured on the Job while Enforcing Gun Control
5. Ammunition Background Check Study
6. Gun Control Research, Unbound by the Dickey Amendment
7. Anti-gun Community Violence Interventions
8. “Domestic Violence Firearms Lethality Reduction Initiative”
9. “Violent Anti-Government Ideology” Research
10. Gun Control Earmarks

You know they want to know who is buying ammunition and what sort.  Don’t bother trying to control the guns, they say.  Control the supply of ammunition.

Here is the full take down of the garbage in the bill.

Red State:

The authors [at Breaking Defense dot com] go on to propose a solution. The USAF should create a major incentive program that would keep those majors and lieutenant colonels in the Air Force and available for flight duty if needed.

I think the authors aren’t looking at the real problem. If a lack of incentives were the problem, the officers they are trying to retain would never have made it to this point in their Air Force career. The problem is that mid-career aviators have been told that they aren’t wanted. By told, I don’t mean it has been hinted at; I mean they have seen it in writing from the three-star general who runs Air Force recruiting. This is from Major General Ed Thoma, USAF recruiting poohbah, in October 2020.

Red State citing Breaking Defense:

We simply can no longer afford for significant segments of our society to be underrepresented in our U.S. Air Force or our newest branch, the U.S. Space Force.

To be clear, the Air and Space Forces are not setting quotas based on race or gender. We will, however, focus intensely and concentrate our efforts in traditionally underserved communities. It wouldn’t be legal or productive to hold recruiters accountable for bringing in a certain number of recruits from various demographic groups. But if we see that we’re not hitting recruiting targets that mirror the qualified population in those categories, we will adjust to concentrate on areas where we can get a more representative balance in our applicant pool. To use a fishing analogy, recruiters must not only cast a wide net but ensure we are spending time in the right fishing holes.

And by measuring those targets, we’ll employ the old management axiom that what gets measured gets done. And we’ll get it done.

While we are meeting or exceeding nearly all demographic targets in our enlisted ranks, inside our cockpits is where we have the greatest disparities and opportunities for improvement. In all, 86 percent of our aviators are white males. Less than 3 percent of our fighter pilots are females. This is why we established a detachment within Air Force recruiting two years ago charged with improving diversity for those who wear flight suits. The mission of Detachment 1 is to bring a singular focus to recruiting qualified women and minorities who have not always felt they belonged.

So, the Air Force doesn’t have quotas, just demographic targets. Well, that’s different.

Red State again:

The USAF has responded to the challenge by eliminating prior flight training as a “plus” on pilot selection. They found that such training favored applicants who could afford private flight lessons. It has also announced that it intends to reduce the number of white officers from 80% to 67.5%.

The article gets even worse from there. Read it all.

Also: Twilio announces 11% of employees will lose jobs in ‘Anti-Racist’ layoffs

Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson announced in a message to all employees that 11% of its workforce would be laid off, stating that they made the layoffs through an “Anti-Racist” and “Anti-Oppression” lens.

The San Francisco-based corporate communications company CEO said in the message to employees that the layoffs are “wise and necessary.”

“I’m not going to sugarcoat things. A layoff is the last thing we want to do, but I believe it’s wise and necessary. Twilio has grown at an astonishing rate over the past couple years. It was too fast, and without enough focus on our most important company priorities. I take responsibility for those decisions, as well as the difficult decision to do this layoff,” Lawson said.

Lawson said that company officials examined which roles were most aligned with its four priorities, but said that the layoffs were carried out through an anti-racism lens.

“As you all know, we are committed to becoming an Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppression company,” Lawson wrote. “Layoffs like this can have a more pronounced impact on marginalized communities, so we were particularly focused on ensuring our layoffs – while a business necessity today – were carried out through an Anti-Racist/Anti-Oppression lens.”

H/T Instapundit

Some of these things we still eat in the south. But view this more along the lines of survival foods.

Sassafras twigs are pretty fibrous and flexible. You can splay one end of them as a tasty toothbrush.

