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God Is Not A Prepper
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 24, 2015 – Let me say from the outset that I am not an anti-prepper. I believe setting aside some rainy-day funds or supplies is appropriate if you have children, elderly parents or others who depend on you for their daily needs. But if you’re a born-again with no dependents, like Jesus and Paul, then there’s no need to prep, and prepping is also not advisable.
For clear guidance on prepping, as in all things in life, let’s look at what Jesus did during his ministry years. Was there any evidence that he prepped or hoarded supplies or precious metals towards a future undefined breakdown of society or natural/unnatural disaster? None whatsoever. On the contrary, Jesus always advised his followers to be ready and willing to leave town at a moment’s notice, even without the shirt on their back, if necessary. That would be hard to do if you had a bunker full of food and supplies.
As Jesus told us, we’re to store our ‘treasures’ in heaven, not underground.
The sermon on the mount gives us a good example of Jesus’ approach to prepping. After he’d finished preaching, he realized that the attendees faced a long walk home on an empty stomach. A quick inventory of the available food on hand revealed they had just a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. How was that going to satisfy the hunger of thousands of people? Undeterred by the seeming hopelessness of the situation, and knowing the people’s genuine need, Jesus did what he always did – he turned to God for help. And God, as always, delivered.
Now I’m not saying you should adopt the attitude that you should never worry about supplying for your own needs because God will always miraculously attend to them. We ask God to provide us “our daily bread”, and so he does, but he still expects us to do our part. The lack of food at the sermon on the mount event was an exemplary situation; the attendees ran out of food not because they were too lazy to work or too careless to bring anything with them, they just simply ended up staying longer than anticipated, so enraptured were they with hearing Jesus talk about the Kingdom. Also keep in mind that they faced extreme hunger that was health endangering; this wasn’t a simple case of a skipped meal. God miraculously intervened because there was a genuine need and insufficient resources, coupled with Jesus’ profound faith that he would provide for them.
But in our everyday lives, we still need to work (if we’re able to) to earn our keep. The apostles agreed that anyone in their ranks who could work and chose not to, should not be given free food and rent. This is a good reflection of God’s way with regard to satisfying our day-to-day needs. Anyone who is willing and able to work will always have their needs met, whereas those who are able to work but choose not to will likely experience hardship.
When you supply the needs of people who are able to work but choose not to, you’re not doing God’s will.
Another example of God’s “just-in-time” approach to prepping is when Jesus is asked to pay a tribute tax (a form of custom fee) for entering a certain territory. He didn’t have any savings other than, I guess, for the money that Judas Iscariot carried with him in his infamous bag. Jesus considered the tax an unfair charge, but knowing that he had to pay it if he wanted to enter the region, he came up with the required funds at a moment’s notice: he told one of his followers to go fishing, and that the fish he caught would have a gold coin in its mouth. The gold coin was of such a high value, that Jesus was able to pay the tribute tax for himself and for all of his followers present. This is one of many instances where Jesus paid our debts with God’s miraculous help.
The story of Jesus and the gold coin gives a clear indication of what God thinks of prepping and saving – he doesn’t advise it. If we’re willing to work and choose to work, we’ll always have enough ‘daily bread’ for our needs – not more, not less, just enough. If someone makes unreasonable and unforeseen demands on us that we’re unable to meet, God will miraculously supply our shortfall.
We know this is true both by Jesus’ example and by faith. Most of us have probably also experienced this personally. I certainly have.
Prep if you want, but Jesus wouldn’t, and I doubt you’ll be able to use your bounty should a disastrous situation arise. Better to share your excess wealth now with those who are unable to earn their daily bread. God will reward you and also provide for you, should the need arise.
Bizarro World: Protesting Freedom of Speech
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 23, 2015 – There is an epidemic of offense going around these days. Everyone, it seems, is offended by something or someone. Jesus advised his followers not to be offended by what he said, because he spoke the truth. Despite his warning, many were and still are offended.
