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FOR WHOM THE BELL CURVE TOLLS
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 16, 2015 – Jesus ended his ministry on Earth exactly as he started it: Alone.
When he was naked and dying in agony on the cross, no-one except him believed anymore that he was the Messiah, just like no-one, when he was growing up, believed he would become the Messiah.
If you plotted in graphical form the number of followers Jesus had during his time on Earth, a classic bell curve would emerge. From the initial 1, the numbers would swell to many, and then back down to 1 again.
Ding, dong.
Jesus himself is not responsible for the sharp rise and fall of his follower numbers. Rather, it was his followers’ lack of understanding of scripture along with their unwillingness to accept Jesus’ mandate as being spiritual not political that led to their exodus from the truth.
When Jesus burst on the scene dispensing miraculous healings like free condoms at a Pride parade, nearly everyone wanted to be part of the excitement. Jesus was youthful and vibrant and he really sounded like he knew what he was talking about. He thumbed his nose at religious authorities, besting them in every argument, and had a genuine connection with the people. He was a likeable guy doing likeable things. What’s there not to like?
It was only when Jesus started to challenge his followers’ false beliefs that his popularity began to wane. People wanted feel-good excitement and a “winning” candidate that they could get behind, but Jesus was stating very clearly that the winnings would not be in Earthly terms, and that in fact the Earthly reward for being part of the Kingdom would be persecutions and social rejection. Who in their right mind would want to sign up for that?
As follower after follower drifted away, Jesus didn’t water down his message but instead pushed the remaining followers harder and harder. He was weeding them even as he was feeding them. Those who could stomach the truth, stayed; everyone else either ran screaming or slithered off in silence.
At the cross, no followers at all remained, just a few friends and family members along with some soldiers and the usual assortment of haters. No-one believed anymore that Jesus was the prophesied saviour. Some still loved him, but they didn’t believe in him. He alone persisted to his dying breath in the sure belief that he was the Messiah.
After Jesus died, the women went to his tomb a few days later to apply the spices that were part of Jewish burial rites. Even though Jesus had told them explicitly that he would rise from the dead in three days, they still went to dress his corpse. They didn’t believe he would rise because they didn’t believe he was the Messiah. Then, when they found his tomb empty, they simply thought his body had been moved. They thought Jesus was buried, not risen, because they no longer believed he was who he’d said he was.
Self-confidence is a beautiful thing when it’s based on truth. Jesus remained firm in his belief that he was the Messiah because his interpretation of scripture was God-based, not man- or demon-based. In assuming his role as the Messiah, Jesus hadn’t set out to win a popularity contest. He didn’t measure the success of his mission by how many followers he’d accumulated but by how closely he adhered to a Godly interpretation of scripture and how closely his will was aligned to God’s. And in both of these measurements, his mission was more than accomplished.
Most if not all of today’s churches measure their success quite differently. For them, “making converts” has become some kind of a contest and the church with the most “converts” wins the prize. But to make converts to their false version of Christianity, these antichrist Christians – these wolves in sheep’s clothing we were warned about – not only water down the gospel but sweeten it with saccharine lies. I have stood in many of these churches, as have you.
I will stand in them no more, even if it means, like Jesus, I stand alone.
Even if it means, like Jesus, I die alone.
WE ARE ISRAEL
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 15, 2015 – The geopolitical state of Israel is not the Holy Land.
I’ll repeat that loud and bold in case some of you missed it: THE GEOPOLITICAL STATE OF ISRAEL IS NOT THE HOLY LAND.
I mention this because, again and again, I see Christian groups pledging their support for Israel and for Jewish causes, and all I can think is: Oy vey!
Mind you, I have nothing against the state of Israel. I might even visit it some day. How, when, and with whom it chooses to wage war it its business. I buy cookies that are made in Israel and eat clementines that are grown there. I have no problems doing business with the geopolitical state of Israel.
But still, you cannot convince me that that place is the Holy Land. The “former Holy Land”, certainly, but the Holy Spirit has since left the building.
