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EXODUS 14:14
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 9, 2025 – I love it when God yells at us and puts us in our place. He doesn’t do it often, but when it needs to be done, he does it handily and mightily as only God can.
Jesus had the same knack for unleashing God’s fury when it was needed. We see it when he turned on Peter and called him Satan, and again when he overturned the tables in the temple and whipped the moneychangers to the curb, and again when he railed at the scribes and Pharisees for being, well, scribes and Pharisees. Sometimes these things need to be done.
Exodus 14:14 is another one of those times. The verse follows a whiny lament by the children of Israel, freshly sprung from slavery in Egypt. Peevish, petulant, and worst of all ungrateful, they sorely needed to be put in their place, and fast.
But that’s not the reason for this article. This article is a response to how the worldly church has mistranslated Exodus 14:14, removing God’s fury and replacing it with a mild-mannered request. In modern translations like the NIV, the Israelites are told to “stand firm”, “be calm”, “be silent”, or my personal favourite, “you won’t need to lift a finger”. The implication is that they are just to stand there passively and wait for God to do his thing. But in the KJV, Moses thunders at the restless rabble to “hold your peace”, which is a veiled threat for them to shut their yaps if they know what’s good for them.
The castration of God’s Word by the worldly church makes me furious. The modern translations have Moses addressing the Israelites like a kindergarten teacher afraid to hurt someone’s feelings. Meanwhile, the force and context of the scripture are completely lost. God is not telling people to “be calm” in this verse. He’s not even telling them to “be silent”, respectfully or otherwise. He’s thundering at them to “SHUT THE [bleep] UP AND GET THE [bleep] OUT OF MY WAY!”
When they see the Egyptian army hot on their heels and believe they stand no chance against them, the Israelites immediately turn on God and Moses. Even after witnessing miracle after miracle in Egypt, they still default to fearing the Egyptians rather than fearing God. Moses needed to remind them who to fear, and he does so by simultaneously stamping on their toes and slapping them in the face, hard. It’s very effective. They immediately shut up and submit.
The moral of this story is to shun translations that deball God’s Word. If you’re not occasionally cowed into submission while reading scripture, you’re not reading the right version.
LINT
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 8, 2025 – It can cling to you like lint – a careless word spoken in haste or a quick sideways glance that’s just as quickly forgotten, but not by you. Not by some part of you that noted it, recorded it, catalogued it, and filed it away for later ruminating in a moment of uneasy solitude or weakness.
We’re not immune to these moments as born-again believers. They can sneak up on us as much as they can sneak up on anyone else, but the difference is that we have an obligation to see them for what they are and to disperse them with a silent “I choose to forgive”, even if we don’t feel like forgiving.
Because being born-again is much like being in the army. It’s not option for us not to forgive, any more than it’s not an option for a soldier to disobey an order. We forgive not because we feel like it but because we’ve been ordered to forgive.
What a wonderful thing, to have been ordered to forgive, since the root of nearly all human suffering is unforgiveness. It starts as a grudge, or resentment, or a simmering hostility that grows into self-pity, hatred, false memories, depression, and a whole range of emotional disorders that for some may even lead to suicidal ideation. I know this progression from a careless word to slit wrists, because I lived it as an unforgiving atheist. And the more burdened by unforgiveness I was, the shorter the time span between the perceived slight and the slitting.
As born-again believers, we have no grounds to have so much as a spiritual bad-hair day. That’s because we’re not merely advised to forgive, we’re ordered to forgive, and in forgiving we instantly unburden what could have weighed us down and compromised us. This is a profound blessing, to be ordered to forgive. We bless ourselves and others when we choose to forgive and in return are blessed and forgiven by God.
However small the slight, choose to forgive. However careless the words, choose to forgive. Even if the slight and the words were calculated to hurt you, choose to forgive. Never let your hurt progress to a grudge or a tit-for-tat. Never let the devil get his claws in you that way, because he will, if you let him. He’s always looking for a way in.
Resentment can accumulate like lint on your soul, so light that you don’t even know it’s there. Don’t let it. Blow it off. Always choose to forgive.