The truth resonates in every soul, but most people have closed themselves off to it. They would rather keep believing their self-satisfying and self-protecting version of reality than accept even for an instant that maybe, just maybe, they might be wrong, or maybe they’re just taking themselves way too seriously.
Freedom of speech is a hard-won and precious right that is currently under attack in the free world. We shouldn’t throw away freedom of speech just because some people’s sensibilities are offended by insults to, say, their religion or confusion over their gender. As we see in scripture, the response of being offended arises in people who don’t want to hear the truth. They are presented with the truth, and they reject it. The offense isn’t because people are speaking the truth; the offense is because people don’t want to hear the truth.
There was a protest march yesterday in Sydney, Australia, AGAINST freedom of speech.
Let that sink in.
I’ll rephrase it, while you’re letting it sink in: Using their hard-fought and hard-won right to openly voice their opinions, a group of Australians protested against their hard-fought and hard-won right to openly voice their opinions.
You can’t make this stuff up.
The protest group was comprised of around 800 young Muslims, and the catalyst for this particular protest was the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of Mohammed. Trying their own hand at creating and promoting offensive material, some protesters displayed drawings of dogs urinating on the graves of the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris.
I don’t find either the Charlie Hebdo or the anti-Charlie Hebdo drawings offensive; I just find them childish and petty. If people took themselves less seriously, then maybe they’d share my opinion, which I suggest is a healthy and sustainable one.
I prefer to take Jesus’ advice and not be offended, as there really isn’t anything to be offended about. You shouldn’t find the truth offensive, and you shouldn’t find petty insults offensive.
THANK GOD, in free countries, people are still legally entitled both to hold and express their own opinions, whether in spoken, written or graphic form, however unsavory and downright ridiculous those opinions might be to others. There should be no limits to freedom of speech. Those who want to limit the expression of your opinions really just want to control you.
Don’t let them.
The moral of the story is: Go ahead and protest against the right to protest, if that’s what you want to do, but don’t be offended if I laugh at you. You’ve earned it.
The Mahdi = Antichrist
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 23, 2015 – Everyone loves a hero. Everyone loves the rush of being caught up in the worship of someone who just seems to have it all – looks, money, talent, charm, intelligence, power, charisma – especially when that very special person swears that his entire purpose is to bring world peace and fulfill everyone’s deepest desires.
Who wouldn’t, I mean, WHO COULDN’T love such a person?
I remember feeling that heady rush of worship for David Cassidy when I was 8 years old and he was starring as “Keith” in the 1970’s sitcom “The Partridge Family”. I’m not sure if “Keith” ever specifically addressed the issue of world peace during any of the half-hour episodes, but I would nevertheless have followed him anywhere and done anything he asked of me. And I wasn’t alone in my worship of Keith. His female fans were (and still are) legion.
The Muslims have their own version of Keith Partridge in the figure of the Mahdi. The Mahdi is a political, military and spiritual leader who is prophesied to emerge in the end-times, rule over the entire world, and usher in an age of peace and plenty. He’s supposed to be charming, handsome, brave, generous, and kind.
And then there’s the Antichrist. In the New Testament, as well as in verses in Daniel, the Antichrist is described in terms similar to Keith Partridge (just kidding!) the anticipated Muslim hero. However, for born-agains, the prophesied Antichrist is no hero. In fact, he’s going to be our worst nightmare.
So what does all this have to do with the here and now?
As with all prophecies, whether real of fake, the Mahdi prophecy comes with a long-standing series of signposts and timelines indicating what to expect and when to expect it. I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty of the prophecy, mainly because it contains elements that are highly contradictory, depending on which sect of adherents you ascribe to. Instead, I will present a brief overview of some features that are common to both the Mahdi and the Antichrist. I think you’ll agree, when you see these signposts and timelines, that something is definitely afoot in world events today, and we should remain alert.