We’ll also mention that Gelitin from hooves and skin scrapings provides essential animal collagen for bone and joint health.

You must cook turtle and snake very thoroughly; worms and other parasites are just an added bonus.

Bear is one thing I’ve never eaten, nor beaver. It might not be a terrible idea to have recipes for some things that are common to your area. Knowing how to process and prepare unusual foods could save your life.

If I’m not mistaken, he was having a little bit of sticking with those 45-70 rounds.  Maybe it was just the ammo and he needed the Hornady Leverevolution ammo.  Or maybe it was just that the action needs to be smoothed out from use.  Or maybe it’s just Henry rifles.  His other rifle didn’t seem to have that problem, nor did the Henry 44 magnum I shot have that problem.

The ATF is asking Congress for a massive raise to:⁰⁰Upgrade their gun registry;⁰⁰Design a background check system for ammo purchases;⁰⁰And offer a pension system for ATF agents & families if injured or killed on the job (right before they start banning millions of firearms) https://t.co/XrXMkHTs1a

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) September 19, 2022

You know, that registry that’s supposed to be illegal for them to have, and those background checks on ammo purchases that infringe on the 2A.

That and those, in case you were wondering.

How can anyone left in the ATF actually believe they are doing any sort of good for humanity?  How can they look their families in the fact knowing the oath they swore and what they do every day as ATF agents?

The silly and trivial Mark Esper offers solutions.

The fact is the pool of Americans aged 17-24 who are qualified and interested in serving continues to shrink. When I was secretary of the Army in 2018, 71% of these 34 million young people could not meet the military’s entry requirements due mostly to obesity, drug use, physical and mental health problems, and criminal misconduct. Four years later, that number is even higher. Further, of the 23% eligible to serve today, another 10% don’t meet the military’s academic standards. Worse, of the 3.5 million young Americans remaining, only 9% (~320,000) have a proclivity to serve. A nation of 332 million people should do better than that.

It’s even worse than that.  Readiness is at an all-time low, and the existing enlistment mostly treats the military as a jobs program.

Then he gives his solution.

The scope and scale of these trends are beyond the ability of the Pentagon to remedy. There are actions the services can and are taking, but these only address the problem at the margins. Because the ability of the military to defend the country depends directly on a sizable force of top-notch volunteers, this is a national challenge that must be addressed at the highest levels.

This means the White House and Congress must work together to reverse the underlying trends. They could begin by standing up a bipartisan commission of esteemed leaders, much like President Richard Nixon did in 1969 when he decided to end conscription. This time, rather than creating the AVF, the new panel’s mission would be to save it. As such, commissioners must focus on the key issues: increasing the pool of young people qualified to serve and raising their interest in doing so.

For reasons that also extend beyond the military’s needs, the commission should look at ways to improve the health and fitness of America’s youth, review and update eligibility requirements, expand JROTC nationally, create new ways for civilians to interact with their military brethren, eliminate misconceptions about military life, and ensure recruiters unfettered access to high schools across America. Meanwhile, the Pentagon must steer away from lowering standards, reducing the size of the military, or creating hollow combat formations. We must field the force we need to win our nation’s wars, not take shortcuts.

Get a commission.  Make a law.  Engage in talky talk.  Make people believe lies about the situation.  Convince them of things that aren’t true.

Nothing at all about a woke military, gender neutral pronouns, women in combat, and nothing about discipline.

Nothing about letting the Marines do what Marines do – sending recruits or boots to the “room of pain” if they screw up.  The focus is on exoskeletal machines to assist in carrying heavy loads, giving them better weapons, manufacturing drones for stand-off warfare, and making sure transgender celebrations are had by all at the Pentagon.  Nothing at all about the fact that the generals want to train the military to fight Americans.

So the beat goes on, and the military continues to decline because no patriot wants to join a force that kills Americans.

So sad that anyone would float stupid ideas like Esper did.