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fuckyeahreligionpigeon · 2 years

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You’ve been warned....

Somber warning from a Pastor about the intentions of Evangelical "conservative" christians in American politics.

Pastor John Pavlovitz:

“I’ve been a pastor in the church for over two decades, much of that in predominantly white churches in the American South.I’ve spent countless hours in church staff meetings and men’s Bible studies and youth pastor conferences.

I’ve stayed connected on social media with thousands of people still there in those churches. I read what they share and post and amplify and I know how they think and what they believe.

I need you to understand something and I say it without any hyperbole: white Evangelicals need to be stopped, now.

This is not alarmist, sky-is-falling histrionics, it is the clear and sober forecast from someone who knows these people better than anyone. Over the last decade and a half, as my theology shifted and my beliefs grew more and more progressive, I’ve been a kind of undercover Liberal in an increasingly extremist movement, that while once relegated to minor fringe noisemakers is now at the precipice of Roman Empire-level power. They are less than two years away from having a dominance that they will wield violently and not relinquish.

I was speaking regularly at the Billy Graham headquarters when Fox News reporters and Republicans like Sarah Palin started walking the halls with frequency. I saw the messages at pastor’s conferences grow more incendiary and urgent, and heard the supremacist dog whistles become louder and more frequent.

Yet, they were still a largely powerless, dying dinosaur until 2016, when Donald Trump acquired the presidency and gave the Evangelicals the perfect amoral partner to serve as the biggest bully pulpit they’ve ever had. Combine that with a fragmented Left, a general fatigue by the larger population, a ceremonial victory in Congress (thanks to Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema), and Republican attacks on voters’ rights— and we are now a hair’s breadth from the subjugation of diverse humanity here.

These are not followers of Jesus despite the trappings and window dressing. They are Jesus-less extremists: blind zealots for nothing but power. They have been conditioned by decades of polluted theology and FoxNews alternative facts to see diversity as a threat, to see progress as attacks on America, and to interpret more people being treated with dignity as oppression of white people.

Women will lose autonomy over their own bodies. LGBTQ people will have the rights to marry and adopt taken away. People of color will be fully squeezed out of the electoral process. Immigrants will be denied access to opportunity and refuge here.

These are not creative projections. They are precisely what Evangelicals have repeatedly stated as their intentions, and they’re closer than they’ve ever been to having a rubber stamp.

We can still stop it, though.We just need a unity and coordination that transcends theirs. We need a sustained, passionate, dedicated defense of humanity that rivals their relentless assaults on it.

I hear many people say they’re terrified, but being terrified alone doesn’t do anything but help these people.

Be terrified and get angry.

Be terrified and get busy.

Be terrified and go to work.

Be terrified and fight like hell.

I wish more decent people in America remembered they are among the vast majority instead of acting as if they are helpless victims of Republican Christians. We could defeat them, and we need to. We just need to stop lamenting how much damage they are doing and start doing something to oppose them.

We’ve seen this play out throughout history and we know how it ends. We know what unchecked religious extremism is capable of and we know the cost of the silence and inaction of good people. We also know what people are capable of when they refuse to accept fascism and white supremacy cloaked in the Bible and wrapped in the flag, when they fight for something inherently good together.

As someone who knows just how much these Christians have lost the plot of their faith tradition, believe me when I tell you that they cannot be allowed to steer this nation. It will not end well for the disparate people who call it home or who one day wish to. Love and equality and diversity are in the balance.

It’s time we made a choice.

It may be the last one we get.”

Pastor John Pavlovitz

#atheism #christianity #judaism #islam #catholicism #mormonism #baptist #jehovah witness #scientology #Religion

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sophieinwonderland · 1 year

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fyi Vineyard Church is homophobic, transphobic, and has been excommunicated from the greater Christian church because they resemble a cult. not because of hearing the voice of God (although that can be considered fringe in some churches), but because they advertised the spiritual experiences and manifestations as something that was *unique* to Vineyard Church, encouraging people to visit and give them money. I would maybe not use them as the best example of Christian spirituality in the future.

Using the Vineyard as an example of a phenomenon of learning to have two-way conversations in their head with entities isn't an endorsement of the religion. I'm not blind to the homophobia of the church. (One of its founders was actually excommunicated and erased from the Church history for being gay.) I just don't think it's too relevant to conversations that are about psychology and anthropology.

There are many issues with the Vineyard church, but voice hearing isn't one of them, and is generally seen as healthy.

And most of what you describe is just... evangelical Christianity. Churches tend to encourage people to come to church, they all claim to be the one true interpretation of the Bible, they all depend on donations to stay open, and the evangelical churches have backwards and outdated views on homosexuality and abortion. (I'm not sure what you mean about the Vineyard being excommunicated though. They're a separate denomination, and there isn't really a main Christian church.)

I tend to to use this church as my go-to example because the voice hearing has been studied by actual scientists, and their practices have been compared directly to tulpamancy.

The thing is, I'm not expecting my posts about the spiritual experiences of the Vineyard Church to convert anyone on this blog to that faith.

And that's mostly because, frankly, if what someone is primarily after from religion is having the sort of internal companionship offered by the Vineyard, tulpamancy can already provide that for free without having to attend a church. And, in my opinion, our methods are more efficient and effective. We've crowdsourced the issue, and done our best to eliminate the doubt that comes with the process. And our community is actually supportive of these experiences where the Vineyard's community can often lead to more doubt.

In the Vineyard church, people who talk to "God" are often second-guessed by others or fakeclaimed behind their back. If there's only one God and he's telling different people different things, then someone has to be lying.

There's a paradox where everyone is encouraged to have these sorts of religious experiences, but being too open can make you the source of ridicule if people don't believe you're actually talking to God.

In contrast, tulpamancy is open. Every tulpa system has their own unique headmates. We have a community where we can talk to each other about those headmates, share our stories, and even allow those headmates to talk to others. And whether you see your tulpas as psychological or spiritual, nobody else in our community doubts that they're real.

We have guides on better developing your visualization skills, building inner worlds to spend time with your headmates, and lists of ways to spend time together.

We've taken the practices of the Vineyard church and other groups and have perfected them.

If someone believes in the Christian Bible, there are a lot more inclusive Christian faiths to join. But if someone just wants an experience of a companion in their head to share their life with and help them through their darkest times... tulpamancy can provide that better than the Vineyard church can in a better and more supportive environment.

#ask box #religion #christianity #evangelicals #church #syscourse #plural #plurality #multiplicity #tulpamancy #system #systems #christians #churches #anthropology #psychology #tulpas #tulpa system

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female-malice · 1 year

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as a former homeschooled christian and someone who still knows what's being talked about in those circles i can confirm that yes they think the rapture is coming soon and that everything that has happened in recent years is in alignment with the prophecy which is why they don't give a fuck about what's good for the planet because they ultimately believe god will create a new earth just for them and that's not even a fringe belief that's just normie christian doctrine

Yep. Yeah. They don't advertise it for the outside world. But it's not a secret hidden agenda either. It's really central to that belief system.

My friend who grew up homeschooled said the focus of her youth group wasn't really the bible. Bible study was it's own thing. Youth group was about coaching kids into being lawyers, legislators, or judges. It was like prep school.

Get control of the country and turn it into a Christian nation. Speed along the rapture. And then God will cleanse the world with fire. And Christian America and the holy sites in Jerusalem will be the only things left standing. That's the plan™️

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hadit93 · 2 years

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have you read the Bible, is there any part you thought was interesting at all? My issue with Christianity is how the text is open to many interpretations, yet at the same time the religion explicitly demands absolute obedience. And of course, the whole issue with the inconsistencies found during the text that gave birth to many discussions which were later challenged. Compared to pagan mythologies, where entities have a in-world logic and consistency, Christianity just says it's god will

I haven’t read it from cover to cover. I’ve read snippets and stories I have found important or interesting to things I’m studying.

Christianity does not resemble what early Christian’s taught or did. It has been created into a system of control as opposed to the fringe Gnostic death mystery cult it originally was. Even the gospels were cherry picked.