The Mahdi is characterized as a leader who will first and foremost bring “peace” to the world. He’ll espouse a religion that all of the world’s people, regardless of their former beliefs, will accept and adhere to, and he’ll usher in an age of material wealth that extends to all people. His reign is expected to last around seven years.
Sounds kinda nice, doesn’t it?
Maybe too nice.
The Antichrist is also supposed to usher in seven years of world peace and plenty, but at the barrel of a gun. And those who don’t buy into his Keith Partridge act will be kissing their own heads good-bye.
To get a good idea of the Antichrist, think of him as being the polar opposite of Jesus. So, where Jesus was of humble birth, the Antichrist will arise from the ruling elite; where Jesus lived in subsistence-level poverty, the Antichrist will be stinking rich; where Jesus was not classically good-looking, the Antichrist will be handsome and sexy; where Jesus claimed his kingdom is “not of this world” (meaning, he’s Lord of the spiritual realm), the Antichrist will lay claim to the entire world and all the ‘stuff’ in it, including people; where Jesus predicates his teachings on truth (a.k.a. God), the Antichrist will promote lies; where Jesus invites us to worship God, leaving it up to us whether we accept his invitation, the Antichrist will force us to worship him as the supreme being; where Jesus defers to God in all things, the Antichrist will defer only to himself; and where Jesus leaves all decisions about spiritual and material life in our hands, respecting our God-given free will, the Antichrist will force us to do things, denying that we even have free will.
Seen in this context, is the Mahdi really just the Antichrist viewed through rose-colored glasses?
Absolutely. Yes. Without a doubt.
And here’s where the timeline gets particularly timely.
The Mahdi is supposed to appear soon after the Saudi King, Abdullah, dies (check), when Yemen is in political turmoil (check), and when brutally violent armies flying black flags overrun the Middle East (check, check, check).
According to Shiite hadiths (traditional prophecies), following “the death of a king named Abdullah in the Hijaz — a western region of present-day Saudi Arabia — no successor to the throne would be accepted, and disagreements would escalate and persist until the rise of Imam Mahdi…. Some believe that the rise of terrorist groups in the Levant, along with their black flags, is another sign of Mahdi’s resurrection…. Black flags can suggest the Islamic State, which is killing [tens of thousands] of innocent people in the region with brutality.”
The disturbing aspect to these prophecies is that while genuine Christians are dreading the coming of the Antichrist, Muslims are eagerly awaiting the Mahdi. In fact, they want to help him come to power.
One Muslim scholar, giddy as a school girl, recently stated: “Many [Muslim clerics] believe that the rise of Imam Mahdi is imminent. Even important figures in the seminary have expressed their hope for this event to happen and have called for our readiness to help him.”
If the Mahdi is the Antichrist, then we born-agains need to keep vigilant watch – not in eager anticipation to help him, like the Muslims, but in readiness to expose his lies and withstand his evil acts, even if he does come crooning “I Think I Love You.”
STOP TALKING ABOUT IT! Choosing to Forgive Means Not Talking About it Anymore
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 22, 2015 – Christians are a funny bunch. They spend a lot of time in group hugs and “sharing” sessions, all the while lamenting what a rough time they’ve had at the hands of parents, spouses or acquaintances before they became Christians. They even sometimes go into gory details about their abusers, offering up their abuse stories for sympathy (I suppose), although they mask it as a learning or a teaching moment.
These stories aren’t teaching anyone anything except how NOT to choose to forgive.
When we choose to forgive, we should do the same thing as God does when he forgives – forget about it. Forgetting about it means to CONSCIOUSLY choose to put it to the back of our minds, even if it keeps popping up. It’s a decision of the will. It’s not a feeling (you won’t feel like forgetting and you may even feel like you can’t forget; that’s why it’s a decision, not an emotion-based response). Ask God to help you with this. He’s more than happy to help you. THAT’S WHAT HE’S THERE FOR.
