Ohio senatorial candidate J.D. Vance shared tweeted out this screen shot from a recent NBC News broadcast. It would seem that if you question the liberty destroying Covid protocols demanded by the Democrats or think the 2020 presidential election was stolen, the Department of Homeland Security thinks you just may be a terror threat.
I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.
Psalm 18:3
“America is under sustained attack,” wrote Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar in a recent tweet.
In what way? you may ask.
The Rep. Gosar went on to site a few examples. “America is under sustained attack on its sovereignty with open borders, against its culture by race hustlers, against our public fisc [fisc meaning state treasury], and against our political/medical dissidents with a capricious legal system.”
The Congressman is right on all counts.
Worth noting is that Rep. Gosar’s tweet was in response to a tweet by Ronna McDaniel, Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee who had tweeted out “The Republican Party stands with the people of Cuba fighting for freedom!”
Rep. Gosar finished his tweet writing, “For the love of everything holy Cuba can wait. Help America First.
Again, Paul Gosar is right on target.
The Democrats have openly become the party of treason and tyranny, while the Republicans uselessly tweet out about the goings on in other countries while ignoring the fire in our own house.
To borrow a turn of phrase from Isaiah, our cites are burned with fire (Antifa and BLM riots) while strangers devour our land before our face (Biden’s treasonous open borders polity, what some migrants call “la invitación”), yet all the Republican leadership can do is tweet out about demonstrations in Cuba. Apart from a few individuals – Sen. Rand Paul, Rep. Thomas Massie, the afore mentioned Rep. Paul Gosar and some others – very few Republicans have taken any kind of public stand against the deliberate destruction of the United States of America by the treasonous, lying, illegitimate Biden regime, the Democratic Party, and Deep State technocrats such as the Jesuit Anthony Fauci.
America is under sustained attack to a degree and in a way that I personally have never witnessed. And I’d be less than honest with you were I to say that I’ve been unfazed by it. I’ve found myself alternately furious, despairing, and even scared.
In mid-August 2021, Americans are faced, not only with some of the items already mentioned, but by vaccine mandates, vaccine passports, renewed mask requirements and possible lockdowns, not to mention a War On Domestic Terror which is threatening to criminalize political opinions at odds with the ruling elite’s preferred narrative.
Detail from The Tower of Babel by Peter Brugel, 1563.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
April 15 of this month marked the 109th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. In commemoration of the event, one of the YouTube channels I followed put out a multi-part series covering the events of the April 14 and 15 1912, the night of the sinking.
One of the videos featured and interesting fact that I had heard about previously but had not appreciated its importance. As part of the evacuation, Charles Lightoller, the Titanic’s second officer and senior surviving officer, opened the gangway door on D-Deck to help with the lowering of one of the lifeboats. As it turned out, the door was never used during the ship’s evacuation, and in the chaos, was forgotten and left open. This, as it turned out, was a significant oversight.
The D-Deck gangway door was about halfway up on the port (left) side of the ship and normally well above the waterline. According to one article, it was the ‘front door’ for first class passengers boarding the ship. But as Titanic settled, eventually the water made its way up to the door and started pouring in. The way it was explained in the video, the area the gangway afforded to the advancing water was actually larger than the sum of area of the original punctures made by the iceberg on the starboard (right) side at the time of the collision. With this additional route for water to enter the ship, the sinking of the Titanic rapidly accelerated.
So just what does this bit of Titanic trivia have to do with today’s subject at hand, marriage? I admit, the connection may not be immediately obvious, but hear me out.
The stated purpose of this series, going back to Part 1, is, “to apply the revealed history found in Genesis to the current moral, political, scientific and economic problems of our day, refuting the contemporary confusion and setting forth the mind of God on these issues.”
This brings us to the subject of marriage.
Back in the day, and we don’t have to go very far back for this, most Americans accepted the Biblical definition of marriage, whether they themselves were Christians.
