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Yearly Archives: 2024
WANTS AND NEEDS
CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, March 4, 2024 – What are your needs? As a born-again believer, you have needs like everyone else, but what are they?
The answer might surprise you. Here are your needs: Enough food and water to keep you alive for the day, sufficient heat to keep your body warm, breathable air, and sufficient sleep. Jesus even did without the need for food and water for 40 days and nights, as did Moses when he was on Mount Sinai. Funny, that, how they could live so long without food or water when allegedly (according to scientists) you die within a few days without hydration. How did they manage to stay alive without water? Were they both fibbing about their fast?
What did Jesus himself say about needs? He said “seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything you need will be given to you”. He didn’t say that everything you want will be given to you (prosperity preachers, I’m talking to you!). He didn’t say everything that would be nice to have would be given to you. No, he said “everything you need”.
So again I ask you – what are your needs?
We need to know what our needs are and to be satisfied with having those satisfied, because if we don’t know what our needs are, the devil is going to tempt us into wanting more than we need, and that’s when the trouble starts.
Coveting is as much of an issue today as it was back in Moses’ day when the Command not to covet was given to us. To covet means to want something you don’t need. It’s a lot like greed. The devil is having a field day capitalizing on people’s covetousness, which is why you see so many obese people, so many divorced people, so many people in jail, and so many people in debt from mortgages, credit cards, and other loans. Sell people the idea that their wants are their needs and that they deserve whatever they want, and you’ll have a fat, lustful, indebted nation that’s overlain with a spirit of entitlement. Such a nation is actually just a slave to its debtors.
A slave is not free.
Born-again believers have no business enslaving themselves in any way, including through credit card or mortgage debt. If you have to borrow money to buy something, you don’t need it; you may want it, but you don’t need it. Let that be your rule of thumb when it comes to money.
Our needs, as followers of Jesus, are surprisingly few – food and water to last the day, temperature sufficient to keep our body warm, breathable air, and a good night’s sleep. One way or another, our needs will be provided so that we can focus solely on doing Kingdom work and serving God, not doing slave work and serving the devil. Our reward is in Heaven, not here. Let us for our time here be satisfied with having our needs satisfied and be grateful for that. The instant we want more than we need, we turn from God ever so slightly; if we act on that want, we turn from God even farther.
The world will tell you that your needs are nearly infinite, but Jesus will tell you that your needs are modest and few. The world wants you to endlessly covet and focus on making money, but Jesus invites you to focus entirely on the Kingdom, assuring you that in so doing your needs will be met.
Who will you heed?
MAYBE THEY MEANT GOLDEN ARCHES? DECONSTRUCTING THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM
CHARLO, New Brunswick, March 3, 2024 – Jesus never talked about it. He didn’t even mention it in passing. In fact, he never said a word about a golden age “heaven on earth” millennial kingdom that is allegedly supposed to be established at some point in the future. Don’t you think it’s odd that he never said anything about a golden age during his ministry years, either publicly or in private with his disciples? You would think he’d at least have given a general description of it. He certainly talked in great detail about God’s Kingdom – why didn’t he say anything about a millennial kingdom?
The reason Jesus never talked about it is because it’s a lie of the devil based on a misinterpretation of scripture. The devil’s very good at misinterpreting and misapplying God’s Word, as we know from Jesus’ tests in the wilderness. In Revelation 20, which for most people forms the sole scriptural basis for their understanding of the millennial kingdom, the prophet sees the souls – not the bodies, the souls – of the resurrected. Note also that some of these souls are those of beheaded believers. The prophet sees these beheaded saints in their glorified (that is, heavenly) bodies that are obviously no longer without heads (or at least we hope not). But why would glorified saints come back to live on Earth? Why, for that matter, would Jesus? What possible reason would any of them have to do that? Even more to the point, could they even do that?
According to scripture, God’s holy angels do on occasion come to Earth in their glorified bodies, but only for very brief visits, such as when the archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary or the angels to the shepherds. Glorified bodies are not well suited to time and space, which is why Jesus wasn’t fully glorified until his ascension. Even in their non-glorified forms, the holy angels never stay very long on Earth (I think their overnighter in Sodom with Lot’s family was their longest recorded stay here). So how are these resurrected saints in their glorified bodies going to manage to live hundreds of years on Earth, allegedly as priests, surrounded by a still very imperfect and fallen nature?