ILLEGAL ALIENS AND THE WORLDLY CHURCH
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 6, 2025 – Most Christians (i.e., the worldly church) don’t know the Gospel. Not knowing the Gospel, however, doesn’t stop them from using it as a presumed basis for dictating to others what they should or should not do. The ongoing saga of illegal aliens invading first-world countries and demanding the same rights as citizens is a case in point. Jesus doesn’t tell his followers to harbor illegal aliens. He tells them that they themselves will one day be viewed as illegal aliens, and when that happens, they should get out of Dodge and expect to live as outcasts wherever they roam.
Loving your neighbors doesn’t mean to subject them to living among illegal aliens any more than loving your enemies means to harbor them from arresting authorities (that is, shielding them from the consequences of their actions). We’re to treat others as we would want to be treated, but that doesn’t include assisting others to openly defy local law enforcement. If you consider the local laws unfair or dangerous, you leave. You don’t defy them. Jesus never defied the local authorities (Roman occupiers) and never harbored illegal aliens. When he had arrest warrants hanging over his head in various jurisdictions, he avoided those places until it was “his time”.
Most churches today are way out of line and need to be shut down. The congregants have strayed so far from the Gospel message, they are unrecognizable as followers of Jesus. These worldly churches may well identify as a religion, it’s just not the belief system that Jesus taught his followers. It’s not the Gospel. I no longer call myself a Christian not because I’m not a fully committed follower of Jesus, but because most self-identifying Christians and the churches that claim to be Christian are anti-Christ to the core. I do not choose to align with any of them. We need look no farther than the snake that whispered from the episcopalian pulpit the day after Trump’s 2025 inauguration to see what the worldly church has become.
Morally, Christian churches have no grounds to harbor anyone. Nor do mosques, Buddhist temples, synagogues, or any other business that masquerades as a place of worship. These are all businesses and should be held to the same standards as any other business.
Ditto hospitals and schools.
If you want shelter, choose to do what’s right in the eyes of God and come under the shadow of his mighty hand, in the name of Jesus. That’s all the protection you’ll need until it’s your time.
WHEN HELL EMPTIES OUT: NO MORE EXORCISMS, NO MORE CONVERSIONS
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 5, 2025 – As born-again believers, we know that we’re to go to God and God only for our spiritual intel. We don’t go to a pastor or priest, or to televangelists, or to YouTube prophets; we go to God, both directly in prayer and indirectly in scripture.
This directive to go to God and God only is especially important to follow in the end times. Jesus warned us that many deceivers would come in his name and would be so convincing, they’d deceive even some of us. We need to take this warning onboard and use it to navigate doctrine.
One of the more perfidious beliefs that have been popularized over the past few centuries holds that conversions will occur right up to and including the moment of Jesus’ second coming. It’s not difficult to see why this teaching would be so eagerly embraced, as it allows people to unrepentantly live the life of the world, knowing they can turn back to God at the last minute. What’s the rush to give up all the juicy stuff if you can just wait until your death bed to repent?
Unfortunately for those who hold this flawed doctrine, scripture, especially Revelation, tells a different story. There will be a definitive cut-off time for conversions prior to the start of the tribulation. There’ll still be born-again believers who were converted prior to that cut-off, but there won’t be any new conversions. For obvious reasons, this belief is rejected by the worldly church.
In the book of Revelation, the cut-off time is heralded by the blast of the first trumpet. The blast is itself preceded by a short period of “silence in Heaven”, which indicates the seventh seal has been opened. The silence is God’s sign to us to prepare ourselves for the horrors to come if we’re still here on Earth. But as Jesus advised us, we should pray that we’re not here, because along with there not being any more conversions, hell will empty out, which means there’ll also be no more exorcisms. The newly released demonic spirits will have free reign (within certain God-defined limits) to wreak havoc on the unconverted and, through them, on us. You can see why Jesus would call this time the worst in human history.
No more exorcisms means no more conversions, as conversion is the expulsion of unholy spirits to make way for the entrance of God’s Holy Spirit. Conversion is not reciting “the sinner’s prayer” and then promising yourself you’ll be a good little boy or girl from that point onward. No. Conversion is a full purging exorcism followed by an inrushing of God’s Spirit. It’s a physically and spiritually violent act that is miraculous, definitive, undeniable, and performed by God and God only. If you’re genuinely born-again, you’ll know what I mean.