If you truly want to forgive, don’t talk about people who’ve hurt you and whom you’ve chosen to forgive. Don’t talk about what they’ve done to you, however horrible it was and however deeply it scarred you. As a born-again, you’ve become a completely new person. God has forgiven you because you’ve chosen to forgive everyone who’s hurt you. Whatever people did to you in the past, pre-rebirth, is dead and done; whatever people are doing to you now, post-rebirth, is likewise dead and done after you’ve chosen to forgive them (which you should do as soon as you notice someone’s hurt you).
Here’s what you do when you choose to forgive: You simply act as if it never happened, you pray for your abusers, and you keep a safe distance from them. If people prod you to talk about your experience, tell them it’s over and you don’t want to talk about it anymore. If you feel it starting to overwhelm you, take your pain to God in private. He wants to counsel and comfort you. He’s your counselor and your comforter. Chances are pretty good that he’ll tell you what I’m telling you – if you want the pain to go away, choose to forgive and TOTALLY forget.
Imagine if God says he forgives us one day, and then turns around the next day and starts railing at us about things we did two years ago! That would be very confusing for us and also very un-Godlike. Once God forgives us for something, he forgives us that thing forever. We’re supposed to do things God’s way, as Jesus did, and as Jesus taught us to do.
Remember: “Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”
Choosing to forgive also means choosing to forget.
God will help you with this. Just ask him. He loves you. He’s waiting. Ask him.
A True Fast: Giving Up Lent
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 22, 2015 – For practicing Catholics, Lent is the time of year when, for 40 days and 40 nights prior to Easter Sunday, you “give up” or stop doing something you enjoy doing, such as watching TV or eating sweets. In many instances, the activity you give up for Lent is a ‘bad habit’ that you want to quit anyway, like smoking cigarettes or overeating.
Why, then, do you only temporarily ‘give up’ something that you shouldn’t be doing in the first place? What is the benefit of giving it up for only five and a half weeks?
When questioned about Lent, Catholics explain that they ‘give up’ things for a certain time every year because it is traditional to do so. They also cite the importance of self-restraint and self-sacrifice in developing good character. For Catholics, Lent is essentially just a symbolic gesture of self-restraint and sacrifice as well as a sign of obedience to the pope.
But what does God think of Lent?
Not surprisingly, he’s not a fan. In Hosea, he states “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Jesus reiterates this position in Matthew, and Isaiah (58) explains in stark detail precisely what God means by fasting, including the consequences of ‘false’ and genuine fasting.
Jesus also advised us NOT to look like we’re fasting when we fast, stating that our fasting should be between us and God, and should not be announced or even visible to the world. This is similar to his advice to pray in private and to give alms (charity) anonymously by not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing.
Lent is basically just a public display of piety. On Ash Wednesday, which is the beginning of the 40-day “Lenten season”, observant Catholics receive a cross-mark of ashes on their foreheads from the priest. This is supposed to represent, again symbolically, their repentance of, say, eating too many Snickers bars. The ashen cross also serves as a public declaration that for at least the next 40 days and nights, they’ll do their level best to abstain from eating Snickers bars (or smoking cigarettes or whatever). That the highly visible black smudge on the forehead goes against Jesus’ clear advice not to show the world that you’re fasting, should not be a surprise to anyone.
I have a real problem with Lent, just like I have a real problem with most things Catholic. My understanding is that Lent was initially supposed to represent the 40 days and 40 nights Jesus spent fasting in the desert prior to starting his Earthly ministry. During this time, he was tempted by the devil and overcame each temptation by a rebuttal based on the true interpretation of scripture.
The Catholic organization should take a page from Jesus’ book. He wasn’t out there in the desert to kick a bad habit or give something up for the sake of giving it up – he was being tested to show that even under circumstances of extreme physical and psychological duress, he was able to do God’s will, combat the devil’s insidious attacks, and withstand temptations with God’s help. He was using fasting as a form of training and preparation for the spiritual and physical rigors of his ministry work, which he could successfully accomplish only with God’s help.