I don’t think rules are helpful for anyone. I think the only true way to approach your spiritual needs is on your own terms dictated by your own individual relationship with the divine. Humans have no right to have a say in what goes on between you and spirits.

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themotherlove · 3 months

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Karen Bankhead is a Comic, Character Actress and Writer

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bills-bible-basics · 11 months

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Coronavirus: Where is Your Common Sense? https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-where-is-your-common-sense/ Yes, folks, here I go again. I don't know what is going on, but this pandemic is really affecting some of my Christian brethren in a very strange way. I have seen so many posts and comments in my news feed, and on different Facebook pages in recent weeks, where instead of pointing their readers and visitors to God's Word to find the answers, some of these brethren -- quite a few of them, in fact -- are spouting off nonsensical conspiracy theories regarding 5G, Bill Gates, George Soros, the NWO and the Globalists, Agenda 21 and global depopulation, and other ridiculous stuff for which they can offer absolutely no solid proof. Of course, in their foolishness and delusion, they consider YouTube videos and information that they find on questionable conspiracy theory websites to be valid proof. SMH. If that is not enough, they are instilling fear in people with talk of martial law coming any day now, forced vaccinations with a microchip secretly embedded in it, and other fringe ideas. I find it all quite ridiculous, and sad. After all, aren't we supposed to be promoting God's Word? Isn't that why God called us into His Kingdom? That is, to be His emissaries? Isn't the Good News supposed to be found in God's Word? So why then are all of these misguided brethren delving into all of this worldly conspiracy theory nonsense? Is that going to win anyone to Jesus Christ? I seriously doubt it. It will just trap more people in the conspiracy theory net. As I said, it just fills people with fear and paranoia and deceives them. If you are wondering what set me off this time, well, I just saw a post in my news feed where a particular Christian friend -- who I have considered to be a bit strange and "out there" for a while now -- was berating other Christians simply because they are wearing face masks when they go out in public. According to this misguided individual, those of us who wear face masks don't truly believe in Jesus, because if we did, we would trust Him to protect us by not wearing face masks. At least that is what this person claims. To make matters worse, this same person twists the meaning of Roman 12:2, and claims that by wearing face masks, we are conforming to the world, and are full of fear. My gosh. Anyone with even an ounce of understanding and Spiritual Discernment knows that that is NOT what Romans 12:2 is talking about in the least. For those of you who are not familiar with the verse, here it is: "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Romans 12:2, KJV If you really want to know what that verse means, then please consider studying the following four KJV Bible Verse Lists on the Bill's Bible Basics website. Trust me when I say that the true meaning of Romans 12:2 will become very clear to you: "Battle of the Mind" KJV Bible Verse List: https://www.billkochman.com/VerseLists/verse217.html "Washed and Renewed Mind" KJV Bible Verse List: https://www.billkochman.com/VerseLists/verse071.html "Old Man Versus New Man" KJV Bible Verse List: https://www.billkochman.com/VerseLists/verse165.html "Worldliness" KJV Bible Verse List: https://www.billkochman.com/VerseLists/verse078.html This same person also made a slight reference to Psalm 91, and mentioned how if we drink poison, God will protect us. They also mentioned twice in their comments how if Jesus were here today, He would most certainly not be wearing a face mask. Well, yeah. I mean, after all, He IS the Son of God. In other words, in this person's mind, we should have the same level of faith as Jesus Christ. Yes, that would be nice. But quite frankly, I don't have that degree of faith. Do you? Can you move mountains or raise people from the dead? Can you even perform a simple miracle of healing? I can't.

So, no, I don't have faith like Jesus, and I am not afraid to admit it. So I will wear a face mask. I must tell you; I was floored by what I read. This person was basically condemning other Christians who don't have the same degree of faith as they supposedly have. I just couldn't believe that someone would be advising other Christians to not wear face masks when they go out. In recent weeks I have likewise seen multiple comments where different Christians on Facebook have openly stated that they will defy any curfews, lockdowns and other government-issued guidelines. What is wrong with these people? Well, I knew ahead of time exactly how this person would react, because I have dealt with such people before regarding this pandemic. Sadly, some of them have removed my comments, or unfriended me, or even blocked me completely, when I have tried to set them straight regarding their misguided ideas. At any rate, despite knowing this, I still felt compelled to try to get through to this person. So, I left them the following comment: ----- Begin Quote ----- I'll tell you what. Why don't you drink a bottle of bleach and let me know what happens. I'll be waiting. Seriously. You know full well that you are not going to drink a bottle of bleach, because not only do you not really have the faith for it, but you know that it will kill you. Not conforming to the world does NOT mean not wearing a respirator when people are getting infected by the hundreds of thousands around the world by the coronavirus, and dozens of thousands are dying from it as well. If you don't care about your own life, then please at least think of the others you might infect if you yourself become infected unknowingly. So be smart and wear a mask! That's called loving your neighbor as yourself, and preferring others. If they get sick because of you, is that love? You say we don't truly believe in Jesus because we follow the government's guidelines and take safety precautions? That is just a ridiculous comment to make. What you are telling people is both foolish, stupid and dangerous. Furthermore, the Bible says to NOT tempt the Lord. That is another reason why you should not drink that bottle of bleach. It is also why you should wear a face mask if you have to go out in a heavily infected area. I just can't believe all of the foolish, stupid, dangerous, crazy things some of my brethren are saying, as a result of this pandemic. Where is your common sense, people? ----- End Quote ----- Upon reading my comment, this person said that they were sorry that I was walking in fear -- which is the furthest thing from the truth -- and then they rambled on again about Jesus not wearing a mask, and something about people who fear will "enter fire and brimstone in the second death." Then there was something about "So-called Believers walking around with diapers" and "Christians walking around in diapers." I still have no idea what this person was referring to. Perhaps spiritual immaturity. I am not really certain. To be honest, their comments are rather disjointed, and they don't connect all of their thoughts very well. They concluded by telling me to stop saying that God's Word will not keep them safe, which I never ever said even once. In response, I then told this person the following: ----- Begin Quote ----- I am NOT in fear in the least. However, I DO know how to exercise wisdom and caution, while you obviously do not. Worse yet, you are leading others down your suicidal path with your nonsensical talk. Yes, we need to trust in the Lord, but we also need to give Him some COOPERATION, and exercise a little COMMON SENSE. Let me leave you with a verse for your consideration. It in fact talks about protecting ourselves from harm, lest we suffer the consequences for our foolishness and lack of action: "A prudent ‭man‭ foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished." Proverbs 22:3, KJV ----- End Quote ----- As I said earlier,