The answer is they’re not, and the so-called Earth-bound millennial golden age kingdom is a fairy tale based on a lie. Revelation 20 isn’t about a golden age; it describes God’s Kingdom on Earth, which is a spiritual realm founded by Jesus. It’s referred to as a “millennial” period not because it lasts a thousand years, but because it lasts a lengthy and indeterminate (only God knows how long) period of time. So far, it’s been nearly 2000 years and counting. From that realm, Jesus reigns over all souls, including the souls of his spiritual enemies, both mortal and immortal. Note that his enemies are not in the Kingdom, but he still has authority over them. Reigning as priests with Jesus are all the saints who’ve been resurrected in what is called the first resurrection, along with born-again believers who are still on Earth in their mortal bodies (that would be us!).
We know that true believers are resurrected because Jesus said they are and then he revealed two of them – Moses and Elijah – during the transfiguration. We’re told that Moses and Elijah appeared in shimmering white robes and their faces shone “like the sun”. In fact, the disciples found their appearance so overwhelming, their legs gave out from beneath them and the usually straight-talking Peter could only babble nonsensically. Scripture describes other people responding similarly to God’s holy angels. Whenever they appear in glory to us humans, the angels nearly always say “Fear not!” as an opener, as their presence seems to strike fear in us or to physically incapacitate us, or both. I can’t imagine that a kingdom where all the humans were perpetually fainting or on the verge of fainting would function very efficiently or would be considered a golden age.
Jesus didn’t talk about an earthly millennial kingdom because there’s never going to be one. Jesus’ focus was God’s Kingdom on Earth, which is the Church of true believers: He taught about it. He preached about it. You could even say he waxed poetic about it. God’s Kingdom on Earth formed the lion’s share of Jesus’ teachings, and rightly so: His followers needed to know how to live in the Kingdom after their rebirth.
Jesus, as Messiah and Lord, reigns over us now and has done so since his resurrection. He took his place at the right hand of God after his ascension, and we who are born-again are in his Kingdom. What does it mean to be in God’s Kingdom? It means we’re spiritually protected from our enemies, the same ones who were Jesus’ enemies during his time on Earth. These enemies have no power over us, thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice. More specifically, they have no power over us as long as we remain loyal to God. They may briefly have power over our bodies, as they did over Jesus’ body during his arrest and execution, but they have no power over our soul.
Do I believe that Jesus will return to Earth? Absolutely I believe that Jesus will return because he said he would. He said he would return in glory (that is, in his glorified body) and that he would send his holy angels to gather together the last of his believers to take them Home. He did not say he was coming back to set up an earthly kingdom; what he did say is “My Kingdom is not of this world”. He also reminded us that, as his followers, we we’ll have trouble in this world, but we should take heart because he’s overcome the world. Never once does he talk about a golden age.
The Kingdom of God has been up and running for the past nearly 2000 years and is the closest thing we’ll ever have to Heaven on Earth. So be very wary of wolves coming to you bearing good news of a future earthly golden age marketed as a messianic millennial kingdom, because if Jesus didn’t mention it, it ain’t gonna happen.
SCHISM
CHARLO, New Brunswick, March 1, 2024 – There’ll come a time of no more turnings, a time when no matter how much you preach, there’ll only be permanently deaf ears and ears that already hear. The sealings will be sealed and the saints will be undergoing their final trials to see where they belong in Heaven’s hierarchy, if indeed they belong at all.
Nothing will be certain still at that point except the fact of no more turnings.
And Jesus’ return.
And God’s coming wrath.
Did you know that the saints in the early Church believed they were already living the end? Already nearly 2000 years ago they were waiting for Jesus to come down the same way he went up. They were waiting for him to come down not to set up an earthly kingdom but to gather his people together and take them all Home the same way he had gone Home. This is what they believed, and that belief persisted for hundreds of years, through countless persecutions and martyrdoms.
And then one fine day in the early 4th century, Christianity was normalized, it was sanitized, it was compromised and institutionalized. This represented the greatest schism in all of human history – the dividing of the church from the Church.
The Church has lived on, though. The Church has survived. It has not changed. The Church has not been transitioned like Christianity. So not surprisingly, the Church is still persecuted and the latter-day saints still understand that we’re in the tribulation that began when the early-day saints said it did thousands of years ago. There are lulls in the war, but no ceasefires. There will never be a permanent ceasefire between the church and the Church.