Jesus told us that his Kingdom is not of this world. If his Kingdom is not of this world, then the geopolitical state of Israel cannot be the Holy Land. No place on Earth can be the Holy Land.
Jesus also tells us that only God is good and that only God is holy, so where God’s spirit is – THAT is holy ground.
The night before he was crucified, Jesus told his disciples that he and God would come to live with them. This is the very definition of being born-again and being a follower of Jesus. You are not born-again or a follower of Jesus unless Jesus and God are living with you, through the presence of God’s Holy Spirit.
People who are not born-again do not have God’s Spirit with them. Countries, of course, cannot be born-again.
I am born-again, which means that God and Jesus are constantly with me, so where I am is holy ground. I am not holy; only God is holy, but his presence in me and all around me makes me holy ground.
All born-agains are holy ground.
In contrast, the geopolitical state of Israel is the last thing from holy ground. Just because Jesus walked there when he was in human form doesn’t make it holy. Just because God chose to reveal himself to the Jews in Old Testament times doesn’t make it holy, either.
We need to discredit the claim that a geopolitical state or a people are “holy” or somehow favored by God. No people and no country are favored by God, not even born-agains. Since the dawn of New Testament times, God has revealed himself equally to all people by writing his laws on their hearts, not on stone tablets hidden away in an ark. We are all equally able to access God’s truth if we choose to.
The Israel that was prophesied in the Old Testament is Jesus’ Kingdom that was established since Jesus walked the earth. It’s a spiritual state, not a geopolitical one. We are citizens of the spiritual state of Israel, if we’re born-again followers of Jesus. We are the true Jews, not the fake ones of the synagogue of Satan that Jesus warned us about.
We are Israel.
So if you want to pledge your support for Israel and the Jewish cause, pray for yourself and your fellow born-agains. If you want to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, walk over to a mirror and wave to yourself. Maybe even take a foot selfie. If you’re born again, where you are is holy ground.
The geopolitical state of Israel is just another war-mongering country steeped in blood and motivated by revenge, and there ain’t nothin’ holy about that.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain [Samaria], nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
John 4:21-24
Father’s spirit is the wall of fire around
Father’s spirit is the glory that’s inside me
So where I stand is holy ground
Where I sit, holy ground
Where I lie at night, holy ground
And I claim it in the name of Jesus!
It doesn’t matter where I go
God is always with me, so
where I am now is holy ground.
Be not afraid, for I am with you.
Be not afraid, for I am with you.
HAPPY CARITAS DAY!
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 14, 2015 – When I was in university, I had to read excerpts from the Bible for a comparative literature assignment. I was an atheist at the time and hated the Bible or anything that spoke of God in a positive way. I thought believers were idiots and I had zero patience for them.
The assignment specifically required me to read passages from Paul’s letter about faith, hope and charity. As an atheist, I had a difficult time reading the New Testament because all the words ran together and I couldn’t make head or tails of what was being said. Trying to read the New Testament for this assignment was no different; none of the words made any sense to me. It was as if they were written in a foreign language that I had no knowledge of.
In discussing the assignment in class, my professor talked about “caritas”, or charity, as a type of love that was distinct from other forms of love. He was a kind man and a diligent instructor, and I can still see him struggling to convey a meaning that can only be understood by people who are born again. I doubt whether he, at the time, was born again, or even if anyone in the class believed in God. I certainly didn’t understand what my professor meant by “caritas”, but I dutifully picked up enough of his explanation to regurgitate it on the exam and get a pass for the course.
Caritas is often translated as “charity”. It means self-less love, the kind that God gives us. God loves us selflessly, even arrogant university students who spit venom at the sound of his name. He gives of himself without expecting anything in return. As an atheist, I could not fathom a type of love that wasn’t feelings-based and wasn’t meant to be reciprocated on some level; to me, love without palpitations and weak knees just wasn’t love. Sure, I understood that my parents and grandparents loved me without palpitations and weak knees, but that was different. I was expected at least to show my respect to them, so in this they got something in return for their love.