this is not the only person who is making outlandish comments during this pandemic which are potentially harmful and dangerous to others. The following day, another person came along and added their two cents to the discussion. Here is how they responded to the aforementioned person, and then to me as well. To protect the privacy of the original poster mentioned above, I have replaced their name: ----- Begin Quote ----- You need to stay in center of road on this. Christians who are carnal and not filled to overflowing with Holy Spirit need to protect themselves with masks. Christians filled with the Holy Spirit don't need masks . . . Would Jesus need to wear a mask? Would Peter and Paul need one? . . . [This person] is partially right and partially wrong. They assume all Christians are walking in that high place in God and filled to overflowing with God's Spirit. Only a small remnant walk in that power and anointing which Peter walked in where even his shadow brought healing to people who came near. However, [they] should not tell average carnal Christians not to protect themselves against Covid-19." ----- End Quote ----- Can you believe it? So according to this person, any Christian who gets the coronavirus must be a carnal Christian who lacks faith. Well, sorry, but personally, I am no Jesus, Peter or Paul. Are you? So friends, that is just another example of the nonsense I have seen coming from my Christian brethren since this whole COVID-19 pandemic began. I am tired of seeing all of this conspiracy theory talk coming from my brethren. I am tired of seeing all of the defiance they are exhibiting. And I am also tired of the bad advice they are giving to others. Sadly, short of snoozing their comments, or unfriending them, there isn't much else that I can to in order to stop seeing their ridiculous posts in my news feed. For those of you who may have possibly missed some of my previous coronavirus-related writings, following is a list of everything I have written to date regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. I believe that you will find a lot of useful, factual, instructive and Scriptural information in this material. Please feel free to share this list on your own timelines, pages, in your Facebook groups, and on any other social networks where you happen to participate. Thank you so very much, and God bless you! Bill's Bible Basics Coronavirus Information Center: Bill's Bible Basics Coronavirus Information Center Bill's Bible Basics Articles: BBB Article: "Coronavirus: Just the Facts, Ma'am": https://www.billkochman.com/Articles/coronavirus-1.html BBB Article: "COVID-19, Financial Assistance and Christian Love": https://www.billkochman.com/Articles/covid-19-financial-assistance-christian-love-1.html BBB Article: "Coronavirus: Defiant Christians, Stay Home!": https://www.billkochman.com/Articles/coronavirus-defiant-christians-stay-home-1.html BBB Article: "COVID-19: Exposure Logging and Contact Tracing: Is It Safe?": https://www.billkochman.com/Articles/COVID-19-ExposureLogging-ContactTracing-1.html Bill's Bible Basics Blog Posts: BBB Blog Post: "Coronavirus: Latest Statistics - Bill's Bible Basics Blog": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-latest-statistics-bills-bible-basics-blog/ BBB Blog Post: "Stop Joking About the Coronavirus": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/stop-joking-about-the-coronavirus/ BBB Blog Post: "Coronavirus: God Will Silence the Fools": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-god-will-silence-the-fools/ BBB Blog Post: "Coronavirus: Be Still and Know That I Am God": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-be-still-and-know-that-i-am-god/ BBB Blog Post: "Is COVID-19 the New Normal? : Don't Freak Out! Trust the Lord!": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/is-covid-19-the-new-normal-dont-freak-out-trust-the-lord/ BBB Blog Post: "Helpful Tips Regarding Using Face Masks and Respirators": https://www.

billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/helpful-tips-regarding-using-face-masks-and-respirators/ BBB Blog Post: "Coronavirus: Why Do You Condemn Your Brethren?": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-coronavirus-why-do-you-condemn-your-brethren/ BBB Blog Post: "Coronavirus: Are You Distracted?": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-are-you-distracted/ BBB Blog Post: "Coronavirus: Wake Up, Already!": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-wake-up-already/ BBB Blog Post: "Coronavirus: 40 Bible Verse Lists Regarding God's Love, Patience, Wrath, Judgments and Repentance": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-40-bible-verse-lists-regarding-gods-love-patience-wrath-judgments-and-repentance/ BBB Blog Post: "Coronavirus: Where is Your Common Sense?": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-where-is-your-common-sense/ BBB Blog Post: "Coronavirus: More Useful Information": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-more-useful-information/ BBB Blog Post: "The Doctor Anthony Fauci Debate: My View": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/the-doctor-anthony-fauci-debate-my-view/ BBB Blog Post: "Coronavirus: How to Respond to the Pandemic": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-how-to-respond-to-the-pandemic/ BBB Blog Post: "Coronavirus: Face Masks or Bandanas?": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-face-masks-or-bandanas/ BBB Blog Post: "Coronavirus and Beards and Mustaches": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-and-beards-and-mustaches/ BBB Blog Post: "Coronavirus: Do You Need A Psychiatric Evaluation?": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-do-you-need-a-psychiatric-evaluation/ BBB Blog Post: "COVID-19: Attention iOS Users! This May Be of Interest to You if You Use the "Maps" App!": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/covid-19-attention-ios-users-this-may-be-of-interest-to-you-if-you-use-the-maps-app/ BBB Blog Post: "Apple iOS 13.7 Introduces COVID-19 Exposure Notifications With No Need For 3rd Party App": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/apple-ios-13-7-introduces-covid-19-exposure-notifications-with-no-need-for-3rd-party-app/ BBB Blog Post: "Coronavirus: Are Vaccine Passports Inevitable?": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-are-vaccine-passports-inevitable/ BBB Blog Post: "Coronavirus: Don't Be So Harsh!": https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-coronavirus-dont-be-so-harsh/ Bill's Bible Basics Poetry: BBB Poem: "Coronavirus Kooks": https://www.billkochman.com/Poetry/coronavirus-kooks.html https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/coronavirus-where-is-your-common-sense/?feed_id=71693&_unique_id=646bccb2aed31&Coronavirus%3A%20Where%20is%20Your%20Common%20Sense%3F

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xtruss · 1 year

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What Really Happened at Waco, Texas? Thirty Years Later, An Avoidable Tragedy Has Spawned a Politically Ascendant Mythology.

— By Rachel Monroe | April 12, 2023 | Letter From The Southwest

The Branch Davidians appeared to see a kinship between their struggle and those of other victims of state violence. In the decades since, the people who have got the most mileage out of the tragedy have told a narrower story. Photograph by Susan Weems/AP

The federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound, thirty years ago, was flawed from the start. The Branch Davidians were a fringe offshoot of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and, in the early nineties, they were led by David Koresh, a charismatic long-haired man who believed that the end of days was imminent. The Davidians lived on a compound called Mount Carmel, twenty miles northeast of Waco, and were well known to local law enforcement, who considered them relatively benign.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms suspected the Davidians of illegally converting semi-automatic rifles into fully automatic weapons. (The weapons allegations seemed to inspire more reason for action than reports that Koresh was sexually assaulting his followers’ underage daughters.) During the ensuing investigation, A.T.F. agents repeatedly overestimated their capacity for subterfuge. When a group of undercover agents posing as college students moved into a house across the street from the Branch Davidian compound, their rental cars gave them away. The agents hosted a party to deflect suspicion, but it had the opposite effect: “Some of the Branch Davidians showed up, mingled, and reported back to Koresh that these were federal agents for sure,” Jeff Guinn writes, in the recently published “Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and a Legacy of Rage.” Another agent, Robert Rodriguez, posed as a potential follower to gain access to the group. Koresh quickly pegged him as a Fed but kept inviting him to Bible study anyway; after all, as he reminded his followers, Jesus had preached to a Roman centurion.

The day before the Sunday-morning raid, Treasury Department officials in Washington attempted to call it off, concerned that it relied on unnecessary force. Why couldn’t Koresh be arrested when he was away from the compound? But a plan, once in motion, has a certain momentum, and the A.T.F., which had a congressional budget hearing approaching, was in need of a splashy, successful operation. One A.T.F. agent was so confident that the mission would be over in a few hours that he booked tee time in Houston for Sunday afternoon.

The Texas and the ATF flags fly at half staff April 23, 1993, over the only structure left standing after a fire destroyed the the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas on April 19. J. David Ake | AFP via Getty Images

On the morning of February 28, 1993, Rodriguez, still ostensibly undercover, listened as Koresh was tipped off that a raid was imminent. Rodriguez rushed to report the news to his superiors, sure that they would abort the mission, since the plans relied on maintaining the element of surprise. Instead, the raid proceeded, disastrously. Agents swarmed the compound and were met with heavy gunfire. When the battle ended, a few hours later, four federal agents and six Branch Davidians were dead, and many more wounded on both sides.

The fifty-one-day siege that followed deteriorated into the most dangerous kind of conflict, one in which both sides felt as though they were backed into a corner. This was much more true for the Branch Davidians, of course, who were barricaded in a compound with plenty of canned food and bullets but a dwindling water supply. But the federal agents surrounding them also felt a sense of desperation. The raid, intended as a show of A.T.F. competence, had instead devolved into a prolonged spectacle of defeat. “The hostages were not those Davidians in there,” Bob Ricks, the F.B.I. special agent in charge of the operation, said later. “The hostage in this whole process was the F.B.I. We had to respond to the demands of David Koresh. We were like actors in his play . . . In the final analysis, everything rested under the control of David Koresh.”

The shootout at the Mount Carmel Center dominated the news for two months of 1993. Photograph: Courtesy of Netflix, Guardian USA, Tuesday 21 March, 2023

As the siege wore on, tensions emerged between the F.B.I.’s negotiators and its Hostage Rescue Team (H.R.T.), specialized units that preferred to resolve conflicts quickly, through the tactical use of force. (Shortly after the shoot-out, the F.B.I., which is responsible for investigating the deaths of federal agents, took command of the operation.) Negotiators believed that Koresh could eventually be coaxed into surrendering peacefully, though the dominant H.R.T. view was that Koresh was a liar who would never emerge of his own volition. The two F.B.I. factions were working at cross-purposes: a negotiator would make headway with the Davidians only to learn that the tactical team had just run over one of Koresh’s beloved vintage cars with a tank.