As seductive as they may be, doctrines that promise people they have the option to delay repentance and conversion need to be rejected. Revelation describes no new conversions after the first trumpet is blown to mark the start of the tribulation and the count-down to Jesus’ second coming. In doctrine, as in all things, let God and scripture be your guide, not seducing spirits.
ON SPIRITUAL CHAOS THEORY AND REPENTANCE
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 4, 2025 – Spiritual Chaos Theory (SCT) posits that things happen for no reason whatsoever: They just happen. The theory explains why bad things happen to good people and also why good things happen to bad people. There is no cause-and-effect function underlying SCT and no implied reward mechanism, whether for good or for bad rewards. For brevity’s sake, SCT can be summed up simply as “sh*t happens”.
But of course, SCT is entirely nonsense (I just now made it up). We born-again believers well know (or should know) that when adversity occurs in our lives, it’s either a negative reward for something we did or it’s a God-approved test. It’s not some random happening, because there’s no such thing as a random happening. If bad things happen to “good people”, those “good people” either ain’t as good as we/they think they are or they’re undergoing a test.
Satan promotes made-up theories like SCT because they remove repentance from the equation. If you’re not to blame for your problems, what’s there to repent? Even better, since you’re not to blame, you can blame others! Preventing you from repenting while at the same time getting you to point fingers is a win-win in Satan’s world.
Not just individuals but whole nations can labor under the delusion of SCT, believing that the hard time they’re suffering is either just the way it is or the fault of other people or nations. But scripture shows us that nations, too, need to repent, not just individuals, and that someone in a position of authority over a nation needs to humble him- or herself before God or the hard time will not only continue but worsen. However, it’s not enough to repent on behalf of others if those others deny their need to repent. Such repentance is in vain.
Jesus famously repented for his people during his final moments on the cross, but his repentance was not in vain. It served a dual purpose: 1) to show he held no animosity towards his enemies, leaving him a “spotless” perfect sacrifice; and 2) to “repent forward” for those who would one day themselves sincerely repent. Jesus knew that a remnant would follow him right up until his second coming, and it was those people he asked God to forgive in advance. This was the whole purpose of his sacrifice – to absolve “whosoever will” of their sins, not all people in general, but only those who would one day turn back to God. Anyone who has not since sincerely repented remains under the condemnation of Adam’s sin.
Similar to SCT in its baselessness is the assumption that everyone merely by virtue of existing has been forgiven and is back in God’s good graces. This lie is heavily promoted by Satan mainly because it removes the need for repentance. As born-again believers, we are well aware of the need to repent not only in turning back to God but in remaining close to him. Because there are no such things as random happenings, repentance and patient endurance are vital.
WHAT GOD THINKS
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 3, 2025 – Our most important decision, as children of God and brethren of Jesus, is to choose to do God’s will every day and in every circumstance, no exceptions. Choosing to do God’s will is more important than anything else we can choose to do during our time here. Jesus told us that he always did that which pleased the Father; he didn’t say he always loved; he didn’t say he always had mercy; he didn’t say he always fed everyone who came to him hungry or housed everyone who came to him homeless – he said he always did that which pleased the Father, which is the same as saying he always did God’s will and never rebelled against doing it. Since doing God’s will was Jesus’ number one priority during his time on Earth, it should be ours, too.
Unfortunately, the prioritizing of doing God’s will tends to get lost in the doctrinal shuffle of being a “good Christian”. Were he still here today, King Saul might have something to say about that. Saul was directed by God to completely obliterate a certain city and to leave nothing standing and no-one alive, but Saul thought it more expedient to take with him the choicest of the spoils, and to save the king alive for later slaughtering and some livestock for later sacrificing. This spur-of-the-moment decision, urged on by his soldiers, cost Saul not only his kingship but his soul. Why? Because God wants obedience, not expediency or creative compromise. Specifically, God demands the full obedience of his children who’ve been graced with his Spirit; anything less he considers rebellion.