Yes, I bolded those three little words so you can see what’s important here. Yet again, Jesus was showing us that we can do the seeming impossible (i.e., withstand and outsmart the very Devil, even though we’re nearing the end of our physical and mental reserves) with God’s help.
Jesus’ time in the desert wasn’t about self-sacrifice or any other kind of sacrifice. It was about leaning on God for all our needs, both physical and spiritual. In contrast, Lent focuses on self-sacrifice and leaning on one’s personal resolve to ‘give up’ something. This, I suppose, is meant to impress God in some way or win you spiritual brownie points, but I’m not buying it and scripture doesn’t support it. And it has nothing to do with Jesus’ time in the desert.
Fasts occur throughout the Old Testament. Typically, a fast is called in order to defer God’s wrath, such as when all the residents of Nineveh (including the cattle) successfully fasted to prevent the destruction of their city that was scheduled to occur within 40 days (see Jonah). Judaism also features specific fasting days, but they are at most a 24-hour period. A fast where you just randomly ‘give up’ something for 40 days and 40 nights has no basis in scripture at all, and is yet another example of what Jesus called “doctrines of man” masquerading as religion (which itself is a cheap knock-off of faith). Catholicism is mostly doctrines of man propped up on a base of demon worship, and Lent is its big red flag.
So what about fasting?
In this, as in everything else, we are to follow Jesus’ example and do God’s will. When God wants you to fast, he’ll not only let you know, he’ll give you the strength to do it. And it will be for a genuine purpose (like Jesus in the desert), not for some contrived hogwash like Lent.
Onward, Truth Soldiers!
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 21, 2015 – One of Jesus’ best features was his quiet authority. He didn’t ask for notoriety; he cautioned nearly everyone he miraculously healed not to tell anyone what he’d done for them. He wasn’t looking for applause or approval; he was merely doing his job.
People listened to him and responded to him not because he was loud or demanded prime-time coverage, but because he spoke the truth, and truth resonates in all souls. Even the soldiers who came to arrest him (John 7: 45-46) were captivated by the truth he spoke, and attributed his ability to convey the truth as a sign that he was sent by God.
Every human being craves truth.
Some crave it openly; some crave it secretly; and some aren’t even aware they crave it, the lust for truth is so much a part of who they are.
Knowledge is not truth, because all knowledge (except that related to truth) is premised on assumptions and hypotheses, most of which are ultimately discredited. We only need to look to the history of scientific discoveries to see that.
In contrast:
- Truth cannot change.
- Truth is instantly recognizable.
- Truth feels like home.
But truth is not an abstract concept or a ‘thing’ – it’s a person.
Truth is God.
So when we speak the truth, we are speaking God’s language. When we search for the truth, we are searching for God. When we crave the truth above all else, we are craving God’s presence in our lives.
And when we fight for the truth, we are part of God’s eternal army of truth soldiers, the head of which is Jesus.
Never stop fighting. Never give up. Never surrender.
There is no life outside of truth.
Instead of asking “What is truth?”, Pilate (John 18:38) should have asked: “Who is truth?”
Then he would have gotten his answer:
God.
God Is Not Religion
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 19, 2015 – God and organized religion have nothing to do with each other. The truth is – all organized religions worship demons, not God.
The God whom I, as a converted atheist, have come to know and love and trust and lean on is NOTHING like the God portrayed in mainstream Christianity, Islam or Judaism. The God I know as the one and only God is my dad first and foremost.
God doesn’t want to be worshiped. He’s invited us to have a father/child relationship with him, like Jesus had while he was on Earth and continues to have in heaven. Paul called Jesus the first-born among many, and we as born-agains become Jesus’ siblings by default.