There’ll also not be a seven-year Tribulation with a capital “T”. What there will be is a worsening, by orders of magnitude, of the now 2000-year tribulation. There will be a turning of thumbscrews, though not of souls anymore, because souls will be done turning when the orders of magnitude appear.
The Church has always been persecuted. Jesus said it would be and so it is. All the saints I know are mocked and despised; saints have always been mocked and despised: That’s how you know they’re saints. The Roman Catholic church, which first tried to supplant the Church and then tried to kill it by a thousand-year Inquisition, teaches that you have to die first to be a saint, and then only if the pope says you’re a saint, though I would be very hesitant to believe anything the pope says about spiritual matters, since he isn’t born-again. If he were, he’d know what a saint is.
The day after I was reborn, God showed me during my first-ever reading of the book of Revelation that the Roman Catholic church was the whore riding the beast. I didn’t want to believe it at the time, so God tucked that knowledge away for me until later, until a time when I could see it for myself. That time came three and a half years into my rebirth when I was sitting in a Roman Catholic pew with a key to the church door in my pocket. I was on my way to becoming holier than the pope when God opened my eyes and I saw where I was. I ran screaming. Actually, I walked very quietly and orderly out the front door in a state of shock at what I had just seen. Then I dropped off the key and never went back.
The church is an enemy of the Church in the same way that Lucifer appears as an angel of light. That’s all I’ll say about that for now. There are no more turnings and then comes the judgement.
We’re already living the end.
SCREECHER PREACHER
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, February 29, 2024 – I had the misfortune a few years ago of attending a church service where the minister screamed the Word. He didn’t just raise his voice out of courtesy for the people sitting in the back row; he hollered himself hoarse. It was my first (and only) time attending that church, and I’d unwittingly taken a seat near the front. Everything was fine for the first half-hour or so, as the minister just made some general church announcements, led a few hymns, and did a reading from the Gospel. But when he started preaching, it quickly turned into screeching, and I felt like I was sitting next to a speaker that was turned up too high and couldn’t be turned down.
I had to get away from him, and fast.
As unobtrusively as possible, I shifted a few rows back. But the screeching continued and even seemed to go up an octave, so I scooted as quickly as I could to the far end of the room. Still no good. Desperate for relief, I stuck balled-up Kleenex in my ears and put earmuffs on, but the sound tsunami only increased. I found the only way I could tolerate the excruciating pitch of the minister’s tirade was to stand next to the door, and then to stand outside the door, and then to start walking… all the way down the street.
Ahhh – much better!
I found out later that the yelling I’d experienced during the church service is actually a style of preaching common in some southern US denominations. The ear-splitting, larynx-destroying delivery is an affectation to convey the impression of passion rather than actual passion itself. The purpose of this style of preaching, I’ve since learned, is to demonstrate zeal, emphasize the urgency of the Gospel, and wake people up to the fact that God means business. Well, as a born-again believer, I certainly know that God means business, but he’s never had to yell at me and split my eardrums to convey that message.
We do a disservice to God when we deliver his Word in such a way that it becomes physically painful to listen to it, especially when all that yelling and screaming is just for show. Spiritual discomfort we should aim for at times, when it’s called for, but never physical discomfort. My enduring memory from that church visit is how painful it was to be there, not how uplifting or convicting it was. I would much rather have left that place spiritually convicted in some way than aurally assaulted.
I recalled this experience today when I unwittingly clicked on a YouTube video featuring a minister who preached in the same assault-style method. I had to immediately hit the mute button and get him off my screen. Never again!
Here’s a funnier version of what I heard at that church. Frankly, I’d rather listen to the goat than the preacher.
Just a heads up, though – you might want to turn the volume waaaay down:
THE RAPTURE AND THE ASCENSION: PART 1 OF 2
CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, February 29, 2024 – Since my dream last summer, I’ve been poring over feature-length movies, short movies, and other depictions of the alleged future event known as the the “pre-tribulation rapture”, or “rapture” for short. What I’ve found is that very little in these fictional presentations is scriptural, which should not be surprising, since the rapture itself is a modern invention that isn’t named in scripture. What is named is an event described as a “taking up” or an ascension. The ascension has already happened to several people (most famously to Jesus) and is prophesied to happen to many more.