Weeks into the siege, Koresh claimed that he would surrender peacefully as soon as he finished writing a treatise on the Book of Revelation. Davidians had been communicating with the outside world via messages painted on bedsheets, hung out of windows. Then they displayed one reading “Let’s Have a Beer When This Is Over.” Instead, the tactical faction received approval to end the situation more rapidly. Early on the morning of April 19th, federal agents rammed the Mount Carmel building with tanks and pumped tear gas into the holes they had created. Around noon, someone reported seeing flames. Agents expected to see people flooding out of the building to surrender, but only nine did; more than seventy others, including two dozen children, were crushed as the building collapsed, died by suicide, or were killed in the fire. (One toddler died of a stab wound in the chest.) The government’s heavy-handed, deeply flawed approach enabled Koresh’s transmutation into a martyr.

David Koresh. Photograph: Courtesy of Netflix, Guardian USA, Tuesday 21 March, 2023

The Branch Davidians appeared to see a kinship between their struggle and those of other victims of state violence; one of their bedsheet messages read “Rodney King We Understand.” In the decades since, the people who have got the most mileage out of the tragedy have told a narrower story, one of a powerful and oppressive federal government waging war on gun-loving, God-fearing citizens. (In this fable, the Davidians are implicitly coded as white, even though at least two dozen of them were not.) Timothy McVeigh travelled to Texas during the siege, where he sold bumper stickers with slogans like “Fear the Government That Fears Your Gun” and “A Man with a Gun Is a Citizen, A Man Without a Gun Is a Subject.” McVeigh, who was already steeped in white-supremacist rhetoric, became obsessively focussed on Waco. On the second anniversary of the fire, he blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, in Oklahoma City. Five years later, Alex Jones attached himself to efforts to rebuild a church in Mount Carmel. Jones was then twenty-five, had recently been fired from his job as a talk-radio host in Austin and had just launched Infowars. He led a memorial service, during which other speakers referred to the events in 1993 as “our second Alamo.” “All of it—it’s all about public opinion,” Jones told a reporter that day. A few months later, Jones would release a video, “America: Wake Up or Waco,” in which he claims that F.B.I. agents intentionally machine-gunned women and children. The film follows the template that Jones has used successfully ever since—using the government’s real failures to build a paranoid mythology that he bends to sinister ends.

That mythology, and its attendant rhetoric of grievance and aggression, is politically ascendant in many parts of the country, even as its most vocal proponents consider themselves beset on all sides by enemies. Earlier this month, congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene staged her own mini-confrontation with the A.T.F., showing up at a gun store in Smyrna, Georgia, during a routine inspection. “This is a prime example of Joe Biden and the Democrats weaponizing federal agencies to silence and intimidate their political opponents,” she tweeted later. “I fear this is just the beginning and they are directly targeting our Second Amendment and our right to protect and defend our families.” Koresh and his followers wanted to be left alone; the growing cohort of self-identified Christian nationalists want control of school boards, city councils, and state legislatures. The kind of tactical-firearms training that the Davidians used to prepare for their war with Babylon is now a significant nationwide industry, one that attracts dentists and real-estate agents to weekend classes on urban combat. And there are twice as many privately owned firearms in the U.S. as there were when the Waco siege took place. ♦

— The New Yorker

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atozphantomsquadron · 1 year

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II - The Wilderness

My school life progressed, despite my need to not socialize with my fellow students. Studying became my refuge from those cruel peers, something which I could control and obviously see my progress with every additional “A” that appeared on my report card. I did not care that being smarter also isolated me more: on the contrary, I welcomed the isolation, I felt that it helped me to focus.

At those times I had to deal with people, I tried to be the unassuming, quiet bird in the murder of angry crows. I avoided social contact as much as possible, staying on the fringes of social events which were mandated for us to attend. I liked to play at recess, but I would try to make my play not cross paths with anyone else around me, so I came up with a plan of attack. Every day, I would try to be the last one outside for recess, scan the playground, find where the most kids were, and go to where they were not. This plan kept me away from most of the people and placed me squarely with the social “outcasts,” those who could not adjust to social situations. Kindred spirits, or so I thought. When these outcasts made me an outcast even among them, it clarified my standing among my classmates.

After my kindergarten experience, I decided that complaining to my mother about the kids, demanding to be pulled out of school, or any such arguments I could make about the situation would be futile. Instead, my focus at home turned to the interesting things my mother did in the name of her faith.

I should back up a bit and fill in some of the blanks. My mother was raised as a Christian, not any specific denomination mind you, just general Christian. She kept a Bible at her bedside as long as I had been living, taught me to pray every night before bed, and did many of the things you are told a good Christian household does. The one thing I did not see her do, that she did not have me do, at that early time was ever attend church services. I asked her about it once, while she was cooking dinner one night.

She sighed and put down her chef’s knife. “Because we are too far from a church that would accept us, little Ariel.”

I did not understand this. “But there’s a chapel a half mile down the edge of the canyon, why can’t we go there?”

“It’s … it’s complicated, dear. I’m afraid it’s too complicated for you to understand right now. Maybe in time, you will be able to know.”

Much time passed. Just a week before I entered the eighth grade, my mother woke me early on Sunday and dressed me in my best clothes. To my surprise, she took me down to the church … the very same one she had said we could not go to. At the door of the building, we were met by a young man in a preacher’s clothes, who eagerly shook mine and my mother’s hands.

“So wonderful to see you both here, Shanee. Ariel, it is a pleasure to have you here. Welcome.”

His smile was infectious. I could not help but smile back at this holy man, his exuberance and friendly demeanor obvious. He held the door for us to enter his church, the first time I had ever seen the inside of a place of God.

That Sunday, the church was full of many people, young and old, children and adults. To my surprise, about halfway through the service we were called up by the pastor to the sanctuary: today I was being baptized. I recall the holy water being lukewarm, like it had been freshly pumped from the ground well behind the building, and my mother’s beaming smile as she watched me be anointed with the water. The experience was so new to me, frightening and inspiring all at once, but at the same time cleansing. It made me feel like the isolation I felt at school, among all those children my own age, was but an inconvenience in the greater scheme of things.

After the service was over and I had attended my first ever Sunday school class, I walked home with my mother. It was then she told me the whole story as to why this had been our first trip to church: I guess she decided that since I was coming to the age where I would be interested in boys and dating, theoretically, I should know the reason was partially my fault.

The church was previously run by a very conservative pastor who believed deeply in the value of a traditional family, to the point that he insisted his church be free of single parents. He was very unmoving on this attitude, and had successfully forced out everyone he felt was unclean in this manner, particularly single mothers. Considering the modern attitudes regarding single parenthood, this might seem shocking, especially since this was in the late ‘70s, not the ‘50s, and others in the community were rightfully up in arms about his attitudes. He held to his beliefs, claiming that unmarried women with children were unfit to attend his church. At the time, my mother was a faithful attendee, coming to church every week, but as soon as she learned of her pregnancy she became very afraid of being banished like the other single mothers, and so she just quit attending, hence the reason we had not gone to church prior to that Sunday and why I had not been baptized.

I had no idea at the time, but this conversation made me begin to realize the danger of fanaticism. In fact, I specifically remember telling my mother that the old pastor sounded like a fanatic.

“He was, yes.”

“But how was he allowed to have so much power within the church?”

“No one stopped him, no one dared to disagree with him. He wielded excommunication like a sword over everyone, threatening to cut off those who spoke against his beliefs. To him, they were akin to those of God Himself.”

“But mom, no man is God.”

She looked over to me when I said this, just at the edge of our yard. “Ariel, the sooner more people in this world realize that simple fact, the closer we will be to world peace.” She hugged me gently. “Someday, little girl, you are going to change the world.”

“Will you be there?”