Put this way, God may come across as rather heavy-handed, but there’s a reason why he both demands and expects obedience. God has a plan; the big picture of it is given in scripture, but the details are filled in by us day by day as we make our way from one point in the big picture to the next. But if we deviate by disobeying God’s explicit commands, he’ll have to find someone else to connect the dots. This is what happened to Saul, and much earlier also what happened to Satan and all the angels who followed (and fell with) him, and to Adam and Eve, and to Esau, and to many others. We don’t want this to happen to us.
Our obedience to God enables us to love whomever God directs to love, to have mercy on whomever God directs us to have mercy on, and to help whomever God directs us to help. Unlike doctrinal Christianity, which stipulates that we’re to love and have mercy on and help everyone with wild abandon and without exception, Jesus showed us to do those things only in accordance with God’s directives, that is, in accordance with God’s will. That means sometimes we have to burn it all down, if that’s what God directs us to do, and that sometimes we don’t extend love and don’t extend mercy and don’t extend help, if God directs us not to. This can look and sound decidedly unchristian to the world and to worldly Christians, but it doesn’t matter what the world thinks of us.
It only matters what God thinks.
(1 Samuel 15:22-23)
KINGDOM SOLIDARITY
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 2, 2025 – There’s something about the term “solidarity” that makes my skin crawl. Although earlier popularized as a communist or socialist rallying cry, it’s usually trotted out today as a union or progressivist dog whistle. Cries of “Solidarity!” tend to go hand-in-hand with perceived victimhood, and being a victim is a slam-dunk payout these days, which may explain why we’re hearing solidarity more and more frequently.
But hearing it more frequently doesn’t make it any less grating to me. And since it’s one of those word trends that will likely not go away any time soon, I decided to explore my aversion of the term, aiming to dull my distaste or maybe even turn it around.
Here’s what I came up with. Standing in solidarity implies siding with or supporting a group, an organization, or an idea. I did a quick mental run-through of all the groups and organizations I interact with daily and the ideas that I entertain, and I honestly couldn’t imagine standing in solidarity with any of them. I tolerate them at best, but mostly I avoid them and dismiss them. No solidarity there. Ditto for my nation and “my people”. As a born-again believer, I have more in common with the people who lived 2000 years ago in the Middle East than I do with people living today in Canada or with the people of my heritage (German, Irish, and English). And I can’t really say that I stand in solidarity with God and Jesus because they don’t need me to side with them or support them: They’re perfect in and of themselves. If no-one at all sided with or supported God and Jesus, they’d still be perfect. They don’t need anyone’s solidarity.
And then it occurred to me who does need solidarity – we do. We in God’s Kingdom need each other’s solidarity. As born-again believers living in a world that’s hostile to everything we hold dear, we need to stand in solidarity with each other and only with each other, even if we’ve never met and don’t know each other’s names. We’re not standing in solidarity to announce our victimhood to the world or to financially benefit from it in some way. No. We’re standing in solidarity because Jesus told us that we’re to love one another, and to love another means to side with and support one another through thick and thin. So Jesus told us to stand in solidarity without actually telling us to stand in solidarity. Loving one another means standing in solidarity with our Kingdom homies, because on Earth, our Kingdom homies are the only ones we can really trust.
Seeing my fellow born-again believers as my solidarity homies has, for me, turned solidarity around to mean something good. I still cringe when I hear “solidarity” being applied in the world, but I like the idea of standing in solidarity with the Kingdom. I stand in solidarity with that idea as much as I stand in solidarity with all of you who are genuinely born-again and filled with God’s Holy Spirit.
I hope you stand in solidarity with me.
“PRAY NOT FOR THIS PEOPLE”
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 10, 2025 – As born-again believers, we’ve been instructed by Jesus to love our enemies, which means we’re to pray for them and bless them even in the most egregious of situations, like when they’re killing us.
But what if God tells us specifically not to pray for them? What if he tells us to leave our prayers and let him deal with the situation in the way it needs to be dealt with?
I think of Peter rushing to tell Jesus that he’ll defend him to the death, and Jesus accusing him of being Satan.