There are major differences between the rapture and the ascension, mainly because they’re not the same phenomenon. Since its creation in the mid-1800s, the pre-tribulation rapture and its related mythology have led countless people, including born-again believers, into error. But what is it about the rapture that leaves so many so rapt?
First of all, the rapture gets a lot of press. Over the decades, untold millions have been poured into promoting and marketing the alleged future sudden disappearance of “true believers”. That’s why there are so many feature-length movies (we, the “afflicted and poor”, certainly aren’t bankrolling them!) as well as well-oiled TV and Internet evangelists stumping for the rapture at every turn. The trend has also infected church youth groups, with many of the short phone-filmed rapture videos written and performed by teenagers.
The second main reason for the rapture’s popularity is its formulaic “easy on the soul” mythology. In movies and short videos, the rapture is almost always presented the same way. The opening scenes portray a family or a group interacting amicably, with occasional squabbles. Some of the members are described as being “true believers”, while the rest are either unbelievers or backsliders. The true believers are shown urging and warning the others to repent and turn back to God, but their efforts are mocked or ignored. Then, out of the blue, the rapture occurs and the true believers disappear, leaving behind only their clothes and jewelry and whatever else they were wearing or carrying. Sometimes the left-behind clothes are neatly folded, sometimes they lay in a heap, and sometimes they remain rather comically strapped into the front seat of a car or lounging on a park bench.
The rest of the movie deals with the fallout of the rapture event on the people who are “left behind”. We learn how they feel about their dilemma and we see them struggling to adapt to the post-rapture reality. The so-called tribulation period has also been unleashed at the same time as the pre-tribulation rapture, bringing with it additional challenges (e.g., militarized world government, forced mark of the beast, etc.). Many of the left-behind believers respond to the ever-worsening situation by upping their game as Christians, while many more turn their back on Christianity altogether. Those who do turn back to God are persecuted and martyred.
A third reason why the rapture has caught the attention of Christians is that it offers hope beyond hope. Where scripture tells of a time when it will be too late to convert and be healed, those who believe in the rapture are assured that it’s never too late. The message here is: “Take your time; there’s always another bus” (even though in reality the final one’s long gone).
The ascension is nothing like the rapture. Rather than a one-off event, ascensions have occurred throughout history, with the final ascension set to take place at Jesus’ second coming. Also, instead of a disappearance, the ascension is a physical rising of a believer, body and soul, into the air. The rising is described in scripture as a “taking up”, so that whoever witnesses the ascension sees the ascending person literally rising up into the clouds. No clothes are reported to have been left behind after the ascensions, except for Elijah’s prayer mantle, which Elisha immediately claimed and put to good use.
Besides Jesus, other notable ascendees include Enoch and Elijah, as well as the two witnesses in the book of Revelation. There are also the holy angels described by Jesus as “ascending and descending” and the ascending and descending angels described by Jacob in one of his dreams. Additionally, random unnamed believers known only by their location (e.g., “in the field”) or activity (e.g., “grinding at the mill”) are likewise unexpectedly “taken”.
Paul describes the final ascension in some detail, explaining how the dead in Christ along with any remaining believers on Earth will be “caught up… to meet the Lord in the air” at Jesus’ second coming. Jesus mentions the same event in both Matthew and Mark, with his angels being sent to “gather together” the last believing stragglers from one end of heaven to the other. The use of the word “heaven” implies that the believers rise into the air with the angels, where Jesus is waiting for them in his glorified body.
The lists below highlight the main differences between the rapture and the ascension.
THE RAPTURE
- People disappear
- One- or two-time mass event
- Not in scripture
- Clothes left behind
- Heavily promoted
- Unknown until the 1800s
THE ASCENSION
- Taken up into the sky
- Multiple singular events and final mass event
- In scripture
- Clothes not left behind
- Not promoted
- Known since Enoch
Given these and other significant differences between the mythical rapture and the scriptural ascension, what is the point of pushing the rapture not only on Christians but also on the public in general? In other words, who created the pre-tribulation rapture mythology, why was it created, who benefits, who’s pushing it, and why are they pushing it now? And most importantly, why is all this especially relevant to us as born-again believers?
I explore these questions in detail in “THE RAPTURE AND THE ASCENSION: PART 2 OF 2”, posted here.
NOT READING THE APOCRYPHA? YOU’RE MISSING OUT!
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And their souls will cleave to Me and to all My commandments, and they will fulfil My commandments, and I will be their Father and they shall be My children.