Religion is so fake and cloying, it makes my skin crawl. I love God and follow Jesus, but I loathe mainstream Christianity. Roman Catholicism is particularly loathsome. It’s hard to take people seriously who claim to be church leaders when none of them – not one – is actually born again. Oh, they claim “by baptism” to be born again, but they have no clue what they’re talking about; they’re just repeating what they’ve been told. Not one pope has been born again. How can you lead a church of billions if you have no idea whatsoever what you’re talking about? I guess that’s why popes wear the fancy dresses and hats – to distract people’s attention so that their blatant ignorance on all things related to God will not be noticed.
As an atheist, I got that same skin-crawling feeling from religious types as I do now as a born-again. I felt they were playing some kind of lame game that I refused to be drawn into. The sad thing is – I rejected God because I lumped him in the same category as organized religion. I didn’t realize at the time that God has nothing to do with religion. This confusion is mainly due to religion’s co-opting of God as their mascot. But the God of religion is not really God.
All religions are fascist ideologies whose ultimate aim is to brainwash you into giving them your free will and Earthly wealth. Jesus said that you cannot serve God and mammon; from that alone, we can see that God and religion are not the same.
As an out-of-control, hyper-emotional, self-destructive atheist, I wish someone had sat me down and said: Look, Charlotte – God can help you with all your problems. I know how you feel about religion, but God and religion are not the same thing. God wants to be your dad, your perfect dad. All you have to do is choose to forgive whoever’s hurt you. That’s the deal. Pretty simple, huh? You don’t have to feel the forgiveness, you just have to choose to forgive. God will do the rest. If you want the pain to stop, choose to forgive. If you want to live a pain-free life, choose to forgive over and over and over again. Make it your life’s philosophy. God will help you with that. He’s always waiting for you to ask for his help. He’s waiting right now. He’s here, and he’s waiting for you to ask for his help. He won’t help you unless you ask him, because he respects your free will. He would never force his help on you, because he respects your free will. No-one else can help you like God and no-one else loves you like God. He knows everything and I mean EVERYTHING about you, and he still loves you. And he will never leave you, unless you want him to. But once you get to know him, you’ll never want him to go, and you’ll wonder what took you so long to ask for his help.
ASSASSINATION OF GRAY STATE DIRECTOR / WRITER / PRODUCER AND HIS FAMILY
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 19, 2015 – David Crowley, the 29-year-old writer, producer, director, editor, VFX artist and composer for the controversial film project “Gray State”, was found dead with his wife and five-year-old daughter. The police state that it is an “apparent murder-suicide”, without providing any details about who actually did the killing. Here is the trailer for the film:
I hope a full investigation is made into the deaths, but I doubt there will be one. It sounds to me like a hit, an assassination, or what we conspiracy buffs like to call “a suiciding” to silence a truth-teller before he became too dangerous (meaning, before he was in a position to wake too many people up to the truth about the NWO). Most of these types of assassinations are framed to appear either as suicides or as murder-suicides. In every instance, without exception, there is NO history of depression, and the murdered individual is on the brink of a break-out that would take his or her truth-telling to the next level. PRAY THAT SOMEONE WITH THE SAME COURAGE, FOCUS, INTEGRITY AND VISION AS CROWLEY WILL CONTINUE WITH THE PROJECT, so that the movie will be made.
This movie must be made.
Obvious suicidings such as this one are done to send a warning message to others that the same fate awaits them if they continue exposing the NWO. But how cold and far removed from God the humans who perpetrated this crime must be, to have killed a five-year-old little girl. We must pray for the killers, even as we expose and condemn their acts.
News like this makes us sad for a moment, but then strengthens us to continue fighting for truth. The world is under Satan, as Jesus told us, but we need not be. The truth is always stronger than lies, but it needs to be shouted from the rooftop at high noon, not whispered in the darkness at midnight. Let us continue to shout, and in this way honor and carry on the work of truth-tellers who have suffered at the hands of Satan’s minions.
What these emissaries of hell don’t seem to realize is that the more of us they kill, the stronger become those truth-tellers still standing.
Pray for those who suffer under the children of the Father of Lies, and pray also for those wayward, suffering children.