But all that has changed in recent years. If recent polling is to be believed, a full seventy percent of Americans now support same-sex marriage. As one measure of how things have changed, I recall that the State of Ohio amended its constitution in 2004 to specifically define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. There was widespread public support for the amendment and the measure was adopted with little public outcry. This was a mere seventeen years ago.
The Ohio amendment and all other state-level prohibitions of same-sex marriage were overturned in 2015 by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, which originated right here in river city, my hometown of Cincinnati.
To return to my earlier point about how the mistake of leaving the D-Deck gangway door open sped up the sinking of the Titanic, in like fashion, I believe, the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision sped up the sinking of the America’s ship of state, which already was well under way in 2015. It’s not as if leaving the gangway door open is what sealed Titanic’s fate. The ship was going to sink anyway based on the damage already done by the iceberg. But leaving the door open sped things up. The same with America. American’s have been losing their liberties since the Progressive Era – I always thought it should be named the Regressive Era – so the process has been going on for well over a century at this point. The loss of liberty was well underway even in 1912 when the Titanic sunk. But the rate of our loss of liberty, almost imperceptible at first, has sped up greatly in recent years. In my opinion, the Obergefell v. Hodges decision can be likened to the leaving open of the D-Deck gangway door. We were well on our way to sinking before that, but same-sex marriage sped things up.
I say this because it allowed evil to access new parts of our society that had remained untouched until that time. Over the years, there was greater and greater acceptance of same-sex marriage, but the legal recognition of it has seemed to speed up, not only the rate of acceptance of same-sex marriage, but also other parts of the homosexual agenda such as the recognition of transgenders as the new Brahmins of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion movement.
But despite what the wokesters would have you believe, there is a valid definition of marriage that is binding on all men and women for the very reason that it is God’s definition of marriage. And God’s definition does not agree with the Supreme Court’s.
Is feudalism in our future? Medieval illustration, circa 1310.
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
John 15.5
My heart is greatly troubled. I hate, hate, hate what is happening to my nation and yet am powerless to do anything to stop it.
Mocking arrogant and hateful sinners are exalted. And truth? It’s cast to the ground.
Just this past week, Pete Buttigieg was named as Joe Biden’s nominee for Transportation Secretary. During his press conference, Buttigieg explained his love of transportation, describing how he proposed to his husband (sic) in an airport terminal. Said Buttigieg, “Don’t let anybody tell you that O’Hare isn’t romantic.”
I doubt that even 5 years ago it would have been possible for someone to give a speech like this and remain politically viable. But that’s just a measure of how fast the deluge of evil has been in so short a time.
Mayor Pete – Buttigieg went by this title during presidential campaign season when he was running to be the Democratic presidential nominee – is a child of Satan. Not only does he practice what is an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, but he boasts about it. Further, he encourages other to follow him in his sin. And it this weren’t bad enough, while he’s doing all this he has the audacity to claim to be a Christian.
In many ways, he’s the very embodiment of the antichristian line of thinking that is set to dominate the incoming Biden administration. Buttigieg is smart, eloquent and highly educated, with the prestige of a Harvard degree to his credit. He holds all the fashionable ideas beloved by the elite of our day. The press loves him. He has, as it were, gained the world.
But he is losing his soul.
Unless he repents, he will face a Christless an eternity in hell for his many, egregious sins.
And yet for all that, in the here and now he is winning. And not just him, but many others of his ilk as well, chief among them Joe Biden himself.
Joe Biden is an obvious crook and the head of the Biden crime family. In addition to his own private crimes and those of son Hunter, he’s the beneficiary of an election stolen by the Democratic party machine. For all his evil, he is set to be rewarded by being inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States a month from today.
And while Joe Biden goes from strength to strength, Donald Trump and his supports go from failure to failure.
Bill Barr, Trump’s Attorney General, said there was no evidence of election fraud sufficient to have made a difference in the outcome of the election.
All the court cases have been a bust. The Supreme Court, the strong tower in which conservatives put their trust, dismissed the suit brought by the Texas Attorney General with a backhanded slap.