And they all shall be called children of the living God, and every angel and every spirit shall know, yea, they shall know that these are My children, and that I am their Father in uprightness and righteousness, and that I love them.
Book of Jubilees 1:23-24
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CHARLO, New Brunswick, February 28, 2024 – If you haven’t yet done so, you should start reading the apocrypha. Many of the books that are excluded from the Bible are as important as those that are included. At the very least, these “rejected” writings (i.e., rejected centuries ago by the worldly church and more recently by profit-driven publishers) fill in a lot of blanks and so paint a more detailed picture of the people and events in scripture. If you say you read the Bible but your reading doesn’t include the apocrypha, you’re missing out on countless blessings and insights that God wants to give you through his Word.
I’m currently working my way through as much of the apocrypha as I can find on the Internet. Yes, there are hard-copy books that have different collections of the apocrypha, but nothing I’ve found so far has all of the publicly available apocryphal books in one volume or in a set of volumes. I guess I’m holding out for the impossible (a book with all the apocrypha, including the “nonexistent” texts hidden in the Vatican and in private collections). In the meantime, I read whatever apocryphal books I can find online, and I’m deeply grateful for the efforts of the people who posted them.
Also, if you’re so inclined (and have the technology), you might want to consider printing off each book as you find it (inkjet, not laser!). There’s a good chance that the apocrypha, along with the Bible, will one day vanish from the Internet due to the looming “hate speech” laws in former Christian nations. If (when) that happens, your printed copies will be a precious gift to the future Church.
The beautiful verse at the start of this article is from the first page of the first chapter of the Book of Jubilees. I include it here as an example of the richness of the prose and the force of the Spirit that is characteristic of many of the apocryphal texts. The setting for this verse is one of God’s conversations with Moses on Mount Sinai when he was giving him the Ten Commandments. I do not consider these words “uninspired”, which is the measure used to include or exclude books from the official canon (that, and the publishers’ bottom line). When I say in my blog articles that “the Bible’s been messed with”, this in part is what I’m referring to.
I’ve posted links below to some of the better-known apocryphal books as well as to a few that are less well known. I’ve also included links to their descriptions.
Note that the books appear here in no particular order.
May you be as blessed in reading the spiritual treasure trove of the apocrypha as you are in reading the Bible!
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The Book of Jubilees
Description: Book of Jubilees – Wikipedia
Online text: Jubilees (pseudepigrapha.com)
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2 Esdras
Description: 2 Esdras – Wikipedia
Online text: The Apocrypha: 2 Esdras: 2 Esdras Chapter 1 (sacred-texts.com)
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1 Enoch
Description: Book of Enoch – Wikipedia
Online text: The Book of Enoch: The Book of Enoch: Chapter I (sacred-texts.com)
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Apocalypse of Abraham
Description: Apocalypse of Abraham – Wikipedia
Online text: box.pdf (marquette.edu)
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Apocalypse of Elijah
Description: Apocalypse of Elijah – Wikipedia
Online text: apocalypse-of-elijah.pdf (wordpress.com)
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Life of Adam and Eve (Apocalypse of Moses)
Description: Life of Adam and Eve – Wikipedia
Online text: Apocalypse Of Moses (scriptural-truth.com)
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Book of Giants
Description: The Book of Giants – Wikipedia
Online text: The Book of Giants • The Lost Books of The Bible
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THE WELLSPRING OF PRIVATE REVELATION
CHARLO, New Brunswick, February 27, 2024 – I stumbled across a website today that preached the primacy of the Bible as the sole source of Christian revelation. To the website’s authors, the Bible should be used not only to inform but to restrict information and dictate behavior. Private revelation, which if you’ll recall forms the basis for both the Old and the New testaments, should not be trusted. In other words, the website promotes that God allegedly stopped talking to his people after John signed off on his book of Revelation nearly 2000 years ago, and none of us have heard a peep from him since.
This is obviously nonsense. The whole point of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was to pay the sin price so that “whosoever will” could get back in right relationship with God through spiritual rebirth. The establishment of God’s Church on Earth, with Jesus as the high priest and born-again believers as priests and prophets, has reopened the doors of communication with God through his Holy Spirit. Recall that in the gospel of John, Jesus promised us we’d be able to go directly to God in prayer; we wouldn’t have go through anyone else, not even him. So if we born-again believers are back in right relationship with God and have an open channel of communication with him and with Jesus through God’s Holy Spirit (as promised by Jesus in John’s gospel), how can we not be receiving private revelation? Our whole relationship with God and Jesus is based on private revelation.