“I hope to be, and I’ll bet Pastor Abaster will want to be, too.”

These words resonated in my mind years later, as apocalypse surrounded me at Four Corners, as hell-winds threatened to blow me over, as a man who had baptized me and restored my faith in the church tried his damnedest to usurp God. At the same time, my own words came back to me: “No man is God.” I still hold this to be one of the basic truths in this world, that despite their efforts to the contrary and all their strength being put toward becoming the Almighty, no man is now nor ever will be God.

My social standing did nothing to improve as I moved through school grades. As a burgeoning teenager in eighth grade, I had a slight renaissance in popularity as I started to develop my womanly traits. The boys came around, many of them awkward in trying to talk to me. Of course I still remembered them all from my elementary school days, and left them all disappointed. The one that made me feel most uncomfortable was my old playground nemesis, Jason Grant, who rather than just come face-to-face with me and try to impress me instead tried every boy-trick possible to paw me.

It made me disgusted to be around him. He would “accidentally” fall in a hallway at my feet to try to catch a peek up my skirt. He would have his friends push him into me if I was walking by, aiming his elbows for my chest. At least three times he snuck up behind me and grabbed my rear end, and one of those times he was not even sneaky about it because he was laughing the whole time. The worst part of it was that I would complain to the powers that be, and be ignored. It was not until much later that that I discovered the reason for this was that Jason’s father was the school superintendent and the teachers and administrators were too paranoid for their jobs to ever discipline him. It was people like these which pushed me further into isolation, into being as much of a loner as possible.

I thought my rescue was finally at hand when I received word of a special opportunity. Excited about it, I went home that night to talk it over with my mother and convince her it was the right thing to do. We were eating dinner, and I slowly slid an envelope toward my mother.

“What’s this, Ariel?”

I sighed. “I got called into the office today to get this letter. The principal recommended me to attend a special honors high school.”

My mother opened the envelope and raised an eyebrow. “Your grades are that good?”

“I hope you’re kidding, mom. Don’t you remember all those report cards I brought home?”

“Maybe I do,” she replied with a glint in her eye that made me know she was kidding with me. She slowly read over the letter. “Impressive. They want to send you to this high school, they believe you have this much potential?”

I nodded eagerly. “I want to go, mom.”

She continued reading the letter, until she got to the bottom. “This school’s in Flagstaff, dear, do you know how far away that is?”

“I do, mom. I still want to go, it sounds exciting to me. I can stay there during the week and come home on weekends. They mentioned that the school arranges housing for some students.”

She put the letter down, sighing and looking at me. “You’re dead set on going, aren’t you?”

I looked down at my plate and took a deep breath before answering. “You have to know, mom, I’ve never been happy in the school district, not at all, not even in kindergarten.”

“If you’re talking about that bully Jason Grant …”

“No, not just him, it’s everyone. Once he decided I was a target, I became everyone’s target. No one is my friend, no one even likes me there. No one wants to be friends with the Injun girl …”

“Ariel!”

“That’s what they call me! Again, after Jason started it, everybody did it. I hate it there, mom! Sometimes I hate you for making me go there!”

I kicked myself out of my chair and ran into my room in tears. My room had long been my first refuge from the scholastic wilderness when I came home before my mother’s trading trips were done. It was always sparsely furnished and decorated, which suited me because I did not need very much to make me happy, just a comfortable bed and solitude. This time, however, the bed and being alone did nothing to console me. I was sure my mother would not let me go to the high school, sure that I would be forced to deal with Jason Grant another four years, and absolutely certain that I wouldn’t allow myself to live through it if I was forced to. My mother also became a target of my anger that evening, for making me attend those schools and be tormented and alone for so long.

In the darkness of my room, between three breathless sobs, I suddenly heard my mother’s voice. “Ariel?”

Sniffling, I sat up in bed and looked at the silhouette of my mother, standing in the lit doorway. The silhouette came closer until it loomed over me. In the poor light I could make out my mother’s face, the Navajo features looking concerned and warm and caring, not those of the monster my mind was making her into.

“Ariel, how much does this mean to you?”

I wiped tears from my eyes. “Everything, mom. This school sends its entire graduating class to college, and I want to someday leave the rez and make something of myself. All of my teachers tell me I can do it.” I sighed. “Do you believe in me?”

She smiled and pulled me into her arms. “With all my heart, little Ariel. If attending this school is your heart’s wish and God’s will, who am I to deny it? No man is God.”

I smiled at her use of my own words. “So I can go?”

She kissed my forehead. “You can go. But I want to celebrate this before you do.”

Two months later, my mother had arranged for the biggest party our house had ever seen. She invited everyone from the trading partners in the canyon to the tribal council, and I think all of them came. Standing along the cliffside, these people … my people … bid me good luck and blessed my journey. This was the first time in my life I ever felt like part of a community. Between my mother’s exuberant bragging and Aunt Irene’s hugs and admonitions to do well, I truly felt more loved that I ever had previously, a love that would only be matched many years later by four others, giving me a new family.

#phantom squadron #dinetah dragon

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epistolizer · 1 year

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The Study Of The History Of The End Of The World, Part 9

Concerns regarding the End Times have become such a pervasive aspect of contemporary culture that, Richard Kyle writes, “Thus in the late twentieth century the apocalyptic mindset is no longer the fringe phenomena of a few marginalized people which we can ignore (166).” No longer are the most devout or religiously pious the only ones realizing that the world as we know it will likely one day meet with some sort of demise. Interestingly, some of those now the most obsessed with looming doom are not even religious in the traditional sense. In fact, a significant number are even hostile or dismissive of the notion of a personal deity guiding history through the sorts of horrors of which they forewarn to a blissful or beatific conclusion. And unlike the eschatological speculation or reflection of their theistic counterparts, the visions proposed by the secularists offer little in terms of hope for a better tomorrow.

The most prominent sort of secular apocalypse could be categorized as imaginary in nature. Kyle writes, “Most of the ideas of how the world will end have come from the Bible, science, or the occult. But eschatology --- particularly secular eschatology --- has also been conveyed through fiction, especially novels and film (169).” This is not to say that the scenarios in such works could not happen or bear no connection to plausible reality. Rather, what these narratives present is a reflection upon the concerns and anxieties of a given day and projecting the implications of these into an hypothesized potential future.

Through consideration of these stories, the student of history and religion can actually track how these concerns change over time, occasionally even in the mind of a single author. For example, prior to the calamity of the Great War in 1914, in most literary instances the end came about as a result of a natural force beyond the control of mankind. However, after World War I the disasters and tragedies described were usually the result of human actions of some kind such as a technology that spiraled out of control or even the outcome of a deliberate act.

This conceptual alteration could be detected in the works of H.G. Wells. For example, in The War Of The Worlds, the threat posed by the forces of nature is symbolized by Marian invaders. However, in Shape Of Things To Come, it is not an amorphous threat from out there or beyond that Wells feared threatened the species but rather a powerful planetary elite. Likewise, one can almost detect a similar shift in more contemporary examples such as Battlestar Galatica. In the original version, the Cylons were a threat that originated external to mankind. However, in the updated reimagining, the Cylons were actually created by humanity, it eventually being revealed, by a grieving father who wanted nothing more than to create a virtual reality version of his daughter killed in a terrorist attack.

As outlandish as the plotlines of many movies, television series, and novels might sound, these narratives are not beyond the basis of possibility. A number also bear a startling similarity to the ways prophetic portions of Scripture have been interpreted by exegetes applying their understanding of twentieth and twenty-first science and technology.v Foremost among potential secular apocalypses no doubt ranks nuclear annihilation. This possibility has gripped the minds of devout and reprobate alike since the mid 1940's when atomic devices were dropped on Japan in the hopes of bringing a swift conclusion to the Second World War. In the attack on Hiroshima, it has been estimated that over 70,000 individuals lost their lives (Kagan, 1053). Following that, these weapons not only increased in their destructive potential but proliferated in terms of ending up in the hands of regimes and some contend even groups at odds with the United States in terms of geopolitical vision. But at least at the height of the Cold War, the desire of the powers on either side of the ideological divide to see the world governed in their respective images either along the lines of modified free market capitalism or even repressive totalitarian Communism prevented these parties from destroying it. Such an attack would have resulted in devastating retaliation or a global ecological catastrophe where the fortunate might have actually been those losing their lives in the opening round of such a conflict.