Love your enemies,
BUT NEVER GIVE IN TO THEM.
Below are some links to recent interviews with David Crowley. As you’ll see, Crowley was articulate, passionate, intelligent, good-looking, young, vibrant, brave, balanced, profoundly gifted as a script-writer and artistic director, and heavily invested in exposing the NWO.
He was a true potential visionary and leader for this generation. People would have believed his movie.
That’s why he was killed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK-F72mnygA
Jesus Is Lord, Not God
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 18, 2015 – Jesus was not, is not, and never will be God. This is made crystal clear in the New Testament. Jesus referred to himself as “son of man”, meaning “prophet”, and also as the one who was to come, meaning the Messiah. His disciples and followers, both before and after his crucifixion, never considered him to be God. Why, then, is mainstream Christianity now defined as a belief in Jesus as God incarnate?
Then simple answer is, as Jesus would say, to keep out those who are trying to enter.
If Jesus were God, then the fact of his sinless life would not be exemplary, since God is God and can do anything and everything, including living a sinless life. If Jesus were God, then his constant reference to his relationship with “the Father” would be very strange indeed. Jesus claimed that the Father was greater than him; Jesus claimed that he always did the will of the Father; Jesus claimed that he was going home to the Father; Jesus publicly prayed to the Father and the Father occasionally audibly responded; and Jesus deferred to the Father in all things. Jesus very clearly considered God to be his Father and his Father to be someone who was fully separate and autonomous from him. Certainly, God and Jesus were very close, but they were nevertheless two very distinct persons.
This is how I see it. Jesus came to pay off the spiritual debt of Original Sin. He did that by sacrificing himself as an unblemished (sinless) “lamb”, willingly suffering for sins he did not commit. Jesus was able to live a sinless life because he always did God’s will, meaning that he always asked and took God’s advice. In paying off the debt by accepting to be crucified, Jesus opened the door for his followers to have the same relationship with God as he had. His sacrifice both paid the debt and healed the breach of Original Sin. Because of Jesus’ work, we can have a close relationship with God, like Adam had before the fall, and like Jesus was able to have, being sinless.
Having a close relationship with God is crucial if we are to make it all the way back to heaven. Jesus showed us how to get to heaven and enabled us to get there, but it’s still up to use to make the right choices in life, the way he made the right choices, and to keep making those choices right to our dying breath. If Jesus were God, we would expect him always to make the right choices (he’s perfect, after all), but he wouldn’t be much of an example for us humans. It’s critical that we understand the essential humanity of Jesus, because only as a human can Jesus serve as our “ensample”, as Paul called him. Jesus was not divine; Jesus was not God. Rather, Jesus was fully human and suffused with God’s spirit, in the same way we are, as born-agains.
Then where did this erroneous notion of Jesus being God come from?
I’d suggest it came from people who don’t know God as their Dad and don’t follow Jesus. I’m referring, of course, to the mainstream church that grew into Roman Catholicism and other orthodox offshoots, and from there poisoned all manifestations of “Christianity” to this day. Catholicism was first and foremost a worldly power whose interest was control of people and their wealth. It still is. Jesus tells us that the world is under Satan, so it stands to reason that those organizations that wield control in the world are emissaries of Satan, including Catholicism.
Of course, it would be in Satan’s interest to keep people out of heaven who are trying to enter. By framing Jesus as God, we have a different relationship with Jesus. We don’t see him as “one of us who made it”, but as a divine being who is entirely different from us, superior to us. Paul called Jesus the firstborn among many, meaning he was our big brother spiritually. This is how we must see him, as our older sibling who set a good example for us, as older siblings are inclined to do.
People who call Jesus “divine” or God don’t know God and don’t know Jesus. We need to hold onto the essential humanity of Jesus, because the essential humanity is what makes Jesus’ accomplishments ‘doable’ for us.