We should never dismiss the reality of private revelation. It plays a profound role in the body of believers and always has. Without private revelation, there would be no Bible because there would be no prophets to relay God’s Word. Jesus didn’t warn us to beware of prophets; he warned us to beware of false prophets. A prophet is someone who has been sent by God and speaks God’s Word on behalf of God. A false prophet is someone who has not been sent by God and so does not speak God’s Word, even if he or she quotes the Bible, chapter and verse.
Private revelation has not ceased in the intervening years between Jesus’ earthly ministry and now. God has not stopped talking with his people and is in fact with them 24/7 rather than just on occasion as he was with the Old Testament prophets. We born-again believers are profoundly blessed to have ongoing communication with God through his Spirit, but this also comes with a great responsibility. God expects much more from his children than he does from others. We are to speak his Word in Truth as he gives us guidance to speak it, not when we decide on our own volition to speak it. He’ll test us on this, to see how much he can entrust us with.
I love the Bible and dote on it; I sleep next to it, read it every day, and carry it with me wherever I go, but I also know that the Bible’s been messed with, especially in the agenda-driven retranslations and in the leaving out of certain books. The Bible contains men’s words as well as God’s Word, so I don’t worship the Bible. I don’t consider it a holy relic. I don’t hold it up for adoration. I use it as a resource, which is what God intends us to use it for, but it’s God’s communication to me through his Holy Spirit that is the pure source perpetually springing up in me. That wellspring has not been messed with and is the source of my private revelation, the source that Jesus promised us that God would give to all genuine believers.
Private revelation from God to his people has never ceased and never will, as it forms the basis of our relationship with God. In Old Testament times, private revelation came via designated prophets, who were then to relay the revelation either to the general public or to a specific people or to certain individuals, but now God’s revelations flow through born-again believers as one of God’s many kept promises that are rewards for Jesus’ sacrifice.
Regardless of what the “Bible or nothing!” website claims, we should never be wary or dismissive of private revelation coming from genuine believers; we should, however, be wary of so-called revelations from those who claim to be speaking on God’s behalf but are not. We’ll know the difference between those who are sent by God and those who aren’t because God will let us know through (you guessed it!) private revelation.
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I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them.
Jeremiah 31:33-34
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If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
John 14:23
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But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
John 4:14
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“IF BEING A CHRISTIAN WERE ILLEGAL, WOULD THERE BE ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO ARREST YOU FOR THIS CRIME?”
CHARLO, New Brunswick, February 26, 2024 – As we all know, YouTube’s recommended videos can be either a treasure trove or a junk pile. One buried treasure of a video that popped up in my YouTube feed today played into an issue that is slowly creeping into the lives of Canadian believers – namely, the repeal (removal) of a law protecting the free expression of religious beliefs in Canada. If this law is repealed (it’s currently working its way through Parliament), it will effectively outlaw Christianity here in Canada, or at the very least muzzle Christians from openly stating their beliefs.
Jesus warned us that we, as his followers, would some day become outlaws, so we shouldn’t be shocked or surprised that repeals of religious protection laws are gaining traction and moving quickly from the proposal stage to implementation, even in historically Christian nations. The persecution, jailing, torture, and slaughter of Christians has happened all throughout Christian history and is happening even today, though not yet openly in the West.
That, I believe, is about to change.
The video recommended to me by YouTube was a skit featuring dozens of young people responding individually to questions about their Christian witness and their fitness for Heaven. The responses (likely scripted, but still on point) were sufficiently thought-provoking for me to hit pause and ask myself the same questions. Would there in fact be enough evidence in my day-to-day dealings with people and in my life overall to accuse me of being a Christian?
I certainly hope so. If being a Christian – that is, openly expressing and living my beliefs as a follower of Jesus – were outlawed in Canada, that is the one law that I would unhesitatingly, enthusiastically, and repeatedly break. But what evidence would be used against me? What would the snitches say to get me arrested?