But to love expecting nothing in return – what kind of fool would do that? My atheistic mindset had no place for such as concept. To me, the notion of caritas made the idea of God all the more far-fetched.
Muddying the waters even more was my personal experience of the charity industry. I saw charities as seedy organizations whose sole purpose was to separate people from their time, energy, and money. How could these organizations truly be called ‘charities’ if they gave tax receipts for monetary expressions of love? Wasn’t real charity supposed to be done selflessly and without expecting anything in return?
Despite his best efforts, my professor could not bring me to an understanding of Paul’s concept of charity, nor make me grasp why Paul considered charity to be the highest virtue. It was only after I was born again and able to read the New Testament that I started to get a feeling for what Paul meant.
Jesus said to give freely without expecting anything in return, to love your enemies, and to treat other people as you want to be treated. He also tells us to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. This is the caritas that Paul was talking about – being kind to people without expecting to be treated kindly in return, and giving freely to those in need without expecting anything in return (including a tax receipt or even a thank-you). And to do it all sincerely, and with a smile in your heart.
To Jesus and Paul, charity simply meant to love as God loves. No palpitations or weak knees are required. Caritas is initiated in us by an act of our will, not a feeling. It is an act that is done for no other reason than that it is the right thing to do; no personal gain is involved. This is the selflessness that my professor struggled to convey all those years ago.
When we say “yes” to caritas, God loves through us. The simple nod of our will gives God permission to work through us so that we can, in fact, love as God loves: fully and selflessly. In saying “yes”, we feel God’s love flow through us, and we know there is no greater love.
HAPPY CARITAS DAY, EVERYONE!
GET THEE BEHIND ME, CHANGE!
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, July 6, 2025 – During his ministry years, Jesus had a tumultuous relationship with Peter. Even while granting him heavy responsibilities, Jesus submitted “the Rock” to numerous public chastisements. In one of the more extreme confrontations, Jesus calls Peter “Satan” and lambasts him for thinking as man thinks, not as God thinks. This outburst must have been confusing for Peter and for the other disciples, as Peter had simply been pledging to protect Jesus when Jesus explained what was waiting for him in Jerusalem. And vowing to protect people is good, isn’t it?
Not when it’s against God’s plan.
We born-agains all have a bit of Peter in us, wanting earnestly to serve God and follow Jesus and yet occasionally taking on the role of Satan without realizing it. I doubt that Peter was aware that he was acting like Satan when he offered to protect Jesus, just as we’re not away that we’re acting like Satan when we want to, for instance, make the world a better place.
“Change!” is the new rallying cry of political parties, governments, youth-oriented organizations and much of the globalized masses, and with it comes the pledge to “make the world a better place”. But do we really mean when we say we want to make the world a better place?
What we’re implying is that the world could be better than it is. Surely there’s nothing wrong with that statement. We’re all working on improving ourselves, so why not improve the world, too?
Working to improve yourself is one thing; it implies a decision of your own will to work on yourself. It implies an action that you choose, followed by a consequence that’s specific to you. To get better consequences for yourself, you choose to do better actions. However, when you impose this mode of thinking on the world, you attempt to override the consequences of other people’s actions. What you’re in effect saying is: The consequences of other people’s actions are not suitable. But what you’re really saying is: God’s justice is flawed and therefore God’s justice is imperfect and needs to be changed.
As born-agains, we know that God’s justice is perfect. We know that we live in “the best of all possible worlds” because God gives us exactly the consequences to our actions that we’ve earned. If anything, he mitigates (lessens) the consequences we suffer out of love for us, to the extent that mitigation is warranted (e.g., we are unaware that what we are doing is wrong, or we do something out of a “blind rage” or in an extreme emotional state). God’s mitigation (or mercy) is reflected in the most civilized of the world’s courts, and it should also be reflected in us.