I think of Jesus’ mother and sisters coming to “rescue” him in Capernaum, and Jesus refusing even to acknowledge them as kin.
I think of Saul ordering his troops to save (for later sacrifices) the conquered king and choicest animals from a city they’d just razed, and God condemning Saul for all eternity because of it.
God doesn’t want us praying for people he doesn’t want prayed for. He doesn’t want us protecting people he doesn’t want protected. He doesn’t want us rescuing people he doesn’t want rescued. What God does want (and what Saul found out too late) is our unhesitating and full obedience to him in all circumstances and at all times. So, if the spiritual status quo is the directive to pray for our enemies, we pray for them, but if God specifically says not to pray for them, you pray at the peril of your immortal soul.
God doesn’t want misplaced “love”, because misplaced love is no love at all. Love is only love if it comes from God. If God directs you not to pray for someone or for an entire people, you don’t pray for them, not one peep. You stand at command and voice your obedience, like the angels in Revelation stood in willing obedience while God delivered his terrible justice. You don’t badger God to change his ways and his laws, like the demonically inspired woke perpetually badger politicians. You don’t tell God he’s got it all wrong and this is the right way forward, the compassionate way forward, the “christian” way forward. No. You do whatever God advises you at any given time. You never question God, even if he advises you against loving and praying and blessing and sacrificing.
Because this ain’t about you and what you think is right, any more than it’s about the woke and what they wrongly insist is right. This is about God and what God knows is right. And if God says to you (like he said to Jeremiah): “Pray not for this people”, then you’d better not pray for them.
Remember what happened to Saul.
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Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and adultery.
(1 Samuel 15:22-23)
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Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
(Jeremiah 7:16)
NO-ONE BUT GOD
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 10, 2025 – If you start with the concept that nearly everything they do, they do to kill you, then it all makes sense. They want you dead, though not necessarily physically dead: they want you spiritually dead, which means they want you worshiping the god of this world, like they do.
First and foremost, they want you spiritually dead, and once they accomplish that, what happens to you physically is of little concern to them. When I say of little concern, what I mean is that they want to keep you at least sufficiently functional that you’ll be able to spiritually kill others. That’s your job once you’ve been spiritually killed yourself, to spiritually kill others.
If you start with the understanding that they want you spiritually dead, then everything they do makes sense. There are no “good guys” and “bad guys” among those who are not born-again, there are just dead guys who are out to make everyone else dead.
You can only protect yourself if you truly understand this. And by protecting yourself, I don’t mean that you’re the one doing the protecting; I mean that you’re looking to God to protect you, and to God only, because God is the only one who can protect you.
Jesus well knew this before he started his ministry, which is why he left his family and friends behind and struck out on his own. He understood that even his family and friends were trying to spiritually kill him, though likely they didn’t know what they were doing. And there’s the rub – the devil uses people to get to you because he can’t get to you directly; you’re too protected. So he uses others, and he uses them in ways that appear to be good, even godly. In most cases, the people being used are unaware they’re being used. But you need to be aware they’re being used because that’s the only way you can put yourself under the full protection of God.
The worst thing that can happen to you as a born-again believer is to die spiritually. You must never let that happen to you, not under any circumstance. The devil is betting that he can spiritually kill you, while God is betting that he can’t. The same conversation the devil had with God about Job he’s having about each one of us, with God firmly taking our side, as he did for Job, and setting clear testing boundaries that the devil cannot overstep.
Yet for all his support, God’s not stopping the devil from tempting us; after all, that’s why he keeps the devil around. Tempting us is the devil’s sole purpose, and he’s very good at it, diabolically good, which is why we need God’s guidance and protection night and day. In fact, the devil’s so good at what he does, you don’t even know he’s doing it, he makes everything seem so easy and natural and right.
Our temptations, when they come, rarely look like temptations. They’re so meticulously planned and timed, they don’t appear to come from the devil. If anything, they seem on occasion to be blessings and signs from God, which is why we need to walk our every step with God. We won’t make it through our temptations unless we walk our every step with God. We should do nothing without first consulting God and then unhesitatingly doing whatever he says, like Jesus did. This is how we remain fully protected even while God is permitting us to be tempted by the devil.