Well, I’ve already been permanently banned from a number of mainstream online forums (Facebook won’t even let me sign up! lol) for reasons I have yet to ferret out. I’ve also been shadow banned on the few other forums (some allegedly Christian) that will still let me comment, which means my comments show up when I view the website but not when others view it. Again, I have no idea what I said or did to cause the banning and shadow banning, but my comments almost always touch on God and Jesus. Maybe it’s what I’ve said openly about the alphabet rainbow agenda or the unholy “Holy Land” or the mask mandates as they apply to Christians that got me censored, though whether my being banned from commenting on these websites would be enough to get me arrested, I don’t know.
Snitches might also point to my refusal to flirt or date, or to use curse words in my conversations. I might be condemned as well for my modest clothing or the cross I wear when I’m in public (to let others know that I’m a Christian). Some people might accuse me of bringing up God and Jesus in my conversations or even quoting the Bible when a Bible quote is warranted. Speaking of Bibles, I was hauled aside for questioning at an airport a few years ago because I had a Bible in my carry-on luggage. I was red-flagged solely for carrying God’s Word. But would this be enough to get me arrested?
I found out last summer that I’ve been banned from staying on the campus of my alma mater, again for reasons that were ill-defined. The administrator who informed me of my banning would only reveal that I had a “bad attitude”, though I’ve always been unfailingly polite to anyone I’ve dealt with at the campus level, even and especially to the guy working at the front desk who pretended he was a woman. I feel sorry for men like that and there’s no point in making them even more miserable than they already are, so politeness and kindness rule the day (“love your enemies”, and all that). Jesus warned us we’d be blamed and hated without cause, and so we are.
Yet when all is said and done, I’m actually glad to be banned, as it lets me know where I stand and where I’m not welcome; and where I’m not welcome, I don’t go. Jesus didn’t go where he wasn’t welcome and advised us to shake the dust of such places from the bottom of our feet and move on, letting God deal with them. I don’t fight the bans any more than I’d fight being arrested. I consider them part and parcel of doing my job as a believer and I have no intention of compromising my beliefs, if by compromising them I’d be “safe” from bans and arrests.
I’m guessing that the most “damning” evidence that I’m a Christian would be this blog, which I’ve kept now for nearly 10 years. Abornagainbeliever.com would likely be the “gotcha!” that got me arrested. At the very least, my blog would no longer be accessible in Canada if the law protecting my right to write freely were repealed, which may happen sooner than I expect. But as long as I can still legally teach and preach God’s Word in Canada, I’ll keep on posting articles. If the time comes when I can no longer do that, I’ll deal with it as God gives me guidance.
I don’t say this often, but I’m actually grateful to YouTube for the algorithm that brought me this buried treasure of a video. If you’re feeling so inclined, maybe you could take a moment to ask yourself whether there’s enough evidence in your life to have you arrested for the “crime” of being a Christian. I found that mulling this question over was a good exercise that convicted me (still lots of work to be done on this soul!) and yet was also strangely comforting.
As my grandmother used to say, “mistakes keep us humble”, and a humble and contrite heart the Lord will not despise.
PASSOVER OR EASTER?
CHARLO, New Brunswick, February 25, 2024 – As born-again believers and members of God’s Church, we’re to celebrate Passover according to how and when Jesus directed us to celebrate it. This directive is non-negotiable.
However, it appears that the papal powers-that-be didn’t get that memo. In their pride-borne confusion, the pope and his yes-men woke up one day and decided they’d had enough of Passover and were going to replace it with Easter. This happened back in the early 4th century and it’s been that way ever since. Easter is calculated according to the first day of spring (specifically, the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of spring), while Passover always falls on the evening following the 14th of Abib and is always on a full moon.
In other words, Jesus directed us to commemorate his sacrifice in the evening hours following the 14th of Abib, which is the start of the 15th of Abib. This should be the date of our annual commemoration of Jesus’ sacrifice – the evening hours at the start of the 15th of Abib – and it should never be dependent on when spring does or does not begin or what day of the week it is. It should never be dictated by doctrines of men for reasons that do not glorify God.
It should never have been changed to Easter.
Again, the Passover is always in the evening following the 14th of Abib (the month also known as Aviv or Nisan) and is always on a full moon. During the daylight hours of the 14th of Abib, the Passover lamb is slaughtered, and that evening it’s eaten. Because each new day in the Hebrew calendar starts in the evening hours, the evening when the Passover is eaten is the start of the 15th of Abib. So, Jesus, the sacrificial lamb of God, instituted his directives for the Passover meal on the 15th of Abib, telling us to eat bread as as a symbol of his body and to drink wine as a symbol of his blood on that day and during that meal, in memory of him and in obedience to God’s command to celebrate the Passover in perpetuity.