Last week, Republican Mitch McConnell, the Majority Leader in the Senate, congratulated Joe Biden on his victory in the Electoral College vote.
In short, all the governmental machinery of the establishment has declared that Biden will be the next president, and there seems to be nothing to stop it at this point.
I have prayed that it would not come to this, but, at least as of this writing, a Biden presidency seems inevitable.
This does not mean that Christians ought not continue to pray. Perhaps by some means a Biden or Harris inauguration can be prevented. January 6th is the final step in the Constitutional electoral process, where Congress finalizes the vote of the Electoral College. What happens if Trump supporters show up in force in Washington D.C. that day? I don’t know.
But given the failures of the Trump legal team so far and the momentum behind Biden, a Biden presidency appears inevitable as well as all the evils that will come with it.
How did it come to this?
Why do the bad guys win?
Some Christian commentators I heard seem to be of the opinion that evil can’t triumph. They rightly see Joe Biden as evil and, at least if I’m hearing them correctly, seem to think for that reason he can’t carry the day.
But in this fallen world, sometimes evil does win temporary victories. This isn’t speculation. You can see this right in the pages of Scripture.
God used the Philistines and other heathen nations to subject Israel from time to time as punishment for their sins. Things eventually got so bad that the Lord used the wicked nations of Assyria and Babylon to take the Jews into captivity for their rebellion against him.
In the New Testament, Satan won what he thought was a victory with the death of Christ on the cross. His victory proved short lived.
If evil can triumph in the Scriptures, it should come as no surprise that evil can score victories in our own day. Even a brief review of recent history should show anyone just how far from the paths of righteousness governments can stray. The Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Communist China are but of few of the evil regimes in recent times.
All this leads to the question, so why do the bad guys win?
We know that all of history is in the hands of God, and that nothing happens apart from his willing it to happen. God did not merely allow Joseph Stalin to carry out his reign of terror, he caused it to happen as part of his eternal decree.
But while appealing to the decrees of God is appropriate, usually when people wonder why it is that evil sometimes wins the day, they’re looking for something more specific.
In the Old Testament, God often used prophets to explain the reason such and such a disaster had befallen his people.
Today, we don’t have prophets, but we do have the Word of God which gives us example after example of how God deals with nations and their rulers and how he uses them for his own purposes.
While I don’t pretend to have the exact answer why Joe Biden stands at the precipice of the presidency, but we can look at the Scriptures for some clues why this may be the case.
The Pride flag is raised for the first time at Cincinnati City Hall, June 21, 2019. Photo by: Dwayne Slavey.
“Today is about saying that we are in this fight for civil rights and social justice and that love is love is love is love.”
– Cincinnati Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard
When I was growing up, way back in the day, the sixth month of the year was known as June. It was a without a doubt one of my favorite months. School ended for the summer – yes, we had to go to school into June – the weather was beautiful and I had three glorious months do pretty much whatever I wanted.
But all that has changed over the years. June has largely been wiped off the calendar and replaced by something called Pride Month. Now when considering just the name itself, Pride Month, this ought to give any Christian reason to be skeptical of it. Pride is not a thing commended in the Scriptures. In speaking of the wicked men of his day, the psalmist wrote, “Therefore pride serves as their necklace.” In Proverbs we read, “Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate,” and, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Luke records for us Mary’s words, “He [the Lord] has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.” Writes the Apostle John, “For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world.”
Clearly, pride is a concept at odds with the Word of God. But these passages do not exhaust what the Bible has to say about pride and its related concepts.
Writing to the Philippians, the Apostle Paul said of the enemies of Christ that their, “glory is in their shame.” These enemies of Christ were guilty of doing what the Prophet Isaiah had warned of, calling good evil and evil good, putting darkness for light and light for darkness. In the things of which they should have taken shame, in these they instead found honor, praise and enjoyed an excellent reputation among men.
When thinking about contemporary applications of this principle, that is, taking pride in that which should bring shame, it is hard to find a better example than in the many assertions of pride in the homosexual lifestyle made both by homosexuals themselves as well as by their supporters.