It was hoped that the diminution in direct tensions between the United States and Russia following the demise of the Soviet Union that the likelihood of a mass casualty nuclear incident would be similarly decreased. However, such a hope did not necessarily transpire. If anything, the threat merely transformed and actually became less predictable. As a failed state, it was feared that the Soviet bureaucrats that became underworld oligarchs could sell these devices to assorted rogue states and terrorist groups. In turn, many of these potential customers were of a radical Islamist persuasion --- unlike Communists with no conception of a life beyond this one --- who were just as alright with blowing up the world or converting it since the true reward sought by those of this perspective was a blissful Heaven-like paradise.

Other secularists concerned about the end of the world as we know it are not so concerned that the world is going to end in a giant explosion but it will nevertheless be the result of man's irresponsible behavior in the form of environmental desolation. Foremost among these ranks global warming or climate change. Those buying into the reality of this threat believe that the conspicuous consumption of fossil fuels results in an excess amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. This in turn, it is hypothesized, traps heat that is prevented from radiating off into the vacuum of space, creating what is referred to as the greenhouse effect. This rise in temperature could theoretically melt ice at the poles, resulting in the rise of sea levels flooding coastal areas as well as shifting weather patterns that could catastrophically impact global agriculture.

If the threat of nuclear annihilation and environmental devastation were not enough to keep the anxious awake at night, other analysts suggest it will most likely be global pandemics that will plunge the human species into an interminable death spiral. Civilization besieged by plague at an apocalyptic-level is not without historic precedent. During the Middle Ages, it has been estimated that up to a third of the population of Europe perished as a result of the Black Death believed to be bubonic plague (Abanes, 179).

Some experts believe the contemporary world with nations separated from one another by no more than a few days air travel is similarly vulnerable to the outbreak of killer disease. Such a possibility gained more widespread consideration in light of the AIDS outbreak of the 1980's. As terrible as that was, most felt protected from that pestilence to a degree since in most cases it was transmitted through promiscuous sexual activity or intravenous drug drug use. A number such as famed science fiction author Issac Asimov did contract the virus innocently as a result of a blood transfusion.

Even more frightening is the possibility of an illness such as ebola spreading unchecked around the globe. Unlike AIDS which can take years to fester in the systems of those infected by the virus, usually requires a deliberate behavioral action to contract and can now in many instances be kept in check through rigorous adherence to a strict pharmaceutical regimen, the victims of E.bola are often dead within a matter of days after exposure even while wearing what is thought to be a sealed protective biohazard suit. Kyle assures that E.bola is so overwhelmingly deadly that a natural outbreak under most circumstances would be self-limiting (181). The real danger, he assures, would no doubt be rogue states or terrorist organizations weaponing these microorganisms. With the proper technical background, such would not be too difficult and is no doubt why such bacteriological devices are even referred to as the poor man's nuclear bomb.

If nuclear, environmental, or biological holocaust are still not enough to frighten you, there are those terrified that life here as we know it will be wiped out by an object from beyond this world crashing into the Earth. Given its vastness, it would be understandable to assume that the chance of one object of minuscule size in comparison to the comprehensive totality of the universe crashing into another nearly as small would be negligible. However, such is believed to have occurred with such regularity that the potential for just such a catastrophe to be a legitimate cause of concern.

Many paleontologists believe just such a body crashing into the Earth 65 million years ago led to the eventual extinction of the dinosaurs. Creationists squeamish about referencing an event that old need not feel left out. For other incidents of interplanetary billiards have occurred more within a time frame acceptable to ardent defenders of a literalist interpretation of the Genesis account. In 1908, something exploded over the Tunguska region of Siberia that leveled 80 million trees in an area nearly twenty-five miles in diameter. And if that is not enough, a number of astronomers are able to earn respectable livings tracking the numerous asteroids, meteors, and comets that have come as close as 500,000 miles of Earth that would have impacted with the planet had the objects had been as little as six hours sooner.

Each of these scenarios described from a secular perspective are so overwhelming in terms of their destructive scope that the mind cannot help but attempt to categorize their likelihoods as remote or near impossible. The thing of it is that every last one of them can find a parallel in the prophetic apocalyptic portions of Scripture. For example, when Babylon is described as burning in Revelation 18, one can imagine this happening in the form of a nuclear attack on a metropolis of economic and cultural significance such as New York.

And even though conservatives are correct to articulate skeptical opposition in regards to environmentalist shenanigans intended to impede or decay Western standards of living in favor of the sort of squalor endemic to the Third World, one cannot help but notice descriptions of what sounds similar to climate change in regards to prophecies of mass marine die offs and waters being turned as to blood as detailed in Revelation 16:3-4. Elsewhere in the Apocalypse, fires are described as decimating much of the planet's plant life and throughout the text millions of human beings end up dead. Of the period of Tribulation, Matthew 24:22 says that for the sake of the Elect, if Christ did not intervene during this future time, things would get so bad that otherwise all flesh would be destroyed. It is this one essential promise that differentiates the hope provided in Christ from the despair of the secularist that realizes from the standpoint of man alone all is utterly lost.

By Frederick Meekins

Bibibliography

Abanes, Richard. End-Times Visions: The Doomsday Obsession. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1988.

Kirsch, Jonathan. A History Of The End Of The World: How The Most Controversial Book In The Bible Changed The Course Of Western Civilization. San Francisco, California: Harper Collins Publishers, 2006.

Kagan, Donald, Ozment, Steven and Turner, Frank. The Western Heritage Since 1789 (Fourth Edition). New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1991.

Kyle, Richard. The Last Days Are Here Again: A History Of The End Times. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1988.

Ladd, George. The Blessed Hope: A Biblical Study of The Second Advent and The Rapture. Grand Rapids, Michigan: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1956.

Thompson, Damian. The End Of Time: Faith and Fear in the Shadow of the Millennium. Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 1996.

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lesfeldickbiblestudy · 1 year

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Through the Bible with Les Feldick LESSON 2 * PART 2 * BOOK 57 The Godhead Revealed - Part 2 I John 4:11 – 5:1 Again, we want to thank you for you letters, your prayers, and your financial help. I was just explaining to our visitor from Florida who asked, "Who backs you? Who helps you pay the bills?" The Lord does! Everything comes in just as we need it and whenever we feel that we’re getting ahead a little bit and we can afford to take another station on, well then, that’s when we expand. And as we expand the contributions expand with it. So, we still maintain that all the contribution money goes strictly to pay for television and radio. And then we pick up our operating expenses through our materials. But we’re just an independent Bible study. Nobody underwrites us. Nobody tells me what to teach and what I can’t teach. And if they did, I’d quit tomorrow. But we maintain our freedom with the Lord’s help. Okay, let’s pick right up where we left off in our last lesson and that was in I John chapter 4, and we looked at verse 12. And now we’re going to go down to verse 13. Maybe in my next program, I’ll go back and review again how all of this is still tied to the Jewish program. There’s just nothing back here in these little Jewish epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude, about the Body of Christ and there is no Pauline language in here. Now I know that may disturb a few people and they think I’m may be getting out in the fringes. But, all I ask people is, what does the Word say? If you can find one word that speaks of salvation through faith in the resurrection, the shed blood, the crucifixion; then I’ll admit that maybe I’ve been missing it. But you see it’s not in here. All of this is still dealing with the same message that Jesus and the Twelve preached; what Peter and the Eleven preached; and continues right on in the same vein without any mention of what we would call "Pauline truth." It’s just not in here. So, I’m on solid ground when I make that statement because you can’t find any salvation Scriptures that we must believe in this Church Age we’re living in. You’ve got to go to Paul’s letters for that. All right, so now then just almost the same identical language as John’s Gospel, he goes on finishing verse 12: I John 4:12b-13 "…If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he (God) hath given us of his Spirit." Now, where in the world do we get the first real revelation of the coming of God’s Spirit into the heart of the believer? Well, John’s Gospel. And that’s where we’ll go! We’ll just go right back to his gospel. The same John, even though he’s writing this epistle several years later, yet it’s the same John. And so now we’ll jump to his Gospel of John, to chapter 14 where the Lord has just finished explaining to Philip (with the rest of them listening of course) that if you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen Who? The Father! Because the Father and the Son and the Spirit are One God, as we put it on the board. But they’re in three Persons. All right, now we’re going to see that Jesus is going to delegate another Person of the Godhead Who will take His place when He leaves. Now the Twelve have no understanding that He’s going to be leaving. They think that things are going to continue right on and He’ll be giving them the Kingdom. They’re still looking for the Kingdom that has been prophesied ever since Genesis chapter 12. But here is the first inkling now that He’s going to leave. Jesus is still speaking there in the upper room, and He says: John 14:16a "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter,.…" Now I think most of the translations will have that word Comforter capitalized so again it’s another name for the Holy Spirit. The Greek word if I’m not mistaken is "paraclete" – one called along side to help. John 14:16b-17a "…that he (this Comforter) may abide with you for ever; 17. (Who is it?) Even the Spirit of truth;….