I mention these details and dates because they’re important for us as members of God’s Church. Easter is a made-up holiday (“first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of spring”) devised by a group of men who were not born-again and therefore not guided by God’s Holy Spirit, whereas Passover is writ in stone by the hand of God himself. If the men who changed Passover to Easter had been born-again, they would never have deigned to mess with the date that Jesus directed us to commemorate him on. It would never have occurred to them to do that, let alone to teach others to do it and to threaten, punish, or even kill those who resisted the change. If they truly had the fear of the Lord in them, they would never have done any of those things.
I fear the Lord. Knowing that God, through Moses, commanded his people (that would be us) to mark the Passover on a certain date in perpetuity, and that Jesus later directed his followers (that again would be us) to commemorate the Passover on that same date in the way he showed them, I cannot in good conscience celebrate Easter. Sure, I’ll eat whatever cream-filled chocolate eggs roll my way (just try and stop me! lol), but I’ll keep the Lord’s Passover on the day that God commanded and in the way that Jesus directed.
Just try and stop me.
HARD TO SWALLOW: WHAT’S EATING OUR FOOD SUPPLY?
CHARLO, New Brunswick, February 23, 2024 – When Jesus told his disciples that he had meat to eat that they knew not of, he wasn’t talking about GMO or other frankenfoods that have become the daily bread of most Westerners. For Jesus, his food was to do the work God sent him to do, which should also be our food, as Jesus’ followers. But unfortunately (and unavoidably, while we’re still here on Earth in a human body), we also have to eat physical food every now and then to keep us going. This leaves us at the mercy of food-floggers who are growing less and less concerned about our satisfaction as consumers and more and more focused on making money and pushing an agenda.
I write this as a preamble to the subject at hand today, which is the sorry state of our food as a consumer product. I won’t be covering the poisoning of our food (that subject deserves an entire library of books in itself) but will instead take a look at some radical changes that are occurring in the production, marketing, distribution, and retail sides of our food supply. These changes have led to major shifts in price, quality, and accessibility over the past few decades, especially since the launch of the “great reset” in 2020.
Note that the changes listed below are in no particular order and that the list is far from exhaustive. Feel free to add to it in the comment section below.
- Inflation: This is the change that’s getting the most press these days and goes hand-in-hand with currency devaluation.
- Shrinkflation: This refers to smaller amounts of product either in the same-sized packaging or “New Look!” (code for smaller) packaging that essentially attempts to camouflage the shrinkage. Prices either remain the same or go up.
- Lower quality: Known as “skimpflation”, costlier ingredients are swapped for cheaper ones.
- Extended ‘best before’ dates: This obviously benefits the producers and sellers, not the consumers. It’s a trend that I’ve noticed gaining traction over the past few months. Buyer beware!
- Removal of products from the marketplace: Less variety and fewer food options is mainly caused by large producers buying out smaller producers and then typically phasing out all the small company’s products. The introduction of the “planogram” system, where companies have to pay hefty prices for shelf space, also led to smaller producers being shut out of the marketplace.
- Fewer distributers: These are the companies that essentially decide what you should or should not have access to in a store. Even the stores themselves are at the mercy of their distributors. They have immense power over our food supply and there are surprisingly very few of them and growing fewer every year.
- Fewer stores and shorter retail hours: One of the most visible changes that’s happened in the past few years is the closing of stores and the reduction in shopping hours, reflecting the shift in power dynamics from the consumer to the retailer. Good luck finding a 24-hour supermarket when you need one!
- Globalization (redistribution) of food: Developing countries such as China and India are also developing huge appetites for Western products. Many of our domestic food producers are now focusing on those markets and leaving local shelves bare.
- Replacement of meat with “meat-like” or other proteins: Check the ingredients list for protein substitutes like crickets and maggots that are being slipped in under alternative names. You vill eet ze bugz, whether you know it or not.
I used to enjoy grocery shopping, but now I just grit my teeth and try not to yell in frustration at the shrinking content of the packages and higher prices. Not to mention how the flavour has been eroded by lower-quality ingredients and extended best-before dates. I eat what I have to for the time being, ever grateful to God for supplying my daily bread, but all the while I comfort myself thinking about the amazing variety of FREE FOOD that’s waiting for me in Heaven (if and when I get there) and how good it will all taste!
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 