Now it doesn’t exactly take a theologian of the caliber of Martin Luther or John Calvin to understand what the Bible has to say about homosexuality. The Scriptures condemn homosexuality and homosexuals in the strongest terms. There’s really no debating this point, although some have tried.
But despite the clarity of the Bible on the issue of homosexuality, American society’s view of it has undergone such a profound change in just my lifetime that it constitutes a most extraordinary revolution.
To give you just one example of what I mean, consider the quote at the time of this post by Cincinnati Councilwoman Tamaya Dennard. The occasion for her remark was an event held outside Cincinnati City Hall where, for the first time ever, the Pride flag was raised. The event received a good deal of coverage in both the local and national press.
According to this report from a local television station, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, echoing the remarks of Tamaya Dennard, said that life is too short to prevent people from loving each other, the decision to fly the flag by Cincinnati City Council was unanimous, and Pride flags also were flown over six Hamilton County buildings as well as Cincinnati City Hall.
Escape of Lot from Sodom by Mattheus Merian (1593-1650)
From time to time I’ve written in this space about the collapse of Western Civilization that we so going on around us all on a daily basis. And in this author’s opinion, there is perhaps no better illustration of this collapse than the rise of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender (LGBT) movement over the last several decades.
I make this observation as a Christian, and those who do not believe the Bible may be tempted to dismiss my view as personal bias. But interestingly enough, at least one prominent lesbian scholar is in agreement with this view. As this 2015 article from cnsnews.com notes, “Best-selling feminist author, social critic and self-described “transgender being” Camille Paglia said in an interview last month that the rise of transgenderism in the West is a symptom of decadence and cultural collapse.”
Paglia is quoted in the article saying, “Nothing…better defines the decadence of the West to the jihadists than our toleration of open homosexuality and this transgender mania now.”
The article continues, “Paglia went on to talk about her book Sexual Personae and how the emergence of transgenderism signifies the end of Western culture. ‘Now I am concerned about this…In fact, my study of history in Sexual Personae, I’m always talking about the late phases of culture.’
‘I was always drawn to late or decadent phases of culture. Oscar Wile is one of the great exponents of that in the late 19th century. He’s one of my strongest influences from my earliest years. An I found in my study that history is cyclic, and everywhere in the world you find this pattern in ancient times: that as a culture begins to decline, you have an efflorescence of transgender phenomena. That is a symptom of cultural collapse.’
‘So rather than people singing the praises of humanitarian liberalism that allows all of these transgender possibilities to appear and to be encouraged, I would be concerned about how Western culture is defining itself to the world.’ ”
These are good comments by Paglia. In fact, what this feminist lesbian has to say about homosexuality and transgender mania is, quite remarkably, much closer to the mind of Christ, and far more interesting, than what falls from the lips of many supposed ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ when they speak on these subjects.
The wide-spread acceptance of homosexuality and other deviant behaviors in the West is a flashing red warning signal that our civilization is in deep trouble. It’s so obvious that even a feminist lesbian scholar is able to see the problem. But for all that, there are many who name the name of Christ who are either unable or unwilling to grasp this simple and obvious truth.
Mary Torres holds up a rolling in in support of cake artist jack Phillips outside the Supreme Court n Washington on Dec. 5. (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)
In perhaps the biggest story of this past week, the Supreme Court began hearing arguments in the case Masterpiece Cake Shop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
The case involves the Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cake Shop, who in 2012 refused to make a custom wedding cake for a same sex married couple, Charlie Craig and David Mullins. This set in motion a legal battle that saw Mr. Phillips, a Christian, dragged before the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which did not look kindly on his appeals to free speech and the free exercise of his faith.