God’s justice is perfect. If we accept this statement as self-evident, then we necessarily have to see the rallying cry for “Change!” as a howl from the pit of hell. God never changes; his truth and justice are as perfect today as they have ever been or will ever be.
God
Does
Not
Change.
As the old adage goes, you can’t improve on perfection. If God’s justice is perfect, then the only way to make this profoundly flawed world a better place is to make better choices yourself, and in that way improve your own outcomes. But when you try to change or mitigate the consequences of other people, you simply shift the earned outcome to another circumstance. They get what’s coming to them sooner or later, one way or another.
A clear example of “shifting outcomes to another circumstance” is the evolvement of disease. The proponents of modern Western medicine like to gloat that numerous diseases have been eradicated through medical interventions, but what they don’t add is that in eradicating certain diseases, others have either become more virulent or more widespread. Bacteria-caused diseases and conditions are getting harder and harder to treat due to the evolvement of bacteria that is now resistant to antibiotics. At the same time as Western medicine is claiming higher “survival rates” of cancer victims, more and more people are contracting the disease than ever before. People are living longer (allegedly, although Methuselah might not agree with that assumption) through improved health care and sanitary conditions, but their quality of life is questionable, given that most older adults experience multiple diseases and conditions, which only increase as they grow older. Is it really an improvement to live to the age of 90, if you spend the last decade of your life confined to a bed in a long-term care institute?
Whenever you hear the rallying cry “Change!”, you need to add “…the more things stay the same” and “Get thee behind me, Satan!”. God’s justice is perfect; it cannot be improved. The only change you can make is in yourself. You cannot impose change on others; if you try, all you do is shift consequences to another circumstance.
Peter wanted to protect Jesus, but Jesus needed to undergo the arrest, torture and crucifixion in order to fulfill scripture as the Messiah. I’m not saying to ignore the beaten-up guy along the side of the road like the priest and Levite did in the Good Samaritan parable. What I’m saying is to wait for God to show you who to help and when to help them. These people will come to you, trusting that you can help them. God will have sent them. This is how Jesus healed: he could only help those who came to him and who trusted him to help them. The people of Nazareth didn’t trust him and therefore were not healed.
Wait for God to show you who and when to help. Rather than blindly following the world’s Satanic cry of “Change!”, wait for God, like Jesus did.
And in the meantime, make better choices.
MILLENNIALISM AND OTHER LIES
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 8, 2015 – The Bible is an open book for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear.
If you want to know anything about God, including what he has in store for us, all you have to do is ask him. He’ll tell you, and then he’ll show you supporting passages in scripture to back up what he said.
Having rejected mainstream Christianity as a belief system built on doctrines of devils, I don’t waste a lot of time poring over its contrived nonsense. But every so often God points something out that he then suggests I should point out to others. One such item is Millennialism.
Millennialism is the notion that Jesus will return to Earth at his second coming and reign here for a thousand years. The thousand year time-frame may be literal or figurative, but the actual reign of Jesus in a physical body, on planet Earth, is an indisputable part of Millennialism. Even those who reject Millennialism (e.g., Catholic Amillennialists) still believe that God’s Kingdom will physically be set up on Earth as a geo-political entity after Jesus’ second coming.
Consider that this ‘notion’ developed and spread even though Jesus himself declared to his disciples nearly 2,000 years ago that his kingdom had already arrived, that it is not of this world, and that he would return in grand style with his holy angels just long enough to gather together the few believers that were remaining on Earth, and then leave everyone else behind to “mourn”.
Not once did Jesus make any mention of putting down roots here after his second coming.
To find out more about Millennialism, I did a quick google search. I wish I hadn’t. Some things you just can’t unsee. Suffice to say, it’s all nonsense piled on nonsense infused with outright lies and topped off with a large dollop of crap. I’m ashamed of those who’ve bought this stupidity, and I’m even more ashamed of those who’ve created and spread it.