" The Holy Spirit. So now we have the third Person of the Trinity. God the Father. God the Son is praying that He’ll send the third Person, the Holy Spirit. All right verse 17. John 14:17-20 "Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but (He says to the Eleven) ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall (future) be in you. 18. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. 19. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: Because I live, you shall live also. 20. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." Now of course He’s jumping over to the time when He would be coming back and setting up the Kingdom and in the intervening years we’re going to have the crucifixion and all that, which the Twelve knew nothing of. You know I’m constantly emphasizing to people, these twelve men, I guess Judas is still with them here; these twelve men have no idea of this coming crucifixion. They are still totally unaware. Now, in that light I always have to go back to one of my favorite portions in this line of thinking. Back to Luke 18 and while you’re looking it up I’m going to do what I rarely do. I’m just going to give you one of my past experiences. I don’t like to waste time with my own experiences because the Word of God is too important. But, I think maybe I can make a point here. At one of my seminars back East I had been teaching for almost three hours. And I could see that one gentleman way in the back corner was getting highly exercised. I mean I could just see it. And so I stopped. It was about ten-minutes before the hour that I was going to stop anyway. It was about ten to nine and so I stopped (and this was a large crowd). This was a huge church full. And I said, "Do you have a problem?" He says, "Yes." I said, "Well what is it?" He said, "Where do you get the idea there’s more than one Gospel?" I said, "Well the Bible is full of it. There’s been many times that God gave Good News to mankind for them to believe. For example, when Noah came off the Ark, wasn’t it Good News that He had spared him from the ravages of the Flood? When He called Abram, wasn’t it Good News that God was now going to use this man in a particular way? He’d never done anything like that before. So anyway, that’s what I’d been saying." And he said, "Where do you get the idea that there’s more than one Gospel?" So I said, "Well I’ll speak with you afterwards." So after the crowd had gone down for coffee, I went back and I said, "Now wait a minute, just stop and think. Do you think Adam and Eve were saved by believing that Jesus Christ would come in the flesh and go to a Roman cross and die for their sins and be raised from the dead like we have to do today?" You know what his answer was? "Well, they must have." I said, "They must have? How could they?’ But I said, "Okay. Let’s move on up to Abraham. Do you think that Abraham had a full understanding that God would leave the invisible Godhead and take on human flesh and at the age of 30 begin an earthly ministry that took Him to the cross, to be raised from the dead? Now do you think Abraham understood all that for his salvation?" And you know what his answer was? Same thing. "He must have." No, he didn’t - he couldn’t have. And I said, "I just quoted a verse about five minutes ago. Didn’t you hear it?" No he didn’t hear it. And this verse is what I had just quoted about five minutes before this conversation took place, and here it is. Verse 31 of Luke 18, and I ask you in the audience; I ask you out in television; after you read these verses can you still tell me that Peter, James and the rest preached a Gospel of salvation based on something that they knew nothing of? How could they? And this tells us: Luke 18:31a "Then he took unto him the twelve,.…" Now this is the end of His three years of earthly ministry, you’ve always got to get the setting of Scripture. Otherwise it’s hard to comprehend.

We’re at the end of His three years. They are about ready to go up to Jerusalem for the Passover and the Crucifixion and He tells the Twelve: Luke 18:31b-33 "…Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. 32. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: 33. And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again." Did Jesus know what was coming? Absolutely! Over the years, I’ve put it this way. He could have named the Roman soldiers that nailed Him to the cross. He could have named the soldiers that would be throwing dice for His clothes. There wasn’t anything hid from Him, He was God! All right, so He’s telling the Twelve in detail of what’s coming, but, read the next verse. Luke 18:34 "And they (the Twelve) understood (what?) none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken." What does that tell you? They didn’t know He was going to be crucified even after He’d told them. Because God supernaturally blinded them to it - they weren’t supposed to know." And so then, I remind people, did the Twelve or the Eleven or however many others you want to put in with them, Mary, Martha and all the rest, did they know He was going to be crucified? Of course not. And even after he was on that cross, and was laid in the tomb, did they even have an inkling He would be raised from the dead? Not a word. Now if you think they did, why weren’t they waiting outside the tomb and watching for Him to come out? Now they didn’t know He was going to be crucified. They didn’t know He was going to be raised from the dead. It was all totally hidden from them. All right, so now I come back to my same question. How could these people be preaching a Gospel of Grace, like we do, with the saving message to believe "that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose from the dead," if they couldn’t even comprehend He was going to die and rise again? Well I’ll tell you what the answer to that question is; they didn’t. They didn’t preach death, burial and resurrection; they couldn’t. All they knew was Who Jesus of Nazareth really was. And Who was He? He was the Christ. The Son of God, their Messiah, and that was all the Kingdom believers had to believe for salvation. All right, so now then, here in John’s Gospel we have first and foremost Jesus revealing Himself as the Son of God - and now He’s telling them that He’s going to be leaving them. And again they don’t know what He’s talking about. They don’t have any comprehension of a death, burial, resurrection and ascension. But He’s preparing them. The Comforter that He promised in verse 16, will be: John 14:17a "Even the Spirit (capitalized) of truth; whom the world cannot receive,…." Because the Holy Spirit is of the godly Spirit and the ungodly world has no consort with it whatsoever. All right, so the world can’t understand this working of the Holy Spirit. And so: John 14:17b-20 "…the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not neither knoweth him: but (He tells the Twelve, and I always have to come back to Eleven because we know Judas is out of all this) ye know him; for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. 18. I will not leave you comfortless: (I’ll not leave you without Someone to guide you) I will come to you. 19. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. 20. At that day, ye shall know that I am in my Father, (see that?) and ye in me, and I in you." Now here we come back to typical ‘John’ language. John 14:21 "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." See? Now that’s typical ‘John’ language. The love of the Father. The love of the Son. The love of these Twelve men in return. All