“I can believe anything I want,” said Commissioner Raju Jaram, “but if I’m going to do business here, I’d ought to not discriminate against people.” According to this same article, Phillips was ordered to stop discriminating against gay people, document any customers he refuses to service, provide antidiscrimination training for his staff, and report quarterly for two years.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, the Christian legal organization representing Jack Phillips, argued this week before the Supreme Court that the baker’s First Amendment rights were violated by the Commission’s ruling. According to her, the Commission also violated Phillip’s religious liberty by attempting to force him, “to sketch, sculpt, and hand-paint cakes that celebrate a view of marriage in violation of his religious convictions.”
The Jesuit “mafia” and fog, both literal and figurative, in the churches. These were some of the discussion points brought up by Dr. Paul Elliott in his talks on Day 2 of The Trinity Foundation’s Reformation conference. Dr. Elliott gave two presentations on Saturday 10/28, both of which I would strongly encourage you to listen to when the recordings become available.
The Reformation Is Not a Return to Pre-Reformation Positions
By way of introduction to his opening talk on Saturday, Dr. Elliott mentioned that he is working on a tree volume set on the subject of the corruption of the text of the new testament. As part of his research, Dr. Elliott noted, more often than not, he found that the hand responsible for corrupting the Greek text of the New Testament used in modern translations is, more often than not, that of the Jesuits. He also included a comment by a friend of his warning that his work exposing the Jesuit efforts would not go unnoticed and that it was “dangerous territory.” Dr. Elliott did not use the word “mafia,” but the implication of his words is that there exists something like a Jesuit mafia that seeks to silence the opposition, and do so by violence if necessary.
Dr. Elliott contends that there are forces in the Evangelical movement that are seeking to give Protestantism an “extreme makeover” of the sort one sees on various TV shows, and that the effect of this makeover is that, “the vast majority of the nominally Evangelical church today is rapidly returning to the pre-Reformation position.” Dr. Elliott identified four things that characterized the pre-Reformation church.
First, there was Biblical illiteracy. In the middle ages, Christians did not have access to Bibles in their native language. Today, the problem is that, while “Bibles” are readily available, so-called modern translations such as The Message are corrupt paraphrases, not translations at all. Because they do not faithfully translate the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts, they leave people without the Word of God in much the same way as medieval church goers whose only Bible was in Latin, a language that most of them did not understand.
Second, Dr. Elliott identified the problem of Church as an Experience. The Reformation has always emphasized the primacy of preaching, the expositing of the Word of God in understandable, clear language. On the other hand, the Roman Church-State has always made an appeal to the senses with its “smells and bells.”
And just as the pre-Reformation and current Roman Catholic Church emphasized experience over doctrine, so too do neo-evangelicals in the emerging church movement. Dr. Elliott noted that as an observer he attended a trade show dedicated to the “worship market” which, “is now a multi-billion-dollar business.”
Dr. Elliott noted that, “The most popular product in this big exhibit hall was fog machines!,” which allowed churches to generate “different colors of fog” to set the right mood. As Dr. Elliott wryly commented, “Those fog machines were a metaphor for the entire so-called worship conference.”
Third, Dr. Elliott took up the problem of pluralism. By way of example, he cited Timothy Keller saying there may be some “back door way to Heaven” apart from Jesus.
More subtle is the case of John Piper, whom Elliott quotes as saying that we are made right with God by faith but enter heaven by our works.
Finally, Dr. Elliott speaks of the current emphasis on Deeds Instead of Doctrine. As Rick Warren has said, “You know, 500 years ago, the first Reformation with Luther and then Calvin, was about creeds…[the new reformation that we’re bringing about through the Purpose-Driven church] will be about deeds…The first one was about what the church believes…This one will be about what the church does.”
How is the different from what Rome teaches? In truth, not much, if at all. That being the case, it should come as no surprise that Warren is also hard at work trying to re-united Protestants and Romanists. Dr. Elliott reported that Warren was the keynote speaker at Pope Francis final Sunday service when he was in Philadelphia in 2015. Warren, a Southern Baptist, referred to the assembled cardinals, bishops and priests and the pope himself as “brothers.”