I do have a sneaking suspicion, though, as to just who is behind this crazy little thing called Millennialism. It’s that same certain someone who benefits from people being duped. (You know who I mean.) But what could he possibly gain from getting people to hope and pray to live in a Golden Age on Earth?
Imagine if that same certain someone could convince not only Christians but also adherents of other religions to believe in a coming Golden Age where there would be peace on Earth under a benevolent ruler. Imagine if you could find a common thread connecting all religions to this one theme, and imagine if all religions agreed that all religions agree on this one point and this one point only.
Imagine!
This is how the devil works, and this is how the world works. We’ve been warned that the devil will send a strong delusion that will fool not only false believers and unbelievers, but even some of God’s own children (meaning us).
Muslims are waiting for their messiah leader who will come after an age of widespread turmoil, unite the world, and usher in an age of peace.
Jews are waiting for their messiah leader who will come after an age of widespread turmoil, unite the world, and usher in an age of peace.
Millennialism Christians are waiting for Jesus to return after an age of widespread turmoil, unite the world, and usher in an age of peace.
I don’t know about you, but I see a pattern developing here. Buddhists and Hindus are also waiting for a messiah-like leader who will – yes, you guessed it – come after an age of widespread turmoil, unite the world, and usher in an age of peace.
In fact, it seems that every organized religion on this planet promotes the coming of a messiah-life figure to put things right after everything goes terribly wrong. This should not be surprising to us, since Jesus tells us that many will come saying they are the Christ, but they will be false Christs and false prophets. He warned us nearly 2,000 years ago not to be taken in by their deceptions that will come in the form of ‘miracles’ and doctrines of devils (like Millennialism).
The alleged basis for Millennialism is Revelation 20. But when I read Revelation 20, I see a description of a God’s spiritual kingdom on Earth, not a geo-political realm. I see a description of a spiritual realm that is very much in power here today, not in some hazy future. The passage describes God’s church, of which I am a card-carrying member. Jesus said that his kingdom had already arrived, is not of this world, and is eternal. He meant that his kingdom was not a geo-political structure confined by time and space. Jesus never intended to set up an earthly kingdom. Anyone who truly knows God and truly knows Jesus knows that.
Bluntly put – every form of Millennialism, including Amillennialism, is a lie. When Jesus returns, it will only be long enough to rescue whatever followers are remaining here and to show himself as the true Messiah. Scripture says that everyone will see him and everyone will know who he is. There will be no doubt and no need for persuasion or explanation: Everyone will just know. And then his faithful followers will leave with him, and everyone else will be left behind to face the final destruction of planet Earth, as foretold in Daniel’s visions.
On the cross, Jesus said: It is done. He didn’t say: “Well, that’s all for now, folks. But I’ll be back for more fun and games after everything’s been polluted and destroyed, and most of God’s creatures are extinct. Can’t wait!” What possible motivation would Jesus have to set up a physical kingdom on Earth when he already has a spiritual kingdom here and a perfect home in Heaven where he reigns at God’s right hand? It’s illogical for him to set up physical kingdom on Earth. And it’s redundant. And it plain just doesn’t make sense. Add to that it’s ascriptural, and you’ve got the makings of a true heresy.
So, Millennialists are living a lie, and Jews who deny that Jesus is the Messiah are also living a lie, because, well, Jesus IS the Messiah. Jews who pin their messianic hopes on anyone other than Jesus are just setting themselves up for a fall. They are deceived. Muslims who believe that Jesus will co-rule with their long-awaited messiah are likewise deceived. As explained above, Jesus won’t be hanging around long enough to share a throne, let alone attend committee meetings. And regardless of what the Koran says, Jesus is not Islamic.
I don’t know Buddhism or Hinduism well enough to go into any detail as to why their messianic hopes are also false, but it doesn’t make me any less certain that they are, for the same reason that the Millennialism Christians’ Jews’ and Muslims’ hopes are false. You don’t have to throw yourself face-first into a steaming pile of manure to know that it’s manure; it’s sufficient just to stand within smelling range. The Buddhist and Hindu messiahs have more than a whiff of the Millennialist, Jewish and Muslim messiahs about them, and for that reason alone do not pass the smell test.