right, so the whole promise here is that God would send the Comforter, that other Person of the Godhead. Now come all the way back to Genesis 1 because, again, the Holy Spirit was not an invention for that particular day. The Holy Spirit is just as much eternity past as God the Father and God the Son. It’s all part of that Invisible Godhead. Elohim. The Spirit, which no man ever has seen and I don’t think ever will. I don’t think anyone will ever see that Invisible Godhead. We’ll only see the manifestation of it in God the Son. Genesis 1:2 "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the (what?) Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." And so you see, the Holy Spirit is already evident here at Creation. Even though God the Son spoke the Word, yet all three Persons of the Godhead are involved in Creation. You can’t take anything away from any of it. All right, so now then, throughout the Old Testament there is not a lot of teaching concerning the work of the Holy Spirit, although He certainly was evident. Everything that was prompted of God was through the work of the Spirit. The prophets wrote as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Samson, for example, when he performs his feats of strength, he didn’t do it by going to a workout station. The Holy Spirit came upon him. And when the Spirit would leave, Samson was as weak as cotton thread. But when the Spirit would come upon him, he could perform the feats of strength. And so those are just typical examples of the Spirit of God even in the Old Testament economy. Now then, when we come to John 14 and Jesus gives us the promise of the Comforter, Who would come and guide and direct all folks into the Truth. Now then, when you come into Paul - let’s look at that for a minute. I Corinthians chapter 3 verse 16. Now this is Paul’s teaching concerning this third Person of the Trinity. I Corinthians 3:16 "Know ye not that ye (now remember, Paul always writes to believers. Paul never writes to the unsaved world) are the temple (or the dwelling place) of God, (see, there’s the ‘God’ part again) and that the Spirit of God dwelleth (where?) in you?" See that’s a part of our salvation experience. The moment we believe, for salvation, that Jesus died for our sins, was buried and rose again, the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us! And becomes our gyroscope. It’s the Holy Spirit that keeps us on a straight line. It’s the Holy Spirit Who maintains our balance in our spiritual life. He is the indwelling Person of the Godhead. I Corinthians 3:17a "If any man defile (or abuse) the temple of God, him shall God destroy;.…" Now I think that that’s just a good lesson, that if we physically abuse our body and we knowingly do things that are harmful to it, God’s going to permit physical death to take it off the scene. They won’t lose their salvation, but this old body, the dwelling place, is going to lose its tabernacle life, its temporariness. I Corinthians 3:17b "…for the temple of God (this dwelling place, this body of the believer) is holy, which temple (Paul says) ye are." Well that’s Paul’s take on the Holy Spirit. Now let’s go back to where we were in I John chapter 4 and verse 13 again. We know he tells these Jewish believers to whom he’s writing that the evidence of their salvation is also that they have His Holy Spirit. All right, now let’s move into verse 14. I John 4:14 "And we have seen and do testify that the Father (now watch this, what’s the next word?) sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." Think about John 3:16 for just a moment. You see how that fits totally with all of John’s thinking? "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have (what?) everlasting life." Now there’s not a word in John 3:16 about the cross. It hasn’t happened yet. John couldn’t put it in there. But here’s the same thing, he doesn’t speak of the cross, but he does let us know that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of all mankind.

Again I could give you illustration after illustration where people have gotten upset with me when I make this line of teaching that the Gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus and the Twelve preached to Israel was based only on Who Jesus really was. And it’s never based on His death, burial and resurrection. That does not come to the fore until we get to the Apostle Paul. But, goodness sakes, I will never take away from the fact that when Christ came to fulfill the promises made to the fathers, the whole purpose of God was to be, yes, the Savior of the whole human race. But that’s not what was evident in His earthly ministry. He had come to the Nation of Israel, to fulfill those earthly promises. But, let me see, I guess I can take the word purpose. Let me bring you back to II Timothy, chapter 1, and verse 9, and I think this verse says it all. If I’m on a hook, it’s taking me off it! II Timothy 1:8b-9 "…of the gospel according to the power of God; 9. Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace,(not because of anything we deserve, but only because His grace is poured out to bring about the fulfilling of His own purposes. Now look at the rest of the verse) which was given us in Christ Jesus (when?) before the world (or the ages) began," Now that ties right in with everything we’ve been saying all afternoon. Right from eternity past, when the Triune God in counsel decided to create the universe, to put mankind in it, knowing that he would fall into sin. Knowing that He would bring about a Plan of Redemption, and in that Plan of Redemption He would have to bring to fruition the Nation of Israel. So that out of the Nation of Israel would come their Messiah. And that their Messiah could be rejected and go to the cross. It was all preplanned before the ages ever began. Miracle of miracles, the eternal purposes of God to bring about a Savior, not just for Israel, for the whole human race - but it starts with Israel. And that’s why you know I’ve made the illustration (at least in my classes and in my seminars), that if you take a wheel, especially the old covered wagon wheel with the wooden spokes and the steel tire around the edge and the hub. Well, you can lose a good portion of the rim and you can lose several of the spokes and the wheel will still turn. But you pull the hub out of that wheel and you’ve got nothing. Nothing! All right, what’s my point? Israel is the hub of God’s wheel. You take Israel out of the mix and you’ve got nothing. And that’s where most of Christendom is. They have totally rejected Israel as a part of God’s eternal purposes and you cannot do it. Somebody told me the other day that their pastor had said from the pulpit "There is not one word in the Bible that says that Israel should ever come back to their homeland." How in the world can they say something like that, as the Old Testament prophecies are full of it.

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mendozawolf77 · 2 years

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bunndalton9 · 2 years

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silvermanconrad5 · 2 years

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themotherlove · 3 months

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automatismoateo · 2 years

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Somber warning from Pastor John Pavlovitz about the intentions of Evangelical "conservative" christians in American politics via /r/atheism

Somber warning from Pastor John Pavlovitz about the intentions of Evangelical "conservative" christians in American politics

“I’ve been a pastor in the church for over two decades, much of that in predominantly white churches in the American South.

I’ve spent countless hours in church staff meetings and men’s Bible studies and youth pastor conferences. I’ve stayed connected on social media with thousands of people still there in those churches. I read what they share and post and amplify and I know how they think and what they believe.

I need you to understand something and I say it without any hyperbole: white Evangelicals need to be stopped, now.

If the 2022 midterms elections allow Republicans to gain control of Congress, Conservative Christians will decimate this nation, and LGBTQ people, Muslims, women, people of color, and non-Christians will never have equality under the law again. We will all be at their mercy—and they will no longer have use for mercy. This is not alarmist, sky-is-falling histrionics, it is the clear and sober forecast from someone who knows these people better than anyone.

Over the last decade and a half, as my theology shifted and my beliefs grew more and more progressive, I’ve been a kind of undercover Liberal in an increasingly extremist movement, that while once relegated to minor fringe noisemakers is now at the precipice of Roman Empire-level power. They are less than two years away from having a dominance that they will wield violently and not relinquish.

I watched it all unfold from the inside: I was at a North Carolina megachurch when Obama was elected and I saw the shift take place firsthand. I saw the fear slowly being ratcheted up and the agenda become solidified and the prejudices leveraged. I was speaking regularly at the Billy Graham headquarters when Fox News reporters and Republicans like Sarah Palin started walking the halls with frequency. I saw the messages at pastor’s conferences grow more incendiary and urgent, and heard the supremacist dog whistles become louder and more frequent.

While many decent people around this nation celebrated the progress of a black president and the many civil and human rights victories and gradually let down their guard—the white Conservative church set off the alarms and prepared for a holy war. Yet, they were still a largely powerless, dying dinosaur until 2016, when Donald Trump acquired the presidency and gave the Evangelicals the perfect amoral partner to serve as the biggest bully pulpit they’ve ever had. Combine that with a fragmented Left, a general fatigue by the larger population, a ceremonial victory in Congress (thanks to Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema), and Republican attacks on voters’ rights— and we are now a hair’s breadth from the subjugation of diverse humanity here.

Trust me when I tell you that we won’t recover from the theocracy Evangelicals are constructing once it is established. If we fail in 2022, they will have a political power that will render every election null and void, and we will never have a voice again in our lifetimes. Women will lose autonomy over their own bodies. LGBTQ people will have the rights to marry and adopt taken away. People of color will be fully squeezed out of the electoral process. Immigrants will be denied access to opportunity and refuge here.

These are not creative projections. They are precisely what Evangelicals have repeatedly stated as their intentions, and they’re closer than they’ve ever been to having a rubber stamp.

We can still stop it, though. We just need a unity and coordination that transcends theirs. We need a sustained, passionate, dedicated defense of humanity that rivals their relentless assaults on it. I hear many people say they’re terrified, but being terrified alone doesn’t do anything but help these people. Be terrified and get angry. Be terrified and get busy. Be terrified and go to work. Be terrified and fight like hell. I wish more decent people in America remembered they are among the vast majority instead of acting as if they are helpless victims of Republican Christians. We could defeat them, and we need to. We just need to stop lamenting how much damage they are doing and start doing something to oppose them.

Pastor John Pavlovitz

Submitted June 03, 2022 at 12:19AM by G8BigCongrats7_30 (From Reddit https://ift.tt/No2X5wj)

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