Dr. Elliott closed his talk with an encouragement for Christians not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed. We are to be outwardly what we are inwardly. This requires that Christians, “Never be afraid to admit it when you find yourself, or the church, deviating from Scripture in even the smallest point.”
This isn’t hard, folks. As theological questions go, the definition of marriage is pretty simple. It is a God-ordained, exclusive covenant between one man and one woman, and this the Christians has acknowledged for 2,000 years. In truth, the institution and its definition are much older than that, going all the way back to the creation of the world.
To borrow a turn of phrase from the Author of Hebrews, the biblical definition of marriage is milk, not meat. It’s something every Christian, even children, easily can, and ought to, understand.
And just as the Bible’s definition of marriage is simple and clear, so too is its stance on homosexuality: it’s a sin, and a particularly egregious one at that.
But as is the case with many things in this fallen world, what ought to be often times is not. Ours is a confused age, and truths that were almost taken for granted in earlier times now once again must be restated. One could point to any number of examples of the collapse of Western Civilization, but perhaps none exemplifies it better than the sweeping success of the homosexual agenda over the past 50 years.
Behavior that once was subject to sodomy laws is now celebrated at the highest levels of society. Governments, corporations, academics and the corporate media work diligently not only to promote the acceptance of homosexuality as normal and a thing to be celebrated, but also to cover in shame anyone who stands in their way.
The modern homosexual movement is usually traced back to the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village that occurred in June 1969. From there, the homosexual agenda has gone from strength to strength, culminating in the Supreme Court’s 2015 discovery that the U.S. Constitution supports the right of homosexuals to marry. The pace of change has been remarkable, and what was, just a few short years ago, considered filthy and shameful is now held up by all respectable people and institutions as the epitome righteousness.
Things have gotten to the point that, not only has it become socially unacceptable to speak out against homosexuality, but to so positively invites vilification from society’s mainstream institutions. Just last week, I wrote in this space about the SPLC’s declaring D. James Kennedy Ministries a hate group due to its opposition to the homosexual agenda. Many other examples of the same can be found
I first became aware of the Statement this morning while listening to Jason Hutchinson’s sermon during this morning’s church service. His comments were quite good and I will include a link to his sermon once it has become available.
After reading the document for myself, as far as I have been able to determine, the Statement is biblically sound and does a good job of setting forth Scripture’s clear teaching on sexuality. Further, the Statement also effectively refutes from Scripture some of the current arguments advanced in favor of homosexual marriage and transgenderism.
What do D. James Kennedy Ministries and the Nation of Islam have in common? Not much, you say? Well, think again. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), both are hate groups with located in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.
This particular issue came to my attention as a result of a recent story in Christianity Today titled “D. James Kennedy Ministries Sues SPLC over Hate Map,” According to the article, D. James Kennedy Ministries (DJKM) received negative media coverage after the recent Charlottesville riots in which the organization was branded a hate group by the SPLC. The Christianity Today piece also notes that – mirabile dictu – local Florida news reports labeled DJKM as the No.1 hate group in the state.
Per the SPLC’s Hate Map, the Ft. Lauderdale group landed on the list due to its “Anti-LGBT” stance. Notes the SPLC, “Opposition to equal rights for LGBT people has been a central theme of Christian Right organizing and fundraising for the past three decades – a period that parallels the fundamentalist movement’s rise to political power.”
If one were to take the SPLC’s word for it, he’d come away with the distinct impression that opposition to homosexuality was some 1970’s-era novelty hatched by the Moral Majority rather than the teaching espoused by Christians for the past 2000 years. In fact, the Bible’s identification of homosexuality as a sin pre-dates the Christian era, going all the way back to the Book of Genesis, where God himself referred to “the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah” and their “very grave” sin, a reference to homosexuality. The Law of Moses calls homosexuality “an abomination.” In Romans, Paul teaches that homosexuality is a punishment from God on idolaters, “who did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” There are many other examples of the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality, and I do not intend to cite them all here so as not to belabor the obvious point the God considers homosexuality a sin, and a particularly heinous one at that.
Lux Lucet 