Ultimately, the devil’s game is to deceive us so that those who are on their way to receiving the truth will turn away and get lost, and those who already have the truth will lose it (as the devil did). The messianic deception is the devil’s final and most heinous trick – and how important it must be if he’s been working on it since before Jesus was even born! In fact, you can say the whole of human history has been a behind-the-scenes arranging and rearranging of events and circumstances, all leading up to the enthroning of what Paul called the “man of perdition” or what we know will be the false Christ or ‘Antichrist’. Supporters of Millennialism have had a hand in his crowning, as have Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc., as well as those working towards the establishment of the global police state known as the New World Order.
We cannot stop the false messiah from coming, but we can be aware that he is a false messiah and do what we can to make others aware of it. Like Jesus, all we can do is tell the truth. It’s up to others whether or not they want to receive it.
LET THEM BAKE CAKE
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 4, 2015 – This is not the first time it’s happened, and likely it won’t be the last: An Oregon baker who identifies as ‘Christian’ has refused to bake a cake for a couple who identify as ‘lesbian’.
The two women took the Christian to court, and now the Christian has to pay them $150,000 in damages.
O, woe is me! What’s a Christian in modern-day America to do? Attacked on all sides by the heathen, and now being undermined by court decisions!
Was the baker right in refusing to bake the cake for the lesbians on the grounds that it violates his religious beliefs? Or, more accurately – was the Christian right in refusing to serve a non-Christian? Because that’s what it boils down to: a Christian refusing to serve a non-Christian.
What does God say about this?
Jesus says that his followers have come to serve, not to be served.
Paul says that we are to do all things as unto God.
The baker has a job to do: that job is to bake cakes. The job is not to bake cakes only for people who identify as Christians but for all people who walk through the door of his bakery.
Let’s role-play here for a moment. We’re all bakers working in a small family-run bakery. We love our job and we’re good at it. In fact we’re so good at it, we have the reputation for being the best bakers in town.
Then one day, two women stroll hand-in-hand into our shop. Gleefully, they announce that they’re lesbians, they’re getting married to each other, and they want us to bake their wedding cake. Now, we suspect they’ve targeted our bakery as being owned and operated by Christians, and we also suspect that they think we’ll refuse to bake their cake, thereby finding grounds to sue us and walk away with a court-ordered pay-out. But SEEING THE WOMEN AS OUR EQUALS AND AS EQUALLY LOVED BY GOD AS JESUS IS LOVED, we thank them for choosing our bakery for their special occasion, we diligently take their order, and we promise them we’ll bake them the best cake they’ve ever had. And then, as they turn to leave, we wish them a wonderful day, just as we wish all our customers a wonderful day, and we let them know that if they need anything else to go along with their wedding cake, we’d be more than happy to provide it.
The two women look slightly stunned as they make their way out the door. They stop holding hands, and the last we see of them, they’re walking slowly down the sidewalk, deep in thought.
Meanwhile, we thank God for trusting us enough to send us these women, and pray that they make the kinds of choices in their lives that will bring them to know and love God the way we do. We don’t tell the women we’re praying for them; we don’t tell anyone we’re praying for them: we just do it.
Then the phone rings. It’s one of the women. She says they’ve decided to go with another baker for their wedding cake. We thank her for letting us know, and wish her all the best.
Every day, every one of us ‘serves’ people who are not born-again. Bakers should be no different. The so-called Christian baker was not acting very Christian in refusing to bake the cake on “religious grounds”. Even worse, he lost a God-given opportunity to demonstrate what it really means to be a follower of Jesus. The best we can take from this sorry tale is to learn from the Oregon baker’s mistake and not make the same mistake ourselves.
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
(Matthew 5:44-48)
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 