If you’re a born-again believer, the world really is out to get you. Still, you don’t need to be afraid of the world or of the devil’s diabolical temptations, not while you’re under the guidance and protection of God. As Jesus reminded us, the most they can do is kill the body. Jesus lived that mindset during his ministry years, which is why he was bold and fearless in every situation, right up to and including the moment of his physical death.
So yes, even though nearly everyone on Earth may in fact be trying to kill us, we should fear nothing and no-one but God.
BE RIGHTEOUS STILL
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, January 3, 2025 – In the instant before my rebirth, when I was still an atheist, God offered me the choice of two options and showed me a vision of two possible outcomes. In the first part of the vision, he showed me the outcome that would result if I chose to forgive, and in the second part, he showed me the outcome that would result if I chose not to forgive. Specifically, I was shown that if I chose to forgive, all my pain would disappear, and if I chose not to forgive, my pain would not only continue but worsen.
God offered me the choice and showed me the outcomes visually as well as by understanding. No words were spoken.
This vision has remained with me as a guide to this day.
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I mention the above because God gave me a choice that involved two options and their respective outcomes, and one of those outcomes was not good. Yet even though it wasn’t good, it also wasn’t immediate horrific death. God didn’t say: Choose this, and you’ll live forever, or choose that, and you’ll die immediately and horribly. Even with the bad outcome, I was offered the possibility of continuing my life on Earth, though in a progressively ever-worsening spiritual state and with the understanding that the opportunity I was being afforded at that time would not come around again.
Thank God I chose to forgive, but still, choosing not to forgive was also an option. I wasn’t forced to make the choice to forgive; I wasn’t threatened with immediate death if I chose not to forgive: I was simply shown the outcomes of each choice, urged to choose the option that would resolve my pain, and left to make the decision for myself.
I mention the ever-worsening spiritual state that results from choosing unforgiveness because many who have been given the same offer as I was given have chosen not to forgive, have chosen revenge. When you choose revenge over mercy, your life reflects that choice. When you take matters into your own hands, you suffer the consequences, with an emphasis on suffer. The suffering that comes to you after you exact what you think is your rightful revenge is of your own doing. In other words, you’ve brought your suffering on yourself and have no-one but yourself to blame.
Even worse, if you choose this course of action after rejecting the option that would free you of your pain, God himself can’t help you anymore. You might be mollified temporarily by earthly mollifications (booze, drugs, wealth, career success, deviant sex, and other diversions), you might even be shielded from further consequences for a time by making a deal with the devil, but your pain will never be purged like it would have been had you chosen mercy when you had the chance.
Geopolitically, nations undergo the same process as individuals, as nations are made up of individuals whose characters collectively determine the course of that nation. When the measure of righteous individuals in a nation is surpassed by the unrighteous, that nation begins an unstoppable decline into hell. Daniel writes of nations that had their dominions taken away and yet continued for thousands of years, though in a progressively humbled state. Examples include Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Lebanon, and Syria. Their glory days are long behind them as they limp through the millennia, sinking deeper and deeper into poverty and chaos despite countless efforts at reform. Fast on the heels of the historically declined nations are the newly declining ones of former Christendom (Canada, US, UK, etc.). As with individuals, once the definitive decline begins, it cannot be reversed; it can be slowed, but not reversed.
Not one nation today is on the spiritual ascendent, and we can expect this trend to continue. There is a misguided notion of a future global messianic or Golden Age, a sort of Heaven on Earth, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Since the coming of Jesus, Heaven is as close to Earth as it will ever be. The Zion foretold in scripture is here and now, in the spiritual realm of God’s Kingdom on Earth. Scriptural Zion will only ever be in the spiritual realm, which is why Jesus pointedly stated that his Kingdom is not of this world.
Every choice we make during our time on Earth has consequences. At a pivotal point in our lives, God presents each of us with the opportunity to choose righteousness over revenge. The choice we make at that time cannot be undone and will determine our place in eternity, with few exceptions. If you’re genuinely reborn, you’ve chosen righteousness. Your job now is to keep on choosing righteousness, even if it means immediate and horrific death.
[H]e that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed…. As concerning the rest, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 