Jesus was not, is not, and never will be God. He was supernaturally conceived (scripture foretold that he would be born of a virgin, and so he was), but if DNA tests were available at that time, I am 100% certain they would have shown Jesus to be Joseph’s son. Physically, Jesus shared the DNA of his mother, Mary, and his father, Joseph. But his spiritual DNA (if you want to call it that) showed that God was his father, just as our spiritual DNA, as born-agains, likewise shows us to be God’s offspring.
God was Jesus’ spiritual (heavenly) father, not his Earthly father. Joseph was his Earthly father. This was the miracle of his virgin birth – not only that a virgin could conceive, but that the child born of this miraculous conception was fully the child of both Earthly parents, and thus fully human.
The essential humanity of Jesus must not be thrown away in favor of a fairy-tale myth that serves no purpose but to separate us from Jesus and God, and to undermine Jesus’ accomplishments. We can be like Jesus, who was fully human, just as some day we can be where Jesus is – with the angels in God’s heavenly kingdom. Yes, we mere humans can do all that, with God’s help. Jesus proved it. He’s our example. You don’t have to be divine to get to heaven, but you do need divine help.
The New Inquisition: Islamic Death Squads
A priest, a rabbi, and an imam walk into a bar…. The priest orders red wine, the rabbi orders kosher wine, and the imam orders everyone who will not convert to Islam to be beheaded.
Just kidding!
The priest actually ordered a beer. **********
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 18, 2015 – Jesus is acknowledged in Islam, but only as a prophet. Jesus’ mother, Mary, is also acknowledged, but in Islamic lore she remains a virgin to her death. I found this out the hard way from an immigrant Muslim taxi driver in Halifax who informed me that the female name “Mariam”, which is popular among Muslim women, is a nod to the Virgin Mary. I commented jokingly that Mary might have been a virgin at Jesus’ birth, but she didn’t stay a virgin. Scripture tells us she “knew” Joseph after Jesus was born. I can still see the look the cab driver sent me through the rearview mirror. I felt impaled. He took my cab fare but didn’t respond either to my “thank you” or “good-bye”.
Religious disinformation is nothing new. Neither is the fanaticism that grows up in support of the disinformation. Genuine Christians who refused to bow down to papal lies during the centuries-long Inquisition were either tortured until they ‘repented’ or died, or were killed outright. Today, Islamic fanatics are reviving the Inquisition, with a decided Islamic twist – instead of torturing to extract a ‘confession’ and conversion, they simply behead non-Muslims.
As followers of Jesus, we need to closely monitor the shift from papal persecutors to Islamic persecutors. Islamic adherents have already slaughtered hundreds of thousands of people who identified as Christians in the Middle East, Africa, Indonesia, Pakistan, India and China. Now, through rampant immigration, Islamic (sharia) law is being instituted in Muslim communities in the West, so it is just a matter of time before the beheadings start here as well. Do what you can to oppose the institution of sharia law in the West, but if it is established nonetheless (which it likely will be), be prepared to leave on short notice.
“The introduction of sharia is a longstanding goal for Islamist movements globally, including in Western countries, but attempts to impose sharia have been accompanied by controversy,[9] violence,[10] and even warfare.[11] Most countries do not recognize sharia; however, some countries in Asia, Africa and Europe recognize sharia and use it as the basis for divorce, inheritance and other personal affairs of their Islamic population.[12] In Britain, the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal makes use of sharia family law to settle disputes, and this limited adoption of sharia is controversial.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia
At the same time that sharia is spreading like a cancer, a massive misinformation campaign is underway to declare the “God” of the world’s three monotheistic religions to be one and the same. Nothing could be further from the truth, but it doesn’t stop people from falling for the lie, or for killing for it. Those who kill on behalf of Islam claim to be doing God’s will. If the lie of “three religions, one God” gains enough adherents and sharia is successfully installed as the law in formerly Christian lands, those who oppose it will then become Public Enemy #1. That would be us. Get informed, and be prepared.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 